My mother once told me that if I would pick one thing and actually focus on it, I would be absolutely amazing at whatever that might be. But I'm not a focuser. Much like a tone-deaf person will never become a great singer, I will never have tunnel vision .. no matter how hard I try. Sure ... I learn little tricks to help along the way, but my work table is always filled with many different projects in varying stages of completion.
Allow me to prove my point ... below are the projects currently on my work bench .. just waiting for me to complete them and update my etsy site!
These altered composition notebooks have been hanging around so long, I'll soon be able to list them as 'vintage' items!
These are a little more recent .. but quickly catching up!
My current medium of the moment is soldering and plaster ...
Altered tins with solder and resin .. the resin part is still in process.
Keeping with the Soldering theme (I guess that could be considered 'focusing'), I recently took Terri Heniz's Soulful Adornment class. Great class, which I would highly recommend. These soldered, resin-filled charms are also in varying states of completion. What's the delay you ask? Well ... I want to be able to do all the resin at once. Artist who use resin a lot make it seem so easy to whip up just a little at a time. Why do I make it seem like such a big deal?
And of course .. I need some hand-beaded chains to go with those charms. This is my very first attempt at beading. It is quite fun! At least one is completed!
And now back to soldering ... Here are some soldered microscope slide charms ..
A couple collaged matchbox shrines using little bits and pieces..
And some soldered matchbox shadowbox magnets with images and text ..
And while we're at it .. let's solder some charms to go with those hand-beaded chains we were making two projects ago! I was just playing around with different things .. stone, glass blocks, glass marbles, hammered wire, etc. The ideas just keep coming! They're not all winners .. but we'll save those for another blog post.
I bought a new workbench for my garage. Soldering and plaster are just too messy for the office/craft room. This piece of Styrofoam packing was really wanting to be a shrine! So I covered it in plasterwrap! Not sure where I'm going just yet. It'll speak to me at some point when it's ready for the next step.
We were recently at the Mission San Xavier in Tucson. The plaster curtains on my shrine were inspired by the amazing plaster work at the mission. The colors and craftsmanship are amazing! But this is not a good place to buy Milagros for art purposes. They are strictly rationed - only one to a customer - and can only be used for their intended purpose! I have a feeling Milagro art is frowned upon here. Kind of like wearing a rosary as a necklace.
Anyway .. back to my myriad of projects ...
Here are some plaster elements which may or may not be used on my shrine.
And lastly .. this is my most recent project. They are going to be called Forgotten Relics. They are soldered matchbox shrines.
The base is covered in plasterwrap and then the glass is soldered to protect the 'relic' inside. I love the way the paint settles into all the nooks and crannies of the dried plasterwrap.
The insides, while distressed, are much better preserved than the outside.
Is 'grunge' a color?
I do need to focus on finishing something. Right now, finishing this blog post will have to do.
