April brought a shower of busy fun!

Posted on | April 29, 2012 | No Comments

Hi Everyone! It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks, (nay, month!) for me and here at the ICE Resin office!  I’ve been filming new mixed media kits for my Industrial Chic line in Michael’s stores. The new ephemera rolls out the end of May/first part of June.

This is me with Julie McGuffee (right) and Julie Fei Fan Balzer (left)

at the taping of their program, Scrapbook Soup. It was so incredibly awesome!

I’ll let you know when the show airs!

This is me with Mike Murphy at Scrapbook Soup–what a great guy!

A Writer’s Soul captured in ICE

Posted on | April 27, 2012 | 6 Comments

Ooooh! How many of you reading this blog also write? I know I (Carol) am coveting this necklace created by Annette in Oz.

"Patience" by Annette in Oz

“Patience” was formed using a handmade brass bezel, vintage papers, and old tin-type photo and a pen nib sealed in ICE Resin®.

Reminds me of an Emily Dickinson’s poem.

Part Three: Love

 XXXIII

I HELD a jewel in my fingers And went to sleep. The day was warm, and winds were prosy; I said: “’T will keep.”

I woke and chid my honest fingers,— The gem was gone; And now an amethyst remembrance Is all I own.

cuff by Annette in Oz

Annette used a backnut as a bezel on here etched brass cuff and filled it with Ice Resin® over a vintage image.

Rosy by Creative Team Member Andrea Ring

Posted on | April 25, 2012 | 6 Comments

Inspiration

Rosy began when the theme of “Sticks & Stones” was announced, from there it didn’t take long for an idea to “bloom”.  I have a pretty little needlepoint footstool that was my main source of inspiration for design elements and color palette.  My backyard and basement provided me with additional supplies beyond the ICE Resin® items that I used.  It’s amazing what is already lying around the house that can be turned into jewelry!  Rose bush branches painted pink made a great addition to the neckpiece while a dusty old piece of packing tape found on my basement floor made an interesting pattern to the backside of the oval bezel.

The ICE Resin® items that I used in Rosy were: oval hobnail bezel, shield hobnail bezel, two small round closed back bezels, bronze wire, silver wire, Ice Resin, glass glitter(Carnivale), ribbons(Carousel), steel screws/nuts, and a variety of washers.

Additional items beyond the packing tape and sticks were: pebbles, paint, paper, beads, sheet brass, and chain.

To view items that inspire me check out my Pinterest Board titled Andrea’s current inspiration.

What to Do With Leftover Resin – With Cat Kerr

Posted on | April 24, 2012 | 11 Comments

If you are like me…you do not like to waste any left over resin. Here’s a quick video to give you some ideas on what you can do, to save that precious liquid gold.

Ah, Paris

Posted on | April 23, 2012 | No Comments

Paris;this April sunset completely utters
utters serenely silently a cathedral

before whose upward lean magnificent face
the streets turn young with rain,

spiral acres of bloated rose
coiled within cobalt miles of sky
yield to and heed
the mauve
of twilight(who slenderly descends,
daintily carrying in her eyes the dangerous first stars)
people move love hurry in a gently

arriving gloom and
see!(the new moon
fills abruptly with sudden silver
these torn pockets of lame and begging colour)while
there and here the lithe indolent prostitute
Night,argues

with certain houses

e e Cummins (1894 -1962)

Join us in Paris?

Susan and Jen will be spending time in Paris the weekend before Runis, Relics and Resin workshop to gather vintage materials at the world-renowned Parisian Flea markets. Students are encouraged to join us in our adventures of shopping and dining before arriving in Durfort.

Express Yourself!

Posted on | April 22, 2012 | 1 Comment

Is art school for you? I can’t answer that, except to tell you that it gave me a different perpective.

I went to the Art Institute of Chicago for one year. I loved it! I talk about it a lot because it truly was something amazed me; it was a different way of thinking, certainly a contrast to my classes at Southern Illinois University where I later graduated.

At art school I loved exploring materials, not getting a grade. I loved putting myself and my work so far out there and not thinking of being practical. Those are the things that were most important to me at art school. Then after a small period of time I got tired of not a lot of structure, not a lot of training with technique… art school was really about ideas.

If you talk with people who are craftsmen, they are about making the perfect join, and getting their work perfect, where as an artist if you want to express chaos, your work is chaos, if it is about tidiness, your work is tidy. It is not necessarily about the most beautiful piece, unless that is what you are trying to express.

From Muse to Museum with SLK

Posted on | April 22, 2012 | No Comments

SLK talks candidly about her experience doing museum exhibits in the Smithsonian and Huntington Museums, and shares her hopes for her dream exhibit of the future.

You Can Transform the World One Creative Effort at a Time

Posted on | April 21, 2012 | No Comments

Follow your passion. Meld with a mentor. Be of service. Open Christine Mason Miller’s book, Desire to Inspire, Using Creative Passion to Transform the World, and you will find a brightly colored idea for letting your light shine and envelop others.

Earrings the Moon would be proud to wear

Posted on | April 20, 2012 | No Comments

Legend has it that a man looked into the water of an evening and mistook the moon’s reflection for a wheel of cheese.

Was it green? Blue? White? Yellow?

Whatever flavor or hue you appreciate cheese and for all you moon lovers, we invite you to delight in these funky “Man in the Moon” earrings created by Terry Matuszyk.

Too fun!

Terry began with ICE Resin® cabs filled with agate chips, then used additional resin to adhere the cabs to vintage plastic dangles. She enhanced the earrings with a little touch of chocolate ox brass in the form of the moons.

Superhero Couture – With Creative Team Members Jack and Cat Curio

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 5 Comments