Niche Award Finalist, PhotoSketch & Elepnants

Some time back, I decided to "test" the idea of targeting the wholesale market by applying for the Niche Awards. And then, I promptly forgot about it. (Hey! Don't laugh! I have an aging, fibrofoggy brain, and I'm having a hard enough time remembering to brush my teeth, much less what stuff I've submitted where! Besides, you should be used to this kind of thing from me by now.)

Well, as fate would have it... last night I received an email informing me that I am a finalist in the Polymer Clay category. (Heh -guess what category polymer clay is in... yep, it's in that glorified category called "Other". Pft!)

Well, I'm quite... um... stunned, actually.

Above is the winning Nudibranch BioBangle. This is also one of the bangles in the "Spineless Wonders" exhibit at the University of Southern Maine's Atrium Gallery, in Lewiston, Maine. So, yeah. Wild, huh?

Ok, no more crowing... for now.

From the Cool Digital Tool Files:
I follow the tweets (groan) of a blog called Mashable:The Social Media Guide. A while back "Mashable" featured a new... um... I guess it's a plug-in for PhotoShop. Anyway, it's called PhotoSketch, and as Mashable describes, it 'is an “Internet Image Montage” project from five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore.'

If I understand it right, you sketch (like above) an object, add names of other elements you want, and the program gives you a list of images that fit your parameters. You choose the images you want, and it... well, I guess... puts it all together. Hard to believe.

My biggest question? Where do all the images come from, and what does this mean for copyrights? Oh, the joys of cutting edge technology! (But don't it sound fun?!)

From the Cool Science Desk:
There's a great piece on "How Elephants Talk To Each Other Through The Ground" at a blog called Phenomenica (a very cool, weird science site worth browsing).

It seems the American Physical Society has found "how elephant vocalizations travel through the ground for great distances, and how other elephants can understand them, just as they understand acoustic sound, which travels through the air."

Sweet, huh? We humans soooo under rate the abilities of other creatures that share this earth with us.

ART:21, Xray Art, and Waxing Artly Philosophical

Ok, so "Artly" isn't a real word. But how do you think new words are started, eh? What do you think the first person to read the word "blog" thought! Heh. I rest my caseness.

Going through my dusty *cough* old files of what I wanted to share with you, I (re)discovered the work of Nick Veasey. His site is full of simply amazing x-ray images of... well... just about anything you can think of.

True, I am partial to the naturalistish (heh, take that, spell check) x-rays.

But all his images are astounding. For the... um... larger pieces, he says he uses the kind of x-ray machines they use at border checks. Oh, and the sitting people in the bus? That was a "borrowed" corpse from the morgue, x-rayed and then cut-'n-pasted into the bus x-ray. Nick, you have definitely got cojones .

From The "She's Got Somethin' New To Show" Desk:
A new sea anemone. (I figure if I write anemone enough times I might remember how to spell it - That's really the only reason I make these things.)

From the Artly Media Files:
If you're a PBS documentary watcher, I highly recommend a visit to PBS's (beta) video site, where you can watch many of their programs on line (sorry... you may need a decently fast server to watch them). The first one you should check out is Art:21, a series of interviews with artists in a broad range of mediums. It is fascinating to listen to artists describe the process they went through in creating their work. I'll leave it at that - and just urge you to take a peek.

From the "New Media" Art Desk:
“Surprise is the hallmark of true creativity”.
-Laura WestYep, that would be my sister... the first and (imo) most artly of the West bunch. Her current medium is fractal mandalas, and if you like fractals... or, um, mandalas... you should check out her site. Of her work she writes:

"To see without associations, to apprehend, is to know a thing as its self. In order to do this one must enter a meditative state of BEingness. As a landscape painter I would enter a state where the names of things dropped away. In this state I could paint directly without going through the filter of symbols. It is out of this state of BEingness that forms spontaneously arise, in nature, in mathematics, in us."

Laura has a show of her mandala work at CT Hospice, Double Beach Rd., Branford, CT. The show will be up for the month of October. If you're in the area, I recommend a visit (and not just because she's my sister... really... Her work is amazing!)

Lost World of a Volcano & a New Anemone

If you are a lover of wild and crazy animals, like I am, then you really must check out this photo gallery of animals found in the crater of an ancient volcano in Papua New Guinea (like the buff-faced pygmy parrot, above). The UK's Guardian has an article about an expedition to this volcano by scientists who found more than 40 new species of animals, including a fanged frog, and this lichen camouflaged spider.

