Studios Re-Do

As many of you know and as is the same for many of you, my Studio is part of my home.

For me, my studio is broken into three locations...

my family room, one side of the garage and a tiny cottage in the back yard.

While I really need the garage space for the dirtier part of my job, metal working, re-wiring, cutting baby dolls in half...and my inside studio which is suppose to be the Family Room is also super vital and my most favorite space with high a high ceiling, view of the garden and where sounds of my fountain and pond waterfall come flowing in.

The tiny cottage however darling, is the least efficient and basically serves as overflow.

This girl is tired of overflow and is streamlining operations...so the Cottage

is being emptied and it's contents sold or blended into my current Studio.

So here is a pic of one corner of my Studio...

The armoire and GORGEOUS bookshelf are going Bye-bye...

Also for sale will be a couple really cute vintage end tables, a Italian tole chandelier, antique hand painted mirror and various bric-brack that I think will accompany me to the Chateau de Fleurs sale in 17 days...or you can come shop at my home if you like!

Seriously...I need to contain my space...look at my dining room table and couch right now...Sheesh!

The armoire and bookcase are up for sale on Craigslist and I also posted them on Face Book.

$250 for the armoire and $150 for the bookcase which is solid walnut underneath, 

(yea, I should never have painted that one)

  Reasonable offers will not be ruled out either.

Any takers, email me.

Killer pieces, just not working for me any more.

I have something better suited to my current needs in mind and as soon as these pieces are gone, I will post pics of the new area...wait until you see it!!!

Happy Creative Tuesday Y'all!

Hugs,

Lisa

PMC Certification

I had an amazingly fulfilling past three days.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday was spent in San Juan Capistrano at  http://dynastyartstudio.com/.

There I participated with 6 other artists in a 

PMC Level One Certification Program administered through http://www.riorewards.com/about.asp.

Our wonderful instructor was Patrik Kusek.

http://www.patriksstudio.com/

Patrik is a Senior Level Instructor with Rio Grande and a very accomplished artist.

He was a joy to learn from.

I'll share with you some pics of my projects.

I think I love my Pen the best, but really each project was very thoughtful in its teaching us the multiple applications of this very versatile medium.

 This little beastie is called a Tetrahedon...or as otherwise referred to as the Tetra-Heathen.

Mine was nicknamed Tetra-MONSTER.  Seriously, I almost failed Geometry in High School and had to have a tutor to be able to pass...need I say more???

It truly tested multiple skills and was in the end invaluable.

Remember folks...made out of 99.9% pure silver CLAY, mitered corners and bevels, fired in a kiln...then polished and polished and polished.  It is one of those projects that you question, why the heck am I torturing myself, only to finish it and have the deepest sense of pride that you were able to do it.

I have very little experience with Metal Clay, so was a bit fearful that I was ill prepared for this level of instruction.  I did pretty well though, thanks to growing up sculpting ridiculously small things for my dolls and creating jewelry and figurines out of polymer clay almost 20 years ago.

 The below link takes you to my other blog and a story about these figurines.

http://thewingedmuse.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-06-08T08%3A56%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

I am on my way and totally motivated to continue my education in this medium, reach new levels and teach it as well as sell finished pieces.

Thank you Patrik for your tutelage and for sharing your art and craft with us!

Thank you Cindy for an amazing studio to work in, for the yummy lattes and snacks, your fabulous stamps and now I am adding pen plater to my list of tools needed for my studio!

Hugs All!!!

Art is meant to be shared

Yesterday was my first official Bling Baby class at Gilding the Lily 

in Fullerton.  This is a Vintage Jewelry/Millinery/Trim Girls Candy Store.

If you haven't ever been there, GO!  Nancy is the owner and is super nice and resourceful.

Dede runs the class schedule and is a doll to work with and quite the talented artist too!

I was so excited and a little nervous too, wanting to be sure I taught my class

proficiently and that my students would come away happy with some new "tools" to add to their 

creative work boxes.  Having taught Children art, teaching my peers did seem a little ominous.

Fortunately, I knew almost everyone in the class already and they were all so gracious and warm, any nervousness I had melted away the minute we started.

Each lady was given a pair or Blinged out Safety glasses, I mean, why not?

