Solace

I came across these images recently and liked the "feel" of them. I was playing in Photoshop last night trying out some of the new techniques I'm learning in the Photoshop class I'm taking. I love rusty things now. I can't explain it but I am really liking the result when I place my images onto a rusted background. So of course I've been scouring the internet for free images with rust in them. There are tons of them which really made me happy! Now I've got to save all of these images I'm collecting onto a CD so nothing happens to them.

Today I am finishing up some charms I made for a charm swap. This is my first attempt at jewelry pieces and this is a mixed media group so you can use just about anything to make your charms. Hubby helped me with my Dremel over the weekend :) . Who knew you had to have so many collets? Anyway, we were able to find the right sized collet and bit and I drilled my little tiles with no problem. I'll post a picture of the finished pieces sometime later today or tomorrow. They aren't too bad for a beginner.

I'm also working on two art dolls. The art doll I posted recently was from a little tutorial in a book I had found at BN. The doll artist who was profiled in that section of the book is Joanna Pierotti. Her tutorial gave just enough info to produce a version of her gorgeous dolls.

However, I did find that she offers online workshops to teach the entire technique for these dolls through her Moss Hill Studio. She gives you the name of the glaze she uses, her favorite dolls to alter, the paints she uses, etc. This is more of what I wanted because I want to produce those dolls! Yes, I'm in the course now and it's a whole new world. I'm working on a larger and a smaller version of the dolls. The hardest part is waiting for each step to dry but you have to be patient and just work on other projects until the dolls are ready for the next layer. I'll post photos of those when they are finished.

I'm also excited about a new art community I found on the web: Creative Souls. It's a very talented group of artists who post their work (most of them are in galleries), offer encouragement and advice and have insightful discussions in their forums. It's free to join the community and I'm learning so much. That is where I found Joanna's class. The web address for Creative Souls is: http://creativesouls.ning.com/ . Check it out!