On July 8th – July 16th I attended the 35th Annual Stone Carving Symposium at Pilgrim Firs. This was my 3rd time here and about my 6th or 7th Symposium (Hard to keep track of with Covid) I began to work on piece which I believe now to be Calcite or similar. Here are some images to show how much progress I was able to make in only a short few days.

Next I decided to take advantage or the Core Drill as I had a piece of Dunite and a piece which I thought was Alabaster which may possibly be marble. Here are some of these beautiful holes.

I purchased a few little pieces of a pink/red alabaster and a beautiful blue and white stone as well. Looking forward to working on those here shortly.

Going to share one more post that I have barely started, but started none the less on this amazing stone. Not quite sure what it is but it’ harder and more crystal like than marble. I think one guess was a kind of calcite or a mix of stones. But my idea here is that I sort of want to get ahold of a core drill to get some weight off of it and make something a little more interesting with some twists in it. I always want to make something a little more tentacle like so we will see what happens with this piece once I have a little more negative space in it.

So I have a few more pieces I’ve been working on this first one I sort of started in reverse. Typically I do a background and then decide what the foreground will be. This piece I decided I wanted to use a bunch of yellow mixed media and wasn’t sure yet what I was going to create.

I was a little stuck on this one for a bit I only knew I wanted to use blues and purples for the back ground since it would be a nice contract pop. After finishing the background I decided to do a silhouette of a child blowing a dandelion but I didn’t want to use the super common ones I found online most being little girls. I found one image of a little boy with amazing hair and just slightly tweaked the head of the stencil till the head was at an angle. Below is a step by step adjustment of playing with this one over a 1-2 week period.

Once the stencil was completed I completed the painting of the stencil, I typically use a slightly damp natural sponge.

Then after a few days of moving the yellow pieces around I finally glued them down (I used E8000) and then completed this piece with a resin pour. You can also see why I started photographing all my resin pieces pre-pour. Once the resin is done the photograph quality is very difficult due to the high reflection of the pieces.

This piece I finish up today which is a Silhouette piece. I created a video yesterday of the process making the backdrop but sped up a bit.

I ended up deciding to go with the setup on the right even though I was unsure which I liked best. Here is a video of the Silhouette being applied, again I use a natural sponge that’s been slightly dampened and wrung out. My last creation of the Tardis one I got the sponge too wet and noticed some moving of the paint under the stencil so trying to keep it less watery on this one to prevent any issues.

Pretty happy with how this one turned out. This is a total, the parents are not home and we’re having a dance party after school vibe. I think for me a piece feels successful when it invokes a memory or feeling.

So I came up with two more paintings using the style I’ve been having a lot of fun with. One is from a painting I did a few years ago but I’ve never really felt it was done. Now it’s a very cool jazz inspired piece which I’m calling “Howling Cat”.

The other one I started is a face with an open mouth I cannot decide if I want it hanging so the mouth is eating mixed media or turned to be yelling.

This week I received 3 responses to recent calls for art form Cafe online and it looks like I received the following awards (Two of which are for my Self Portrait):

This honestly make me feel really good because I know my newest pieces which are a combo of my dog silhouette piece I made last year called playtime and these pieces above are what inspired me to make the pieces last week which will push me to make the Seattle one and the girl one where she’s looking up at the moon should be mixed media as I’ve been wanting to do them as such but was a little hesitant this makes me less hesitant to go for it (Which is the most fun way to do art). I already have another idea that is super fun and similar style I think but with a little humor, stay tuned as I’ll be working on pieces this weekend!

A few days ago I got on a role doing some new silhouette paintings. I did the backgrounds and then made a fusion of 2-3 silhouettes together to create one that is what I was envisioning. Here are some images of the process.

Here is how it turned out above. I used a stencil I liked but changed the hair to be a little longer etc. I was planning in this piece to add mixed media pieces and then I decided the background is already pretty busy so this one I will finish with Resin only.

This piece below I took 3 stencils to create one I loved and then did a moon shape as well. This piece will be a mixed media piece but I’ve decided to restock what I have so that the quality isn’t just tiles and other scraps since my stock of colors are low. I have the girl looking at the moon so I will have a pegasus on the white silhouette shape of the moon. I will most likely use red, yellow and purple items and possibly some bedazzle beads.

This next one I did a video but to show how the background process of the silhouette is done as well.

This piece above I am also planning to add mixed media I need to test out the colors to add most likely purple, blue and green will be the colors I choose unless I use yellow instead of green. If you follow me on Instagram I often post videos after recording and images of new work when completed. These should be completed soon but all 3 need some work such as a Resin layer and due to the larger sizes I will need to do one at a time. This way I can control that the resin is setting well.

Here is another painting I did the same day as the blue one (I am on a roll) so it turned out pretty fun. I start a new job tomorrow (Monday) so my work may slow down but I’m hoping to work on one a night as I would like to do another silhouette with a man eating things falling from the sky. Should be cool as I found a great outline silhouette for it.

So this past week the NWSSA hosted a booth at the Flower & Garden center. I helped run the event and came to the show a few days. I put in 5 pieces. I am almost completely done with the Butterfly I’ve made out of Honeycomb Calcite and I just need to go through once more with 80 to 800 grit paper again to get any scratches out. I got it mounted on a spinning base which I really like and am hoping to use these more in the future, there has been a shortage so hoping they start to be found easier soon. Here are some pictures of my process.

