Published! Amy Powers' Inspired Ideas Christmas Issue 2012

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

Amy Powers has done it again. She puts together a gorgeous magazine, with lots and lots of projects that are so appealing, I can't wait to try them.

http://www.amy-powers.com/mag/subscribechristmas2012.html

Here are the opening pages of my two articles:

This article has instructions for my ICE Resin Christmas Ornaments.

 

 

This is my New Year Fairy project.

 

This issue is packed full of projects, and it's only $3.99. You can click on the link below the photo above, or go to the sidebar. And Amy's blog is one of my favorites: http://www.inspireco.blogspot.com/ hop on over for some amazing eye candy!

Twelve Days of Christmas Swap Part 1

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

One of my favorite parts of Christmas last year was the Twelve Days of Christmas Ornament Swap. I was delighted to get to participate again this year. Each morning, there is a fun surpise waiting for me underneath my little silver tree. This is a fantastic way to start the day, especially the hectic days before Christmas! Here are the first of the treasures that I have received:

Day 1 - Alice Early aka The Amazing Alice

This sweet little bird is sitting on a nest rimmed with vintage buttons. It's so sweet. I think it will have to stay out all year.

Day 2 Barbara Posey of Artful Dimensions

I've long admired Barbara's felted creations, and it is wonderful to have one of my own!

Day 3 Christine Lush Rodriguez of Artful Dimensions

This gorgeous snowflake came from Christine. The colorson this piece are absolutely stunning. I just love everything about it.

Day 4 Patti Gramza, http://pattis-creations.blogspot.com/

This is a fiber piece that just makes me swoon. It has a little velvet milinery leaf and flower, and netting around the edges. Under the little girl it says "enjoy the journey" and the snowflake dangling from it says "believe". 

Day 5 Leslie Brier, Brier Design

That's me! Here are my packages before they were shipped:

And this was what was inside:

I created the labels in Adobe Illustrator, then cut them out, put plastic in the window and wrapped them around the inside of a match box.  In this photo you can see how small the ornament is:

Tiny, right?

 

New ICE Resin Pendants - Birds, Hearts and Flowers

 I just finished a group of pieces for the PonShop. I thought I was going to create a group of gritty, dark-colored pieces that involved a lot of hammering and soldering.

My creative brain had other ideas.

 Everything I touched turned to hearts and flowers.

 Eventually, I decided to go with the flow.

Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts.

Divine Secrets of the Junking Sisterhood

by Leslie Brier

 

 A few weeks back my friend Janet treated me to the most divine weekend of junking. We spent three glorious days stopping at every single antique shop, thrift store, and junk pile between Fredericksburg and Smith Mountain Lake. The junking was punctuated by button sorting, good food and lots of chocolate.

Janet and I have truly mastered the womanly art of junking.
If it was rusty or dusty, we stopped to look at it.

 

 When I go with my husband, and see an enticing pile of rust by the side of the road, I'll usually get one of three responses: "Huh?" "I didn't see it." or "You should have told me sooner".

 

Janet has catlike reflexes that allow us to go screeching into the seediest of roadside junk shops in the blink of an eye. 

 We didn't miss a single roadside stop, even when our knees and backs were begging for mercy.

 

Black Dog Salvage in Roanoake was one of the highlights.

 

 We came home with tons of good stuff, and I was even to recipient of two freebies - random acts of kindness from dealers who knew how much we appreciated their wares. I can't wait to get started making robots and jewelry from the goodies that we found.

 

Canning Jar Party Favors

by Leslie Brier

My husband and I recently attended his 30th high school reunion. He comes from a small town, with one high school for the whole county. Everyone seems to know everyone which makes it really fun.

 

 He was on the reunion committee, and I jumped at the chance to make the favors.  I purchased tiny canning jars at the grocery store and filled them with green and gold candies. Then, I put a circle of paper on top of the lid and under the rim of the jar, and decorated it with paper flowers. I have a paper punch that punches out a pinwheel that can be folded into a 3-D flower. (Of course, I forgot to take a picture until they were loaded into the back of the car.)

They favors were easy to make, and we were able to make them for under  $1 each.

Meet Sailor Jerry

Sailor Jerry is at the FCCA Show this month. He is riding on a little "boat" made from an old filmstrip projector.

He has a lot of navigation equipment to help him get where he's going.

In his well in the front, he has the catch of the day - an octopus. In my next post, I'll show you "what lies beneath!".

