A Holiday Tradition: The Heirloom Tablecloth

My mom knows how to set a beautiful table. During the holidays, she made the table extra special by putting out photographs of loved ones who couldn’t be with us or had passed. The photographs acknowledged holiday traditions past, present, and future and inspired my first image transfer craft project.

I originally demonstrated how to make the Heirloom Photo Tablecloth on HGTV’s Crafter’s Coast to Coast. The response to this project was overwhelming, and I received e-mails from viewers all over the country.  So here it is. My holiday gift to you, a how-to create the Heirloom Photo Tablecloth. 

For this project, you will need: T-Shirt Transfer Paper, an iron, pins, a plain white or cream tablecloth  (for best result pre-wash first), and photographs (black and white or color).

First, scan your photographs onto your computer. Scanning your photographs allows you the ability to edit, crop, and even fix old photos. Once you have the photos the way you want them, use your photo editing software (most computers come with some sort of photo editing software) to reverse or flip all of the images. If you don’t have a scanner, you can  go to your local copy center. They might even be able to copy your photographs directly onto the T-Shirt Transfer Paper for you.

Next, print your scanned images onto the T-Shirt transfer paper. I used an inkjet printer. Cut out each image and pin the T-Shirt transferred photos onto the tablecloth for placement (you want to evenly distribute the photographs around the tablecloth). 

Once you have the photos where you want them, place the images face down onto tablecloth.  Set iron to the highest setting before steam (do not use steam setting) and iron pictures onto the tablecloth one at a time (following the iron on instructions on your package of T-Shirt Transfer paper). For my Heirloom Photo Tablecloth, I made coordinating napkins using the same technique.

So this holiday season, enjoy your own family traditions, past, present, and future, and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

The Road Less Traveled: The Piedmont Craftsmen’s Craft Fair

For Six Days in November, Winston-Salem, The City of the Arts, will feature  performances in music, theatre and dance.  living history at Old Salem, and dining experiences, all leading up to one of the nation’s premier craft events, The Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair.

“For goodness sakes, it’s in our blood,” said Event Coordinator Tomi Melson. “The Moravians set out to make this place a center of fine craftsmanship three centuries ago and did it.”

Now on a typical year, I do eight to ten craft shows a year. I have traveled from Florida to Las Vegas, and in my opinion, The Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair is by far the most beautiful show.                                   

                                                                

Held annually since 1963 by Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., the fair showcases the handwork of more than 130 fine artisans from across the southeast. Exhibiting members are juried into the organization on the basis of  skill, professionalism, quality, and originality.

 

Two years ago, I was juried into Piedmont Craftsmen. Since then, I have participated in  the fair and exhibited my work at the gallery, which is located on North Trade Street.

Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery

Sadly, this year I will not be participating in the fair, but you can find some of my new work in the gallery. Also on exhibit in the gallery this month is Cindy Billingsley’s Endangered.

Cynthia Bilingsley Endangered

So, this is the week to take the road less traveled to Winston-Salem, The City of the Arts. The Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair runs Saturday, November 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 22nd, from noon to 5:00 p.m. at the Benton Convention Center in Downtown Winston-Salem.

Piedmont Craftsmen Fair Preview Night

Decoding Davinci: When Science Meets Art

At the beginning of the year I asked a teacher  at my son’s school if the fifth grade class would be taking a field trip to Artspace, as all of the fifth grade classes have done for the last four years. Her response to me was that  she didn’t know because after all, “they don’t give EOG’s (end of grade tests) in art.”

A couple of weeks ago, news broke that an unsigned chalk, ink and pencil drawing, known as “La Bella Principessa,” was matched to Leonardo Da Vinci. The painting was linked to Da Vinci from a fingerprint and palm print found on the work.

The fingerprint was analyzed by Peter Paul Biro, a Canadian forensic art expert. “Biro examined multispectral images of the drawing taken by the Lumiere Technology laboratory in Paris, which used a special digital scanner to show successive layers of the work.” [ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer]

“Science, technology, scholars and art historians are learning to work together to solve these incredibly complex puzzles,” said Biro.

