Anchors Away Blog Hop coming soon!

Ok, here is my sneak peek for the upcoming Blog Hop..it starts on this Sunday so stop back by and let me know what you think.

Hmmm....I wonder what this will look like?? hehehee...come back on Sunday.. :-)

RAW update!

http://www.rawartists.org/wingsnscales

Hi Everybody, 

I have been hand-selected by RAW:natural born artists to show my work at their next artist showcase in Sacramento called COMMUNIQUE, but I need your help!

The event will be held at Ace of Spades, 1417 R St on Thursday, August 14th at 7:30pm. The event is 21+ and the dress code is cocktail attire. 

I'm writing to you to ask for your support to be a part of this amazing event! Not only can this event help me network with other great local artists and expose me to 700+ attendees, it can help me expand nationally as well. Here's how: 

RAW is providing me with a video interview and b-roll footage of the event, as well as head shots and photos of my display to help me to further promote myself independently. 

I'll be eligible to win the RAW artist of the year award locally, and have an opportunity to compete against other city winners for the national title to [perform/showcase] at the RAWards award show & ceremony in LA. 

AND I will have an opportunity to showcase again OUT-OF-STATE at any other RAW location of my choice!

All I have to do is sell 20 tickets to help promote the event. Your support would be greatly appreciated. The tickets are only $15 and need to be sold by Thursday, August 7th in order for me to participate. If you buy them from me you also save $5 because they go up to $20 at the door. 

You can purchase tickets right from my RAW artist profile: 

http://www.rawartists.org/wingsnscales

If you are not available to attend that night, you can still purchase a ticket to support me and my work. This will open up a guest list spot for me to invite someone who can attend [clients, record label owner, gallery owner, etc.]

I am currently running a special just for those who purchase tickets on my behalf.  You will receive a 50% discount code plus a special surprise for my Etsy and Handmade Artist shops. If you live locally, and would rather get the discount on an event I am participating in, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your support, I couldn't do this without you! 

Christina Miles XOXO

Cabochons

Well, I think I got the right mix of things now with my newest creations, Cabs!  Cabochons have been very interesting to me these days and I have seen sooo many beautiful ways to make them.  I decided I would put my own touch into making these little creations.  I have had several rejects which I will share with you here...  But now that I think I have it going good, I went ahead and listed them on my etsy which I will give you the links below

This is my first piece. It looks great, but is too thin...but its still a nice piece.

This is really pretty but when I put the resin on top, I did it wrong and the resin ended up being really thick and has a lip on it that I need to remove.

Basically I still have these 3 pieces.  The orange starfish I made into a pendent and its going to be on a beautiful necklace which you will get to see soon..  I promise, it will be well worth the wait!

In the first batch, I lost 2 pieces due to the resin leaking past the tape.  I learned later from an awesome group of ladies on a facebook group I belong to, how to do the resin the correct way.  Phew!  So glad to have beading buddies!

What I do, is hand draw on the piece with pencil, shade it in with pencil, add the water colors, then spruce it up some with white acrylic paint and a hint of ink pens.  Heat set them and put a layer of resin on top to add that extra shine and it also helps with the durability of the cab.  I tried 3 different brands of clay.  One, which I have to order is the Kato clay...love it!  Second is the Craft Clay which is the Michaels brand...HATE IT! and Sculpy 3 which works really well but is not quite strong, but I do like how easy it is to work with.  I have used Sculpy clay for a long time with just other stuff, but not as a cabochon.  I think since I dont have to order the clay and its easily found at Michaels, I will just continue to use this.  I will do a clay comparison later..

So, now for the final fun creations... Now available on my Etsy shop...

Pink Starfish

Sunrise Whale

Sunset Whale

Reveal Day of 11th Non-Blogger & Blogger Challenge

Actually the reveal date for the WINTER FOREST challenge was yesterday, but you know me...always a day behind.  I decided to join this challenge because I fell in love with the painting which we had to get our inspiration from.

I thought it would be great to sort of recreate the painting and turn it into my own.  I have been interested in learning more about working with polymer clay and making pendents and when I saw Dini's painting I just had to do this.

