Leaving for France

Once again, I am off to France to teach an annual workshop. For obvious reasons.. This is one of my favorite venues! We start in Paris and hit many of the flea markets. Linda and I have done well there in the past. Although, last year at the flea market we noticed the prices went up. When we questioned we were told, "well, the Americans are not coming over as much so we sell a smaller amount". Therefor, they needed more money per piece because of the loss of volume. !! It is different from the way Americans think. In this case, we would give lower prices.
I am spending 3 weeks there this year, one week in Paris, one week in Provence and one week in Toulouse at Gwen Gibson's place conducting the workshop. My kids and mother are coming out as well, at least to the first two places. My son and I love the castles and battle areas.
The students are wonderful and we keep to a small group. We love having our 2 hour dinners together prepared by our wonderful chef, Niche. I leave in 3 hours!! Au revior!

Bead and Button show

ahhh, I always feel like so much happened after I get to the end of this event. I taught for 6 straight days..one late, late , meet the teachers event. A few dinners with friends and so on...
Here is Susan, another silversmith. Linda and my sister Cheri at the end of this event..Cheri worked the booth and assisted in class. She is a glass artist and we are teaching a few gigs together next year. Glass casting, etching and enameling on glass. I;ll have some photos in the future.

Last but not least my good friend Joel who we always save the last night for dinner and a few margaritas!!!! I remember taking the picture... we wanted to show off Joel's muscles. Well, with muscles like that he was begging to help us move our heavy stuff.....right??? I owed him a few margarita's!

Bead and Button show

here are some pieces that I just finished using resin paper and layering. I consider them to be prayer boxes because I carefully used pieces of dictionary paper that had text that I considered relevant.
Along with a little sterling silver...vwaaa laa

jen..and the design team

I am introducing Jen..the absolutely fabulously creative Jen. Jen is our new Objects and Elements ..NEW media manager and design team coordinator.
When i met her 3 years ago I realized that I met my match as far as creativity and insight...we spoke the same language. Jen has mastered the art of language. We spent many hours over the telephone talking of our dreams, future plans, ideas for art and so on. ..
Jen came to Paris last year and we had more time to spend together. Here is a person who would hang out in PIG Alley with me and LOVE it.!! We sleezed around and enjoyed ourselves. .
We have been working hard behind the scenes for a few years and I now am happy to see some of our plans materialize. Together, the three of us, Linda, Jen and I came up with a team of designers that we thought would do our Objects and Elements site justice.. BOY, we were right. Not only have these 5 designers worked beautiful pieces but they all used their own voice and let their persons show through!
Introducing our fabulously creative crew of 5 and their awesome and inspiring work. View the designers at http://www.objectsandelements.typepad.com/

Jen cushman http://www.getrealscrapbooking.com/
Deryn Mentock http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/
Kristin Robinson http://kristenrobinson.typepad.com/
Barbe Saint John http://www.barbesaintjohn.blogspot.com/
Jane Sally http://thejaneworld.com/WordPress/

Ahh, we just had 2 days of beautiful weather!! This did a lot for ones soul out here in the mid west. It has been a longgggggg winter.
Just thinking of my friends and looking forward to some time hanging out. Here is the 4 of us. Shelia, in the center comes out from Atlanta and spends the summer on her boat. Suzi, on the right has been my friend for ever. Monet, on the left never had kids so can still wear bikinis!!
This time of chilling out, I believe is important to an artist. It gives your ideas a chance culminate, grow and develop. Luckily, it's my belief............what fun!

France..one more time

By the way, Linda is now filling France for June, 2009. She has 5 confirmed students... There is room for 3 more students. Please contact her if you are interested in the 5 day intensive workshop or check my web site. It is going to be a wonderful expierience!

Also, I wanted to say... for all of the wonderful people who purchased my book in advance ...thank you. We had lots of great critiques from those artists that preordered. We now have the book on Amazon if you would like additional copies. I think they are selling Making Connections...for $31.00. Please, please if you have a minute to get onto Amazon.com and include a comment of Making Connections. I would really appreciate the support. Thanks!!!!!!

reflecting

Here I am on a rainy day using up the last of my time off. It feels good to be back from two very long but soul searching and fulfilling workshops. France and Seattle....two of my favorite places to be. I love the city.. I just bring it all home with me and let it resonate. As an artist, I think one of the most important things that I do is to give myself time off to let it all soak in and my experiences become who I am and what I am about. My new work will be my interpretation of these experiences.

My two large pieces, The Ballerina and The Fat Lady, were recently purchased by collectors. I am refurbishing them from a year of being on the road and building an iron floor stand for each to sit in. Ah, it is sad to see them go BUT I know this will get me moving to build the circus series. I am starting with the tight rope walker and the trapeze artist. I decided to make this series larger in size since I can put more jewelry upon them.