Sinister Bug

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

This recently appeared in my studio. It is a Sinister Bug, believed to have become extinct during the early 1900s. You can click on the photos for a  closer view of its exoskeleton.

I'm not sure what the body originally was. It had a chute, and a wheel that turned. Does anyone out there have any guesses?

Speaking of guesses, that reminds me of contests. Don't forget about my blog hop giveaway. Leave a comment on the blog hop post and one winner will be selected to receieve a fabulous package from Artistic Artifacts, and one of my steampunk bird necklaces. I will draw a number this Friday, February 10.

Edgar!

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

I'm feeling the steampunk vibe these days, and so is dear Edgar. 

 Edgar stands about 12 inches tall. Look closely and you'll be able to recognize lots of the pieces that he's constructed from. See the red on the bottom? I'm working on a new technique for adding color to metal. I'll demo it for the first time at Art and Soul in Virginia Beach. Hope to see you there!

Meet Myrna! Altered Art Robot

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

I am so excited to be teaching at Art and Soul in Virginia Beach this year, and classes are right around the corner! One of the classes I'm teaching is an Altered Art Robot class.

 I have declared January "The Month of the Robot" in my studio, and I have lots and lots of pieces that need finishing touches before they can go out into the world. This robot is called  "Myrna, Darn Easy". Her clock is ticking and she's looking for love! Her face is actually made from a vintage darner and if you click on the photo, you can see that the words Darn Easy are imprinted on the darner.

A local artist bought this piece for his wife as an anniversary gift. She is known for her stylish eyeglasses. I think he was very brave to choose a piece with that title, though!

Art and Soul is right around the corner. If you live in Virginia, and haven't signed up yet, you can receive a 10% discount on classes this month only. I'd love to have you in one of my classes -- or maybe see you at Vendor Night.

Ice Resin and Steampunk jewelry

Here are some photos of my newest work. I am still finding new and interesting things to do with ICE Resin, but filling a bezel with some dictionary paper and bits of vintage costume jewelry is so simple and so satisfying that I still do a lot of pieces like that.

I adjusted some settings on my camera in an attempt to get better photos.Obviously, it didn't help much.  I have plans to take some lessons from Donna Hopkins, a kindred spirit, and amazing photographer. Check out her blog to see her gorgeous photography.

Here is another resin piece. Thanks to Barbara Hawley for sharing this dear little deer with me.

And another foray into my steampunk phase. I have just started doming my gears, and using micro bolts to attach them together. I wish I had the time and space to experiment all day! Don't we all?

The JEWELRY Show

Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio 

I'm back! The power supply went out on my old computer about 3 weeks ago, and it made more sense to get a new one than to fix the old one. It ended up taking quite a while for me to get  everything up and running again. During that time, I've made a lotta lotta art and  I'll have lots of catch-up blog posts coming soon. 

This month my work will be featured in The Jewelry Show at the PonShop Studio and Gallery along with five other jewelry artists. I have completed about two dozen pieces, and am really looking forward to seeing the whole show put together. The opening reception is this Friday night, November 4 from 6-10 pm. If you are local, I'd love to see you there. If you are far away, I'll have pictures soon. The show runs through November 27. What a great opportunity to buy handmade and get your holiday shopping done!

New Work at The Griffin Bookshop

I was delighted to be asked to show my work at The Griffin Bookshop this month. The Griffin is the coziest spot in town. It has books and art and jewelry and ....coffee. Rich, fragrant, aromatic coffee. I never learned to drink it, but I sure do enjoy the smell of it.

 This is one of the pieces I'll be showing there. This started out as a really beat up old cuckoo clock. I took out the insides, the numbers, the little bird inside the door.and finished the whole thing in flat black. After that, I took the large bird off of the top and replaced it with two owls.

Here is a closeup of the face of the clock. It turned out to be the perfect place for the little doll head I had embedded in ice resin. I had intended to make a piece of jewelry from it, but decided that she really belonged here.

This work is at The Griffin through the month of October. I hope you'll stop by if you're in town. You're in for a real treat!

Midway

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio.

This assemblage is currently part of the Texture and Pattern show at the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. It is called "Midway".

Here is a closeup of the face. Some people have found it creepy, but I don't feel that way about it. In fact, for some reason, it reminds me of Paul Schaeffer.
   

See the resemblance?

Here is my artist's statement from the show:

Midway is an assemblage piece that for me evokes the sensation of summertime, memories of playing in the sprinkler, and the excitement of the carnival midway - a mixture of anticipation, excitement and danger. Much of the texture in this piece comes from the natural aging process of the elements included. The pattern comes from the repetition of elements and shapes.

Mixed Media Robot Assemblages - Alvin

by Leslie Brier

I am very excited to be attending Art and Soul 2012 in Virginia Beach as an instructor this year. One of the classes that I'll be teaching is Mixed Media Robot Assemblages.

This is Alvin.  He is the latest addition to the series. See the little car on top of the wheel? The wheel spins so that the car can drive around in a circle.

 Alvin is a very "green" robot. He bikes wherever he goes.

 Alvin is avaliable for sale at the PonShop Gallery and Studio.

