Foxfire Daily: Onward and Upward...

Also known as: a step in the (hopefully) right direction.

Dragon has gotten a job... 45 minutes away. Prohibitive on gas, but at least he's working. Potential for great things, but also potential for this to be hugely wasted time. We're tired of the knife's edge... we're ready for something stable to stand on. We are both hopeful and discouraged. The oldest child is being overly teenager-ish, and the youngest is potty training. The middle child is wholly and uniquely herself in the midst of all the chaos, bless her. And in the meantime...

Dragon's creativity is being given an unexpected outlet at his work, which he's discovering he is both good at and enjoys - event organizing. Who knew? Parleying that into something greater... looking into it.

I have gotten my first official art commission in years... from a local church member, of all things. (insert absurd giggles here) It's giving me fits, but what does one expect? Church art. Creative brain does not want to even...

One step. Find gratitude. Another step. Synchronicity. Keep walking. Intention. Never stop moving.

This has been just a quick update; this blog and Twinflame Studios in general has suffered over the past few (very) busy months, and I'm feeling the call again, so... one small step. Etsy is no longer a viable option for us due to disagreements with their policies on certain things; Amazon's marketplace is untenable for the same reason. So we're looking for alternate options. Artfire requires a subscription of sorts, which is also unworkable right now. Fox's jewelry is up in several art galleries, including our FB gallery, but it's awkward to arrange purchases. Local craft shows cost money we don't have. It feels like there's too much take and not enough give, but I'm not sure where to prod to get it to come back into balance.

One day at a time. Breathe. Center. Believe. Intend. Small mercies. One step.

Blessings...
-your Artful White Fox.

Gratitude by kattything on deviantART

Foxfire Daily: Documented Life Project, Chapter 2

Week 4: Write a secret message and paint over all but one word.

Ok, so I cheated slightly and painted (colored-penciled) over all but 4 words. But Artistic License is what it's all about, right? And I do love me some artistic license... I look at this and see amateurish work - too many angles combined with the organic look of other parts, crappy color combnations, and let's not even go into the "doodles" on the left-hand side of the page - but then I remind myself that I'm out of practice. And I don't have a lot of materials to work with. The only part of this I'm really pleased with is the message I chose, and the Celtic knotwork at the top of the page. 

 Now, next up, for your perusal... remember those leaves from my last post? With no glue, no fancy-pants gouache or any other such thing, I found some gift-wrap tape at the bottom of a box and went to town. You can barely tell where the edges of the tape are. (I hope.) I'm just glad my Bic markers actually stayed on the tape.

Thirdly, my initial (official) attempt at the Week 5 Doodled Border, which mutated into something with no border as of yet, but... well, see for yourself:

Week 6: Open Your Pinterest Board and be Inspired. The lotus has been blooming in my mind lately, as you can see in this in-progress pic. My inspiration was not any one board or artist, but antique Chinese jade carvings. I actually went a little hog-wild for a couple of days straight, obsessively collecting pictures of various and sundry jade sculptures, urns, jewelry, etc and pinning them to my board. You can see the WIP results:

This last one... the flame and the lotus roots... was in part brought into being due to my uncle's touching tribute to his father, who went on to the Summerlands very recently. He was a sweet, darling man who inspired his sons and was greatly loved. His passing came just after a trip with several family members to Panama, where he had done psychoanalytical work with dreams with a tribal chieftan. The chief actually came from several islands away to visit with this man during the vacation. The photos from the trip were a beautiful tribute to my uncle's father, and such a blessing that he got to have that adventure with his family before taking a path they couldn't follow. May we all be so lucky when it's our time.

Live, Love, and Make Art
Ever Yours,
-the Artful White Fox.

Foxfire Daily: Documented (Artful Reader's) Life Project

Your favorite Artful White Fox Has begun some new personal projects on top of and working around studying up on her new wireworking technique books, and so I thought I'd share some pix of the work:

Documented Life Project, a community effort where members create art journal pages based on weekly prompts from the organizers. Here's some of my efforts.

My journal, acquired years ago, never used until now, and wrapped in an OmegaWolfe Designs leather case:

You can also see my Week 1 project on the right, which was to photograph or draw your front door. Since my front door is not technically -my- front door, I decided to draw what I'd like it to look and feel like someday.

My Week 2 project, "selfie":

I've been tired, stressed, and worn out lately, with good reason. But, I'm also clinging to some last vestiges of hope and looking up...

Week 3, incorporating envelopes from the mail into the journal:

The leaves were collected here in Albemarle this past Autumn, as were the flowers. The yellow one is from the flowers my Dragon planted in secret one night for me, spread all over the other side of the road... The envelopes with the flowers and leaves scrawled on them are keeping my dried leaves and flowers safe until I can come up with a way to incorporate them in my journal. And you can see the Dragonling bombing my project with her own leaf.

Week 4 is "Write a secret message and paint over all but one word" and I'm still deciding what my message should be...

And this is where I realize (and panic) that amongst all this, I've been neglecting my Artful Reader thing. Well, maybe if I miss January, they won't hate me. Maybe I can double up one month. Or... oh, hell, I'll come up with something.

-your Artful (busy) Fox. 

Foxfire Daily: Worktable

 Fox's work today: some crystals, a chunk of raw (unpolished) amber, some painted bone bits, an ear cuff, and a delicate little labradorite pendant. Still practicing the basket-weaving technique. Better photos coming, I promise!

And a Wyrmling Interlude... the 2-yr-old decides it's time to practice her color words with Mommy's pens. This is what homeschooling looks like for an artist.