The Peculiar Palette

Groceries from the East

Happy Sunday! Today is an extra special Sunday because I have off from work tomorrow for President's Day, which is a luxury I've never had before (have I mentioned that I love my new job?). I think I am going to spend the rest of the long weekend artsing and crafting, as long as I don't get caught up in another Gossip Girl marathon. We'll see how it goes.

This blog post is also special because it is the first one I am posting that is written on my new computer, a present I recently bought myself for my 40th birthday! It is so fantastic. I had a good laptop until it broke, and I couldn't find anyone who could fix it. So I had been using my 10 year old PC which was so slow and pathetic that I would click on something and it wouldn't come up for at least 2 minutes. It was very frustrating and I was becoming very unproductive with computer work. I am so glad that problem has been solved! And I ended up splurging on a Mac since most of the computer work I do is on Photoshop or Dreamweaver. I must say, it's da bomb!

Although I am excited to use the new computer for photo editing, I have been obsessed with editing with apps for my iPhone lately. There are some cool things out there! As I mentioned, Instagram was my original favorite, but then I found Pic Grunger and Camera+ which are giving my first love a run for it's money. The photos I am about to share with you I edited while laying in bed last night about about 1 am. How cool are they? Quick and easy, that's just my style!

My friend Malyna brought me to an Asian Market here in Fresno on Friday because I wanted to find food like the kind I ate at the Hmong New Year's Celebration (read that post here). I find it so interesting to see what people from other parts of the world eat on a regular basis. I can't say I want to try much of it, but it definitely looks interesting. I whipped out my iPhone and took some pictures of some of the most unique things I found:

 

Sugar cane. You are supposed to cut it up and chew on it to get the sweetness out. I thought it was bamboo stalks at first. They're huge!

 

More sugar cane. This looks so cool that I think I'm going to print it out and use it in a collage one of these days.

 

This was some kind of root that had hair...

 

Another unidentified root type thing...

 

Large selection of energy shots. I guess America isn't the only place where they are popular!

 

Grass jelly? Wonder what that tastes like.

 

These cute little bottles of extracts and essences were picture worthy.

 

They had an extensive selection of meatballs. You name it and they had balls made out of it.

 

These sacks of rice put my little box of Minute Rice that usually lasts me a year to shame!

 

If you ever get sick of the usual canned fruit at the local grocery store (pineapple, oranges, peaches and fruit cocktail), try some of this! I never even heard of any of these fruits except for coconut.

 

Mmm, quail eggs in brine...

 

Not sure what Cassia is, but it sure does look cool!

 

Black fungus. I'm sure they could have found a better name for this.

 

Lotus Stalks. I hear they are super bitter. I'll take Malyna's word for it!

I ended up coming home with a broiled chicken, some egg rolls, sticky rice, sweet sauce and a few other goodies. I've been eating it all weekend and everything is delicious. None of it is very daring, but I'm okay with that!

Instagram = Insta-gratification

I admit it. Most of the time when I see a new artsy technique that I think is cool, I become somewhat obsessed. This can be proven by looking at my extensive array of beads, polymer clays, paper, acrylic paints, rubber stamps...(or by seeing my debit card statements that are plastered with charges made at art and craft supply stores). The iPhone app Instagram is no exception to my obsessive tendencies. It is just fantastic. I love taking pictures, but since I don't have the greatest camera in the world I would always take them, download them to my computer, edit the begeezus out of them in Photoshop,  figure out where I want to share them, then wait for them to upload on my website of choice. All of these steps add up to a nice big chunk of time! Then one of my Facebook friends recommended downloading Instagram when I asked about 'must have apps' for my new iPhone. I had never heard of it but I trusted her recommendation and downloaded it.

O.M.G.

You can make your pictures look SO cool just by using the few options they offer. It is so simple! Here are the steps (there may be more options than I am aware of but this is how I do it):

1. Take a picture with your iPhone or choose one from your gallery
2. Crop it
3. Decide whether you want a frame or not (press the square icon)
4. Decide whether you want to blur some of it or not (press the drop icon)
5. Choose one of 12 or so filters that makes your photo look vintage and cool
6. Write a caption
7. Upload it to Facebook or save it on your phone.

