For the fifth year in a row, I’ll be showcasing my latest one of a kind, handmade glass sculptures and beads at The New Art Festival, Ottawa’s premier juried outdoor fine art show.  Scroll down for a sneak peek at some  of the beads I’m making for the show – i’ve been having some pretty successful sessions at the torch last few days. This year my booth will be located in the SOUTH section close to the park entrance and right off Bank Street (go down the stars and head to the right, it should be easy to find!).

Hope to see you there!

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DATE: Saturday June 15th & Sunday June 16th, 2013

TIME: 10am-5pm (both days, rain or shine)

BOOTH: #10 South

WHERE: Central Park, the Glebe, Ottawa, Big park on the east side of Bank Street at Clemow Avenue, just
South of the 417 Queensway. 

FREE ADMISSION
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http://www.newartfestival.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/NewArtFestival

My Facebook invite here: https://www.facebook.com/events/163452373834807/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

Here’s the festival site map and how to find me!

well… sorta,

I’ve been saying i’m going to get a proper video of myself torching for years and finally decided to try a quickie one. Forgive the shakiness, i had that heavy chunk of glass in my left, phone in my right and was trying to watch the video and rotate the glass in/out of the flame at the same time without frying myself.

This 3″ long chunk of solid glass eventually (over the next several hours later) was hot sculpted into a large goddess. I’ll post pics once it’s complete.

Note: You may want to turn yr volume down as the tv is kinda loud…

Welcome to the THIRD reveal of the 7th BeadSoup Blog Party!  My partner is the lovely and cheerful Ana Cravidao of AC Beads in Portugal.  Ana sent me a fun assortment of beads in one of my favourite colour combos – red and gold (my living room is red and gold!).  She sent a big ornate bronze finish disc with matching chain, accent beads and toggle, some silk and satin ribbon and an interesting assortment of glass beads in a variety of cool shapes.

As soon as i took out the disc and viewed the filigree pattern, i immediately knew i would be wrapping the smaller beads around the perimeter. I did so by weaving in the tiny glass pearls with some aged brass wire as well as wired the little glass star right in the centre of the disc.  Then i took the silk string and wove that though the disc as well for an extra pop of colour.  I initially tried interweaving it with the chain but found it too distracting.  Finally created some dangles with some of the other beads and then double wrapped the chain through a loosely wire wrapped bail, attached the toggle clasp and done!

Here’s what i sent Ana – a lampwork focal, button clasp and three accent beads made by moi (i’ve been practicing making dot beads) , plus an assortment of coordinating glass and bone beads from my jewellery-making stash from way back before i ever discovered lampworking. Since i only use my own handmade beads in my jewellery now, these poor store-bought beads have been sitting untouched for almost 10 years – it was really time for them to get some love!

Here’s a better pic of the beads and clasp i made… my dots are really improving considering this type of precision beadmaking doesn’t come naturally to me at all.  You can see what Ana did with the BeadSoup i sent her, here: http://acbeads.blogspot.pt/2013/04/party-time-festa.html.

As always, my thanks our lovely host Lori Anderson, creator of the Beadsoup Blog Party who soldiered on through organizing this BeadSoup while managing some pretty significant health issues.  Wishing you all the best in health and happiness Lori!  As always this was a lot of fun and gave me the chance to exercise my much ignored jewellery designing skills.  Can’t wait for BeadSoup Blog Party #8! To see the full list of the other 3rd reveal participants click HERE, for the 1st and 2nd reveal participants click HERE and HERE.  Enjoy!!

The full name of this pregnant goddess sculpture is “A Quiet Moment in the Garden of Hope” and she will be on exhibit (and for sale) from April 2-30, 2013, in the Shenkman Arts Centre display case in Orleans, along with works from other artists in the National Capital Network of Sculptors.  Do stop by and take a gander!

This piece is 9.5″ square and the goddess alone is about 3″ long – the largest pregnant version i’ve ever made – the picture below gives some perspective. I made the goddess, all the glass components, created the textured background then customized an existing frame to match. She has a sparkling faux diamond in her belly button and the butterflies were purchased from murrini artist Greg Chase.

It also gave me the chance to incorporate some new mixed media techniques I’d learned from a Sara Sally Lagrand class (who makes the most fabulous glass and mixed media brooches!).  I keep going back and forth regarding whether or not to keep the frame…

There’s an interesting story behind this particular sculpture as well:  This mixed media piece is the 3rd large sculpture i’ve made and was created for the Expressions of Infertility art competition run by a local infertility clinic last fall.  Now that was a somewhat strange event…

I had created this piece based on the joy, optimism and hope that women trying to conceive experience, however, i don’t think that theme went over well in this particular context. Having never been infertile, I realize now that i didn’t really understand the depth of turmoil this brings to families and especially to the infertile couples themselves. Many of the other pieces submitted were very dark and spoke to feelings of blame, depression, worthlessness and desperation.  As well, the energy at the vernissage was quite tense – especially around the two women there actually with babies (which i assumed were conceived with the assistance of the clinic).

That evening I finally realized that despite the original intentions of the clinic, while it was advertised as an art competition, in actuality, it was (or became) more about the clients of the clinic using art as a therapeutic medium to express the devastation they were experiencing or had experienced.

I still love this sculpture as it reflects my own happy experience with pregnancy but looking back now, that competition probably wasn’t the right venue for it… In any case, here is my background story on the competition site that led to the creation of this piece:  http://bit.ly/11CBBUS

A quick video (thanks again to Liana!) of the sculpture in my latest exhibition (Best of the National Capital Network of Sculptors, closed 2/23/13) at the City of Ottawa Central Archives: “Stone Goddess Under Moonlight”.

She’s the second sculpture in the Elemental Goddess series and represents earth (as well as being my favourite of the three sculptures I’ve made so far)…