A Little Creative Flight

Recently I experimented with adding feathers to my pieces. I have added little found feathers every now and then, as an added detail to a piece or in a journal, but I had yet to use feathers as a focal point for a piece. That all changed one late night while I was cruising around on Etsy. I ended up buying some beautiful creamy white goose feathers I had come across that would be perfect for a mandala/found art piece (I am still working on that one). To me, they were the perfect addition that really gave this part of the piece a nice, dramatic statement. 



My first three pairs.

Since then, more feathers have been dropping into my life. I take these things as a sign. Feathers are full of symbolic meaning and I have a few interpretations of my own :) Then one day recently, a fellow creative asked if I'd be interested in making some feather jewelry. I've never done that before, I thought. Sure, I'll give it a try (with all of these feathers coming into my life, it seemed the appropriate thing to take creative flight with). My friend was looking for a dramatic look. These were for an upcoming website that will sell unique, edgy items and art. Sounded right up my alley...although I've never thought of myself as "edgy." But that's exactly what intrigued me. I like edgy. I'm not edgy. I want my art to be edgy. It just seems like my work doesn't come out "edgy." I thought, this could be my chance to dip my toes in an ocean of edgy. An opportunity to experiment with something outside the box for me. I started with three pairs of earrings, using some of the feathers she provided for me to play with--I kept her request of something dramatic in mind and ended up with the three pairs above, ranging from about 4" to 8" long.

After some encouraging feedback, my friend asked if I would be willing to go "edgier" with designs for just one super-dramatic-feather-earring. Sure! Then I thought how about making them an asymetrical set with a matching "studdish" earring that would still make it a pair? An edgy uni-set. She liked that and so I got to play around with more feathers and tap into my inner edgy-drama queen and came up with these three "uni-sets" and a couple of matching pairs (click for larger image):

 

"MOON DANCERS"

  





 

  

"WHITE KAMA SUTRA"

This was an artistic challenge that really tapped into something inside me. I feel like I opened a door somewhere, for something new and different in my creative direction. Maybe not necessarily in jewelry, but definitely through some new expanded expression. I feel like I'm about to embark on a new twist in my creative journey, deeper wells :)

Signs of Spring ATCs

I just participated in another online ATC swap (via CoachCreativeSpace), this swap's theme being Spring Celebration. The recipients have received my three ATC's (artist trading cards) so I can now share this latest batch :)

I was inspired by all the spring activity here in the desert, more specifically all the critter activity that signals spring has emerged here on the desert floor. At around the same time I came across a paint chip color named "Cottontail" which inspired the first card I made (second image) as cottontail and jackrabbit abound during this time of year with plenty of succulent plants to feed upon. Also, our desert tortoises come out of hibernation, a sure sign of spring in our household :) I wanted to celebrate these animals, they are three of my favorites. Hope you enjoy:

 

Brother Jackrabbit

Cottontail Maiden

Grandfather Tortoise

Squash Blossom Maiden

A couple of weekends ago I participated in my first art show as an artist. It was such a great experience for my first time out, and I was very happy to share it with two other artists from my meetup group. The event was wonderful, the site was incredibly inspiring--a treasure of a nature preserve as part of the Wildlands Conservancy. This first annual Art Celebration Benefit was a fundraiser for this fantastic organization. It offered a great chance to get public, face-to-face feedback on my art and to meet fellow creatives. As part of the fundraising efforts, each artist was requested to provide a piece for the event's auction. I donated Squash Blossom Maiden to the preserve in hopes to help them raise money toward their goal.

If you're in the Whitewater/Palm Springs area, you can go see this large piece and bid on it while donating to a great cause--the Whitewater Preserve and the Wildlands Conservancy. A place that has forever made its way into my heart. Below are the dimensions and description of the found items I used to create one of my favorite pieces, now up for auction :)

SQUASH BLOSSOM MAIDEN

72” x 27"

Made with found materials: locker door, metal panel, wooden hanger, can lids, seatbelt buckle, light bar, wall lamp plate, metal gages, other scrap metal pieces

Other materials: green acrylic wash, glass beads, stone beads, bone beads, copper wire, baling wire, duck feathers (Etsy), wooden spool (swapped material)

Moon Maiden

I’m in the process of creating 3 different “dolls.” One is a kachina, the other a Medicine Buddha (again, east meets west in our home!) and this one, Moon Maiden is the first to be completed. The inspiration for her was definitely the night sky during the last couple of full moon meetups with my Let Nature Be Your Muse group. I feel so peacefully at home sitting quietly under the silvery spell of a bright moon. I can (and have) spent hours gazing into the night sky. This is one way I wanted to celebrate this muse.

