A New Day -- new painting for 1-28-2011

"A New Day"

16" x 16" x 2"

Acrylic and mixed media on masonite 

More soup, please -- and THANK YOU!

Another little surprise came this morning from my Bead Soup Exchange partner, Karen Williams of http://www.baublicious.blogspot.com/  -- check it out!  I'm really excited about creating in these wonderfully, earthy tones.....the deadline is in 4 weeks but I'm going to get started early.  My generous partner has given me lots of beads, findings and cords to play with and I'm looking forward to using all of them!

Into the Wind -- New painting on Daily Painter Abstract Blog

"Into the Wind"

30" x 30"

Acrylic on Canvas

The Soup is officially On!!

Saturday morning I awoke to find a tiny little package on my front porch that Santa's elves (aka Joseph the mailman) had left for me.   Christmas had found its way to my doorstep and the above is what Santa (ie Karen Williams of Seattle, WA) sent me!!  The large center bead was hand-beaded by Karen and the compenent beads are fabulous.  She even included the beautiful hand-dyed papers that these little goodies are set upon (future mixed media painting material).  So -- the challenge begins as I allow the beauty of these tiny wonders start to magically morph into an enticing jewelry design in my mind.  So many beads......so many possibilities.  I can't wait to start playing :-)

The Soup is beginning to boil......

So the "Soup" is now officially on and I've been paired to exchange "Bead Soup Recipes" with uber-talented Seattle artist Karen Williams.  I'm more than a little intimidated though -- Karen has written THE book on Freeform Peyote Beading and original wearable art jewelry.  Since the purpose of this challenge is to do something you're not really used to doing I'm a bit scared yet excited to see what she sends to me.  Check out Karen's blog called www.baublicious.blogspot.com/ and you'll see what I mean.....her work is exquisite.

Bead Soup?

Besides painting and fusing glass one of my other art addictions is making lampworked beads.  Tonight I joined a fun challenge called "Bead Soup" where lampworkers from all over the world put together a set of their lampworked glass beads paired with other findings and ship them to another participant.  Once you receive your set of "Bead Soup" goodies you use the beads and other items included in the package to create a unique piece of jewelry or ???  Everyone posts the finished masterpiece on their blogs and share the experience in a central blog.  Sound like fun??  I'm excited and am now inspired to go out and fix the broken element in my kiln so I can make some beads!!

This will be the first time I've ever felt confident enough to submit my beads into one of these lampworking exchanges.  Truth be told there are some amazingly talented bead artists out there and I feel my beads are just barely adequate enough to be included.

I'll post the set that I'm going to ship out once it's made and will then post the set I receive when I receive it.  Shortly afterwards there will be yet another posting of the finished product.  Wish me luck!!