Results: What is the best advice you ever got?

Don’t miss our on-going conversation at the Question of the Month!

Trish emailed me with her offering, and it is profound in its simplicity.  See if you don’t agree:

There are no mistakes

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Education blitz for January!

Every year, I feel that I need to add some new techniques to my repertoire. I haven’t quite decided what it’s going to be this year, although I’m leaning towards BronzClay. I hope you’ll take this challenge as well, and pick something new to work on, and maybe even to master, in 2009.

To help us get going on our quest, I contacted some folks to teach classes and workshops, and asked them to share their teaching schedules with you. In addition, we’ll be looking at other ways of gaining new mixed media art making skills all throughout this month. I certainly don’t want to leave anyone out, so if you’re a teacher, please drop me a line and let me know the what, when, and where of your schedule for this year! It doesn’t matter if you teach at national conventions, local shops, or at mixed mediat meet-ups…inquiring minds want to know! Email me at cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces), and please put LUL education blitz in your subject line!

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Card decks for Christmas!

Make Art Monday!

“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine”

Our card decks made it for Christmas! I just didn’t have time back then to tell you about it :-)

I wrote before about how much I enjoy collaborative projects. This is the third deck that our paper artists’ group has now created, each with a Biblical theme. This time, we finally got around to “Love,” the greatest theme of all!

I used a combination of physical collage and digital techniques to create my card. When all the card art was sent in, the fabulous Linda Richter collated and sent them all off to be reproduced as full card decks. I did the 4 of hearts, and used Song of Solomon 6:3, both in English and in Hebrew.

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Playing For Change: Song Around the World “Stand By Me”

By Cyndi -- 3 comments

Question of the month: What is the best advice you ever got?

Since it’s the beginning of a brand new year, I thought we should think about the past for a moment. After all, if we’re going to set new year’s resolutions (yeah, yeah, I know it’s corny, but I do it!), shouldn’t we think back and reflect on what has actually worked for us in the past?

As far as my art and jewelry career goes, the best advice I ever got was to enter contests and calls for entries, especially those that cost me nothing but time. Why the heck not? Not winning doesn’t really hurt that much, and winning is really really cool.

So what’s the best piece of advice you ever got? It doesn’t have to be about mixed media art, but it can be. If you’d like to share your moment, you can either leave me a comment below, or email me your advice, along with your link and an image of your work that you’d like to share. Send it to cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces) and please use the subject heading LUL advice.

By Cyndi -- 10 comments

More artsy links!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Make some stitching resolutions for the coming year using these ideas from Connie G. Barwick to get you started.

Crafty Princess Diaries
It’s time to get organized for 2009! The Crafty Princess talks about her own battle with the clutter bug.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Jackalopes are real and they love being the motif du jour on a needle felted pillow made from recycled wool felted sweaters.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
The last week of 2008 at Craftside brings you a mixed media polymer clay design, a sneak peek into the upcoming book Paper Puppet Palooza with a fun egg and bird moving card and a melting Tyvek technique. Happy New Year Crafting!

The Impatient Crafter
Need some solid advice about how to do what you love and make money? Madge shares some old advice for a new year.

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a reason to celebrate, find out what holidays and birthdays are celebrated in the month of January 2009 using this special days calendar.

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Artsy blogging round-up!

Favorite 2008 posts from Tangled Thread
Chloe has gone through the archives and has selected her favorite posts from 2008 to share with you.

Favorite Junk Creation Posts of 2008
Peggy takes a look back at junk artists and junk creations featured in 2008.

Goodbye 2008
Saying farewell to 2008

Inkle loom dimensions
Years ago, Noreen’s husband built Noreen a really wonderful inkle loom using reclaimed wood from old pallets. One of Noreen’s readers asked for the dimensions, as her husband is building her an inkle loom. So, Noreen took pics and measured the loom. Anything to help another weaver!

Looking for Scrapbooking Supplies?
Wherever you live, if you’re looking for scrapbooking or paper crafting supplies, Eileen can help you find what you need.

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Artist Profile: Jennifer Murray

Jennifer Murray

Artist: Jennifer Murray
Location: East Harlem, New York

Website: Raandesk Gallery

The Stage

Jennifer, how do you describe your work?
Intense, tragic, narrative, and playful.

What is your creative process like?
I really am not someone who can work for long periods of time. I like to work for a few hours and then let the piece kind of “marinate” in my home, where I can casually interact with it and decide how I want to go forward. For me this takes the place of careful planning and testing in the sketchbook. I am a terrible sketchbook keeper. Instead, I try to think of an idea, usually by doing something very active and solitary, like running or taking a long walk. Once I get an idea in my head, I just go with it, but that doesn’t mean it’s always a good one. For that reason I like to move in small spurts, so I can catch myself if it’s really not going very well.

