New Jewelry Themed for AMA's Upcoming Hiroshige Exhibit

I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art. The exhibit will feature colored wood-block prints by Hiroshige, a prominent 19th century Japanese artist. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, December 1, 2018 with a member's reception on Friday, November 30. Unfortunately I might be too worn out to attend the reception after manning my booth at Olde Town Christmas at the Dottie Lynn recreation center that day. Once again I was able to locate some supplies

to help me create jewelry for their gift shop to complement the museum's exhibit. These are small batch, handmade items so if you see something you like you need to grab it before it is gone. I purchased some of the supplies in a very limited quantity.

The necklaces are made from gold or silver plated brass ginko leaf charms. I paired the silver ginko leaf with a sodalite teardrop which reminded me of some blue and white Japanese vases I have seen. I added a silver plated sliding bail to a navy blue silken cord to hang the pendant from. Jade seemed like a natural to pair with the gold plated ginko leaf pendant, which I hung from a gold plated traveling bail on a black silken cord.

Cranes and fans are also popular Japanese motifs. You may recall that I used these fan charms to craft an artistic interpretation of the some of the dresses on display during the film costume exhibit this past summer. This time I used them for what they are, fans, and paired them with jade beads to make fairly large dangle earrings. The hourglass jade beads remind me of sections of bamboo. I made smaller dangle earrings from some crane charms that I recently picked up. I paired them with peacock colored synthetic hematite, rounded bicone beads. Stop by the gift shop to see these and other Japanese themed items when you visit the Hiroshige exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art.

Design This - Exhibit Related Jewelry

For a few years now I have provided the Arlington Museum of Art with some small batch, true wholesale products when I can produce something in the way of jewelry, accessories, note cards or home decor that compliments one of their major exhibits. Their current exhibit, Cut! Costume and the Cinema showcases five centuries of period costumes designed for movies. While the timeline of the costumes is long, the costumes that inspired my designs based on materials I had on hand were the Victorian dresses.

I have a small charm of a lady in a dress resembling those of the Victorian era. I made some earrings and necklaces out of these. I also had some larger fan charms that I used to craft an artistic interpretation of the dresses of this period and turned them into earrings and necklaces too. Just before the show opened, I was at a trade show and found just a few larger pirate themed charms that went wonderfully with the Pirates of the Caribbean costume that Johnny Depp wore. I made necklaces out of these.

The exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art runs through August 12, 2018. If you are a movie buff, a seamstress or costume designer, you will especially enjoy this exhibit. Tip: Don't wait until the last weekend to view this exhibit. That weekend usually is pretty crowded.

Happy Holidays Gift Store

The Happy Holidays Gift Store is filled with local artisans' handmade creations and vintage collectors' finds. Don't fight the crowds on Black Friday, get a jump on shopping small and supporting artists from the metroplex in this pop-up holiday shop. You will be waited on by some of the artisans whose goods are for sale so you can ask questions and get in depth information about your purchases. This shopping experience should be much more enjoyable and personally tailored to your needs than the hustle and bustle found in the big box stores.

You will find my photographic art and jewelry along with ceramics, mardi gras masks, fused glass, mixed media art, holiday decor and much more. The photos in this post (click to enlarge) are from this year's store so you can get a glimpse of some of the things that you will find. (It's been open since Nov. 8 and it will be at the Arlington Museum of Art through Dec. 28.) Whether it be for someone on your gift list or your own personal wish list, unique finds await.

Halloween Trick-or-Treating Alternative

Where can you find family friendly fun followed by an adult costume party and midnight movie, all under one roof? If you live in the DFW area, you will find it at the Arlington Museum of Art. The local group of artisans, that I am part of, that will be running the Happy Holidays Gift Store as part of AMA's holiday exhibit, "Scenes from the Nativity", during November and December is donating their time to man one of the Trick-or-Treat stations being adopted by local groups. If you are in the area and want an alternative to trudging around the neighborhood, come join us for Fright Night at the museum. (more details, straight from AMA below)

Friday, October 31, AMA turns into Museum Scary on Halloween night and we invite YOU to join in the spooky fun!

From 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.: Join AMA for an alternative, indoor Halloween experience for your little ghosts and goblins.
--Main Gallery: trick-or-treating booths, FREE for children under 14 (bring a sack/bag/pail for candy)
--Basement: games and activity booths - $1 to $2

From 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.: Get a sitter if you need to and come back for an adult Halloween party. $10 if you DON'T plan to partake of adult beverages, $15 if you DO plan to partake of adult beverages. And to get everyone in the holiday spirit, come in costume to get $2 off adult admission!
--Mezzanine:
-----Gallery one: take a peek into your future with our Fortune Teller
-----Gallery two: food, drinks, and candy bar
-----Gallery three: fun pics in our zombie infested Photo Booth
--Rooftop Gallery: outside deck open until midnight, costume contest for gift card prizes from local businesses (Grease Monkey, The Sanford House Spa, and others), and the midnight movie starts at 12:00 a.m. (of course!) when we will show the original 1968 black & white horror classic, Night of the Living Dead.

