Sooke Fine Arts Show 2013

What fun it was to go to the Artists Reception at the Sooke Fine Arts Show last night and discover my piece on display amongst all the other beautiful pieces of art in the show.   When I go to an art show in which a piece of mine is showing, I am rather like Nancy Drew on a mission (grin) wondering in which niche I will find it on display.  What a thrill it is to turn a corner and voila... there it is!  Last night was no exception.

My hip operation was cancelled at the last minute (it is re-scheduled towards the end of August) so I was able to attend the show.  It was made even more special knowing that my  piece had already sold.  

That was the message on the answering machine that greeted me when hubby and I got home from a last minute trip to Seattle to see the Chihuly Gardens of Glass which I have been wanting to see for quite some time now and still get back in time for the show.  

Preview night (the night before the art show officially opens) attracts gallery owners and art lovers who pay a premium to get into the show beforehand to browse and purchase art they are attracted to.  It's quite a thrill to have a piece sell on preview night.

As promised a couple of weeks ago, here is a photo of the polymer clay shoe I entered.  The name of the piece is "Malona Flanick" and yes, it's a pun on a rather famous Spanish shoe designers name... the shoe designer reputed to have created "toe cleavage" in the women's fashion shoe industry.  If you ever watched "Sex in the City" when it was on T.V.... you'll have a good little chuckle as you make the connection!

When you first see the fruit on the "flan" part of the shoe, it looks very real... almost good enough to just pick one of the mouth watering berries off and pop it in your mouth!  What fun I had making that shoe.  Having it turn out exactly the way I had envisioned it right down to the colour of the "custard" on the "crust" and the "blue-black" of the blueberries and blackberries was a real bonus.

Thanks for stopping by for peek.  If you live in the Victoria area, make a point of going to this year's show... it's on until August 5th.  This year's show is even better than last year's... and I thought that one was hard to beat!

Have an arty week...

Cheers,
Sharon

An Exciting Secret Revealed...

I have been keeping a secret for over a year! WHEW ... how tough is that... especially when it is exciting news that you just want to share with the whole wide world. Well I am about to let the cat out of the bag and tell you...

This week, the book "Jewelry Beyond Time" by Cynthia Powell, Stephanie Chavez and Sherre Hulbert, filled with "eye candy" jewelry and how to instructions was published. Two of the jewelry pieces I designed and submitted (with fingers crossed that they would be accepted) to be included are in it! WOW! Now isn't that exciting news? I am just thrilled to bits.

If you love making jewelry (or even just enjoy looking at it)... this is a book you absolutely must have on your bookshelf. It is crammed full of exciting projects by the authors and nine (including me) contributing designers. Just take a look at the book cover to get a glimpse of some of the trendiest jewelry around that you could make for yourself and as Christmas gifts for your nearest and dearest female relatives and friends...

And it gets even better...

Available at Amazon (and eligible for free shipping) and Createspace.com, the authors want to celebrate the publication of the book by giving you a $5.00 discount if you order it through Createspace.com. Just enter the code 95PJX7CX at checkout to receive the discount. This is a limited time offer, so act quickly.

And here's a bonus! I checked with the authors about posting some photos I took when I submitted both pieces to see if it was okay to go ahead and show you my projects that are in the book They said, "Sure. Go ahead". So here they are:

This first piece is a very contemporary necklace that I designed in my favourite colours. It looks absolutely fabulous on. Those little "side" charms lay wonderfully when it's around your neck and really gives this piece of jewelry a very different and trendy look. The large "focal" piece is an antiqued silver piece I have had for well over 30 years that was just waiting for a project... some day! Don't have something like this kicking around in your stash? Don't worry... it could be easily copied using metal clay or something similar! You could also recycle something that currently doesn't float your boat or come up with something entirely new and unique!

This next piece was a lot of fun! If you like oriental type jewelry, this is for you!

I love geishas and always wanted an "oriental type" necklace that incorporated a geisha in the design. This design and how to do it came to me one morning when I was doing water aerobics.

Now people chuckle when they hear me say that I get my best ideas in the pool! But the fact is, when you've been doing water aerobics for as long as I have, you know the drill and quite honestly, it's downright boring! So instead of focusing on the fact that I am bored to tears for an hour, I think about art and dream up projects while I am going through the motions. It's amazing how quickly the hour goes by and very often I can hardly wait to get home to start on something I have just dreamed up!

As many of you know, I love to sew and this summer I finally found the perfect material (with kanji lettering on it) for an outfit I have designed and want to make once summer is over (I only sew in the fall, winter and spring... I like being outside as much as I can be in the summer.) This necklace will look absolutely smashing with it! Oh gosh, so many projects dancing around in my head, so little time to get them all done! I'm sure some of you can relate (GRIN).

This necklace incorporates a faux scrimshaw technique that I came up with for dominoes (yep, in the pool and the how to instructions are in the book) and includes beads that I made and dipped in UTEE. The beads actually come out looking like old, antiqued glass beads when you're done. You can use reinforced washi paper with kanji characters to make them or do what I did... make your own paper (you can find out how in the book)!



So, I hope you enjoyed this little "show and tell" and that it has inspired you to order the book today and see all of the other wonderful projects you can get started on before the end of the month. The hardest part will probably be deciding which one to do first!

See you next week. Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my exciting news!

Sharon