Tree Pendant, domed resin pendant using ybonesy doodle,
pendant and doodle © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Other titles I thought of for this post:
- Look Mom, I Made It Myself!
- Coming Soon to a Store Near You
- Would Say More But Must Go Make Tile Pendants
- What Children and Husband?
- Yogurt & Popcorn for Dinner
- Not Planning to Lose My Day Job Yet, But Dang, Am Having Fun!!
Nice pendant.
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I love the tree! I had a hard time coming to terms with the glass medium in making fused glass jewelry — I wanted it to do what it did not want to do (e.g., curves and exact shapes). I would have like to make a tree like yours. I also had a hard time accepting the changes from the kiln. I am such a control freak! I learned a lot about working with the glass in the course of the week-long workshop, and discovered a new free-flowing sense of creativity.
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Thanks heart.
Anne, fused glass does seem by its nature to be free-flowing. It must be very hard to control how the glass fuses and to create precise or figurative imagery. It would be fun to do as a change from my style, as well, a more abstract form than what I know. This domed resin might be fun for you–you can combine it, as I did here, with drawing. You can also make shadow box-like items, with other things inside the resin, such as glitter, beads, colored glass…just about anything. In those cases you’d need more of a rounded or concave surface in which to place your objects.
There are some great how-tos that I will come back and post in a link in comments. I might one day do a how-to post, in fact (although there are so many good ones that links should suffice) but for now this will have to suffice as I lost the battery to my camera and could barely eke out a couple of photos.
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yb, lovely pendant! I’m wondering how long it took to make. Glad to hear you’re enjoying your free time! Gosh, not long before school starts again…I’ll miss having Brant here, but we’re leaving next Tuesday to visit my family once again. Just me & Brant & he can’t wait!
Alas, we have not done many crafts this summer. The garden has kept us busy & we are too on the go for me. I’m looking forward on the how tos of your project. Fell in love with it the minute I saw it. D
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Thanks, diddy. I had a free night this past Sunday. We were at the cabin for the weekend, but that afternoon the girls had a sleepover at their cousin’s house. So it took me four hours to do the whole thing. I did about a dozen pendants like the one pictured, seven magnets on dominos, and a dozen glass tile pendants. The glass tile pendants don’t use resin, so they are the easiest. The resin takes 48 hours to dry, so by yesterday evening I was able to move them around and take the photos.
How great that you’re taking Brant to visit your family. He is a lucky kid to have such a young and active grandmother. And vice versa.
BTW, the resin might be a good project for you to do with your grandson. My girls made resin jewelry out of bottle caps in their reusable art workshop the same week that I learned, but because the resin can be so damaging if it spills, the teacher had to do the resin part herself. I think my oldest could do it, but I wouldn’t let a kid do it until he or she is a teen. But there is a lot the girls had to do to prepare the bottlecap. They loved the resulting jewelry, as did I.
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ybonesy, beautiful! Your work is coming along nicely. How exciting to be doing the pendants with your drawings. How long does the process take from beginning to end? And do you have any tips for the novice at it? They look really fun to try.
We’re on Staycation this week and Liz’s Mom is here. We are just getting going with the day. Liz is making bacon and waffles and we’re eating on the deck. Beautiful day here.
Liz’s Mom brought a book along, Again Calls The Owl by Margaret Craven. It’s a short memoir about how she wrote the book I Heard The Owl Call My Name. I’ve started reading it in between.
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Hey, QM, good to hear from you during your Staycation. Aren’t those fun?
How long was the process? you ask. I set aside four hours, and in that time I made about 28 items, I think. Most were domed resin pendants or magnets, and then about 6 or 8 glass tile pendants. Now, I still have to add the “bail” (which is the little part that the chain goes through) to most of those, which you can’t do until after everything has dried. A friend from grade school that I reconnected with on Facebook (can you believe it!?) convinced me to sign up for an outsider/folk art festival in Albuquerque on Sept 13. She and I are both going to be in the show; we’ll put our booths next to each other. We’re getting together one Sunday in later August to work on more. I think if I give myself two full days decidated to this work, I can probably arrive at the show with between 120-200 pendants total, which is my goal. I also have a really great silk-screen printer (who is also an artist) making 100 t-shirts. Whew, can you believe it?
