Wednesday Photography

More happiness from Saturday's Creative Dig experience. I love color and the supplies Connie brought for us to work with were chock full of it!

Etsy Fave Finds – Modern Pixie

This Saturday at Creative Dig, I had the honor of meeting a lovely lady by the name of Judy Crighton, aka, Modern Pixie. Judy is an energetic, coffee loving powerhouse of creativity!

As we all went around and introduced ourselves, Judy let us know that she had just left her day job to pursue Modern Pixie full time. Yay Judy!

From her shop description:
"BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Monday, September 14th, 2009 is my very first day of self-employment! I have worked a very long time to be able to focus solely on what I love and I am beaming! Expect much fun & excitement here in my Modern Pixie store!"

And fun it is. Check out all these cute pieces...





You can find the Modern Pixie Etsy shop here, and you can also become a fan on Facebook here.

It was a pleasure to meet this amazing gal and to know that she is following her dream!

Monday Inspiration - Digging Deep

Today, I am inspired by the amazing experience I had this weekend at Creative Dig in Cleveland at Terra Vista Studios. It was such a wonderful experience and I will be sharing tidbits here throughout the week.

First of all, the studio space itself was AMAZING and I found myself drooling with envy!


The day was covered in three segments: Writing with Christine Claire Reed (aka The BlissChick), Art Journaling with Connie Hozvicka (of Dirty Footprints Studio), and pinch pot clay portraits with Andrea LeBlond (of Terra Vista Studios).

So what specifically inspired me throughout the day? My gosh, where to start?!

Writing Your Shiniest Story:
Christine led a wonderful session! So many great writing prompts, insights, and tasty yoga tidbits. The group of women I shared my time with were warm, receptive and so open to share their writing. It was amazing what I found myself actually stating out loud! Here are few things that poured into my journal that really surprised me... (prompts in italics)

• If there was nothing to fear and nothing to which I feel obligated, I would begin new work constantly and sometimes not finish it...
• I wish my body were capable of healing itself and could regenerate body parts. (!)
• Taking care of myself would mean saying NO to situations that require too much of me.
• My creativity is limited by my desire to be popular (that one rocked me a bit).
• I feel most creative when I play.

Thank you Christine for helping me to uncover so much of my story!

Painting and the Art Journal:
Connie was a joy to learn from. I have never kept an art journal, but I know that after my experience on Saturday, it is going to become a regular part of my creative life. More in depth on this later this week. But check out all the awesome supplies on the table next to my journal. Thank you Connie for sharing so much!


Pinch-pot Portraits:
Working with clay for the first time in years was a joyful, therapeutic experience. Andrea was great instructor who made the task of building a portrait out of clay anything but scary! (Well, the way the face took shape was kind of creepy.) My sculpture started as self-portrait but ended up looking rather masculine but fae. With Andrea's suggestion, he became a sort of semi-green man/fairy muse. Thank you Andrea for a fun way to round up the day!


My intention for the day was to break through my creative blockades, self-imposed expectations and artistic preconceptions and to embrace my artistic self fully... The energy, support and guidance I experienced on Saturday helped me to find this side of myself again! Now look out because I have a lot of art to explore.

Felt Friday – Ulrike Unterlass-Klinger

This morning I truly wished I spoke German as I stumbled upon the work of felt artist Ulrike Unterlass-Klinger, who's hand-puppets and figures are out of this world wacky, adorable and wonderfully crafted. I will let them "speak" for themselves. (haha)

In the Studio - Toys and COLOR

It's been awhile since I've shared my actual studio space with everyone (aside from the new photo set). It's a tiny space so I have to be clever with how I use it. My table workspace is constantly changing to suit the task at hand. Right now... it's painting!

See those big round pans of color? The magenta, green and orange, yellow, red and blue? They are amazing (and very dear to me because they came from a departed loved one) but I have no idea where to find more. They seem to be watercolor, but are almost gouache-like in their vividness and opacity. Anyone have an idea of where to look?


New illustrations in progress. Left probably won't make it into the public eye, but Right has a lot of potential!

TOYS!!



And, of course, a kitty. (This one has a bit of an attitude problem.)

Wednesday Photography – Oberlin, Ohio

A beautiful weekend in a small liberal arts college town with my mom. Lots of art, lots of quaintness. Fall flowers everywhere!

Etsy Fave Finds - Kriture Art

I recently came upon the work of a graphic artist from Portugal, called Kriture. Her figures are so adorable, weird and unique. Perhaps the best way to convey the off-kilter cuteness of Kriture is to quote her shop profile:

"Kriture is an idea which is stored in a box.

Those ideas belong to a girl and she stores them in boxes, in a dark room.
She stored so many ideas there, that those boxes created life out of them! But botanic and fauna don't want to be closed for ever, so their plan is to colonize other places out of the boxes and spread color and joy between us."





You can find out more about Kriture and the artist on the Kriture blog. While there, be sure to check out the free desktop downloads and Kritupedia!

Monday Inspiration – Collected Tidbits

What I'm thinking of this morning...

A Quote:
"In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking."
– Sir John Lubbock


A Painting:

Joan Miro
Via

Joan Miro, Carnival of Harlequin, 1924

A Song:
Love this cover of a great Leonard Cohen song...

Felt Friday - Fabulous Fiber Flower Fashion

Sometimes I find the sheer volume of creative, amazing work on Etsy a bit overwhelming. So many artists, so much talent, it seems like too many get lost in a sea of awesome.

Lately I've been on a bit of a fiber jewelry kick. These are just a teeny weeny taste of the fascinating and fabulous fiber artists on Etsy...

Felted Flower Corsage, by Fibrespace

Knitted necklace with vintage beads, handmade felt flower and reclaimed metal leaves by boutiquebelle.

Shadow Petal Necklace by aOlive


Cherry Blossom Necklace by Sarafina Design

In the Studio - New Photography, New Woolykins

I've been spending a lot of time recently revamping my vision for the Woolykins shop, bringing it more color and life. A major part of this renovation was taking better photographs of the dolls and their packaging. For this purpose, I enlisted the help of a tabletop photo lighting studio.


The kit is so-so. The lights are bit weak and the fabric (though it gives 4 color selections) is low quality. You can't quite get the wrinkles out and the white sheet is stained quite badly from the blue sheet. But, it does give better lighting, less shadows and with a little resourcefulness and photo editing, gives some nice results.

Without further ado... yeti (s?)!



You can check out all of the new dolls and improved photography in my shop.

The other project I'm excited about is this...

... just now beginning to take shape and I look forward to sharing my explorations with you.

Creative Dig is next week in Cleveland. I'm so excited! Andrea, Connie and Christine are putting together such a fun day! Hope to see you there!

Weekly Photography – Fairies

Last week, the gorgeous and inspiring Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio, champion of the Creative Juicy Life, had a wonderful post about getting creative with photography. Make Art, she said! And I said, heck yeah!

These photos were taken last autumn. I wanted to give them fresh life, with a twist of fae.


I had so much fun playing with these! I felt a bit like a kid again, dumping glitter all over my colored construction paper. Thanks for the great idea Connie!

Etsy Fave Finds - Bird on a Fern Studio

My favoritest new accoutrement! A zombie bunny iPhone holder...

Noreen of Bird on a Fern studio is an art teacher, painter, and creator of the danged coolest gadget holders! I had my eye on her cute and twisted cozies for some time before I just couldn't stand it anymore and purchased my very own zombie bunny! I can tell you, Noreen's gadget cozies are well-crafted and one-of-a-kind! My phone has never been happier.

Check out some of her other styles...



Did I mention these are made to order? I wish I had another gadget that needed a home!