Petroglyphs - Art Elements monthly challenge!

This month's theme was petroglyphs chosen by Karen!

As a short definition of petroglyphs (translated from the german Wiki page which I found more accurate and understandable than the english page ;) ):

A petroglyph (from Greek πέτρος petros "stone" and γλύφειν glýphein "carve", plural: Petroglyphs) is a rock carved in stone from prehistoric times. Unlike rock paintings, a petroglyph has been engraved, scraped or pecked into and soaked into the ground.

But to be honest, even though the method plays an important role of what is a petroglyph, I rather focused on the symbols and images first. Of course all the symbols had meaning although we still don't know all of it depending on time, place, and culture. So at first I went for any shape that spoke to me... and of course I looked into my sketch book if I could find images that would already fit to the theme!

The reason I had a look into my sketchbook was that I am drawn to use circles in my abstract work. Don't ask me why but especially the crossed circles or circles with added lines can be found again and again in my work. It speaks to me on a very basic level.

And dots of course! I mean dots! There are never enough dots on a page! Below is a mixed media page in my sketchbook using some simple plant drawings. Quite symbolized like so many petroglyphs.

Then I started copying petroglyphs from images I found online. Some are one to one copies others are variations I preferred. I know that I need to actually draw something to see whether it works for me or not! Again, look at a the circles, you will find me all in my work already!

Here is a collage of some of my work from the beginning of this year!

Even though I think the meaning of these circles in the different cultures are different than the ones for me, they seem to have a basic appeal to humans in all ages!

Can you spot the modern ones? I realized that the symbols for eletrical systems are all looking like ancient petroglyphs! Speaking of modern petroglyphs... I found these symbols on my way home!

Back to the circles - I drew some circle variations because I wanted to create a stamping plate with them. 

I found the plastic in my art supply store in the printing area. These plastic foam boards are meant for kids: They can simply scratch their images in the foam and then you can use the board as printing plate! I thought that would be the perfect fit for a petroglyph design because I have to scratch my design in the foam!

They don't give perfect impressions but they are fun to play with! Although I think I prefer carving rubber or linoleum definitely ;) 

Some circles turned out nice, others rather meh... But it was fun to play with.

The other side... the foam is thick enough to use both sides.

Again, fun to play with but rather meh as result... I think I will later try to use it for monoprinting on a gel plate.

And last minute: A stamp made with a strange plastic material that is sold for linoprinting but nope, fresh lino or rubber is was better! But you know, I need to try new materials ;)

One the good side: The plastic was a little bit strange and difficult to cut so the lines are rather organic.It created the look I wanted: Like an old carving! This one will definitely be a stamp I will use often in my mixed media creations! I will also leave the tiny spots where I didn't carve away everything.

I think this would also be a wonderful theme to be more explored in clay but this month was gone so fast... I think the grey men must have visited me!

Thank you for joining this month's theme challenge and please have a look at what everyone made! :)

Art Elements Team:
Lesley Watt: http://www.lesleywatt.com
Jenny Davies-Reazor: https://jdaviesreazor.com
Cathy Spivey Mendola: http://cmendola.blogspot.com
Sue Kennedy: http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com
Caroline Dewison: http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk
Laney Mead: https://laney-mead.blogspot.com/
Marsha Neal Minutella: http://blog.marshanealstudio.com
Claire Fabian: https://saraccino.blogspot.com (you are here)

Our Guest Artists:
Jill Egan: https://kilnfiredart.wordpress.com
Tammy Adams: http://www.paisleylizard.com/blog/
Alison Herrington: http://AlisonAdorns.blogspot.com
Alysen: chicchixnchampagne.blogspot.com
Sarajo Wentling: https://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com
Jenny Kyriach: http://anafiassa.blogspot.com
CraftyHope: http://CraftyHope.com
Kathy Lindemer: https://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

Tide pools - Theme challenge at Art Elements

It is time again for our monthly theme challenge at Art Elements. This month Lesley chose the theme "Tide pools". I don't know what I should say to this theme other than that I believe it is really, really difficult to not find any inspiration in that!