So I made a simple drawing, then got to work.  I made the cab from polymer clay.  I then drew on the cab and added some soft pencil blending to help deepen the colors once I started painting them on.  I first sprayed the pencil with Flexatif spray so the pencil wouldn't rub off.

I then misted the piece with water and added the paints little at a time and heat set in between the layers....

Next, I drew darkened the shading with pencil again, and wrote Winter Forest on the bottom with permanent ink, then heat set that.

I then painted white acrylic paint blops to create the snow and drew more lines for texture.  I sealed the pendent with 3 coats of high gloss spray.

See the snow...and the fun heart on the trunk? 

Then it took me a day or two to decide on how I was going to finish on the pendent.  I have done beaded pendents before, but not using the embroidery beading technique.  So I challenged myself a bit when I decided to learn to do embroidery beading.  I made a quick pit-stop after work on one of my crazy days...lol...and picked up some leather scraps at Joann fabrics...ran the rest of my errands and when I got home, I got to work.  I had all the beads on hand so that was the easy part.  It took me, well, lets see, maybe 3 or 4 attempts before I finally got it working smoothly.  Im still not 100 percent happy with the results of the bead work, but I think it turned out ok.

Then, today, when I got home and logged onto facebook...there it was!  The reveal post...and my mind was a tad on overload!  I was not finished yet with the piece.  I didnt have the bail beaded, I didnt even have the chain or rope or what ever I was going to use to hang it onto!  Then, suddenly, the light bulb came on...I had made a rope with denim one day for fun, before Christmas, and it was sitting in my kumihimo box.  That is what I needed..that is why I made that rope!  So, once I got that all figured out and put together... it was time for the photo shoot.  Thank goodness that was a quick ordeal.  I loaded up photoshop and did my quick crop and sharpen and any other little fixes and posted the final picture on the challenge page.

But before I posted the picture, my mind started playing games on me.  I was thinking...OMG, maybe Dini will think I was copying her painting...maybe I was in the wrong for making this.. So I asked for some advise from an awesome beading artist and she was kind enough to tell me that she felt the pendent was beautiful and if it was her painting, she would have been happy with what I have created from the painting.  I hope Dini feels the same...

Thank you for reading all of this...and I hope you go to the hop and vote for my piece... XO

Art Caravan...

YAY... I did it again!  I just joined the Art Caravan by Tangie Baxter.  I love her style.  This is the last year she is doing this so I thought I would join in the fun one last time...  I had almost forgotten about this workshop, so I am quite lucky to have gotten the lower price since it is due to go back up. Tangie now has her own studio located in Meza Arizona.  I would love to visit her shop someday in my travels.  Check back often to see what I end up creating with her fun designs...

http://tangiebaxter.com/

New project/challenge on Face Book

Well about a 2 months ago, I joined in on a challenge from from JewelryLessons.com by Eni.  I belong to her group on FB.  Eni created this awesome website where you can purchase jewelry making tutorials from many different artists.  She also created her own Design tutorials where you can learn from her lessons.

Anyway, our first lesson was to make a drawing of a shape and create different ideas as to how you would make a piece of jewelry from it.  Then the next month was to pick a flower and draw it in several ways in which you can create a piece of jewelry.  We focused on shape first, then reshape it, then put it together in a drawing and then make it into a finished piece of jewelry.  We could choose any medium we wanted to, there are no limits as to how you want to make it.  So, with trial and error I put together this fun pendent.  I am going to make it into a necklace eventually.  I love how Humblebeads makes her designs and beads from different types of clay.  She has shared how she creates her designs through Art Bead Scene, she is my inspiration in this design.

first creation, not that pretty... YUK..

second creation, getting there, but needed more work. OK

third attempt, MUCH BETTER, is putting a smile on my face now!  I feel this is the final creation for this design.  I like it a lot.  It was faster and easier to make this time around.  And a bit messier since I used alcohol inks instead of acrylic paints...and I made the press mold much better so it didnt leave a ridge like it did on the first creation..

Please feel free to leave me some feedback.  Thanks...  :-)