Happy Easter! And an intro to pysanky...

Happy Easter!

Khristos Voskres! (Christ is Risen!)

  

Wishing all of my readers a very Happy Easter and give you a little information on an ancient art form called pysanky. Many of you may be familiar with this beautiful tradition, but if not, there is a fantastic article that was in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently that can give you the details:

We have been doing the regular young-kid egg dyeing projects, but this year was the first year I was able to introduce my girls (ages 5 and 3) to pysanky. I am of Ukrainian heritage and learned this from my aunt and mother when I was just a bit older than they are now. 

It's been years since I have made them myself, but I am looking forward to doing them in years to come with my kids.

Although we weren't quite ready to mess around with the permanent dyes typically used for this, I decided to dig out the kistkas (wax writing styluses) and beeswax to give my girls a little introduction into how it is done.

I started by 'writing' a few dividing lines around the egg to show them, and then let them each try a little scribbling with the wax. They loved it.

Here is my older daughter giving the kistka a try.

Do you have any Easter art traditions in your family?

I hope that you enjoy this beautiful day!

25% off Sale!

I am finally running a sale! 

Select items in my Etsy shop are currently 

25% off!

There are some great deals here, just in time for spring and short sleeves!

Check out a couple of the 20+ items currently on sale:

This gorgeous triple wrap features shimmering 4mm round Pietersite stone beads. Also known as eagle’s eye, this rare variation of tiger’s eye contains shades of rich browns, coppery reds, cream and a surprising gray/blue. The stones are wrapped in 1.8mm bronze metallic leather with an antiqued gold button closure. Fits petite to medium wrist when wrapped 3 times.

This adjustable pendant features a gorgeous, large Mookaite jasper nugget in a deep goldenrod color with dark brown markings. This earthy design is finished off with dark brown metallic and cream glass beads. The stones are attached to 1mm dark brown, waxed cotton cord with dark brown S-Lon thread and two adjustable sliding knots allow the wearer to choose up to an 18” length (36" cord) when fully extended.

So, stop on by and look around, you just might find a great bargain!

Check back often for new items, too!  
 

New! Silk and Stone Wrap Bracelets

What's new in the shop these days? 

Well, after a busy holiday season and getting through some January colds and viruses, I had a bit of a drought when it came to new items for the shop. Feeling better this month, I was anxious to get back to my jewelry table! I have some wonderful supplies and was looking for new ways to combine them.

I dug out these beautiful, hand dyed, 100% silk ribbons that I ordered a few months ago. Silk wrap bracelets in various forms are popular right now, and I wanted to see what I could create that was just a little different than the many offerings currently out there.

I came up with what I call a 'Tribal Twist' Silk and Stone Wrap Bracelets. With a little bit of s-lon beading thread and some Czech seed beads, I strung stone rounds and nuggets in 6mm-8mm sizes, knotting the ribbon in between, to create comfortable, light and colorful wrap bracelets.

The beauty of these is the variety of stones and sizes I can create. I can add more beads for a shorter wrap, or a few less to fit larger wrists. All of the ones I have created so far will fit anywhere from a petite to large wrist size, wrapping three times around for most, twice for a larger wrist.

I am having a great time choosing stones and silks to pair up, so look for more of these in the coming weeks!

Crazy Lace Agate Pink Silk and Stone Wrap

 

Packaged on a bracelet card shows how it can look on the wrist. 

 

Fossil Coral Jasper Brown Silk and Stone Wrap

 

Labradorite Navy Silk and Stone Wrap.

Website Redesign!

One of the many things on my to-do list has been to update my main website. 

I use FolioLink, an artist and photographer website provider, and have for several years now. They provide great service and offer a good selection of templates. I have used the Berlin template for a number of years. It is clean and straightforward, but I was getting tired of it and looking for an update. I also have added the jewelry and craft side of my business, so the number of info pages and portfolios I wanted to include were crowding my navigation a bit in the old template (see the portfolio links at the top and the info pages at the bottom?):

 
I periodically looked for a new template, but never quite found what I wanted until they released Auckland (HTML) last year.

