Through My Eyes

Open Studios approaching fast

2010-05-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Working hard to prepare for open studios. Not only creating the space (reorganizing and decorating) but designing new pieces using paper and fabric.
Its hard, in the day to day work, to see it coming together. I have to keep the vision of how it will be, rather than the comfort of seeing it completed. Working on everything at once is difficult, but it will get there.
Here is a preview of one of the fabric designs I am working on;

It sounds like leaves rustling in the wind when it moves.
Working on a stand to hold the chain while I attach the fabric so that I can see if they are facing forward. Those are not eyelets but metal spacer beads held in place with a copper wire. The eyelets, of the right size, came too late and I devised a different way of reinforcing the fabric circles. Batiks work best for this as they are two sided (rather than a print fabric).

A New Direction

2010-05-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

I should be preparing for Open Studios, instead I am playing around. I have found, in my exploration of resin, other mediums to apply paper and fabric to metal. Fabric stiffeners, both from the art supply store and from the hardware store...more on that another time.

Anyway, I have been able to 'alter' the fragility of paper and fabric (beyond layering them in resin products) and make them durable enough to become dangles, and pendants in my jewelry assemblages.

This is a batik fabric piece that has been stiffened with several applications of a polymer product with wire formed around the hole to allow it to be attached to a chain.

Another piece of batik attached to a copper wire formed into a rectangle and hammered flat.

A copper piece that has been enameled is the frame and the center is a sheer fabric.

Hollow paper bead with a wire box frame inside.

Layered fabric pieces with metal wire threaded through holes.

Sheer fabric cut into the shape of a leaf and reinforced with wire & attached to wire links.

Various small leaf shapes both paper and fabric motifs with wire frames.

Open Studios Promo Piece

2010-04-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Finished my promo piece to be posted at Pro Arts Gallery next weekend. People coming to Open Studios in the East Bay can start at Pro Arts and preview what will be in the studios, before heading out to visit.
Open Studios will be the first two weekends in June.

Marian Hosking - Jeweler

2010-04-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

One of the most elegant web pages that I have come across is Marian Hosking's of New Zealand. Flash programing cause the links to flow and ebb with your cursor leading you to her works (patience while loading as a result).

Each circle links to an example of her brooches, which are elegant & lovely in their own right. Similar links bring you to her rings, chains, and vessels.

A few examples of her brooches.

Visit her 'Inspiration' link, she shows graphically just where she gets her inspiration for her nature-inspired pieces.

Personal Journals

2010-03-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have been following Judy Martin's blog for some time now, initially attracted by her use of indigo dye, and her creations using circles and repeating squares. (I am specifically drawn to anything which contains a grid)

Another area of interest for me, in her blog, is her use of her many journals kept over the years. This, by far, is my favorite use of a special journal (from her 40th year). I love the fact that her journal pages are sewn closed.

The question arose some time back about what happens to your journals when you die; who might read your words? I specifically think of the documentary '51 Birch Street' in relation to this. In this documentary the mother in the family keeps journals for most of her married life. This film, which began as a personal documentary created by Doug Block, ends up exploring the side of each of his parent's that was hidden from himself and his siblings, by reading his mother's discovered journals.

This brings up the important question, "Who will be the audience for your personal journals when you no longer have a say in who that audience will be?"

Plata 925 Acrillico transludido verde

2010-03-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

Metal: plata 925

fusion: acrillico transludido verde

dibujo: amistad, proclarita

translation via babel fish -
metal: silver 925
fusion: translucent acrylic green
drawing: friendship, by Clarita

I have looked at this piece for about a year and a half now, wondering if more will be posted.

A beautiful marriage of silver and acrylic in this and other, similar pieces on her flickr site.
UPDATE: Found. And here she is Flickr Mariela Sartori

Enhancing my blogger skills...FORMATTING

2010-03-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

I visited a very nice blog today (via my Google Reader - love this app) and saw they had elements in their blog that I didn't know existed.
They had tab like buttons across the top of their blog, just under their banner. HOME and Reviews, etc. I wanted one of those!
So....off to the dashboard and Help menu to see what I could find about this feature.

