Introducing Laura Stamper Designs!

I promised to share with you an amazing fantasy jewelry artist, and here is she! I can't tell you how much her work inspires me. Much like me, her inspiration is rooted in story. As such, each piece of miniature wearable sculpture has its own personality and its own story to tell.

Laura grew up in rural Minnesota where she was surrounded by the natural elements that would become her greatest source of inspiration. Laura originally studied portrait painting. Even today, her first love is painting and illustrating.  She still uses the same creative approach to her jewelry that she used for her portrait paintings, thinking in terms of color, composition and negative space. Her artwork first evolved from portrait painting to creating miniature porcelain paintings, sculptures and jewelry pieces. Soon she learned how to work in metals and began to incorporate metal work with her jewelry.  Each of her unique pieces is crafted from porcelain and gemstones, and set in precious mixed metals.

Laura is a wonderful example of an evolving artist. Rather than continuing in only one area of art and doing portrait paintings her whole life, she has sought to grow and evolve so that her art takes on many new and exciting forms.  We have a shared love of learning and I admire her tenacity and perseverance.  

Often artists have a hard time letting go of certain pieces. Laura has a wonderful theory about her art that helps her to part with these beautiful creations without shedding a tear. She believes that each piece is waiting for her human twin.   "They tell me who they are and I just provide the hands to help them get here.  I also think they know who they are going home with long before I do. " What a wonderful way to look at it! 

To check out more of her fantastic creations, go to her etsy shop.

 

Painting a Butterfly

For the past week, I've been hard at work painting a portrait of a butterfly fairy. She loves to lay down and let the butterflies fly about her and land in her long, beautiful hair. They have such wonderful stories to tell!

I have always loved butterflies. They seem to live two lives. One as a caterpillar and one as a beautiful, free and majestic butterfly. I always associate them with rebirth, much like a phoenix.

Each of the five butterfly families (papilionidae, pieridae, nymphalidae, lycaenidae and riodindae) have been represented in this piece. There is still quite a bit of work to do on this painting before it will be complete, but I wanted to share what I have done so far. I also wanted to share my latest video installment on youtube, "Painting a Butterfly". I still have some work to do on my video skills, but I'm not too terribly disappointed with this one. :)



Enjoy and have a wonderful day!!!

New Facebook Page!

As my art business grows I have had to make changes to better accommodate it. I do most of my artwork under my name, rather than Phoenix Art Studio, so I have decided to switch to a new facebook page. Since I have shops under names other than Phoenix Art Studio, I'm hoping that this will help to avoid confusion in the future. Once you "like" my facebook page you'll learn about my process, new and upcoming projects, contests, etc as well as have fun because I love posting fun and silly things. (although don't be surprised if you see an article posted about some new scientific theory or discovery. Science was always one of my favorite subjects in school)  I hope that everyone will take a minute to check it out. If you love to laugh and love art, then you are sure to enjoy my page. It is always wonderful to meet like-minded people and I have been truly blessed so far to be able to do just that!

I have some exciting blog posts planned so I hope that you'll follow my blog or keep checking back so that you can read them. I have an ode to Monet ( he's worth sonnets, and hymns and odes and even more!), a summer sale,some new projects and sketches, a new online shop and an introduction to an absolutely AMAZING fantasy jewelry artist. Her work just astounds me with it's awesomeness, but I'm not telling you who it is. It's a surprise!!

Hope to see you back here soon and that you have a wonderful day!!

New Etsy Shop is Open!

I am excited to announce that my new etsy shop, Jewels of Enchantment, is finally open! 
Almost all of my current jewelry will be moved to this shop.

Within the next month or so,  Phoenix Art Studio will begin to only carry fantasy related jewelry and art.

Please visit my new shop! I would love to hear opinions, suggestions, comments, etc.
Have a wonderful week everyone!

New Pieces Finished and In Progress.

I've been feeling sort of down in-the-dumps. My artwork hasn't really been going anywhere lately and it's difficult sometimes to find the necessary drive and passion to continue on. Slowly I feel the shadowy curtain lifting and I know that I'll get back to my old self eventually, but it's been a rough few weeks.

I received a call from my mom last night telling me that my great uncle, Paul, has passed away. I didn't know him too well, but somehow his death has affected me more than I would have thought. My grandmother passed away late last year and Paul was the last of her surviving siblings.For some reason I feel as if I've lost my grandmother all over again. I suppose that I always saw him as someone I could visit so that I could hear stories of my grandmother's youth.  I would also like to mention my sadness that Diana Wynne Jones has passed away. She was one of my favorite fantasy authors and she will be sorely missed. My edition of Howl's Moving Castle is falling apart at the binding I've read it so many times! If you haven't read it, do it ASAP. If you aren't the reading type, you can get a slight feel for her creative genius by watching Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki. (who is a genius in his own right )

We often mourn the dead but really it's the people left behind who do the suffering.

On a more upbeat and happy note, I have been working on several projects that I thought I would share with you. I decided to turn my Princess and the Bluebird pendant into a necklace. I think that I was a bit too anal when beading it. It took a lot longer than it should have. I always want the necklace to be the perfect combination of color, size and texture for the pendant that it is framing. I am pretty happy with the end result. Not so happy with the photos right now, but the weather has been pretty dismal lately.

 

I have also created another fairy brooch. I am really liking the look of this one and should be able to finish it pretty soon. I want to create a drop for it as well as a matching necklace so that you can hook the brooch onto the necklace ends and create a necklace if you want.

I also did a sketch of a water nymph or naiad that I'm pretty fond of. I like her "come hither" look. I can easily see her luring some young man or sailor to a watery grave. Something innocent and yet dangerous about her...

I have some prints available as well as a really cool iphone skin available here.