the joy of art. . .

When I first took up painting it was just for fun, a bit a of a lark really, just something I always wanted to try, a curiosity thing.  One day I spotted a going out of business sign on an art store window and went in just to look around, again just basically curiosity.  I found this portable fold-able easel and it was just so marked down and I had the money so. . .I bought it just because I could. 😏

When we were living in New York I started playing with paints. I have no formal training, nothing past basic art classes in junior high and high school so I was learning by doing just swirling paint on canvas until I liked the way it looked. 😄  It was fun. I didn't really take it too seriously, but I posted a few photos and they got really positive response so after a lot of mental debate I decided to list some in my etsy and lo and behold a couple sold. I was shocked, thrilled but shocked. 😇 Life stuff happened and we ended up packing up and moving across country. It wasn't a happy move exactly, the company we hired subcontracted out to some half ass people who damaged and lost a lot of our stuff.  It's was a depression trigger and I didn't unpack everything, specifically I didn't unpack my painting stuff for months.  The other day I decided to go ahead and unpack and set up my easel.

I got out a canvas and decided to try painting again. My first piece back I decided to try something different, when it was done and I looked at it drying I actually cried tears of joy.    

I didn't realize how much joy painting added to my life, I didn't realize just how much I missed it.  I am so glad I finally unpacked, it feels great to be painting again. 

New things, Research and development. . .

I found barrette blank bases at the craft store and decided to make some chainmaille hair accessories.  😍  I spent several hours on several days testing different combinations of chain patterns in different sized rings to find ones that fit just so on the clips.  Research and development, it's a process. 😄

I really wanted the chainmaille segments to just fit on the clips so I wouldn't have to use any kind of glue or anything when mounting the chain to the clips just rings.  😏 

I have succeeded for the most part. 😉 I have found several combinations that work really well but I have decided against using certain patterns/combos that don't fit so well.  I know many chain patterns but I will not be making barrettes with all of them because some of them I just don't like the way the chain lays and some of them don't fit the clips and I don't want to use glue all the time. 

So far I have only used glue on 1 and although it worked well and I do like the finished piece, I would prefer not to become reliant on adhesives for the attachment.  I don't know if I trust glue. 😖

This triple flower is the only one with glue, the center just wanted to droop, I just couldn't get it to fit tight enough to stay where I wanted it.  😩  So I used some adhesive to make it stay where I wanted and just put rings on the ends as reinforcement. 😊

All of the styles in this blog post are listed for sale in the shop.