I found what I was looking for...under the Dashboard view and the tab posting is something called Edit Pages. You create a Standalone Page to hold reviews, tutorials and etc. You can add up to 10 of these stand alone pages. As you add them...they will appear as a tab (the name is however you name the page). The first default tab is the HOME tab, so that your reader can return from reading a archived entry, or one of these tabbed stand alone pages.

As you can see from my blog page I have a HOME button, a Reviews button and a Resin Research button. I just love this feature. It has the feel of a real web page.

The other item of note that I discovered is a item on your new post (up there with font, font color and etc). It looks like a little ripped page .
If you put this feature (by clicking on it) in a place within your very long posting, it will insert a script which says Read More. So your long posts don't take up the entire screen of your blog, you can insert this and shorten the post's look. Then if the reader wants to read more...they click on Read More and the post expands.

DVD Review - Exploring Resin jewelry-making with Susan Lenart Kazmer

2010-03-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Exploring Resin jewelry-making with

Susan Lenart Kazmer

http://www.interweavestore.com/Beading-Jewelry/Video/Exploring-Resin-Jewelry-Making.html

60 minute video, comprised of 5 episodes. Definitely for the beginner. Susan takes you through step by step instructions for preparing your selected items for resin pouring as well as coloring and mixing 2 part resin. The focus is on Ice Resin a product developed by Susan.

One of the few items that I found to be worth the $29.99 spent on this video, was the information given by Susan regarding the 'healing' nature of subsequent applications of resin to already cured resin. Resin, according to Susan cures in about 3 hours and fully cures in 72 hours (able to withstand fingerprints). She shows how she cuts and sands the resin to remove impurities and extraneous pieces (from the molding process) and is able to use a paintbrush to apply more resin to 'heal' the scratches and marring caused by the sandpaper and cutters. The other item of note that is 'new information' offered in this video, is the process by which Susan constructs her molds of faces and body parts for her dolls and how she puts the front and back of the heads together after molding each separately.

Many of the techniques and step by step instructions were not new to me, but informative and clear. I find that viewing several different presentations about resin in general gives me more confidence in working with resins. Since the purpose of the video is to instruct in the use of Ice Resin, there is not a lot of comparison made between the different types of resin. It is mentioned that this type of resin is 'jewelry grade' resin and I'm not sure what exactly this means.

My own experimentation with resin is to find ways to use my own paper and fabric creations in jewelry pieces. Using metal as an armature to create a resined piece of art paper, painted paper or painted fabric as a durable element in my jewelry designs.

I have only used a few types of resins so far and find that there is a difference in stiffness between the few resins I have tried. Ice Resin tended towards making a more flexible piece of resined paper/fabric. I have tried Colores offered through Rio Grande. Many of the resins offered are meant for filling, pouring and molding and they don't offer much insight in their descriptions into their use in resined paper/fabric. Colores seemed to make a thicker and less flexible piece which seemed to be better for use in attaching to one dimensional metal armatures.

I would love to see a more in depth video that discusses further the different types of resins and compares how they might be better suited to different types of applications. Resin use in jewelry, molding and resined paper/fabric is still in its infancy as far as I'm concerned. A great deal of experimentation is needed to find how far this medium can be stretched and how durable and long lasting it really is in terms of fine art jewelry making.

Hadar Jacobson

2010-03-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

White Bronze Metal Clay.
Premier metal clay teacher, designer and inventor extraordinaire. That is Hadar Jacobson. Additionally she is a very giving person. She does not guard her secrets, but rather shares her process, tricks and tips. Indeed, the first part of her Blog is a long list of tutorials and discussions of the properties of metal clay and the process of firing them. Check out her blog and find out what new things are brewing in her part of the metal clay world.

