Starry Road Studio... Looking Back, Looking Forward

About this time last year, I was holed up in our little cabin on the next hill over from where we currently live... I wrote about it in Cabin Fever.

That winter was brutal. The cabin is off-grid with only solar power to provide our electricity needs. But as the days got shorter, and the sunlight scarce, I frequently had to run a portable generator to charge our batteries (the cabin has an array of 16 batteries charged by the solar panels - or in emergencies, by a generator - these are what the house power is run off of). Eventually the pipes froze and I was forced to leave, to stay with Don at his place in Rochester where he stays during the week to work there.

At the end of February, I managed a small escape to Florida to see my daughter Audrey. It was pure bliss. I wrote about it in Ocean Inspired.

Meanwhile, construction at the new place carried on. Our friend Jack was in charge of the construction and he hired extra guys as needed to keep the work going. Still, it took a long time. It was windy and even more cold in our new location and the pipes with new never-used well and septic froze almost immediately. Argh. One frustration after another. I wrote about that in "A Small Update...".

Ha! In reading that post just now, I see that all sorts of plans for handmade cabinet knobs and what-not have yet to come to pass. Too much to do, so we settled on commercially made hardware. Oh well.

Somehow, through it all, bead making and other art continued apace... I like to keep the creative juices flowing. I managed to get a little drawing time too - using new digital art tools...

Once we got moved into the new place, I continued building on work I had begun in the cabin, some based on sketches I had done over a year previous (summer of 2013), and even managed to get a little pottery done. I covered some of this work, such as my "Woodland Camping" theme in a post back in 2013, Autumn (2013) at the Cabin, and in a later post in May 2014, "Crazy for Clay". Throughout the last two years, I continued to develop my core woodland themes with wood textures, tree and limb concepts, and all manner of birds and owls.

And so life went on... and I turned to new ideas, bird and owl totems, with symbols in their bellies, loosely inspired by indigenous american art. I wrote about this in Musings on Creativity.

Here is just a small sampling of the inspiration behind this work.

I carried this theme into a new motif based on Bear (which happens to be my personal totem).

I also explored Crow in more detail... covered in this post, "Crow", and in bead strands I later assembled.

Looking forward, I have begun working on a couple of new series: one based on quilt motifs and stitched elements... here is some preliminary work for that...

And another is a series based on stars, constellation, and celestial navigation. This is in part an homage to my father, a career Air Force Navigator, who used celestial navigation in his work to plot the courses of planes he flew (this was in the days before computer and satellite navigation), and to my own love of astronomy (I'm a total space geek).

Here are a few bead "sketches", works in progress, and inspiration images... much more to come!

My dad, explaining the use of a periscopic sextant for celestial navigation on airplanes.

Well that's it in a nutshell. I have more ideas in my sketchbooks but whether I get to them or not remains to be seen. I'll keep plodding along and we'll see what pops up.

I wish you a happy and creative New Year. :) 

Crazy for Clay

Just another in the continuing series of updates from Starry Road Studio.... Needless to say, I have been knee deep in clay, relishing with joy the ability to work in this medium again after a so long a time away while transitioning from KY to NY over the past year. Yes, that's right, it has been nearly a YEAR since I packed up and left KY to return to NY. Most of my studio has been packed up in storage and only in recent weeks have I begun the slow process of getting everything set up here. I was dying to get my pottery wheel set up and thankfully I managed to throw a few pots this past week. I still have to get my spray booth set up for glazing, but for now I'll use some dipping glazes for these pots.

I am continuing to explore beads, creating a variety of new forms and ideas.

Continuing in my series of woodland-themed beads, I finally got started on a new design for "Camping Beads", based on sketches from late last summer. I blogged about it here.

I am having a blast playing with various textures. I am especially LOVING wood. This started with some woodland themed pieces (logs, trees, etc.). I am carrying it over into my line of ancient amulets and beads. I wanted to convey the sense of the ancient along with the wood texture, so I created a texture I am calling "Petrified Wood" (as seen in the dark brown pieces below). I love the mossy old stone (in the lighter, greenish pieces), and ancient wood look of these...

I plan to explore these textures in pottery. I can't wait! Here's an idea with a sort of plant form growing out of a "tree" base. I will throw this in porcelain and sculpt it after. I'll post pictures when I get around to it. And perhaps it will inform new designs for beads too. Stay tuned!

A New Year, A New Adventure!

Hi all...my 1st post of 2014!  I know a lot of us have made resolutions, thought of a word for the year, or joined a year long challenge of blog posts or creating.  I have done that in the past and to be honest, I usually wuss out on the resolutions, forget the word around March, and get behind on any challenges to create or blog.  This year, I have decided to be kind to myself and not make any resolutions/commitments to anything except to be the best mother, wife, artist, human I can be and realize that the 1st 2 on my list are my priority!

But what new adventure, you ask?  It is right there in the post title!  Last September I had the chance to take a class at ArtBliss, with the wonderful Christine Damm.  It was very first experience with polymer clay and I loved it.  We had so much fun creating textured shapes and using pastels to color them.  I knew then and there that I wanted to play some more.  I didn't have the time or money at that point to buy a bunch of supplies, so I put it on hold and added some of what I needed to get started to my wish list.  Instead, I read anything about creating with polymer clay that I could, browsed Pinterest, found lots of great tutorials, etc.  Plus, here at AJE, we have our own wonderful PC artists!  Rebekah, Kristi, Sue, Jenny...and now Linda is interested too!  I can't wait to see what we all make in 2014!!!

