Daily Art Muse

I couldn’t make that name up. It’s the real deal. And I couldn’t pass up the chance to show off another curly-swirly thing could I? Meet my namesake, the Curly Sue Spiral Desk Lamp:

The lamp, designed by Wendy Tytherleigh, has a collapsible spiral shade. Fun, right?

The summer sun still scorches and the humidity runs high in early August, but we know that the fall harvest is right around the corner. Glass artists Corey Silverman and Horace Marlowe are keenly aware of the magnetic pull of the pumpkin and their blown glass rendition of this fall fruit is breathtaking.

Tiny Pumpkins 3” diameter

Antique Green Pumpkins

Harvest Pumpkins

Here’s where I’ll be for the rest of the day. Cause I’m special.

I love what metalsmith Amy Tavern has done here with oxidized sterling silver, felt and resin. The combination of felt and resin is new to me and looks so much like polymer clay discs. Nice.

oxidized sterling silver, felt, resin

“Creativity is the ability not to follow someone else’s rules.” Cliff Stoll

I found the quote above on Gregg Graff and Jacqueline Pouyat’s website – it is the creed that they live by and it fits with my current ponderings and contemplations about my own work. Graff and Pouyat’s simple yet sublime beeswax, tree resin and natural pigment Natura Designs have put me in a meditative state…just what I needed today.

6” x 6”

I see delicate freckled arms raised to cover the shy chuckle escaping from this sweet tiger lily’s mouth. Okay, so I see things…what can I say?

Captured by my guy on Sunday on our walk at the Vanderbilt Mansion.

Born and raised in the UK, Jacqueline Ryan has called Italy home for more than 15 years. Like many of us, the jewelry artist is inspired by nature and draws heavily on childhood memories to inform her work. Her sketches and paper models are almost as beautiful the finished product – click on the image below to see the larger version – mesmerizing.

I continually collect visual information about nature’s forms, structures, surfaces, textures and colours and “translate” the elements that most inspire me, into tiny, paper sculpture-like models, before finally moving on to constructing the final piece in precious metals.

18kt gold and vitreous enamel brooch

18kt gold and vitreous enamel pendant

today’s flickr find:

I think I’m in love…

Snap!

Crackle!

Pop!

Concrete and wire. One is solid and strong. The other is changeable. Sounds like we could be talking about people in relationships, yes? Coupling. Johan Hagaman combines the two because she believes that “opposites rubbed against each other create a spark”. More relationship speak? Hagaman’s sculptures are both figurative and fantastical. The thought-provoking work is a beautiful and one of the most creative uses of concrete that I’ve ever seen.

Home and Sanctity and Certainty are Best

70×25x15 in.; concrete, wood, found and made objects

I am interested in the small, everyday certainties, the myths and rituals we create to keep ourselves afloat and give us meaning, while being ever present in the larger, looming uncertainties.

Ajar

64×14x10 inches; concrete, mixed media

More of her work at Lanoue Fine Art

No surprise that this link came from Ronna Weltman’s watchful eye

The cuff below is the result of an afternoon spent playing with the new texture wheels I made thanks to an article in the current issue of Polymer Cafe. The author, Irene Semanchuck Dean, explores a new spin (literally) on an old idea. Want to know more? I’m sure I saw a few magazines left on the shelf at Barnes and Noble the other day…

Polymer clay, acrylic paint, wire

After I added the texture and baked the clay, I painted it then sanded off the texture…oh it’s a long story! This is my first attempt at an all-polymer cuff bracelet – it didn’t turn out looking anything like the picture I had in my head, so I will try both again – cuffs and texture wheels (next time I won’t sand off the texture). Have a great weekend!