It literally takes about 30 seconds and you will be shocked that you have such great looking photos. And you don't have to wait until you're home to download your photos to your computer and spend hours Photoshopping them all. Instant gratification! Here are some of the ones I've taken so far.

 

This is what the morning sunshine looks like on my bedroom blinds.

 

The wall o' glasses at my eye doctor's office

 

My dusty keyboard at work...

 

Awesome button made by Alexa Westerfield.

 

My friend Pattie Wilkenson's Zentangle inspired couch!

 

Tie Dyes in the making...

 

Sparkly birthday presents from my friends Kathy Cano-Murillo and Alexa Westerfield.

 

One of my mosaic skulls

 

The crazy resident cat in my cat Poopie's cardiologist's office

 

Dora being very happy because she was playing in the woods.

 

Dora being very sad because I woke her up to take her picture.

 

If you've got an iPhone, I recommend you give it a try! You will find yourself taking pictures of everything you can find because this app lets you make even the most mundane subjects look FABULOUS! Have fun! And if you're already using it, let's follow each other! My user name is thepeculiarpalette

 

Holy Mugs, Batman!

One of the many perks of working at iLoveToCreate® is that every month during our sales meeting we get to make a fun project using the supplies we make.  My boss had volunteered to lead the group of 50 or so people in a ceramics related project for January. As it turned out, he also was scheduled to go on a buisness trip the week that the meeting was taking place, so he volunteered me and my counterpart, Ken, to host the project (I still think this was strategically planned so that he didn't have to do it himself...lol). This was the first month I attended one of these meetings (since I am still new to the company) and thought I would be nervous about getting up in front of so many people that I have to work with everyday so early in my career. Surprisingly, I wasn't! I really enjoy showing others how to make art. This was just another confirmation that I am definitely in the right place, because if someone had asked me to do a presentation on salad dressing or reptile sales (other catagories I was responsible for in my life before iLoveToCreate®) I wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable. It ended up being a lot of fun!

We had everyone decorate one of our brand new Duncan® Oh Four® Bisque heart mugs (just released in January!) with a variety of Duncan Concepts® Underglazes. Then the Ceramic Arts team dipped each mug in Pure Brilliance® Clear Glaze and fired them all. They turned out great! Take a look...

 

 

Loading the kiln..

 

Before firing...

 

What we found in the kiln the next morning...

 

It was a little like Christmas..

 

Mugs as far as the eye could see...

 

Mugs stacked to the ceiling...well I might be exaggerating a little. They were stacked high though!

 

See?

 

 

Each one was so different.

 

How's this for eye candy?

 

This little guy is my personal favorite...

 

We got our ducks, er I mean mugs, all in a row...

 

The end...for now.

Cha Cha CHA

Boy, time sure does fly by when you're having fun! I can't believe it's already been a week since I've been back from the Craft and Hobby Association's Winter Show and have yet to post about it. Well I'm going to fix that right now!

In 2009, in my quest to learn everything there is to know about the wonderful world of mixed media, I stumbled across an advertisement for the CHA's winter show. There were technically two of them; one for business owners and one that was open to the public. Apparently the CHA show is THE place to go if you want to find out about the latest and greatest art and craft supplies available on the market. Needless to say, I was all over it and embarked on a roadtrip from Phoenix to Anaheim to find out what this was all about.

I'll never forget how I felt when I first walked in. I thought my head was going to explode! Booths full of anything and everything artsy and craftsy as far as the eye could see. I was excited and giddy, but more than anything I was overwhelmed. I didn't know where to start! I decided to pick a starting point and took one step at a time until I saw it all. I had the best time, and left with bag after bag of loot that I bought from the various vendors. I couldn't wait to get home and start using it all.

Fast forward to 2012...I now have a job with iLoveToCreate®, and the CHA show is their biggest event of the year. They spend months designing their booth and developing activities to do with the show attendees. Being that I work on the Ceramic Arts team (which has very little to do with the craft industry), I never in a million years thought I'd be required to attend this year's show. But I was wrong! My boss told me I was going, which led me to do a little happy dance in my cubicle. Imagine having a job that sends me to CHA free of charge for business purposes and pays me for it (see my post about winning the lottery for more information). But I digress.

