Focus on Life - Catching Up - Week 2: Your Word

Still catching up with the Focus on Life challenge as I'm on week 2.  Sally's prompt for this week was to choose a work that will serve as "your word” or “your resolution” for 2013.  The word I've chosen is "overcome".

I'm often amused when reflecting on my life -- in some areas I have it more together than others.

In Business:

Want me to give a speech to 200 people?  No sweat.  Need it in 30 minutes?  Even better.  What's the topic?

Unravel a difficult, complex problem?  Absolutely.  I'm the right person for the job.

Do the impossible with no money and no people?  Wow, I love a challenge.  Let's get to it.  Thursday soon enough for the impossible?

However,

Want me to ride the metro in my adopted city of Washington, DC?  Oh no, I'm from Colorado, we drive.  I'll get lost.  I'm afraid to be with all those people in a confined space.  The train will break down and I'll be stuck.......Excuses, fears, status quo.

Take care of myself and my health?  Hmmm..... I'm really, really tired so can't exercise (by the way the last time I went to the gym I was surrounded by hot bodies, ugh, and when did treadmills require an advanced degree to operate?).  It's really late and I can't prepare a healthy meal.  I don't have time to - go to the doctor, dentist, acupuncturist, get a massage, whatever.  Excuses, fears, status quo.

Create?  No.  I'm away from home for an extended period of time so don't have all the stuff in my studio so couldn't possibly create art the way I'm used to.  Excuses, fears, status quo.

You get the picture (do you Maria?).  So, "overcome" is my word for the year.  What small steps can I take to overcome excuses, fears and the status quo?  Well, this challenge is one of them.  I've also joined Tracy Statler's Wellness Words Jewelry Challenge for next week.  So, I'm making small steps.  Maybe soon I'll ride the metro.  :)

Catching Up - Focus on LIfe

I came across Sally Russick's Focusing on Life - 52 Photos challenge through some of the blogs I follow.  Each week Sally sends a prompt to the participants and we all take a photo based on the prompt.  The challenge fit in with my New Years resolution to post more, explore more, make art more and live more.  I'm catching up since I joined the challenge a few weeks late.  Week one's task was to take a self portrait.  I decided to photograph my hands as they are the instruments that I use to create art and my most trusted tools.  I'm setting up a new laptop so, while I'm transferring all of my software, I'm using Picasa (free Google software) to edit my photos.  You can see that I got a bit artistic and used some of the filters and features of Picasa to stylize my photo.  That's what fun about the challenge; trying new things.

Giveaway - Lori Anderson - Five Giveaways!

I love Lori Anderson's blog.  It's always full of inspiration and she hosts regular Bead Soup Blog Parties which are such fun to participate in.  I've only been able to participate in one of the blog parties but it was great fun and I got to meet a wonderful jewelry artist - Kathleen Lange Klik (http://modernnaturestudio.blogspot.com/).  During my last trip to DC Kathleen hosted me at her studio, we had lunch at a fun outdoor cafe, listed to live music and went on a bead shopping trip.  Kathleen has a design featured in the latest edition of Bead Trends (http://northridgepublishing.com/magazines/bead-trends-magazine/) which I found during my last Barnes and Noble visit.  Kathleen blogged about it here (http://modernnaturestudio.blogspot.com/2012/07/walk-in-woods.html).  Check it out.

Back to the giveaway.  Lori Anderson has five giveaways posted (http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2012/07/finally-five-bead-and-button-bead.html) with wonderful items in each.  The giveaway is open until July 13.

Here's a sample of one of the giveaways.

Published and Featured!

This has been an exciting few weeks.  I’ve had my second tutorial published in Polymer Café and been featured on Cynthia Tinapple’s Polymer Clay Daily (http://polymerclaydaily.com/2012/05/24/polymer-and-prismacolors/).  I know it’s a little silly but going to Barnes and Noble and picking a copy of the Polymer Café magazine off the shelves is fun and I can’t resist.  Here’s me, picking up my copy.  PS My first blog picture with blond hair.  J

Artomatic 2012

Artomatic opened on May 18 in Crystal City, Virginia ( http://www.artomatic.org/about).   Over 1000 artists of all types – visual, music, performance, film, fashion and more are showcased this year.  There are over 10 floors of art hosted in a building scheduled for demolition.  If you need inspiration, you’ll want to head over to Artomatic if you are in the Virginia area.  I'll be back to see more floors later in May. 

I’m lucky to know one of the artists with an installation this year – Tomas Tarr.  Tomas is a glass bead making artist who showed off some of his finest work.  Congrats Tomas.  Check out his pictures here.

Travel Projects - Colored Pencil/Polymer Clay

What can you do with a package of white clay, no pasta machine, no roller, no other tools but colored pencils and a bit of burnt umber and gold metallic paint?  I challenged myself to find out.  I do have an oven but only the most basic of materials.  I had been wanting to try colored pencils on polymer clay so while on travel I purchased a small set of Prismacolor pencils (small set, big price) and a package of white clay.  For tools I used pens/pencils and my crochet hooks (see other travel projects, great reuse of tools).  I sculpted a few pieces using the white clay, cured them and began to color with the pencils.  I did use the  burnt umber to darken the crevices before starting.  The colors went on well with no other surface treatment necessary.  I did use a light wash of gold paint to highlight the pieces.  When I get home, I'll use a fixative and spray lacquer to finish the pieces.  I love the depth of color achieved with the colored pencils and will use this technique over and over I'm sure.  BTW I'm using Picasa 3 to make the picture collages.

Pulling Out Stuff FromThe Past - Rock Purse

Because I have time on my hands, I was going through some older photos of past projects and came across these for a rock purse swap I participated in.  A rock purse is formed over well, you guessed it, a rock.  I created this one with a Southwestern theme and used a silver button, leather and silver hollow beads as accents.  I really like the way it turned out.  Custom turquoise, blue and coral colors came together as well.