I started playing a little bit with water colour. Experimenting with the effects I get by combining heavily granulating single pigment paints with ones that are not granulating...

...trying out some plant shapes as well as my new diamont silver aqua bronze from Schmincke (yes, so totally worth the money!)...

...and then going for some sketches. I had a look at Instagram for inspiration pictures just to get started and get a feeling for what I like and not.

I was undecided. I am actually playing nearly daily a little bit with my water colours, but not in any direction fitting for the theme. I use this daily play time more as a kind of diary or in combination with some personal note, so I didn't want to force myself to paint for this challenge.

Then I had a long look at my table after seeing  some sneak peaks from other Art Elements team members. Sitting there, looking at pieces of my work, I realized that I am mostly drawn to colours, effects and surfaces that all fit perfectly in the theme "tide pools".

Like I was not really doing anything else! Bowls, spoons, pendants, beads...

I made a tutorial for these glorious crustiness over at Art Elements, have a look here :)

Therefor I wanted to show you some things I made that I thought would fit for this challenge and hoped that while doing this I would get an idea what exactly I want to create.

This years I am mostly working with mixed media, water colours... not so much beads, ceramics, or jewelery. I spend a long time sitting in front of the cupboard where all my bead boxes are (the ones not sitting on or under the table ;) ) and going through all of my beads and art elements for creating jewelery I have. Gosh, it was a little bit like christmas seeing the kind of treasures I haven't looked at for months now!

I made a huge bead soups with fitting colours because I had the idea to finally make some necklaces from all the pendants I have. Didn't work out because in the end I came back to one of my oldest love "Earrings"!

It was a little bit slow at the beginning because my hands had to get their work memory back but after I finished some earrings pairs, all had come back and I realized how much I missed the joy of creating jewelery.

The photos of the earrings were all taken after some heavy rainfall creating a somehow quite fitting background. ;)

I am never sure whether my earrings will find a person who loves them as much as I do, sees the beauty in the single elements included and the stories they tell... but I was often surprised who bought which earrings from me and (sadly) which ones are still in their box waiting for someone to be treasured.

Please have a look what everyone else made for this theme challenge! And just again a thank you to all the guest who participated in this challenge, I can't wait to see all your creations!

And PS: Lesley, thank you for the wonderful theme! :)

Guests:
Raven
Kelly 
Cat
Kathy 
Tammy 
Alyson
Elaine 
Mischelle 
Deborah  
Anita 
Jill
Shirlee
Sarajo 
Melissa 

AE Team Members:
Caroline
Cathy
Claire (you are here)
Jen  
Jenny  
Laney 
Lesley 
Marsha 
Niky
Sue
Lindsay

My wedding jewelery... (over at AE)

I promised to show you the jewelery I made for myself. I used mostly art beads and a red colour palette with some added colour to create more interest (believe me, it looks more true to one colour if you break it up with another one). You can see more of it over at Art Elements (just have a look here).  

PS: Yes, Rumpel (aka Hans) is 29 cm taller than me! A full head.... ;)

"Ancient dreams" - Component of the month at Art Elements

The start with a new piece is often the most challenging as well as the most enoyable part. My main problem actually is always "the middle". When you found your inspiration, chose and gathered all materials, have made the work halfway through, see already the end with only some minor last steps open to decide... and then I stop. Honestly, I don't now why. There are soooo many UFOs in my stash, pieces that I know I'll love as soon as they are finished.

*sighs*

But that is maybe just how my brain operates. At some time-point most projects come to an end (either way).

This is why I love and enjoy challenges. They push me and give me a tight schedule to fit in. Even more with a component you get from a fellow bead artist.... huh... the social pressure added works even better! (Not a joke, this works really for me and I like to trick myself with this behaviour ;) )

The component of the month (COM) of Art Elements (AE) came not from a member of the AE team but were gifted to AE team members as well as to AE readers by Kristi Ann from Artisan Clay. You can find more of her work here.

Back to how my brain is working... I got the gorgeous pendant from Kristi (thank you again!). As gorgeous as it is, it was way out of my comfort zone. I love circle shapes and crackled glass / glaze surfaces (you would never have guessed, mh?). But this was too big and a little bit too heavy for me (remember, not being objective here, just relative to what I normally work with).

