Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A Giveaway at Jangles!!


Have you met Jennifer Heynen, aka Jennifer Jangles yet? Well, if you haven't, you should! Jennifer is the creative force behind Jangles - she's a multi-talented artist from Georgia. She creates the most colorful, whimsical clay beads, buttons and components for jewelry artists, mugs, ornaments and other pottery, she is an author, and most recently she has been designing playful fabric lines and sewing patterns. How she does it all, I don't know - home, young family, business...my family is grown and I can't begin to accomplish what Jennifer does!

I've been reading and being inspired by Jennifer's blog for several years. Each year in the fall she sends out her Holiday Projects Newsletter, ten weeks of newsletters, and hosts giveaways for her readers as part of the fun. This year she asked her readers if they'd like to contribute prizes for some of the giveaways. Well, I took a huge leap, for me, and sent Jennifer an email with pictures of some of my hand painted, stained glass ornaments - ornaments I've been making for my family and friends for years. She said yes, and here we are!! Thank you for this opportunity, Jennifer!

Today is my giveaway! Hop on over to Jennifer's blog and leave a comment and you could win my Mr. Snow ornament! The winner will be announced on her blog next Wednesday, October 31st! Don't forget to sign up for her Holiday Projects Newsletter while you're there (the newsletter sign up is on the right side toolbar on her blog)!
I'm in the process of creating items for my Etsy shop, but please check back - I'll hopefully have some ornaments listed by this weekend!

As an added bonus, I'm going to host a little giveaway here as well! Leave a comment below and I'll pull a name out of the hat ('cause I'm all low-tech like that) next Tuesday evening (cut off at 9 p.m.) and post the winner's name on Wednesday, October 31 (make sure your comment either links to email or you leave me your email address so I can contact you)! The lucky winner will win Mrs. Snow:

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Mismatched Art Bead Earring Swap

Hello and welcome! Today is reveal day for the Mismatched Art Bead Earring Swap hosted by the lovely Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Beads and Suburban Girl Studio. Thank you so much Diana for hosting such a wonderful swap, I know it's a lot of work and a bit of frustration to put these together! These are the first pair of really mismatched earrings I've made or received. It was a challenge, you should have seen my dining room table.....
Diana paired me for this swap with the very, very talented Lesley Watt of THEAtoo jewelry components and THEAjewellery. Lesley is not only a talented component designer, her jewelry designs are simply amazing. Lesley sent me a pair of earrings that goes with so many things - I love them!! They go with so many of my tops!
Lesley featured bronze clay bead caps that she made along with lampworked beads by two artisans: Josephine Wadman crafted the larger patterned beads and Pebbledreamss created the smaller solid colored beads. Aren't they great!?! Thank you again Lesley for being such a wonderful swap partner! You can check out Lesley's blog The Gossiping Goddess to see the autumnal earrings I created for her using some vintage and hand painted components! Here's a little sneaky peak:
Now, go visit all of these other talented designers to see what they received and swapped!:

Charlene Jacka   http://clay-space.com/blog

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Art Is.....ME!

Squeeee! I leave today for my very first art retreat Art is...You in Stamford, CT. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT!!! I have wanted to attend one for years and didn't think I'd ever be able to. I've treated myself for my 50th! I've spent my life putting everyone else first the vast majority of the time that I thought it was time I did it for me. As my friend Sue says, "treat yourself like company"!
Prepping my trades - sea glass chip and resin filled bezels.
I am stepping waaayyyyy outside of my comfort zone on many levels, and I'm hoping it pays off it many ways, for a long time. I'm rooming with a gracious woman whom I've never met - we've only exchanged several emails. I've never really stayed away without my family. It's going to be great! I have my mini-Moo cards, my trades (I hope they're okay), a smile, and an open heart!
I'm taking two classes with the amazing Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime and Jewelry Works. I've read Deryn's blog for several years. She is a lovely, faith-filled, talented woman. I've taken two of her online classes and thought that was the closest I'd get to taking a class with her. She's from Texas, and I don't know that I'll ever get to the south or our west for a retreat. Well, lucky day!, her son is attending the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York and was able to combine this teaching opportunity with a visit! I'm taking both her Wildwood Earrings class and A Charming Reliquary. As a bonus, I'm taking a polymer clay class with the very talented Laurie Mika of MikaArts. Laurie is an author (Mixed Media Mosaics) and national/international teacher. I'm taking her Ornamental class. It looks fabulous!
Whelp, I need to pack (I have not packed one item.....) and I'm off!
Finished!


And a very happy 25th birthday to our son Matthew - may you have many, many more my boy! We are so very proud of you and love you so very much!