My "Studio"

There are several magazines that showcase artists' studios. I am envious of their dedicated, organized spaces. I'm sure if I searched "art studio" on Flickr, the photography website, I'd find 100's of examples of studio's at their finest. Beads neatly stored in plastic cases, fabric folded and piled on shelves by color, paint brushes in shiny little buckets.

But you won't find a picture of mine. Anywhere. I can always blame it on the fact that I work full time. That I have a husband and cats to take care of. But the real reason is I've always been messy. ALWAYS. I have no photographic evidence, but I'll wager that my crib was cluttered with stuffed animals, books and zwieback. I have a talent for taking up more space than anyone (ironic, since I'm usually the smallest one in the room), with an abundance of stuff, junk and things. You can always tell where I've been sitting because there's a corona of stuff around the area. I try to keep things neat, I really do...

My jewelry "studio" consists of a little set of drawers meant for nuts and screws and a huge amount of those pretty storage boxes you buy at hobby stores. They're piled off to the side of the sofa in the living room. There's a Harry Potter pillow on the floor, mashed flat as a piece of paper, that I sit on to create jewelry. Assorted components and findings slip off some other boxes near the coffee table. Oh, yeah, then there's a bunch of other things in the rolltop desk across the room that's really supposed to be where I create... Sequins and little beads decorate the space between all these boxes and holders. I actually went through all the boxes a few weeks ago, to donate some supplies to a friend who teaches jewelry making at a homeless shelter. Barely made a dent in all this stuff. But that's a different blog post (The Obsession with Beads...).

My bathroom serves as my other "studio", for art and ATC's. This is The Kingdom of Paper: old books, maps, colorful pages ripped from magazines. Paints fill a big plastic holder and brushes and colored pens and pencils teeter on piles of ATC blanks and stencils. Rubber stamps, ribbons and buttons fill drawers. Oh, and there are some more of those pretty storage boxes again, filled with jewelry from yard sales and church bazaars, waiting for me to breathe new life into them.

*Sigh*

We have a work room. The plan is to turn it into a studio.

*Sigh*

Someday...

http://www.bearchick.etsy.com/
http://www.bearchickart.etsy.com/
http://www.bearchick.artfire.com

My Name in Cloth Paper Scissors!

Ok, none of my design work got published but my name is mentioned in the Popping the Question section of the new November/December issue. The question was “What’s Your Favorite Art-Related Book”. So I quickly e-mailed my answer a few months ago and there it is on the glossy page! We have to get our thrills where we can, right? For those of you unfamiliar with Cloth Paper Scissors, it’s a cool magazine devoted to collage and mixed media art. And in case you don’t get to see it, my fave art book is “Artist Trading Card Workshop”. I guess that’s not too much of a stretch for me, huh?

In other Bear Chick news, I’ve got most of the art moved over to Bearchickart.etsy.com. I’ve been working on more of what I’m calling the Charm N Bead series of jewelry. Now I need to do some photographs when I get back from grocery shopping and get those on Etsy, along with a piece of vintage jewelry found while saling (yard saling, that is). I have a few pieces to post, by and by. Here’s a pretty Trifari brooch in fairly good condition:

Otherwise, the day job has been busy and the kitties have been mushy, wanting lots of attention, which I try to give since, well, why have pets if you’re gonna ignore ‘em! The Husband has been working both weekend days through October but that ends this weekend, so we’ll have some daylight together again.

Trying to come up with the best deals I can offer on Etsy… Freebies or free shipping domestically… I’m aiming for the Grand Opening next Saturday of Bearchickart.etsy.com to decide what the holiday deal will be.

Laters!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchickart.etsy.com

What Bear Chick's Been Up To Lately

I didn't want to post this until my best friend got the card I made for her birthday. But she's got it now and says she's putting it in the box where she saves things... Believe me, she's not a clutter bug, so when she saves something, it's a compliment!

Similar to my Party Dress ATC, I outlined a dress and "colored" it in with molding paste I'd mixed with red acrylic paint. Then added micro beads that I gently squished into the wet paste. I used Pearlescent and iridescent Gold Golden paint splashed on for confetti in the background.

For the wording, I created a swirly font I had fun lettering with a Crayola retractable pencil, which was really soft and easy to use.

My plan is to make more of the dress ATC's and maybe even some cards. Right now I'm doing a couple of cute Halloween ATC's and I'm also working on new necklaces with chain, charms and lots of dangly color. Here's the first one I made of those, which is actually kind of subtle since I've made another that's absolutely loaded...

This necklace was heart-centric, with it's red theme.

But other necklaces will be more freeform and chunky, like this cat themed one (which is MINE, by the way).

I'm on a jewelry jag right now, thinking of and trying new things. You know me, I don't want to do the same things for too long or I'll get bored! Wire seems to be a recent fave material.

Finding the time to be creative and manifest all the ideas in my head (and on dozens of sticky notes and scraps of paper in my purse and around the house), along with doing things around the homefront and working full time is certainly a challenge! Plus, I decided to separate my jewelry from my art on Etsy, so when folks visit my shops, they'll make more sense and look more organized. BearChickART.etsy.com is open softly (meaning it's not looking great yet but there are some things for sale) but will have a Grand Opening at the end of the month.

But the Big News this week is that Bear Chick has finally come into the 21st century with High Speed internet! Etsy's now working wicked fast and uploading pictures like a champ, so expect a lot of new items in the next few weeks. I'm planning to take lots of photos tomorrow in preparation to add to both shops in Etsy over the coming weeks. Think Holiday Shopping!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

www.bearchickart.etsy.com