Puh... and then I started with a necklace design where I liked all the pieces but there was not this perfect start with all elements fitting perfectly together. Time was closing and I finished it and just had to wait until I would be able to catch some rare daylight to take pictures. You need daylight to give such a stunning pendant with crackle glass credit, trust me in this.

So sitting late at the evening at the living room which is a absolute state of chaos with my "stuff" my eyes fell on one of my wrapped bracelets. I wanted to label it for our Pop-Up store in Leipzig (Malwatanderes) but it was sitting close to the necklace. Mh... the colours went nice together so I tested how the would look combined. Loved it. So I took the necklace apart, decided to make a kind of decorative art element (or ornament? tribal totem?). It was the right way. The right way since I started to love this pieces, consisting just of two "circles" at this moment, already.

The rest was easy, also close by was one of my ceramic bird skulls I made. I am in the process to test the effect of different glazes and no, originally I thought this light blue/yellow glaze is not my favorite. How wrong I was. Without the light blue accents it would not have fit to the pendant. Now it was the perfect addition. Yes, perfect! For me at least... especially with the piece of bone (that was also part of my table chaos, don't ask).

You can also find some more of my ceramic clay beads, a single czech glass bead and a lampwork bead from Kimberly Rogers (above the bird skull, such a perfect accent colour to bringt the bone, pendant and skull together).

Here you go... just loving it now! Last minute, but hey, perfect timing, no?!

So, please have a look at the other participants!

PS: Seeing the pictures now, it could be also a piece inspired by / for Prince, or not? *sighs* 2016...

PPS: I had to take the pictures at work, since it is dark when I leave home... and already dark when I come back home. So they are not my usual quality (and not my preferred background style). It was long enough winter time, I am ready for summer again! ;)


Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Lola Surwillo
Beti Horvath
Kate Kemp

Art Elements Team
Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian (you are here right now :) )
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron

"Arrows" - Delicate tribal earrings with polymer clay charms

Tribal, ancient... a kind of a modern take on the stone age? 

These earrings are really delicate and (at least for me!) small. They move lovely or as I prefer to call it "dangle". I made the little arrow head charms with polymer clay. More and more I tend to use super sculpey firm if the desired style/work allows for it. It has such a great strength to work with it. Even while you work on one side, the other side stays firm. I know now why people love to use this clay for sculpting (although it is still a little bit in the soft side for Rumpel and the sculptures he creates... but I honestly don't know any other polymer clay brand as firm as this... but we ordered bees putty summer firm now to try it).

The golden accents are made with gold (coloured) leaf and antiqued with acrylic paint afterwards. My favorite colours is Payne's grey from Reeves. While I have small/middle sized bottles from most colours, this one I  have in a really big bottle!   

I even already listed them in my shop here! :)

"Tribal marks" - Long earrings made with polymer clay

So much I would love to do, so much I just have to do... and in between a lot of ideas are lost or worse, in the little saved time, there is no energy anymore to be found to use those ideas. It happens more often to me than I like to admit. But this is also the reason why I try to do baby steps. One at a time, not the overall big idea or project, but the little parts... 

So I made some more polymer clay beads. I made hree pairs in total only (yes... in terms of energy definitely a waste, in terms of motivation for me, just worth it!)... one o the other ones you can see here: "Grown in time"

I was thinking of adding something more but in the end I just stopped at the simple dangling earrings. The polymer beads are already full of interest with the tribal marks, their length and the different colours. 

I also listed them in my shop here :)

"What time tells" - Delicate, rustic earrings

Delicate and yet rustic, lovely shades of green combined with a really dark patina. They seem to be just found at a archaeological site, some ancient relics from a different time. Holding them in my hand, they seem to tell a story about earth and stone, about dark woods and wild land.  

The green crusty beads are made by Kimberly Rogers from numinosity beads and the tinned headpin drops are from Sasha Crow with some small semi-precious stones in between.

They are also listed in my shop :)