Hang around with creative people

I've had the glass rings and most of the copper pieces in this mobile sitting on separate shelves in my studio for three years. Every few months I would pick up the rings and chastise myself for never finishing it. Fast forward to two days ago when I was at a garden meeting talking with several friends who all do creative work or hobbies—sculpture, glass, painting, and garden design, and I mentioned to a new friend who is multi-talented that I was getting back into glass and metal work. The next day I was in the middle of working on my current painting when I suddenly started seeing mental images of the rings and some of the copper finally assembled into a mobile. After the third one I stopped trying to paint and pulled out all the elements and started arranging them in different ways, and Shazam! I have a new mobile! (And it feels so good to finally finish it!)

Art & Craft Fair this Saturday!

I'll be at the Winter Wonderland Art & Craft Fair this Saturday. I will have my boxable paintings, plus my cards, glass flowers, glass hangers, new glass Christmas ornaments (3 styles), a bit of fun holiday jewelry, and with luck, my two paper mobiles. I think I've figured out a way to hang them above the table!

And for the first time, if their wifi setup is working, I'll be able to take credit cards. And whatever comes back home with me will be going up on my Etsy site next week.

I'd love to see you there!

Another leaf mobile!

I am having more fun with mobilizing my painted leaves! These are two-sided like in the first one, but backed with a made-for-them custom painting with extra-bright inks, and green coated florist's wire and real swivels (which don't do much because the leaves weigh too little to have enough momentum).

Sadly, I'm out of ceiling hooks, so I had to hang it from the ceiling lamp. If I keep doing these, I'm going to have to make some kind of hanging rack, I guess!

Vine Maple Mobile #2 Ink & colored pencil on 2-ply rag paper, with black wire $60
If you'd like to purchase this mobile, please contact me at patriciaryanart.

A leaf mobile

I finally have a use for the leftover parts of failed ink-and-pencil paintings that I've been saving all these years because they were too pretty to throw away—making mobiles out of them. This house has an old hanging lamp hook in one corner that I didn't want to hang anything heavy from because it would bonk me on the head when I'm picking up a guitar off the rack. The now-obvious missing piece is a nice lightweight mobile:

It has a magical turquoise leaf:

This one's as simple as you can get, but I've got plans for bigger ones. More fun!

Vine Maple Mobile #1 Ink & colored pencil on 2-ply art paper with copper wire $60
If you'd like to purchase this mobile, please contact me at patriciaryanart.

New toys, new joys

Garden mobile

I'm branching out in two more dimensions —depth and time. I've been thinking about going into mobiles for about a year. I was wanting to make big ones for the garden, out of the filbert wood I harvested 3 or 4 years ago. But as a first step, to get used to thinking about shape and motion, I decided to go small and make little ones, with some bits of glass in them. This is my third one. The first one is going to get redone, and the second one was pretty good and went to a friend. It's fun to play with making different shapes, and I have many more ideas to play with.

Unfortunately it's a bit hard on my hands and wrists, but I'm constantly trying to find ways to make it easier to bend the large wire. I bought a few new pairs of pliers specifically for bending, and they help a  lot to give me the leverage I need. But I still can't do it every day, which is fine. Plenty of other stuff to do.

Next weekend I'll be showing and selling my artwork, including this mobile, at the open garden of my friend Meredith, both Saturday and Sunday. And I'll be doing the Art In the Garden fair at Laurel Hedge in Estacada the last Saturday in August. It's looking like nice weather for next weekend.