The theme for the first Art Elements design challenge of the new year was ‘berries.’ There are berries and then there are berries. By which, of course, I mean there are those things botanists classify as berries, and then there are the things we call berries but which are actually some other part of a plant. I was inspired by both kinds of berries for this challenge.
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As another year comes to an end, it’s time for my annual blog retrospective. Where did my creative journey take me in 2019? There were slightly fewer blog posts this year than last, but still at least one per month. Many of the monthly posts were dedicated to themed art challenges. By focusing on one (or sometimes two) design themes a month, I was able to explore each theme in more directions. As a result, I feel as if my work was more focused this year, and maybe my artistic voice is getting stronger.
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The final Art Elements theme challenge for the year is “Handmade Christmas” which gives us a chance to catch up on holiday projects during what is usually a busy time of year for many. To make it even easier on us participants, we can enter any gifts we make, even baked goods. Baked goods for an art challenge, you say? Well, why not? Have you never heard of the culinary arts?
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The theme for this month’s Art Elements challenge is fossils. When I signed up to participate in the design challenge I had zero ideas for interpreting the theme. Probably because my brain went immediately to the enormous dinosaur skeletons featured prominently in natural history museums. “Dinosaur bones” was all I could think of because, as usual, I was being too literal. I just needed to let my muse free associate a bit and then I had more ideas than time to execute them.
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This month, eyes are the theme for the Art Elements design challenge. The symbolism of eyes in art is as varied as the structure of literal eyes across the animal kingdom. Where to begin? As usual, narrowing down a nearly infinite number of ideas to those that can be completed in a month is the most difficult part of the design challenge. Now that the weather has finally turned less hot (I’m not prepared to call high temperatures in or approaching the 70s ‘cool’) I can get back into the polymer clay studio, which means sculpting is an option. Also, my infatuation with embroidery that began this summer shows no signs of fading, which had me searching for stitch inspiration.
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Foliage is the theme for the September challenge from the Art Elements design team. The leaves of plants and trees is a great inspiration for the first month of Northern Hemisphere autumn, even if the temperatures haven’t yet felt quite like fall. As the month is ending, leaves in my area are just beginning to turn from green to the russets and ambers of fall. Well, those that aren’t prematurely browned from the lack of rain, anyway.
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When “octopus” was announced as the theme for the monthly Art Elements design challenge I definitely squealed out loud. What’s not to love about octopuses? And tentacles? Are they not one of the most fun design elements ever? As always, there were too many project ideas to fit into one month, but just enough time to try a few.
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The theme for the Art Elements design challenge this July was “flowers.” Even though summer is the season for flowers, I always think of spring for them. Because summer just seems too hot for anything so apparently fragile to thrive. But thrive they do. The hostess for this theme, Marsha Neal, asked us to share photos of flowers on our social media for inspiration. I’m not great at macro photography, but this theme prompted me to pay attention to the blooms in my neighborhood. I was surprised at the abundance and variety, from clover and day lilies growing wild in the vacant lot, to iris, pansies, roses, bleeding hearts, cone flowers, and more in planters. Were they there last summer and I was just too hot to notice?
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This post is an explanation of the shipping policy for my shop on Etsy. This is not a rant about Etsy, I promise. The bottom line is this: If you see an item in my shop marked “free shipping” that means you will not pay any shipping cost for that item. I have not included the cost of shipping in the item price. I cover the postage fees at my own expense. Only select items – mostly earrings – are shipped postage-free. For the items not marked “free shipping” you are charged the actual cost of postage based on USPS rates for the package size, destination, and type of service. I no longer ship outside the US and do not offer priority mail express upgrades. Read on to learn why.
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The theme for this month’s art design challenge from the Art Elements team is ‘selkies and the sea.’ I was so excited when I saw the theme because selkies are one of my favorite mythical creatures. In addition, I was a pinniped ecologist once upon a time and saw this theme as a perfect opportunity to try sculpting seals, and possibly sea lions. I’m warning you in advance, I got carried away making selkies and sharing seal trivia.
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