This is Tara's daughter IVY with her pair on...

The ladies were given two trays of vintage Bling and baubles to choose from to decorate their babies with, as well as three pages of written instructions to refer to at home.

Here are the ladies at various stages of production.

Stacey brought the most amazing vintage Italian lamp and her own blue velvet to match 

her Baby's eyes.  Darling!

Pearl cleverly used a large glass lamp part that was originally from a swag lamp,

she also used pale pink velvet ribbon and patiently wound it around the post.

Mother/Daughter duo Tara and Ivy...

They brought LOTS of their own Bling as Tara is a jewelry designer

and crazy vintage girl like all of us.

Cutting up Dolls.  I think a few of the ladies were not so sure about this part, like it was wrong, 

but gotta do it...

After cutting the dolls, we used a bench grinder to even things out.

Poor Marbi and Tara...they had matching dolls that they purchased from me and those babies were like LEAD...super thick and a bit more trying to cut through!

Stacey's doll was darling she used vintage bone china flowers from England

which complimented the porcelain flowers in that KILLER lamp base she had.

Very Nice!

Marbi wound lavender velvet ribbon around the base of her dolls waist, it was really pretty!

She is going to cover her post at home with vintage sheet music...Brilliant!

Mary brought several of the most beautiful Victorian porcelain doll heads, her

design is for her and hubby's 19th wedding anniversary next weekend.  There will be two

love birds at the base of her cage...Cute!

Barb was the Birthday Girl today, her friends Mary and Lisa surprised her with a beautiful cake that was just as yummy as it was pretty.  Barb's doll head is just a Cutie!

She wasn't so sure of the verdigris green cage she brought, but it matched her baby's eye perfectly and came together ever so well!

Can you say BLING???  Tara LOVES vintage sparkly rhinestones and her Baby had plenty.

She also repainted her dolly as she was pretty cracked up before.

Beautiful!

Tara's girl was ever so Pink and it was fun to have a 17 year old in the group!

Their young perspective and twist on things is refreshing!

She did a little vignette at the base of the cage too!

The every so pretty Lisa, made this little GEM.  Love the butterfly in her hair and the very thoughtful placement of things.  She is going to bling her out some more at home...can't wait to see the pics, Lisa!

My friend Pearl.  She is a Gem.  No really, not just because of the name either.

Pearl's baby was sweet and soft, just like her.  The "Wisdom Dispenser" was a custom order Pearl placed with me several months ago.  Timing was right as one of my earlier "Wisdom Dispensers"

is photographed in the back of this Month's Sommerset Home magazine under my good Friend 

Claire Brocato's Photography section.

What a treat is was to spend the afternoon sharing my techniques with 8 wonderful ladies.

Art is meant to be shared and I really LOVE sharing it.

Thank you for spending part of your day with me and thank you Nancy and Dede for having me teach at your Wonderful Store!

Happy Sunday everyone!

xo,

Lisa

Happy Find

At the last show I sold at, I found this very cool and FuNkY HUGE floral tHiNgY~
It was all gold and I just LOVED it!!

Originally wall art, I believe...

So, what to do?  Well, in classic Lisa Style we add some color of course...

It originally had color underneath the gold that was peeking out at me, but despite, paint thinner and acetone (used separately of course), the gold was not going anywhere.

So, out came the paints.

Very happy with the outcome. 
Have more plans for it that I will share at a later date,

it might even accompany me to Glitterfest as part

of my display.

It now resides at the back of the workbench in my main workplace.

Happy Saturday!

xo,

Lisa

Lita's Little Mermaid "Bling Baby"

A good customer of mine who LOVES mermaids and owns on of my Mermaid Necklaces

custom ordered a Bling Baby.  She gave me complete artistic freedom, only

asking that I make her in pinks/aquas and mermaid-y!

This darling little lass will be shipped to her in the next few days.

When I emailed her pics of her, she was tickled "Mermaid Pink"

and can't wait for her arrival.

If you are interested in learning how to make one of your very own Bling Babies, I will be doing a class in Rainbow, Ca on August 22nd and some time in September at The Garden of Beaden 

in Upland, Ca.

Email me for info or to sign up!

Hugs,

Lisa

Have a Beautiful Day!!!