New Catalog sections almost finished...

It is taking me forever to build the new catalog... so far I am almost finished with the first Altered Art Collage Jewelry section. There will be MANY pages within the Altered Art Collage Jewelry section, as there are multiple sections with the AAC area & many pages within each selection. Phew... As well, the Bridal Collection will have about 2 pages (of classic Eyescream Jewelry mostly Pearl & Sterling Circlet & pendant designs) though the designs listed could also be customized in other stones & colors if inquired.
So I have a few more pages to type up descriptions, then onto creating the Paypal order buttons for each.
wish me luck.
~X~

New Site LIVE

Well, as of last night my new website is Finally LIVE. It took another full day of republishing it over & over to fix site bugs & such. There will still be some links that either lead nowhere or don't exist yet. Now the tedious task of rebuilding my catalog.
Thanks for everyones patience.
More to come & back to the grind...
~X~

Michael Demeng Anatomical Man Class

So Sunday March 2nd I headed out for a long awaited Michael Demeng Class in Berkeley.
It was an odd start for me. Missing my bus, missing my transfer train & then another bus. Arrived 15min. in, and took me a while to wake up & jump in the game.
(my creative time is normally around 11pm till daybreak)... so attempting to create at 10 in the morning was interesting. It wasn't until after lunch that I felt alive & really settled into creating... of course at that time the class was nearly over & ready for the overview.

Michael was friendly, funny & had some good advice for techniques in collaging my plastic Anatomy figure into a work of art.


My Horned Ancient Guardian of the key was unfinished... and though Mike had said the piece looked finished as it was. I continued to create after I got home. Then went out and had a fabulous Mexican meal with the hus (who had bought the class for me as a Valentines gift ).
Then back for Sweet Honey Mead wine & final creation.

I realized in adding extra chains & wired caging around the open chest area... it really changed the overall feel of the piece. Maybe even less emphasis on the Large Onyx horns. But in the end... it was what I wanted to do. So I stepped away from the work & let it be what it is.

(michael & I after class)

Technique/concepts & flow:

-Plastic Anatomical Figure... innards taken out. Face sliced down with dremel. NouVeau Stamp attached.
-hands drilled & chest ridge drilled for future wiring & chain attachments
-Wired feet down to base (base found object Heavy Brass almost like a gauge)
- Gold glass rays button with color wash over.
- Gold plastic bead trim frame body of the piece (drawing eye inward says 'michael' :)
-Horns: Carved Black Onyx wired into place
-Key & Skull attached to innard well
-coated in white dap kwik caulk for texture
-Painted over in varying effects: Carbon Black, Paynes Gray, Dioxane Purple blend/wash
-More colors included Permenant Bronze, Ant. Silver

Midnight at home design continuation included:
-painting accents of Bronze & wash over face & details of mask.
- more wash & darkened details on body, & accent glow hues inside chest well.
- Wired Darkened Brass with black glass teardrops around chest.
- Chain sweeps & tiny black glass heart with tiny accent Bronze painted heart hanging chest center.
- Long Chain sweeps & Waterfall of asymetrical chain drops & tears from hands.
- left over wire around base used to accent sweep for one side of drops. Drops sit inside coil.
- repaint over brass base with Bronze & dark wash accents.

*DONE*

any comments welcome. Sorry I did not get the name of the other students in class, so I do not have names next to pieces by others.
Luckily I got a ride home from 2 of my table/classmates Deborah & Daniel. I took a few pics of everyones pieces...Will post pics of others work.

~X~



All together now...


My horned Guardian before Final Wired cage & drops.
Love the pic with Mike in the background... Almost like mike is a giant next to all the collaged creatures.

~

Art in Blues

Just some paintings I've done...




'Blue Mermaid'
16x20
Acrylic on Canvas
(but much more interesting & color flow in person... & slightly blotchy in the pic).
This images has been a theme used often... but it is the first larger painting.
It started as a photograph that I took of myself. Later & in many incarnations, it became a digital art design, printed, painted, photographed, digital art in photoshop again, printed, painted... etc etc... until finally, it was hand drawn onto a medium/large canvas & painted.




'Muse in the Trees or Forest Nymph'
8.5x11" on Canvas Cloth
This first was a nude photo taken of myself in the woods (many years ago) though it has gone through many processes. Light digital print from actual photo. with added Medieval design borders printed onto canvas cloth. Then Hand painted with Acrylics.

Both works are self portraits.

thats all for now.

~X~

New Website Ordering Buttons & Extras

I'm not sure yet, which one will be the one for the Buy it right now or add to cart function. Not sure if I should create a button that reads 'add to cart' instead. I just wanted to keep the wording simple so that it would fit into the little sun frame. I just don't know which word to choose, or if there is another word that would better be suited.

