Pottery Bowl

Pottery Bowl
Archies' Base & Pam's Green glazes

Pottery Bowl

Pottery Bowl
with tree appliques

Johnny's Trees

Johnny's Trees
Closeup

Johnny's Trees

Johnny's Trees
Woodburning on plank

All That Jazz

All That Jazz
Fused glass

All Polished UP

All Polished UP
Canvas/nail polish

Monday, December 22, 2008

Contest Winner

Michelle is the winner of my wine charm giveaway. Congratulations, Michelle. I'll send the set of six your way as soon as I have a mailing address (unless we are gone, in which case I'll sent it when I get home again.)

We are spending some time over the holidays in Mazatlan with our daughters, son in law and one of our grand daughters. The other set of grand parents will babysit Haley, one year old. Her parents decided they would have more fun without her! Imagine that!

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Oops! Disaster slops all over!

Oh, my gosh! My ice cube ornament completely fell apart! I left it outside overnight - it was minus 18 degrees (F) and brought it in the next day to take it out of the container and marvel at its beauty. The whole thing burst water out every where! Only the very outside shell was frozen and the inner part was cold water. What a mess...funny, though!

Hopefully, my kids today will have better luck as they will get a warning! I sold a felted landscape today so that was fun...sales are fun and certainly day-brighteners. Hoping you are having a bright and sunny day, whatever your weather!

I'm slowly getting more and more etsy listings...check it out. And slowly my shopping cart on my website is coming into being...maybe in another week or so. Santa, if you are listening, it would be an awesome early Christmas present!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tree Ornaments

Have any of you tried making tree ornaments that birds will appreciate next spring? I'm giving it a whirl with my art kids on Monday. We'll be stringing nuts (my husband was kind enough to drill holes in all of them- he's a peach!), cranberries, raisins, grapes and other edible things.

We'll tie those strings to a dogwood branch and stick the branch in the bottom of a milk carton. We'll tie the other end of the strings to another dogwood branch and set that on the top of the carton. Then we'll add water and little pieces of string and different colors of yarn as we fill up the carton. We'll set the whole business outside (it's been -18 degrees here - yikes!) until it freezes solid.

After it is a solid, pretty ice cube we'll tie some jute to the top branch and hang it in one of our bare trees. Hopefully, it'll be a pretty ornament to glisten through our long winter. The birds will start coming back after it has started melting and they can enjoy our little treats, and the strings will come in handy for their nest building.

I'll take a photo and post it - so you know if it works, or not!

PS What is your pet peeve during the holiday season? Mine is people who don't understand the concept of waiting in line, or else understand it and don't think it should apply to them!

May God bless your Saturday!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

It's Holiday CONTEST time!

Good morning!

I'm having my first blog contest! It's an easy one, too...

1. Just become a "follower" of my blog by clicking "follow this blog" in the "followers" section. This enters you in the random drawing. If you are a current follower, thank you, and I'll enter your name, too.

2. Tell your blogosphere friends about this. (Thanks!)

3. Check back on Monday, December 22 to see who wins!

What's the prize you wonder? A set of 'wordy' wine charms, each charm is a different color or pattern or has a different word. There are 6 different charms in the set with random words like hot, LOL, wino, and others! A "WINO" set is photographed here.

Join me in the followers fun! Thanks!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Australia

We went to Australia, the movie, not the country (been there, done that!) over the weekend. We all really enjoyed the movie, but I wasn't expecting it to be about Aboriginal people...I thought it was a love story, without kids! Anyway, when we were there a few years ago, we learned a little bit about the past treatment of Aboriginal peoples by white society and the government. It makes me cringe to think how often people all around the world have been and still are, treated as less than human, by the rest of us. And how dare we consider our civilization and way of life as the be all and end all of civilization? We allow our babies to be killed before they are born - how civilized is that? I just don't get it.

I did get some art done this weekend - had 10 kids here to learn a little bit about Salvador Dali (we were at the SD museum in St. Petersburg two years ago - fantastic!). Each child did an acrylic painting of a dream or dreams that they could remember...it was fun!

Our youngest daughter came home, for maybe a month or so. She's been making art in Fargo and is now busy applying to MFA programs across the country. She makes beautiful pots, check her out at amyuthus.com. We both should have shopping carts on our websites in the next week or so. I'm excited for that.

I was fortunate enough to have an etsy mentor look at my etsy shop. She gave me a lot of good suggestions that I'm in the process of implementing. I hope to get a lot more listed throughout this week!

Happy Advent all - may God bless you this week!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Clock Fix & Photographing Art

Thanks to Cindy for her hint on finishing up polymer clay with Future Floor Finish! I'm busy today redoing all my clocks and wine charms to rid them of their sticky feeling - I'll be glad to have that project finished so I can confidently box them up and ship them off to happy new 'clock watchers'. I can say they make me happy, lined up on my work counter, when I turn off the lights at night and their little buttons glo in the dark!

My hubbie is working diligently to figure out our new camera and how best to use it to photograph art. He has stools and a ladder in the living room, with clamps to hold up the lights, a cloth draped down the front of the fireplace and across a low, Japanese-style table. I'm so thankful he'll mess around with it because I don't have the patience for it!

Two of my pottery students, a fifth grader and a third grader, had success yesterday centering their ball of clay on the pottery wheel - all by themselves. They were thrilled and so was I...it is such a feeling of accomplishment for all of us!

My felted wall hangings, madonna and child, and landscapes will continue showing downtown through the holidays so that was good news. I guess they don't have another artist scheduled yet - happy accident for me! I'm going to lend my curio cabinet to our daughter, Amy, so she can show her pottery there for a month or so (go to amyuthus.com to see some of her work). We are both in the process of getting shopping carts on our websites - hopefully, that work will be done in the next 10 days or so.

Thanksgiving was such a fun time - our daughters (3) were all home, along with our son-in-law and two granddaughters. My youngest sister, Julie, and her family also came, my parents and two other sisters/hubbies. We played Wii (Mario Cart was a fave), cards, 'Katie's game' (a word/drawing game, sort of like written 'telephone') and Chase the Ace - besides eating more than plenty all weekend! Such fun to have company!

I've posted my schedule of Sunday kids' classes for January through May on my website (www.jackiesart.com). I'll add a pottery class or two a bit later...

Happy day to all!

My Favorites

  • books by Harlan Coben
  • Chagall's I and the Village
  • Our three daughters
  • Touring in Japan, Australia and New Zealand
  • Floating in the Dead Sea
  • My wonderful husband for 33+ years
  • "I love you, too, Grandma" by Taylor
  • Viewing the sunrise from Mount Sinai
  • Van Gogh's Irises
  • Monet's Water Lillies
  • Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Followers

About Me

My photo
North Dakota, United States
Born and raised in Williston, North Dakota. Degrees in Occupational Therapy (never chose to work in the field) and Visual Arts. Married for 33 years to a super wonderful guy, three daughters - all three are talented, educated, contributing, beautiful members of our great big world. I am so proud of them...they are my best accomplishment to date! I love to make art and teach about it, too. An etsy friend recently shared this quote with me from St. Francis of Assisi: "He who works with his hands is a laborer, he who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman, he who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist." I think it is a wonderful statement!

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