4th of July Art Camp-FREEDOM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION DAY I

This 4th of July weekend was spent at art camp at Gail's lake house in Hector NY.
As usual the weekend started with happy hour- cheese, salami, olives and gluten free crackers. This time is spent catching up with each other.

On the way to art camp I stopped at two second hand stores. The first is a treasure trove of 25cent items. They had bought a whole household sale in Ithaca of a woman who was a paper artist-so bargains included painted items, items she had done artist exchange for. I also got some lovely embroidered and crocheted pieces to use in mixed media. The find of the day was some painted domino's about 20 for two dollars.

While waiting for Gail to get dinner in the oven I went up to the studio to work on two upcycled bags

 
The second bag is two sided this is the larger crocheted piece the opposite side is the same style crocheted piece only predominately white with yellow.

Then I started on some mixed media pieces. One of the found treasures was a luggage tag which I then created my own back to include my information.


Then altered a pendant with using a fun piece of book page behind the transparent ballerina she then became a more me piece by labeling her a "hussy".

 Late that evening after a delicious dinner and wine from Villa Bellangio we started to play with the plastic tiles that were already colored- stamping, using metallic paints and embossing. We are using some of these as buttons for other bags, I will wire wrap some for pendants and several are being used in picture frames.

This elephant pin is on an altered book bag. The elephants are stamped on linen.

 Circus monkey will be made into a pendant

Etz Hayim  a Jewish piece with the Hebrew Tree of Life, the verse is written on the side in English. This will also be wire wrapped.

Finally we were so tired as once again we had lost track of time and we headed to bed.....already on day 2.

Snow People of Hector

The large snow woman was an ugly $1 doll from the Bargain Bin in Montour Falls. Working in Gail Walker's Studio I deconstructed the jacket and scarf- added a ruffle,  4 Jewish stars free embroidered on the sewing machine to make the scarf into a tallit. I made a flower rosette for the cap-the stamens were re-purposed from the beads that had been her smile. She was missing her nose hence the $1 price tag- so Gail whittled one for me and colored and covered it in orange glitter. Her jacket button is an old military button with an eagle and an anchor.

The three snowmen are made of Crayola paper clay seed beads for eyes and mouth. They sport brass military buttons with eagles. The large one we made a striped stocking hat with a pipe cleaner center so the stocking cap can be positioned. Base was a re-purposed plaque we removed the wire hanger. The bottom of the snowman has heavy glitter and it was added to the base as well. 

The last snowman although the tiniest took the most time to make. He is in a handmade wired cage the base has book print paper and black glitter around the outside. The body is paper clay with pipe cleaner arms and legs, the scarf is wrapping string. His hat is hand made with paper cone fastened with a jewish bard, then glittered. The small tree was mod-podged and glittered. It is amazing the smaller one took as much time as making two of the big snowman.

Jewish bling

Today is Sunday so it means Hebrew school to teach 8th & 10th grade. We are using the Jewish Women's Archive series Living the Legacy. I first learned about it at CAJE this last summer in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is terrific teaching this program. It uses a huge amount of actual data on the Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Photo's, letters, documents all things pertinent to my kids who will be for the most part taking AP level classes in High School.

So what is a beader to wear Judaica of course! The necklace features a filigree sterling sliver mezuzzah with a fine chain with dangling mother or pearl, three different type pearls, crystals, metal beads and to finish it off a sterling silver toggle shaped like a jewish star. Bling colors are olive green, blues, pinks, corals and    aqua blues. Honestly the color are bright and fun just what a dreary gray winter day needs to bring some lightness out. It is fun to let my love for art and Judiasm combine in fun wearable ways.

Okay feeling a bit victorious my header comes from a wonderful website Shabby Blogs and I just figured out how to add them as a button on my site. click on it and you can also get some of their fabulous give-a-ways. Happy hunting!

This is painful

My New Year's resolution was to start blogging about my life, my passions. Two of my top passion are my faith and my artistic expressions. As a Jew I have a faith that sustains me every day every minute. I believe in a creator that  brings good to me and others. When I am beading it is as if a small part of the creator is with me. Thus I have done beading under my  company Jewbeadilation- a Jewish twist on jubilation what creating art does for me.

However my kids will tell you I am not that computer savvy. This will be a painful experience as I figure my way here. So far I made my header that alone was ridiciously complicated for me. Photoshop was too confusing, did the tutorial at the website okay then it got easy-peasy, got it only to have my computer need Internet explorer upgrade......so that stopped me in my tracks.