Add = makes me think of math, (not necessarily shopping?)
Order = makes me thing of something either religious or Order Rather than Chaos (But shopping?)
Buy = looks like I am demanding?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. So Please comment if you come across this. I really need some feedback.

Also, here are some other navigation style link images for the new site, along with some other site tidbits:



Above 'Info' is part of my new navigation links style image.



Above (although hard to see because of the size) is part of my new bar style frames throughout the site.

~X~

New Eyescream Jewelry Logo & Website concepts

So I am still plugging away at creating my site from scratch. I am really getting into learning a lot as I go along. I am just not so hip on the actual 'uploading my site to the host' & figuring out how to add the shopping cart feature. Making my head swim.

I may end up going with the paypal payment option & add buttons to the site. Which would mean opening up multiple windows for editing/transfering/copy & pasting my current item info for each new buy it button from paypal. phew. Not may favorite thing I can think of.

I still have SO many (literally hundreds & hundreds) of new items to edit pics & write new descriptions. Most likely my new site will be an intense shell of itself for a while as far as how many items in the catalog I have. Until I have time to keep adding more.

So for now, I will continue to get the base of the website created (without the catalog) & then switch to cleaning up the items pics & descriptions/cart concept later.

Here is my new Eyescream Jewelry banner/logo heading for my website that I just created. I was going for a sort of Medieval/Nouveau/Gothic Arty style idea. The White Eyeball/cone is hand drawn. Also, wanted it to be fresh & Pop!
And although may not be noticeable, the Cone is actually an eyeball turned to the side. This is an old design logo idea I had created about 15 years ago... & have FINALLY brought to light & worked on it.
I was also going for a subtle wrought Iron sign post idea... though I had wanted the Eyeball to sort of hang down from the long side arm of the sign post, but then changed it as it brought the image down too far & thus would have made it longer.

I am not sure how the new site design will be received... everything is always a work in progress & something to learn from. Back to the grind.

Any thoughts are welcome...

~X~

Eyescream Jewelry Customer Gallery Slideshow

I've just updated the Customer Gallery Slideshow... and although with the new style & look... there are no more color photos so you can't see the color of the pieces or the stones, But I love the new look anyway. Classic, looks like a silent film. Love the movement & the Black & white highlights. As well, you can actually read the script written for each & even the cute little scrolls under the words.

So here it is ~X~

1st Art Show Dark Art Fest Sept. 2007

Before I drift off into the ether... I thought I'd round up some of my favorite paintings I did for my first Dark Arts showing at the DNA Lounge 'meat' club at the end of September 2007. It was only for one night. I had framed a bunch of my 8.5x11 pieces as well as some larger paintings (& actually sold 3 framed pieces that night, my first)... as well as showcasing my new Altered Art Jewelry to go along with the framed prints. (which I sold a bunch of, yea!)



The first is a Self Portrait 'Twig Mask in Pink' done in Acrylic. Also shown with detail.

The 2nd is one of my FAVES is the 'Serpent Twins', and yes, it is a bit naughty. The idea was bore out of another self portrait photo I took of myself in the mirror & then later turned into this Acrylic piece on paper. I love the shadows on this piece & had created this piece at the local Sketch Tuesday (most 3rd tuesdays of the month) at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.



The third 'Red Skull' was a print of my digital art prints on one of my favorite types of printing paper 'canvas cloth'... luv it! Then I did all the intense dark design work with Acrylic Paint... and the Red I did in a Dark Burgandy Cherry Red CRIMSON acrylic. Though actually, this piece is so Dark in real life that a lot of the detail is more subtle.

I will post pics of the actual nights event once I clean them up.
~X~

Art Clay Silver or PMC carved jewelry creations

I thought I'd post some of my mid 2007 Art Clay Silver creations. I had a lot of fun with these. Best of all, I fired them right on my Gas Stovetop on top of a Metal Mesh piece used for soldering. The First Ruby Sun Rays with art clay Gold paint accent. The 2nd is my personal piece winged skull with Loveliest Labradorite fire drop on cord. I loved this piece so much I made a Cold Cast mold of it for future creations. The last is my personal Thumb ring. Carved when dry & the actual piece was created with older reconstituded from dry old ACS. This one was a DOOZY to create with set sapphire stone eyes. For one, you are not supposed to do rings or other 3D type creations attempting to fire on the stove top. They are supposed to be done in a kiln so that they can be protected with the fabric center. One of the horns came off at some point & though I tried to slip it back on & hold it in place, eventually, I had to torch it to the piece. As well, when dried & carving/sanding, the piece broke in 4 places, thus disrupting the design carved around the band (which would have been a lot nicer if it hadn't broken). But I like a challange.

