What's New Wednesday?

Art Bead Scene's Monthly Challenge is a wonderful painting from Van Gogh. It is titled simply, Almond Blossoms. I love Van Gogh, probably more than any other master artist. I think it's his capture of color as well as movement that draws me in. One of my favorite paintings is one of just a chair in his little room in Arles, France.
Years ago I had done my own version of this in crayon on fabric, just a plain utilitarian object somehow elevated to prominence by being the subject of this artists gifted brush.

Simple knotty wood with a rush seat, an unglazed clay tile floor and the corner of what, a wooden crate? in the background and the walls are all we see in this one of a pair painting done by the master artists Van Gogh and Gauguin (Gauguin painted his in exchange). I wonder, were the walls really that lovely blue? like the Mediterranean sky..........

If you are familiar with this painting (if not the link above is one that will take you to the painting which is in the National Gallery in London, England) you will notice something is missing. There was a bit more in the painting besides the wall, the floor, the box and the chair. Something I still can't make out in that box and in the chair were Vincent's Pipe and pouch of tobacco.
I preferred the chair unadorned so did not include them. But for my first experiment with these special crayons on fabric I was happy with the result. This was done as a direct drawing to the fabric, not using a projector or a pencil drawing to start so I am pleased with this and have held onto it all these years, (and yes I have a chair addiction). :)

In case you were wondering, it measures about 4"x 7" and has a fabric frame around it which I can't seem to locate the photo that includes it, but you can see a bit on the top of the photo if you click to enlarge. I used a crackled wood print, and mitered the corners to simulate a frame.

Anyway, what has that to do with the ABS Challenge? Well doing this drawing of the chair familiarized me greatly with how Van Gogh used color, I won't go into all the details of what I learned but when I saw that ABS's challenge was one of the French period ones I immediately was drawn to it. Problem was, there were too many ideas springing to mind.

I finally got out the sketch book last week and made sketches of the two major designs I had in mind. This painting is a natural for a Polymer Clay artist because it just begs to be literally interpreted with flowers. I have not delved that much into flower making with my clay as some have but thought this would be a great inspiration to start. So I drew out this design. (Excuse the poor photo, I just grabbed my camera and took this under incandescent lighting, yuk!)

I wanted an asymmetrical design with the flowers on one side entwined with branches as they are so prominent in the painting, and a double strand of blue beads/pearls on the other to represent the sky. The flowers were going to be made from the clay and the striped beads in the glass tube were to be incorporated into the wire branches. A bronzed branch clasp would finish it off. I then made another quick sketch of the other idea and contemplated the time involved in both. I decided it was six of one......

Before choosing from the two designs I went over to Flickr to the ABS photostream and saw that so many more entries had been added since a week ago, and many were of polymer clay flowers. So many wonderful ones too. I guess this painting struck the same chord in many a PC artist and that has brought out so many great entries.

But I don't like to be a copy cat, so I'll save this design for another time and I think I'll get to work on my second idea. It will give me a chance to use a focal bead I've had for sometime and just didn't know what to do with, now I do. :)

In the meantime, join me in a giveaway at Heather Powers blog. She is offering a great goodie box of beads and findings and all kinds of wonderful bead goodness. To enter just go to her blog and agree to the terms and you're entered ! Click on link below to see this great giveaway!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads

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Inspirations

Today and for the rest of this week I will be hard at work in the studio. But I haven't forgotten about you dear readers. Please enjoy this wonderful short inspiring video. You may want to head to your studio after seeing it too!


You'll love the music, photography and inspirational quotes, be sure to pause it to write one or two down that inspire you. Here's one I particularly love:

The Wisdom of Nature speaks to the heart,
and Natures first language is Beauty ~ Tim McNulty

Nature's Inspiration Movie <<<<-------------MUST SEE Oh, one more.............

My Soul can find no staircase to Heaven
unless it be through Earths loveliness ~ Michelangelo

Enjoy what inspirations this gifts you with!


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Oh DEER!

You probably haven't heard me speak of my backyard deer in quite awhile. After cutting back on the feed last summer so they would eat a more diversified diet I didn't see them return this past fall and not all winter. Which is not to say they weren't here, but I didn't see them. But just the other day as I was going into the kitchen I looked out and something caught my eye, yep, there was a deer at the picnic table.

She seemed very skittish and I was not sure if this was one of 'ours' that had been raised up eating around that table or not. She only stayed a few seconds and something I couldn't see or hear startled her and she took off.

A bit later I was going back into the kitchen again and I saw her come back, this time with a companion, or two, make that three, then four. Only one made it to the table to eat the others seemed skittish too and soon they all bolted back into the woods. There I observed that there were five in total. So I am not sure that this is the same family. But it doesn't matter, I love them all.



And today I was going through my emails and found this cool video a friend had sent me. If you love wildlife, nature and especially oddities you may want to watch this. I was fascinated. I remember back years ago where I used to live that we had a half albino deer. The front looked like any white tailed deer but the back was white and spotted with some brown spots. Very easy to see in the woods as most times of the year. I think I caught a glimpse of it about three times. But these are spectacular, especially the Buck with the white antlers.

If you've got children, you may want to call them to the computer to view with you. It is a spot from PBS so is G rated.

Enjoy!

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You LOST!

