Support our Artists

There’s ’someone’ out there who, for some unknown reason, is making all sorts of ridiculous accusations about other lampworkers and other artisians.  If it weren’t so awful for these people it would be totally amusing because it just looks like a total psycho is doing this.

I am going to put a link to the site where the nutjob is doing all this although I kind of hate to do this.  I don’t really want to feed her psycho ego by getting her more hits on the site but I think that people need to see this for what it is.  It’s a vindicive act by a nasty awful person.  Please financially support the people she is trying to hurt if you possibly can.  If you are a member of Lampwork, etc, there is a thread on there offering support as well.

http://www.handmadeartisanfraud.blogspot.com/

And Yet another….

Hope to see you there!

Tammy

First Art Fair of the Season – Come See Me!

Yet Another….. Art Fair Invite

Tammy L Deck : ArtWear from Westmont, Illinois

Hats, Purses, Scarves, Shawls, Garments & Jewelery

Felting, Handweaving, Crochet, Knitting, Fused Glass & Lampwork Beads

When creativity has left the building

I had 2 year bout with this…during my father’s losing battle with cancer….and a year later when my business mentor faught and lost her battle in just about the same time frame.  During this period, I felt like a creative slug.  Just going through the motions day to day.

I couldn’t see it at the time…but that’s what actully helped.  I Kept going through my creativity motions.  Kept my hands and eyes working in my medium…even tho my heart was breaking.  Just kept going through the motions.  Kept going into the sewing room.   Kept surrounding myself with my “creativity stuff”.  I even took classes in a new medium (they called it lampwork..hee hee)

Do I feel that I created “art” during this time…nope. 

One day….I was done with grief.  I had a dream that night for a new direction in my felt work….creativity had re-entered the building.  sigh.

I realized after this experience…that I needed regular intervention and peer support.  We tried offering a group with an assignment based approach…it was good for a little while… but then, several of us began to feel angry and down on ourselves (I could never complete my assignments on time!)  After some time had passed…some wounds had healed…we tried again with the group we call  “Creativity Continuum”.   There are no assignments or due dates (unless they are self imposed)  We meet once a month with a “coach” to keep the meeting on task…but we always have an activity….that makes you use your hands differently….your eyes differently….different materials…different approaches.  Our main goal is to keep our creativity muscles moving so we’ll always be ready for the “work-out” when creativity returns….because you know it will be a work-out!

 

Tammy Deck

 

 

The “Missing Piece(s)”

Hi all, I’ve been fusing like crazy lately, and thought maybe I’d share some of my favorites with you. I have a series I call “The Missing Piece”. Here a some of my most recent “Pieces”.

This next one is larger, it will be framed as a finished piece.

Hope you all like them as much as I do. They are in my Etsy store. http://www.iwantonetoo.etsy.com

Sheri

REALLY off track!

So, after following JoJo’s lead and getting into ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards), I decided to go the lazy route … uh…. make that the cheap route (creating can get expensive, you know!) and try my hand at digital scrapbooking.

New camera in hand, I took the girls to Dawson Lake in Moraine View State Park last week, and snapped a few photos, then I filled up my hard drive with scrapbook layouts and Photoshop brushes and new fonts, and went to work. This is my first attempt at digital scrapbooking. It’s not the look I was going for, but it’s not too shabby for a first attempt!

(As a side note, the green butterflies in the larger butterfly were Ceil’s addition!) Please click on the thumbnail for the “in your face” size!

Hurry Up and Create, Dammit!

Have you ever felt that way? Last week I was faced with forcing myself to be creative and it was one of the toughest things I’ve had to do.

There is an art show I have attended with my mother every year for the past 17 years. It’s always been a dream of mine to be in the show but I never really felt my work was up to the task.

This year I decided I wanted to apply. I kept rolling the ideas around in my head. The show has many jewelry artists exhibiting and a few lampworkers so competition is tough. I knew I had to really come up with some “WOW” stuff to even be considered. My slides that have gotten me into shows in the past just didn’t seem good enough.

