Wind Chimes

Abalone Wind Chime

Tomorrow, 8/29/10, I will be teaching my first soldering class here on the coast. Well, not exactly my first class since I have had private studio students. Tomorrow I will have 4 students learning how to wrap irregular objects and solder them. We will even do jump rings although we’ll do them the easy way, lined up with the object instead of perpendicular to it.

Teaching really fulfills me and I hope to do more of it by teaching a card making class once a month at C. Andrews Studio. I will focus on occasions that we need cards for, like Get Well, Saying Hi, Thank You and (sadly) Sympathy (which I seem to be sending more of these days). I also hope to become a Stampin’ Up distributor as they have great classes and learing opportunities.

Now if I could only get off my duff and get published. I need to create more and teaching is helping that goal. I’m on the 11th week of “The Artists Way” and it has really helped me focus on what is important.

Hope you like the wind chime, this one was really fun to make. I love how the beads are lined up in the lip of the shell. That was a happy accident as I needed a way to tie off without going outside the shell so I just tied a bead inside the shell. Once again, there are no accidents, just more opportunities to embellish.

The Wind Doesn’t Blow, The Valley Sucks

Soldered Wind Chime

What better way to hear the wind blow is there other than a Wind Chime. On 8/29/10 I will be teaching a class on how to use soldering to create wind chimes.  I found the glass at Michael’s and since we can’t take a trip to Mendocino and Glass Beach, this will be the next best thing, a glass wind chime with nautical inspiration. I learned quite a bit doing this proto-type. For instances, wrapping irregular objects is not as easy as it looks and the glass is still sharp in several places and I have the cuts to prove it. Also, it is a perfect project for someone just learning to solder because you do not have to worry about being to heavy or making the project smooth because it is a wind chime.  I must have strung this piece 3 times, first just to see if the glass tinkled, then to put beads at the base of the shell, and then to put beads along the thread and at the base of the chime. Of course, I did my usual “thing” and went on line and bought a ton of fire glazed beads so we’d have an assortment to use in class.  Now the only think left to do is have someone register for the class!  I also stopped a the Moss Beach “Shell Man’s” house and bought polished scallop shells and polished abalone shells. Presently, I’m on a stick hunt for the hanger that I will cover with deer moss. I do hope you will come!

Play Date

I’m so excited, I finally have a play date with my friends at the C. Andrews Studio in Princeton by the Sea. I plan to just play and experiment with new things. OK, maybe I’ll finish a baby book for a baby due 8/18 as you can never tell when they will come.  It is cloudy on the coast but I will not be deterred and will have fun.

New Dominos

Dominos with pinch bails

I’ve been working on a new way of hanging my dominoes. Ingrid Pomeroy turned me onto pinch bailes like these that she had used with wooden scrabble tiles.  These are my latest creations using her techniques. I love how one person’s art morphs into another person’s technique and then onto another and another. Life if like that, very serendipitous the way things grow and it always reminds me that I’m not an original, that there are many, many people having the same thoughts as I am.

Another thing I’m obsessed with lately is paper beads. The dangles on two of these dominos are paper beads. I have stamped words on some of them. The idea of paper beads came to me when I saw them on a necklace at Tangerine in Dublin. Since seeing these beads, I’ve made dozens and keep thinking of other ways I can decorate with them. Stay tuned!

I plan on teaching this domino class at Connie’s studio here in Half Moon Bay on July 24, 2010 from 1:00 - 4:00 PM.  In the class you will be doing backgrounds with alcohol inks and then stamp the images and finish with bailes and jewels.  Maria will be teaching a card class (including a gift box) in the morning and I’ll do dominoes in the afternoon and we are calling this joint venture “Christmas in July” as you will walk away with gifts ready to give or stockpile till Christmas.  Either way, you will have a finished products and something you can re-create on your own until Christmas.

Art Show on the Coast

May Flowers

April Showers Bring May Flowers

We have had an unusually wet Spring here in Northern California. Usually it stops raining in late April, and if it does rain, it is a gentle rain. This year it was very wet, and the tempretures were colder than normal all the time. It rained this week, and rain is projected for next week and we are still getting snow in the mountains…very unusual. I usually switch to my Spring/Summer coat in April, I finally switched the 2nd week in May. All that said, the days we do have Sun and warm tempretures it is well worth it.

These flowers bloom in my front yard every year, this year they bloomed later than usual. I have to think it was due to the rain and cold tempretures, but on May 7th the flowers and I had a little photo shoot and this picture is the result of that outing. When I saved these pictures I saw pictures of my daffodills from 2009. I completely missed taking a picture of them in 2010. I saw them every day, coming and going to WORK but never stopped to take a picture of them. As my mother used to say”Good intentions pave the road to Hell” and that was one of the things I missed this Spring because of WORK (yes, I still miss my Mother too).

I’m still working through the Artist’s Way and it is bringing up all kinds of things for me and this is one of them, stopping to take pictures of the things that I notice everyday. There are wonderful things out there that I miss (we all do) as we scurry to and from WORK (I’m capitalizing that for a reason, like it’s a dirty word, so read it that way). My ABC club has an assignment to creat a tag that symbolizes May flowers for our next meeting/trade this May. I’ve got my flowers all done (paper) and will finish the tags today for the swap. I was tempted to put these flowers onto a tag, as they were so beautiful and abundant, but I’d already made the paper flowers for the project, so I’m posting my own May Flower here.  Look  for pictures of the tags when you next visit, and in the meantime, enjoy your own May flowers.  Take time to take their picture and by all means, take the time to smell the roses if you have them.

I’ve had a perfect Mother’s Day!

My journey through “The Artists Way” continues. I did my exercises this morning and while I’m feeling creative, I’m still list making and getting lots of things done (other than art). Hubby is at his mother’s, cat is asleep under the covers (we call her a lump when she does this), and I have the house to myself (it’s wonderful). Earlier I went and had a mani-pedi, then grocery shopped a little, then piddled around the house doing odd things. Then I spent 2 hours blog hopping and reading all my favorite blogs and looking at the houses from the blog hop that Maria sponsored.

If you haven’t seen all the houses, you should visit Maria’s Blog Gallo Organico (shown on the right) and look at her post for May 1st.  There is a schedule and the houses are posted one after another. They are all so very cool. I wish that I had remembered to photo my supplies when they arrived, but I didn’t  but know to do it if I’m ever in another Blog Hop. Now I’m listening to Nora Jones on the stero and thinking about pouring myself a cocktail. To all the other Mother’s I know (and those I don’t) I hope you had a perfect day as well! This cute little girl isn’t related to me, but I hope her Mom is having a great Mother’s Day as well and she should know that this picture is the inspiration for the name of my blog, Snoutkiss and of course I added Saloon as a play on the word Salon.

Blog Update

Thanks to Kelly, I think my blog is starting to get “there”.  I still have lots to post (like blogs I follow Ali, Maria, Julee, Connie, Debbie) but I think it looks really good.  Now, for the discipline to blog every day.  OK, I’ll start out small, once a week.  Wonder how others manage to do it daily? I’m sure it is just working it into their routine.  Check out the new pictures under my art work, and be sure and sign the guest book (or whatever you call it when you subscribe to the blog).

Scraptacular Weekend

What a wonderful weekend.  We laughed a lot and sang a lot more.  Plus we scrapped a lot.  I completed 14 pages and 2 mini books (well almost, need to add journaling, but what else is new).

Anything Alice Tea Party!