Handmade Sterling Silver Ring

In keeping with the intention of continuing to explore and create art, I decided to sign up and take a Sterling Silver Ring making class through a community art shop. This class was through the Memorial Art Gallery Creative Workshop;http://mag.rochester.edu/creativeworkshop/. This was my first time going to this community art center.

I've always wanted to create a ring myself out of metal; but for those people who know me my attempt to audit a graduate level jewelry and metalsmithing class turned out to be a big flop. I did complete a solder plate before dropping out (mainly because the class was completely over my head). This was a big disappointment to me because I just wanted to make a simple ring. So when I found this community class online where you make your own ring in a one day 3 hour class I signed up!

I found out that I had learned something from that graduate level class. I understood the language, general technique and wasn't afraid of the torch any longer. The actual material to make this ring was one piece of 16 gauge sterling silver wire for $5.50! The demonstration was about an hour so I made the ring in about 100 minutes from start to finish. Below is the final product. I was very pleased and really excited about the outcome. It looks and feels professional!

More Toys...

I've continued making toys for The Toy Society; http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/. Here are some of the new toys. the later (colorful stripped ones I'm actually giving to my two little nieces for Christmas. I practiced with different materials and stitches on these toys. The stripped ones I actually made from a pair of stripped socks. The material was really stretchy and a little challenging but turned out pretty good.

The Toy Society

I found a conversation on reddit.com/r/crafts a few weeks ago about charities and using your talents to donate handmade goods to these charities. I found the following link for "The Toy Society"; http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/ and decided this looked like fun so I joined.

The basic philosophy is to create toys that are child friendly, put them in a ziplock bag with a letter explaining about the Toy Society, take a picture of the toy and post it at the "drop box" on the Toy Society website and where you made the "drop". Then hopefully a child or really any person who finds it can log onto the Toy Society website and post a picture or comment about finding the toy. It's a way to hopefully brighten someone's day.

I decided my goal would be to first participate in the Christmas drop, so I've made two toys for that. Then I'd like to create a total of 4 more toys and when I visit with my 4 y/o nephew around New Year's I'm going to have him help me with finding some good drop zones (since he's a frequent flyer at many parks, the Y, and libraries). I think he'll think this is pretty neat.

So below are what I have created so far. I've handmade them using felt and patterned cloth as they are forgiving and I'm not an expert at sewing or creating toys. What do you think?

Oh, on Halloween as I left my driveway I noticed an orange decorative bag on my door step. It turned out to be a "You've Been BOO-ed" greeting. This is similar to the Toy Society drop and find philosophy. The bag had a card and closed store boughten chocolate chex mix in it. You can check this out at; www.BeenBooed.com.

Collage: Mail Art Continued

I finished my community art class about 1 week ago. Below are some updates on other techniques I learned in the class. And things I have continued to make using these techniques.

This was my favorite photogram. It's hard to see but it goes with my bird schema I've been creating lately. It was just a flat paper image of a bird cut out and the background on the paper looked a little veiny. It looks perfect in person and I'm planning on framing it or doing something to showcase it in the future.

Darkroom day! These are already made postcards with the appropriate marks on the back side. You just lay objects down for about 4 seconds in full exposed light, process and there you have it. This was very easy and fun but requires darkroom access. This is called a photogram.

We learned to make decorative envelopes from scratch and how to jazz up a plain store bought envelope. You can find patterns for envelopes on the internet or create your own. *A key is to use glue tape! Works wonders and completely sticks together without wrinkles, having to wait for anything to dry, and totally not messy!

This is using watercolor paints and a sponge, plus stamping, embossing and transferring.

I decided to hand make all of my Christmas cards this year.

Not So Angry Birds...My Biggest Canvas Painting To Date

I was hosting an art exhibit at work and got inspired by a couple of extremely large pieces of a transfer images of people on a flat bed sheet. I realized I've never worked large and decided I should use this opportunity as a self challenge. So off I went to Michaels with a 40% off coupon on a rainy Friday afternoon.

The canvas I purchased for $20 and then used existing acrylic paints. Just so you have an idea of the size... it was about 4.5 feet by 2.5 feet. The primary method I used was basically using acrylics like they were watercolors and various stamping techniques. I first took green and yellow shads of paint, watered them down and used up and down brush strokes throughout the entire canvas. This was my base coat. Because it was so watered down it created a resistant effect which looked pretty neat.

When the bottom layer had completely dried I then got 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper and cut them in half. I used fall colors (because that was my muse) and using those shades of color I put them one at a time on the half sheets of paper, watered them down then stamped it on the large canvas using my hand to burnish the paint on. I did this over the entire canvas and let it dry.

The third layer was of birds. I found three images online, enlarged them to about 8.5 x 11, printed several of each out and modified them as I cut them out to create simplified images. I took white indoor paint (because I ran out of acrylic white) and put a THICK coat on each image and stamped them on the painting. When the birds were partially dry I took some of the solid block prints and reapplied them over the birds just enough to add some color without covering the images.

And that was it! All done! I'm pretty pleased at the outcome and proud of myself for getting over my fear of large paintings. In hindsight I would have liked to try to add some various words mixed in the layers. I think that could have added an interesting look. Perhaps my next painting I'll give it a whirl!

Below are some of the steps but not all to this process. Sorry I forgot to take pictures each step of the way.

DIY Coat Rack

I created this coat hanger from all recycled materials. I took a piece of 80 year old gumwood molding (it was a small piece of baseboard from my home that wasn't being used) and cut it to size. The edges were routered. This made it look pretty nice on it's own. Then I filled in any uneven surfaces with wood filler and sanded smooth when dry. I used acrylic paints to paint the background and chose asian symbols that had the meaning I was going for and applied with a black sharpie marker. I had a few left over hooks from a converted closet in my house (again they were goldish in color and 80 years old). I scrubbed the hooks down and applied three even coats of a flat black rustoleum spray paint. Drilled holes on the front for the hooks and then a couple of holes on the back for hanging purposes. Tada... you have the final product...a pretty good looking coat rack for free!

Homemade Cards

I'm currently taking a 6 week community art class through Genesee Center for the Arts & Education. Check out their site: http://www.geneseearts.org/ The class I'm taking is

Collage: Mail Art. It's a blast! I'm learning new creative transfer techniques, get to explore with no grades or stress involved and I'm meeting new people. What could be better!

I received the tools I need to create transfers on my own for my birthday. This is all you need to do a pretty good transfer.

-tape

-scissors

-fresh black and white or colored images/words printed from a laser printer (not an

inkjet!) and (remember if you use anything with words you need to reverse the image before printing or your words will transfer backwards). **Best transfers are images printed within 1-2 days of when you will be using them.

-bone folder or something to burnish with (like a coin)

-"blender pen"- this brand works the best- Chartpak Blender Marker P-O. Not found at craft stores. Here we have The Art Store and Hyatt Art Materials or you can find it on amazon but the shipping is expensive. About 4.50 for the marker itself.

I found these great packages of blank cards with envelopes; all different shapes, colors and sizes for $1 for a pack of 8! I've decided for Christmas gifts I'm going to use these for gifts and bundle each set with a pretty ribbon. Right now they are just the transfer image. I'm still taking the class and I'm going to be learning some stamping and other neat techniques that I may later add to the cards. Also, I'm still working on some of the images and might do some over laying of words or other images on some. Check out the beginning of my collection sets. :)

The Vintage Collection

The Landscape Collection

The Inspiration Collection