I even made sure that I hit the ATM before I left so I could buy more bags of loot while I was there, but was informed that they did away with the consumer show. This was for business owners only, and nothing was for sale. I choked back some tears, but somehow made it through. Now I know what a dog feels like when someone balances a treat on their nose but doesn't let him eat it!

Even though I wasn't allowed to buy anything, I still managed to have a great time! I made a few Make and Takes, met the fabulously talented Jen Cushman in person for the first time (and was able to thank her face to face for featuring me in her column for Create Mixed Media last month), spoke to Traci Bautista (about her awesome new book that was just released) and Lisa Pavelka (who just started a 365 day project involving the lids of Carmex containers), watched demos by Claudine Hellmuth and Dyan Reaveley (I just discovered Dyan's work at the show. It is WAY cool!). I also got to bond with the other members of the Ceramics team during hotel happy hours and fantastic dinners at fine restaurants including the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. I was having so much fun that between business meetings, working the booth and looking around, I only made it through about a third of the show!

I have to hand it to the iLoveToCreate® team. Our booth was the best in the whole show! And I'm not just saying that because they now provide my paycheck. Check out these pics!

This was the focal point of the whole booth. This ginormous mannequin is wearing a dress made with Tulip® Tie Dye. She's holding a giant purse which doubles as a TV screen, which was playing clips of projects and the iLoveToCreate® blogging team.

 

It's the details that count! Brightly colored candy in colors coordinating with our brands were placed in our booth.

 

They were too pretty to eat!

 

This was a Make It, Give It project. The show attendees were able to make a quilt square with the new Scribbles® ink pads and alphabet stamps. Each square had an encouraging sentiment stamped on it, and Pattie Wilkinson's mom is going to sew them into quilts which will be donated to the local Boys and Girls club.

 

This is one of 4 tiaras that the Crafty Chica® made. Kathy Cano-Murillo has her own line of projects and supplies with iLoveToCreate®, and this was her feature in her section of the booth. Attendees could try on one of her tiaras and get their picture taken behind a gilttery painted frame. I have a picture of someone doing this but he would kill me if I posted it here. I'm going to hold onto it though, just in case he gives me a reason to use it one day...*evil laugh*

 

Duncan® Ceramics was represented nicely in the booth. This is a demonstration on how to paint your own pottery.

 

A rainbow of brightly colored ceramic glazes...

 

A skirt made out of broken pottery pieces! How cool is that?

 

Now this is something I need to do, so if anyone has a junky old table they want to donate to me that I can mosaic the begeezus out of, please do. Even the plates and silverware are grouted in!

 

It even has a matching chair.

 

These little triangles showcased a variety of ways to use the Aileen's® line of adhesives. I wouldn't mind making a long banner of larger triangles all decorated differently, kind of like a prayer flag.

 

More triangles!

 

Here is the wall o' color of Tulip® fabric paint. I'll take one of each, please!

 

We even had a real live model that was being painted with Tulip® Body Art paint. Her dress was hand painted with fabric paint, then her limbs were painted to match! When it was all said and done, you could barely tell where her dress ended and her skin began. Too cool!

Art Journaling that Shines - Part 2

 

Hello again! Welcome to the second part of Journal Pages that Shine. This time we're going to use some of my favorite products in the whole world...Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fiber from the Art Glitter Institute. These products are so versitile that you can use them on all your mixed media projects. All you need is an iron and some parchment paper and you're ready to go! I always thought it was more complicated than that, but was pleasantly surprised the first time I used them. It's so quick and easy!

Again I started my pages by using watercolors, markers to doodle with, spray inks, collage elements, and craft punches to make little windows. For the left side, I used Fantasy Fibers for hair. I mixed together a pinch of purple and yellow, spread them out into my desired shape, then sandwiched them between two sheets of parchment paper and ironed briefly. It doesn't take much heat or pressure to get the fibers to fuse together. I recycled a white circular shape that I cut out of one of the pages below for the face. I used collage medium (Collage Pauge) and a foam brush to adhere the hair and the face to my page.

