The FALL of 2011 SCHOOL YEAR

SCULPTURE 3:

Childhood Marble Machine

I FINISHED IT !!! It took me about a total of 45-ish hours to complete (a lot of that time I was watching tv while working meaning I was working VERY slowely...probably more like 37 hours with out the tv distractions). This is a recycled piece, like the tree!! Got the high chair at Savers, all the copper wire is electrical wire that I striped about a year ago, the pieces of tape measure came from a broken one I found, the wooden pieces of half tubing my dad gave me from a left over project of his, the clear tubing was collected and the little clear cup came from communion at church. The total time it took to make the piece does NOT include all the time it took to strip the wire.

I'm very happy with this piece!!! During the critique in class I had someone compare it to steam punk stuff which I found interesting.


I'm creating this copper tracked marble machiene that wraps around a wooden high-chair. It is taking FOREVER! I've always loved marbles, used to collect them. Had a little over 4,000 of them...yes I would actually count them.

In progress shot. If anyone has any IDEAS that they'd like to SHARE, please let me know!!!!


Tree (really struggling to find a name for this one)

Here is my tree out on the patio at Ideal Market!!



This darn thing took me around 50 hours to create from the welding, the collecting of wooden products, connecting all the wooded pieces and sawing them to size, and creating and attaching probably 100 leaves. I actually sawed through a wooden rolling pin the long way with a hand saw !

The tree is currently at Ideal Market in Boulder CO. It is on display on top of the fridges in the back, should be there for about a month!!!




CERAMICS 2-- Hand-building:

The Guardian Gargoyle

My last ceramics project I made for my father for Christmas. I made a gargoyle for him to put into the new house he is building for my family. He looks pretty hilarious, lazy and scary. I used a cone 4 paper clay and glazed it with leftover toad belly glaze from the crackly lady I made for my first project, but I added a bunch of black stain to the glaze. The gargoyle kind of looks like it's been thrown into a very large fire... pictures soon to come

Segmented Face Tiles

Here are my tiles!!! They are made of porcine and the three tiles make up a face, there is a eye, nose and mouth. I used an inlay technique to create the shadow lines on them. First when the tiles are leather hard I pained on a coat of wax, then I scratched the designs into the wax and paint over the whole thing with black slip, after it dries I wiped off all the slip with a damp sponge but the slip stays in all the scratches and the wax burns off in the kiln!! After it's first firing I coated it with a cone 10 clear-ish glaze called Tom Buckle Blue. One more firing and DONE !


Piggy Pie Plate

I used the exact same process on the pie plate as I did the tiles above. It was a birthday gift for my Mom, she loved it!! I drew the pig from a picture of my Mom's pig, Duggy !!!


Lady of the Earth....need to come up with a better name

My ceramic lady! She didn't look anything like this in my head... she is very awkward with her stunted legs, man shoulders, and cankles. Then when I went to glaze her I accidentally mixed up the wrong glaze, I meant to use a glossy clear glaze, but I mixed up a crackle instead. Happy mistake !
She took about 20 hours to complete...felt like more though.

Tay's B-DAY Bracelet (& tree)

Here is Taylor Nystrom's bracelet!!! It is made of brass links (made from a solid brass towl hanger), turquoise beads, sodalite beads, hematite beads, and Austrian coins that were all connected together with brass wire. The coins came from Taylor's trip that she had taken over the summer so that it'd be personal to her. It was completed with a brass lobster clasp. Part of the series A Traveler's Coins.

SOLD!!!



Here is her BRACELET TREE to hold all of her wonderful jewelry !!!

p.s. I just threw a bunch of my jewelry on it for the picture. Happy B-day Taylor!!

mini Wire Works

Now I'm taking over the walls of All-Sports Recovery Club!!


And finally I came up with a complete triathlete piece. I need to make more soon! Josh's mom, Susan Kelly is the proud owner!
$30....SOLD

I got a request from Kelly Reed for 15 little bikes for her to hang up in her frozen yogurt shop, BOOM Yogurt Bar, as if there were 15 little racers going along the wall. Here they all are finished!


Which led to a BODY BUILDER, I think he's adorable.


So the dancers then led to me wanting to work on other athlete forms and focus on muscle shapes and definition. Here is a gymnast on the rings, it's hard to tell in this photo but the rings are brass and it's hung from multiple threads of fishing line.



Here are Emily's little dancers! I got the request from her to make one dancer out of the bailing wire after she saw the wire bikes I'd been making. After I made the female dancing figure from a picture on the internet she requested that I make the male dancer as well. It turned out GREAT ! $70.....SOLD

Here is the picture that I went off of to create the dancers.



Emily happy with her finished piece!!!


Here is a medium sized bike, it's probably 8" X 5" and is a perfect little wall decoration.


Here is a mini bike on a stand and a little swimmer. They didn't take too long and both are epoxied into little rustic blocks of wood. They are about 5-6" long and about 4.5-ish inches tall. I've had three requests for the bikes now !!!

Time-trial Bicycles & Tri STUFF

Tim and Mirinda liked there bike and now want a swimmer and runner to go with it! HERE IS THE SWIMMER :) it took me about 7-ish hours to complete...I think?? Runner soon to come!



