Composition, Camouflage and Contests

It has been a long week, full of sick kids, very little sleep and my own version of the flu bug. Needless to say, I have not accomplished a whole lot.

I have also been preparing to spend the weekend at a Becoming an Outdoors Woman seminar, where I will be teaching a course on outdoor photo composition.

In light of that I have been taking photos and making more survival bracelets -- this time with a color geared more towards women who love the outdoors -- pink camouflage!

I am also working on a new "bead painting" with a fabulous Owyhee Picture Jasper center stone. It is being done in brown, cream and gold tones with a little blue (sky) and green (grass) thrown in. I will post photos when it is completed.

The temperatures are cooling off so the mornings are crisp when I head out to drive the school bus, but by afternoon, when I am painting, I am down to shorts and a tank top.

The cool temperatures and shorter days are triggering the Autumn color change and the prairie grasses covering the Nebraska Sandhills are beginning to turn to the burgundy and gold hues of Fall.

I have the itch to create, but I still have handouts to prepare for my class, bags to pack and laundry to do, so I had better head out.

OOOPS! I almost forgot my newest thing -- a weekly contest! Comment on my blog posts during the week and at the end of the week I will put all posters' names in a hat and draw a winner. The prize this week is a survival bracelet in your choice of colors: pink camo, olive drab, black or hunter green. I am out of antler buttons, so the closure will be a simple knot and loop. This being the end of the week already, I will carry this particular contest through NEXT Saturday, Oct. 9.

Happy Creating!

Dawn

Doming, Dapping, Daydreams and Danger

I was trying to work on some tutorials for http://www.jewelrylessons.com/ today and was struggling to get through them. Just one of those days. So, I decided to try my hand at dapping. I bought a dapping set when I set up the shop in the caboose, but I haven't really played with them yet. I also bought a shear. So I played with both today.

First, I made a set of domed and hammered copper earrings. I wanted them to sit properlyon the ear, so I had to make a back for them. First, I took copper discs and dapped them (using the steel block and dapping heads). The challenge was adding the hammered texture AFTER they were dapped, since they loose the texture while they are being dapped if you do it beforehand. I managed though. Then I had to figure out the back. I remembered a pair of earrings I had many, many, many years ago in college -- they were huge-- and I did the back in a similar manner. They work! *Dancing with joy.*

No, I won't share how-- I am going to write a tutorial, so I can't share all my secrets just yet. ;)

Next I used the shear to cut a rough circle out of sterling sheet. I left it somewhat rough, for an organic look. Then I domed it with the dapping set as well. I had a strip of fired bronzclay on my bench, waiting for a use, so I formed it around a ring mandrel, leaving it partially open. I hammered the INSIDE of the circle (not as hard as the outside of one that has already been domed) to represent starlight. Then I placed a small flat circle of fired bronzclay in the ring, off to the side, to represent the moon. I call it "Moon and Stars." The outside of the sterling dome portion is textured to match the texture on the outside of the ring shank. I want it to be something people can stare into and think of a starry, moonlit night when all their dreams came true.

One of my favorite things to do is sit on the hill behind my house, watching the moon and the stars (after the glorious sunsets of course). After all the rain we have been having, I have to load up with bug spray first though -- we are growing a great crop of mosquitoes in the Nebraska Sandhills this year after all of the rain we have been having.

I have a "Sunset Moon" ring in my head now, so I may come up with a design for it soon.

Tomorrow is our annual open show at the local art gallery, so I may enter my "Lakeside Idyll" pendant that went to the state show earlier this year -- and "almost" won an award. It was good to hear it was up for consideration, but an actual award would have been even nicer, LOL.

I am also entering a few photos -- one of a soapweed that I took closeup, another of the handle on the old machine shed on the hill, and one of some used horseshoes hanging on the fence at my in-laws.

We had some tornados the other night, and I got some funnel cloud photos. I was actually driving alongside one -- which was nerve wracking even though I knew it was a ways away. I don't know if I will enter any of them or not. However, later that night I also got some photos of the storm clouds and the sunset, complete with the full moon and our barn. I did a mixed media piece from one of those photos that I also plan to enter. No photos of it yet.

So, wish me luck -- I could use some positive feedback -- it has been a rough few months.

On the other hand we have a new house -- in the country, with lots of space and awesome views! I even have room for my own studio at home -- a far cry from a 40-year-old 2-BR trailer, I am happy to say! :) *Dancing with joy again.*

The Lord is so good to me! :)

Happy Creating!