new journal page

Gotta make this quick, but I wanted to post a picture of a recent journal page. Been doing lots of "fine art" (painting instead of all collage) but I'm sure I'll be over it in a week or so, I usually am.

Art journaling, and a bit of an update.

I finally did a bit of real artwork in my journal last weekend. I realized that I've been mostly making simple backgrounds with the intention of cutting them up for my jewelry, or simply writing everything down to relieve rapidly building pressure. All of this is absolutely fine, but I missed the "art" part of art-journaling.


I'm posting the "steps" I take in making journal spreads, since I'm always curious how other artists layer materials. This process has come about as a result of trying techniques described in magazines (ie., Somerset Studios and Cloth Paper Scissors) and reading others' blogs and websites (Anahata Katkin, Teesha Moore, Sabrina Ward Harrison.)

1. Gesso - I coat both pages of the journal spread with white (or sometimes brown or black, but mostly white). This keeps the paper from buckling or wrinkling when glue or water hits it.
2. Paint - I usually use cheap acrylics for this, and usually don't bother waiting for the gesso to dry completely. This works out because it keeps the colors light, and I can darken them as I go along if I want.


3. Paper - I add random bits of printed text or scrapbook paper, paint over it a little, leave some unpainted, whatever.
4. Charcoal and/or chalk pastels - I trace around/shade the papers I've glued on with complementary colors of chalk pastels and charcoal, smudging them with my fingers. Be sure to have some fixative spray around for when you're finished with this step.
5. Stamps, doodles, precise images - this is when I add some rubber stamping and doodling for texture, and adhere any main focal images I want to have on the spread.
6. Write - of course, you don't HAVE to write. A lot of the time, I'll make spreads and wait until I feel like writing to use them - and some don't ever get written on. It's all up to you. :)

Comments? What comments?

Oh my gosh! I was just going through my blog and I had no idea people had actually posted comments! I feel horrible for ignoring everyone. I didn't mean to, I swear. I need to tweek with the settings and make sure it sends me an email when someone leaves a comment. Thank you all so, so much for the nice comments, and now that I know people are reading this, I'll post more!

New Etsy listings, and other news

Well, well, well. I swear I'm going to be better about updating this regularly. Anyway, I wanted to let y'all know that I have been working really hard on making lots of cool new jewelry, updating my Etsy shop and trying to promote everything.

My boss is totally awesome for letting me sell my jewelry at her shop, Carousel Saddlery in Portola Valley, and hopefully I'll be able to get some custom orders out of that too. I really like being able to people's personal pictures and quotes because it creates something a lot more meaningful for them. Of course, it's always gratifying to have someone really like my work and actually pay money for it and buy it as well. :)

Anyway, I hope you all like the new pieces, get ahold of me if you have questions!

Amazing new book

I just received this awesome book from my mom for Christmas, called Altered Curiosities by Jane Ann Wynn.

There are some amazing projects in it, as well as being great eye candy. I think I want to try to do more assemblage and found object jewelery this year, I seem to slip into an artistic rut this time of year and maybe building things would allow me some creativity.

I also received the latest issue of Somerset Studio on Saturday, and am loving the article on Sally Jean Alexander. I've been waiting for her to be published in there for quite awhile, so seeing her awesome work was really exciting.

As for me, I've been teeter-tottering between metal work and jewelry and art journaling these past few weeks. I'll post more about that (with pics!) next time.

Yes, it still exists!

Just haven't been in blogging mode lately, I guess...but I wanted to get some photos up of what I've been working on the past three months and, you know, reconnect a bit. These two pairs of earrings are on sale in my Etsy shop, and can certainly be altered to better suit individual tastes;If you have any ideas that you'd like me to play around with,I 'm always happy to.

Creative Cycles

It seems like I am never tied down to one artistic technique. You know how lots of artists have that signature "style" or craft that they just do beautifully? It seems like I haven't found that for myself yet. Not to say that my work hasn't evolved since I began collage work four years ago, or that I haven't found any one thing that I really connect with (like art journaling), but my creative process always seems to go from paper art to jewelry to card making to scrapbooking to...well, whatever else it goes to. Like the past few days, I've been finding myself wanting to make jewelry, which I haven't done much of in the past nine months or so. But hey, if that's where I feel inspired, that's what I'll do. I still have a ton of my little glass pendants, so maybe I'll work on making complete necklaces/bracelets out of them.

And on a side note, I've been trying to keep up with Stampington & Co.'s nine billion publications, all of which are fabulous. The one I bought most recently is Somerset Home, which details a bunch of home crafty projects that are just superb.

The other one that I've been reading is Artful Blogging, which is a new publication that features artists' blogs, tips, techniques and hints for how to keep an art blog.

This magazine has articles by "emerging" artists (ie., people I don't see regularly in Somerset Studio magazine) Patty Van Dorin, Michelle Ensminger, Tracie Lyn Huskamp, Andrea Singarella and many, many others. I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Go out and make stuff! I'm off to bed.