Neva Davis's Art Journal

Work In Progress

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:38:37 GMT

I intend to sell this to raise money for our local wildlife rehab center called Second Chance.

I want to put a few more details in, but I need to think about it a little.

It's 8" by 10" all cut paper, and a little cut shiny gift wrap, no ink yet.

Some close up details to show you the papery-ness of it all.

On the flowers and water

The birds and their nest

I wanted to keep it all understated, so the butterflies are all paperwhites. I'm seeing them everywhere lately, so there they are.

Images, images, images: More silver

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:35:45 GMT

Ok, so after my initial deer success I decided I wanted to try a lot of different ideas, sizes, styles, and techniques. Varying success followed, but I thought I'd just post it all, the ones I love along with those I'm not so keen on.

Here's my teaser to get you to look at the so, so many images inside. I think it's the best one really, so here it is

Below are some earrings I made just by using a texture sheet and tiny "mini cookie" cutters. Off to the side is part of a penny to show how small these are. Sterling wire and earwires, and pale green flourite beads. All in all I like them ok for something simple.

Next, these earrings I used square mini cutters and then cut little leafy patterns from the thin "pmc sheet" which is pmc that feels something like paper. I cut them out with my tiny nail scissors. Sterling wires/findings and amethyst bead, sterling spacer, and glass crystals for sparkle.

These are some silly little earrings--I cut out hearts and teardrops and added labradorite, sterling findings and a couple glass seed beads. They hang better than that, but everything gets wonky on the scanner.

For these earrings I tried my resist method on a tiny little bit of silver cut in a circle. Also used sterling findings, garnets, and some glass crystals.

Next some smaller pendants I made: from the left I have a fairly heavy oval with texture from a texture sheet and sterling wire, an amethyst bead, glass crystals and sterling spacers. Then there is the square/diamond shape with some of the pmc sheet I cut with my tiny scissors and attached. Hanging from it are tiny pmc dangles I made and moonstone and black tourmaline along wiht glass seed beads. Next I experimented in combining texture with resist to make a star shape in the middle of the oval. It didn't come out well on the scanner but is cute, though I likely won't do that again, sterling findings, labradorite and glass crystals.

Now some pendants I did using a texture plate on one side and doing resist painting on the other. Sadly I went too small with this bunny and he didn't much come out. Live and learn. Yep, that's another deer :). Bunny has sterling findings, garnets and glass seed beads. Deer has sterling findings, glass seed beads, and flourite.

Here are the backs of the same pendants to show the texture

Now for the good stuff!

Drum roll please!

I decided to get serious with the idea of double side pendants. I did resist on one side and cut images from the PMC sheet and used texture for the other side.

I'm really happy with these.

Here is the resist side of the first two. The resist bled a little and so bunny lost his whiskers, but all in all I'm pleased. Bunny has amethysts, glass crystals, sterling findings, glass seed beads and pmc dangles I made. Butterfly has sterling findings, rainbow flourite and glass seed beads.

Now here are the PMC sheet sides of the same pendants.

And now my final bit, the one from the teaser that I'm pretty pleased with. Well Obi (cat) knocked my hand while I was painting the bird and there wasn't much to fix that, but I still think it has a playful look to it. Sterling findings, amethyst, glass crystals, sterling spacers.

But here, as in the teaser is the pmc sheet side, which I think came out quite well.

Oh, I guess I should note that all of this is working smaller than the deer pendant, so it was hard to get so very detailed like that one. I'm still learning.

My Silver Attempts

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:41:26 GMT

So here is my first (uh, second?) posting of PMC work. This is pure silver, with sterling wire and sterling findings, and amethyst beads.

I did these deer using the resist method of painting onto the silver. These have a kind of tattered primitive look that I was trying to achieve, like some kind of old coin.

And a close up on the pendant

And now for something completely different:Cartoons

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:30:08 GMT

I was working on these, titled "I won't leave you behind."

I got a little carried away at first, so on the second I had to go back and take stuff out. Because I feel like in the first, you can't really tell she's escaping the flood and going to safety. My thought was that the flood is rising and will threaten the other houses soon, so she's going toward the viewer for help. It might look a little like she's going into the flood and into danger.

