Kaji Aso Studio on Chronicle

A couple of months ago, I was honored to participate in a Japanese Tea Ceremony at the Kaji Aso Studio in Boston.

I was recently sent a link to a story that was done on the studio. It’s from the Chronicle news magazine show on a local Boston station.

All of my creative moments this week have been spent beading my December journal page. It’s finally finished so I’ll be posting photos of “The Birth of the Sun” this weekend. When I took a break from my beading the other evening and looked out my window, I had to grab my camera. Mother Nature was painting again.

Creative Everyday 2008

Jan9

In 2007, I discovered how important it was to me to commit to a daily creative habit. Living my life in an artfully expressive way is as important to me as breathing. So, with this commitment in mind, I was excited to join Leah Pilken’s challenge to be Creative Everyday. This is a low stress challenge to incorporate creativity into your life on a daily basis. If you haven’t visited her blog, I encourage you to go check it out. A special thanks to Sue for sharing and pointing me in that direction.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was completely wowed by the sunrise and moved to get creative with my camera. I love to be creative with my camera because it helps me focus (pun intended) on a unique and special moment that has moved me enough to capture it in a photograph. As I listed in a previous post, one of my goals for this year is to experiment with transfer methods so I may incorporate my photography into my artwork in some way, whether it be in my jewelry or in my mixed media work. In my sunrise photograph, I see a 4-color combination that I would love to incorporate into a piece of jewelry, too.

How are you creative everyday?

Goals for the New Year

Jan6

I have been reading many blog posts lately about goals for the New Year. So, inspired by my online friends, I have set forth a few goals for myself for 2008.

-take a painting class/workshop to bring painting back into my life

-create a visual journal by sketching more

-recreate my website

-nurture my writing, including writing poetry

-plant a garden at my new home

-open an Etsy account with updated photos of all of my jewelry

-learn transfer techniques so I may incorporate my photos into my art and my jewelry

-spend more time in nature

As I scan through my list, I see my resolution word, “Beauty”, already guiding me. In the last week, my meditations on my resolution word have led me from thinking about creating beautiful things to experiencing “beauty in the moment” and finally to finding the beauty in myself. As I approach my 50th birthday, I celebrate my blessings, my growth and, yes, my beauty.

Art Journals for my Mom

Jan2

I love to create gifts and my Mom loves to tell stories. So, inspired by my kindred mixed media art friends, Amy and Judy, I made 2 art journals for my Mom so she could write down her stories. This was a bit scary for me since I’ve never done anything like this before. Well, not in a very long time anyway.

I didn’t have any type of a plan other than I wanted to embellish the covers, outside and inside, of a blank notebook. I brought out acrylic paints, rubber stamps, scrapbook papers, gel medium, my “O” magazines and family photos. And I played. As I freely glued and painted, I felt joy swell inside of my heart, like something was being set free. I remembered painting as a child and felt like I was coming home to a place I really loved.

I hope my Mom enjoys writing in these journals as much as I enjoyed creating them.

An Autumn Bead Crochet Bracelet

Nov14

More bead crochet exploring. This time I used Perle Cotton 8 thread with size 6 glass beads. The black stripes on orange remind me of autumn and Halloween so I created a polymer clay pumpkin bead for the clasp.

So far, I like this thread the best in feel and ease of crocheting. The black color of the thread was a little tricky to find the stitch to go into but my hook slid into the stitch a lot easier than the C-lon cord. That was too stiff for my beginning skill level. This thread also gives a slinky supple feel to the finished bracelet which is a wonderful feeling on my wrist.

The loop for the clasp is a single crochet with the same thread. I then sewed terra cotta colored seed beads around the loop.

What I really loved in creating this bracelet is that it combined 3 techniques – polymer clay sculpture, bead weaving and bead crocheting.

I chose the blue graduated background because it reminds me of a clear autumn sky and it accentuates the orange beads. I love looking to nature for inspiration even in something simple like choosing a background for photography.