Awesome Blaaazh!

I was getting in touch with my inner pirate girl while working on an assemblage piece.
My daughter said, "Mom, it really sounds like you're bragging when you say that."
"Assemblage? It's the proper term -- it's a french word."
She did the preteen eye roll and replied, "Mom, awesome is not french!"

She thought I was referring to my work as Awsome Blazh. As in the most awesome blazh, ever, dude!

Anyway... at the end of May, I had a great time taking an awsome blazh class with Michael deMeng at Angela's Happy Stamper in Reston, Virginia. We had a full house of students working on Cave of Pages creations. Everyone left with a fantastic piece, or a very good start on one.

Can you see the burnt edge effect on the piece on the far right? That was achieved using washes. My piece was still looking kind of bare at the end of the class, but I came home and went to town with the washes.

I also used lots of mica, after learning the "Mysterious Frozen Caveman Trick". It is also featured in deMeng's newest book, Dusty Diablos, Folklore, Iconography, Assemblage, Olé.

The words say, Bloody Bess and her girls longed to return to the open sea.

And no piece of mine would be complete without some broken jewelry and a heapin' helpin' of epoxy clay.

I still have lots of leftover pirate-y things. I think I feel another pirate blazh comin on, mateys!

Back from Art & Soul Hampton Part 1

I can't believe it's been a month since I was at Art & Soul. I had such a great time, and learned so much in each of my classes. It was really fun to be with a group of people who really "get" what I do!

Vendor night was terrific as well. Thanks to all of you who bought my collage sheets and porcelain glove forms. I promise to have both on my etsy site soon.

In the meantime, here is the project that I created in Michael deMeng's Demented Toys class. If you haven't taken a class from him, I highly recommend it. He is as entertaining as he is knowledgeable. I also learn so much from the critiques that he takes the time to do at the end of each class. Here he is doing a critique under the watchful eye of the woman in the painting.

I was going for a steampunk kind of feel with my piece. She is constructed from an old roller skate, an articulated toy dinosaur tail, tiny bones, a china doll head, a christmas ornament and a vintage toy-camera pencil sharpener.
The main compartment is an old bob-bet bait box (Just half a turn and there's your worm!),
If you open the side of the bait box, there is a bone-y little surpise inside; the inner workings of the machine.

I was amazed at the variety and creativity in all of the pieces that came out of that class. It was such a fun day!

And She's Off!

Hi Everyone,
I am heading to Hampton, VA tomorrow for Art and Soul and I'll be there through Sunday. I'm very excited! I'll be taking classes with Sally Jean Alexander, Jane Wynn, Michael de Meng, Claudine Hellmuth and Lisa Kaus. It just doesn't get any better than that!

I'll also be selling at Vendor Night this Saturday evening. We'll have plenty the porcelain glove form hands that sold out so quickly last year, cigar boxes, scrabble tiles, vintage cake decorations, sewing pattern paper, ephemera jars and bottles and bottles of buttons. And, I have designed four brand new collage sheets as well. It's all packed up and ready to go! And I promise as soon as I get home I'll get those items up on etsy as well.

In the meantime, I've joined a group of artists called The Mixed Media Experience and we're having our first gallery show as a group. The opening is this Friday night at Studio a in Fredericksburg, and the show will remain until the end of May. If you're local, I hope you get a chance to come by and see it.

If you are in Northern Virginia, my Crystal Cupcakes line of jewelry is available at the Chick's Picks event this weekend. For more information go to: http://www.chickspicksbyhillary.com/.

I'm off!