Old landscape painting glaze glass habbits

I am up to my old habits.

This bead is etched, creating a matte finish. When I was practicing ceramic glaze mixing, I would always use the matte transparent batch. The colors were matte right out of the kiln. When I was painting landscapes I would paint matte varnish on top of it. Just like this glass bead dipped in acid etching solution.

I am combining two series together into one design. This bead is one of my latticino landscapes with some boogie down bead stick people slapped on there for fun. A landscape that looks like an impressionistic painting to me. The etching created the contrast in the colors. The etching also removed the reduction from the surface of the copper glass, and enhanced the colors of those copper red and green figures.

The “soul gestures” are dancing around celebrating life.

What is it all about? Today? Right now?

Using the old habits together, creating a new series; inspired by experiences of life… Each one is a true one of a kind sculptural Lampwork bead; designed to inspire, adore, a symbol of a passionate thought…a joyful aesthetic; not just a bead.

Sheila Morley is an artist living in Southeast, Michigan. She has an art blog, and her work can be purchased at her website, ebay, Etsy, and various shows and shops.

Making a Pretty Princess for my Daughter

My five year old daughter, Katie, has been a close companion on this glass journey of mine. Oh, she doesn’t want to use the torch yet (although I did make her a fake torch out of a soda bottle and wire one time). What she does want to do is learn about art and the cultures of the world. This is amazing to me, because I had no idea that other cultures existed when I was five. One of the things Kate does is sketch new ideas when I am sketching and thinking. When I was reading about Mahakala masks in Tibet so I could create them in glass, Kate was at the desk drawing her own version of one.

When I asked Katie what she’d like from me for Christmas, she replied that she’d like me to make her a princess sculpture. Yep, that was a make-the-mommy-melt moment! I promptly made a base bead with her name on it, a skirt, and a princess with a crown. . . and then left them on the desk. Sitting down to write a new post about making something pretty reminded me of this unfinished project :

Now that I’ve remembered this Christmas project, let me just say I’ll be talking more about making something pretty (you can get a sneak peek in this entry of my blog). However, at the moment I have an unfinished project calling my name! Hmmm, that sounds like yet another future post, doesn’t it?

 

AngelinaBeadalina, aka Angela Greer Garren, melts glass as fast and furious as her equipment will allow, and you can see the results in her gallery and in her Etsy shop.

Dabbling In Pottery: My Glass Style Morphs Into Clay

I just finished a beginning ceramics class at the local college and I loved it! My mother taught ceramics and pottery at the Region II Community Action Agency when I was around…5? I can remember mom bringing clay home and we’d sit at the table with newspaper spread out and make things. They just never turned out how I pictured them in my mind and I became frustrated quickly. Why weren’t mine looking as good as hers?

So I decided I didn’t like sculpting or clay and stuck with my drawings. Did I mention I was a bit of a temperamental child? But I had fun helping her pour molds down in the basement, the giant rubber bands going around the 2 halves and pouring the slip down into the mold. I think I was most entertained with the potter’s wheel at the Agency, sitting in the seat and kicking the wheel to make the top spin. The one I used at the college seemed very tiny in comparison and they’re electric, no kicking allowed.

The past few years I’ve had this urge to try ceramics again. I seem to be ok at sculpting hot glass so maybe it was time to give clay another try. Our first assignment was to make pinch pot shakers. You take a ball of clay and pinch your thumb down inside and gradually enlarge the shape by pinching. I made tiny little shapes in clay, wrapped them in newspaper and sealed them inside the pinch pots (don’t forget the hole!). After they’re fired in the kiln you end up with tiny pieces of hard clay inside and sprinkles of ash when you first shake it. We had to make 3 things that were related somehow and I chose a totem style setting. I wrote “balance” in kanji on the bottom shaker, then what was supposed to be a clay version of one of my sumo beads, topped by an Asian woman in a kimono. They do fit together when stacked in their little zen garden, just don’t sneeze.

Since this was our first assignment, we didn’t use glazes. I resisted painting these at first, I’ve always thought regular paints on pottery ruined the look. Finally (night before the last day of class) I decoupaged golden tissue paper on the bottom piece and patterned tissue paper on the girl’s kimono, ceramicoat paints on their heads. The heads are shakers too, 4 seperate pieces and they each have a different sound. I made a horizontal hole in the girl’s hair ribbon before it was fired, I’m going to place silver wire hair sticks with flowers and beads hanging from them… I was in a bit of a rush towards the end of class and didn’t have time to add that finishing touch.

Oh and my slab assignment was to make a box with a lid. I made a castle with gargoyles and layered different glazes to create an ancient, weathered look. I cut a window into the side and also into the top lid so I can place a candle inside. I really didn’t want to make non-functional pieces, I don’t want a bunch of clutter in my home. Sound awful? No, I’m not saying art is clutter but when it comes to ceramics or pottery sitting in my place and taking up counter space, they need to have some useful purpose. When the power goes out, I’ll have my little castle casting shadows on the wall, the gargoyles chasing away evil.

