One World, One Heart 2010: Thanks for a great ride, everyone!!

First order of business: I have picked (with a random number generator) and emailed the two winners for the One World One Heart 2010:

Deborah, of Comfort Joy Designs; and Kim, of Queen of Arts!

Congratulations to the winners -- I so wish I could send a pair to everyone who commented! Thank you all for visiting my blog and for your kind words; it is wonderful to "meet" you all, and I'm really enjoying reading your blogs, too! I was away at a seminar last week and didn't have time to visit your blogs then, but I'll pick up where I left off so I can see more of the awesome things you all do. I am just so amazed at all the creativity out there and love seeing everyone's creations, so keep at it and inspire us!

Now that I'm home I want to get back to mosaics, and I feel the jewelry mojo stirring, too... but I'm way behind in my coursework and the studio is an unholy mess. And so what did I do first thing this morning? Started making letter tiles, of course! These are for the flying heart part of what was formerly "Black" -- the upper half, which is now its own mosaic. I figure I can afford a little creative time because a heavy obligation requiring a trip to ABQ for the day was cancelled... sounds reasonable, right? I can clean up and do coursework and laundry while these bake, then while the paint dries, then while the adhesive attaching them to the mosaic dries, then while the grout for the whole piece dries. I figure I have a lot of creative time to catch up on, and my seminar (the second clinical skills residency for my marital/family therapy program) was so intense that this is the perfect way to both unwind and begin to mentally integrate everything I learned.

Yeah, that's the ticket... ;-) Happy creating, everyone!

A Valentine for You

May your heart soar today, whether you're flying solo, with your most special person, or with your whole flock.

I was away last week, attending a clinical skills seminar for school in Charlotte, NC; it was awesome but exhausting and has put me behind in everything. I will, however, select TWO winners for the One World, One Heart 2010 challenge today and announce the winners tomorrow. Both will receive a pair of the beautiful bird earrings pictured in my earlier entry -- I wish I had more to give away, and I thank you all so much for visiting and leaving all the kind compliments.

Coursework and kids will be consuming my attention and energy for the time being; I am starving for some creative time but might have to be content with cleaning up my studio for now, till I can clear some more mental as well as physical space to begin creating again. After having to fly through Dallas on Thursday during their record-breaking snowfall (HUGE kudos to American Airlines and DFW airport for even getting us in and out of there), I am most pleased to have come home to 50-degree sunshine here in the Land of Enchantment. Which makes me think gardening can't be too far away....

"Broken Hearts Bear Beauty"

This mosaic is officially finished... as long as it's out of my house, I can't mess with it anymore. I took it up to ABQ yesterday, to my friend Paula's gallery for her February Peace and Love show, and although it's for sale I put a fairly ridiculously high price on it because I don't *really* want to sell it. Not only is it personal but it represents a lot of fun experimentation with various composition issues and mixed media. In addition to the red glass and the salvaged broken mirror, this piece has my own handmade polymer clay tiles (the hand-lettered word tiles and the wings), many different shapes and sizes of glass and coral beads, and found objects including an old metal heart locket, a broken silver milagro, and a fractured mother-of-pearl heart cabochon. I especially love the beaded groutlines, and how the smaller red seed beads (in the groutlines around the heart's edges) look a lot like red blood cells... I'll definitely be doing that again in another piece down the road.

My recent posts might give the impression that I'm only doing mosaics these days... and except for making a few more brass birds-bearing-hearts earrings, this is pretty much true. With my gallery now closed and two of the three other galleries currently showing my jewelry closed through February, I won't need new stock for a while. I've been planning to follow up on a contact in Taos but keep getting delayed because of our El Nino-fueled winter storms. And... although I love making jewelry, I've been wanting more of a creative challenge lately. Mosaic work definitely offers that because most of the time I don't quite know what I'm doing, just what I want to do, and the gap between my imagination and my skills motivates me to stretch and grow. A dear friend also suggested I'm working out some issues in my art, and what better medium to do so than broken glass....