Review

I wanted to share a product I think is fun. There are lots of people that enjoy a great smelling candle and well, if you read my blog regularly, you know I love jewelry. Diamond Candles are the best of both. They are the gift that keeps on giving! The soy candles have a great smell! (They also have scent free for those that are sensitive) I purchased green apple and I could smell it even before I even took it out of the packing! There's also a secret ring in each one. After the candle has burned down an inch or so, you can gently remove a foil pouch and let it reveal its prize. The ring in each candle is worth between $10 and $5,000. Even after the ring has been harvested and the candle burned away, you are still left with a pretty glass container. They also add new scents often...check them out at http://www.diamondcandles.com/.

Time Flies When Your Having Fun...

It has been quite some time since I last shared what I consider to be interesting. I have had the privilege of taking a ceramics class with a talented ceramicist at the Art Supply Depo in downtown Toledo. It was a fun time and I came away with good memories, a bit of knowledge, and a really neat ceramic bowl. This piece represents water and gives the feeling of ripples and waves.

Lost and Found

Archeologists have recently unearthed a stash of ancient jewelry in an excavation near the ancient city of Megiddo. They suspect that the jewelry assortment, which consist of earrings, beads and rings, circa 1100 B.C., may have been stashed in a container before fleeing the city. What kind of jewelry will archeologists find here 1000 years from now...perhaps my handmade jewelry will be considered a great find!

Read the full article here: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-archaeologists-rare-ancient-jewelry-172650054.html

Photo By Dan Balilty Fri, May 25, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

Everybody has a mother and I want to say "Happy Mother's Day" to you all. In honor of this day, I thought that I would post a birthstone chart. Mother's rings and pendants are focused on their children's birthstones...this chart can help in designing a special piece of jewelry for your mom.

Memorial

My latest work is a memorial for friends and family that I have lost in the last couple of years. This piece features a handmade casket that is walnut stained and has cast aluminum handles. The handles each have one of the five stages of grief on them. Inside the casket is a memory quilt with pictures of lost loved ones. This all sits atop a velvet skirted table surrounded by dirt and small vases with flowers.

I hope this piece inspires you to hug your loved ones more often and to remember fond memories of people you have lost.

Endings and Beginnings

Wow, the class is nearly over, but my blog will continue on. I have shared in my posts what I have learned throughout the semester. I have learned how take cell phone pictures, edit them, upload them to Flickr and them post them on my blog. Animoto let me turn those pictures into a short video. I also made a slide show using Google docs and a series of pictures that document the making of a piece of jewelry. Another movie project taught me how to make my own music and add it to my own video mashup. Making art with online tools and programs was fun and there were so many to try. Learning more about text-based art was interesting and getting to make my own retro style ASCII pictures with letters, numbers and symbols, was like being “back in the day” when computers had limited graphic abilities. Typography in shapes made interesting star and oval gems using the Tagxedo program. Aviary suite had so many programs to try out and create layered art and music. It didn’t go so well when doing my face swap, but the logos were good and making music was a whole new experience for me.My photography skills have improved and I have learned more about sizing and editing pictures, which comes in handy quite frequently when posting online. Writing about my projects has gotten better as well. Having to post about what I have done for a project also gives an insight to what goes into a work. Building my own website was not only a learning adventure, but a great way for me to share my art in addition to my blog. I was able to showcase my projects from digital media class alongside other works of art that I have created. I hope to expand my website to be able to sell my artwork and jewelry online. I used to be a techno-phobe and didn’t care much for using the computer to make art, but now I feel empowered to be able to tackle different digital media. Someday, when I grow up, I hope to teach art and I will use what I have learned about making art from the online tools available and design a class website to show off student work. The digital media course may be ending, but my adventure is just beginning!

Is it a Gem?

Ever wonder whether that bargain gem you bought is worth the money you paid for it? There are gemstones that aren't quite top notch and others that sparkle beautifully. I found a great tutorial by an award winning gemstone artist that will help you tell a good find from a bad buy.