It actually took much less time than I thought to adjust my content to the new template and I basically worked on it over the last couple of weeks. It offers a slightly bigger image size for my portfolios (always a good thing when viewing artwork), and I really like the sliding menu on the left. It keeps the main content pane cleaner for viewing and then the user can always go to the left (or use the arrow navigation at the bottom) to move to another section. I an also add more info pages or portfolios without crowding out the navigation scheme.

 Main page

Sliding Menu

I think what I like most about this is that I could do it myself. A few emails to FolioLink and their prompt replies allowed me to tweak the template to match my color scheme and really capture the look I wanted for my site.

So, have a look at the new site here and feel free to sign the guestbook!

http://www.ccreechstudio.com

Have you redesigned your website recently? Or are you still waiting to get to that? :) What did you find easiest or most difficult about the process?

Budding Botanist? And a few sketches...

It has been waaaaay too long since I have done any botanical drawing. But just this morning, I took some time to grab my pencil and some paper to do a little sketching.

I can thank my older daughter, who is 5, for this for two reasons, 1) she loves to have us pick up a bunch of flowers at the store every so often so we bought a bouquet of spray roses over the weekend, and 2) they are starting to shrivel, so she asked to take apart some petals this morning before school.

I trimmed off a few flowers and buds and my little scientist (or budding botanist?) started peeling away the petals into a pile. The resulting stem, sepals, stamen and pistils were brought into the light of day and were begging to be sketched.

I love the curve of the sepals and the sharp point they come to at the tips. Although I am out of practice (my shading ended up a bit heavier than I intended...) it felt terrific to finally get back to it.

View from underneath the stems and sepals.

View from the side of the sepals, with some beautiful curling as well as a great view of the cluster of stamens and pistils at the center of the blossom.

 

The holidays and winter colds can really put a dent in any available creative time. Have you had any projects you have been away from and returned to recently? 

2012 Year In Review and Looking Forward - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2013! 

Welcome to CCreech Studio's 2012 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2013

I have seen similar posts on other artist's sites and thought this would be a great way to start the new year. 2012 was a busy year, creatively, and this is a great way to recall just how much was accomplished and take a look forward to what I hope to pursue in the coming year. So, let's take a look!

2012 Year In Review

1. I opened my Etsy shop almost one year ago, in January 2012
• I had 23 sales (of 30 items) in shop, but also about 30-40 additional sales outside of the shop, including sales made at booths throughout the year.
• My offerings started with leather wrap bracelets made with natural gemstones, but quickly expanded to include:
• Blank, hand-bound journals
• Jotter journals with reprints of my nature and botanical artwork.
• Natural stone pendants, most of which are on waxed cotton cord as an alternative to leather.
• Hand-knotted, macrame and gemstone bookmarks 
2. Advertised in a national magazine, FOLKMagazine.
• Participated in their Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway, donating one of my bookmarks that was given to a lucky winner.
3. Participated in three, in-person booth craft/gift shows 
• Saline Farmer’s Market (August 2012)
•  10^th Annual Kerrytown BookFest (September 2012)
• 1^st Annual Holiday Greens & Gift Market in Kerrytown (December 2012)
4. Consignment opportunities:
1. I am fortunate to have items from my shop on consignment at two local shops/galleries:
• Dexter Picture Frame Company
• Uniquely Yours Michigan
5. My first exhibit!
• The exhibit, "Illustrating Science: From Anatomy to Zoology", showcased scientific illustrations on a range of subjects, done by local illustrators. Four of my botanical illustrations were on display during June-July 2012 at the Ann Arbor District Library.
  
6. Drawing projects
• I had three commissions this year:
• Ink house portrait
• Ink portrait of a cat (Beacon)
• Landscape in ink and colored pencil.
7. Donated a bracelet for the 8th Annual Circle of Art benefit for Food Gatherers, a local food bank.
8. Donated a hand-bound journal to the American Society of Botanical Artists annual auction.
9. The indiexhibit
• Participated in the American Music Awards with two display items that were gifted.
• Participated in providing mugs and jewelry to three film projects being completed in the coming months.

