From art to pendant

Recently, while my mom (Maralee Lowder) and I had a booth at the Butterfly Festival in Mariposa, Calilfornia, I met a lovely photographer/jewelry maker named Joelle Leder. We immediately formed a mutual admiration society as I love her photography and handmade jewelry, and Joelle loved my art and pendants. Joelle has been successfully selling her work at art and craft fairs for over ten years and, thankfully, she was more than willing to share tips and tricks for being successful at shows. Soon after the show, Joelle asked me to consider creating a line of pendants that complimented her "beachy" jewelry. I love the ocean and jumped at the idea to create art that brings to mind the casual and laid-back feeling of the beach.

I started with this sea start painting...

Sea Star Painting for LaBelle Mariposa pendant

Once I'd completed the painting which is 12 by 12 in size, I photographed it and re-sized it using Photoshop. Painting something bigger and shrinking it down for a pendant is such a fun process. All of the details are so cute and crisp when shrunk down from a large size to an itty bitty piece of art. :)

There are several factors that influence the final product when printing the images. Therefore, I usually have to do a few test-prints before I get the final image that I want for the pendant.



I'm very happy with the final result of this image...

I love the dimension and the shading. In real life, it looks like you could run your finger along the side and feel the starfish. :) Now I'm working on a sand dollar, and next will come a painting that represents Manhattan Beach, CA. I'll share photos of those paintings as they come along.

Sea Star Pendant

Blessings,
Laura P.

Back in the swing of things

detail from vintage post card

Hello, again! It's been a long time since I was able to  share with you. Following my successful class at Trezher's Gift Shop in Sacramento, I found myself feeling sick. Well, I went to bed with a fever before I could even unpack my car and have been fighting what we are now calling, "The Malaria" for 4 weeks! The good news is that no one else in my family has gotten sick, so we figure it's not airborne. Oh, and I've lost a solid 5 pounds, but other than that, it's been a trial! Today I'm feeling pretty darn good. I'll probably poop out and need a nap this afternoon, but I'll take that any day over what I've been through.

While laying there with plenty of time to think, artsy projects flooded my mind. Now that I'm better the question is prioritizing all this creative energy. I'm getting ready for my next classes at Trezher's starting on September 15th which will be a soldered glass pendant class. Then I'll be creating samples for the November 20th class where we'll make larger pieces to preserve pictures, collages, or postcards and the December 10th class when we'll make ornaments. I'm excited about the ornament class! Here are a couple of images I'll be using for my samples. 

I'm also painting new images for my pendant line, working on a new deck of Inspirational Cards, have a stained glass project I've been excited about creating, and a quilt idea is brewing in my mind. I'm so glad to be me today.

I hope you find your creative muse and giver her/him a kiss for me. :)

My friend Lisa's baby Zoie. So cute!!!

detail from a vintage Easter postacard

Darling Chloe in her halloween costume from 2010

My baby Rachel, when she was a baby. :)

Detail from vintage postcard

Finished Tiaras

Last night was Rachel's birthday party. Yesterday morning, she asked if she could have boys at her pretty pretty princess birthday party. And, of course, it made the party that much more fun! Cody (Rachel's boyfriend), Cody (Jamie's boyfriend), and Matt brought silly masculine humor and a whole different vibe to the party. I made sure there were enough flowery tea-cup and saucer sets for everyone and the boys worked hard to makes sure their pinkies were high in the air. The general consesus was that they all learned how to behave at a tea party from Sponge-Bob Square-Pants. The rule of thumb (or pinky)? The higher you hold your pinky, the fancier you are! The party-goers enjoyed pink punch, tea, finger sandwiches, salad, mini blue-berry muffins and birthday cake.

Here's a photo of some of the finished tiaras. I think they look great!

Completed tiaras

The girls had a great time. Some are more "crafty" than others but everyone got their tiara made and on their heads for picture time. 

Heather, Rachel, and Katy

Jamie, Rachel, Jovanna, and Heather

Miwok Sun Maiden

I've been working on this little 4x4 painting for a contest at my local Indian reservation. I was inspired by the beautiful women they have working in their Tribal Health office. Long almost black hair frames lovely young women. The workers often bring in their children to work and family members bring their children in to hang out with the rest of the family. The atmosphere is an interesting mix of modern medical facility and family reunion with lots of love an laughter. It's such an amazing place to take my family in for medical care. 

I really like the painting.  I hope the people who evaluate the art like it, too. It's just what I envisioned in the lobby, but now I'm thinking it may need something else.

If I add more to her, I'll share it here. 

I hope that you get to create what you envision, too.

Blessings,

Laura P.

Tiara kits for Rachel's Pretty Pretty Princess Birthday Party

The sample tiara I made to make sure my ideas would work :)

Preparing for Rachel's big birthday has been so much fun for me. As I posted earlier, I'm putting together tiara kits for each of her friends to make during the party. Then, they'll enjoy tea party goodies while I make sure the tiaras are dry enough for picture taking before they all leave. 

