Sweet Poppies... goodbye for now

“The poppy opens her scarlet purse of dreams.” -Scharmel Iris

I found that quote earlier this morning before I headed off for my final Poppies Encaustic class.. what a wonderful way to finish this great series!!  I had my second Mother & Daughter team in this class today.  Niki (pictured standing below) and her mother Renee (not pictured) were so dang cute.  This class was an earlier birthday present for Renee so Happy Birthday!!  I hope you two had fun.  Janice (pictured sitting) was my first scaredy cat in all three classes.  She didn't want to use the blow torch.. she was perfectly content using the heat gun only. 

pictured below is Janice's work in progress.. I love how the red pops off the blue background.

Niki's masterpiece is below.. she opted not to add leaves.  I love how all the paintings were so unique.

 

And Renee's painting is pictured below.  I love how she had a bud as one of her flowers.  I want to just pluck them out of her painting and stick them into a vase.

 

Overall I think I added 3 more happy campers to my list!!  Niki and I counted all the poppy paintings that I have assisted with over the past 3 classes... 18!!!  So as you can imagine, I am done with these beauties and look forward to the Birds next week.

Enjoy!

Mosaic Monday

Recently I had a friend ask me "what do you collect?" and I spouted off my ever expanding collections of Mercury Glass, Ironstone Platters, Wooden Angel Santos, French Santons de Provence (Kitchen Witch), and Folk Pan Faces.  It wasn't until later when I got home and started cleaning out the lint, receipts, and overall trash from my purse that I found a few of my most precious of collections... my pressed pennies!

According to the PennyCollector, the elongated coin is believed to be first made during the 1892-1893 World's Columbian Exposition that was held in Chicago, Illinois to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America. There were four different designs utilized during that event.

An elongated coin is made by a coin, token, medal or metal blank being forced between two steel rollers. An engraving is on one or both of the rollers and as the coin passes through the rollers it is squeezed or elongated under tremendous pressure from the original round shape to one of an oval and the engraved design impressed into the coin at the same time.

The pressed penny has been a family tradition since my kids were young.. we try to get one everywhere we go to remind us of how much fun we had together!  Here are the 3 new ones that we picked up this past Thanksgiving break... Jaws, Simpsons, and Florida Birds. 

 

And what a fantastic time to get me started on Mosaic Mondays!!  I'm trying to be more active in my blogging and the group from Little Red Door has really got me inspired.  Here are some of my copper hued favorites.. including the hair!  One day I am going to try that!!

images above were found on Pinterest

Enjoy!

It's not to late to bling out your Thanksgiving Day outfit!!  New sparkly jewels are now available at the Gillyweed booth inside The Vintage-Flea. 

We are off to Florida this week to spend quality time with Family and Friends. (Well first a little quality time with Universal Studios but then the family.)  I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!! 

Enjoy!

Encaustic Class for December...

So I finally got these little Cutie Pies made up as samples for my next Encaustic Class at the Corner Arts Gallery in Downtown, Newnan and I am grinning ear to ear!  They are so adorable... and easy to make.  Seriously!!  This class will focus on the transfer technique were I show you how you can take literally ANY photocopy and embed it into the wax.  Then we will add some color here and there.. and Viola!!

These each took me about 1 hour to make!

You will be hooked!!  I am structuring this class a bit different since they are UBER easy to make.  Each 8x8 panel will cost $25 so you are welcome to make 1 bird, 2 birds, 3 birds.. as many as you want.  I will provide all materials this go around, I just ask that you bring one roll of paper towels with you to class.  I will also bring an assortment of bird images but please feel free to bring your own too.  Just remember they must be images that have been photocopied as inkjet printers will not work with this technique.

Two classes are scheduled for December so make sure you reserve your spot soon.

December 8th 10am-12noon

or

December 10th 10am-12noon

Call Corner Arts Gallery to sign up.. 678-633-5705.  Hope to see you there!!

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf...

I was shocked to walk in Monday morning, a day after Holiday Open House, to find that I had only 4 left of my 30+ scarves that I put out the week before!!  We do love our scarves, don't we?  Well I just brought up my new shipment today and I love these even MORE!! 



