Newest creations

Ok I know you want to see some art so here is what I have ben doing. The first is a mushroom done from a gourd as it is a class from Marilyn Radzat.

The long slender piece you see was a candleholder. I am still not sure where I am heading with this piece, I think there may be some faces in the center and may be sort of a nautical theme involved and be like a totem. I may go and get another one as have another iea to do another like a time machine but will see if any are left in clearance.

Pics of the living room

Here are some pics of the living room. It has changed a little since these were taken but for the most part it is the same just have added some embrodered curtains with shisha mirrors amd my icon corner is now up behind the chaise.And the bookcases are filled to the brrim and oh yes my beautiful jester doll from Mary O. Martin now rests on the other side of my fireplace mantle as was not sure where he was going to live. But Murphy wanted to be with Elf meister who was created by Sherry Goshon.

If youe wobdering what that large habhing red thing is behind the chair, it is one cool lamp! My friend Jean took me to this great store and I just had to have this lamp.

Fireplace update

I have neglected updatibg my blog and some of you have been anxiously awaiting pics so I will be posting a few additions. I have finished painting the fireplace as I did a sand finish on the walls and a high gloss finish on the mantle as well as on the bricks. I still have to do teh treatment on the sides of the fireplace which should be soon hopefully.Ive also added a pic of a wreath I made for my front door.

The fireplace

The newest project I am working on is the fireplace. As you can see it was plain old white but it will be getting a faux treatment and the wall above is getting a sandstome treatment. the color yous ee is only the foundation coat but already it it looks better. the view you see is the backyard which even has a gate. there are trails back there so once it gets warmer I will be taking walks there and there is even a gazebo at one end. Shayna loves going back there and runninga round as my patio even has a gate. the bird feeder was a gift from Jean Bernard when I arrived! looking forward to the spring when in the front I will have a small garden and teh back I am not sure what will be doing there yet. it still seems like a dream sometimes for a city boy,lol.

MY new adventure

I have started a new adventure after spending my whole life in New York City I have relocated to the west coast. i am now living in Reno, Nevada. i thought I would share some pics of my new place which is a two bedroom 2 bath located in the valley here. It is amll but lots of storage. the first thing i started on was my studio which is in the front and has a view of the mountains which is not clear since it was cloudy when I took this pic.

Another Walking Stick for Upcoming Class

i have just finished creating this walking stick for an upcoming class that I am teaching online next month. Since it was mentioned by my good friend jean Bernard about using tree branches to do a walking stick as I was only planning to use cane I took up opportunity to choose both options for this class. When I visited my Sis Tammy she had a bunch of branches laying in her backyard and this one spoke to me. I was even able to ct part off to make a handle like a cane.

This one is of an Indian Chief and two maidens. I may decide to add a robin later on but everytime I tried to sculpt one that goes with the tory it did not work out so I have left it alone for now. It can always be added on with some other aditions that I would like to add like a small pouch which I till need to finish up and tie on to it.

The class will be taught at http://www.classheaven.com/ in January so you can sign up as the one I will be teaching will be in the website. This is just another option.

Christmas ornament

I have finally gotten back to doing some eggs. I am working on some ornament eggs now in between getting some classes ready to teach for next year. This is the first one that I made which is a snow babies ornament in a goose egg. I used apoxie to make the berries 3D and also used 2 colors of micro marbles to add more dimensions to the centers of the pontsettias. My focus on this eggw as to add depth inside the egg something that is not easily acheived in something that small as most people just the figures inside without looking at acheiving depth in a diaroma scene.

Two Friend's Chair

Here is my latest creation that I have been working on this week and finished. jean Bernard finally is doing one of her chair classes on line. She is one of my mentors and have waited for almost a year for her to teach how to do her chairs and she created a new style. What was different about this class was that it was more free style and eveyone is making compleeltely different looking chairs.

I was able to use some different products in some places and also had so much fun creating this piece. First I started with only the girl but she wanted a companion and when I got done it was destined to be called two friends. I can't wait to make more of these but it will have to wait for a while as I have other projects that need to be done first. They will be posted as soon as I get them done.

Day of TheDead Mirror

Being that today is the day of the Dead I decided to make another mirror in honor of this day. It is a Latin tradition that remembers your family members. This tradidition is observed not only in latin community but also n the European community we have that tradition to but in another way.

I am not totally satisfied in teh way the layout came out as I am going to redo part of it as my vision did not come out. The background was done using structure paste from Paverpol. This is one of my favorite products of theirs to play with.

Well this is the end of my playing with mirrors for awhile since I am out of them. But I wanted to show my class some other ideas they can do using the techniques they are learning at classheaven.com

My Award At Reno Retreat

The Reno Retreat was a complete blast! Learning from Masters like jean Bernard and sherry Goshon is an incredible experience. Not only do they make it easy but the weekend was full of laughter and fun. All the ladies that were there were just so warm and friendly and we had such a great time. During lunch I was surprised by Norma with A Meadow Muffin Award. Afterwards everyone signed the bottom of the base. This was a moment to remeber in my lifetime!

Mirror Class Now Online

The Mirror class is now being offered online since I have had requests for it. You can sign up at www.classheaven.com for it. Each one will be your own unique creation as you will add your own touches and colors and customize it to make it your own. What you see here is just a sample. the ones that were done in Reno were each totally different and had all different themes. The class is more about techniques and they can be used for a variety of other projects in the future.

