jenniferbeads

I've Moved!

2013-11-11T09:19:00.003-05:00

Change can be a good thing - In this case, a very good thing. I have moved on from blogger:

You can now find my blog @ http://jennifertough.com - All new content and a fresh start.

Hope to see you there,

Jennifer

Found the Soup! ...and more classes

2013-06-21T13:30:00.000-04:00

...the missing bead soup! It's been found - finally. As some of you know, we had some emergency renovations take place just after I signed up for the bead soup blog party. When Michelle's soup package arrived, it was stashed in a nice safe place. (or so I thought) It turned up months later in my daughters closet, under a pile of clothes. I'm currently working on my designs, and I'll be able to post the reveal shortly. Whew!

In other news, I signed up for yet another online course - I have to say, these online classes are kinda addictive. Video based - I can work at my own pace, at all hours, and in my PJ's. Bliss.

The latest is the Digital Dreams course from Willowing.org (Tamara Laporte)

In March, I was gifted a Bamboo Create tablet for my birthday - but I never really got a chance to use it much (or learn to use it). This morning I finished up the week 3 homework assignment to create a simple digital drawing.

This cute little guy was done completely in Photoshop with my tablet. Not bad at all for a first attempt - if I do say so myself. :-)

The adventure continues....

2013-06-06T10:30:00.001-04:00

I'm now a few weeks in to my online courses - the first two weeks worth of lessons were focused on learning about your supplies - easy for me, as I really don't have too much in the way of traditional art supplies. Any that I did have were for the most part decimated by my artistic daughters. (which i really don't mind at all). I'm making do for now, along with a few basic purchases. Mixed media is very forgiving - you can use anything - which is kinda the point ;-) I've been hunting through my clay, paper and fabric supplies - all of which are now finding new life.

Both of the following pictures are a part of the two different class projects. Neither are finished, as elements still need to be added. The first is part of the Jane class - and this image is the very first entry in my new art journal that I'll be keeping for the class. (scuse the fuzziness - too much coffee this morning. I couldn't keep my hands still) lol

This one is on a 10x10 canvas board, and will eventually have more elements added. The next two weeks are all about backgrounds.

In other exciting (and frightening news) - my oldest will be 10 on Sunday .....I'm still kinda in shock. I guess she's now officially a tween. Happy Birthday Maya!

gardens, frolicking, and drawings

2013-05-31T12:31:00.001-04:00

Dandelions are everywhere.....They're especially magical at sunset.

The garden is a little slow to bloom - geraniums, bleeding hearts, clematis, and a few blue bells are just starting to peek out.

As promised, here are my very first drawings from the draw happy course. I am still stoked with these online classes - the intended effect was to spark up my creative mojo, and I'm happy to see it seems to be working. I'm constantly working on 'something'. Yay :-)

Backgrounds - gazillions of them

2013-05-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

I've spent a good part of the entire morning making background papers. These will be used in the coming weeks as part of the Behind the Art Class, and the Jane Davenport classes.

(this one is my favourite)

These two are created with thick gesso either just slapped on willy nilly, or slapped on and pressed into with stamps on mixed media paper. Once the gesso was dry, I rubbed on some watercolour crayons, and then brushed over them with a very wet brush.

These are again, mixed media paper with a few drops of soft body watercolour paint, then all smudged and spread with a very wet brush. I then used a paper towel to quickly dab and smudge to remove the brush marks, and create the marbled look.

These were made the exact same way as the watercolour ones above, but I used a soft body acrylic paint instead. It's impossible to see the difference in the photos above, but on 4 of the backgrounds I used golden paints, and the purple and orange were made with Liquitex basic paint. The golden paint is a far better quality paint (but expensive), and you can really tell the difference in the finish. The cheaper paints are flatter and more matte looking. The golden paints seem to have a lot more depth. I'm going to have to add more colours of golden to my wish lists - which is expanding exponentially by the minute. ;-)

Classes, recovery, and missing things

2013-05-28T11:51:00.002-04:00

Along with the missing box from Michelle, I also can't find a bunch of various studio supplies. Alcohol inks - gone, credit card - gone (cancelled and replaced), vintaj patinas - gone, assorted craft books - gone. I'm sure a bunch of other items that I have completely forgotten ever existed are also gone. Not worrying too much about those at the moment though ;-)

So where on earth have they gone? My house is not all that big - pretty small actually. I've cleared the basement, the garage, and all of the bedrooms. I can only hope that one day while looking for something else, the wayward box will reappear - and I will finally create something with Michelle's gorgeous components.