To make the small squares down the left side of the page, I used a craft punch. Then I cut 1/2" strips of different colors of Fantasy film. I arranged and overlapped them randomly on one sheet of parchment, then covered them with another and ironed briefly. It came out having a nice striped effect. I cut the fused film into squares slightly larger than the punched out squares and glued them onto the back of the page. I covered them with a strip of white paper so they can't be seen from the page behind.

 

 

 

 

For the left page, I used the same technique for the earth as I did for the face above. For the sun on the right page, I fused together 2 layers of Fantasy Film and added a pinch of pink Fantasy Fiber on the top. I glued it onto the back of the page but left it translucent instead of gluing white paper over it like I did for the above squares. I wanted to let the design from the page behind it in my journal peek through.

This is what was on the page behind the sun.

 

The colors of the paint were so similar to the colors of fibers I used that they just gave it a subtle luster.

 

You can see the design behind the film better here.

Next on my to do list is to use these products to make a small art quilt!

My 'Strategic Break' featured on createmixedmedia.com!

A few months ago, I posted a status update on Facebook that referred to the 'strategic break' in my career that I took for the last couple of years. I received a comment from a friend of mine on Facebook, the wonderfully talented Jen Cushman, wanting to know more about it. That prompted me to write an entire blog post about my quest to live the creative life and sent her the link. She liked my story so much that she featured it in her monthly column on www.CreateMixedMedia.com! I am so honored that she chose my story to feature, and thrilled that she thought it could be an inspiration to others. Thanks, Jen!

Check out the article here.

Learn more about Jen on her website.

Read Jen's blog, My Story To Tell, here.

Eye Candy for the New Year

Last weekend I was invited by my new friend and co-worker to go to the Hmong New Year's celebration at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. I am embarassed to admit that prior to moving here, I had never heard of the Hmong culture so I had a lot to learn! The Hmong  are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand (thank you, Wikipedia). Apparently the Fresno area has the second largest concentration of Hmong people in the US, with Saint Paul MN being the largest.

Every year the Hmong people here in Fresno have a huge New Year's celebration at the fairgrounds. Below I will take you through my first experience at the event. I was lucky enough to go with someone who is Hmong, so she was able to explain everything to me, and translate when I needed it.

The Shopping

There were booths as far as the eye could see of people selling ethnic items such as medicines, costumes, jewelry, koi fish, herbs, fabric, fruit and vegetables, and musical instruments, just to name a few...

I think this is lip balm. They also sold virginity soap...hmmm.

 

You could buy some fish for your pond...

 

Or a beautiful new dress.

 

Tell me this isn't the coolest hat you've ever seen. These are the hats that are worn by the clan that my friend belongs to.

Beautiful, colorful fabric to brighten up a cloudy day.

 

Some herbs, each of which has a different healing property. I bought one of these because they say you can stick it in the ground and it will start growing again. We'll see if my (un)green thumb can handle it.

 

More herbs...

 

The People

There are 18 different clans in the Hmong culture, and each clan wears a different costume, or dress, for special occasions. This was my favorite part of the whole celebration. All of them were so beautiful and colorful! Total eye candy...I couldn't decide which one I liked the best.

 

These guys were the winners of the Mr. Hmong contest.

 

 

 

The Ball Game

One of the most interesting traditions the Hmong people have is the ball game, which is their courting ritual. Basically boys and girls stand in lines facing each other and throw a ball back and forth, while chatting with their potential new love interest. There was a lot of that going on. Read more about the tradition here.

 

 

 

Looks like someone forgot to catch this one....

 

The Food

If I didn't have a tour guide, I wouldn't have had a clue on what to get for lunch. For some reason there were lots of stands selling corn dogs, meatballs on a stick and churros. I saw a ton of people walking around eating meatballs, so I thought they were the thing to try...so I did. Although they were quite tasty, I found out later that they were the most American dish there, so I wasn't being very daring. Luckily they were just a little snack so I was able to try again for my main meal. 