She has created bronze, copper, & steel metal clays in powder form (longer shelf life) and then a quick fire formula for the bronze and copper clay powders.
NOW she has developed a White Bronze metal clay powder that will be available from her web site as soon as she had completed testing and compiled an instruction manual for it. Pictures of the white bronze next to silver clay show a comparable color to silver, but I imagine it will be much stronger, not to mention far cheaper. White bronze, as she describes it is an alloy of copper and bronze clays. Go to her blog to see the comparison pictures between the 5 different clays and a more complete discussion of all her clays.

Preparations for Open Studios in June

2010-03-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

This will be the first year in which I will participate in the Open Studios for Jingletown (East Bay Open Studios through Pro Arts) that will be held two consecutive weekends in June, 2010. Having lived in this neighborhood for a decade and enjoying other's open studios, I have been dubious about opening up my studio to the public.
I will be throwing caution to the wind and with my husband's support will be showing my jewelry designs. My designs incorporate the use of found objects, rescued chains and elements from scrounged jewelry, metal clay pieces that I have constructed, hand made chains as well as hand made elements. Some of the pieces will be re-worked pieces from my flickr page.

Stitch Resists

2010-01-30T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here is a cropped picture of the piece of fabric that I did a simple stitch resist and then painted with Lumier metallic fabric paints...and some non-metallic.

This view is a complete view of the same piece showing some of the paint effects on the left side. Lumier is so easy to use and easy to thin to get washes. There is some stippling (in blue) down the middle of the piece.

I intend to use this a background to some stitching and other embellishments.

February submission (2010)

2010-01-30T13:32:00.001-08:00

February submission (2010), originally uploaded by xlindamayx.

My second submission to an on line zine especially for rubber stamp carvers. The Carving Consortium .
My first attempt here , while one of my favorite stamps, came out a little hazy due to the paper I used. As the zine is published from digital scans of the original work, the paper texture made the stamp look a little messy, in my eyes anyway.
I am hoping to improve my carving skills by having this monthly prompt to submit.

To etsy or not to etsy?

2010-01-28T17:50:00.000-08:00

I am at that point where I want to make the transition from creating just myself to creating for others (ultimately for sale).
So I read with much interest other's experiences (pros and cons) with etsy, since that seems to be the place that a majority of people sell who don't have their own website.

I subscribe to a number of blogs through Google Reader and a few of them over the last year have questioned their own use of etsy. Most recently, Jessica Doyle, one of my more favorite painters/illustrators has questioned her own continued use of etsy. I look forward to reading future blog entries regarding what her research reveals about other options open on the web and perhaps better suited to artists.

In the meantime I am working on developing a theme for a series to be worked out in the next six months. At that time, (fingers crossed), my husband (photographer) and I will have have a small joint show locally.

Work in Progress

2010-01-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

view one and two

individual coasters

Recently I've been working on a project involving painted and collaged bar coasters...both sides. Some are original compositions, some are collaged pieces that have added painted elements and still others are photos to which I have added painted elements. They are linked together with jump rings and are hung from an exposed beam that separates the living room/kitchen area from the work area of my studio.

Time to update

2010-01-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

Not been here much or thought much about blogging here. Busy with work and family and now there's time for me.
I have taken a different direction, following several paths, sometimes consecutively...sometimes concurrently.
Metal clays have taken a year or more to explore, but I keep coming back to painting and textiles. Looking for ways to incorporate all three into single pieces.
Enamel is another avenue I have discovered this past Summer and Fall. Enjoying it all and hoping to post more here on my discoveries as I make this journey.

New Work in Progress

2008-06-19T21:48:00.001-07:00

A new piece I'm working on that is a combination of gradient dyed, stenciled fabric that has some tyvek elements stitched on and is covered with a layer of tea bag paper. The paper is adhered to the fabric with gel medium in spots and fabric pieces layered with coffee stained cheesecloth. Sharpie pens are used to draw on the paper with alcohol sprayed to blend and shade the pen marks.

Details are shown here of some of the stitched and medium layered elements...