I can either spend the next year completely tearing apart the house while getting angrier, and angrier with myself - or just move on. I'm moving on.

So in good news finally, I signed up for 6 fantabulous classes with Christy Tomlinson, and Jane Davenport.

I am so incredibly stoked. As some of you may know - I've been battling a pretty severe depression over the last few years. It's been a struggle with changing meds numerous times, meds that cause uncontrollable shaking, insomnia, etc, etc. Two steps forward, one step back. Slowly but surely i'm healing. A big step forward was not only getting my G1 (again), but actually finally completing the in class lessons! I'll be starting my in car lessons sometime this week. The next step in healing is to start actually creating things with regularity. I've made it my personal mission to make something (anything) every day for the next year. A drawing, a pair of earrings, torch something - anything as long as I'm doing something creative. With that, I hope that my creative inspiration will return - forcing it along if I have to. Sitting around waiting for it to return isn't working out so well. ;-)

I've started two of the courses. The Draw Happy mini course, and the Behind the Art class. Both are perfect to start out with. The idea is to 1 - just start drawing, in this case faces. Lots and lots of faces. And 2 - to play around with your art supplies. How they work with each other, how they feel on different backgrounds. watercolour, paper collage, acrylic paint, markers, molding compounds. Anything and everything. Here are my very first class assignments - nothing too close up, as they are not fabulous. I'm having so much fun though - i don't care. lol. I must have a secret love affair with pink. weird.

Slowly but surely ...

2013-04-30T11:19:00.000-04:00

Reno recovery .... I am finally getting my new upstairs studio up and running. Things got a little delayed, as I've been hunting (fruitlessly) for the missing box of bead soup from Michelle. I realized a little too late that just hunting through a gazillion boxes was just not working. I'm now bringing everything that was packed up into my studio, and assigning a permanent home for each item. This may take a bit longer, but with luck by the end of the week, I'll have both a fully functioning studio upstairs and downstairs, and I'll have found the box of bead soup! Wish me luck, think I'm gonna need it ;-)

A huge apology

2013-04-27T14:02:00.001-04:00

To everyone involved - but especially to Michelle, my fabulous partner who created the most awesome stuff with the pieces I sent her.

As some of you may know - One of the reasons I've been so quiet as of late is due to some massive emergency renovations we had to complete due to flooding. The renovations were completed about a week ago. I thought I would have plenty of time to work on my challenge pieces, and I put Michelle's box of handmade goodies in a 'safe' place. I've now been up all night looking for them, and have to admit defeat for the day. It is my hope that now that I've gone ahead and posted this, the box will magically appear in one of the many places I've already looked a dozen or so times. The worst part of this is of course I have a bad habit of putting things in safe places, and after I lost my camera - I thought I had cured myself of that nasty little habit....

I'm still on the hunt, and once I find them - I hope I can create something spectacular that will do justice to her fabulous components!

Bead Soup Reveal #3

2013-04-26T23:52:00.004-04:00

Coming soon - stay tuned!

one more

2013-03-11T02:22:00.001-04:00

Just made one more set of papers. addictive this is...... Hope you like them - I'm off to bed.

a fun little diversion and freebie!

2013-03-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

For my birthday, I was given a bamboo create graphics tablet - what fun! I haven't really been able to get into the studio much over the last few weeks since Isla was sick, and then the disaster with the ceiling.... The tablet has been a fun little diversion.

Earlier this evening, I started playing around in the gimp to create background papers to use in mixed jewelry. I've been having so much fun, I thought I'd share a few of my creations. Feel free to use these however you wish (just don't sell the papers as is!). If you make something with these, I'd love to see what you've done.

Download from flickr.

bead soup sneak peek

2013-03-06T12:21:00.002-05:00

Here's a little sneak peek at the box sent out to my partner Michelle. So excited to see what she creates with it!

plunging ahead

2013-01-31T12:40:00.000-05:00

Egads - now I'm in deep. These arrived this morning......

These are the frames for the fairy houses. Stupidly, in my excitement and obsession with building a fairy abode - I mentioned it to the girls. This is course brought on mass excitement, and blueprint plans designed my my 9 year old. I may be talented with many things - but a woodworker I am NOT. I can't even cut a straight line. Here we have inexpensive dollhouses to the rescue. Seriously, these were only $35 each! They even shipped from Toronto, so shipping was only $12, and they arrived the very next day.

