da Vinci Arts Fair 2009

Here are some shots of my display at this year's da Vinci Arts Fair - going on today until 4 pm! This is a great fundraiser for Portland's only arts-focus middle school (which my son Julius attends). I am happy to donate 30% of my sales to the school.

Da Vinci Arts Middle School is located at 2508 NE Everett St. in Portland, OR, in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

I also have a small selection of painted record cuffs available today at Odango! Hair Studio (owned by my friend and fellow former Duniway mom Ann Sanderson), where they are having a holiday craft sale. Stop in to check out lovely handmade creations and consider going back for a haircut (Ann cut my hair before the taping of my "That's Clever!" segment, and before my trip to New York - I totally trust her for the most important haircuts!).

Odango! is located at 5510 SE Woodstock in Portland.


My next show will be Crafty Wonderland's Super Collossal Holiday Sale on December 13 at the Oregon Convention Center.


Happy holidays!

Rasta Bowl & Local Goods

Here are a few shots of one of my new/old pieces. This is the "Rasta" record bowl. It's one of my oldest designs, but I've never gotten any decent photos of it until now.

I made one of these along with more bowls, clocks, and a whole bunch of cuffs for a new shop on E. Burnside here in Portland called Local Goods. Here are some pictures of the store, which specializes in local, sustainable products (no website yet, but you can be friends on facebook if you like):

An easy technique

I recently completed some new designs for fall. The colors were chosen by Jean at Grasshopper 510 in Chicago.


For this design, "Rose," I used a different technique than I normally do, and I thought I would share it here. It's super easy.

I wanted to give the background some texture and depth, instead of just looking flat. Also, I was getting tired of mixing colors and thought I would try layering them for a change.

Above you see the kind of texture that I ended up with. So here's how I did it:

First I painted the record with two coats of medium magenta (Golden brand), which is a good opaque color but not the pink I needed, and let it dry.

I took some permanent magenta (Winsor & Newton brand), which is pretty transparent, and mixed it with some water until it was fairly thin but not watery.

Then I quickly brushed this over the top of my painted magenta record. A bigger brush could have gotten the job done even faster, I suppose.

Working quickly while the paint was still wet (and watch out because it dries really quickly!), I dabbed at it with a crumpled-up paper towel which was very lightly moistened. (Sorry, my photos didn't come out so great.)

Dab all over the record with quick stabbing motions until you've achieved the kind of texture you want. But work quickly because the paint could start peeling off as it dries, and/or your paper towel could start sticking to the paint and leaving little bits of fuzz on the surface - yuck!

And that's that. Pretty basic, I know. But it gives the background some depth and makes it look a little more interesting, I think.

Anyway, once that has dried I proceeded to paint my mandala design and then transform the record into a bowl, as you see here:

You can find more of my bowls here.

The Bowls of Summer

I've posted photos of some of these bowls already, in my color mixing tutorials, but I wanted to show off a few more pictures. Since I just finished up some new designs for fall, I am eager to show them off but wanted to get these up first. Enjoy!

You can find these bowls in my Etsy shop.

Mixing Colors - Part Four: GREEN

Moving on now to Part Four in my exciting color mixing series - it's time for my take on Pantone's "Jasmine Green"!

To make this color, I simply mixed about two parts Permanent Green Light and two parts Cadmium Yellow Medium (Winsor & Newton) to one part each Neon Green and Jubilee Green (craft acrylics).

The color on the far left in the picture below is what I came up with:

And so I painted!

I do love a messy art table.

Here is the beginning of my design, which I painted freehand in glossy black:

And the finished product:

My Jasmine Green Bowl is available in my Etsy shop - click here to see more!

To read the rest of this series, see:
Part Three: CORAL
Part Two: BLUE
Part One: PINK

Mixing Colors - Part Three: CORAL

For Part Three of my amazing color mixing series, I give you Coral!

Mmm, don't those multi-layered globs of paint look yummy? I mixed this color using (roughly) equal parts of Permanent Rose (Winsor & Newton) with "Bittersweet Orange" and "Pretty Pink" (Ceramcoat brand craft paints).

I think I forgot to mention this in my previous posts - each piece needs to be painted with two coats before the design goes on.



After painting the design:



And that's pretty much the story of the coral bowl (which I am calling Coral Reef - you can find it in my Etsy shop here).