I’d like to take another pottery class this coming Spring. I really liked my instructor, Tom McMillen-Oakley. He gave me the idea of using tissue paper instead of paint on my shakers. Very patient man and not once did I hear him yell or throw anything… always good traits in a teacher.

Tracy Jerrell Akhtar blogs from her home studio in Southern Michigan. To see her webpage and more of her creations, click on TracyBeads.

Sculpture with beads, or beads are sculptures

It seems many bead makers create beads that are little sculptures; not just a bead for stringing, or putting in your pocket for fondling. Which is really cool, cuz that is one of my favorite things to do. It is much easier to create a market, when you are not the only one doing it. (I even started a list for fun; top 100 bead sculptors. The list is VERY new and only has a couple members today. Some day I am going to get my picture up there of many people climbing on big giant bead sculptures. I am willing to bet thousands of bead sculptors are out there. Perhaps some day they will join the list.)

I used to have a passion for little teeny tiny seed beads, and stitching them together. I enjoy the idea of the art being made of beads. At one time, I built large ceramic beads, and then constructed them into sculptures. In 1997 I was introduced to glass bead-making. Ever since that moment I discovered the process; I knew some day, I would be able to create some sculptures with LARGE glass beads.

What didn’t I expect? That the beads themselves would become the sculptures.

This piece is a figurative sculpture that I have created in many different mediums over the years (clay, ink, paint, etc). The expressive Soul Gesture Goddess here, is made with soft glass, and is 3-1/2″ tall. (One figure bead, one base bead, and a copper plated pedestal) The curve in the figures spine is reminiscent of the “praxitilian ‘S’ curve” that we have learned from Greek Art history.

I consciously think of the ‘S’ curve every time I sculpt the spine. SO many artists use those Greek theories to learn techniques that help develop our skill. I have to say that Greek mythology and art history is one of my largest inspirations. Greek sculpting techniques are often found in my work.

The opal yellow Figure is responding to the the segmented bead; by moving with the architectural structure. (Again, the figure has the exaggerated ‘S’ curve that I am so fond of.) She appears to be surrendering her energy for an emotion too strong to express. The segmented bead reminds me of old architectural columns found on Greek and Roman temples. This piece makes me think of a person surrendering their emotions, and beliefs, and giving into whatever may follow.

I ask myself these questions that inspire me; Where is art going (as a movement)? What is the purpose of it? And, does it have to be practical? I do not have any direct black and white answers. I just know, those questions inspire me.

Sheila Morley is an artist living in Southeast, Michigan. She has an art blog, and her work can be purchased at her website, ebay, Etsy, and various shows and shops.

The Study of Beauty

 

The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries with terror before being defeated.
–Charles Baudelaire

Well, Monsieur Baudelaire garnered attention in the 1800’s because the subjects of his poems were scandalous, but this quote is wonderful. What artist hasn’t contemplated beauty? What artist hasn’t struggled with his skills and available materials and tried to wrest a beautiful object from them?

What artist hasn’t been defeated by this duel?

There are so many personal nuances in the definition of beauty. I won’t bother trying to define beauty, but I do want to talk about the artist’s struggle to portray it. I think all artists define themselves in relation to beauty, whether or not we want to admit it. Each stroke of a brush, each chip of stone, each gentle nudge of molten glass, all of these are made by an artist trying to define beauty in some way. Some end results are beautiful in a very “pretty” way, some are beautiful in a very soul-baring but not necessarily pretty way.

In the end, many of the things we create do define beauty in some way. Whether a particular piece of art is an affirmation of beauty or the antithesis of beauty, it lends boundaries to the concept of beauty. Whether a piece of art recreates the perfect, intricate details of a rose or reveals the inner soul of a withered rose of a human-being, it tells us something about beauty.

I don’t make “pretty” beads. This is my own assessment, and the thought that accompanies it in my mind and makes it acceptable to me is “but I make soulful, evocative art on occasion.” Still, when you think about it, those soulful, evocative pieces of art are also expressions of beauty– inner beauty. Each attempt adds to the definition of beauty, lends another image to the description of inner beauty.

Seems Monsieur Baudelaire was right about one thing– the study of beauty is quite the inner duel for many an artist. It may not always make us cry with terror, but it sure does make us think, doesn’t it?

Angela Greer Garren, “AngelinaBeadalina,” strives to add to the definition of beauty as she melts glass in her southern Illinois home. You can see more of her work at BeadArtists.org, read mommy and artist thoughts in her blog, or buy her glass art from her Etsy shop.