Through The Keyhole

Little Pieces

These are two small pieces I just finished today. The top is collage/acrylic and the bottom is just acrylic. I haven't used my acrylics in a loooong time. It was fun to do these. I think I'll keep the paints out for awhile to do a few more small pieces. These will be making their way to a friend as soon as I get them scanned.

New Jewelry

I made two new rings this week. The first is a lovely nutty brown and gold beach stone, polished by the waves and sand, smooth and gorgeous. It's sterling and fine silver.

The second is a vintage metal button with it's silver wearing off. The brass showing through slightly at the edges. I love this one the best so far, it's so sweet. It is also sterling and fine silver.

I love making bezels. The soldering is magic still to me. The filing and polishing is so meditative and satisfying. I took a couple of hours off of work Friday afternoon to go to the studio and was surprised I was able to finish the button ring in this time. I wasn't even sure if I had all the materials I needed to make something when I arrived but it all came together better than if I'd planned. The perfect end to a hectic week.

Artfest Part 4

Tonight I'm posting the last of the pictures from Artfest.

Keith and his fabulous hat.

I don't know who this instructor is but I loved the hat.

One of the art cars.

A necklace by a student in Keith's class. That's a perfume bottle stopper, a piece of wood, and steel wire.
So simple and so beautiful.

This attendee came to the first night of trading well prepared!

I'll end with a few beach photos.

That's it. I'm wiped out. I'll add links and put names to faces on Friday or Saturday.

Artfest Part 3

Tonight we have photos of the goodies I picked up at Vendor night, Show and Tell, and the Journal Party at the beach house.

First up, some amazing vintage glass slides I picked up from Thomas Ashman. I've no idea what I'll be doing with these but I fell in love with them.

The rest of the goodies. From left and then up, Keith Lo Bue's portfolio, a vintage autograph book, vintage crepe paper, vintage embroidered "your book" letters, and a vintage square bezel all from LK Ludwig, a vintage caliper of some sort from Bird and Kathy, a birdseed bag and balloon shoes from I don't know who, a Madonna and Child card from Michael Jon Peterson, and two postcard packets from a very generous Misty Mawn.

Journal Party
Here we have Kathy, Tejae, Andrew and in the upper left smiling big my friend Lelainia.

Lelainia and Kristen

People I don't know. I love this building. It has such soul. If I squint, it reminds me of a cabin I barely recall in Alaska when I was a child.

Show and Tell night was amazing. Four rooms filled with gorgeousness. It's amazing the amount of work created in just 3 short days. Once again, I didn't note artists names. If you see your work here leave me a comment so I can give you credit.
The dolls simultaneously intrigued me and repulsed me. I couldn't stop looking at them.

Alright, I wonder if there's a limit to the number of photos that will fit in one post. I guess we'll see. Tomorrow night I'll wrap up the Artfest posts with part 4. Have a good night.

Artfest Part 2

Tonight I have the amazing trades I received from my housemates. First up from Lelainia Lloyd. An ingenious little necklace to hold moo cards. Very sweet! I love the colors and design. Lelainia is the organizer of our house, bringing us all together.

Next from Kristen Robinson. I hadn't met Kristen before and now I feel like I've known her forever. How could I have not known her before now??? She presented us all with a cozy pillow in some of my favorite colors, chocolate and blue. The fabric feels like your favorite pillowcase, it's been washed a million times it's soft soft soft against my skin.

The next little treat is from Penelope Harris. She stayed in the house last year but chose the dorms this year. I was so happy she was able to come over in the evenings and thrilled that she participated in the house trade! It was great to be able to see her again. She's incredibly productive and I love this sweet little book.

The fourth amazing piece was from Sharon Dibble. Sharon is new to the house this year and I'm so grateful she joined us! Her necklace is beautifully etched copper, patina'd and strung with beads on a steel wire. I enjoyed visiting with her each night after dinner and hope we can get together to make some art since she lives nearby.

Up next is a cd from Tara Finlay. Tara's original art is on the label and the music is wonderful. All of it new to me and some I'm going to need to explore more deeply. I just love the characters Tara draws. She too is highly productive. She'd just finished up preparing for an art show before heading to Artfest.

Finally, from Jonna Barnett. I met Jonna the very first night of my very first Artfest and we've stayed in touch since. It's been wonderful to watch her art evolve. I'm thrilled that she likes crows and ravens as much as I do. She's been my roommate these last two years and hopefully we'll be able to make it a third next year.

I feel so fortunate to have been able to share this years Artfest with these amazingly generous and kind hearted women.

I enjoyed the general trading this year so much. It's fun to see what people choose to create. This first one I received after sharing some silver wire with a classmate. The image in the center is the Schoolhouse building from Fort Worden, where we were taking class.

More trades. The ATC's.

Here we have a mix of original little paintings, Jonna's mushroom postcard and the sweetest little book of her handmade papers, magnet, an intricately decorated pencil, pins, and some mystery packets that I haven't wanted to open yet.

The charms, owl themed items, and ephemera.

Here's a few more I was especially smitten with.
The first by Penelope Harris again.


I love the sweet little hedgehog!

I'd planned to include instructions for this little game in the zine I'd made but ran out of room. I was so excited to get one with a candy necklace no less.

One more trade pic. This one is a print of an original piece. Again, I missed the artists name. Then there are inchies and mondo inchies by Penelope again. I told you she was productive.

Toast, tea, and birds are three of my all time favorite things in the world.

Tomorrow I'll post photos of my purchases, the Journal Party and Show and Tell.
For now, have a restful night.

Post-Artfest....finally!

Finally, the photos have been dowloaded, I've nearly unpacked and I'm ready to share about Artfest. Re-entry to my real life after Artfest is always difficult and strange. This is my fourth year and it's always the same, I feel out of synch with my surroundings and the goings on of my day to day existence. As though this were not my real life but a shadow existence and what happens at Artfest is the life of my heart. Actually, it isn't my life, it's my work that is the challenge to come back to. I love my life and am fortunate to mostly enjoy my day job but the job crowds my mind and my days. Alright, enough of that. On with it.

This year and last I stayed in an Officers house with friends, old and new. We did an exchange based on the theme of house or home. This was my contribution. I made one for each of my housemates.

Here they are all lined up.

The found poem says
he propped his bare feet on the railing that surrounded the porch
he could see a scrap of the sea;
he could smell it too,
fresh and salty
remember this moment

The words are from "Our Arcadia" and brought to mind the view from our house at Artfest.

It's made with all my favorite sorts of things, driftwood twigs, glass and stones smoothed satiny and round from being tumbled in the waves, bits of silk ribbon and fabric rumpled and torn, black beads, copper wire and mica.

Tomorrow I'll post what I received from each of them. They are wonderful!

For my general trade, I made a zine. It's my first ever and it was okay. I interviewed Michael Jon Peterson, (a new instructor at Artfest and a new friend) and mistakenly named him Michael Jon Smith in the title of the article. No idea what I was thinking but it's now his alter ego. He was so very kind about the blunder!

I've a few more left so if you'd like one just leave me a comment and I'll email you for your address.

Finally, I did a painting for the gallery and as luck would have it, it sold. My first official sale! I was a bit confused when I went to pick it up and it wasn't there. I'd never entered anything in the gallery before so I didn't expect it to go.

Here's the first night trading frenzy at dinner.

Teesha and Tracy and the opening event in the hangar

And here's a few gallery pieces. Sadly I didn't note the names of the artists.

This next piece was done by my friend Jonna Barnett.

With that I bid you goodnight. More tomorrow!