Guest Blogger!

I am guest blogger today over at Chrissy Gemmill Jewels!  Hop over and read my article about balancing motherhood and a business.

Treasury Time!

My "It's all about the Red Barn" Treasury was featured on Etsy Treasury Hunter! How fun.

My Sterling Silver Hammered Wire Earrings were featured in this great "Hammer Time" Treasury.

"Celebrate everyday." by Madi

Need to Laugh today?

Enjoy!

"Laughter is the only good medicine." by Madi

More Life Book!

The last assignment that Madi and I finished for Life Book was a really fun and creative drawing experience. We had to pick two different Goddesses that represented two different sides to our personality. I selected the Egyptian Goddess Maat who represents truth, balance and order. Maat represents the side of me who always wants things to be in order and the to do list checked off.

The second Goddess that I selected was the Hindu Goddess Saraswati who represents knowledge and the arts. Saraswati represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. This is my creative side that needs to have the space and room to let ideas flow and just be artistic and inventive.

Madi selected two different Goddesses to represent her personality.

She chose the Hindu Goddess Kumari to represent her ability to keep secrets. To represent her love of beauty and the arts, she selected Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty.

In this lesson we also experimented with figure drawing. I really enjoyed it. It felt magical having a person come to life!

I have always had a dream of becoming a fashion illustrator and designer. I decided that turning 50 this year, I'm going to at least enjoy and learn more about fashion illustration. I'm going to incorporate this into my Limited Edition Sketchbook project. I'll post more about that later.

We also learned about more simplistic figure drawing. Here is Madi's drawing from that lesson:

Instead of doing the realistic figure drawing exercise, Madi decided to draw realistic hands and some other items that you may find in an art studio.

We are hoping to have more time this weekend to catch up with some of the other wonderful assignments in this great class.  Hope you are having a wonderfully artful day!

"Do the impossible." by Madi

And the Winner is...

Congratulations Lesley Ann! If you can email me your mailing address I can pop your new Valentines earrings in the mail for you. My email is staciejewelry@yahoo.com

Thanks so much to everyone for entering the giveaway. The stories of good deeds are incredible! You guys are awesome. Happy Valentines Day!

"Love is everywhere." by Madi

Grow your heart & win a pair of vintage red heart bead earrings!

Would you like to win these new Valentines heart earrings? Well, here are the ways to win...

1. Grow your heart by doing something nice for someone else. Leave me a comment and let me know how you grew your heart.
2. Follow this blog & leave a comment. If you already follow, just leave a comment saying you do!
3. Like Stacie Jewelry on Facebook. Leave me a comment letting me know you did!
4. Follow Stacie Jewelry on Twitter. Leave me a comment letting me know you did!
5. Share the love! Share the link to this giveaway blog post & let me know you did!
6. Visit Stacie Jewelry on Etsy and Favorite the shop. Again, leave a comment!

You will be entered into the drawing to win the Vintage Heart bead earrings for each action you take.  I will select the winner using the comments and Random.org true random number generator.

I just love these Vintage dark red heart beads. I bought them at Chrissy Gemmill's Beads and Baubles Trunk show. If you missed the last one, she is having another Trunk show on February 25th. I also made another pair of Valentines Earrings using these awesome beads for The Muse.

Of course I had to make myself a pair too! I made ones similar to the giveaway pair, just a bit longer. I love to wear really long earrings in my second earring hole with big hoops in the front. Almost looks like a window!

Good luck to everyone! I will announce the lucky winner next week February 14th Valentines Day!

"Do an act of love every day." by Madi

Artist of the Month - Cia Williford

"Conversation with a Bee" by Cia Williford

I met Cia in the Life Book class that I am taking online with Tamara Laporte. I was immediately attracted to her soft, positive images that she creates. After talking with her (in the online world!) I see that her beautiful images match her lovely personality.

Cia lives in Northwestern Pennsylvania in Greensburg, close to where I grew up in Pittsburgh.  Cia has quite a colorful palette of talents.  She's a children’s writer, a web designer (specializing in small, affordable sites for other creative people), a miniaturist, and a mixed media artist.

"My Yin My Yang" by Cia Williford

 When I asked Cia to share a little about each of her talents and how she got into them, here's what she had to say:

"I've been writing since I was in third grade. I wrote a limerick in class ("There once was a mouse named Lee, who happened to drink some tea..."), and the teacher praised it quite enthusiastically. I was hooked, lol. I won a couple of poetry awards while in college (including a statewide competition), and interned for a regional magazine during my senior year. From there, I segued into doing marketing, public relations, and business communications as a career. So yeah, I've been writing all my life.