Dyeing Projects/Round Robins

2008-03-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have been taking a dyeing class, exploring Shibori, Monoprinting, Immersion and Low Immersion/jar dyeing, as well as painting on fabric with Lumier Paints by Jacquard and Shiva Paint Sticks. I also belong to an on-line Surface Design group and participate in a round robin there. Here are some pictures of my experiments and contributions to other's fabrics (in round robins).

This is a piece of silk noil that has been dampened, rolled (rather sloppily to get unique effects) on a 1/4" to 1/2" diameter plexi rod (spring curtain rod will work as well) and secured (but not tied). Then fiber reactive dyes have been placed on the roll in a pattern of stripes (or however you want). The 'roll' is then squeezed and compressed to ensure the dye 'travels' to the center of the roll. A tray (from the bottom of a long plastic rectangular planter) is used to hold the long roll while applying the dye. The 'roll' is batched by placing it in the warm sun after placing it into a plastic bag/container (newspaper bags are good) and secured or left over night to 'batch'. Unroll and rinse to get these results. It is described as a easier way to get gradations then the traditional method. These are NOT complete directions - omitted is the chemicals necessary to set the dye in the fabric.
This is a shibori piece where I used the 'pole wrap' technique. It is overdyed, meaning that before it was pole wrapped, it had been dyed with another technique (the blue peeking through). More to come.....

New Feature!

2007-10-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the custom slide show from my flickr pages. To get one of your own, click to the side. It supports a number of photo sites.

New real time meetup site

2007-09-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Meetup for ATC's is now at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda. Come join us if you are in the SF Bay Area. Check it out at http://www.meetup.com/ and see the time/date for paper ATCs. Fabric group meets once a month, ~~and is still located at the Mission Coffee Roasting Company in Fremont.~~ New Info: No longer meeting at Mission Coffee Roasting Company in Fremont, California. We now meet at the Public Market in Emeryville, CA (inside or outside tables). Always check the MeetUp website for up to date details.

New ATC's this week, branching into rolodex cards and zetti, both new to me.

Rolodex cards are two-sided affairs. Both sides are decorated but the flip side contains personal information so it is not shown.

This is my most recent experiment with Lumier paints, & Tyvek distorted with a heat tool.
Tyvek collage.

Through My Eyes

2007-09-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

'Through My Eyes" came from a swap at ~~www.atcards.com~~ themed on the Day of the Dead. One of my more-than-a-passing-interests. Update: ATCards(dot)com no longer exists. This site was closed by its owner forcing the members to scramble to create a new site. The new site as of March 2008 is www.atcsforall.com. Hope to see you there.!
I loved drawing the cards for this swap. I used water color pencil, not a medium from my comfort zone. I was very pleased with the results. And, while you don't usually see clear through a skull's eyes to see what lies beyond, I could not resist depicting the southwestern desert beyond. I was necessary to have the skull fill the entire canvass in order to have enough room to draw a desert scenery beyond. Remember, this is an ATC, there is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches in which to draw anything. I have begun a reproduction on canvas board in a much larger format. Mostly because my daughter wants this on a T-shirt and in order to scan it in a large enough resolution to get a clear picture of that size, it needs to start out larger.
This was done entirely in water color pencil, using a Tombo blender as well as water.
Please see the rest of the set at Flickr, under xlindamayx, if you would like. Or follow this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindamay/

2007-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mini NoteBook One: Panama Red

Inside pages of Panama Red

Mini NoteBook: Caution

Note nickel in foreground to denote size. Might not make any sense to my swap partner in Australia, unless she knows what size a nickel is.

Both of these Mini NoteBooks are hand bound with 20# pages inside. The covers are two different heat shields (for you coffee addicts and hot beverage drinkers). Caution has a waffle texture and printed with flying coffee cups. Printed in the bottom right corner are the words, Caution Hot Beverage.

The Panama Red (for those old enough to remember NRPS) is not related to a mind altering substance, but rather a coffee brand in California.

Both notebooks have one resin page inside (leftovers from my resin experiments - see related post). Panama has a paper leaf (scan from a watercolor) tucked behind one of the resin pages and Caution has a enameled copper disc attached to the book with copper wire, as a book mark.