2013 Goals

1. Keep creating!
2. Continue to add to the Etsy shop
• More hand-bound mini-journals with natural gemstones, silk wraps, and more.
• I enjoy creating blank ones for a variety of creative uses, including art, writing, photos, etc.
• Develop an idea for a journal format that a friend described to me last year.
• More bookmarks, bracelets, and pendants; including finding new stones to use, state-specific stones.
3. Participate in 1-2 booth shows
4. Continue my partnership with FOLKMagazine. for 3 of the 6 issues this year:
• I will have ads in the first three issues:
• Issue IX Winter 2013
• Issue X Spring 2013
• Issue XI Summer 2013
5. Continue consignment opportunities.
6. Create wholesale price sheet and look into wholesale opportunities.
7. Continue participating in The indiexhibit events as opportunities arise. It is a fun way to get a different angle of exposure and have my creations in different venues.
• Participating in the gift lounge at the Academy Awards ceremony (The Oscars) 2013 in February.
8. Participate in the 9th Annual Circle of Art benefit.
9. Draw more! I had some commissions, but did not really do much sketching or drawing last year. This year I *will* do more! :)
• Botanical and nature art - both sketches and finished pieces. I would love to do a few 'sketching' days at the local botanical garden.
• House portrait of my own house.
• Other commissions that come along.
10. Seek out other exhibit opportunities.
11. Attend the American Society of Botanical Artists conference in Pittsburgh in the fall.

So there it is! I am sure I will add to this list as the year goes on, but this certainly looks like a great start!

Do you have any creative goals for the coming new year? I'd love to hear about them.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of my readers out there a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I haven't done much in the way of new drawing this year, so I am posting an old pen and ink I did of a poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). Still one of my favorites!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

A View In Color

Remember the pen and ink commission I posted a while back? It was originally done just in ink, but after consulting with the client, they decided that they preferred some color (this is for a gift and is a special place to the recipients, so they wanted to make sure it really resonates with them.)

Here is the final pen and ink:

Today, I added the colored pencil. Here is the final result:

I think it turned out beautifully! I particularly like the way the water turned out. It really makes it the focal point of the drawing.

I used my favorite Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and layered five different colors for the water: cobalt turquoise, dark thalo green, cobalt green, ultramarine, and navy for the darkest area near the horizon.

Greens used included chrome oxide green, pine green and earth green yellowish.

Have you had any holiday commissions to complete? How are they coming along?

Holiday Greens & Gift Market in Kerrytown

I had a chance to have a booth at a local holiday market this past Friday, December 7. I was all set up at the Kerrytown Market & Shops here in Ann Arbor along with a number of other artisans and vendors to help celebrate Festive Fridays during this holiday season at the 1st annual Holiday Greens & Gift Market.

It was a cold and rainy evening, so crowds were not as busy as we'd hoped, but there were still a number of folks who came out to enjoy shopping, s'mores, caroling, riding the Jollie Train and seeing Santa!

I made a handful of sales, so that was fun. Here is a look at my booth:

A shot of my whole booth - fortunately, my friend Claudia of Artitlan (on the left) brought a tarp that hung behind both of our spaces and kept us fairly warm and dry!

 

 
My jotter journal sets in the middle, natural stone pendants in the back (with sliding stone necklaces in front of them) and bookmarks on the right.


 

A peek at the left side of the table with my necklace display.



 

 

And my bookmarks and bracelets along with my 'Stones of Michigan' display card.

I look forward to adding some new items to the shop this week. Have you ever had a booth at a holiday (or other) market? What was your experience?

Happy shopping!

Christmas Gift Guide Giveaway from FOLK Magazine! Fossil Coral and Turtle Macrame Bookmark

The FOLK Magazine blog has been running great features this holiday season with do-it-yourself crafts and more. 

One thing they are also doing is hosting a wonderful Christmas Gift Guide Giveaway everyday and today, I am featured in the giveaway! My Fossil Coral and Turtle Macrame Bookmark will be sent to one lucky winner who comments on the FOLK Blog post.

Check it out for a chance to win!