Rock Candy

Hi guys! Just wanted to post my page from our book swap. 26 artists are paticipating in a chunky book swap themed ‘Immortal Longings’ at Art Unraveled 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona. The idea was proposed by Sharon Kennick, whom I have never met but can’t wait to do so. For those who don’t know what a chunky book swap is, I will explain how it works: First, you see if there is sufficient interest within your group to do a book swap. If so, then you announce the book swap, it’s theme, and a cut off date for participants to sign up. Second, once the number of participants is set, you then post the guidelines for their pages. What stands out most for me in our guidelines is the page size. I generally don’t work real small and these pages were to be 3 and 7/8″ by 3 and 15/16″. Now that’s small!! So…each participant is responsible for creating 26 of the same pages, a page for each book. (At least one person in our group opted not to make them all the same…which is totally fine and dandy—whatever makes your creative heart smile!!!) Once your pages are finished you will mail them to the person running the swap and once she receives everyone’s pages, she will then hole punch them and bind them together. The participants will then choose a night at the retreat to gather and receive their books!!! How exciting!!! Here’s what I did to make my page:

I didn’t have a clue where I was going to start with this project so I kept thinking about the theme….’Immortal Longings’. As it states in Sharon’s directions, “The Theme: “immortal longings.” (is)from shakespeare’s, “anthony and cleopatra,”
the full quote is, “bring me my robe, put on my crown. i have immortal
longings.” and isn’t that what art is to a lot of us, an expression of immortal
longing, a glimmer of the divine?” I really liked this theme…it felt right for me to do something with it. So, I turned to my photos from Cambodia. My husband and I were lucky enough a few years back to travel to Thailand, Cambodia and Bali. As I am Buddhist, this was a tremendous trip for me, filled with lots of learning. In essence, many of the things I saw, felt and learned while there translated precicely into this project!

I sat down at the computer and started thumbing through photos of the Ancient city of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I had such amazingly strong feelings when I visited this place…while there is much to see there…there is also much history to be felt. Anyhow, the two pictures on the front of my page are both from carvings in the temples of Angkor Wat. The background page has what appear to be women dancing. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that…but I’m not writing a book here!!! —Next, a photo of two women (also carvings) was superimposed into the center of the page. I painted the backs of the pages with acrylic paint and glaze medium. To help give further ‘thought’ to those viewing the page, I added a ’sort of poem’ (I like to call it) onto the back. Then gold leaf was applied with gel medium to the back of the page and to the accessories worn by the dancers on the front background page. Finally, golden mica flake medium was placed around the front page center image to act as a frame, and Aleene’s paper glaze was added over top the center photo to give the effect of glass. A final touch was the ‘Bali’ beaded charm…I punched a small hole in the upper right hand corner of the page, placed an eyelet in there, and wired the dangle charm through it. I also dated the little mini collages, as I like to call them.

As an aside: Gold leaf is often applied to the statues in the temples of the above mentioned areas as a form of offereing. Just like the lotus flowers are often given as offerings. Also, Angkor Wat has an amazing amount of history carved into it’s walls…here is a little excerpt from the book, “Ancient Angkor”: “Between the 8th and the 113th centuries, a succession of Hindu and Buddhist kings created magnificent temples in stone. Their elaborate carvings and intricate architecture amazed the first Europeans who visited in the 19th century and continue to fascinate today, when after many years of political turmoil, Angkor is once again accessible.”

From not knowing what I was going to do….to a project that came together like a taylored glove….the final result was one with which I was truly pleased!!! Chunky Book Swaps are a good way to share, inspire and get to know others in your group. Also, we all made an extra page so that one book could be auctioned off for charity. This was Sharon’s idea, and it was a terrific one! We can help others, while helping ourselves!

Hope you enjoyed this post…and if you have any comments or questions…well, comment away!

I have just started a group on meetup.com here in Virginia Beach! It’s called ‘Artful Minds of Virginia Beach’ and I am just thrilled with the amount of interest it has already generated in the area! So, if anyone is interested, pop on over to meetup.com and check out our page! I’m having such a wonderful time being busy with something I love so much! —And I’m going to be updating the website with lots of new items while posting more photos on the blog of current workings in the studio. Please stay tuned…things are just heating up!!!

Haven’t had much reason to update before now as I think there has not been a lot of traffic to the website and blog…but hopefully that will be changing!!!

Hi there everyone!  My congrat’s to all who managed to make it through the holidays this year! It is all too often a time of stress and distress instead of what it should be; a time of love and comfort. As for myself, I hit hard luck in the airports this year while traveling to see family. Since 911 I really have to psych myself up for a flight of any kind. So, after this year’s episode in the airports….well, let’s just say I’ll be doing a lot more driving!!!!
I’d like to shout a special thanks to all those whom we had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with at this year’s Christmas Bazaar in the Pavillion in Virginia Beach. This was our first show as ‘Original Cyn Design’ and the reception was very nice. Consequently, I learned a WHOLE LOT at/from the show and have had jolly old Christmas ideas out the ying yang ever since!!!! And though I am not at liberty to work on these right now, have no fear, I’m keeping record and promise to have all kinds of wonderful Christmas goodies ready for next year’s bazaar.
At present, I am preparing to apply for this year’s shows…art and craft shows, and will let everyone know where I’ll be as soon as I know. In fact, I’m almost positive that Originalcyndesign will be making an appearance at the Neptune Festival here in Virginia Beach in late September. I have lots of great product ideas for that show and I’ve only just begun thinking about it!!! A couple of new items include ‘decorated wooden letters’, adorned with lovely ribbons & other ephemera as well as hand painted mouse pads. I figured that I work at this computer so often, I might as well have a cute mouse pad to look at. So, that led to the idea that perhaps others would enjoy these little pieces of art as well.
I guess that’s it for now…thanks for all the love and support, Cynthia

When I was little, we’d drive through the streets of our hometown often passing my favorite store, the “Hobbie Shop/Candy Store.”  I always marveled at all the bright, shiny, colorful, fun and amazing things staring at me through the plate glass windows of that store.  Toys and candy, what more could a kid desire?

So every now and then I would talk my Mom into stopping for some rock candy.  I loved this stuff that looked like a crunchy bunch of magic crystals attached to a stick.  So, we’d go into this tiny store full of wonder and magic, sweet smells, and visual delights.

I’d gawk around while waiting for my few sticks of translucent sugar heaven to be extracted from thier pretty glass jar.  It was such a treat each time I was able to take a moment, stop in and have some fun.  I hope you’ll find yourself here when you are feeling the need for a little fun and frolic, a sweet surprise, a bit of inspiration; a little “Rock Candy!“