 

The most popular Hmong food apparently is barbecued meats and purple sticky rice. We tried two kinds of sausage, chicken and pork, all of which were delicious. The purple rice was good too, and it was so sticky that you could pick up a chunk of it and eat it with your hands. Actually, that's what you were supposed to do. The rice starts off mostly white with a few darker grains mixed in, and when it cooks in the water the darker grains give off a purple color which dyes the white rice.

 

Here is a variety of fried foods, including fried bananas which we had for dessert. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the banana is marinated in something, then dipped in a sweet batter that contains sesame seeds. It was really good!

 

Also very popular are brightly colored drinks containing strands and balls of tapioca. They were everywhere! I had one with dinner and liked it...although I have never had a chewy drink before. They serve it with a really wide straw so the tapioca can get through it.

The last thing I tried (that I don't have a picture of) is papaya salad, which is also really popular. Essentially it is shredded papaya with fish sauce and peanuts. It was the strangest tasting food I've ever eaten. Apparently it's an aquired taste. It was cold, spicy, sweet, sour, fishy, salty...I never had so many tastes going on at once.  I could only handle one small mouthful, but people who have aquired the taste really love it.

 

The Candids

I managed to get a few candid shots of random people that I like....thought I'd post those too!

 

 

This is my favorite. The looks on these kids' faces are priceless.

 

Wish I knew what she was thinking...

 

The Celebrities

Last but not least, a very famous Hmong actress had a booth there and was autographing copies of her most recent movie and letting fans take pictures with her. Below is my friend alongside of Nou Lee...

 

All in all it was a very fun day. I got to learn first hand about a culture I knew nothing about. I tried new foods, bought some herbs, shopped for ugly fruits (darn I just realized they are actually called Ugli fruits but I like calling them ugly waaay better. Although they are really kind of pretty. Like a limon, what 7up used to claim to make their sodas from), and saw tons of colorful clothing and decor.

Thanks again to my friend Malyna for introducing me to it all!

I went to Ceramics College...and graduated!

One of my first assignments for my fabulous new job as Account Manager for the Ceramic Arts division of iLoveToCreate® was to attend Duncan® University. Basically that means that I got to spend 3 glorious days with long-time Duncan® Ambassador David Hoff in his home studio learning about the Duncan® line of products and how to use them. This job is torture. They forced me to make ceramics for 3 days and paid me for it (that's dripping with gallons of  sarcasm, btw). I've never even come close to having that much fun at work before!

I have been making ceramics at Glendale Community College for the last 10 years or so. I mostly handbuilt my pieces out of clay or threw them on the wheel. That was the most labor intensive part of making ceramics. Once I finished that part, I'd go throw some glaze on it (some of which I mixed myself) and hope it didn't come out looking like baby poop. Many times it did.

The type of firing we did at school was mostly cone 10, which means it fires to the hottest temperature possible (2380 degrees F). It's okay, but there is a very limited glaze colors you can work with, mostly blues, greens and browns, and it's difficult to get much detail with them. For most of the time I was taking class there, I had a teacher that frowned upon doing using anything other than cone 10 clays and glazes, and truthfully I got bored after awhile.

About 2 years ago, that teacher retired and Esmeralda DeLaney came on bored as our instructor. Her work is much more colorful and whimsical, which was right up my alley. She inspired most of what I do today. She was much more open minded and experimental when it came to decorating our pieces. She introduced us to a few of the Duncan® products, specifically EZ Strokes® and Concepts®, and would let us fire them to cone 6 (a cooler temperature which is considered mid-range). We still constructed our own pieces by throwing and handbuilding clay, but finally there could be some color on them. If you've seen my work, you know my motto is 'brighter is better'. I started having fun making ceramics again! Plus, the fact that she let me use these Duncan products is partially responsible for getting me my cool new job, so thanks Es!

