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Creativity while recuperating

June 30, 2020 Leave a Comment

It’s surprising how often we need two hands or a healthy shoulder to make art. We don’t realize it until something is out of commission.

Last month, I finally had a postponed elective surgery on my left shoulder, and I’m recuperating well. However, it’s curtailed everything from cooking and sound sleep to creating art. My work has come to a screeching halt.

Thankfully, while my shoulder mends, my imagination and creativity can still play. Somehow not being able has me thinking more than usual about what I would create if I could.

Lately, my mind has been returning to a project I was working on last fall—creating pendants with art glass (lampwork) animal beads. Some of the beads feature realistic heads and faces in beautiful detail like this Heron  by artist Kerri Keffler that I’ve set in silver wire.

Glass bead by Keri Fuhr featring a grey heron head with yellow beak set in scrolls and spirals of silver wire by Melanie Schow

 

Others are playful, like these charming character beads by Catherine Steele.

Glass beads by featuring cartoonish-looking portraits of rabbits, greyhounds, English bulldog, and chickens made with glass with colorful glass dangles, hanging from a chain by Melanie Schow

Another of my current favorite beads are by artist Tammy Mercier. Her beads are stylized, realistic-looking animals that feature striking color combinations. The leopards below include silver and pink!

If I could use my shoulder, I’d be working on this series of sophisticated critter necklaces. In fact, I have a couple in the works that I need to pick up again once I regain the strength and dexterity in my left hand.

One of my Works in Progress (WiP) is this Lion bead by Kerri Keffler in a scrolled, embellished wire setting.

While I recover, I’m missing my wire. Creating beautiful jewelry with these stunning beads is one of my favorite activities. In the meantime, using my imagination is helping me feel excited about getting back to my bench. When I’m healed enough, I look forward to creating again!

Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: art glass beads, art jewelry, artists, beads, Catherine Steele, Kerri Fuhr, lampwork beads, Melanie Schow, pendant, Tammi Mercier, wire art jewelry

2019 in Review: A Year of Making Art

December 26, 2019 2 Comments

Making time for making art

Creating beautiful, colorful things brings me joy. If your life is like mine, you can get to the end of a busy year and wonder if you got anything accomplished. 2019 was such a whirlwind! Even when the schedule has been hectic, I still found time for making art and using color in fiber, cloth, and especially wire and beads.

As this year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of my favorite creative endeavors and highlight projects that appeared even amid occasional chaos.

Advanced wire techniques

In January, I taught a class on how to take wire embellishments to a new level. In the image below (the sample I created during the class), note the techniques of using pearls, scrolls, rhinestones, and wire-wrapped wire to add interest, volume, and sparkle. My focus was on teaching techniques rather than creating a specific project, so the resulting creations from the class were as unique and fun as each participant.

making art and learning wire wrapping techniques in Melanie Schow class

Recognition for my art

At Chris M. Sorenson Gallery this year, my piece “B Illuminated” was a particularly fun challenge and won second place in their Love of Letters show.

This year, I was invited to participate in the Fresno Art Museum gift shop. They requested that I bring my showstoppers, and it was exciting to display some of my high-end, fine art pieces in support of this local location! (I love this gorgeous “older” work featuring dragons by Robin Poff and a pocket watch works along with the hand forged wire and interesting beads).

Fiber and fabric

Attempting this complicated shawl made me one grumpy knitter, but after it was lovingly blocked by a more experienced knitter (Help Me Meg!), it now looks great. It’s such a great feeling when items move out of a project bag and into my closet to wear!

One of my biggest accomplishments this year was completing a quilt. After rediscovering my love for beautiful fabrics in a local quilting class, I got really motivated to finish a quilt for my own home.

Like a lot of creative people, I often work best when I have uninterrupted time and space. Well, I took the quilt project with me on vacation to Pacific Grove with a dear friend for company, determined to attempt a new and easier method of binding. We worked away on our respective projects, cheering each other on. Now it’s bound and on my bed! I call the back “technicolor zebra.” Every time I make my bed, this colorful quilt makes me smile.

A trove of wire art pendants

As the holiday season approached, I felt a new wave of inspiration to create with wire and my stockpile of beautiful, fun, and festive lampwork focal beads. In a matter of weeks, I created over 60 pendants for three local galleries to display.

Stretching my skills and local visibility

By far the piece of which I’m most proud this year was my entry for Celebrate Agriculture with the Arts. Since orange groves line nearly every road in the San Joaquin Valley, this piece celebrates our local farms. Entitled “Central Valley Slice“, my necklace uses stunning slices of lemon and orange forged from glass, that somehow look juicy. If you’re interested, this piece is now for sale ($395).

It’s always good to pause to celebrate life’s accomplishments. I wish you a bright holiday season and a colorful new year!

Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: art business, art glass beads, art show, Chris M Sorensen Gallery, color, creative process, knitting, Melanie Schow, necklace, pendant, quilting

Buying art glass beads from across the world

December 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

It came a long way

Getting boxes in the mail is a common occurrence at my house, but a package from Lithuania is something special. Especially when there’s art inside.

And chocolate!

Being an avid lover of art glass beads, I frequent a number of lampwork artists pages on Facebook to find unique creations from all over the world.

With so many diverse styles in one place, I get lots of variety to put into my necklaces and art.  Sometimes I see a treasure I just can’t pass up. And with a buy-it-now option, those handmade works of art just wing themselves to me. When I know one is coming, it’s exciting—like a present for myself.

However, when something comes all the way from eastern Europe, there’s no instant gratification. I can take weeks to arrive. Somehow this makes its arrival even more special.

My most recent treasure is this piece made by Viktorija Vait (Vilnius, Lithuania).

art glass beads

When I opened the envelope, I oohed and ahhed over the colors, the painted details, and the amount of skill it takes to create textured glass beads like this. The best part? I get to make it into a wearable necklace as a present for someone else to enjoy.

Turning lampwork beads into wearable art

First I matched it with a variety of beads and wire in shades of red.

Then I got to work (it gets a little messy as I experiment with different arrangements)!

Finally, it all came together in a finished piece!

More jewelry ahead

Just before I finished the red bird pendant, another package came in the mail from a bit nearer to home (Michigan) from another talented artist Molly Cooley. The eclipse and waves are just stunning!

I wonder what this gorgeous treasure will become!

Filed Under: art glass beads Tagged With: art glass, art jewelry, beads, Facebook, glass beads, jewelry, lampwork, necklace, pendant, Viktorija Vait

A moment in the spotlight at Creative Bug .com

May 15, 2016 Leave a Comment

Charmed bracelet by Melanie Schow on CreativeBug.com

Some of my favorite shows feature people making creative stuff happen. From baking competitions and Project Runway, to high-end Hollywood makeup, these shows are exciting because when creative people are under pressure, their talent shines.

For the first time, I got to be involved in the creation of a project like this!

I’ve got the creative bug

A few years ago, I heard about CreativeBug.com through my brother and was immediately intrigued. The company’s creator, Jeanne Lewis, wanted to create a gorgeous online resource for videos about hand-made crafting and making. Her vision was of a company that creates archival-quality videos to preserve art and craft forms that are slipping away. In the process, she also wanted to provide a living wage to artists who teach for the company to help get new generations interested in a wide variety of art forms.

It sounded exciting! They were still early in their launch when they asked for a sample video of my teaching. I did a short demo and—even after viewing my brother’s wacky video shots—they wanted me!

Lights, camera, action!

A filming crew came out to my house and did a day-long shoot to create a bio about me. Megan Read, a production assistant from Creative Bug, and the whole team made it fun. It’s amazing to realize what you see on a show isn’t what’s happening behind the scenes. There’s so much detail and so many little things to arrange. They’re top notch at what they do. I’m proud to be affiliated and represented there.

Not long after, I went to their studio to shoot four of my most popular classes. They wanted to focus on basics and techniques that give the viewer a finished project at the end of the video. Pulling from the things I’ve taught before and that sold well in bead stores, we chose the knot bead, caged class, charms, and wire linking—a great basic techniques class.

Charmed bracelet by Melanie Schow on CreativeBug.com

Charmed bracelet by Melanie Schow

 

Wire cage pendants by Melanie Schow

Wire cage pendants by Melanie Schow

Making knot beads with wire

Of the four tutorials I did for Creative Bug, the knot bead is the most evocative. When I’m at shows, people will look at my handmade metal beads and ask me, “Were you angry when you made that?” (I wasn’t) or “How did you do that?” They’re really curious about all that coiled-up wire.

Wire knot bead by Melanie Schow

My knot bead idea came out of a class with Lynn Merchant when I was learning to make a whole series of different wire beads. One was called “Spider on LSD”—and we had to just make up the design. The knot bead came out of that experience.

In the video, I have a formula that shows students how to make it. Even with a step-by-step instructions, knot beads come out different every time. It tends to be very popular, and people love to wear them.

Creative Bug lives on

While I haven’t been back yet to do more than the first four segments, in the last few years Creative Bug has added more high-profile folks and expanded into many more diverse crafting projects. All of the videos are high quality, super creative, and fun to watch.

If you’re part of their online community, you can participate in the challenges they send out. If you’re like me, you can just watch the tutorials for fun without any plans to actually make the project. It’s amazing eye candy for (and by) creative people.

Filed Under: wire class Tagged With: class, Creative Bug, CreativeBug.com, knot bead, pendant, tutorials, videos