Author’s Note: I tell you right now I am too lazy to put accents in every time I type the word “Faberge” so just imagine them.

 

I love the works of Mucha, Lalique, Faberge, Tiffany… I just got back from the Artistic Luxury exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art (going through January 18 – hurry, if you want to see it! Next it moves to San Francisco, I believe.)

That exhibit was worth every penny! Never since 1900 have the works of Lalique, Faberge and Tiffany been together like that. It was jaw-dropping to see so many gold, diamond and platinum encrusted items.

My folks went too, and my mom would have liked to walk out with the House of Faberge Snowflake Brooch  (c. 1900, diamonds, platinum) as did so many other people there. It was one of the most appealing items and so images of this brooch were on the signs advertising the exhibit. We were curious exactly how many carats were in that brooch (and other things), but museum cases don’t list details like that. Probably so fewer people are tempted.

 

Another amazing thing in the display was the “Adams Vase”. It was on loan from the Metropolitan Museum so I will send you to their page  (it has the information, and close up photos – for some reason we weren’t allowed quite that close to the 23 lbs of gold and gemstones).

 

But what I love is not the material, but the form! The organic whiplash curves, the suggestions of feminine shapes, the naturalistic leaves and blossoms, the snakes and herons, the butterflies, bats, frogs, wasps! Nature re-imagined.

 

If you are looking for references to make your own Art Nouveau-inspired designs, I highly recommend looking for the economical books by Dover press. Dover prints many books, most of which contain copyright free art you can even use as clip-art. Here (But when I bought them, they didn’t come with fancy-shmancy CD ROMs of the art) and Here  and of course Amazon (Hmm I just saw a book I don’t have. Oh the pitfalls of browsing the web! Uh…well now my cart has about three things in it…)

 

Another great Art Nouveau resource is this online exhibit from the National Gallery of Art. This site contains an “audio tour” of 18 beautiful pieces. It also shows a timeline of the Art Nouveau movement, which really only spans about 15 years.

 

Finally, here are some links to information on specific artists.

Alfons (Alphonse) Mucha

http://www.goodart.org/artofam.htm

http://www.muchafoundation.org/MHome.aspx

http://www.mucha.cz/

 

Rene Lalique

http://www.renelalique.com/

http://www.collectics.com/education_lalique.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/tips/lalique.html

 

House of Faberge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Faberg%C3%A9

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/faberge_nav/main_fabfrm.html

http://sxuhero.com/faberge/

 

Louis Comfort Tiffany

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/tiffany/menu.html

http://www.jlsloan.com/lct1.htm (interesting article about rivalry with John La Farge)
http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/tiffany.htm

 

But before I attempt to name EVERY Art Nouveau artist, just check out this list that good volunteers at Wikipedia already compiled: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Art_Nouveau (I tried not to link you to Wikipedia over and over, but I couldn’t help this one.)

 

 

When I got home I started bidding on Lalique perfume bottles on ebay. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

Edit: Just swept to remove “Fabrege”.

 

Due to being “gently encouraged to post” by JB, I had to make sure I made a post tonight!

Some kind soul (actually, my aunt) bought me a “Bead-a-day” calendar that has a jewelry pattern for each day of the week (more or less). Yesterday and today’s “How to: Wire Wrapped Loops” may be something that we already know, but they sure gave a wonderfully detailed tutorial that will help me get back to basics – I know my wire wrapping is not the best!

I can’t show you the calendar page, but they DID say that the tutorial was from wigjig.com.
There are a LOT of great wire-working tutorials right here on their site.
They start with basic skills, but go on and on, and there is a link to an alphabetical listing of techniques!

In fact, if you don’t have a titular “Wig Jig” you’re missing out – they’re really fun!

I am not really sure if the “clay creatures” I make from polymer clay are toys or statues or what, but here are a couple of sites that inspire me – or at least keep me informed of the latest collectable toys out there.

ToyCyte – This website features different toys and designers, and mentions the Beastlies which are high in demand and made of polymer clay!

Tomopop - This website features different toys and designers too, most seem to be Japanese.