The ceramics that I learned at Duncan University is different than what I'm used to doing. They have a whole line of Oh Four® bisque ware, which is an already fired form that is ready to be decorated (the piece will still need to be fired again when you're done). I wasn't sure if I was really going to like doing it this way, but I found it to be fabulous! It's the equivalent of a painter buying a pre-stretched canvas instead of making one from scratch. Although I like making things out of clay, sometimes I just don't feel like getting involved because it's sooooo messy. And it takes so long to make and then to dry. Here, all you have to do is pick a shape and start painting it! You can fire it the same night and it will be ready the next day. Instant gratification! That's something I never was able to get in pottery class. And the great thing about the Duncan products I used is that they are consistent and reliable. If I paint on a glaze that is supposed to be blue, it will NOT come out looking like baby poop. It's like a dream come true.

Today the pieces that I made went on a photoshoot to the iLoveToCreate® photography studio (how fancy!). That's why the pictures below look so beautiful and professional. I was going to pretend that I took them, then realized that no one would believe me anyway. These pieces were fired to cone 06, which is considered low fire, but most of these products will work on pieces that are fired to mid-range as well. I followed the cirriculum for the first day of class or so, but as time went on I got rebellious and wanted to try doing things my way (funky, bold and loud), which is the exact opposite from my instructor's traditional style. To his bewilderment (and my delight), they came out pretty cool! I doubt if we'll be seeing my projects any time soon being offered at Duncan U, but hey, you never know...

This is the piece I started with. It was glazed with a Courtyard Art Glaze™ 
with a Crystals Glaze™  on top. There's a little bit of blue EZ Strokes® mixed in with the Crystals Glaze™. I can't wait to use more of these...they are so much fun!

 

This one was done with Concepts® on the bottom and a few colors of EZ Strokes® sponged in layers on top, with Pure Brilliance® Clear Glaze over it.

 

This piece isn't really my style, but the technique I used to do it was awesome! Duncan® makes a product called Mask 'n Peel™, which is just like the masking fluid you would use in watercolor painting. You just draw your design, paint the Mask 'n Peel™ over it and let dry. Then paint the background with the Cover Coats® of your choice. The Mask 'n Peel™ repels what you paint on top of it and you get a nice clean line once you remove it. There's no need to stay inside the lines, which is right up my alley! When it's dry, peel the Mask 'n Peel™ off (it feels like a deflated balloon) and add color to your design with EZ Strokes®. Finish with a few coats of Pure Brilliance® and Voila!

 

This piece is what started me to veer off course. The project was supposed to have a soft, more realistic watercolor look to it. I asked David for permission to go nuts with it and started painting the petals different colors of Cover Coats®. He looked at me like I was crazy, especially because I used green for some petals and not for leaves. I sponged some EZ Strokes® in coordinating colors over the top for some texture, and did some doodling with black and white French Dimensions™. David told me that this was his favorite piece of mine, which is quite a compliment considering how it all started!

 

This is the piece that got me seeing ceramics in a whole new light. The beach scene is one of David's signature designs and he taught me how to paint it using EZ Strokes®. You can use them exactly like you would watercolor paint. He showed me how to combine colors, mix them with water for more subtle effects, and double load the brush to create shading. This is far different than anything I've ever done on clay, and I was ecstatic to learn about the possibilities. I have a ton of ideas in my head that I want to try using the same products and techniques. Luckily David sent me home with some extra platters and a set of brushes that I can use to do that. I used a clear Satin glaze® over the top for a matte finish.

 

This piece is part of the Duncan® University 'World of Creativity' Series. There are 7 projects that are all animal themed, one for each continent. This is the one for Asia that I absolutely fell in love with when I saw the brochure. I requested that it be one of the projects I did during my time in David's studio. Apparently it's an advanced course, so I earned an extra credit! These pieces were done using yet another new technique...cutting patterns out of contact paper and sticking them on the piece to block off areas that you don't want to paint. It was similar to the Mask 'n Peel™ 
technique I used for the flower vase. The background was done by sponging on different colors of Designer Glazes®. When dry I peeled off the contact paper revealing the seaweed areas. I painted them with Concepts and highlighted them with EZ Strokes®. Next, I peeled the contact paper off of the fish areas and painted them with Concepts®. Lastly, I outlined them with white French Dimensions™
. I mixed a little bit of everything on these...I guess you could call it 'mixed-media ceramics'! Needless to say, I loved making these.