The art...well, that's another story. I never played around much with art or crafting of any kind until I was well into adulthood. And then, three or four years ago, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. (This was just after we lost my mother, who had herself been suffering from vascular dementia for the last eight years of her life.) So, of course, my sister and I were reeling. We brought Dad out to live near us in an assisted living facility. At the time, his Alzheimer's wasn't too bad, so we wracked our brains trying to come up with a project we could do with him that he would enjoy. Someone mentioned building a dollhouse, which sounded perfect to us (Dad was a retired Master Carpenter and Master Locksmith). So, we did. We built a dollhouse with my father. And then we donated it to the assisted living facility to be auctioned off and the proceeds to go to the resident's activity fund. Dad was quite proud of that.

Long story short, making the dollhouse unleashed a whole new world of creativity to me. I went from making dollhouses to making miniatures (which I still do), to making mixed media art. It's a passion. And with my father's illness, it's also my stress-reliever therapy."

Dad working on our dollhouse project.

One of mine: a fairy dwelling. (I even made the stained-glass window!) 

You can see more of Cia's miniatures at her Etsy shop Briarwood Studio.  She even creates mini books and cards.

"A Witch's Grimorie - Raven" by Cia Williford

 Cia loves to write children's stories and is a big fan of fantasy. She has had short stories as well as poems published in well-known children's magazines such as Highlights for Children, Hopscotch for Girls, Boys Life, and Fun for Kids. Her dream one day is to both write and illustrate a children's book. I think her soft and beautiful artwork would be perfect!

Cia is a self taught web designer and specializes in developing web sites for creative people. You can find out more information about her web design, view her portfolio and pricing on her website Briarwood Studio.  Cia's marketing background and sense of creativity give her a special edge over other web designers that may just have the technical expertise.

"Not all web designers are created equal, and if you're into art or some other creative endeavor, a web designer focused on creating a business web site is going to totally miss the mark for you. You need someone who understands how important it is to build your personality and your art into the site, as well. That's what I do, with both web sites and blogs."

"My Blue Angel" by Cia Williford

"Blossom" by Cia Williford

I really enjoy looking at and admiring Cia's artwork. She has that special talent of creating eyes that seem full of kindness. Cia uses watercolors, pencils and crayons more than any other types of media. She does supplement with acrylics, markers and various embellishments. 

I asked Cia what inspires her to create and what her most favorite and least favorite parts of creating are.

"I have a need to put "good things" out into the universe. That may sound silly to some, but I see so much negativity in the world that I try to combat it in my own small way. My work is predominantly happy and hopeful, which isn't really trendy right now, I'm afraid, lol. But it's what my heart tells me to do."

Most favorite:

"The act of creating something, whether it's a poem or a painting, is such a joyful experience. There's nothing like it. And then to be able to share that with others...it's like giving and receiving the best gifts in the world."

Least favorite:

"The cost of supplies, lol. Art supplies are not cheap."



I think we can all empathize with Cia about the cost of art supplies.  And they are so addicting!

Because Cia isn't busy enough, she has also started a Mixed Media Art Directory. The Mixed Media Art Directory is an all-encompassing directory for links related to mixed media: art and artists, shops and supplies, methods and mediums, blogs and web sites. What a great idea! I asked Cia how she came up with this great idea:

"Besides enjoying making art, I'm enthralled with seeing what other artists do. I just love creative people! I found myself collecting hundreds of links for web sites, blogs, and groups that I wanted to remember and revisit from time to time, but with no real way to catalogue them for easy retrieval.

I had run a directory once before for children's writers and I thought this might be the perfect way to handle all of those web sites. So, first I did it for purely selfish reasons, lol. But I think, if we can grow it properly, it can be a huge resource for all of us in the mixed media arena. I'm excited about it. It's new, but I think it has great potential!

I would just like to encourage people to add their web site and blog links. I'm adding links all the time, but I can only do so much in a day. It would be a huge help if people would add their own. It only takes a minute and is easy to do. Plus,  there is absolutely no charge to list your site(s)!"

I already added my site to the directory and explored a few of the other amazing sites. Make sure to pop over to the Mixed Media Art Directory and add your site today!

"Listen" by Cia Williford

 So where is Cia going in the future?

"Ideally, I would like to find a way to marry my writing and art into one complete package. If that turned out to be a book for children that would be icing on the cake.

I'm also contemplating doing some workshops on online promotion for artists. I know a lot of people who have blogs and web sites, but have absolutely no idea what to do with them, or how to get them noticed. Page rankings? Reciprocal links? SEO? They haven't a clue. With my background, I think I can provide a good class."

What are your dreams for the future?

"I'm a Pollyanna, an eternal optimist. I'd like to grow old gracefully, but never grow up. I have a childlike wonder about the universe and its inhabitants . . . and I'd like to keep it that way."

If you'd like to learn more about Cia and her many talents here are her links:

Briarwood Studio

Briarwood Studio Etsy Shop 

Mixed Media Art Directory

Spoonwood Gallery

Thank you so much for joining me for this month's artist of the month post. I hoped you enjoyed getting to know Cia.

"Grow everyday." by Madi