I like these two sites because they aren’t just online stores selling items; they don’t even sell, though they link to sale sites. These sites focus on showing the toy designs and their designers.

There are other interesting sites out there like ToyQube and even TheBananaLab but those are more like stores and less like blogs.

I’m sure there are other toy sites out there – got any inspirational links for me?
I will do another blog on inspirational polymer clay sites, but this one is just focused on toys. I admit I’m not an authority, and I don’t even like most of the designs, but I find it interesting that so many custom vinyl/collectable toys are out there!

If you are looking to make your clay items zing with the trends, try checking these sites out for ideas.

I have a bunch of clay critters for sale here.

I have a big pile of littler things for sale here, down a couple of paragraphs.

Most of them have holes for cord in the top, and can be used as necklace pendants, to decorate gift bags, or around jar candles – anything!

The “rock” looking things on the right side are, well, “rocks” made of glimmer and clay and sparkle and all such things, and are called “fairy stones” (well that’s what I call them). They look lovely by candles as candlescaping, or in potted plants. I have one in my car. They just make me smile!

I’m taking this stuff (along with lots more) to a show on Saturday, but I thought “Why not let other people get a shot at it too, then I won’t have to carry it all with me.” (See, I’m lazy like that.)
So if you see anything here you like – ANYTHING – any item is $3.50 + $1 shipping.
If you want several I will cut down on shipping and may even haggle on some of the little items.

But anyway these are SO fun to make that I have loads and piles of them accumulating in little boxes.

They are handily NUMBERED for your convenience.

I take PayPal and please e-mail me first or I won’t know what you’re buying! ( glimmer @ glimmerville). You can use that e-mail for the paypal, too. If you have questions, if you like any, any little reason at all – e-mail glimmer @ glimmerville !

I was featured on the Polymer Clay Productions website back in June and I never knew it, until I narcicisstically did an ego search just now! (The link to my feature is here.) They have a podcast too.

Wow, and I was just feeling a little bad about no one buying my stuff, too.
I feel much better now, even if no one does buy my stuff. But you can!
You can commission me – glimmer (at) glimmerville.com

Or you can check out anything on my etsy page to see what’s there and get a ballpark of how I price things. I have made a custom figure from someone’s sketch for about $60, though prices would vary. And the big Copper mech dragon was about $50 as well.

Also, my comments are set up to use Gravatars, globally recognized avatars. If you want a photo to appear by your name, set up an account at http://en.gravatar.com/ and then use the e-mail you’ve registered when you make a comment.

The defense and prosecution started out by asking questions of the jury, to see if anyone was unfit to stay (due to some kind of bias), and it was amazing the weird stuff that came out of the woodwork.

They disqualified one person, and the replacement was the granddaughter of the previous judge in the court. (And she looked like someone that could be in an Ace Attorney game, too – she was about 19 and had loads of blond ringlets and was continuously chewing gum.) Another jury member turned out to be the neighbor and friend of the prosecuting attorney. They asked if anyone had ever had a crime committed against them and fully half of the jury raised their hands to say they had had their homes/cars broken into. And this is a small rural village, not some kind of grimy downtown depressed area!

I had no idea it was so hard to pick a jury, even in a little case like this.

Anyway they didn’t pick me to stay on the jury, so I actually got some other things accomplished like sending a package to Philippa Ballantine (go read her books/listen to her podcast novel) and getting my snow tires put on. I helped babysit a 5 year old for about an hour, too. I went to get out all my old action figures so he’d have something to play with and I had 2 Darth Vaders, 2 Darth Sideous, and 1 Darth Maul Uhh… well everyone knows bad guys are coolest anyway.

Other things I did yesterday include impulsively buying The Secret Sketchbook of Brian Froud. (I’m not sure I’m happy with this purchase.) I even made some art [$5 + shipping, if you are interested, e-mail glimmer (at) glimmerville].:

 

 

 

 

 

Fogllama requested I post some “scraps of art” that I wasn’t planning to post on deviantART.
Well, he didn’t say it exactly like that.

Anyway, here are some random doodles.