I got really sick end of January and early February it wasn’t Covid but it lasted over 14 days which was insane. I went into the studio and finished up something on it and brought it home to try to get it mounted for the F & G show but spend about 2 days straight working on sanding and the pinning.

Here is is ready for the show I used a boat fast dry epoxy to mount it on the spinner and it turned out level I left a little space just in case as this was my first time mounting with one of these pins. Really loving how well it rotates and I hope to finish it up soon.

Last week I also had some good news. Back in November I was laid off from a company that I honestly loathed working for as there was a lot of workplace toxicity there sadly. Last week I accepted a new Office Manager role and although I have been able to spend a huge deal of time working on art which I’ve enjoyed I needed to get back because I was getting even a little bored feeling pressure that if I’m not working I need to create something daily. I started making a lot of jewelry and moss mirrors and boxes. I’ll post a few of my favorite projects but hoping now to focus back on sculpture at the studio as it warms up and some at home paintings.

I also recently joined a group called LoCA which helps connect artists to businesses to publicly display art. Some of my pieces will be on display at Truewood by Merrill which is an assisted living facility in downtown Seattle. Here are the images of that. These will be on display until May and it feels really good that someone can enjoy my art for the next few months.

Lastly here are some images from the F & G show at the convention center in Seattle this past week. I didn’t sell any pieces but it is nice to see people enjoying them and to find new potential carvers to join our amazing community.

Excited because I submitted two entries for the Light & Space Primary Colors exhibition online. Only one of the pieces made it but I’ve entered before for some of their other categories and this is the 1st time I received a positive response, my piece “Red” got a special recognition mention. I’ve really loved this piece and almost donated it to a school. Sadly the piece I did donate I had for sale on Saatchi and had forgotten to change it to sold and that sale fell through but definitely a boost to my self esteem.

I’ve decided to continue working on my pieces and go to Stoneyard Studio on Saturdays hopefully if I can keep doing some pieces after work I can complete a few I have sketched out. I really want to complete the series with a “Blue” and Yellow” possibly after the primary colors I will do complementary. I typically am not a huge fan of orange but I think doing all of them will be a really nice series. My only problem is selling some pieces so I have some wall space back, I could use more space for sure. I actually think one of the reasons I’m not painting as often is because I have no room at this point. We have our open studio coming up next Saturday so I hope maybe I can sell a. little bit of work between there and maybe the work event we have next week as well.

So I realize I have not written in some time. I got myself all setup in the studio and we are opening on November 12th. Excited and made a cool little poster for it here.

Although I have only done some work recently trying to thin out my honeycomb calcite butterfly and I started working on my clear alabaster piece as well. Here are some progress photos of them here.

Then the weekend before last I took a long drive up North to the Dunite Quarry got a lot of really great rocks loaded into my car and one which Carl is holding on to me with the use of his handy crane truck. Hoping one day to carve a nice big stone that’s hard enough to remain outdoors.

Lastly I’ve been working on tons of fun projects from stacking trays to large paintings. Even trying to make some jewelry. Lastly I’ve decided to start adding my items directly to my site better than forking over a rather large commission to a 3rd party seller. Super excited to share my items before the holidays. The trays are done with either painting or paper then resin pour and I’ve stained and painted the trays.

Here are the two large scale paintings I was able to by building a cardboard wall and with the purchase of a lovely keyboard duster that has usb charging. The one with the large black background came out best by far I had actually woken up at 4:30 am on a weekday and couldn’t go back to sleep so I ended up starting this painting and finishing the mirror with preserved moss below.

Lastly here are some resin earrings I created. I put them up on Etsy as well.

Just returned last weekend from the 34th Annual NWSSA Sculpting Symposium. It was really great lots of hard work and I am completely exhausted but worked on a few pieces, made some earrings from Jade and learned about Shou Sugi Ban (basically got to play with fire to darken a wood base). Now that I’m back I feel like I’m missing it. Fortunately I’ve just signed on to join some amazing artists and friends in a studio adventure in Georgetown at Equinox Studios. It’s a bit of extra money but I think it’ll be a really great way to put more focus on sculpting and allow me the space to make a mess, which is the best part of course. I thought I’d share some pictures from the event. I did a little bit of swimming when the weather was warm and relaxed by the lake but for the most part played with some stones. I had a calcite butterfly I started a few years ago. Got some help from Jeremy and we sawed some good amount from the middle so I can now use a die grinder and angle grinder to thin it out and mount it on a nice black base I purchased.

Nest I worked on a piece of marble that I was told was alabaster. Once I start trying to work it with an air hammer I quickly realized it wasn’t alabaster and my guess that it was marble was confirmed. It’s sort of an odd shape and I am still figuring out some details but here is an image of the before and where it is currently.

The week was full of carving, helping out, heavy lifting and lots of dust. It was really great. I got some great images of our favorite local squirrel and some shenanigans, bonfires and some of our events. I’m so glad I’m up here in the community now. Work is really burning me out emotionally so I cannot wait to have another focus for creativity again soon.