Trippy Art

This is some of my latest work. The woman with "the eyes" is done in Prismacolor pencils and some chalk pastel in the background. I call it "Mother Nature Raining Down a Watchful Eye"
The landscape with the surreal aspect is called "Eyes Above the Ground".
I love to let my imagination run wild and of all the things I love to draw, eyes are one of my favorites.
I get a kick out of combining aspects of both realism and abstract and to me the effect is most interesting and has endless potential to tickle the imagination.
The landscape picture is done in Prismacolor Watercolor pencils which are very intriguing to work with. This is my first attempt using this medium and I love it. You get all the effect watercolors with the ability to add sharp deliniations as well. I'm going to have a lot of fun learning all the ways these can be used.

Some of My Other Art

I've been drawing since I could pick up a crayon and have never gone more than a couple of months without at least trying to draw something. Faces and animals have been my main focus. Horses were the first animal that I fell in love with as a baby apparently.
When I was born we lived in a city called Hull, now called Gatineau, located just across the river from Ottawa. The milk wagons at the time were still drawn by horses and that was what prompted my very first words "pretty doggy", at only 9 months, according to my Mom. So horses, naturally, were my first subject. I also saw the movie "Bambi" when very small and deer with long eyelashes were another of my favorites.
None of my art has ever been viewed by anyone other than my family and I decided to show some of it here. I'm contemplating changing my inventory in my Etsy store to mainly original art and/or prints of my originals instead of jewelry. In the mean time I'm working on perfecting my techniques and doing research on what types of art are the most popular. In the mean time, here are some examples.
My little teapot was drawn from life in Corel Procreate Painter, the eagle is a charcoal drawing I did years ago to hang over my husband's dresser, and the horse pictures are from the latest pastel drawing I did, from a photo in a book on horses. I scanned the original while in progress and the finished work. The original butterfly I drew in Photoshop using the pencil and brush tools mainly and the grass was a special brush type. It was based on a photo.

Breathtaking Beauty Minutes from Home

For the last couple of weeks my Mom and I have been making tentative plans to visit the English Gardens in Assinaboine Park, which offer sweeping vistas of flowers in a joyous riot of color. I am fortunate enough to live only a few miles from the park and I love that such beauty as well as a large urban forest are so close to home. I especially enjoy visiting the park with another avid gardener. I get my love of gardening from my mother who has had plants and gardens as long as I can remember.
The weather finally cooperated today and since the flowers were late this year they are still in very good shape and we were busy taking pictures the whole time. I was lucky enough to see the beautiful Brugmansia with huge trumbet shaped downward hanging blooms in several places and will include some shots of them. I also took shots of huge dalias 'Dinnerplate' sized but called different names. Here are some of the shots I took on our lovely outing.

My Store is on Hiatus but not my work

I've decided to take a short break from running an online store, as a seller at least, and I'm using the time to concentrate on learning new techniques and creating new pieces.
I really love chainmaille and want to get more into sterling silver pieces. I just finished a new sterling bib necklace in a loose chunky weave that is so comfortable that the other night I fell asleep wearing it. The links are large and bold and create a 3D effect against the wearer.
Today was cool and cloudy and I did some more fusing and tumbled my latest links and my newest necklaces, the one mentioned first and a long chain that I made using some of my existing chainmaille links from a previous post, new oval links and double heart links.
Above are some shots of my latest pieces.

Teaching myself how to create fused silver links

I've finally learned some of the basics of fusing .999 fine silver. A while back I got a small butane torch and some fine silver with which to practice fusing and I'm finally getting the knack of it. I love the convenience of fusing the silver without needing all the extra items like pickle, flux and solder and having to go the hassle of cleaning off firescale, a discoloration which is a by product of heating regular.925 sterling silver. The biggest challenge for me in the learning process is learning just how far to hold the torch from the silver. When the right distance is achieved the process is quick, easy and quite fun. I love the heat that reflects off the firebrick too. It's a lovely warm hobby.
I make sure the window is open and the room is well ventilated, but at least with the little torch and the short time it's burning, the fumes are way less of a problem than when using MAPP gas, for example, which is what I bought to use for making glass beads.
Once the rings are fused they can then be shaped and for my first design I made a number of ovals and hammered, and textured some of them. Here are a couple of shots of my first successful attempt to make a number of fused rings in one session. I finished this piece, which I won't part with, with lovely Hill Tribe silver charms which were a sweet gift from my sister once she found out I was into making jewelry. My goal is to master different shapes of fused rings and creating whole chains, with all the rings fused. Chain making is really one of my favorite activities when making jewelry, both using fused rings and chainmaille which uses mainly open rings.

Removed my resin bracelets from my store

I made the discovery that resin bracelets made with Easy Cast Epoxy resin become really soft in the sun so it's back to the drawing board. I plan to figure out a way to make the ones I have already made more sturdy, which will be a challenge. Really, nothing beats glass for shine, transparency and durability. Resin is great for figurines to be displayed indoors I guess, but in this context, in my opinion, is not suitable for jewelry unless maybe poured into a rigid bezel.
I re-opened my store today but no resin bracelets will be featured unless I include a disclaimer that they soften in the sun, which to me renders them unsuitable.

My Latest Labour of Love

I had a wonderful time designing the necklace in the above photos. It too is based on one of April's lovely sets of beads and this time I went for the bling and was generous with the sterling silver both in the heavy 18 gauge .999 silver S links and the other embellishments. These beads, like all of my previous sets, can be used in designs using very little else in the way of decoration but I wanted to pull out the stops anyway and feel that the embellishments in this case don't conflict with the detail on the beads. I used black high quality faux pearls in the pendant detail and was pleased with the black on the silver. This will be my newest addition to my collection of designs based on April's exquisite lampwork beads, to be added to my Etsy store.