Jewelry in Nature

In my last posting I talked about inspiration and what inspires different types of artists to create. Nature is a huge inspiration to a lot of photographers and painters. however it also inspires many other types of artists.

Mar Barbee a wonderful jewelry artist finds nature to be a huge inspiration for her jewelry

"Natural themes run through my work", Mar quiped in describing her creative process.

"Branches, twigs, vines and leaves; layers of colors and textures that make up our visual and emotional landscape. The color play of light and water, but especially Nature's jewels, all inspire me to express my vision in personal adornments, contemporary heirlooms for the generations.

As you can see from the photographs Mar creates wonderful and inspiring jewelry that can be worn casual or formal. Her wirework is exceptional and the quality of materials top notch. View Mar's wonderful display of jewelry in her ArtisansMarket.com Gallery

From the Heart

What inspires an artist to create? That question is one that of course has no boundaries, has few common threads and really is as individual as the artist.

It is also this way with the person who falls in love with the art piece. Really I think that a person finds more connection with a piece of art after they have read the creative process. What inspired the artist to create the show of emotion that is displayed in front of them.

I was inspired this way by the piece that is pictured here in this blog. A metal sculpture created by Guy Crandall. Guy is blessed with an energetic nephew who suffers with autism.

"Conner's Struggle" as it is so rightly named was created for Conner. After Guy created this metal sculpture for his nephew he said "I tried to capture some of the pain he has had to endure in his young life".

Guy creates a lot of sculpture but this piece really comes from the heart. Each piece that he creates with his nephew in mind is put for sale and all the proceeds are given to his nephews trust fund. This money helps Conner enjoy many activities that other kids enjoy but take that extra dollar because of his special needs.

Inspiration from the heart definitely inspires my love of the art form I am viewing. What inspires you?

Presentation is Everything - Bath Products

I really do love using all natural handmade or milled soaps. They really are fragrant and make nice gifts. Last year I made a wonderful coconut oil and oat soap that was a big hit!I also really enjoy glycerin soaps they are gentle on the skin and guys really like them because for some reason they hold scent well and it transfers to the skin giving it a nice clean smell.

Bath oils and bath salts are also easy to make and really are a nice gift to give.I'd like to share with you how I did my botanical gift presentation last Christmas. You know what they say Presentation is everything and it really made a huge impact on my recipients I got just as much good feed back about my wrappers as I did my handmade products.

First I created in a label program labels that were just about the size of a bar of soap. For lemon grass I used a really delicate picture of lemon grass in bloom and then I used a fancy font to type the name "lemon grass cleansing bar" In very small print I typed the ingredients. I choose a nice picture for each bar and designed each label differentlyI then took freezer paper, some I left white and some I put a coating of very thin water color paint to tint the paper.after it was completely dry I wrapped each bar very carefully in cellophane and then in the freezer paper like a little gift. I attached the label and then took a piece of raffia and tied it tight in a four way. Sometimes I left a fancy knot and other times I made a little bow. Raffia comes in all different colors so it was easy to mix and match the colors on the label and paper.

I had gone to the craft store and bought some little light, see through drawstring bags they were 4 for a dollar. I bought them in all different colors but made sure the colors kind of matched my soap "theme" yellow for lemon grass, purple for lavender, light green for green tea, tan for oat soap etc.After wrapping each bar I put them individually in the shear drawstring bags.

I also had made some bath oil, bath salts and some small easy pour candles. I put ribbon on the bottles of bath oil (they were small bottles).I made really easy cloth bags out of quilt squares and glue for the bath salts and I tied the top with a material ribbon. You can also put the salts in a small jar wide mouth jar that has cork put some beads on a piece of jewelry wire and insert into the cork.For the oil and salts I made small tags out of card paper and printed what it was on them and how to use. I punched holes in the handmade tags and attached with curly ribbon.

The candles like I said were easy pour and I wrapped them in nice tissue paper with curly ribbon and added a dollar violative candle holder that can be acquired at any craft store or department store.I then went to the dollar store and thrift store and found a bunch of little baskets. I filled them with long shredded paper and then put in the botanicals, candle and candle holder. I attached a nice ribbon to the basket and wa-la! it makes a really nice gift and everyone loved them

Ogdom - Language of old

New to the family of artists in ArtisansMarket.com's Marketplace is Carol Bright a native Floridian that creates unique jewelry scribed in an ancient tongue.

Carol creates sterling silver and precious metal clay jewelry set with precious gemstones and scribed in ancient ogham.

Ogham is the oldest form of the Gaelic languages known to man, dating back to the 4th century. Intrigued by this ancient tongue Carol took the time on her many trips to Ireland to research it's origins.

Note the two pendants pictured above. The first simply states "my love" and the second more playfully and boldly "naughty".

Each piece comes with a sterling sliver chain and an informative pamphlet.

We are excited to have Carol Bright as an ArtisansMarket.com artist and look forward to spreading the word about her unique jewelry style with its ancient overtones.

Photography is Art!

It is truly amazing what a good photograph will do for a body. Whether it is a picture snapped of nature, a person or some other item that an artist would want us to preserve in our memory. A picture really is worth a thousand words and it can bring forth great upheavals of emotion instantly.

I have really come to like some of the digital art that is being produced by many artists. It is amazing what they can do with a camera and a computer. The word Giclee was foreign to me until I really started enjoying the digital art of photography.

A Giclee is a very high quality print produced with Archival Paper & Inks. It is a copy of an origional that is enhaunced.

One such artist that really peaks my interest is Heather Kirk Heather is a very versatile artist that really can bring nature forth through her digital art form. I love her floral photographs such as the own shown here "4 daisies on stem" and "purple circle backs" both really pop out and grab your mind. I don't think I ever have studied a daisy so intensely. I love the black back ground and can only imagine how wonderful this piece of art would look on a nice big light colored wall.

If you would like a delightful digital experience go check out Heathers artisansmarket.com gallery you'll be hooked!

Tis the Season! Already?

Yes, already you are probably seeing the tell tale signs of the retail market preparing for another holiday season.
As Halloween approaches and the rush of shoppers slows from scarfing up all those wonderful traditional scary props and candy the shelves are not restocked with pumpkins and such but stocked instead with the next holiday items appearing bright and cheery and calling your name.

It seems relentless! the tide of advertisers never ending and everyone wants you to buy buy and buy some more. Have you noticed how each store is stacked and stocked with multiples of every gift they carry? Can you imagine how many people give the "same" gift to a loved one every year.

I say be different, be origional and show your loved ones that you actually thought about their Christmas gift and didn't Robot your way into a retail store because you liked the color of the sign, Santa was there or a sale flyer landed in your mail box.

BUY SOMETHING UNIQUE, HANDCRAFTED - A ONE OF A KIND TREASURE

Thats right be different. explore the fine craftmanship of an artist that spends hours and hours creating many fine items with genuine love and care.

I would like to bring your attention to ArtisansMarket.com an e-commerce Marketplace that has exceptional artists who create one of a kind gifts that will surely catch the recipents breath.

Giving something that is handcrafted speaks volumns and can easily become a family heirloom

Not only will you be giving a unique gift but you will be supporting an artist/craftsperson. Someone who truly cares that your special gift is of the highest quality and will last a life time.