So in the second version the background is gone and she's going toward safety.

Apologies and such

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:39:04 GMT

Hello world, remember me? I am finally updating my art journal. Many apologies to all of you who already know all of this, but I thought I'd make a public post so those not in livejournal land can see what I've been doing.

Here are the results from the PMC Class:

Tiny little charms, smaller than a penny:

That's a tiny little rose imprint in the round one

These were all treated with sulfur to give them an "aged" patina. Since this was my first time ever using this stuff I was just playing with every technique.

Here is a large (heavy!) foldover style pendant, two-sided, with a purple CZ

The front:

The back

The back has a vague floral pattern, but the sulfur darkened it up. I cut the tiny butterfly with an exacto knife, but I bet I could do better with better tools.

One amazing thing about the class was that while I'm not thrilled with what I made I did pick up some techniques that will allow me (if I ever get the $$ together) to go off the grid with metal in the way that I go off the grid with sculpy. I'm already brimming over with ideas and can hardly wait.

In fact, I'm scheming to try to come up with some money, you know, like I always do, because this is just way, way too cool.

My teacher was awesome by the way. Here is her website www.designedbydawn.com

Here is also a mixed media piece I forgot to put on this journal before, it's actually a very small piece, only 4 by 6 inches, which strangely took longer than some bigger pieces. I have one in the works now which is quite large (for me, like 16 by 22 inches) and it's almost done, but I have no clue how I'll scan it. Loser, thy name is small size scanner!

So wouldn't it be cool if I could get my gothy/hippy vibe going in metal?

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:32:52 GMT

So, I've been working on this one FOREVER, but I guess I've had other stuff going on too. This isn't in line with my original vision of a night time cemetary wedding attended only by ravens. I hadI intended my couple to be all in black. That did not work, as it made them recede into the background when they were supposed to be the focal point. Clearly, changing stuff around caused me trouble and ultimately the only thing that has the kind of smoothness I desired was the statue, which I feel was loose enough to be fun and tight enough to hold together. Ah well, it's been a long time since I've shown anything, so here goes...

Teaser

The whole thing. The white distortions are in my scanner, but I can't get rid of them

Close up on my statue

Latest Beading

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 03:17:00 GMT

Sorry everyone--I haven't been able to get online much for a while now. Here's what I've been doing instead.

Flourite necklace: Flourite chunk, seed beads, and flourite beads

Close up on pendant

Amethyst necklace--an assymetrical amethyst chunk and amethyst and quartz chips, and seed beads

Dichroic necklace--dichroic glass pendant and irridescent glass butterflies and seed beads

The Pendant

Hematite Chunk with silver lined seed beads and hematite and garnet beads, for some reason it didn't scan so well.

Several Sleepless Nights

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 03:21:39 GMT

I stayed up a bunch of nights recently--I have an obsession.

And the backs, just to show off

New Mixed Media: Let's meet at midnight

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:37:44 GMT

Sorry for everyone who is seeing this yet again, but I thought I would put it on my art journal as well.

This piece is very small 5 by 7 inches. It is done nearly entirely by piecing together cut paper, but there is some fabric in there and a tiny bit of ink. Nearly everything is paper though, even the eyelashes.

This shows the story of two young lovers who have stolen away in the middle of the night to meet in their favorite spot.

Here are some details, the tiny snail:

The edge of her gown

And the two bunnies

The new mixed media pieces

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 13:08:40 GMT

Both are 5" by 7"

First I have this one, titled "Don't look back"

Second piece, tentatively titled "Let's gather in the sacred grove"

I think this one is finished now, though I'll have to live with it a while to be sure. Unfortunately I don't think the low quality scan really shows the delicate colors or subtle details. The fairies are dressed in semi-transparent tissue paper and netting, and their wings are tissue paper and iridescent cellophone.

Here are some close up details.

Art journal here I come

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:30:03 GMT

I think it's going to kind of be a challenge to put new and interesting stuff here.

I'm just going to post some quick images here today. These are older pictures, but they are finished.

I'm uncertain as time goes on whether I will use this journal just to show off finished stuff or to also talk about process.

This one is on wood, I'm not sure of the exact size, but my guess is 6" by 6"

This one is 5" by 7"