We're now just waiting for a nice enough day to wander through the woods and the beach to collect tiny stones, twigs, pods, and whatever else we can find. What fun :-)

Etsy Shop Update

2013-01-30T14:22:00.002-05:00

These and more just listed on etsy - http://jennifertough.etsy.com

butterflies and fairy wings

2013-01-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

Source: followpics.com via Elspeth on Pinterest

This is one of the things on my workbench today. I'm playing around with ideas on how to make them fabulous pendants - a few ideas are flitting around. I'll certainly share tomorrow if it works out as planned. The butterfly wings are fabulous - and came from Altered Artifacts on etsy.
Next up are some etsy shop updates - sorting now! Finally.

Tuesday

2013-01-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

We've just come out of a bitter, bitter cold spell - far too cold to spend time in the studio. Instead, I've been bundled up with a pile of books, my tablet and a warm blankie. Thinking. dreaming. planning. It's a pretty wonderful way to spend a few days.

* I've lost another 3 lbs - down 14 pounds so far
* etsy shop update in the works. I've got a dozen or so items photographed, listing within the next day or so.
* I'm participating in the newest blog hop! Gathering up the goodies, and making a handmade clasp. Can't wait to find out who my partner is.

Source: purveyor-of-fine-whines.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

....and my latest obsession. Fairy furniture, dwellings, and fairy gardens. I'm in love. I'm going to need to build one just to get it out of my system. I'm allowing myself the diversion as it is jewelry related (sorta) - there are beads in there.... ;-)

11 lbs down!

2013-01-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

I mentioned last week that I had joined Weight Watchers after the holidays. I'm thrilled to report that I'm now down 11 lbs! I've been eating heaps, and heaps of veggies - especially roasted ones. I can't seem to get enough of them. This last batch (shown above) I even threw in a few grapes. Yum!!!

Recipe is simple:
Throw a bunch of assorted veggies (whatever you have on hand -potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, beets, onions, broccoli, grapes!) into a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, basil, or italian seasoning, and toss in a bit of olive oil. bake at 475 for an hour. Perfection :-)

Not much time spent in the studio - the leaking ceiling kinda put a damper on things. Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to share next week.

He's a cutie!

2013-01-11T10:19:00.001-05:00

A quick little share today - this little guy came out of my kiln the other day, along with some other little goodies! I love how he turned out, and I'm planning some new versions of him as well.

Had a little setback yesterday with a leaking ceiling. Long nasty story for another day (or not!). Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I've still got lots of repair to do around here before I can get back to the studio, With luck, I'll be done at least my part today.

New Year, New Inspiration

2013-01-08T10:46:00.001-05:00

I`ll admit, the last year was a complete washout for me. I was far too distracted to get much done in the studio. I haven`t admitted this to many, but I`ve been battling a severe depression for a few years now. In the last year, I finally got on meds to help. It has taken quite a while to kick in, but the fog has finally lifted, and I`m starting the new year energized, excited about the possibilities I see in front of me - and I`m finally on a diet I know I can stick to. I bit the bullet and joined Weight Watchers last week. I`ve also managed to score some fitness games for the Kinect that my kids got for Christmas. I look completely ridiculous dancing around my living room - but it`s so much fun!

Before the holidays, I managed to get in some time in the studio - but I never really finished anything. I now have a huge pile of beads to clean and sort through, metal clay pieces to finish, fire, and polish. I`m off to see what I can manage to pull together. I`m looking forward very much to a year of creativity, and hopefully getting my etsy shop stocked up again.

Cheers,

Jen

A Little Inspiration

2012-11-28T11:54:00.000-05:00

Source: flickr.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Go ahead, hate me - but this is the view I want while looking out my window. Personally, I can't wait for the snow to start falling. We had such a non-winter last year. This year, I want to spend countless hours outdoors walking through it, tobogganing, and making snow angels with the kids. I will of course completely take this back by the end of January. :-)

I pulled out my stash of copper pipe the other day, with plans to make more of those pendants I posted on the beadfx blog a while back. However, as usual I got a little distracted, and pulled out my felting supplies.

Not quite sure where I'm going with these yet...will they be little bullet shaped things, or maybe round them out? Whichever way I go, I'll be sure to embellish them.

