Hand Painted Wooden Pendants...

My first batch of wooden art pendants are finished and ready to go.

Remember what I started with.....a batch of unfinished wooden rectangles I received a couple of weeks ago in the mail, in other words, a blank canvas.

So all those endless possibilities turned into the pieces you see here, at least the first 5 anyway.

I have a new idea I would like to try for my next batch of wooden pendants, I'm not sure this design twist will work yet but I've got to try so, I'll see how it plays out.

The pendants pictured are being added to my ETSY site: www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

I'll keep you posted on the next batch and we'll see if my little twist of an idea works out.

Everything Is Coming Up Butterflies

On the weekend I was painting butterflies.....as you can probably guess, I'm longing for spring here and my painting projects were a wonderful way to take me out of the cold and get me thinking warm thoughts.

I've been painting in miniature again, more sand dollar pendants!!!

I actually really love to alternate painting on canvas or tin or whatever larger surface I'm working on at the moment, with painting in miniature such as eggs or pendants.

Someone recently asked me why I switch back and forth between projects and more specifically, different sizes of projects, rather then just say....finishing my Hydrangea Wreath canvas painting and then moving onto something else.

I love to alternate between painting projects because I feel it really gives my mind a change, a rest, a much needed break from things. It keeps me "fresh" on whatever larger project I'm working on at the moment...which right now is my canvas wreath. I guess I would say it allows me to step back and give myself much needed perspective on what I'm doing. This also gives me a mental break from constantly thinking about the same thing and I think, lets me step back and look objectively at my work and see what needs to be done next.

So this weekend I did a bit of both....some canvas painting and work on a few new butterfly miniatures. My dog groomer has suggested that I paint some cat/dog art pendants to sell in his shop so keep an eye out for those in the future. Today however, I'm off to paint some bugs in miniature!

A New Line.......Hand Painted Pendants

I've been working really hard on a new line of hand painted pendants...actually, I've been loving every minute of it too. You know I love to paint in miniature and these pendants, some rather impressionistic and some a bit abstract, have been wonderful to create.

Each painting is created on a sand dollar, sealed to keep the design beautiful and then made ready to wear or gift by adding on an 18" black cord.

I'll be working on many new ones in future weeks but these are the first results of painting on this beautiful, natural surface.

Sometimes I have a clear idea of what I would like to paint and other times, I just let the paint take the shapes it wants.

The "design sky" is really the limit with these, I just let my imagination go wild and see what the creative outcome will be.

These art pendants are available on my ETSY site: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .

What's An Artist To Do....

Ok, so the question is, what's an artist to do when she is in what I like to call (a sudafed induced brain coma ) brought about by the deliberate ingestion of this product to relieve horrible allergies?? You obviously cannot paint when you are in this state but you can still be creative. The pendants in this post originated from just the situation I described...I was feeling poorly over the weekend and couldn't paint but I decided to get creative with some new pendant designs. Large and bold designs taken from various painted pieces I've done over they years. The bird is from a ceiling tin and the Morning Glory is from a gourd.

The bluebird is created from a jewelry box and the lady bug from a goose eggshell pin.

The dragonfly from an eggshell pin and the butterfly from a turkey display egg.

The purple African Violets are from an eggshell pin and the chickadee is from....I cannot remember where. Seriously, I cannot remember but I better figure it out soon.

The butterfly image from a ceiling tin and the pink rose from an eggshell pin. Until next time when my brain is hopefully more clear....enjoy.

More Artful Pendants........

I hope everyone had a really wonderful holiday and is still enjoying their weekend. We've still got company but I'm going to try to get to putting the finishing touches on my faux window so I can be done with it and ready to start the next one.

In the meantime though I've been running around making some more pendants for my shop. The 5 above are all from paintings I've created in the past, that I thought might lend themselves to the rectangular shape of the glass pieces.

I'm creating a special section in my shop for Exotic Orchids because that is exactly what they are, exotic beauties that really need their own place to bloom.

These photos were all taken at the 2008 NY Botanical Garden Orchid Show this past March. If you want to see photos of that gorgeous show and glimpses of shows from the previous years, just visit my "out and about" section in the column to the right. The show is a must see and is filled with rooms and rooms of gorgeous orchids cascading and growing up from every imaginable surface. Truly a treat for the eyes.

Artful Pendants

I've started a new creative adventure that I'm having a tremendous amount of fun with, I'm creating glass art pendants from my paintings and photographs. I've also launched a new ETSY shop, Artful Pendants!

I have to say that making each pendant by hand is very therapeutic and relaxing. I'll be adding more and more pendants to my shop over time but for now, I feel I'm off to a good start.

All the pendants, whether they are photographs or paintings, are inspired by nature and therefore, I felt I had to do something quite special and "natural" when photographing them. I have to say, taking photos of them is almost as much fun as creating them.

Pendants are $7.50 a piece and I will always be running a buy 2 get one free offer. I hope you will visit my new ETSY shop and enjoy these new nature inspired pieces. http://www.artfulpendants.etsy.com/ .