Continued Progress and Reflection

It is the last day of Art Every Day Month and I am a little sad. 

I have enjoyed the ride. 

Mostly I have enjoyed getting to know the other artists that have participated. Visiting their blogs, reading your comments, sharing emails, supporting one another, and getting to know you. I hope that you'll sign up to follow my blog as I continue on my journey of becoming, growing, and embracing the artist that I am.

Back on November 9th I posted about carving wax and I posted the photo below. 

Well, I've made a little progress since then... (my picture aren't the best, sorry, the BF is still in bed)

I still have a ton of work to do on the flower and plan to make a couple more flowers before I take them to the caster. 

Refining, when working with wax, means adding texture if you want it, smoothing if you don't and most importantly sanding. Ideally you want to make your wax piece be as close to what you expect the final metal piece to look and feel like. Don't get me wrong, once cast, you will still have to sand and buff your final metal piece but if you refine the wax before casting the cleanup will be so much less.

What made these pieces particularly difficult and time consuming is the size - at one point I thought of starting  over but I have always loved little charms so I am sticking with it.

As I continue blogging and creating, I plan to post a few times a week. 

More about that in a future post on Friday so come back to visit.

Thank you for stopping by, commenting, and following my journey. 

I Love Flowers. . .

Thank you to all who have visited and continue to visit, read and comment. I have really enjoyed AEDM because of you. You have inspired me and reinforced that I am on the right path. Thank you for being a part of my journey!

Flowers appear in my creative work often.

I really do love flowers. The simple complexity and the beauty. The fact that they don't last long once cut so you have enjoy them (really enjoy them) may make me appreciate them even more. 

Also, I have such fond memories of both my Mom and Gram having such beautiful flower gardens. My Mom's garden is still beautiful.

I photograph flowers all the time. Making specific plans to visit certain parts of Central Park in Spring to specifically shoot the tulips. I simply love them. 

I have, also, often cut them out of silver sheet to create pendents and twisted flowers out of wire. Creating greeting cards with twisted wire flowers on the front of the card. A small bouquet of wire flowers to brighten my desk. 

I've just never thought of sharing and making them available to all of you. Crazy how the obvious just isn't so obvious sometimes.

I recently cut a couple of flowers out of paper to create a card which I hung a pair of my pearl earrings on to give to a friend. I, of course, kept the sheets of paper thus the pattern of the flowers. 

I am going to create necklaces and earrings. 

Now, to create centers from buttons or beads

Flowers are a theme that I rely often in my creative work (photographs, jewelry, sketching, painting). 

Does your work have a theme? 

Do you return to a particular theme when you need be inspired?

Shared Messages from the Universe - Become. . .

verb:

1. to come, change, or grow to be 

2. to come into being

I walked past this last week while walking with a friend and I instantly knew I had to take a picture. 

I also instantly thought about my blog, my photography, the jewelry I've started to make again, carving stamps, the etsy store that isn't open, and dreaming of the much needed studio space. 

And then I took a deep breath...took the picture and kept walking.

While at lunch, my friend mentioned that she reads my blog at midnight after her day job and Mom duties are finished and how proud she is that I have started discover the creative part of me again.

I love my friends. They really are an extended part of my family. Thank you!

Looking back on this picture I realized that it is a process. To BECOME. This journey of creating, taking more pictures, living a creative life - my life.

I also realized that right now, at this moment, I am BECOMING...slowly BECOMING the artist that I want to BE.

I need to enjoy the journey, do what I can, not beat myself up when I cannot, and most importantly embrace where I am at this time.  

Don't get me wrong, I still have dreams and goals but part of them is THE BECOMING, the growing, the ride, the journey.

Even though I may not BE where I want to BE entirely...I am BECOMING. Rather than just dreaming - I am doing, creating and listening to the song my soul sings.

Today, I encourage you to BECOME...

Listen to that little voice, that whisper that teases and tugs at your soul. 

And BECOME.

How will you take one step (may it be sideways if necessary) towards living your dream - towards BECOMING who and what you are deep down inside? 

Sunday Color Snippets

I've been a little under the weather the past few days - all those plans to do so many things was put on hold. I had been thinking about this post and orignally had a goal of continueing to find colors on the streets and creating mosiacs. But, that just wasn't going to happen - life does just get in the way sometimes. 

Happily, because of the BF, I was able take some photos even though I haven't felt well. I fell in love with these while waiting in a checkout line. I not only bought them because of the colors (which is why I picked them up in the first place) but also because I knew there would pleasure in the consumption.

These are beautifully wrapped dark chocolate bars. I love dark chocolate.

The BF craved chocolate and because he's such a doll he asked which bar(s) he could taste. It gave me the chance to photograph them before he tore into them.

I love the colors, the patterns, the fact that each bar is made with cocoa from a different country. Simple joy.

Oh, and Tucker (our cat) was even curious and wanted to help. 

Here you can see the countries listed on the side of each bar. 

Are you surrounded by color?  

Can you find color in your everyday?

A Bit of Brooklyn and Distraction...

I and the BF visited new friends in Brooklyn for Thanksgiving. 

Walking from the subway stop to the waterfront in DUMBO - I of course was distracted (textures, shapes, colors) and before knocking on the door we had to meander so I click a few pics.

By the way, this is a normal thing - me getting distracted by something I see. Something that most people walk past every day. So, if we are walking together and I am not keeping up, it is probably because I've taken my camera out to capture something that I noticed. 

Peaking at the Brooklyn Bridge...

Pattern - texture everywhere...

And, just across from the front door of their building someone had spread a whole lotta love. I couldn't resist capturing the love.

What has recently distracted you?