Author Archives: Sandy Lupton

art & soul adventure

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Art & Soul Retreat
Virginia Beach Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach, VA

me and the kaz

Susan K and me

Art and Soul is a creative retreat held each year in Portland, Kansas City, and luckily for us… Virginia Beach! The organizers bring in world-class instructors and schedule dozens of amazing classes for artists to choose from. This year I got to take 2 sold-out classes from Susan Lenart Kazmer, an internationally recognized mixed-media jewelry artist and teacher.

HOT VS COLD

I enjoyed both classes, and I especially enjoyed Susan’s teaching style,
her generosity and her energy.

The jury is still out… Hot Enameling vs. Cold Enameling

I can’t decide which class I enjoyed the most. While using the kiln or a propane torch to add a glass surface to metal was really fun and empowering, I also enjoyed using resin and various colorants on metal to form cold enameled pieces. Each has its own unique beauty and each has its benefits. The hot enameling dries to a hard, glass surface immediately when cooled while the cold enameling takes less equipment and can be done easily and inexpensively at home. Both methods create luscious layers of color, pattern and texture on metal.

My favorite part of both classes was using the torch to ball the ends of copper and brass wire to form a more beautiful wire wrap and a more professional looking finished piece of jewelry.

pinky jill san

Jill, Sandy, Pinky

 

More than anything else, Art and Soul is a place to meet like-minded folks, make new friends, connect with old friends and have fun. We make art and we learn from amazing teachers from all over the world. We get out of our comfort zones, stretch our creative selves and laugh until all hours of the night…

It’s a once-a-year
creative party!

See you next year
Art and Soul….

my current obsession…

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Embroidered & Layered Scarf Tutorial

scarf

Obsession is a strong word…. but I do tend to go a little overboard when I get hooked on a project. This scarf began as a little side project between other projects that were on hold. I was dying to get back to some embroidery and I thought a scarf might be something to pass the time until I could get back to stitching my next pair of jeans. I need to keep my hands busy — this did the trick in a big way! It is a great way to use up some of those hand dyed fabric scraps too!

Materials
1 scarf sized piece of gauzy or silky background fabric – mine is 10″ x 5′ hand dyed cotton gauze

Assorted scraps of cloth – hand dyed sheers, silks, cottons, organzas and cotton prints – this is the perfect opportunity to dig into your scrap or recycle bin!

Assorted floss – cotton, silk, DMC embroidery thread and embroidery needle

Instructions

Decide on your finished scarf size. This one is about 10″ wide by 5 feet long but make it to suit your preference. Choose scraps in a combination of 3-4 colors.Trim your background fabric to size and start layering your scraps on top, overlapping pieces in an interesting composition. Tack down the layers on one side, then layer fabrics on the other side and tack them down as well. Use your sheer fabrics to their best advantage by layering them over prints and contrasting colors.

I added repetition by sewing on circles cut from store-bought printed fabrics. Repetition helps to give the piece a cohesive look and keeps it from looking like you just threw it together. I also repeated the same fabrics and thread colors throughout. This is important with this project, because it has such a bohemian, haphazard feel to it. Artsy is good, messy is not so good.

I did not put any batting or heavy fabrics in between the layers because I wanted it to have a soft, flowing, scrunchy feel to it. I wanted it to wrap easily around the neck without a lot of bulk. I also did not want to have to embroider through all those heavy layers.

When you have your fabric sandwich like you want it, pull out your needle and threads and start stitching. I left the knots exposed because i like the texture. I also like the random messy lines and rows and rows of running stitches. I did not do anything fancy — just put colorful stitches where i felt they would look good. On the circles, i started in the middle, radiating the stitching out to the outer rims.

The edges were finished with a blanket stitch. This really helped the piece look complete. I used red thread to give your eye a bold stopping point. Start to finish this piece took about a week to complete – mostly time spent in front of the TV. I have started on a creamy white scarf now and have added some photos of that into the gallery as well.  Hand wash, hang to dry. Holler if you have any questions… Sandy

 

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making up words…

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The meaning of life is to find your Gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away.
Pablo Picasso

—

I remember a workshop I took about 10 years ago taught by Zana Clark of Stamp Zia who asked “What kind of artist are you?”  She said there were three types and asked us to raise our hands when we fit the type: the artist who amasses a ton of supplies and never finds time to use them, the artist who hates everything she does and the artist who loves everything she does and everything that everybody else does too… When she got to the last type, I was the only one in the room who raised her hand.

My job is to help people find joy in the process and stop worrying so hard about the end product. Making art takes practice — just like anything else. It may as well be fun!  I am here to help you get past the perfectionism and on to the joy of making art.  I figure that makes me an enthusiastician (yes, I made it up).

I’ve got a few new workshops scheduled this fall… I hope you will join me.

contemplating the list

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Kayaking Aventure
Merchants Millpond – Gates County, NC

kayakQuote
Merchants Millpond is a beautiful NC State Park, home to a 760 acre pond full of cypress trees and wildlife. We saw a small snake, lots of sunning turtles, blue dragonflies, frogs, fish, birds and an alligator.

I guess that learning to kayak in a water hole that has alligators in it is not the best idea.
The webite says they have 6 alligators in residence, the largest one about 9 feet long.
I think the one we saw was about 6 feet long, a rough estimate, since we didn’t get too close. She slapped a tree with her tail to let us know that we were indeed close enough, and we responded by turning in the opposite direction. We got along just fine. We named her “Ali.” The Park Ranger said we were lucky to see one this time of year. I agree.

Kayaking has been on my list for a while now. This year I decided it was about time I started tackling that list a little harder as I work on that “what do I want to be when I grow up?” thing.

My friends Linda and Paula volunteered to teach me the ins and outs of kayaking. The ins and out are the hard parts, by the way. Paddling was a piece of cake, and kayaks are built not to be tippy, so staying afloat was no biggie either. I am pretty agile in the water, pretty klutzy on land, so getting in and out was a little awkward, but the rest was gliding thru the water and feeling like I belonged there with the fishies. With a little practice, the ins and outs should be easier too. This is something I can see me doing a lot of… Good exercise, plenty of sunshine, gorgeous and serene surroundings, picnic lunch on the water, fab friends… an all around great experience. I can’t wait to go back!

 

(thanks to LB for use of her photos)

~ ~ ~

SIDE NOTE: My friend Leanne has the most amazing bucket list I’ve ever seen or heard of, and she makes great strides at living it. When you get a chance, check out her blog, Girl vs. the Bucket List. Her adventures range from flying on the trapeze to diving in the arctic to going to Comic-Con in costume. It’s a good read.

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TAP dancing!

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CREATIVE IMAGE TRANSFER– Any Artist, Any Style, Any Surface
by Lesley Riley

 

Creative Image Transfer is finally available and I am so excited to be a part of it! The book includes 16 new mixed-media projects using TAP Transfer Artist Paper. My project uses TAP on  Faux Bone – a non-toxic, flat PVC plastic that can be cut and carved into any shape for beautiful, lightweight jewelry components. The book showcases 5 of my Faux Bone necklaces, each with a TAP transfer of my artwork.

To celebrate the event, Lesley is having a Creative Image Transfer book and TAP Give-away! Just head over to her blog anytime from Aug. 6-10, 2014 and enter to win!

Creative Image Transfer