Obviously, I understand the importance of studying reading, writing, and arithmetic. But I fear that when asked to scientifically analyze a lost Picasso painting, these future math and science wizards will ask, “Picasso who?”

Now in all fairness to  teachers, last week I had the pleasure of taking the fifth grade class of Aversboro Elementary on a tour of Artspace. The kids were on a field trip accompanied by both their math teacher and art specialist. Both teachers agreed that the arts are an important part of a well-rounded curriculum. Fortunately, the Aversboro teachers are not alone.

“Similar to English, math, science and the other core subjects, the arts (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) are challenging subjects with rigorous content and achievement standards at the state and national levels… In addition to studying the arts for their own sake, experiencing and making works of art benefits students in their intellectual, personal, and social development, and can be particularly beneficial for students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those who are at risk of not succeeding in school.” [US Department of Education, August 26,  2004]

From Studio 109A: New Works

It’s the week of First Friday and Artspace and Studio 109A will be open November 6th from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This month, I am excited to show you several new pieces from Studio 109A.

Trapeze Artist Pendant; background art by Artspace Studio Artist Pat Scull

Last month I started experimenting with color image transfers on different color clays. This month, I wanted to make affordable focal point pieces that incorporate image transfers, color, and found objects. I started with three packages of watch parts from hands to cogs. The Trapeze Artist pendant features a French circus poster image transfer on green-gold clay with a black, gold, and white clay “cane” bezel.  A cane, “is a term borrowed from glassworking referring to glass rods, either plain or with a pattern running through them, to be used as an addition to glass pieces.” [Nan Roche, The New Clay] Canes are, “a technique, originally adapted from glass, where a design is constructed using long rods of clay so that the design runs lengthwise through the log or block. ” [Skygrazer.com] While many polymer clay artists start out making canes, I did not. It wasn’t until this past March, during a class with Dan Cormier, that I began to see the benefit of incorporating canes into my polymer clay designs. All of the focal point pieces I made this month incorporate canes.

Glamour Girl Brooch

The Glamour Girl Brooch was inspired by a fruit crate label (transferred to the piece). These watch parts reminded me of the vintage flash attachments of the Kodak Duaflex III  camera from the 1950’s and stir up visions of movie stars and pin up girls. 

Eye Chart Pendant

And the watch hands and gears weren’t my only inspiration. The Eye chart pendant incorporates an inverted watch crystal.

Houdini Pendant

In 2005, I acquired this Houdini poster. Originally, I used this image on a tile bracelet, which sold at The North Carolina Craft Gallery. This month, I reinvented this image with pen nibs and a padlock spring lock clasp.

Heart Script Pendant; background art by Pat Scull

Remember those flea market finds from my April 13th post? The Heart Script Pendant incorporates one of those flea market finds.

Air France Brooch

 Special thanks again to Artspace Artist Pat Scull (Studio 108) for letting me use her work in these photographs and to Artspace Artist Sharron Parker for letting me photograph in Studio 217. All of these pieces are available for purchase and can be seen this Friday in Artspace Studio 109A during the First Friday Gallery Walk or anytime by appointment. See you soon!

Fashion Focus: Couture for a Cause

What do you get when you have sixteen designers, three judges, and a challenge to create an outfit that best captures the essence of a local charity? No, this isn’t Project Runway. This is ME3’s first annual Couture for a Cause fashion show.

Jenny Le with Model Blakeley Pritchard

Sixteen designers were paired with sixteen Wake County nonprofits. The designers had to create an outfit  that embodied the missions of each organization. North Carolina State Student Jenny Le was assigned to Artspace. Two weeks ago, Jenny visited Artspace and took photographs for her Artspace inspired design. Not knowing what the dress looked like, I offered to loan Jenny the Artspace talisman I designed last year. The end result worn by model Blakeley Pritchard was inspired creative energy.

Blakely Pritchard wearing the Artspace talisman

The designs were judged by Banana Republic’s Tara Konya, Handbag Designer Holly Aiken, and ME3 President Amber Smith. The winning designer, Tyger Alexis, who was paired with the Interfaith Food Shuttle, won $250.