Bald Mountain – “Rock Ridge” at Brick & Mortar Locations

Black and white or color, which do you like better? Ansel Adams preferred black and white. For me it depends on the image. I have a Jacobean lily image that I like much better in the high contrast black and white version than the original color one. The judges picking the finalists for the photo contest sponsored by the Arlington Museum of Art earlier this year preferred my black and white version over the color submission of my “Rock Ridge” image. Cynthia, the owner of Potager’s Other Stuff, favored the color version (so do I) and added it to my ready to hang photographic art images that I have on consignment at her establishment.

You can probably pick a favorite from the images in this blog, however if you want to see them in person to

get a better feel for my framed photos than you can from photos of photos, you can see them in downtown Arlington. My black and white “Rock Ridge” image that was a finalist in the aforementioned photo contest will hang in the rooftop gallery at the Arlington Museum of Art for the duration of the Ansel Adams exhibit (through August 3, 2014). My color photo can be found at Potager’s Other Stuff until it finds a home (no end date currently scheduled). While you are there you may also find my “Dressed for Drinks”, “Keys Close-Up” and “Center Stage” framed and gallery wrapped canvas photographic art prints.

Stay tuned to this blog or like my Eclectic Design Choices facebook page to keep up with other places you can see my work in person.

Design This – Branded Jewelry

Last year I got involved with brainstorming a way to include jewelry in the small, exhibit related gift shop that the Arlington Museum of Art has started including with their larger exhibits. The jewelry would need to be related in some way to the exhibit and I thought that it would be good for it to also relate to the museum if possible. Branding isn’t very different from the personalization that I was already doing so I immediately thought of making a charm using AMA’s logo. If additional charms could be found that related to specific exhibits it would then be easy to design some simple earrings and necklaces that I could wholesale to the museum for their gift shop.

The challenge with the AMA logo for me was that it was square and if I reduced it to fit into my round bezels that I have been making custom jewelry and accessories with, it wouldn't be as recognizable as I’d like it to be. Luckily, after quite a bit of searching, I found square bezels and glass that matched the size of an available square punch.

The first exhibit that AMA wanted to do a full test run of jewelry in the gift shop was for their “Artists in Motion” exhibit. It highlights the grace and beauty of dance. I located a few charms that went with this theme and then it was time to begin designing. I came up with two earring designs and a few variations on one basic design for necklaces.

You can see what I came up with in person if you get a chance to view “Artists in Motion” at the Arlington Museum of Art during its run from January 11 – February 16. Click here for more information about the exhibit.

If you find yourself in need of personalized or branded jewelry for you or to promote your business or event, please check out the “custom” tab above for my contact information so that I can brainstorm, what I could create, with you.

Submitting My Art

When I was in high school, my art teachers included my work in school wide displays of student’s work and asked me to bring back pieces that I had taken home to be entered in the district wide art show. Most of my work was nature themed acrylic paintings. It was over three decades later before I again submitted any of my creations to contests or exhibitions for judging and viewing by the public.

My foray back into competitions and shows began with some small Etsy team design challenges. My photographic art garnered good feedback and I found myself with my first actual placing in January of 2010 with my “Sparkles” holiday card. In February of that same year one of my recycled wood creations was selected by the eco-friendly category judge as one of twelve finalists in the 2010 Handmade Olympics. With the exception of the Handmade Olympics, these were all fun, peer reviewed and voted on contests that I have continued to submit pieces to as a design theme matches something I have already created or am inspired to create. It took a push from another art teacher and artist for me to submit my art for viewing and review by a larger audience and jury.

After my "push", I submitted two framed photographic art series pieces to the Arlington Museum of Art’s Community Showcase last fall. I entered one of those pieces in the Arlington Visual Arts Association’s Regional Juried Show in February of this year. I was keeping my fingers crossed that my entry would get chosen just to hang in the show. I was very happy when it was picked to hang and received a merit award too. My Gulf Fritillary series piece is currently hanging for public viewing with the other works selected for the show at the Bob Duncan Community Center in Arlington through March 30, 2012. It and the other winners will be moved to the rooftop gallery at the Arlington Museum of Art for display through May 25, 2012.

All of this, in addition to customer feedback at the local arts and crafts shows that I have participated in, led me to contacting a local gallery to see if they would be interested in displaying my work. As a result, my framed Jacobean Lily Series piece and gallery wrapped canvas print of Aliens Have Landed (seen above) are currently hanging at Gypsy Riddles Boutique and Gallery in downtown Arlington TX.