My New Line of Wearable Fine Art Pendants

I have been making beaded jewelry for years..and usually start way in advance of the holidays making it.  Along with my ethnic inspired earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  I have started to create a line of Fine Art Wearable Pendants, that use my own art as well as images that inspire me.

 I have been having soo much fun, I love making multiples of things. 

 The process is extremely self soothing to me...

and so I have been getting happier and happier 

                                                 making a whole new line of jewelry.

                                                   using  my own art  as well as

                                              vintage images I fall in love with

 this is a reduction of an original encaustic painting of mine..

    As is this a crop of the Buddha in blue, another on of my encaustic mixed media pieces

Aren't this lovely.  I just love seeing the possibilities...

So now that I have made soooo many of these pendants...this isn't even a 1/8 of the amount.  I think I have mad about 80 pendants so far.  I have to do something with them.. Send them off to new homes, to grace the hearts of others.  I have posted some of these on my etsy store

But... I am having an open studio  with all of my jewelry and art along with 2  artist friends of mine...Susan Adler...who does such vibrant paintings, they take my  breath away. And print maker Rob Duncan, whose work is stunning.

When: Sunday Dec. 11th from 11-6
Where: 637 Dexter St.  in Santa Rosa, CA ( the JC neighborhood)
Join for some holiday cheer and support local artists when doing your holiday shopping.
Ciao.

Open to Unknown Blessings

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.  

~ Native American Saying~

Happy Thanks Giving!

Mandalas and more

I have been truly remiss in posting here.  My life has been filled to the brim, with new work, creative endeavors and more and more SoulCollage® experiences.  So where to begin, with Mandala's of course.  A week ago,Patricia Waters and I facilitated a Gratitude Mandala Day, at the  Journey Center in Santa Rosa. It was a  sweet, small group,  and we all moved very deeply into the healing aspects of creating Mandala's.  None of us completed our mandalas, but everyone got  quite a bit done and loved every minute of it.   So to continue with  my usual love of   sharing  this process  I am posting the photos that I took of that day here.

 Scale of light practice drawings...

 Small mandalas

 Here is Elizabeth with her absolutely magical mandala that she started at our 

Fall Mandala Day and recently finished.

 Here is a close up of her stunning mandala.

Stay This Moment

 Heart Energy Abounds as we focus on gratitude.

 As the day drew near to an end, almost everyone started to add 

the life energy of color to their mandala's.

 Patricia flew in from the big island the night before our workshop, and swam with a turtle  so this experience was reflected   in her wonderful healing mandala.

 This final one is my mandala, which is obviously just in its beginning stages.  

I will post this again as it progresses.  

Focusing our intentions, and awareness on what we are grateful for, while being present in the 

moment for whatever came up, was a very powerful experience.  

I am really blessed to be doing and sharing this work with others.  I am truly grateful for more life.

A thought for today from Mary Oliver

I want to think again of 

dangerous and noble things,

I want to be light and frolicsome

I want to be improbable and beautiful 

and afraid of nothing

as though I had WINGS

Mary Oliver

Tree of Life Mandala Completed

It has been almost a month since I last posted anything here.  I've been busy, playing around with making paper dolls, cutting out images from magazines for my SoulCollage® workshops, experimenting with more CitraSolv backgrounds, and finishing this mandala...among many other pursuits.  

                                                                  Tree of Life Mandala

I struggled with this mandala quite a bit, as I worked on it,  feeling that the sun color wa too dominant....and at times wishing I had just left the drawing in black and white, or at least left more black in the drawing. But Patricia suggested I bring more of the orange of the sun into other parts of the image and in so doing I finally came to resolution with it. Unfortunately, none of the other participants from the Fall Mandala Retreat, sent me any images, so I am posting this alone.

By the way, we are doing a Gratitude Mandala Workshop on Novemeber 12th in Santa Rosa, if you are in the area and are intrigued with this wonderful art process.  Contact the Journey Center for more info.

Paper Dolls anyone????

While I am at it, I mentioned that I had been playing with making some paper dolls.  I do art mentoring with several little girls and since I planned a paper doll lesson, I pulled out some color copies of my art and turned them into my own version of paper dolls...just for the fun of it and as examples of paper doll possibilities.  The little girl I work with, of course took off on her own unique way of  expression, but I had some examples of my own to share with her.  Talk about fun.  Here are the ones that I did, all in differing stages of becoming complete.

 This one is not complete yet, and her face is collaged from a photograph of me as as little girl.

Again, all are still on process. It is so fun to do this and it made me remember how much time I loved to spend cutting out paper dolls when I was a little girl.  No wonder I love collage so much.

One final thing... here is a link to a clip from a movie called "Praying with Images"
about the art and life of  the amazing artist Meinheid Craighead.     .Praying With Images
If you don't know here work, this will be a epiphany for you.  Enjoy... Until next time. Ciao

Tree of Life Mandala Workshop

Here are the process photos of the Tree of Life Mandala Workshop that we led last Sunday.

I love to  the witness the process people go through during these mandala experiences.  This image is of our beginning small mandalas where we  practice the scale of light in a circle. We always stop and put them up on the wall, to get a better overview of what we have done, as well as to stretch, and rest our eyes.  It helps to stand back from one's work.

Here is an image of everyone drawing around the large tables in the middle of my studio.  It was  a wonderful group of people, with such good energy.

The following photos are a sampling of everyone in the midst of starting their larger mandala.

Although our focus was the Tree of Life, everyone had permission to go in their own personal direction in their mandala.

This mandala was an honoring of the hope of the one tree that was left after the tsnumani and earthquake that happened in Japan.

                                               Another Tree of Life Mandala.

                           Keeping the pencils really sharp really helps in this drawing process.

                              It is always amazing to see what emerges for people in their mandalas.

By the afternoon we did some color blending exercises to give people the courage to dive into color.

             Here are some more of the black and white mandalas......I am sharing the evolution of pretty much everyone's mandala's here.

I love to see how they change as more and more scale of light shading brings depth, light and life to them.

                        And now comes the color, vibrant, brilliant rainbow scales of color....

It is often difficult at times,  to add color to these powerful black and white mandala's... some people really hesitate and it is not uncommon for some folks to either love or hate these first tentative steps into adding color.

                                                                             Hope

It is amazing how different each one becomes, and how unique everyones use of color is.

Only one person completed their mandala that day, everyone else was in different stages of the process.
This is a slow and meditative process, about being in the moment with what is coming up internally, as well as how it is mirrored in the mandala that is drawn.

This is Doris's powerful healing mandala, here sharing was a rich and deep model for where the mandala process can lead.

This final mandala is my Tree of Life Mandala in different stages of development.

I am now just beginning to add color to my mandala and I will share it here when it is complete.

Hopefully, the mandala group will send me images of their completed mandalas.  If and when that happens I will post it here for the world to see.  Until the next time....Ciao