Pretty Sneaky...

I have always loved a good scare. I love scaring people, and I love it when someone is actually able to scare me. Especially since I don't scare easily. However, this new found addiction I have - Etsy - has lead me to discover a new way of sneaking up on someone! It's called the "Sneak Attack" and it's so darn cool I can't stand it!

Here's how it works. There is a guy, Michael Phipps, who got a bunch of other Etsy sellers together one day and they all bought a bunch of stuff from another Etsy seller who wasn't expecting it! In other words, one day this seller had lots of stuff for sale but had barely sold anything, and the next day they checked their email and all of a sudden BAM! their inbox was full of sales! How cool is that??? Now they hold Sneak Attacks on a regular basis. I'm going to go broke because I feel I need to purchase something during each one! I can't keep doing that.

If you want to join the fun, go to: http://www.handmademovement.com/

Mini Art!

I've discovered something amazing! ATC - or Artist Trading Cards! Also called ACEO, or Art Cards, Editions, and Originals. I think they are the coolest thing since Panera Bread with free Wi Fi.

ATCs are 2.5" x 3.5" size pieces of original artwork for trading. Most of them are quite inexpensive, under $10, which means anyone can buy and collect pieces of fine art. That's right!! Even YOU can have a mini art gallery in your own home! Some of them are amazing! Truly.

As you know, I have just begun my journey back into making art. I've just finished my first three ATCs and they are okay... they don't live up to some of the others I've seen, but they are a start. I had a great time creating them, and since I believe with all of my heart that art is about the process, not the finished product, they are a success!

I've purchased my first two ATCs from other artists on Etsy, and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival! I can't wait to have my own little art gallery in my studio! Especially since I have, for the first time ever, a room in my house that is my own art studio (also a guestroom w/futon but what the heck).

Tick Tock

This is a pretty unusual piece. My 15-year-old daughter hates it. My 19-year-old daughter thinks it’s cool. It was fun to make! I took apart an old broken clock… well, I don’t think you can even call it a clock; it was the guts of a clock that was my uncle’s. He’s now in a nursing home and rambles about the Canadian Government (we live in the USA) and the nurses that work for the CIA. He seems happy in his world of secrecy and espionage… he gave me permission to take his clock before his stroke.

When I was pulling apart the old clock, trying to get all of the gears out, and looking for interesting parts I could use in my art, there was an old spring wound up tight. My mom was sitting there looking on. She said, “be careful that doesn’t spring and hit you.” It wasn’t two minutes later and that thing made a shrill “shriinggg” sound and sprung! It didn’t hit me, in fact it didn’t come all the way unsprung (if that’s a word), but it threw dust everywhere! The old clock was dusty, greasy, and covered with many year’s worth of time keeping collected in all its parts. A good soaking in WD40 cleaned everything up nicely.

I have two more clocks – one that was still ticking when my cousins brought it down from my uncle’s room even after he’s been in the nursing home for over a year – and another that is broken. I plan to use the parts for more jewelry, mosaics, and other artwork. I don’t know why my uncle had all of those clocks. My mom says my grandfather would be happy I’m using them. He used to repair clocks. I never met my grandfather, but I’ve always had a fascination for clocks and clock parts… I wonder if it’s genetic?

In Case You're Curious...

I was working on this piece when I wrote the “Falling off the Edges” post. It was a birthday gift for a friend, so I couldn’t post a picture until I gave it to her. Fortunately, she likes it… “LOVES” it, which makes everything worthwhile. :0}

My Little Bumpy Journey

Okay, final exam aside (literally), I finished my problem piece (pictured above). It may be a little weird to critique my own artwork… which I am selling… which I have a link to this blog on my store site… but maybe not. I mean, that’s actually the point of this blog – to map out my journey into the art world, or back into the art world. I used to be an art student. First all kinds of art in high school, then interior design and architectural drawing in college until I gave up on that idea because those people are too cutthroat for me. I then moved on to the idea of becoming a high school art teacher, but met my ex-husband and got married and had kids instead. Notice the “ex” in front of the word husband. He wasn’t into art at all… or anything I was into for that matter. After the divorce, I went back to school and ended up with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, and now I am half way to my Masters in Public Administration… if I finish my final exam that is.

I digress. The question at hand is, how weird is the band of cobalt blue mirror and grout at the bottom of this jar? I thought I liked it until I grouted it. I thought it was the grout color I didn’t like, but I’ve decided the color is fine. The lid of the jar is quite nice actually. I’m rather proud of the beadwork. It’s that darn band around the bottom that has me troubled. However, I have posted it “For Sale” on Etsy. Someone might just find it quite interesting and pluck it off my site.