The closer the deadline came, the less creative I felt. It was so much pressure. Like a gun to my head with myself saying “Create Dammit!”. I kept procrastinating, allowing myself to be distracted by any little thing. It was not going well.

As the midnight deadline approached (last Friday) I was sitting at my kitchen table with a huge mess of beads, fibers, cords, wire, you name it, it was in the pile. I had made and taken apart countless ideas that just didn’t work out. I was mad, in tears, frustrated. I knew whatever it was I had to finish it, then take it downstairs and photograph it, then come back to the computer to resize it, then upload it to their site and submit my application.

Finally I got an idea with potential! I’ll bet a light bulb really appeared above my head. I started furiously braiding my cord, bending wire, stringing beads… then I got an idea for a matching bracelet. I was pushing it time wise (it was 10PM) but I could do it!

At 10:30 I raced downstairs and my husband was all set with the lights on and the camera ready to go. With a few quick clicks I was back at my computer resizing… wait a minute! There’s a hair right in the middle of it. Dog hair, cat hair, someone’s hair! Down the stairs again… re shoot the pictures. I can feel I’m running out of time. I’m panicking.

I made it back to the computer to resize again and click on the ’submit’ button and the page just sits there… loading… forever it seemed. Suddenly I was kicked back to the main page and when I tried to resubmit my application I received the error message that the show was closed for entries.

I cried… and cried… and cried. I felt like I had run a marathon all day long and tripped 5 feet from the finish line. I was so frustrated, mad at myself for procrastinating, for not being more creative.

Before going to bed I decided to e-mail the show and just see if they might possibly accept any late entries. I know some will and you have to pay a higher application fee but at this point the site wasn’t even allowing any applications. So I put my whole story out there to this generic e-mail address and went to bed feeling defeated. I was hoping for the best but not expecting it.

I received an e-mail back two days later. She told me she would ‘try’ to reopen the application process later in the week, but no promises.

It’s too late to make this long story short but I’ll wrap it up… she DID reopen that section of the site and I was able to submit my application. Whether or not I’m chosen to be in the show, I’ll always remember how this set came to life and use it as a reminder. A reminder that procrastination is bad… a reminder that creativity isn’t forced, it flows… a reminder to never give up… and a reminder that if a door closes, find another one to open.

I hope reading this helps you all to remember those things too.

I named this ‘On My Horizon’…

Happy Valentine’s Day by Patty

Love and challenges. I learned a little something about this recently. Sometimes love can really be challenging, and in many different ways.

I was doing a trunk show recently, and a woman saw one of my vessel pendants. Casually, she asked if I could make one in a heart shape. Intrigued, I said that I would try, not really sure how I would go about this challenge.

She went on to explain that not long ago her son, who was in his early twenties, suddenly died, and she wanted a vessel to put some of his ashes in so she could carry him with her always. Of course this made me even more determined that I would create a vessel for her that is worthy of it’s duty.

This was definitely a challenge to figure out how to make the shape out of a blown vessel. It took me several attempts and a couple of weeks, but I finally got it to work out. Here are some of the “prototypes”:

The first one I tried in boro and it didn’t quite work. The second one in soft glass wasn’t any better and I didn’t even bother to put handles on it. (There were a couple of other attempts that aren’t even worth photographing!) I was getting really frustrated until the third one, and the shape came out nicely, but unfortunately it had collapsed down too much and is not hollow. Finally on a roll, I created these two:

Now this is what I’m talking about! She chose the one on the right, which is a little smaller than the left. Seeing the bittersweet look in her eyes was justification for all the effort I put into this.

While I was working on this challenge, I thought about how loving can really be a challenge. Whether it be a spouse, significant other, child or pet, loving comes with definite ups and downs. What my client just went through definitely makes one think if it’s even worth it to risk loving. Fortunately for most of us, our hearts won’t let us choose – it tells us that without loss, we may never appreciate the love we share with the targets of our affection.

Many of us will tell our loved ones today that they are loved. But let’s not let that end with just today. Take every opportunity to tell the special ones around you that you love them and that they mean a lot to you.

So to you I say: “I love you and you are very special to me!”