Playing with Picassa

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

 What a difference a week and a lot of rain makes in the gardens. The cleome is growing as tall as me and spreading out with loads of seed pods. Thinking there will be lots more of these in the garden next year.

 Last fall, I clipped some impatiens to bring inside. Early in the spring, I began to make cuttings from the cutting. These are the result of the cuttings from a cutting with a little bit of pencil sketch enhancement from Picassa. The flowers are a soft pink nestled next to the lemon balm. Now that is an herb that pops up in the most unexpected places.

 It was spitting rain while I was taking photos this morning. The poppers are right next to the woods. This photo is simply the colors of the day. The lushness of the greens from all the rain is amazing. The rain barrel filled up after one night of rain...wondering if we are in the rain forest of the Appalachian mountains.

 These are daisies getting ready to bloom in the front yard. Nice to have some fall flowers and thanks to the half of half price garden sale at Lowes I will be putting in three asters with very large soft lilac flowers.

The fern growing amid the anonome which is blooming. The kiln is filled with glass slowly coming down in temperature. Once it is ready, I will take a photo of all the new pieces. 

Fused Glass and Jasper

Last week when the autumn winds blew through wild enough to drop the temperatures to 39, I created this necklace while at Artisans of the Gap. This is the gallery/shop that I co-own with two other artists, Fiona Zahnke and Valerie Dowdy.
I was rearranging a few pieces of jewelry at the shop, when I began to rework some jewelry. I added fused glass to a hammered brass earring and added gold leaf charms. I used the cording from the fused glass focal point of this necklace. The red jasper I have had knowing that the muse would come and the red jasper beads would find a home. They are graduated in size with smoked red jasper between them. The rhodonite triangle beads seemed to create a modern wave to the piece. I continued to use picture and smoked jasper beads to finish the autumn necklace. I added a hammered sterling silver S clasp to the necklace. The earrings are smoked jasper with a jasper star at the end before the silver twirl. Twirling is something leaves do rather well in the autumn.

August in the Mountains

 Early morning photograph of the mountains from the upper deck. If you peep ever so carefully in the middle of the photo, you can see the mountains as lush and green as the trees.

 After finishing some photo pages for Ray, I took the camera outside to walk around the yard. Amazingly, this is a jasmine blooming. I found it on clearance last year. It wintered over in the house, where it bloomed off and on during the winter. Now it is blooming every day and the scent is heavenly.

 I took several packets of sunflowers into the yard awhile ago. This is the lone sunflower that is reaching up to the sun. The chipmunks while eating sunflowers left several behind. They were about the size of a chipmunk and have already bloomed. The leaves of this flower are simply large hearts unfolding.

 A sculpture in the woods on the side yard was a incredible find at the Farmer's Market in Asheville last August. If you were to hit the bottom middle of the sculpture, it would sound like a gong.

 At the base of the steps is the foundation for the greenhouse, which is completely hidden by flowers and herbs. The sun coming though the butterfly bush reminded me of lace. The angel trumpet vine is tightly closed this morning. Tomorrow, she will have many lovely white blossoms.

 The first signs of the changing of the leaves is always a reminder that fall is coming in all her glory.

Wondering what kind of butterfly is resting on the butterfly bush...This is a volunteer butterfly bush. We  have  a few of these popping up in the yard. While the butterfly rests, I went into the studio to make washi tape for a swap going on at 14 Secrets a Yahoo art group. Inspiration found me. Washi tape is created and resting in a stamped envelope to take to the post office. When I send art mail, I tend to mark art mail fragile as I often include a little treat for the hostess of the art swap.

Artisans of the Gap

Each Wednesday, well, each Wednesday when I am in town, you can find me at Artisans of the Gap at 419 Wood Avenue in downtown Big Stone Gap. Yesterday afternoon, Fiona and I changed the windows of the shop/gallery. It was a very hot afternoon, but we were both determined to fill the windows with a change of art. Today, I took the camera to the shop to take photos for our blog. I was surprised to find the reflection of the street of Big Stone Gap so clear. We are located across the street from Miner's Park. The white lines are the parking lines for cars and trucks and most importantly, customers.

 The window to the right faces an intersection and Trail Realty. The cars you see are cars driving along the downtown streets. The large grocery store is only a block or two away.

I added a new piece of glass to the shop case. The butterfly plate is an rainbow red that is iridescent. The plate has three copper butterflies fused between layers of glass. Below the plate on the first shelf are some fused glass hair pins. These were popular items purchased by my family this weekend. On the bottom shelf are two fused glass plates and a lovely garnet citrine necklace.
I'll be there on Saturday from 10 - 2. Stop by if you are in the area. Lots of great pottery, fiber, silk scarves, jewelry and glass to see and purchase.

Creating Time with Marney K. Maridakis

Marney K. Maridakis is an amazing creative woman. Ten years ago,she created ArtellaLand.com..It is fun to spend time in Artella land. Several years ago, I found my way to Artella and began participating in Artist Trading Card swaps. Maybe seven or eight years ago... Marney hosted a retreat in Connecticut with SARK and Jill Badonsky.  I have since wondered if you were to just do a follow up of all of us who were there, what happened creatively with us?
In December, Marney created a new group: Mapping and Mentoring. I thought a great deal about this as I have been very fascinated with her work as a creative businesswoman who believes in self discovery through art.. I couldn't think of a better mentor than Marney to help me with my business. I filled out the application, had an interview, and became one of the first 18 people to be in MAPP.  Since January, I have rethought or reconfigured my perceptions about Time with the leadership of Marney.
On April 17, Marney's new book became number one on the Amazon best selling book list. It is not often in our time, that a book written with sensitivity, awareness, lots of art, and interesting information will actually create a shift in how you perceive time.
When I thought about sharing this with you, I thought about how to pose the book. Among geraniums, baby's breath, green growth, and the mountains seemed like a nice way to begin the morning.
And the female hummingbird was sitting on the rebar wire holding the finch feeders. One side was the hummingbird and the other side sat a male brilliant goldfinch, each one content.

Fused Glass for Holy Week

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for a Church organist. It also happens to be the week that Artisans of the Gap celebrate our open house with a full band, free refreshments, and art for sale.

I made this fused glass cross out of purple glass. May we all celebrate the creativity within us!