The pieces I completed in Christine Damm's ArtBliss class!

So, fast forward to Christmas...Santa/Jesse brought me a big block of white Sculpey, and an assortment of 24 Premo colors.  He also brought a cool cutting blade set with handles.  After Christmas, I got myself a pasta machine.  I had some tools/cutting shapes I bought for the class, and mold-making material I bought for another project.  The only thing I haven't gotten is an oven.

So, the past couple of weeks I have been playing.  Without a dedicated oven, things are only complete up to shaping.  I know I can use my own oven, but I need to get a thermometer to make sure the temperature is accurate, and I will need to take precaution about fumes.  The first thing I did was make a few molds...man this is addictive!  I keep walking around the house trying to find interesting textures and objects!

Molds...so much fun!

Then I started playing!  I decided to use 2 green colors...here is what I came up with.

Once they are baked, I am going to antique them and maybe add some gilder's paste...I can't wait!

Then I made up a batch of ivory using Christine's recipe she shared...luckily I had the correct ingredients in the assortment Jesse got me!  These are going to be layered in some way, I think.  

Oh, another cool thing about playing with polymer clay?  Ben wants to play too!  He brought me a skull he wanted to make a mold of and he made these 2 last night! He also played with free-forming flame shapes. He has already been hammering metal, so we may have a new artist in our midst!

Well, thanks for stopping by.  Check back in a few weeks, I hope to have a baking system and have some completed pieces.  

What about you?  What new things are you going to try in 2014?  I would love to hear?

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love.

Learning To Play in 2013 And Beyond

When you are reading this post on Saturday, my husband and I will be busy taking down the Christmas tree and returning our living room to its normal, everyday appearance.  And while packing away the ornaments and the Christmas stockings, it seems appropriate to reflect upon the past year and to think about where my life journey might lead in 2014.

Preparing to write this post was a good exercise for me.  It made me realize how much exploration I did this past year.  I kind of surprised myself!  I started 2013 with Kerry Bogart's month-long  "Aspire To Wire" e-course.  I learned a lot from Kerry and it boosted my wire working confidence.  Since then, I have been making more of my own clasps, earwires, bails etc. and I plan to do even more in that direction in 2014.  Lately, I have been pushing my wire work skills even further, while working with Cindy Wimmer's new book, "The Missing Link".

Chris, (a local friend), and I started playing with enamels this year.  She has an awesome studio set up and she helped me get started and gave me pointers on how improve my technique.  I discovered that it is fun and inspiring to have some shared studio time with a friend!

I also got together with fellow AJE member, Kristi Bowman, several times this past year.  Kristi lives about 1.5 hours north of me.  We shared a booth at a couple of shows.  We work well together when vending and we have fun joking and talking shop.  We are planning some shared studio time in the upcoming year, also!

Kristi & I in the center, with lampwork artists Lara Lutrick (left) and Lori Bergaman (right).

  

Kristi and I also attended a metal retreat together, hosted by AJE member Francesca Watson and Melissa Muir.  I had a pinched nerve in my back and missed about half of the week-long retreat, but I am grateful for the time I could be there.  I became more confidant with the torch, and experimented with pewter casting, the use of a hydraulic press and a rolling mill.  I also made a bunch of wonderful new friends.  Kristi and I are already looking forward to the 2014 metal retreat!

Recently I've become intrigued with polymer clay.  I'm not much interested in "traditional" cane work, but rather in textures and surface decoration.  Kristi gave me an old pasta machine of hers and some 2 part mold.  I purchased a toaster oven and am anxious to give it a go in 2014.  I even collected and pressed ginkgo leaves (see below) when I was in Germany this past October.  Won't they make cool impressions for a polymer clay pendant?

The last 2 months of 2013 saw me experimenting with WoolyWire.  I love the texture and rich colors this hand-dyed wool brings to jewelry.  I know I'll be incorporating it in my work in 2014, as well.

The most recent development has me completely baffled.  I've begun doodling.  My mother sketched and painted and my brother has done illustrations in magazines and newspapers.  He has had his cartoons published in the New Yorker, and has illustrated 3 children's books.  I could never draw worth beans and just assumed that my brother got the total allotment of painterly DNA available for my parent's offspring.

Suddenly I've wanted to draw.  I was scared at 1st, because there's a strong line of perfectionism in my family and that trait can be both a blessing and a curse.  It is a curse, if you feel you have to somehow measure up to some imagined standard set by your mother and brother's gifts.  So I doodled secretly....don't laugh!  Then a couple of weeks ago, I just decided to h*** with feeling like I had to  excel at everything I do.  Its more than okay to just play and have fun for the sheer joy of it.  I'm not even drawing bead designs.  Just playing with shapes, colors and shading.  I have no training in art and no clue about techniques.  I don't know if this will be incorporated somehow into coloring polymer clay or if it is just an amusing diversion. And wonder of wonders, I no longer feel the need for this to be leading to a "productive" end-point.  Its is not a competition.  Its healthy to play and explore. My mind and heart are open and I'll see where 2014 takes me.

Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 
Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy