A Special Honor

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I entered some items in the Westerly Regional Art Show.  This is an annual event open to all artists who wish to submit pieces.  The judge for the show is selected from a field of accomplished individuals. The judge determines the pieces allowed into the show, and also selects particular pieces to receive various fine art and fine craft awards.

I am honored to have been selected to win the Alice Clark Hubbard Award in recognition of excellence in fine crafts.  The piece that won is the round green pin/pendant titled "first buds" that I showed on my April 29th post.  What a pleasant surprise!

ACGOW June Show Theme

Next month at the Westerly Gallery, I am one of two featured artists.   For June, the theme is "Scene From a Train:  Fleeting Moments."  As I looked for inspiration for my pieces to fit the theme, I remembered annual family trips taken from California to points all over the West and across the Midwest.  Although we traveled by car, the view out the windows was quite similar to those we would have glimpsed from the freight trains we saw as they traveled, paralleling our road.

I can recall mile after mile of fields filled with crops.  Some of the crops, like corn, were planted in straight rows, making stripes on the landscape. Others, such as beans, were bushy, blurring the lines between the plants.  There were fields of flowers abloom with amazing colors, and pastureland dotted with animals.  In the mountains, there were indistinct landscapes that still retained different colors and textures at each layer.  

For this show, I have created several different polymer design sheets that reflect the images I recall.  Some of those sheets are evident in the pins I showed here in recent blog posts.  Today, I'm going to share some earrings that also fit the theme.  Most of these pieces have a high gloss finish. The first photo shows a landscape in the distance, with distinct colors melding.

 The purple and the copper and black pairs represent plowed furrows.  The purple is a field in bloom, while the earth tones are from a field awaiting planting.

The purple and pink pair is again a landscape, blurred from the speed of the passer-by.  Finally, the black and silver set has an ordered row appearance, in a more elegant approach.

A Few More Pins

Here are a few more collage pins.  These are so fun to put together!  I tried a couple of different design ideas, including layering pieces and using textures.

This first pin has a little bunch of berries with leaves.


The next two photos show a rather geometric pin that can be worn in more than one way.

 

This pink pin shows the "snowy" effects from using white embossing powder in the clay.

New Collage Pins

As you could tell from my previous post, I had a lot of fun making a variety of design sheets and working on Lindly Haunani's collage pins.  Once I got home, I was still itching to make more collage pins using some of the sheets I'd made, as well as adding some new ones to the mix. The first pin I made was this one in oranges and pinks.
I was much more angular in my cuts than Lindly had been, and I like the fact that this pin seems to be able to be worn in more than one direction.  You can see tiny white flecks on this pin.  They come from the embossing powder I added to the white polymer that was used in the process of creating the design sheets.  It adds such a neat effect!









Next, I decided to make a very angular, rather vertical design.  These last 2 photos show the results of this experiment.  I like the strips of black separating the fields of color - a very definite contrast.  Once again, I am struck at how much color harmony is evident amongst the different patterns.  These are great examples of the thought process behind the techniques Lindly has developed.  I feel fortunate to be able to take classes with her.