 

Cabinet of Curiosities Show

 

It's show time! My Cabinet of Curiosities Show has been hung in the Members Gallery at the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts.
The opening is this Friday, September 7, 2012 from 6-8:30 pm.

Here is a sneak peek at the show:

 

 

Details of "Royal American Traveling Circus"

 

 The low ceilings and rustic walls are the perfect background for these pieces.

 

 

FCCA is "the place by the river where art and history meet." Indeed, FCCA is not only an art center; it is the caretaker organization for one of Fredericksburg’s historic buildings called the Silversmith's House, circa 1785. The brick filled half-timbered structure is a nice example of a middle-class family’s home in the era just after the Revolutionary War. The property is also the site of Fredericksburg’s first Fourth of July celebration in 1805 and was used as a forward Union hospital during both Civil War battles for Fredericksburg. 

 

I'll be posting more photos of pieces as the show continues.

 

For more information about the show go to: http://www.fccava.org/member_gal/9-12/

Etched Bullet Casing Pendants and ICEResin classes

 Thought is might be nice to drop into my own blog and say hello!

I am woefully behind on my posts and have vowed to do better in the upcoming weeks. I've just haven't been able to get myself, my computer, my images and my calendar all into one room. I'm sure you know the feeling.

I have been mostly working on getting many, many pieces completed for my upcoming solo show at The Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts in Sept. The opening is Friday, Sept. 7,  so the countdown is on. I'll have more information on that soon.

In the meantime, I'm having a wonderful time teaching classes at the PonShop Studio in Fredericksburg, Virginia  and at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, Virginia.

I'll be at the Artistic Artifacts Annex this Saturday, July 7 to teach the etched bullet casing pendant. I have made several of these for myself, but I keep selling them before I get a chance to wear them. That is a good thing, but I'm hoping I'll get to keep the one that I make in my Saturday class!
 Spaces are still available, and I provide the bulk of the materials, so stop by and beat the heat, and get a head start on your gift-giving as well!

 I have some upcoming resin pendant classes, too. I'll be teaching a two-part class  at the PonShop Studio in Fredericksburg on Sunday July 15 and 22. I'll be teaching a day-long workshop at Artistic Artifacts on Monday, July 16,

I just can't say enough about ICEresin. My students have all been so successful with it.

Art by PonShop student Meredith Jackson

Art by PonShop student Meredith Jackson

Art by PonShop Students

I'm looking forward to seeing my students' creations!

Octopi! Oh My!

I had three big deadlines last week, and I managed to produce pieces that I was happy with for all three of them. Last night I was up until 3 am cleaning up the aftermath of my flurry of activity. 

The three figures that I created are customized vinyl toys. Two are mini munnies and one is an off-brand that I got at the craft store. I dropped them off at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton for the Urban Decay Show. I'm looking forward to seeing the variety of work there, including the work of two local artists, Jeremy Gann and Gabe Pons of PonShop Studio.

This first piece is my Octopus Bride. I removed her arms, added wing/fins where the arms were and then attached a deconstructed octopus toy to her bod and added lots of color.

Neptune is a modern guy. He has tunnels in his ears and a resin-filled ocean in his belly complete with a little gold ship floating in it. I haven't seen this particular body modification on a person yet, but I suppose it's just a matter of time until someone figures out how to do it.

Diver Dan is ready for anything. He has scuba fins and a very sophisticated breathing apparatus. He also has a mohawk made of lite brite pegs.

In other octopus-related news, I have a piece called Octopus in the upcoming Regional Show at FCCA

 

 

 The photo on the left shows the way the piece looked the day after our "painting around" session last November. The photo on the right shows the finished piece.  I checked it out with the other artists who helped me paint the background and they gave me the go-ahead to submit it.

And, last but certainly not least, I completed my quilt for the Art and Old Lace Challenge Sponsored by Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria. I grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to make this quilt, and the journey wasn't exactly a smooth one, but I am pleased with the finished product. For now, I can only give you a sneak peek:

 

I have fallen in love with the colors on this quilt, and now I'm in the mood to redecorate my kitchen in a sunny vintage style. Perhaps one day I'll have some spare time that I can devote to a little kitchen facelift. Let's not mention it to my husband just yet, though.. my decorating projects have a way of snowballing that results in a lot of work for him, and I just got the kitchen table clear of art supplies. I'll try to give him a few weeks of low-chaos living before I spring this one on him! (Love you, Honey!)