Darn Masters Degree Anyway

Once again, that pesky degree I’m working toward has put my art on hold. I have to wait to work out my issues with ugly grout to take a final exam. Sigh. I do love school, but it does get in the way of other interests – so does housework. Stop by my house on any given day and you will find me either in my studio or sitting under a pile of books and my laptop, but most likely not vacuuming or doing dishes. Instead, my house is messy, my lawn needs to be mowed, and I have pickers growing amidst my roses. A pretty picture this does not paint. However, I make a point of inviting friends over, or holding a holiday or two at my home a few times a year, which forces me to do a deep cleaning. I suggest this tactic to anyone with many outside interests, lazy teenagers, and whose income will not support a maid service.

Here We Go Again...

Well, I made it through the project with the falling pieces, and now I have a project I simply am not sure I like. I started out liking it. I started out quite impressed with myself and my wonderful gift for design, eye for color, and good fortune at being born with both. Until I grouted with a gawd awful color and the design idea I had may have turned out to be a huge mistake. Ugh. And to make things worse, while I was mixing the grout, that little voice in my head - you know the one - was whispering, "this is a bad color." But, the other voice in my head, my mom's voice, was whispering, "you've started mixing it, you can't waste it, you have to use it now." Sigh.

Honestly. It was about two tablespoons of grout. I could have thrown it out and no trees would have died, no animals would have suffered, no children would have starved, and I would have bought myself some time to rethink things. Now I have to work with what I have and try to salvage the situation. ...I know, I know... I said it myself, this could turn out to be a great piece because of my mistake! Right.

The Virtual Art Show

This new venture of putting my art out there for sale is quite exciting! The whole Etsy experience is exciting! I’m not trying to be an Etsy poster child – honest – it’s just that I’ve found this whole new world of artisans that I can visit right in my own home! I don’t have to physically go anywhere, yet I can visit the best art show/craft sale around! And, I can be a part of it for pennies! It’s amazing!

I have 18 photos in my little Etsy shop, but last night I put my first piece of mosaic work on my virtual store shelf. Don’t get me wrong, I think I’m a pretty good photographer even thought I know I have a lot to learn, but my real confidence is in other forms of medium. As I said in my last post, I am new at mosaics, and I have much more to learn, but I believe I am already better at mosaic work than photography. I also feel there is a bigger market for the kinds of things you can “make” rather than photos.

Keep your fingers crossed! I’ll have more items on my shelves soon.

Falling off the Edges

You must understand, since I am new to mosaics, my panic when I began to grout a piece I had been working on for a week and my tiny pieces of glass started falling off the edges. All of the care I had taken nipping those tiny little gems and painstakingly gluing them down flashed before my eyes. I immediately called my dear friend who had gotten me hooked on this hobby, but was greeted with his voicemail instead of the reassurance I craved.

Having no idea what to do next, I started scraping the grout out of the spaces from where the pieces had fallen and frantically started gluing them back in. Wet grout, wet glue, a pounding heart, and my black cat looking on. My message to my friend in California had sounded something like, “I’M GROUTING AND PIECES ARE FALLING OUT AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO SO CALL ME BACK!” In what I’m sure was a shaky, panicked, somewhat screechy voice.

Art can definitely be an accident. Sometimes our best work happens because we make a mistake. Like lens flair in a photo, an improperly mixed paint color that turns out to be the perfect shade, or a mistake that has to be worked in or around and ends up being a focal point. Life works out that way sometimes too. We screw something up, or something screws us up, and we have to work with it.

I finally was able to talk to my friend who reassured me that my piece would be fine. I simply had to wait for the grout to dry, glue in all of my pieces of glass, and regrout. He also said I need better glue! DON’T SKIMP ON GLUE! Was the main message here.

Do you hear that? Don’t skimp on the glue.

Here I am at Midnight

Okay, so here I am at midnight posting my first message on my first blog. My cat is on my desk - in my way as usual. I have to keep pushing him out of my line of vision. Tonight I have sewn curtains for my 15 year old daughter's window, and started this blog, and now I should be sleeping, but no! I have to post my first blog message! Or is it called a post? Do you post a post?

Life is an accident? Yes, that is the name of my blog. I wanted to name it "The Accidental Tourist" which is the name of my little shop on Etsy.com, but the name was already taken. Apparently there are others who enjoyed that book as much as I did. However, I like the name I've chosen - I think it fits me. I actually don't believe life is an accident; I believe life is what we make it. I'm working at making something of mine while I'm making art.