Caution - Cliff

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I used to study many different kinds of ancient art styles. I poured over books of Renaissance masters and Medieval painters. In particular, the sparseness and empty backgrounds of Ancient Egyptian art directly influenced me. I also was very moved by the narrative quality of Egyptian art- the way each panel tells the next part of the story. You can see much of that quality in my diptychs and triptychs.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
I really can’t be without my charcoal pencils. I always thought of myself as a painter, and I still love paintings, but there is something so immediate and gratifying about drawing, in particular charcoal, which you can really smear around and get worked into. Painting lost its allure for me when I realized how terribly toxic it is. Up until that point I was smearing my paint around with my fingers. Now I do that with my charcoal, and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I also harbor a slight twinge of revulsion at how industrial many artworks are these days. We have artists who can afford to spend incredible amounts to produce enormous pieces out of very expensive industrial materials, to create their pieces out of machines. So for me the charcoal is kind of a rebellion from that, and I like the idea of this primal medium still being in use.

Cougars 5

What inspires you to create?
I definitely make work about myself, though it’s not my intention that that be obvious to the viewer. Every stage of my professional art making has been in response to a personal saga. I actually consider the point at which I started making “my” art the point where I really became a professional, because it became about my mental state and feelings. They became part of the process. Before that point I was always trying to make art that expressed how someone else was feeling, some quality in someone else that I wanted to capture. But I think in the end you can’t make good work unless it is about you, and your feelings and experience. Even if it’s about your reaction to someone else’s experience, it still has to be your reaction. And I think people are not altogether very different. We can understand these universal feelings that unite us.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
The most difficult transition for me into professional artistry has been accepting that there will be fast and slow creative times. In school, obviously, there were deadlines and classes and things had to be finished on a schedule, but when I left school I had to accept that the schedule was just going to be a little less rigid than before. This ties partially into the idea of making art from your own personal reflection, which can’t be dictated or scheduled. I definitely have very slow periods, and it’s hard, but I have found that the best thing to do is enjoy your time and do something pleasurable, and that will make you happy and in turn inspire you. The worst thing I ever did was force myself to stay home all day and try to get inspired. The minute I go outside things seem better.

White Drawing 3

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
I don’t have any professional advice, really, but my experience in art school was the most valuable thing I have ever done. The feedback and the support were incredible, and it’s extremely challenging to boot. I’m sure it will take me 30 years to work through all the ideas and advice I received. But you don’t need school for that- you can get it though a club, a group, whatever. You need something or someone to challenge your ideas, because most often your friends won’t tell you if they think your work is weak, and you won’t see it. You’ll only get there with people of like minds.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I am a very active person, and I spend a lot of time walking around the city, listening to podcasts. Honestly I think I listen to probably 2.5 hours of podcasts per day. The podcasts are mostly about world events, politics, and struggles. They help me get a perspective on life.

Swimming is the most calming thing I do. It clears my mind and helps me focus. You can’t hear anyone, and when you get out, your feel so clean and ready for anything. It really forces you to reflect.

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Happy New Year!

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

Call for entries: Cloth Paper Scissors calendar challenge

Quilting Arts has been running a calendar contest for awhile now, and finally Cloth Paper Scissors has decided to get into the act!

We’re making a Cloth Paper Scissors calendar for 2010, and you’re invited to help. Each month and the cover will feature a piece of artwork by one of you, our readers.

The theme for our first Cloth Paper Scissors calendar will be “Life is like a box of…” and you choose the contents!

Is your life like—as they say—a box of chocolates? Or is it a box of ornaments?

Spools of thread? Fairy dust? Eggs? A combination of things? Show us what, in any given month, life is like a box of for you. You can use any media you like, so long as your submission conforms to the guidelines below. You may interpret the theme as a literal, three-dimensional box (no more than 2″ deep) or as a two-dimensional representation. The “box” may be segmented or not. You can opt to show only the contents of your box, so long as the finished artwork fills the 12″ x 12″ space. The artists who create the 13 winning submissions (one for the cover and 12 for the months) will each receive a $200 gift certificate to our online

For all the rest of the details, visit Interweave’s website for this magazine!

• Friday, February 27, 2009: Deadline for entry. Please note: this is a receive-by date. Your photos and descriptions must be in our office no later than February 27th.
• Friday, March 20, 2009: We will announce the finalists on our website and ask them to ship the actual artwork to our office. Please check the website on that date as this will be the only notification to the finalists. We will not contact the finalists directly.
• Friday, May 8, 2009: We will announce the winners on our website (winners will not be contacted directly).

By Cyndi -- 0 comments