Art Elements Theme Reveal Monthly Blog Hop for October: Eyes
Another month has flown by and it is time for the Art Elements Blog Hop for the October theme: Eyes. This is such a fun theme that I am definitely going to explore a bit more as there is so much beauty and emotion through the eyes.




I will definitely be revisiting this theme a bit more in depth as we get through the holiday season and all the prep work that goes into making items to sell during this busy time of year.
Please stop by the Art Elements Blog to hop the other contributors! (I will update my post as soon as I get the list in the morning). Thanks for stopping by!
Art Elements Blog Hop September Theme: Foliage
It is time for the September Art Elements Blog Hop reveal for the theme: Foliage. Here is the intro post and reveal post from Caroline. This is such a great theme and I cannot wait to see what everyone shares (read to the bottom for the list of blog hop participants).



Bottom middle was the piece dried as I got it off of the drywall.
Bottom right is the cleaned up edges and ready to use for pressing smaller bits once bisque fired.



I also plan on rolling out some of my chocolate stoneware clay into these texture plates so I can get some really rustic looking pieces to use for Christmas ornaments.

Their colors are of the woods with mosses and lichens.
And they carry a bit of magic with them in their handmade bead accent.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post for this blog hop. Please check out these other artists with their Foliage themed inspirational posts:
Guests
Dawn
Hope
Alison
Beth & Evie
Laurie
Kathy
Sarajo
Michelle
Tammy
Divya
Karen
Alysen
Mary
Cat
Jill
Sarah
Anita
AE Team
Lesley
Susan
Marsha
Claire
Cathy
Jenny
Niky
Caroline
Art Elements August Theme: Octopus Blog Hop Reveal
I love that Claire picked Octopus as our August theme (Art Elements Blog). They are one of the most interesting creatures that inhabit the oceans here on our planet. I love how they can transform their body shape and move super slinkily.

A few years ago I made these needle felted octopus, and I always wanted to get back to seeing about making their suckers out of some “O” ring beads. I had in mind making some small pieces that could be used as earrings, but as I started working, they just got bigger. So I embraced it and went with it. If they were any smaller, the beads would have had to decrease in size as well.


I then added some spots for color using the tiniest amounts of top coat wool.
I was in the studio creating some “fall” themed beads and I thought that I could make some tentacle inspired curved pieces – and that these could be earring sized or as a focal piece. Here are some photos of the process.

I love using stylus tools for carving into the balls (I use them for carving my texture plates for all my other designs too).
Bisque firing all the pieces can be touching. The glaze firing not so much.
Soon I will be fiddling with finished designs and making more tentacles with my chocolate stoneware clay body as well (for a more rustic look). These are literally just out of the kiln and put into photos, barely cool enough to hold.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this post, and thanks to Claire for picking this fun theme. Please take some time and check out some of the other participants of this months blog hop (thank you for participating if you are one of these artists!)
Guest artists:
Cat
Evie and Beth
Hope
Karen
Kathy
Melissa
Michelle
Rozantia
Sarajo
Tammy
Art Elements Team:
Cathy
Claire
Jenny
Laney
Lindsay
Marsha (you are here)
Art Elements July Flowers Theme Reveal Blog Hop
Welcome to the July Theme: Flowers Reveal Blog hop. It was my turn to pick the challenge for the month, and I was curious to see what kind of flowers were in bloom now in various places in the world and how artists would find inspirations from them or from flowers in general.
My inspiration with flowers is planting flowers that are easy to take care of, mostly native plants, that help support our local ecosystems. Then comes the colors and textures of plants. I just love it.





I worked on a total of 3 watercolor pages because I realized that I had to not muddy the colors by working wet on wet. So by keeping occupied with layering on three pages, I got to figure things out. It was a blissful day of just playing and seeing what happened.




I had thoughts of also making a needle felted coneflower and just laughed at the results. I stopped at the cones because the idea I had really wasn’t working out. Here are some pics to explain my thoughts and I hope to figure things out a bit better soon.



Thanks for taking time to cruise through this post. I really had fun just experimenting this time around.
Please take some time and look at the wonderful things people are creating and contributing to this theme by visiting these artists blogs (if you are having issues leaving comments, please try using google chrome as your browser).
You can also see and participate yourself via social media by using the hashtags: #AEThemeChallenge and #AEFlowers
Here is a list of our Visiting Artists:
Alysen
Cat
Divya
Evie and Beth
Jill
Hope
Kathy
Linda
Louise
Martha
Melissa
Michelle
Rozantia
Sarah
Sarajo
Tammy
And our Art Elements Blog Contributors:
Caroline
Cathy
Claire
Jenny
Laney
Lesley
Marsha (you are here)
Susan
Art Elements Monthly Theme: Luna Moth
Thanks to Jen Cameron for picking out this month’s Art Elements Blog Hop Theme: Luna Moth.
With an Entomology background I am fascinated by the scientific approach, but can get way too involved in the details. So this month I thought that I would just go along with what attracts me to these lovely creatures: The color and that long wing that looks like tail feathers…









Luna moths and many other winged insects overwinter in the leaf litter in wooded areas. Please keep this in mind for your “clean-up” and maybe consider how your keeping things tidy may actually be doing harm to our natural populations.
Thank you for stopping by! Make sure to take the time to see what everyone else has created this month:
Guests:
Tammy
Beth and Evie
Rain
Alysen
Rozantia
Sarajo
Karin
Sarah
Divya
Colette
Art Elements Team:
Niky
Caroline
Cathy
Jenny
Lesley
Marsha (you are here)
Lindsay
Claire
Jen
If you want to learn more about needle felting, check out the shop where I work part time: SarafinaFiberArt.com