10x10 Benefit Show

On October 10, 2009, there will be a benefit show at the Mesa Art Center. At the show they will have 10"x10" works for show and sale by 110 Arizona Artists. Each piece will be for sale for $100.00. First come, first pick and doors open at 6pm. All proceeds will benefit the Mesa Contemporary Arts Exhibitions and educational programs.

-$10 entrance fee at the door

-refreshments

-cash bar

I will be participating in this show and would love to see you all there. I LOVE the Mesa Art Center and think it is a great organization/facility to support. Hopefully I will finish my piece soon so I can post an image of it here.

Save the date! 10-10-09!!!

Sounds Like...

In case you ever wondered what my studio sounds like...if often sounds like this:

In which case the voice in my mind sounds like this:

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

:)

WHAT are you DOING?!!

Sometimes (okay, often) I wake up in the middle of the night, sit straight up in bed, turn on the light and start furiously scribbling something on the notepad I keep on my nightstand (for just such occasions). When this happens my husband will roll over and groggily grunt, "WHAT are you DOING?!!!!" The answer?? Sketching an idea! I've made the mistake too many times of thinking that I will remember the fabulous jewelry design that comes to me in my sleep in the morning. Do I ever remember in the morning? No. So, I have do draw it out right when I think of it, asleep or not. Often in the morning my sketches are almost entirely illegible (due to the fact that I am half asleep and drawing by the dim light of my cell phone) but usually I can glean something of what seemed like the best idea ever in the middle of the night (although often not so fabulous looking in the morning). Last night, there was this one...which I'm pretty excited about. And, since I have a deadline on Friday, this little epiphany may have come just in time (or a tad late). Lets hope it looks as good in real life as it did in my dreams last night! Oh, and isnt this little notepad awesome? Its called "Where rainbows come from" by nut and bee. They gave tons of really cute paper goods, check 'em out.

Craftsmanship

Just wanted to let you all know about an upcoming show that I will have 4 pieces in. The show is titled, "Craftsmanship" and is a juried exhibition of work by members of the group, Arizona Designer Craftsmen. The show was juried by fiber artist Carol Eckert.

Here are the details:

Show Dates: September 21st-October 2nd, 2009

Opening Reception: Monday, September 21st from 7-9

Awards will be announced during the opening reception at 8pm.

Location: Gallery 100, Tempe Center, Southeast corner of Mill and University, Tempe, AZ

More info here.

And, since my professor is the curator of the exhibition, I got to design the postcard and the poster, so enjoy!

Playing with Spoons

Not sure what will come of these, but I've been playing with some old antique spoons lately. Lots more to play with...

Makers Mark

Look what my mom bought me. Im so excited! I finally have my own custom stamp to sign my work with. Watch out...Im about to become a stamping fiend with this thing. Thanks mom! I love it, its soooo tiny, and look how nice it stamps my name (the little brass circle is about the size of a dime)!

Twenty Minutes Well Spent

What a great message...check it out if you haven't already (its not just for kids):

Patterned Metals

This semester I am taking a patterned metals class with Tedd McDonah (a piece of his mokume work pictured above). We are learning how to make mokume gane and Damascus steel. On Wednesday half the class fired their billets. My turn is next Wednesday. After I fire my billet I will do a more detailed post on the process and take you through the whole thing. For now, here are some teaser photos. Oh, and just in case you didn't know...100 degrees outside and a 2000 degree forge makes for one very hot night!!

The picture above is of the metal stacked in alternating layers in the torque plates ready for firing. We did billets in combos of copper, nickel silver, and brass.Putting the billet in the forge.Heating up the billet until bonding of the metals takes place. The metal sweat beads above are evidence that the layers have bonded. Removing the billet from the forge.Clamping in a vice to remove torque plates.The billet after being removed from the forge.Hot forging the billet down to a thinner gauge.

The billet after it has been hot forged. The next step will be to roll it down in the rolling mill to a workable size and then pattern it and roll it out even more. Stay tuned for a more thorough post on the process!

Crafthaus

This week I was chosen to be one of the featured artists on Crafthaus. If you are an artist of any type, you should be on crafthaus!! Its a great place to network and see other peoples artwork. The other featured artists this week were:Victoria AltepeterVirginia SchotchiePhillip MannNathan DubeStevie B.

Toni Mayner

The Best Part About Teaching...

Is getting to learn! This semester I am teaching Three Dimensional Design, which is a beginning level class required for all art majors. I spend hours and hours researching, searching for artists and work to show my students. The first project I am having them do this semester is a paper sculpture project, and I found some pretty great stuff for them to get inspired by. I also started a class blog for them:

http://www.asu3dfall09.blogspot.com/

Go check out what they are up to and definitely check out all the links. It took me two years to complile that list of artists for the paper sculpture project! Oh, and as the semester progresses I will be posting a section of links associated with each project, so in a couple weeks there will be plenty more to browse. Here are just a couple of things I found when researching paper sculpture:Jen StarkPeter Callesen beautiful large scale papercut and folded sculpturesYuken Teruya (above and below) paper cuts from food wrappersBert Simmons (above and below) Realistic computer modeled,printed, and folded 3d paper portraitsAnnie Vought (above and two below) Hand cut paper LettersChris Natrop large scale papercut installations

Hand Me Down Pearls

I finished a new piece yesterday...

It is titled, "Hand Me Down Pearls".

Materials are found antique silver platters, copper, silk thread, and pearls.

Unresolved

I started these pieces last semester but never finished them. They are laser engraved and burned wood circles (about 6" wide), set in a hand pierced copper backplate and hung on the wall. The patterns are little doily silhouettes of hand shadow puppets. What I still need to figure out is what to put in the middle. I was thinking some sort of little jewelry piece...maybe a brooch??? I dont know yet...I figured if I posted it here I would feel more accountable to get something done. Also, I am beginning my LAST YEAR (woooohooo!!!) of grad school on Monday and have lots of show deadlines coming up early in the semester so I'm hoping to resolve some unfinished pieces instead of starting all new ones. Wish me luck!

MJSA

This year I was very fortunate in being awarded a scholarship from the MJSA Foundation(Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America). It is an honor to have received this award and I am very grateful! Head on over to MJSA's website to read about the other recipients.

New Website

I recently got a totally new website up and running (thanks to my husband who did it for my birthday!) I'm still working on a few things...mostly the news page and the portfolio page, but head on over and check it out...and then tell me what you think! Thanks!

http://www.lynetteandreasen.com/

Oh, and the website was created by the nicest guy ever, Mike from YES Hosting. He was super easy to work with, worked around my crazy schedule, did things faster than I could keep up with, and was very affordable. He made sure everything was exactly how I wanted, which was very important to me because I am an artist and the way I am visually represented on the web says everything about me! I highly reccomend Mike and Yes Hosting! Seriously, if you need any web work done, check him out!

Artist to Artist: Shoshona Snow

A couple of months ago I was part of an artist to artist swap that was organized by Emily Watson on Flickr. Basically we were all assigned someone at random and we had to send them something that would inspire them to make something either with that object or inspired by that object. I was assigned to work with Shoshona Snow (a very talented ceramicist.) Well I was totally scared about what to send so I send a bunch of random stuff. Sorry Shoshona!! The box above is all the stuff I sent her to work with (and all the photos in this post are hers.) Well she took molds of a few of the things I sent her...
And then she came up with this beautiful stuff!!!

When I got it in the mail I couldn't even believe how gorgeous it was! SOOOO beautiful!!

Go check out her etsy shop and her blog, and buy her stuff because you will love it!