Thursday, February 26, 2015

New Art Studio Space - Part I

Moving In


We recently moved to a new (new to us) house. In our previous temporary place, we only had 2 bedrooms, so my art space was very cramped! But we found a house that was just what we were looking for! I was so excited to get moved and have that extra bedroom space for my art studio again.

I don't have a huge space, but it is a room dedicated just to my studio.  We only started moving in two weeks ago, so I am still emptying boxes and looking for things that I need and deciding how I am going to organize my work space.

Now if I can just find the clamp for my lighted magnifier!


It still has a ways to go, but here is my new space. I just need to get all of my supplies out and organized so I can get back to work! I will post updates as I do a little decorating...paint, fabric, maybe a rug.

In my next post I will have pictures of the new space, hopefully more organized and ready to use. Check back for updates on my progress.
Studio Tour Update: Part 2
Studio Tour Update: Part 3
Studio Tour Update 2017: Part 4

Beth


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Heart Homes ... A Look Back Six Years

HeartHomes for February 

Original Set of My Hearthomes
2009
Six years ago, I started creating little clay houses, that I called Hearthomes. They have gone through some changes over those years, but they have always had the little hearts, both on the front and back, and on the bottom of each house.

Today, I thought I would share some pictures
of the houses through the years.

The first set was painted with acrylic paint.
This first set, was featured in the Arkansas Magazine, At Home in Arkansas. If I could find the link to it, I would post it!

After that first set, I decided to try glazing them.  
I never used acrylics again, after that first set. I like the effect that the glaze creates.

Here is a Montage of a few of my houses over the years.

2009 - 2015

Not only have they become a little more polished, but my photography skills have improved a tad.

Last year, a friend of mine, dropped and broke one of her little houses. She had a set of 3. She likes her houses because they are a little rough around the edges...original style houses. So she asked if I could make her another one similar to the broken one.  It took me awhile to get to it, but I finally made it last month and sent it to her and she was happy to have the set back together.  When I put the old one next to the newer one, I realized the big difference. There is still a more polished look to the newer one.

I think I may revisit some of my old style houses, with the newer polished look. We'll see what happens this year. My style is always evolving.  Whatever I come up with, I sell them from my Etsy shop and a few local Arts and Craft  Shows during the year.



Beth


Sunday, February 1, 2015

Heart Art in February


I love Hearts.
I don't know if you can tell by my art, but I love hearts.  99% of my art has some type of heart somewhere on the piece. Not in a mushy sort of way though. I'm not all hearts and butterflies and rainbows, although I do like them. I just like the shape of the heart and love to add it to my art, kind of as a signature mark to my work. It can mean so much to many people. And making art that is meaningful is what it's all about, right?

I love to create.
So I love to add the heart to show that love!

I've been working on making some small hearts for magnets and pins and ornaments for Valentine's Day. I am always making heart magnets and ornaments, but I'm not great at planning way ahead to have all of this ready to really make a big marketing push. So I only have a limited amount of heart pins and magnets available. I don't really want to use Valentine's Day to mass produce hearts, as I am usually working on some other projects. If I have any available, I will have them listed in my Etsy Shop.  I will list them as I have them available.

So, between now and Valentine's Day, I thought I would share a few pictures of what I've been working on over the next couple of weeks, and maybe even some Heart Art created by other artists, that I admire.

Hope you enjoy!

Beth





My Kiln

My Little Kiln She is small but mighty. She gets the job done.  The size of my kiln does limit what I can create, but I get a lot of use o...