Fall cold season has begun

2012-09-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

Sigh, the kids are back in school for only two weeks before we get hit with some sort of nasty bug the kids brought home from school. All four of us were down yesterday, and thank goodness almost everyone is back to normal today. I've still got Isla at home, as she seemed to get the worst of it.

The bug put a bit of a dent in my studio time, but I did manage to get a little bit of playing in while vegging out on the couch. I've long wanted to make one of those Chan Luu inspired bracelets for myself, but it was so far down on the list of priorities - it's been shelved for a while. I finished mine late last night, and now I'm working on a second one for my mom (the second one is coming up far neater). The girls of course now want one each. I think I may be busy for a while ;-)

I have a love/hate relationship with thread, which is why I very seldom do beadweaving type projects. While working on these bracelets the thread gets tied up and knotted in 'everything' - it even got knotted up on my big toe at one point! Yeesh. I do love the look of these, and the finished bracelet was worth the frustration of working with the thread. ;-)

I think I'm going to have to go on a hunt for my button mandrel - These would look fabulous with a nice big colourful handmade glass button!

Thank you DanniandChels for the clear instructions on the video.

Isn't this the most beautiful creature?

2012-09-14T11:24:00.001-04:00

Ever? Is it possible to fall in love with a slug? My goodness this little slug is gorgeous - and it's blue! Jewelry/bead inspiration for sure.


from wikipedia

"
Glaucus atlanticus (common names sea swallow, blue glaucus, blue dragon, blue sea slug and blue ocean slug) is a species of small-sized blue sea slug, a pelagic aeolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Glaucidae. This is the only species in the genus Glaucus,^[1] but is closely related to Glaucilla marginata, which sometimes is included in Glaucus.^[2]"

Image by lostandcold via Flickr

Look Ma - I made something!

2012-09-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

I've been puttering around the studio for the last week or so since the kids went back to school. It's been far too long, and I think I needed the adjustment period to reacquaint myself with a place that felt bizarrely foreign.

I've found all sorts of goodies that I suppose I never got around to listing, or maybe they were earmarked for beadFX - but never made it there either. Some I'll list, and some will actually go to the shop this time. :-)

I spent the entire day yesterday on the torch - It felt wonderful, relaxing, and I tired long before my creativity did. I'm looking forward to spending much of the weekend on the torch - I've missed it, desperately.

On my workbench, I have a large coffee tin filled with glass that is literally about 4-7 years old. Treasures can always be found among these old stashes, but it's questionable as to what exactly they are. I always try to keep incompatible glass separate, but this can is a complete mishmash stash of stuff. I suppose at one point, I was cleaning up my bench - and swept it all in there. Anyway, I came across a lovely rod of a glass that looked as though it might shift colour in the flame - possibly a muted orangey red. Not wanting to mix it with any other glass, I decided that leaves would be perfect - and managed to make a dozen of them. We'll have to see what the kiln fairies give me.

Have a lovely weekend!

Summer has flown by...

2012-09-06T13:53:00.000-04:00

"The little things? The little moments? They aren't little."
- John Zabat-Zinn

I'm sure many of you thought I disappeared off the face of the earth - well, I guess I kinda did for a while - at least the online world. I've spent the summer enjoying those little moments of bliss with the girls. They're getting older and starting to grow into independent, funny, smart, and thoroughly enchanting little people. I knew this time was the most precious, and I've cherished every single moment - including the times I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration, or absolute terror. (another story for another time)

They're back at school and I'm both relieved and saddened. I'll miss the days of sleeping in, watching movies, long walks, reading countless fairy books, and of course spending the hot afternoons by the pool.

I am looking forward to getting back into the studio - It's been so long, I'm almost afraid I won't know what to do when I get down there. However, it's all neat and tidy - and I plan to fire things up tonight and tomorrow. No particular goal in mind - just to create 'something'

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things” – Ray Bradbury

The blossoms have bloomed

2012-04-17T10:05:00.000-04:00

I finally stopped making more blossoms long enough to actually list some on etsy. The weather has been so lovely - my magnolia is blooming, the apple trees and the beauty bush are budding, and I'm so looking forward to the gorgeous displays of pink blossoms in the garden.

I really need to get out there and do a spring clean up. The nice weather arrived much earlier than usual, and the weeds are already starting to take over the garden. Now, if I could only enlist the help of the kids...I know....I'm dreaming ;-)

These and more up on etsy!