I want this little fuzzy critter, below, for my own. It's called a Bosavi silky cuscus. Mmmmm, I love cuscus. And check out those amazing eyes.Ancient volcano craters, mountain tops, islands and other isolated areas are ripe with unique creatures that have evolved into their own, unique species. Very cool.

And speaking of unique species, the isolated landmass called my brain has come up with a new type of anemone.... bangle. Heh. It just got finished in time to include in my application to the 2010 Smithsonian Craft Show.

Thousands of artisans apply to the Smithsonian show every year, and only 120 or so get chosen, so one might think this a futile act on my part. But I look at it as an exercise in pushing my ego's limits. The more I push, the easier it is - over time - to receive rejection. No, really! It's true.

And, from the "Waxing Philosophical" Department: The "philosoraptor"...
(Thanks to my son for sending this one on to me. It's from an interesting blog called Pirate Pasta.)

From the Strange Technology Department:
The publication "New Scientist" has an article on something called "Plasmobot: the slime mold robot". Yes, that's what I said... a slime mold robot. Technology just keeps getting scarier and scarier, doesn't it?

Something to Crow About!

Yep... I have to do a little shameless strutting around. Forgive me. This is just too good to be true...
It's official! The above bangle (from my BioBangle series) is now part of the permanent collection of the Racine Art Museum. If you're not familiar with RAM, it is (in their words) "one of North America's most significant contemporary craft museums, with more than 4,000 objects in the permanent collection."

Now, I take no credit for getting my piece accepted as part of their collection. I owe it all to the fine women at Polymer Art Archive. There is currently a wonderful summery of all the hard and amazing work that Elise Winters, Rachel Carren, Nancy Travers and others at the Polymer Art Archive have accomplished. And believe me, I am just a drop in the bucket of fine folks who are included in this new polymer addition at RAM. (Hmmm... that metaphor seems... wrong somehow.)

So... excuse me for walking on air today. I promise I'll come back to ground soon, and offer some more inspirational places to explore on these interwebs. Until then... I'm flying in the clouds like... well... like a friggin' raven!

Scrap, Overconfidence, Bling, and Stamen

This Just In From Our Shameless Commerce Division:
Well... at last, the tutorial I've been promising for... golly, months (?!) is done and up on my Etsy Shop. Phew! I hope I never have to write a book!

I've tried to make the tutorial as accessible as possible so the very beginner can understand it, yet there's a fair amount of bits and tricks that the intermediate clayer will enjoy and appreciate. Heck, if you're a well seasoned clayer, but never gave a thought about tossing your scrap in the trash bin, you too might enjoy this tutorial.
(Note: If you are interested in why I wrote this tutorial - besides the need to make money to feed my starving family - check out this post where I... well... give a little background on why I... um... wrote it.)

From The "Don't Take Life Seriously" Desk:

From The "Don't Take Life Seriously, But Love That Bling" Desk:
(Humorous bad word alert - my apologies to all those under 13.)

And, finally...

From The "At Last She Finally Shared Some More of Her Work" Desk:
Below is my homage to Jeffrey Lloyd Dever (aka "the man with the golden spit" - or so I hear) and all Jeff's wonderful wire work... I call it "Purple Brooch with Stamen".

Please, don't ask why the strawberry is purple or why there are stamen poking out of the top of the strawberry. Sometimes I just make stuff up.

Acknowledgement: My thanks to my teenage (over 13) son for those two funny (but fowl languaged) bit's I shared above. There are days when he sends these kind of things to me non stop. Perhaps that's why I'm always missing deadlines and only posting on this blog every few weeks *coughmonthscough*.

Ice Jellies and Buchsbaum's Translucent Canes

Just came across a BBC article about these lovelies this morning, and I just had to share them! Oooo lala! These jelly fish live in the Arctic's deep (and might I add... cold!) waters.

For those who don't feel like reading about them, but want to see more photos of these amazing ice jellies, there's a wonderful gallery of them here.

It is fortuitous, I would think, that I came across these critters seeing as yesterday I started playing with translucent polymer clay canes. I don't have any samples of my efforts to show yet, but I will share my initial inspiration... Merrie Buchsbaum's stunning "organic" canes, which sing praises about the potential of translucent polymer clay.