Model Meredith Morrison wearing Tyger Alexis' winning design

But it wasn’t all about the clothes. The purpose of the event was to  showcase local nonprofits, raise awareness about ME3,  and raise funds to support ME3’s ongoing efforts to promote volunteerism in Wake County. “Our goal is to help create a permanent culture of caring and community involvement in North Carolina and beyond.”

Jessica Domino's design for The American Diabetes Association

Designer Kat Schamens with her design for Adopt-A-School

Lauren Boynton's design for Literacy Council of Wake County

 

Cherihan Lusk's design for Trees Across Raleigh Keely Cansler's design for the Neuse River Foundation

 

Keely Cansler's design for the Neuse River Foundation

Laura Maruzzella's design for Boys & Girls Club

Jamella Murray's design for the Guatemalan Student Support Group

Karen Huskins design for Strike for Survival

 

Shelley Wei's design for International Free Computer Training & Charitable Center

 

Jenny Le's design for Artspace

 

I have received so much positive feedback from this post, especially from the nonprofit agencies involved, that  I wanted to include links to all of the nonprofits represented during this event.

• Adopt A School  | www.adoptaschool.us | www.adoptaschooltalk.com
• American Diabetes Association | www.diabetes.org
• AniMall | www.animall.org
• Artspace | www.artspacenc.org
• Boys & Girls Club | www.wakebgc.org
• Center for Volunteer Caregiving | www.volunteercaregiving.org
• Grow and Share | www.growandshare.org
• Guatemalan Student Support Group | www.gssg-usa.org
• Inter-Faith Food Shuttle | www.foodshuttle.org
• International Free Computer Training and Charitable Center | www.wade.org/ifctcc.htm
• Literacy Council of Wake County | www.wakeliteracy.org
• NC Museum of Natural Sciences | www.naturalsciences.org
• Neuse River Foundation | www.neuseriver.org | www.muddywaterwatch.org
• Soroptomist | www.siraleigh.org
• Strike for Survival | www.strikeforsurvival.com
• Ten Thousand Villages | www.villagesofraleigh.org
• The Carying Place | www.thecaryingplace.org
• The Flower Shuttle | www.theflowershuttle.com
• Trees Across Raleigh | www.treesacrossraleigh.org
• Triangle Family Services | www.tfsnc.org

[ I would like to welcome Funky Finds' visitors. This Wednesday Funky Finds is featuring my jewelry and giving away a pair of luggage label earrings to a lucky reader. Good luck, and thanks for visiting.]

Art Unravelled: The September Issue

“Don’t you know that you are working at the place that published some of the greatest artists of the century? Halston, Lagerfeld, de la Renta. And what they did, what they created was greater than art because you live your life in it… You think this is just a magazine, hmm? You have no idea how many legends have walked these halls. And what’s worse, you don’t care. Because this place, where so many people would die to work you only deign to work.” ["The Devil Wears Prada", 20th Century Fox, 2006]

I am interested in fashion (although you would never know that to look at the way I dress). I admit that when I travel, I usually have a bevy of fashion mags in my carry-on. In the supermarket line, I have been known to sneak a peek at Elle or In Style. And in Barnes and Noble, I have even flipped through the pages of Lucky. 

And while I’m confessing, I also loved the movie The Devil Wears Prada, mostly because of Meryl Streep’s portrayal of fashion high priestess Miranda Priestly. So, when I saw that the movie  The September Issue was being billed as “the real ‘Devil Wears Prada’”, I high tailed it over to the Galaxy to get acquainted with Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue.

The September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine weighed nearly five pounds, and was the single largest issue of a magazine ever published. With unprecedented access, filmmaker R.J. Cutler tells the story of legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and her larger-than-life team of editors, including Vogue’s Creative Director Grace Coddington and American Editor-at-Large Andre Leon Talley.

The biggest surprise of the documentary for me was not the unprecedented access to Wintour, but the artistry of Coddington.

“At the eye of this annual fashion hurricane is the two decade relationship between Wintour and Grace Coddington, incomparable creative director and fashion genius. They are perectly matched for the age-old conflict between creator and curator.” [The September Issue, official movie website]

Coddington’s collaboration with Vogue photographers results in visionary photographs, which taken outside the context of the magazine stand alone as works of art. [Click here to view Coddington's 1920's inspired spread featured in the movie] By the end of the film it becomes clear that while Wintour often appears to have no heart, Coddington is the beating heart of the magazine.

