Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

This past week has been about care giving to my guy.  Peter fell and fractured his ankle and needed lots of help with getting 'the boot' on and off and with icing.  So creativity took second place! One evening I looked for something in my stash of stuff to inspire me.  Like most jewelry artists, I have a lot of stuff and it is not all organized and comes from many places including a yard sale plastic box filled with all sorts, shapes and lengths of chain for very little money.  It's been sitting on a shelf since I bought it and that night the plastic box fell on the floor and everything in it scattered.  I had a choice - gather them up and stuff them back in the box or look at this as an opportunity to see what I have. I started separating the chains into gold color and silver color; then separating them in to types of chains and lengths and pretty soon it became clear that their was not enough time or space!  I really wanted to just stuff them back in the plastic b

Largest exhibit in the U.S.  - Phoenix AZ   Picture walking into a large lobby and being submersed in large plastic butterflies hanging from the ceiling.  I was reminded of a time when I wanted to wake up in the mornings with sunshine highlighting butterflies hanging from the ceiling over my bed.  Now I know how that would feel and I am so sorry I did not hang those butterflies.  A friend and I joined a tour group with Master’s Touch Tours to Phoenix AZ in a very comfortable bus.  We arrived at Butterfly Wonderland to spend the morning enjoying and learning about a variety of butterflies.  www.butterflywonderland.com   They receive butterflies from farms all over the world.  They have from 1500 to 35,000 in any given week depending on shipments and hatchings.  I learned the difference between cocoons and chrysalis (moths make cocoons and butterflies make chrysalis).  Good to know.  We watched an excellent 20 minute 3-D movie about the migration of Monarch bu

What have I been doing this week?  Setting some of the Mojave Stones that my dad cut and polished into my silver metal clay settings  I’m really happy with these two pieces!  I’ve also read an e-book that just might be of interest especially if you have an etsy shop or a website store.  When I received an email from Hunting Handmade asking if I would like to review the new ebook, ‘The Art of Audience Building for Etsy Sellers’, I said ‘YES, please!’  I’m always looking for ways to improve my two Etsy shops and I’m always interested in new ideas.  The book was written for Etsy sellers but after reading it, anyone with a business on the internet will find it interesting and  useful.  I also enjoyed their website and thought you might also:     http://www.huntinghandmade.com/ If you have shopped on the Etsy site, you know that there are thousands of shops represented.  It is so easy to get lost looking for something or selling something.  There is so much so see on the

Don’t you just love seeing colors change when sunlight makes the color sparkle?  When I decided to play with translucent polymer clay and use alcohol inks to make color, I had no idea where that would lead me.  I just started conditioning the translucent Pardo polymer and passed it through the pasta machine.  My alcohol inks were lined up ready to be brushed on the flat surfaces.  They dried and I started blending the colors.  Then I made shapes, all kind of shapes, stacked colors, made designs and cured them in the convection oven. I sanded and polished and arranged them in groups – still not knowing how I would use them.      Before curing After curing Holding the pieces to the light fascinated me by the color changes.  The more I looked at them in the light the more convinced I was that they needed to be hung by themselves and not worn as beads.  Sun Catchers!  Perfect use of shape and color and light.  I drilled holes and used glass beads and jump rings.  Bough

August in Phoenix means that it is time for Art Unraveled!   Once again my good friend/artist Judi Dalton ( http://www.artplaylaugh.com/ ) and I attended 2 classes at Art Unraveled in Phoenix. For those of you who are not familiar with this conference please take a look at their website.   http://www.artunraveled.com/ARTU15/AUindex.htm   Judi and I have been going since it started and have taken an array of art classes.  There is also a Shopping Extravaganza that should not be missed!  Every August we sign up for some new class and time to spend catching up with each other’s news. This year I opted for the class ‘Dremel After Dinner’  http://www.artunraveled.com/ARTU15/Workshops/Dremel%20After%20Dinner.html   Thomas Ashman is a mixed media artist http://www.blacksheepartist.com/ and had lots of solid information to share.  I learned the difference between and how to use diamond drills and carving tools.  I have all my attachments for flexshaft and dremel in a plasti

 This is my JoolTool.  I first saw it demonstrated at "Metal Clay by the Bay" and thought about buying it for a day.  I bought it with the metal clay kit and was delighted with both the time saving and the finished product.  Then several months later I bought the polymer clay package.  I was equally happy with the time saving and the end product. For those of you who are not familiar with this product, it has a variety of sanding and polishing discs that easily screw on the vertical spike.  The discs have slots evenly spaced and when they turn you can see what you are working on.  Less mistakes and less time spent sanding and polishing. Last February I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  Since I had been to Australia I wanted to find some black opal from there.  The finished pieces proved too expensive for my budget.  Fortunately a friend and I found a booth with rough unfinished Black Opal.  I decided to buy some (having no idea how to select the better quality

I recently spent 3 days with a very good friend I had not seen for too long a time.  We talked non-stop and caught up with so many ideas, thoughts and projects.  She showed me her hummingbird feeder she made from a vinegar bottle.  She attached a wire for the hummingbird to sit on that would be too delicate for a woodpecker.  It seems her woodpeckers try to get into (and do) the feeder to drink.  We laughed because I'm trying to feed and attract the woodpeckers at my house!  As you can see, the wire is a perfect perch for this Broad-billed Hummingbird.  It was the first time I've really seen one. There was one bud on this cactus when I arrived at her house.  Of course I took the bud picture and was very excited the next morning when it opened.  This spectacular bloom lasted one day...one day of glory! The grasshoppers were also just hatching!  I got to take their picture before they were unceremoniously sprayed off the zinnia leaves! So muc