Don't these beads make your fingers just itch to get your stash of translucent clay out?

I've been saving an article to share with you about a new form of... well... I guess you would call it a microscope, of sorts... anyway, for the first time ever, researchers in Zurich (aren't those Swiss simply terrific?!) have managed to take a 3D image of a molecule. And guess what... it looks just like the pictures in my old high school chemistry text books! (The real molecule is the one on the top.)

Pretty wild, huh?

Ok, enough with the science lessons... I'll do my best to post some pics of my own work next time... and perhaps - by then - I will even be able to tell you that my Scrap Clay tutorial is done and on my Etsy site. Heh.

Edit:
Wait, wait, do go yet! I just got a comment from "Errant" about a photo at Deviant Art by Igor Siwanowicz, and you have to see it!

These two different "morphs" of the Deat's-head caterpillar give me the shivers... in a really good way! Thanks, Errant, for the lead. (Now my Muse is goin' crazy, so it's off to the studio I go.)

Maternal Inspiration...

Last week the West "kids" got together at the familial summer home, Spruce Island (traditional name), aka Spruland (revisionist name). The island sits out in the Penobscot Bay, off the Coast of Maine. The purpose of our gathering was to scatter the ashes of our mother, who had died a few years ago, around the island. It was an emotional, yet very gratifying experience...

I will spare you the details, but I will say it was a time for sharing lots of memories, many of which - for me - were of mom's love of the intertidal zone and the region just beyond the reach of a low tide. This love was easily passed on to me, and has been coming out in my polymer clay work over the last couple of years.

Anyway, to give you an idea of the magic of Spruce Islan... er... Spruland, I wanted to share a poem my sister, Laura, wrote...

Spruland

by Laura West

The clear haunting cry of the loon

From the front cove

The chattering of red squirrel

After hiding bits of food in the tree branches

The gentle lapping of the water at high tide

The snap of a sail as the wind shifts

The rocking of the bell buoy

Ringing day and night, piercing the mind

The laughter after dinner

All sounds of Spruland

The wipe out of white fog

Golden red glow in the sky at sunset and dawn

Bright green moss next to red brown spruce needles

Bright blue skies cluttered with puffy white clouds flying on the wind

Pale pink of the underside of birch bark

The amazing yellow of wet seaweed at low tide

All colors in Spruland

The moisture of fog, getting into everything

The drying cold of a northwest wind

The stickiness on your skin left from salt water

The heat on your skin in the sun of a “scorcher”

The itch of mosquito bites

The smoothness of rocks washed by the sea

All sensations in Spruland

Spruland is dreamt into existence by the memory of all these things and more.

Memories pounding on the shore

I will leave this post as is, and not attempt to add more right now. I just want to let Spruland and memories of my mom sit for a while.

Monarch of Willendorf!

Name That Blob Results Are In:
The response to my call for help in naming "The Orange Blob" was astounding! A huge thank you to all who put thought and energy into helping me name this crazy piece. I wish the English language encouraged multiple names for things... but in lieu of that, I took two really terrific suggestions and merged them into one... and the Orange Blob is now Monarch of Willendorf! Monarch for the Monarch Butterfly...

And Willendorf for the Venus of Willendorf...
Both of these creatures are near and dear to my heart. Monarch butterflies take one of the longest migrations for insects - 2500 miles! Very heroic, and an inspiration in a world where adaptation and persistence is vital. The Venus of Willendorf is a small sculpture estimated to have been made between 24,000 – 22,000 BCE! To me, this sculpture represents the strength and persistence of the true feminine, and reinforces my belief that the need to create art is in our genes. So, a special "Thank you!" to Holly King for suggesting "Monarch Cocoon Fantasy" (Holly, I've been meaning to email you for weeks - sorry!), and "DyLinn" for the name "Willendorf Nudibranch"! (And again, thanks to all of you who came up with such wonderful ideas! You folks are great!!)

Another New BioBrooch:
Below is a photo of one of my new BioBrooches... right now I'm calling it Fossil. The piece is rather long... about 5" or 6" (haven't got it here in front of me). But I think it will be OK for wearing with the right piece of apparel.


News From The Home Front:
I don't usually bore folks with chatter about personal stuff, but I just have to crow... er, caw... about the new cabin my partner Tom is working on. This is a pic of Tom and his young friend Jake, pouring concrete for the foundation. If you look closely, you will see pink piping looped across the rebar. That is part of the solar water radiant heat system that Tom has set up. There will be a solar water heat exchange thingy (technical name) that sends solar heated water through those pink (who picked that color?!) tubes under the concrete floor.