Photo by *Kicki*

If you've watched the movie National Treasure with Nicholas Cage and Jon Voight then you know that the secret to figuring out one of the clues was on the back of the $100 bill. Upon examination of the picture of Independence Hall through the make-shift magnifier (a bottle of water), they noticed the clock and it had a time on it, 2:22.

Wanna see it? Go here and once loaded, left click to enlarge even more and you can read the clock for yourself. Then come back here.

The movie stated that it was 2:22 but according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing it is supposed to be approximately 4:10, although if you went to that link and enlarged it as I directed you will notice that the hand pointing to the 2 is short, not extending beyond the inner circle of the clock, and the other hand does actually cross over that inner circle and appears longer as a minute hand would, thus making it 2:22 and not 4:10. Also notice the Roman numeral used is IV which is not what is on the real clock, but instead the real clock reads: IIII. (Click here this copyright protected photo of a great close-up of the clock face). Also notice that there are other numbers on that photo of the clock above each Roman numeral, showing the seconds. There is no reason that the B of E &P gives for the 4:10 time OR why the numeral was printed as IIII and not IV. So two mysteries for you to contemplate at this time of year.

Oh yeah, that is why I started this post, wondered when I'd get around to it? Well I just didn't want to blurt it out, but thought I'd give you a little entertainment first and share a bit of my passion for clocks with you along the way. :)

Today is March 13, 2010. Early tomorrow morning in the USA, (which will be the second Sunday of the month), the clocks will move ahead one hour. Now of course they will not do that by themselves, YOU have to remember tonight before going to bed to do that manually. Your Cable box, VCR and other computer run things will change themselves as well as you PC if you have DST enabled for your country. But your battery powered clocks, and all your watches need to be manually changed. My advise, do it now before you forget, because you shouldn't be up at 2am, nor is it something you may remember when sleepy right before bedtime. And of all things, don't forget to change your alarm clock!

In reality time does not move ahead, it really is us that change our routines, businesses and habits, such as eating, working and sleeping etc, in order to enjoy more sunlight hours while awake later in the day.

Benjamin Franklin has been given credit for first suggesting this phenomenon. You've heard the proverb:

"Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise"

Guess Who said it? Yes, Ol Benny Himself. Great proverb to life by but sadly he did not really suggest DST as we know it today (despite what you learned in that movie, remember they had a script that needed to make sense). Actually it was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, whose shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and made him aware of the value of after-hours daylight. Many European countries adopted this before the US, who didn't adopt it until 1918. Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. Since 2007 it is now four weeks longer due to the passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005, spanning from March to November.

Ever since this has been enacted in many countries it has been controversial. Some countries have never had it, some used to at one time but no longer observe it today, and other such as the USA, Europe, Russia, parts of Australia, South America and only 3 countries in all of Africa still use it today in some form.

House in Time Greeting Card- FolkArtVision -click pic

So this is not just a reminder to change your clocks ahead so you aren't late for things, but to help your body to prepare for this change. Tonight, go to bed one hour earlier than you normally would. Tomorrow set your alarm to awaken you 1/2 hour earlier than you normally would. Again, Sunday night, go to bed another hour earlier than you normally would. Drink a cup of chamomile tea before to help you relax, do NOT watch TV or take your laptop in there. If you want to read a bit to help you get sleepy, pick something boring, technical, something that won't stimulate your mind too much.
If you do this come Monday morning it won't be so hard to adjust to the new time and your workweek will go much smoother. Make sure you put your whole family on this schedule. In fact to get everyone used to it, change the clocks now. The quicker you get yourself adjusted to the time change the sooner you will be able to enjoy that extra Spring sunshine!

Here's a few tips from the Navy on how to adjust. Remember it's about the sunlight that effects you, not what it says on your clock.

For a list of other countries that observe DST and when it happens here is a great web page. E.G. (for example) All of Europe springs ahead on the last Sunday of the Month of March at 1am UTC.

Oh, the title of this post? You lost? Well if you haven't figured it out by now it means you lost one hour, or you will by tomorrow! But don't worry, you'll get it back in the Fall, on November 7th, 2010. :) And that's a spring from a wooden clothspin, for SPRING AHEAD!!

By the way when you were at the $100 bill site, did you happen to notice how many people are on the back of the $100 bill?

You may want to play a trivia question with someone and ask them how many people are pictured on the $100 bill, I'm sure most will tell you one, Benjamin Franklin, but you can prove them wrong with the answer of 4, three men (one on the front, Ben, and two on the back) and one woman. :)

Cute little old fashioned cash register from The Fancy Lamb. Click on pic to read all about it!

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Team Tuesday Announcement

As I mentioned before I need to cut back right now on my blogging schedule. I will try to make a Team member post once a month. But I have made a special page that lists all my Team T International Members where you can find each one of them along with the links to their shops. Also each month I will be picking a theme and highlighting some picks from some of the members shops. Each month will have a different theme and different shops will be highlighted so you can get to know them all well!

You can find my New Team T ( T for Treasury!) International Page Right Here!

Please take a look through these find shops, picked for their excellence of their chosen craft!

As soon as I get a chance I will update that page to make it more shopper friendly by listing them according to the products they make and sell, but we have a great mix, Candles, Soaps, Clothing, Vintage, Handbags, Pet Paraphernalia, Paper Products, Ceramics, Fiber works, and of course Jewelry and more!

So take a minute and get to know Team T International - We love to make Treasuries!



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