It was important to me that each girl have her very own tiara. No two are alike, just like Rachel's best friends. I decided to buy all new stuff for these, even though I'm sure you could do a lot with vintage stuff. I found all these elements at Michaels. There are many other craft and hobby stores, Michaels is just where I was able to find what I was looking for. I had to get creative, though, because they don't really have stuff designed for making tiaras. The curved piece is actually a bracelet which was opened up. The flat round parts were to be used for earrings (as best I can tell) The center medallions were either designed to be brooches or pendants. Since they didn't have tiara making supplies specifically, I used pieces of punched metal for the sides that were in the jewelry making department that I'm not really sure what they were supposed to be for. :)

All of the elements will be glued together with E6000 and held with clamps. I'll take a blow dryer to each tiara individually while the girls hang out and eat. That should get them dry enough for photos. Then we'll put the clamps back on to be taken off at home the next day. 

These girls are 21 and up, so I'm not handing E6000 to children. And, we're doing this outside because of the fumes. 

So, here's the tiara's the girls will be making. I hope they enjoy making them as much as I've enjoyed gathering the materials for them.

Rachel's regal blue and bronze tiara to be

Heather, our bride to be's, lovely crown kit

Jamie's sparkly and bold crown

Jo's dramatic red and copper tiara

Katy's bohemian-cool tiara

A crowing achievement

My darling daughter, Rachel, is turning 21 on July 2nd and we're planning an appropriate celebration. Like so many of us, Rachel is a multifaceted person. On the one hand, she's a lovely grown-up young lady, and on the other hand, she's my little girl! She's headed to New Orleans to celebrate with her grown-up friends and she's asked me to make a party to celebrate here at home. I'm so excited! It's gonna be a blast! I'm putting together a "Pretty, Pretty Princess" party for 5 over 21 year old young ladies. Jamie, my other big girl, asked me to come up with tiara ideas that the girls can make at the party. So, I headed to Michael's and bought a bunch of jewelry parts and glued them together with E6000. I'm happy with it and I think the girls will have fun making their own. I'll share photos of the whole batch when they're finished. Each one will be different, so it should be pretty fun.

I hope you're enjoying some creative activities, too.

Blessings,

Laura P.

Back in the swing of things

Good day to you! I think I'm finally getting to the end of my unpleasantness... At least I'm ready to be at the end so I'm choosing to move on. :)

Which brings me to today! I feel so fresh and ready to take on the world, it feels like a MONDAY! (btw, it's Thursday, which is good, too!)

I'm going to try my darnedest to balance all the things I really want to do today. It will be a challenge! Considering I have 3 kids of my own here today and one bonus kid. And a wonderful sweetie who needs me, too. Here's my to-do list:

Laundry

vacuuming

running kids around

pick up Rachel's car from the shop

feed dogs

water plants

grocery shopping

meals

exercise

create template for new stained glass panel within old window frame

Try out Mother's Day gift hammock!!! 

Try out Mother's Day gift motorcycle!

Shop for our early Father's Day celebration this Sunday...

That's all I can think of right now, but you know stuff will be added. I feel very blessed to have such high-quality "problems" as too many people in my life who I love and want to take care of, art to create, a motorcycle to ride...  :)

I hope you implement today's Inspirational Image! I think it's one of the most important tasks any of us undertake!

Blessings,

Laura P.

a "Walk In Your Own Footsteps" Inspirational Image

Learning Lessons about Life

The last couple of weeks have been difficult to say the least. I've learned a lot about myself as well as some other people in my life. I learned that some people can be unspeakably awful when they feel their cause is just. And, I learned that when I am on the receiving end of unspeakable awfulness, it takes me a long time to process my feelings. I'm still processing. Peeling the onion and finding hurt, betrayal, and fear hiding under pain and anger. I guess I could paint something really dark to get the feelings out. But, I find that I go to art when I'm happy to celebrate life, not to commemorate misery. The final result of all this is that the person who tried to deceive me ultimately failed because I sought reliable counsel before falling for her ruse. 

So, the lesson learned is that I'm too trusting of people who I perceive as being authority figures. The sad thing is this woman has been awful to me before and I went along with her because she spoke kindly to me. I also suffer from the unfortunate desire to have relationships which are smooth in my life, even to my own detriment.

I choose to remain a kind and open person. I want to trust people in my life. Therefore, I will continue to seek sound counsel from people who I know love and honor me. And, NOT take action recommended by those who've shown clear disregard and disdain for me in the past. Part of me does not want to admit that their are real live evil people in this world. Especially people with blood relations to people I love. But, it's true. I get that now.

What I want to take away from this is GRATITUDE for the good people in my life and the ability to set firm boundaries which exclude the evil. 

I have not made a Inspirational Image in a while, but I'm glad to share this one with you today. I hope it reminds you that you are wholly ready to be fully YOU right now!

Blessings,

Laura P.

A "Walk In Your Own Footsteps" Inspirational Image

Cleaning, playing, organizing, playing...

Today I woke up with the energy that comes from surviving the stomach flu! So, I decided it was time to clean and organize the corner of our house, formerly known as the dining room, that now serves as my studio. Of course, I had my computer on so I could play on facebook while I "work." When my buddy Krissi shared a picture of  her pink sewing machine, it made me think if the pink sewing machine I found at the thrift shop, lugged home, and tucked in the corner of my studio. Then I remembered that I have wanted to set up a little photo-shoot of that machine since I bought it. I'm feeling like that series of kids books, "If you give a mouse a cookie" and so on. Eleanor (my dress form) just seemed to fit in beautifully with the machine.  This is the result: 

Eleanor the dress form with vintage pink sewing machine.

Hope you have a lovely week!

Blessings,

Laura P.