Super Exciting News!!!

I have been holding onto a secret!  I have been writing articles for the Stampington Company for a little while now.  The first of these articles just came out today!!  It is in Somerset Apprentice.  The actual newstand date is March 1st but if you are subscribed, you may have received it today...I did!!  I am so grateful to the wonderful staff for the beautiful layout and the opportunity to write and create art for such a great series of magazines.

To everyone who checks in and reads this humble little blog...thank you so much.  I am so grateful.  Art is something that is inside me and MUST come out.  It is so gratifying to have someone show interest in the things that I put out into the world.  I love you all.

Here are the copper pendants I promised in the last post:

Busy, busy! Coming down to the wire!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. I haven't forgotten any of you!! I have just been putting the finishing touches on so many things! Cutting wood for my students for classes, making felt kits (also for my students). I also finished 12 more Legions, 10 more pendants plus 36 charms for the Artfest charm swap and all the copper pendants from the earlier tutorial. See...I'm not just sitting over here eating BonBons! LOL I have an almost physically painful need to paint....but not enough hours in the day!! I'm hoping that I am nearing the end of Artfest prep work and can do some things that are nibbling at the edges of my imagination!  I also have the heads made for 6 dolls...I hope I can get them finished.

Here are the new Legions:

Some new pendants:

I will add the pics of the copper and resin pendants (hopefully!) tomorrow!

More New Pendants & Legions plus Exciting New Retreat Information!

It's been a very productive week!  I now have a large group of the Legions ready to go.  I still have about 15 more to make arms for but here is a little preview of the colorful little guys:

New Pendants:

 Not only have I been getting ready for Artfest, I have been invited to teach at Art Is...You - Petaluma !  I am truly excited about this opportunity, especially since Artfest is ending.  I will be teaching a 2 day Immersion Class on making my handmade ceramic pendants on September 19th and 20th, 2012.  I will also teach 2 other classes (see the pictures below), on September 22nd and 23rd.  Registration opens in late February but there is already much information for you on the AIY website.

Class #2 will be an altered journal class.  I will teach you how to take a plain black premade journal and make it your own.  Here are samples:

Finally, the last class will be a needle felted cuff class, covering both needle felting and embroidery.  I love these cuffs, they are soft and beautiful (and made to specifically fit YOU!)

As always, thank you all so much for supporting me and my art.  Here's a little gift for you to enjoy,  Bailey's latest Youtube video: Love The Way You Lie  I love you all!  xoxo

More New Pendants

I managed to get more pendants ready last week.  Now the chains are driving me crazy!!  I spent most of the day today making design decisions to compliment the pendants.  I think I finally hit on what I want but boy, what a lot of work!!  LOL

I'll post pics of the necklaces complete in my next post but for now, here are the new pendants:

On another note:  Bailey finished 13th in the singing competition.  Thank you all so much for voting for her.  We truly appreciated the effort.  xoxo

New Paintings

I have been working for weeks on the pendants (I have 15 more in the kiln!!) and the Legions (my ceramic figures...pictures still to come).  I have to switch up my activities or lose my mind so yesterday I put everything aside and painted a few new paintings.  Big Boss was done start to finish yesterday but the two others had been started a couple of weeks ago so they just needed finishing up.

Big Boss

Bedtime Stories

Picture Books

On another note, thank you so much to all the people who have voted for my daughter Bailey in her online singing conpetition.  She is currently in 11th place out of 126 contestants.  If you would like to go over and vote for her, there is still a little time.  The contest ends on Friday.  To vote for her, go to talenthouse.com/baileycarvalho  Type her name in the search box and then choose the middle link which says Dear California (her original song).  That will take you to the voting page.  Again, thank you.  She works so hard on her music.



New Pendants

These are pendants I have been working on for the past week. They are ceramic, fired about 5 times and measure about 2". I think they are going to look amazing on chains! The round pieces will be connectors.  I tried to get the chains finished, as well...but you know how it goes! Computer problems, dinner.....Alabama playing LSU !!!

The Value of an Idea Journal

I tried so hard to be a "journaler" when that avenue of art first became so popular.  I both made and bought journal after journal each time promising myself that I would fill it with my art.  What I discovered is that I am NOT a journaler!!  Haha!  The reason:  I am an all or nothing person.  A page in those journals is exactly like a one of my complete paintings (translation:  hours and hours of work, with pressure to make it perfect!).  Not that my paintings are perfect but I like a certain look and can't get past the feeling that something is not complete until I hit that level of detail I am looking for.  Here are a few journal pages (I just took pics of the pages, I didn't crop them or try to make them more presentable!):

I so admire the people who can make amazing journal pages in a reasonable amount of time.  I'm not one of those people!!  Consequently, I stopped trying to do this type of journaling.  That's not to say I don't keep a journal!  I keep an IDEA journal....a place to put the things that pop into my head all day long.  A LOT of the ideas in this journal become complete paintings, though on wood, not in the journal.  Here is my current journal (I posted a picture a while back):

This journal is never far from me.  I have so many weird things bouncing around in my head that I can't possibly remember them all.  I add little drawings to the pages constantly.  The best part for me is that there is no pressure to make any of the drawings anything other than "ideas".  Here are a couple of pages:

As you can see from the first page, three of the little drawings have already become completed paintings, click here to see the completed paintings.  On the second page, I am currently working on pendants from the little drawings (I'll do a post when they are ready).

Personally, I have so much inside my head that I can't possibly remember all the ideas.  I can't tell you how many times I look through my journal for an idea for a new painting and I don't even remember drawing some of the pictures.  That means that idea would have been forgotten forever had I not drawn it right then!  There is no pressure because I know these are just ideas and the details will be added elsewhere when I start the actual painting.

I only show you all of this to encourage you to do whatever type of "journaling" that appeals to you.  I have accepted my own limitations to traditional journaling and embraced the style of journaling that works for me.  There is HUGE value in that!

xoxo                  I love you guys!