While probably better suited for A&E Television or The Biography Channel (the movie ran a little long), The September Issue was the perfect guilty pleasure for a rainy, Monday afternoon.

Readers in Raleigh will have to wait for “The September Issue” to come out on video next February.  To view Grace Coddington’s 1920’s inspired photos (featured in the movie), visit famespy.com.

The Price of Design

About a week and a half ago, Artspace hosted a luncheon and tour for members of the Downtown Raleigh Business Alliance. A few artists were asked to participate in the tour and demo. I did a demonstration of my “gin and sin” image transfer technique and answered questions. One of the questions asked was, “how many pieces can I produce a month?” To be honest, at first I was confused by the question because I don’t know any artist who counts how many pieces they can produce a month. When I spoke to some other artists about this, they said that the question really being asked of me was not “how many pieces can I produce a month” but “how much money do I make.”

When I first started my business, another artist friend and mentor, Irene Semanchuk Dean, gave me a formula for pricing my work. I have used this formula to price every piece I have made since 2004. I actually time how many hours each piece takes to make and calculate hourly wage, materials cost, overhead, and profit margin, which gives me the wholesale price of the piece. From the wholesale price, I calculate the retail price (advice that Irene gave me very early on and a mistake that in my opinion many new artists make when pricing their work).

Trapeziste

While this formula gives me a valuable tool for pricing my work, it doesn’t take into account the cost of design. Design time is unquantifiable because the design process is never ending. For me, the initial design process starts with a vision. I am not worried about execution, just the overall look of the piece. Typically, at this point in the process, I do not sketch, although I do have a mental snapshot of what I want the piece will look like. For the Trapeziste necklace for example, I knew that I wanted the trapeze artist to be “flying” across the neckline. For me, that is where the design process starts.

The next part of my design process is figuring out how to execute the piece. This is usually the part of the process where I need to sketch. For the Trapeziste necklace, I collaborated with Artspace artist Catherine Thornton, who sculpted the trapeze artist and created a mold for me. The inspiration for trapeze artist was a French circus poster. I knew I was going to cast the mold inolymer clay and paint it to mimic the original French label, however, I wasn’t sure which paint to use or even which clay to use for that matter. So, I started experimenting with acrylic paint, oil paint, and different brands of polymer clay. Four trapeze artists later, I had a finished pendant. The experimentation process, for me, is akin to a rough draft. I use this part of the process to work out the kinks.

The final part of my design process is figuring out how to put the whole piece together. For the Trapeziste necklace, I knew that there wasn’t going to be a clasp and that I wanted it to wrap around the neck like a scarf. I had to figure out how long the piece needed to be to wrap around the neck and how to weigh the piece down at the bottom so it wouldn’t slip and slide off the body. I also had to figure out how to suspend the trapeze artist across the necklace so that it wouldn’t flip over.

The actual execution of the piece, making the twenty something circus label image transfer beads, creating the final version of the finished trapeze artist, and weaving and twining the piece together, took ten hours start to finish. Design time, on the other hand, took about two weeks. The end result (in my opinion) is priceless.

From Studio 109A: In Living Color

For those of you who are familiar with my work, you know that I work in ecru, white, and sometimes gray. The truth is that most color image transfers look best on neutral color clay. I use the Premo brand of polymer clay in my work, and although my color palette is limited to three or four colors, the Premo clay comes in thirty-three colors and can be mixed (like paint) to create custom colors.

So last month, I started to experiment with color image transfers on different colors of clay. Inspired by the Pantone Color Forecast for Fall 2009, I started by creating custom colors by blending gold polymer clay with fuschia, violet, and green clay.

Next, I started transferring the images to the colored clay (with mixed results), forming the clay into beads and cabochons, sanding (also with mixed results) and buffing. I then strung the finished beads onto an asymetrical necklace (also a trend for fall/winter 2009). Someone asked me today how I get the beads so uniform in shape and size. I had to chuckle because the handful of beads that made it onto the necklace only represent a fraction of the number of beads I made and discarded.