This is all part of my own process to discover what sells, what works, which designs I want to focus on. When you have limited time to spend on art and art products, plus you want to eventually grow a business out of it, I think you have to get a good feel for what people respond to of your work. So, that’s where I am. Trying to figure this out, give myself these opportunities (and deadlines) for pushing myself to the next step, then the next, then the next. But man, I can’t tell you how scary it was to confirm an order for 100 t-shirts. The materials I have invested in so far are adding up, moneywise. I can see where many artists get caught by that Catch 22 of not being able to invest in their own work. The old maxim is so true: you have to spend money to make it.
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QM, meant to ask for clarification: You’re reading both Margaret Craven’s memoir and her novel?
Also tell Liz and her mom hello from me. You’re having good weather there, yes?
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Nice!!!
Hey…Mermaids would be cool too
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I agree. Mermaids would be awesome. Fish. I honestly have been noodling on doing a fish pendant. And of course, got to do our favorite day, Day of the Dead. Talk about skulls… 8)
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yb, was wondering the size of the pendant. That appears to be fairly small & I admit, as much as I would like to give it a try, I fear that I would fail. You have quite a talent!
As far as mermaids go, I should share some of A.s new friend J.. She has done some unbelievable art work with mermaids, including album covers for bands. Her talent blows me away!
I also hope QM is having a great time with Marylin. We connected thanks to redRavine & have become good friends! D
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Beautiful!
I enjoyed your alternative titles too. lol!
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ybonesy, very exciting! Can’t wait to see the T-shirts. And so glad you signed up to be in an outsider/folk art festival in Albuquerque on Sept 13. It’s good to set deadlines like that. For me, anyway, I sometimes need them to produce. Also a way of pushing yourself to the next level. Community is important, too, having supportive people around that know how hard it is to produce and get your artwork out there for sale. So great that you are moving in the direction of your dreams.
The money part of art (and writing) is hard. Though maybe with art, supplies are much more expensive than those it takes to write. I can’t believe the prices on art materials these days. We passed an art store in South Minneapolis last night that had gone out of business. There is still one independent store that Liz and I buy at. It’s on the way to the studio, too.
With art, you do have to spend money to make it. But the next step is to get out and sell and you are doing that. Also seeing what people are attracted to in terms of buying work is key. Many artists I know have 2 or 3 lines of work going at once: what sells, and what they consider their “fine art” work (closer to the heart).
A painter recently told me that she learned that people like to see and recognize a certain style in an artist as well. Like when they look at their work and go, ‘oh, that’s ____’s work.” So too much experimentation can backfire. I thought that was interesting to consider. Not something I had thought about.
I think the Uptown Art Festival is this weekend. It’s one that brings in people from all over the country. Very crowded though. They are having a windy and cool weekend for it. Is the art festival you are doing in September outside?
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ybonesy, I’m reading a short memoir by Craven about how she came to write her book. Liz’s Mom was reading it on the plane and told me about it. Some interesting tidbits in it about when Margaret Craven met Gertrude Stein and what she told her about writing. It’s a quick read.
diddy, yes having a great time with Liz’s Mom. Her brother flew in last night and we went to dinner at the Red Stag Supper Club. It’s been a good week mostly off the Internet and out in the world. We went to see the play “Ella” at the Guthrie Wednesday. Thursday to the downtown Minneapolis library to hear poet Patricia Smith read. She blew me away. Fantastic poet.
Next week, back to the grind. But it’s always nice to have routines shaken up by visitors or outside events. To learn to see in new ways.
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Wow! Now I will have to learn to make these! It’s gorgeous!
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