So for the past Christmas I made my boyfriend Josh a wire bike for him to hang in his office since he's a triathlete and now I've had THREE requests from his clients for bikes !!! Each bike takes around 8-10 hours of work as long as I'm not watching too much tv... HERE THEY ARE

This one just went to Tim O'Donnell, a pro triathlete !




These are going to Morgan Clark, the owner of All 3 Sports, and Temple. Both are triathaletes and get fixed up at Josh's office.

Flora little Trip-trip-triple Rings

Here are these lovely rings, they are made out of a thick gauge brass wire which I twisted into a floral design while forming the band on a ring mandrel. I'm going to sell them in sets of three for $15. Please let me know if that seems fair!?!?

the NEW & BIGGER projects

COMING SOON

wine bottles-- I know this is kind of,ok, way on the crafty side and not artistic at all really but wait till I'm done with them. Drinking glasses. I saw the idea at a craft fair/ art show and loved them so I decided to make my own.



wire and glass sphere lights


wire bikes
-multiple little bikes

the brass towel hanger necklace(s)

business cards-- AHHHHHHHH!
WHICH do you guys recommend I go with?? I might have a few different ones



coin experimenting- A Traveler's Coins Series


TP tubes-- I want it bigger still!

NEW ideas with SEA GLASS

Here is a new ring! Men's size 11 - 11 1/2, it's hard to say because the flat top created by the tubing doesn't let it fit on my ring sizer very well. It has a wide brass band, and three pieces of tubing going across the top, one copper, one brass, and one nickle silver. Then I oxidized it and brushed it back!


This ring is almost identical to the one below but is a size 12 1/2 - 13 (for a guys hand) and was made for a friend. Hopefully Danny is enjoying it!!

p.s. that is not me holding it, it's my 11 year old sister. The ring isn't that massive!


New Zealand Sea Glass Ring Series
This sea glass series idea came from my travels to New Zealand last February. I was there for three months and realized that the trip really showed me what I love to do and want to continue doing for the rest of my life. About a month and a half into the trip, I had an art dream. It was early in the morning where I was half awake but still dreaming and I found myself brainstorming all these art ideas. After I woke up I actually became very frustrated and angry because I wasn’t able to start working on all my new ideas, so I began sketching. So for the rest of the trip I kept gathering seeds, shells and sea glass for all the art plans I had. I was on the beach for hours and hours with my head turned down to the sand instead of looking out at the water and enjoying the view. I was so excited about the possibilities of what the little treasures hidden in the sand could lead to that I could barely stop. So from that trip came the New Zealand Sea Glass Ring Series, with every piece of glass gathered from their shores.

All of these rings can now be found at Helen's shop in Littleton!!! Check out her website at http://www.willowartisansmarket.com/ or on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Willow-an-artisans-market/79153913317
THANKS HELEN !

Here is one of the rings just expanding on the copper pins idea. On the three copper pins are bits of tubing that are made of brass and some of copper and very in size and shape. There are a few pieces of the tubing that are square. Then, of course,I oxidized it and brushed it back.

Named this one A Modern Masculine.

These two rings are both on thinner brass bands and have three pieces of different colored glass each. I then pinned the glass to the band by flattening out each side of the copper wire. The thin bands seem to have an easier and more comfortable fit, but I believe the wider bands make the rings more bold and balance out the big chunks of glass better. Any input?

I named this one the Blue Beauty.
I call this one the Wacky Band piece.
This special ring has four different colors and seven pieces of sea glass total! I'm going to try and expand off this one

I call this one the Modest Peacock.

This particular ring has tow different pieces of glass and a very roughed up texture. And again, a square band.

I call this one the Imperial.

Here is a very wide brass band with a clear, rectangular piece of sea glass pinned inside with four copper pins. Notice that the glass is not in the center on the top of the band, I think it's quite interesting.

I somehow managed to come up with the name The Pinned Bandit.

Here is ANOTHER ONE, this time with a square band! It also has a brass band and a copper wire holding in the glass. This is also one of my favorite pieces of glass, I'm guessing it's been in the ocean for quite some time. SOLD

It's nickname is the Rounded Square piece.

This is the first ring of the series, made it with some scrap brass and the copper wire. I have to use my little pliers to smash the copper wire until the ends are too wide to fit through the holes in the brass bands.


I've just been calling this one The Starter.

Three different colored pieces of glass all next together on the same piece of copper wire. Also in a brass band and oxidized then sanded down a bit to get some of the original shine.

Also gave this one a simple name, the Multi-Spinner ring.

The more sculptural ring I came up with... three pieces of glass in a row. The glass wiggles a bit. This piece has a hammered brass band and three pieces of thick guage copper wire pieces which have both ends smashed down to pin the glass into place. I then oxidized and sanded it down a bit.


Of course this one is called The Mohawk ring.

Here is a smoky quartz bead attached with sterling wire to a hammered brass band. Just an idea that I tried out while working with the sea glass.

Still not sure if this one deserves a name...