Ideas

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Sonja at Bloom Floral Designs about some orders she is going to have me do for her shop. If you are not familiar with Bloom and live in the North Canton area, you need to discover her work! She does amazing floral designs and all the gift items and displays in her shop are just wonderful -- very clean lines with a unique and "fresh" presentation. Her designs make most other arrangements out there seem rather old, outdated and "tired." It was fun to talk with her and come up with some ideas together about how she might be able to use a few of my art pieces. Quite frankly, I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to do these projects for such a creative soul as Sonja!

Since I am new to the blogging world, I am not going to try to actually link to Sonja's website, but her address is: www.bloomfloraldesigns.com

I'm also posting some photos today of some pieces I recently completed. These are little soldered collage charms with hand-done calligraphy used on antique bottles, some with vintage chandelier prisms for stoppers. They are great for bath salts, oils or to hold a stem or two of your favorite flower. The last photo is a small picture under glass with a velvet ribbon for hanging on the wall.

Sweet surprise...

I thought I would share this photo of a custom order that I did for a husband to give to his wife as a surprise for Valentine's Day. (I'm not at all sure that my camera or my photography skills are really up to par for this blog, but I will work on that in the future.) I had done a couple of similar frames for this family to give to grandparents for Christmas. The wife really liked them and so her husband decided it would be nice to have me create one for her as a surprise. He left the quote/calligraphy choice up to me, but requested that it relate to motherhood. I chose the line "i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)" from an e.e. cummings poem. One of several embellishments I included in the collage work was a section of a vintage measuring tape and I wrote the phrase, "Love without measure," alongside the tape. I also used some text from an old children's storybook that spoke of a mother, "happy and busy with her little ones." They will display a photo of their two adorable children -- or possibly the (beautiful) mom with the children -- in the frame. This is such a dear family and I thought it was a very sweet gift for the husband to order this frame for his wife. I hope she is pleased with the final outcome! I'd love to see it complete with photograph in their home.

Beginning...

Since I "created" this blog site many months ago, I guess it is time that I actually start to post some entries. Today feels like a good day for this beginning. I am not always the most computer savvy of individuals, thus the delay in getting this blog underway; however, today I am "jumping in" and trusting that anyone who may end up reading will be patient with my learning process. (Thanks in advance for that patience, by the way!)

Brad (my hubby) and I just returned a couple days ago from a visit to Tempe, AZ to see our sister and brother-in-law. It was a great visit and at the Phoenix Airport for the return trip, I noticed an art exhibit, entitled Other Words, with installations in several spots throughout the terminal. The description of the exhibit talked about letters, text and punctuation as being visual, with literary marks as texture, pattern, rhythm and context -- in other words, the language of artists. The pieces which I saw from the exhibit were wonderful and all incorporated letters, words, and text in a variety of ways. I loved the artwork and it inspired me to stretch for new techniques and expansion in my own art.

So today I am stretching a bit to begin this blog and hopefully to establish more connections with other creative folks as a result. Now I think I will close this initial post and go put that inspiration to good use otherwise in making some art on this chilly Valentine's Day.