 

This is a David/Laura collaboration...It started off with a base of white Satin Glaze® and then I painted the design over it with EZ Strokes® and Cover Coats®. This technique is called Majolica, which means you apply an underglaze (non-moving, meaning it stays put when fired) on top of a glaze (moving, meaning it melts when fired). The underglaze takes on the sheen of the glaze underneath it so there's no need to apply a clear glaze on top of it. Pretty cool! David cut some heart shapes out of a compressed sponge and showed me how to use EZ Strokes® to sponge on the shapes. He suggested the stems and leaves, an idea which I really liked. Then I finished it off by drawing bold lines and a goofy face on it by using black Concepts® in a squirt bottle with a fine tip.

As you may have guessed, this one was all me. I painted the design using Cover Coats®, did the drawing with Concepts® in a squirt bottle, and finished it with Pure Brilliance®. You'll probably be seeing a lot more like this coming out of my kiln in the near future!

If you are interested in trying your hand at ceramics, you can get all the supplies you need at your local Duncan® distributor. You can find yours here.

If you are interested in attending Duncan® University, find out more about it here.

If you want to take classes with the amazing David Hoff....visit his website at www.davidhoff.com.

It's like winning the lottery, only better.

In August 2009, when I got laid off from my job as account manager for a large corporation, I felt relieved. Maybe I should have been upset or scared, but all I could think about was that this was the one chance I was going to get to do something amazing with my life instead of working in a mundane industry that was sucking the life out of me. The job wasn't horrible, it just wasn't very fulfilling. Fortunately they gave me a small severance package and some money to go back to school with. I took that opportunity to take all the art classes I could find in order to spend every penny that they were offering me (which equated to 54 credits in one year between 3 local community colleges). Why not? No one could understand how I could possibly take that many credits at a time and still do well, but most of them were just going to a 4 hour studio class and making art the whole time. I was quite happy!

A year went by and I ran out of school money , so logically the next step would be for me to find a new job. I looked a little, but there wasn't anything good out there. I didn't want just any job, I wanted a job that I truly loved. While I waited for that to come along, I spent my time developing my blog and website, working on art projects, submitting to contests and magazines, and trying to make a name for myself somewhere out there in the art and craft world.

On December 11th, 2010, my dad unexpectedly passed away and it hit me pretty hard. I didn't do much for a few months except mope around and sleep. Manuel and I took a road trip back to NJ to help my sister go through my parents' belongings and get the house I grew up in ready to go on the market. That was hardest thing I ever had to deal with in my whole entire life. I don't know how I would have gotten through all of it if I had a job I had to go to everyday. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I wasn't working at the time.

A few more months went by and I tried to get back into the human race. I took an Intro to Art Therapy class at the local community college and considered becoming an art therapist (until I found out that I would need tons of schooling and would never really make decent money). The good thing was that the exercises we had to do in class really helped me deal with the loss of my father and all the other changes that were going in my life at the time.

Shortly after that class was over, Art Unraveled 2011 came along. I credit this amazingly fun art retreat from pulling me completely out of the funk I had been in for so long. I got together with fellow art lovers and friends for a week long of creativity and got flooded with inspiration. As the days went on, I thought of more and more ideas and projects I wanted to start working on. Even after the week was over, I spent my days challenging myself to get back into doing what I love. I signed up for art and craft fairs where I sold my stuff. I submitted to Sew Somerset and got published. I entered Cloth Paper Scissors' Artisan Search contest and was chosen as a finalist. Things were starting to happen! I had never been so excited or happy about what I was doing.

Around that time, a friend and fellow artist that I met at Art Unraveled, Jane Eileen, invited me to her house to visit her studio and do some art journaling. We were chatting about things when she mentioned that Kathy Cano Murillo, a.k.a. the Crafty Chica and my friend on Facebook, had posted about how the company she works for (iLoveToCreate) was looking for someone that had something to do with ceramics. Jane didn't really know what it was about but knew that I liked ceramics so thought I might be interested to look into it more.

