2012 Wrap Up

Wow. Just wow.
2012 has been an amazing year that I can't believe it's already over.  I still have so much to do! 

I have had a number of things happen in my art career:

Arts Council of Greater Lansing 2012 Individual Artist's Grant

"Bamboozled" Accepted into International Juried Show "Small Expressions 2012"
Long Beach Museum of Art, CA (and my trip to my very first Convergence)

Three pieces exhibited at the Michigan League of Handweavers Biennial Exhibit and awarded two honorable mentions

I gave my first Program with the Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan followed by a day and a half workshop.  Although I was a little nervous, it went smoothly, and I not only enjoyed myself, but I received so much positive feedback.

Michigan League of Handweavers Workshop Grant and the Chris Clark Fellowship Grant for the Tapestry Workshop I took with Rebecca Mezoff

Artist's Billboard (opportunity via the Arts Council Individual Artist's Grant)

I am officially represented by 2 galleries and 2013 I am adding a third:
Grove Gallery (jewelry and fiber art)
Lansing Art Gallery (jewelry)
coming for summer 2013: Synchronicity (jewelry)

And I have had a successful year of new projects and Commissions:

I made my first runway piece (garment instead of jewelry) for Fiber Feast with the Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Guild

I feel that I had my first successful #eTextiles project design with the Pac Man Bangle (and am hoping to make a new #eTextiles bangle in 2013)

My first beaded sculpture piece is well on it's way: "Uprooted I" (and I just put a coat of walnut oil on the root-base last night)

"She can't see the Forest through the Trees" is probably more than 2/3rds finished (a leaf update will be coming soon, I have been sewing them together and it's turning out wonderfully)

And, as usual, I took the time to make an inspired Halloween Costume, including teaching myself some millinery, getting back to dying full-force, and reminding myself that conductive thread and LED's can be simple.


Looking through my blog this year, I have 21 more posts than 2011.  And I'm finally feeling that this year has been wildly successful after listing it out.  I have no real New Years resolutions beyond trying to be more organized and going bigger and better with my work. 

2011 was a lot about productivity (I recorded approximately how many pieces of jewelry I could make, per week and the total of those items per week), 2012 was all about moving my work from jewelry to experimenting with larger pieces to exhibit, 2013 will probably continue on the lines of my desire to exhibit more.  I will be working on the pieces floating around in my head and on sketchbooks that are beyond what people already expect from me.

I am excited.  Now, for this evening, we are racing lobsters and eating them with a small group of awesome friends.  I hope your New Years Eve is as eventful as ours is!

Christmas Gift Commission #1

It's the time of year that creeps up on me.  Halloween is over, November is a blur of trying to get sale-able work done and into displays.  Then there's the pieces that people want you to make for holiday gifts.  You never know when those are going to come up on you.

Zack and I were sitting at P Squared Wine Bar, a new favorite spot that's opened up downtown and I was getting some beading done.  I had started a St. Petersburg chain with the dark gold seed beads that seem to be my staple bead for this holiday season and it caught a friend's eye.

He asked what I was making, and if he could purchase it for his mom for Christmas. Not a problem, I was focused on trying to get a different style necklace done, but I hadn't beaded the chain too long so that we couldn't switch designs.

We met last week to go over options on the dark gold and black chain and he wanted to keep it simple.  I love it, these seed beads have really been speaking to me, so it's nice to know that I'm not the only one that likes them on their own.

The finished necklace can be adjusted to two lengths on the black swarovski pearls along the left side of the piece.

Jewelry Show at Speaker Law Firm (last one this year!)

Speaker Law Firm
230 N. Sycamore St
Lansing, MI 48933

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

10:00am-4:00pm

 



If you are in downtown Lansing and need a break from your usual work day we welcome you to come by Speaker Law Firm for my last solo showing/sale of my jewelry for 2012!  Below is a sample of what I'll be bringing in, along with plenty of beaded leaf and pod earrings!

I have a Billboard!!!!

Ok, so it's not the best photo, but I wasn't prepared to trudge through the field and muck to get closer to my billboard.  But I have a billboard!  I can't possibly try to hide my excitement. How is this possible? The Arts Council of Greater Lansing of course.

It's a year by year basis where they team up with Adams Advertising to get billboards up for artists via the Arts Council. They call it the "Art in the Sky" program.  It's offered to the artists who have received the Individual Artist's Grant (all of them, including past grantees), so when I got the email that they were doing Art in the Sky again, I jumped on the opportunity.

The photo is a grouping of my bangles, taken by Luke Anthony Photography.  I have gotten so much use out of the photo shoot that Luke did for me, I can't want to get my larger pieces done for him to take more photos.

So if you're tooling around Lansing, go north/east on I-69 (coming from I-96), or you can see it off of West Grand River (that's where I parked on the side of the road for the above photo).  Here's where it is on google maps: https://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=42.784236907958984,-84.66547393798828

 

This activity is made possible by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing

Ornament for the Arts Council Tree

Valley Yarns posted this free pattern on Webs Yarn website for a knit star and I've fallen in love with it (I've knitted a few while knitting on the elliptical so far).  So I already had the base together when the Art Council of Greater Lansing emailed out that they needed ornaments.

I finished this little guy today and dropped it off  to go get into the holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays! And thank you to the Arts Council of greater Lansing for a wonderful Holiday Glitter event last night! 

http://www.lansingarts.org/