My shadow at Crater Lake

Me and my shadow in Oregon.....

I have found my shadow in Grant's Pass, Oregon, along the Rogue River.  In this beautiful green country, Nature sings in full voice.

Today we are off to Crater Lake.

A moment of Grace....

This morning...on our deck.....the body of a beautiful woodpecker....his spirit gone to higher flight.   The one word that came to mind....Grace.

I asked my husband to bury her gently.....and then...no...I couldn't put that beauty underground.

So...she now lies carefully placed in a plastic bag in my freezer. 

 Someday to become part of artwork.

Ahhh....the minds and actions of an artist's heart are strange indeed. 

Mosaic pieces.....

Today in class we grouted our mosaic pieces.  Ellen has a wonderful technique of using several colors and tinting the grout to achieve the look that you want.

Geez.....I came home exhausted.  Really drained.  Spent, I guess you would say.

Yesterday, when I came home from the all day class, I was also completely exhausted but I ended up doing a Reiki (energy healing ) session on 3 different people.  That's 3 hours of Reiki and afterwards, I personally was so energized that I couldn't even go to sleep.  

Today my daughter came over and I did a Reiki session on her for an hour and again, I feel completely revived.  Interesting thing, this Reiki.  :)

This is a flat piece that will hang on the wall.  I took a photograph of one of my Shrine pieces and applied the shard mosaic of clear glass over it.

And here is my Sphere.  Boy, it was alot of work!   And I was a bit sloppy in getting the glue on the glass and now I have to use a razor blade to clean it....But it's pretty, isn't it.

Here's another side.  I love the depth of the design and coloration.

Fun class and now I'm thinking of doing this process on my artdolls, on the gourd part.

Hmmmm.....a tree of this design technique would be fabulous!

A class in mosaics......

Yesterday I took the first part of a two day class in doing mosaics using tempered glass.

I felt like I stepped into a world of inspiration.  It was thrilling to be excited and challenged by new techniques.  

Ellen Blakeley is a reknown artist who discovered this technique and whose work is fabulous.

Lucky for me, she lives close by.

Take a look at her website.  http://www.ellenblakeley.com/gallery.php

Here are some photos I took yesterday of pieces around her house...and the last two are of projects I began and will complete today.  I'll post my completed pieces tonite.

I will be grouting my big sphere, picture and my stepping stone.

a large platter

close up of a wall piece

garden sphere

close up of garden sphere

her bathroom floor!

close up of the bathroom floor

doing mosaic work over a photograph of one of my art pieces.

beginning my sphere....

Inspiration in a bottle!

I was at Micheal's Craft store yesterday when I spied these wonderful bottles, on sale!

I gathered many into my basket and then went back for more.

This really speaks to my virgo organizational mentality.  :)

Inspiration in a bottle where I can see her and hear her call.

Before, in my tiny studio space, I had my treasures in wonderful old carved boxes that I had been collecting.....a sweet idea but treasures hidden do not sing as clearly.

I am a happy camper today.....and off to a class to learn a technique on using tempered glass for mosaic work.   Inspiration abounds!

New online class

Here's a sneak peek of a new online class that I'll be doing.

"Magical Spirit Lights!"  They are so fun, easy and really wonderful to have around the house!

Coming soon to http://www.thatcreativeplace.com

I've created a monster of puffs!

My idea of doing something with my big mushroom in my garden has turned into a huge problem!   Geez!  I'm not used to doing such a big project and I'm afraid my attention span is failing me, but I'm driven to complete things I start, so here I am faced with this mushroom, shouting " do something with me!"  every time I enter our cottage.

Making hydrandeas was a good idea, but way too much work....then I thought....I'll cover styrofoam balls with beads and fill in the space with those.

To get an idea of how it will look, I made up a batch and put them on the mushroom around the hydrandeas that I had made.  

Yikes!  it looks like a nightmare of pink and green puffs, up again my beautiful hydrandea bushes.  I think there is something to be said for too much of a good thing!

And ....I would need to make so many more to fill it!

Anyone have any ideas of something that I could use to fill in the spaces that will calm this thing down a bit????

Kitties in a castle

We're babysitting our daughter's two kittens......curious little creatures!

Their favorite play spot is my wonderful French wire sculpture ( a fabulous find from a junk store! )  They love to climb and bat around all the treasures that I have so lovingly placed, just so, inside my wire castle. Then there are the colorful beetles that I have....had climbing on the wire, which are now batted off and flung all around the floor.   But it was when they stole my little French madonna piece and began batting her around the house in a heightened game of soccer that I had to call "enough!" 

Hmmm.....I have to rethink this babysitting idea....