LUNATIKlife Contest

I got word today that one of my Paper by 53 drawings placed in the top 10 of the LUNATIKlife digital drawing contest. Below is the drawing and here is a link to see the winning drawings. I was so excited to get the news! I have really enjoyed exploring the possibilities of digital drawing with the Paper by 53 iPad app. I try to draw and post one drawing each day. It was fun to submit some of those to the LUNATIKlife contest earlier this summer. After reviewing the other winning entries, I feel honored to have been included!

 

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Glass Houses...

Friday, I started playing with a pile of glass scraps, small pieces leftover from other projects. I had been thinking of trying to create some little glass houses, and all the tiny leftover triangles captured my imagination and seemed perfect for doing just that. Below are a few more of the finished pendants. I brought these to full fuse. I think I may do a few soon and try tack fusing them so that the small pieces retain their shape a little more, but I was pleased with these.

 

 

 

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Hand picked pendants

I worked on a few new hand painted pendants over the past few days. I had forgotten how much I love using the Glassline paint to create these little floral pendants. As you can see, I had a little help while I was photographing them to post here. 

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Video Portfolio

I put together this three minute video using iMovie for the iPad. It is a collection of some of the digital sketches I've done in the Paper by 53 app.

 

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Classic Case of Burnout

I've never really understood the term "burnout" until recently. I was working really hard during the fall and early winter to keep up with the various shows and festivals I had scheduled. When May came, I kind of just stopped working for a while, and a while became longer than I originally thought it would be. I was distracted by all the end of the year activities at my real job, and so I thought as soon as May was over I would get back to it. May ended, and I just wasn't feeling it. That's when I realized I had a classic case of burnout. I looked at the glass stacked around my garage and my heart just wasn't in it. I kept waiting to get inspired, and it didn't happen.

In the mean time, I picked up sketching on the iPad. A fun diversion, but the glass still waited. I didn't schedule any shows in June or July - lots of time to recover the glass groove. My next show isn't until late August, I have a pretty large inventory and I'm still coasting along.

I've decided that I will just muddle through the burnout. I will take baby steps and see if inspiration returns. I willed myself to get started this past week when I was off for the holiday. I moved my ring saw out of my very hot garage and into the dining room. I gradually started and began to enjoy working. Still, I crave something fresh, a new way of working, something new to try...but at least I'm working again.

My mind is working on new ideas. I have a few things percolating that I want to try, a few experiments to get to. I wish I could say I'm truly motivated, but at least I see a little spark. In the meantime, I will keep working. I want some new, fresh pieces for my upcoming festivals.

Below are a few of the pendants I created last week. Overall, I'm pleased with most of them. When working with the ring saw, you have to carefully clean each cut piece before firing. For some reason, even though I washed the pieces a few of them still had the debris on them - this was only apparent after firing...so I lost a few in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Week of New Sketches

 

 

More sketches created this week using my iPad and the Paper by 53 app. I try to do one sketch each day. The app automatically posts them to my tumblr page and tweets them. I usually put the sketch of the day on my LeisaWorks Facebook page too.

 

I've had several people ask me about getting prints made from these. I've investigated and found 2 sites to create prints from Instagram images. I brought them into Instagram and set up galleries on each site. The image above shows a page in one of these galleries.

 

The first is called Instaprints - if you click you will go to my gallery. This site prints on canvas, acrylic, and different types of paper. You can even get a customized frame and mat. The other site is called instacanvas - they print on gallery wrapped canvas.

 

 

 

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Getting back to it...

So, I know I keep saying I'll get back to working on glass shortly, and I will. However, this weekend was dedicated to something much more important - my daughters sweet 16 birthday party.

So, I put glass on hold for a little while longer. I am starting to notice that summer is getting away from me though, and I have fall and winter shows already on the calendar. So, I am anxious to get to work.

I have done a few pieces recently. Above are some of my recent pendants. I wanted to experiment some more with the circles, just play with different colors and sizes. I love some of the color combos! I also did a few of the flowers, but I need lots more of those. That is my next goal.

The amazing Paper by 53 app is where I am channeling most of my creativity recently. Primarily because it's at my fingertips when I'm sitting in the dentist office, waiting in the car for someone, or just home too late to drag out and work on glass, below are some recent Paper drawings. I attempt to post one drawing each morning on leisaworks.tumblr.com.

 

 

Fun with Paper

I'm having the best time playing with the Paper by 53 app.

One of my college art professors encouraged us to carry a sketchbook with us everywhere and continually be drawing. This app makes it convenient and fun to do that!

I try to post a sketch each morning to my Facebook and tumbler pages. I haven't posted any recent sketches here on the blog, so I thought I'd post some tonight. The little nest above is the sketch for tomorrow morning. The ones below we're posted in the past week or so.