How about a little animal print with your turkey??

 

And thanks to Heidi's blog post at Brown Eyed Girly Girl,  I now have 25 new ways to wear a scarf!

                    

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Poppies.. Poppies.. Poppies.. Tulips...

Poppies.. Poppies.. Poppies.. Tulips.. what??  Yes we had a "problem child" in the class today that refused to do Poppies!! But OMG- Look at her gorgeous Tulip painting!  I am so glad she thought outside of the box and did her own thing.

  

The rest of the class had some serious natural talent too... 

A little blurry but you can still see how cool this one is.. 

Love all the mix of colors..

 

 Gorgeous greens peeking underneath the blue background...

I was so smitten with everyone's work that I forgot to get a group shot.. luckily the Corner Arts Gallery has one on their facebook page.  Nonetheless, I did get a quick shot of Linda's and Mary's masterpiece before we headed to lunch.

Once again another amazing class under my belt.  My last Poppy class is November 30th from 10am-12noon.  I am working on the next samples which I promised would be super fun and super easy!!  The next round of classes are scheduled for December 8th (Thursday 10am-12noon) and December 10th (Saturday 10am-12noon).  Keep checking my facebook page for samples.. but in the meantime, here is a hint...

Enjoy!!

Encaustics 101

Well I did it!!!  My first teaching gig is now under my belt and I have 2 more classes to look forward too.  I was actually spoiled because I had an amazing group of artists that were not scared to use the "tools of the trade"...um that would be a blow torch, razor blades, hot wax, etc!  I think all the art turned out amazing and I am looking forward to my next class!

Here you see Gay (using blow torch), Leigh (using razor blade), and Sara (painting with hot wax)

Here is a close up shot of Gail's work in progress.. love those yellow flowers!

Our youngest students.. Olivia, 12 and Ansley, 13.

I was working along right beside them... the top painting was the demo and the bottom was the sample.  The class was suppose to last 2 hours but it actually went 3.  I will have to work on getting that down a bit..oops.  The great thing about the wax is that it dries immediately so everyone had a finished piece at the end of the class.  Here you see Sara's beautiful red poppies.

Gay also did the red poppies.. I'll have to try that next!

 

Gail had yellow poppies with the most beautiful blue background.

 

Mother and daughter art duo... Leigh and Ansley.  For first timers they rocked it!

 

Thank you again for coming and making it so easy for me!!  The next two classes at Corner Arts Gallery will be November 16th from 10-12ish and November 30th from 10-12ish.  If you are not already, become a fan on facebook to find out about other art classes I may be teaching in the future.

Palette Knife Landscape... week 3

One thing I have learned from taking this Palette Knife Landscape class is that WAX painting is for me!!!!!  Although I have thoroughly enjoyed taking the class from Dawn Kinney Martin at the Spruill Art Center, it is not a medium that I will be perfecting anytime soon.  I kept trying to reach for the blow torch to start over.. an advantage I have with wax painting.  But alas.. here is the progression from week 1 to week 3...

week 1.. starting to put landmasses down.

week 2.. adding color.

 

week 3... starting to put in shadows. 

 Obviously I still have a ways to go with this one but I had tons of fun.  In the meantime I need to get back to wax painting ASAP.  My custom 30x48 still needs a few more layers and I have submitted a couple of Encaustics to the Corner Arts Gallery Small Works Show which will run from November 12-December 31.  I'll have more information on that for you very soon!

Recently I found out that one of best friends from High School has been living with brain cancer over the past 5 years and she is just now telling her friends and family about it.  The doctors have given her 6 months to live, and this was back in April.  She obviously has been living her life to the Nth degree over the past 5 years, enjoying her two beautiful young children and staying positive.  I found this incredible quote from Danielle La Porte, The Spark Kit, that says "You can’t plant misery seeds today and expect to get a juicy crop next season."  So true!  I am overjoyed that I was gifted this painting class from my adorable husband who knows I have been trying to "find myself" after selling the shop!  So no more misery seeds for me.... and I have another must try item crossed off my bucket list.  Have you crossed anything off your bucket list lately??  I would love to hear about it!