Memories

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Elaine

There was a certain element of irony for this round of the Art Bead Scene’s Blog Carnival theme of Remembrance. I saw the theme, wrote myself a note: poppies, In Flanders Field since Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the US) is coming up. Then I promptly forgot about it until this week.

So here are a multitude of popppies (in real life they are a poppy red, I was just photoshop happy this morning). I’m figuring they will make some lovely brooches. The smaller flowers will go on the inevitable dangly charm bracelet soon, with little lark and cross charms I happen to have.

The poem, by the way, is this one:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae
May 1915

Highway 1 Recap

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Elaine

This weekend was the first “studio tour” type show I’ve ever done and it was a great success. I’m not sure who bribed Mother Nature but the weather was absolutely beautiful making the studio tour spanning about 90 minutes of Highway 1 between Rush Lake and Chaplin Saskatchewan a pleasure.

I was station in the historic train station in Herbert along with fellow artist Louise Perrin. I took the waiting room which was transformed into my studio for the weekend. Tour goers got to see me cranking out canes, passing out prototype buttons, try out my clay jewelry and chat with me about art.

To round out the weekend, I got to enjoy the coffee house (the wine and cheese type event) for the current exhibit at the Art Gallery of Swift Current. These two gentlemen are the artists and were kind enough to pose. I highly recommend checking it out if you have a chance – it is an interesting combination of art and commentary.

I Invite You to the Highway 1 Studio Tour

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Elaine

If you live in Canada, Highway 1 is the TransCanada Highway. It goes from coast to coast. The 90 minute stretch of it between the town I live in and the next city over has a whole row of communities with talented artists. A couple of years ago a group of them got together to arrange a studio tour and the 2010 edition runs September 25 and 26th.

I’ll be posted at the historic train station in Herbert along with my friend Louise Perrin of Skyswept Designs. This means you get at least a triple whammy – my art, Louise’s lovely hand-dyed work and the neat train station. If you’re lucky, you can sit down and have faspa with the sweet volunteer ladies at the station. Faspa is the traditional “tea” for the Mennonite immigrants who settled the area at the turn of the last century and is usually a light helping of cheese, bun, sliced meat and then tea and sweets.

Also in Herbert will be Holly Lightfoot and Hedi Gossweiller. The rest of us will be spread along the length of the highway. Drive over, visit our studios, get your tour passport initialed and be entered to win some fabulous pieces of art.

I added the little boxed necklace and earring set to the tour prize – the beads are from my latte run and a pretty neutral. The painters, potters, photographers and fibre artists of the tour have all added their own treasures.

Halloween Treats

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Elaine

I got a nifty little surprise in my mailbox last month – my package of samples to play with for being a Rings & Things blog partner for July. They encourage you to do whatever you’d like with their samples and so away I went, mixing and matching with my own beads in a few pieces.

For the curious,this is what was in the package – I antiqued the charms:

I passed along some of the bounty to my friend Cindy and she whipped up some sweet pieces too including a cute bracelet and some devilish earrings.

And yes, you too can enter the lottery to be a blog partner for Rings & Things over here. Their catalogue is well worth ordering just to stare at the eye candy.

Meet Gingerbell

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Elaine

This week’s Smoosher is a special treat for me as it’s someone I know outside of the ArtFire Smoosher’s guild. My long time clay buddy and internet friend Ginger – we joined the message boards of Polymerclaycentral.com around the same time, years ago – of Rosedale, IN is also the talent behind Gingerbell’s Gifts on ArtFire.

There’s a couple items I’m partial to in her shop of course – she uses my canes on a few of them!

One thing Ginger is well known for is her beautiful bead weaving. She often surrounds her handmade polymer clay cabochons with intricate layers of seed bead weaving. This is one of my very favourite: