A close second to Venetian Glass in my recent fascination with Italian craftsmanship is millefiori. These beautiful and versatile beads lend themselves to inclusion in such a wide stylistic range of jewelry and mixed media. And so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite millefiori-inspired finds on Etsy.
In preparation for an upcoming trip abroad, I’ve been doing a lot of research on Venice, and one of the highlights has been learning about Venetian glass. Everything about the craft fascinates me—starting with the fact that all the glassmakers were moved to the island of Murano (about a mile off the coast of Venice) in the 13th century to eliminate the fire hazard their furnaces posed to the city itself, where the buildings are so close together that any blaze could be catastrophic. I also have a deep appreciation from any craft that has been passed down through families for generations—and the art of Venetian glassmaking has been a family tradition for centuries for most Murano “glass masters.”
There are several American distributors of imported Venetian glass, and one of the best online sites I’ve seen is VenetianGlassArt.com (from which the photos shown here were taken). Although I typically think of vases and tableware when I think of Venetian glass, I love the idea of using it in jewelry. (Think of the mixed-media possibilities. I'd love to see it combined with some delicate metal clay work!) You can learn more about the art form and find a directory of reputable worldwide distributors at Venetian Glass Info.
Here is something all of you painting fans might be excited about (I am!) Golden Artist Colors has just announced a new line of acrylic paint that has an extended drying time.
Golden calls this line Open Acrylic Colors, and in addition to forty available colors, there are also two mediums available--a thinner, a gel (gloss) and a general medium. The slow drying time on these paints means you can use natural bristol brushes and you can use them for applications like monoprints and screenprints, which is something you couldn't really use acrylics for in the past. I may have to test these out as soon as they're available from my local store. Let me know if you try them first!
One of the best parts about being an editor is we often get our own "personal workshops" from our authors when they come to Cincinnati for their step-by-step photo shoots. Last week I had that experience with the very talented and well known artist, Robert Dancik.
Robert is currently working on his book, Amulets and Talismans, which will be out around this time next year. (It typically takes about a year to create a quality book.) This guy is a power-house of information and has a plethora of cool techniques up his sleeve, and yes, he even taught me some new techniques for using Plexiglas.
Some of the projects in Robert's book use a non-toxic PVC material he developed called Faux Bone. If you've never worked with this stuff before, and you love making jewelry, you have to give this a try. It comes in 12" x 12" (30cm x 30cm) sheets and thicknesses ranging from 1/16" to 1/2" (2mm to 13mm) and there's even a cool shaping tool you can buy to make carving easier. This stuff cuts super easily with a jeweler's saw, it can be drilled into, textured, colored and polished.
Just a few of the other things I learned this week:
• A triangular scraper can be used on a hole to make a blind rivet
• It's possible to create your own texture hammer
• Wet sanding works better on plastic than dry
I'm sorry the publication date for Robert's book is still a bit out there, but in the meantime, check out his Web sites and start playing with something new this week.
Tonia did not exaggerate the fun we had during our encaustic painting day in her last post. I’ve been co-editing Patricia Seggebruch’s fabulous upcoming Encaustic Workshop book that Tonia mentioned, but I still learned so much from working (or playing, to be more accurate!) in the medium myself. For instance, I was not prepared for how fast the wax would begin to harden—literally within seconds!—or for how thick your layer of wax would need to be to fuse into a smooth finish. I have always been in awe of the work artists can create in this medium, but I have an even deeper appreciation for the skill now. (Isn’t it always that way?)
So it seemed only natural to check out what other artists are doing in this medium on Etsy.
Another artist began with a photo, then, after layering encaustic wax on the image, added an artful, dimensional quality with thick oil paint for this high-contrast piece:
What new mediums have you been experimenting with lately?