For now, I will continue playing with color, canes, and found objects and who knows what you may find next month in Studio 109A.

Shop Local: Ornamentea

When I first started making jewelry, I knew nothing about beading. On a trip down to Florida many years ago, I stopped at a bead store in Ormond Beach and got the bug. The woman there showed me how to crimp and string a basic necklace, but that was it. When I came back to Raleigh, I made it my mission to find a bead store. I had drawings of necklaces I wanted to make but had no idea how to execute them. Then, I found Ornamentea.

Ornamentea is located in the Glenwood South area of Raleigh. It is an unassuming green and turqoise building, but inside it is a treasure trove of crystals, stones, vintage glass beads, and findings. The staff is knowledgeable and the prices are reasonable (especially compared to some of the other bead stores in the area), and they do offer a designer’s discount, which makes it a perfect place for hobbyists and professional beaders alike.

In the five years I have been making jewelry, the staff and the owner, Cynthia Deis, have become my friends. Cynthia was so supportive when I started the Capital Area Polymer Clay Guild here in Raleigh, gave me valuable advice when I did my first wholesale show in Baltimore, and helped me become a better artist by introducing me to other professionals who have challenged me to think and work “outside the box’.

This month Ornamentea turns ten years old. Happy Birthday, Ornamentea! Keep up the good work.

If you go, Ornamentea is open seven days a week and  is the West Street (R4) stop on the R Line.  Even if you are not in town and still want fabulous base metal findings, filigree, and more, visit Ornamentea’s online store at  www.ornamentea.com. Want to try something new? Visit Cynthia’s blog for free beading project downloads at shinylittlethings.blogspot.com.

Goodbye Guiding Light

It may seem odd for me to write about The Guiding Light, especially when I am supposed to be a professional artist burning the midnight oil in my studio day after day. However, before I became an artist, I spent a summer in Oakdale…

When I was a teenager, I started watching As The World Turns and The Guiding Light. On the Guiding Light, I grew up with Mindy, Phillip, Rick, and Beth. I started watching As The World Turns right around the time that Holden started working as a stable boy in Lucinda Walsh’s barn.

In the summer of my sophomore year of college, I went to work for WIOD Radio in Miami. For those of you who don’t know, I studied to be a journalist and was pursuing a career in journalism until Hurricane Andrew destroyed my parents’ house in Miami. When I told my station manager that I wanted to purue a career in television, she told me that I should consider looking into a soap opera internship. Her opinion was that working behind the scenes at a soap opera would give me invaluable television production experience. After all, they tape one show every weekday 52 weeks out of the year.

In the summer of 1989, I went to New York to work in the production department of As The World Turns, which is set in the fictional town of Oakdale. At that time, Procter and Gamble produced three soap operas, As The World Turns, Guiding Light, and Another World. All three shows were produced in New York, but As The World Turns was the only one produced at the CBS building on West 57th Avenue, the same building in which the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes is taped. That summer I learned several things. First, the stairs to the farm lead to nothing. Since I was sixteen years old, I always wanted to go upstairs at Emma’s farm. My first week on the set, I found out they lead nowhere. Second, that even when a character is beheaded, they can still make a miraculous recovery and return to the show. Third, that when a beloved actor who left the show years before comes to the office to say they are looking for the Executive Producer, it is in bad form to go running down the hall screaming, “Holden is coming back.” My summer at As The World Turns was filled with happy memories, and I fondly remember the producers who were so supportive, the production assistant who was my friend, and the director who even let me call a few shots.

The first casualty of ratings was Another World, which went off the air in 1999. This Friday (September 18th), Guiding Light will broadcast its last show, ending its historic 72 year run.

In 1937, Guiding Light made its radio debut as a fifteen minute radio show. On June 30, 1952, Guiding Light moved to television. Credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest-running soap opera in production and the longest running drama in television and radio history, Guiding Light is also the longest running broadcast program of any kind across both radio and then television media, being first broadcast five days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second inauguration.

Having been a part of the P & G production family, even for a short period of time, it is with great respect and sadness that I bid farewell to Guiding Light.