Mini Class at Luna Retreat

This is the mini class I am doing at the retreat in Reno being held by Jean Bernard and Sherry Goshon. It is filled with all sorts of techniques as they will be using Paverpol, learning how to do bleeding ink technique, distressing on paper and other techniques. Everyone will be making there own style mirror and tehre are some awesome ideas already in the works from the participants. I can't wait to see what they create!

Chaos-Memorial to 9/11

This is canvas that I started some time ago and put away and have come back and got consumed working on for the past couple of weeks. All of the sudden it spoke to me to be a tribute to 9/11 victims. Beng a New Yorker we all know at least one person who was killed in these attacks.

This is a 16x20 canvas the middle face is a fibre mache mask. The surrounding abstract is all done with dyed paper towels that have ben dipped in paper towels and then drybrushed afterwards,

The middle face represents a figure dressed in a burkah. Then there is faces flowing all over representing all the innocent souls that have perished. There are pockets in between the dyed paper towels that you see the white canvas this represents the unfinished business these people left behind in their lives, The gold color in the background represents the Heavenly Light. I purposely did not use smooth faces as wanted to show the emotions of what happened but also used different faces showing different emotions.There is also some cracled spotson the canvas that stand for the fragility of life.

I am not sure if I will ad something in the space at the bottom as I keep getting the feeling to add a cripture or other quotation. But havent found something yet that I am comfortable with. This was a piece thatsome may not understand but to me it took me in a way I never thought it would.

This piece is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Fumando and all who perished on this unforgettable day. May they have Blessed Repose and Eternal Memory!

been Tagged

I've been nominated twice for the Nice Matter's Blog Award given to those that care about others and that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world and inspire! A big thanks to Linda Fleming and Noel Wolfman for nominating me.

IN Loving Memory Of Sabrina 4//28/97-7/21/07

Sabrina aka Nunz wemt over the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon. Your twin sister Shayna is here as I type this blog entry. We will miss you very much amd thank you for all the wonderful memories you have given us.

You were such a trooper never showing any pain even in thend always full of love. That stubborn streak was always tehre which is why I always called you a little witch sometimes. But you were always full of love in your won special way.

LIke Grandma said she is ging to miss you sleeping with her and Grandpa is going to miss you walking with him and Shayna. It was heard for us to let you go but we did not want you to suffer and your kisses and love in the end made it a little easier to say goodbye.

You will forever live in our hearts and know that we miss you very much my little nunidoo.Till we meet again I love you!!!

Tibetan Blessing Tree is Finished

This morning I finished my tree. This has been such a wonderful journey doing this tree and now I have another one thatI am working on that is totally different in nature. But I am looking forward to making more of these trees.

The mandala inside the tree is one for healing and balance. The four quadrants of the mandala represent the four elements converging to form a unity, healing imbalances throughout the universe and promoting harmony among all beings.Red represents all knowing compassion,green conveys action action informed by wisdom, white symbolizes penetrating insight and yellow represents the treasures of equanamity. Together these forces combine to promote physical health and spiritual well being.

The bowl was made with cotton fibers dipped in Paverpol and molded into a bowl.

I placed this tree outside afterwards so that it may send blessings out to all of you my dear friends.

A tree is born

I have been working on creating a couple of trees in the enchanted forest. Here is a a Wip picture of the first one. It will be a Tibetan inspired tree. I have used over 500 mirror tiles on this piece so far and am awaiting for more to come in then I can proceed with finishing the tiling on this tree.

Rodohan has landed!

I have spent the last week working on finishing this gourd sculpt. This weekend I finally finished the wings. They are large velvet wings that when I saw them at a floral warehouse sometine ago I knew they would make great dragion wings. Mind you the plant was 6 feet tall so good thing it came apart in the middle to fit in my truck. I paverpoled the wings then crackled them and used a gold finish.

I now have to find a place for him. Marilyn Razdat suggested that I get a pedestal for him since he commands such a presence. But since space is limited here that is a challenge as the one space I do have i am saving for my next project.

I am now off to the enchanted forest to start creating my houses.

He now has scales

Well I have spent tme this week working on him and have made progress then my computer went down. i got my computer back and now I couldnt get onto blogger so am using my back up computer .

It has takien me a couple of days to work on dragon man as I have never spent so much time at once on a piece. But I am happy with the results and even surprised myself. There is no way he will be hanging as the weight is just too heavy with all the apoxie I have added.

The pictures do not capture the colors as he is done in pearlescent inks which I love working with. And his underbelly I did with mulberry or bannana paper not sure which as I have rolls of both. I then crackled it and then use blue ink over that for contrast instead of the usual boring black and brown.

A new sculpt

I have been working on a new project. The next project in the series with Marilyn is a Dragon.Well I am behind as this class is ending and the next project begins next week so I am trying to catch up. The class project is more of a chinese style one however I have been struggling with mine since I cut the gourds. Then i realized it was because it was too big and too fat! Also we are to learn to do lyrical shapes and mine did not come out really lyrical but I am happy with the shape.

So i have decided to follow my muse with this one. So here is Dragon Man. Well actually not sure if he is a dragon or what but he is definitely a mythical creature. This is definitely out of the box for me but so much fun in not thinking and just creating with my unconcius brain as one of teh students said. I did try to control one part of my creating today and it looked horrible so took that part off. So this is a learning exercise in this piece.

I was hoping to have him hang from the ceiling but he is heavy from the apoxie.Will need to get some real heavy line if I decide to go that route.