Blog

Lampwork Beads

My new and exciting medium is glass!  I have been making lampwork glass beads in between my paintings in the studio these past several months.  In partnership with my talented friend Janet From Another Planet, we have launched our Etsy shop:  Big Al’s Planet  where we sell her jewelry designs made with my funky, alien [...]

Art in Embassies Catalog

The Process of Beaded Embroidery

Needle-felted beaded embroidery This was a fun process of creating an image of a horse (titled “Freedom and Will”) with felting needles and then embellishing with beaded embroidery.  One of the beading techniques I used here was peyote stitch with a varying-sized bead to create more texture.  This piece will be published in Heidi Kummli’s [...]

Cave Jewelry

Here’s a sampling of what I call wire spring earrings…in small, medium, and large.        

Field Notebook

Field Notebook 8 1/4″ x 6″, closed I made a notebook from a wooden book with white pages, which I coffee-stained before stamping and writing notes inside. For the cover, I cut two pieces of plywood, each 8 3/4″ x 6″. I then cut a strip 1 1/2″ wide from the short edge of one [...]

Stamps

Along with the altered books/journals, I have done a series of hand-carved stamps that are miniature impressions of my larger painting subjects.  I like to play with techniques in stamping to create embossed texture much like that of my paintings.  I then like to apply the images to objects such as boxes, journal covers, glass, [...]

Papier Mache Boxes

Papier Mache Boxes 3 3/4″ x 2″ Using round and oval papier mache boxes with rusted tin tops, I layered ColorBox® ink onto the box lids and then sprinkled them with bronze Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel by Suze Weinberg. I heated the powder and added more, reheating until I had a thick layer of molten [...]

Field Box

Field Box 9″x 6 1/4 ” x 2 1/2 “, closed I painted a cigar box with blackened bronze paint, and then applied crinkled tissue to the box with decoupage medium. I then lightly accented the surface with gold acrylic paint, using a sponge. Then glued wooden pegs to the bottom of the box in [...]

Treasure Boxes

Images were burnt into the wood and then painted to create these one-of-a-kind treasure boxes.        

Altered Books

Juicy There’s a new craze around altering books and visual journaling.  I find both extremely inspirational and a great forum for  trying different techniques that might normally be intimidating. These books really feed my Art Spirit.  Whenever I have a moment, I put a few things down on one of the pages and suddenly I’m [...]