Soon to come: I will be creating custom carved design pendant frames & other bezel frames in Art Clay Silver / PMC & also sterling torched frame & bezel pieces for setting my Altered Art Collage work for jewelry. Can't wait.

~X~

Altered Art Moleskin sketchbook

It's been so cold. I shouldn't complain, it's not wintery weather in the midwest. But since I am so used to California winters... it is cold enough to where my nose hands & toes are frozen. I am leading up to the following project. Staying nestled in my warm bedroom... not wanting to leave for barely a stretch... I cuddled up with blankets, kitty & art supplies as well as the movies 'War Gods of the Deep' & 'journey to the earth's core', and King Kong Original as well as the 1976 (my fave) King Kong version.

Now that I have this new moleskin, I've been checking out what it can handle. Unfortunately, distress inks seep through. Though I tried to use them on the above pages... not too exciting & the left side is still unstarted & the Right side is still unfinished.



Tools & Techniques:

• Distress Ink pads
• acrylics
• my artwork ephemera cutouts
• moleskin sketchbook
• the original image was a photo I took of myself years ago for my first full length album cd, Dark Muse 'Sounds from beyond the Silver Wheel'...

~X~

More Altered Art Collage My Mucha Design Inspiration

Here is another of the Altered Art Collage creations I did on stampbord.
This piece is So beautiful, but so hard to capture on film.

Tools & Techniques:

• Custom Rubber stamp from my own photoshop art (photo of myself from my banner logo on the jewelry site).
• Lilac Distress Reinker (new fave) straight from bottle & applied to edges with sponge.
  
• Acrylic Paint (black, white, blackcherry red, eggplant purple, plum, silver metallic)
  
• Collaged handmade design paper ephemera
• Pearl Ex Colors (hard to see in the finish, but image not really yellow as shown, but more of a powdery white with Fushia/white pearl ex hues).
• Vintage Glass & Crystals (burgandy red carved heart leaf, faceted squares in purple & pink, faceted pointed flipped upside down & glued.)
  
• Swarovski crystals (tiny pink, fushia, black)
  
• on Stampbord
• Final Finish is a Diamond Glaze

~X~

Creating Art while vending ???

'Beaming Eye of Inspiration'

I love the instant satisfaction of positive words about my work. (which is why I continue to vend from time to time). Online sales are great as well, but I need to connect physically/mentally/emotionally/ live with others to fully feel feedback sometimes.
So far I've introduced my new line of Altered Art & Collage jewelry creations last September, and had been working hard on creating & honing the resin work and such months prior.
There have been over 400 pieces created. Each a different piece of wearable art. Literally!
With Resin set images spanning from my photos, actual miniature paintings, collages, vintage altered pieces, drawings, photoshop/digital art etc.
It's been pretty fulfilling hearing people comment on my art (not just my jewelry art) but my literal art/paintings/photography & aesthetic in color & arrangement. It's funny how calming & artistically well rounded I feel doing this sort of jewelry creations.
The downside so far is that I haven't posted any of my work for sale online, and I've been selling them to fast to post.

Tonight, what I call my little poopoo (term of endearment) scissors design sold twice over. As well as one of my Serpent Twins locket & my fave Cthulu Skull print set in sterling.

So I've decided to now bring a small assortment bag of art supplies with me to vend. Not just my standard jewelry tools for quickie adjustments... but some of my smaller hand carved rubber stamps, ink, coupla paints & my new Moleskin brand sketchbook. I actually created a beautiful piece tonight & was surprised I could do so in a crowded loud & somewhat smokey goth club.
I just got to the point that I didn't care & just started to massacre my new book, until luckily it all fell into place & began to flow (I was a little nervous for a while).

'Beaming Eye of Inspiration'

tools & techniques:

• Collage my digital art self portrait
• laid on painted black journal page
• Enhance Beaming rays by painting Silver Acrylic
• stamp Eye with handmade carved rubber stamp w/black mica ink
• Color with shimmers of silver paint wash &
  silver ant. pearl ex
• color with more pearl ex & powdered eye shadow colors for peachy/pink hues
• hand stamp bottom with part of my handmade/carved rubber stamp of my octopus (tentacles flipped up)...
• hand paint details...

So to re-cap:

1. Dark Club + jewelry making = bad lighting = not very inspiring = not a lot done! but . . .
   
2. Dark Club + Art Supplies (ie: paint, paper, stamps) = Calm, Fun, Focus (unbelievably so), Fluid, Flow!!! (though I can see how this might not be for everyone :)
   

whodathunkit!

~X~