In my next post, I'll introduce you to his lovely bride, Lucille.

Salt Shaker Pendant Class

I had a great time teaching at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, Virginia. Just walking through the door is inspiring.

Look at all that color!

It's a good thing I had my class supplies organized. It gave me a chance to do a little shopping before my students arrived. (Okay, maybe more than a little bit of shopping.)

 

We had such a fun day together.  Everyone added their own touch of creativity, and the finished projects were beautiful.

This goldtone pendant was made by Gloria.



This one was made by Betty. These colors were so pretty together.

Jackie made this one. I like the long dangles that she used.
I have to try one like that.

  

 Jackie, Betty and Gloria wearing their new pendants.

This one was made by Sylvan. She wasn't quite
finished with it when I took the photo.

Naomi made this one. She put hers on a piece of
Judy Gula's hand-dyed lace. Perfect!

Another gorgeous color combination.
Nancy used a salt shaker with a nice patina.



Nancy wearing her finished piece.



I really enjoyed our day together. I'm working on some more class proposals, because I can't wait to do it again!

Completed Jewelry

I'm on a roll now. Here are some more pieces that I finished this week. The two on the left are resin. The one in the middle is a boro bead that I got at the bead show last week. I just love it! It almost looks like an owl face. ( I'll post a link to the artist as soon as I go through my paperwork for June and find her business card.) The one on the right is a sterling spoon bowl. It has the word "Paris" engraved on it.

This is a piece that has a vintage tablespoon for the base of the pendant. The little elf inside was a china figure. Disclaimer: No elves were harmed in the making of this necklace. His head was already broken off. Really. It was. This picture turned out a little over-exposed.

Luckily, Bordeaux was right there to help me out. She cast a nice big shadow over my pieces while I was trying to photograph them. Never a dull moment with the puppy girls!

Never Enough Time

I just read through a bunch of blogs, and I'm feeling a tiny bit less guilty that it's been so long since I posted. Apparently there is an epidemic of spring/summer busy-ness going around!  I'm on a two-week break from working at the estate sale company and I have about two years' worth of projects in mind that I'd like to work on.

As you can tell by these necklaces, I'm in a beachy/1930s/carnival kind of mood. I found the elephant at a bead show and it inspired a whole bunch of pieces. Isn't the pail cute? This is my "Water for Elephants"necklace. The other two are ice resin pieces.

I've been playing a lot with ice resin and am just thrilled with the results.

Thanks to my dad, Dale Brown, for taking photos for me. I thought my camera was dead, but the nice lady at the camera store revived it for me this morning. I was so relieved. I love that camera, and didn't want to have to learn a new one!

Over the Edge and Arcimboldo Self Portraits

 by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

I wanted to share some of our finished Art and Soul Projects with you. My daughter and I took Stephanie Rubiano's "Over the Edge" class. We worked on cradled hardboard, and learned all kinds of new techniques. Stephanie takes great care to ensure that projects are well-made and of archival quality. That is something that I really appreciate.

This is my finished project. I used a photo that I had of my daughter dressed as a fairy.
When I took the Stephanie Lee class last winter, my classmate and kindred spirit, Annie, gave me a book page. The words "A fairy legend" worked perfectly with the image.

 This is my daughter's completed project. The tag says: "Take the road less traveled by". Didn't she do a great job?

 The last class that we took was Pam Carriker's Arcimboldo self-portrait class.



This was the original image that my daughter used.

And this was her finished self-portrait. It turned out great!

 This is the original image that I used.

And this was my finished portrait. As you can see, my daughter's project was much more successful than mine. I added a lot of paint, because I was unsure of myself. The good news is, that I learned a lot from the project, and I'm planning to try it again soon. Pam's methods definitely take the scary out of portrait painting.

This is Pam signing our book. You can see a couple of the other class portaits in the background. Pam's book is called Art at the Speed of Life. I am really enjoying this book. It is just the pick-me-up I have needed with the schedule I've been keeping these days.

Basic Ingredients

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

The Art About Food Show just opened at LibertyTown last Friday night. I'd been collecting items to use in a food-themed assemblage for awhile and I finally got them all together about a week ago. It started with a cocoa tin and a small antique doll. (I think she's about 4 inches tall.)

And this page from a promotional cookbook:

Normally, I would make a color copy of it, but I started this project late at night, so I decided I'd go ahead and use the original.

This was my rough layout. I painted the rolling pin to match the ad, and then placed items where I thought they should go. I took this photo so I could put everything back after I added color and texture to the background. (Sorry the quality of the photos wasn't better. I wasn't thinking about showing them to anyone else when I took them.)

I had some old paper ribbon that I was used by 3 Chefs Restaurant to wrap around cardboard boxes of fried chicken. I used it to define the different areas of my artwork. You can see that I added color, too. Nothing was secured to the board at this point, so I took that photo to refer back to later.

This is the finished piece. It's rare for me to stay this true to my original concept. Usually, what I start out with and what I end up with are miles apart. In this case, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do, and not a lot of time to complete it, so I had to trust my instincts, and get it done. In the end I was pleased with the result.