Why is Tom building a new cabin, you ask? Well, it's based on the theory that "if you build it, they will come". Who will come, you ask? One (or two) folks who want to be assistants to an aging and health challenged couple who insist on living a Homesteader's life in the woods of Maine. (If you know of anyone interested in assisting us 10-15 hours a week in exchange for living in the new cabin, please do email me. My address is on the upper right corner of this page.)

Steam Punk Octopus!
Below is a detailed of an image my son found on Defiant Art... I couldn't resist sharing it, considering how popular steam punk is with polymer clayers of late. And... well... it's an octopus. So. Yeah.


From the Wierd Science Desk:
Three suns?! This is, so they say, an optical illusion... but I can't help wondering if the person who took this photo might have been teleported to some strange world in another galaxy... hmmmm. (My apologies to whomever took this photo... I'm afraid I lost the link, so I can't give you the credit you deserve for.... er... traveling so far to take this photo.)


Thought for the Day:
If what I heard is true, the Latin breakdown of the word "amateur" is "one who loves what they do". So what does that do to the word "professional"?

Name This Orange Blob...

This crazy orange blob brooch has been long in birthing... It was initially conceptualized (and started) in May, at a terrific pc retreat, but I stalled out and it sat in my "undone" collection until just a few weeks ago.

The colors incorporate a lot of pearl, which I like to use to "dilute" my colors, and reflect a real "warming "change in "my color pallete".

The form is... well... I'm not sure what the form is all about. I had thoughts of fungus (think chanterelle meets puff ball) and slime mold while I was building the armature. I know, that isn't a very appealing image for most of you. But for me... well... it's right up my alley, I'm afraid. (Hey, I'm the one who can't wait for a chance to wear my Green Worm - see previous post.)

So, because I (personally) like the name Orange Slime Mold, but understand that calling it Orange Slime Mold probably isn't great marketing, I thought I would prevail upon my wise and worldly readers to help me name this... um... blob. So I turn to you, my friends. Please, post a comment or send me an email, and give me your best name ideas!

From The Weird Science Division:
Is your cat a righty or a lefty?
Blue M&Ms and blue mice(?!?) lead to reduced spinal injury?

This One I'm Keeping

I've been working like a crazy woman to create (and photograph) pieces for a publication submission... and finally (!!) it's in the mail and I can breath... at least until tomorrow when another deadline looms. But while I'm sighing in relief, I wanted to share a couple of the new pieces.

Above is my most favoritest piece in my new BioBrooch series. She's called "Green Worm". Catchy name, eh? (I'm guessing that the target market for folks who would wear this brooch is pretty small, so I'm not loosing a sale by keeping this one myself.)

Below is a new addition to the BioBangle series. It's called "Blind Man's Trunk".

For those of you who don't recognize it, the name comes from a story about a group of blind men who each touch a different part of an elephant... and... well... each gets a different impression of what an elephant is like. It's a story that seems to have as many versions as there are religions and cultures. I like the Hindu version the best. Here's a quote I stole from Wikipedia:

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used this parable to discourage dogmatism—

"A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: 'It is like a pillar.' This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, ‘The elephant is like a husking basket.’ This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else."

There are also many images of this story, my favorite being this very humorous 1888 Japanese print. (Hmmm... for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to add anymore pictures... or spell check... So my apologies for the lack of more pics and any spelling mistakes I missed!)

From the Weird (and Scary) Science Division...
I don't usually wander into the political... but this story about a new technology that can apparently be used for both a weapon and weather modification (!?!) is - I feel - very important, and I encourage you to check it out. As an addition to the weather modification story, I suggest (if you have the stomach for it) you do a Youtube search for "Chemtrails" (no, I don't mean contrails - the condensation that results from the exhaust of jets). If you're willing to explore this topic, try to look past the wild speculations and... well... down right craziness... and focus on just the facts.

Well... that was depressing.

Ok, I'm sorry about that. How about this very funny story about a fox in Foehren, Germany, who has been stealing peoples shoes.

Edited to add:
Just came across this hysterical article in the UK's Sun about "killer chipmunks". I have a couple of felines who would love to sink their teeth into one of these guys.

Feel better now? I certainly do.