I went home and read Kathy's post and it turns out that they were looking for a Regional Accout Manager for their Duncan® (their ceramics brand) line. My eyes practially popped out of my head! I didn't know a position like this even existed! Imagine being able to do what I was trained to do professionally for a company who makes products for the art form I love the most! Needless to say, I sent my resume right over.

After a series of phone calls, iLoveToCreate invited me to Fresno to meet the team and tour their facility. When I got there, I felt like I was at the Happiest Place on Earth (forget Disney!). Everywhere you turned there were art supplies, completed art and craft projects, and people working on the next big thing. There were production lines pumping out bottle after bottle of glues and paints. There was even a store that sold all the products they manufacture, in addition to clays, glass, kilns and wheels. I was in heaven. It was hard for me to stay calm, cool, and collected (you know, professional) when I was surrounded by all of this. I was like a kid in a candy store.

I had to interview with 6 people that day. Normally I would have been a nervous wreck but for some reason I wasn't. Everyone I spoke to was really friendly and made me feel very comfortable....another good sign! Towards the end of the afternoon, I met with the Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, who has to be one of the most amazing ladies I have ever met. I told her about what I had been doing while I was unemployed for the last two years (or was on sabbatical, as I like to call it), and she referred to it as a 'strategic break'. After two years of people asking me why I didn't have a job yet and accusing me of wasting my time with all of this art stuff, imagine how great it was to talk to someone in her position who understood what I was doing! I fell in love with the company and it's team members that very day. I wanted this job more than anything!

A few weeks later, I got the job offer and was packing up to move to Fresno, CA. On my first day of work, I was asked if I was interested in blogging about ceramics for www. ilovetocreate .com (um, YES!). I got to decorate a cardboard puzzle piece with Tulip® and Scribbles® products. They put my name up on the board in the front lobby welcoming me to the company. They talked about me and my accomplishments over the intercom for everyone to hear on my first day of work. The CEO of the company, Larry Duncan himself, sent me a message on Facebook about how he liked my website and added me as a friend. I felt like a movie star!

I write this on the eve of my 2 week anniversary with the company. My job is everything I had hoped for and more. This week we had 'wear your slippers to work day', free Christmas breakfasts and coffee, magic cookie bars baked by the Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer herself, a warm clothing drive for a local shelter, and will have a holiday luncheon and ugly sweater contest Friday afternoon. My job requires me to look through ceramics catalogs, browse distributor websites, and keep in the loop of what's going on in the world of art related blogging. I had lunch AND dinner with the Crafty Chica on Tuesday!  Next week I get to go to Duncan University and make ceramics for 3 days with one of Duncan's most experienced Ambassadors. I am going to get to travel to New York City, Seattle, and England (!!!) in the next few months to visit our distributors and go to trade shows. This is the greatest job I could ever have asked for, for greatest company I could have ever hoped to work for, with the greatest employees I have ever met. I feel luckier than I would if I had won the lottery. And that's a very good feeling.

 

 

The board in the lobby welcoming me to the company...

 

The puzzle piece I got to create during my orientation...

 

The front of the iLoveToCreate Building in Fresno, CA...

 

Close up of one of the huge ceramic pieces decorating the front of the building...if it is this fun outside, can you imagine how it is inside?

 

Another close up...

 

And another...

PS to all of those people out there who think my two years of being unemployed, er, I mean being on sabbatical wasn't productive....if I had never taken that time to immerse myself in the world of mixed media art, I would have never known about the Crafty Chica or added her as my friend on Facebook, nor would I have met Jane Eileen who told me about the job in the first place. I knew what I was doing the whole time. So there!

 

Can you guess my favorite color?

I was just looking around my bedroom and realized there is a trend going on...everything I have been buying lately is the same color! First I got a t-shirt on my last visit to NYC based solely on the color. Then I bought a new set of sheets, and then my awesome funky microfiber slippers that not only keep my feet warm, but they pick up dust and dog hair when I walk in them! I used to not even buy slippers because I'd wear them for 5 minutes and I'd get fur all over them and get annoyed. These are supposed to be covered in hair so I don't care! Thank you, Ross Dress for Less.

If you haven't figured it out yet, here's another clue....it's also the color of my car!