Moon Maiden is made from a 19th century organ key, painted a coppery purple and finished with hand drawn embellishments. Also a bone bead moon face, a can lid adorned with blue sequins (which I acquired from an artist’s recycle swap) and wrapped with glass beads, arms are bone and metal “twig” charm beads, and finally a raw quartz crystal point wire wrapped with glass beads.

Feminine

Undeniable
Luminous
Liberating


Moving
Omnipresent
Opalescent
Night

She is a Moon Maiden…

Nature Muse

I love this rock my mom found while beach combing along the northern California coast. I’m lucky that she readily collects handfuls of these beautiful, holey rocks then lugs a heavy shopping bag full back for me to have my creative way with them. But this particular double heart rock needs no embellishment...not that any of the rocks do. I think I was just as excited when she showed it to me as she was to find it! But I do love making things with them like unique gift tags, simple necklaces, and adding them to assemblages. These rocks have been massaged and carved by water--by the sea—and so beautifully add a special, nature-as-art touch that I love to hold, feel, and wrap.

 

What is one of your favorite “muses” from nature?

"Super" Full Moon Mojo

I am definitely a moon groupie. I love gazing at it, being outside under its inspiring light. I love sleeping under a bright moon, walking, journaling, sketching, comtemplating in its silvery cast...

As you may already know last Saturday's moon was one of the brightest and biggest, a rare event that seems to occur only about every 20 years or so. It's been dubbed the "super moon." It was a super "perigee moon" that was 14% bigger and 30% brighter than "lesser" moons. To celebrate this occasion--well honestly to celebrate the monthly full moon, this one being extra special due to perigee and the spring equinox--I headed out again with my Let Nature Be Your Muse meetup group and sat under her luminous spell, listening to and watching her beautiful story unfold during the night.

This time I sketched in pen and ink (a little easier to see than pencil). I liked using my Micron Brush pen, nice casual strokes, easy to see, and I like the constrast it presented. Once I saw them in the light, I couldn't wait to add a little color, which I did later using acrylics. I finished these 3 sketches off with a few more details using both my black pens and white pen, and a rubber stamp. My goal was to put my feeling and my senses that were engaged during this night into my images.

What I love most about these, is knowing that they were completely bathed in moon light the whole time I was sketching them out. It is a little thing that makes it so special to me as I look at them...I am reminded of the huge halo around the moon, silvery thin clouds, like gauze moving across the night sky, I feel the cool breeze, hear the owl in the distance and the breeze within the bushes next to me.  I feel my cold fingertips and hear my shoes crunching upon the pebbly desert soil when I shift position.

I can't wait to see what's in store for next month's full moon :)

Jewelry Blossoms

Spring has blossomed on the desert floor and I have already enjoyed a number of wildflower wanderings. Flowers are not only on my mind, they’ve permeated my senses with fragrances streaming around me in unexpected, gentle yet intoxicating wafts. Most recently some of my favorite blossoms have inspired me to make jewelry that celebrates our ephermeral desert palette! Here are a few examples of my latest creative outlet inspired by the colors and patterns of nature:

Love the sunset colors found in this flower (computer

wallpaper image)!

 

Striking aloe flower stalks inspired the

colors and style of these earrings.

Photo by Michelle Hedgecock.

Rose Mallow was my muse for this bracelet's

spring palette. Photo by Michelle Hedgecock.

Desert chicory stripes found their

way into a modern pair of earrings.

Photo by Robert Ballard.




.

Summer lavender fields inspired a cool, relaxing color

palette. Photo by Michelle Hedgecock.