Fit to Print -- Sunshine Artist Magazine and GIVEAWAY

11/For those of you looking to get into the juried craft show circuit, Sunshine Artist magazine will prove invaluable.

Sunshine Artist serves several purposes -- providing the reader with relevant articles for the artisan and crafter; spotlighting veteran crafters so readers can learn from their expertise; providing juried show reviews by the artisans, NOT the promoters; and providing listings of upcoming juried shows.

The business articles are timely and helpful, even if you haven't done your first craft show yet.  The current issue covers how to pick the right show by knowing your audience, and how to know what pieces to bring and whether or not to apply.

my booth at an outdoor show

I write for Sunshine Artist, reviewing shows in the areas I exhibit in, but the show reviews aren't limited to its paid reviewers.  Online, any artisan can anonymously rate a show, and in fact, the magazine depends upon these FastAudits.  Once a year, Sunshine Artist compiles their "200 Best" edition, which provides the 200 best shows for both art and craft.  Without the artisans' reviews, this edition wouldn't be accurate or possible.

this year's 200 Best edition

The reviews of shows in Sunshine Artist are important because they cover the shows without the rose-colored glasses of the promoter, but from the experienced eyes of the artisan.  You get the scoop -- from the averages of how much money was made, how difficult load in and out was, how helpful the staff was, and how the crowds were.  Ultimately, you have to make your own decision on whether or not to do a show, but this magazine can help you make that decision.

my husband setting up my show tent

Sunshine Artist isn't available on news stands, so you have to subscribe via their web site.  You can also visit their Facebook page by clicking here.  Keep in mind, the magazine only covers juried shows.

And to one reader, I'm giving away a free issue of the magazine -- just comment below, making sure you have an email address listed so I can get in touch with you!

Giveaway ends 1/14/2011

January Monthly Challenge Prizes

Our wonderful sponsors for the January Monthly Challenge

Marsha Neal Studio

Marsha's prize donation is shown above, "Seashore Silk Bundle Knot" which consists of ten 2mm hand painted silk strands, plus 3 Porcelain pendants.

My fellow Beads-of-Clay member Marsha Neal Minutella makes her beautiful pendants from porcelain clay with decals and wonderful glazes. Her inspirations come from nature and her Entomology degree. Many of Marsha's design look cellular as you would see under a microscope.

To see Marsha's many designs and beautiful artistry,

visit her website, blog and Etsy shop.

: : :

Artybecca

Artybecca's prize donation of a dozen amazing beads is shown above.

Rebecca Watkins is a Graphic Designer/Writer by day and polymer clay clay & pastel/colored pencil artist by night. Here is a tutorial by Artybecca that shows how she makes her cool beads and pendants.

Visit the ArtyBecca on flickr, twitter, Etsy and her blog!

 Submit photos of your wonderful creations using one or more Art Beads.
Brown River by Wayne Theibaud is such a vivid painting with many different elements that can be used for inspiration, texture, movement, color, color, color and a feeling of vibrancy.
We can't wait to see where your creativity takes you with the art for this months challenge! 
Please remember to put JANABS in the title or tag of your submission(s).  
Provide us with the artist of the Art Beads used and we always love to know all the materials you used. 

Blog Tour
We are once again hosting the blog tour this month.  Check out the details in the challenge post.

January Monthly Challenge

Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud

About the Art

"River-delta views from the Sacramento area, cityscapes from San Francisco and beach scenes from Southern California, no matter the subject, these works uniformly attest to the artist’s ability to sensuously manipulate pigment and capture clear light and vibrant color. It is this technical virtuosity, along with the artist’s tongue-in-cheek humor and ability to capture the realities of our place in time, that have helped to make Thiebaud a uniquely American painter."

About the Artist

Wayne Thiebaud (born Mesa, Arizona, November 23, 1920) is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. His last name is pronounced "Tee-bo." He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, however, his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work. 

His family moved to Long Beach, California when he was six months old. One summer during his high school years he apprenticed at the Walt Disney Studio. He earned a degree from Sacramento State College in 1941. From 1938 to 1949, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California and New York and served as an artist in the United States Navy.

In 1950, at the age of thirty, he enrolled in Sacramento State where he earned a Master's Degree in 1952 and began teaching at Sacramento City College. In 1960, he became assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, where he remained through the 1970s and influenced numerous artist students. On a leave of absence, he spent time in New York City where he became friends with Willem De Kooning and Franz Kline and was much influenced by these abstractionists as well as proto pop artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. During this time, he began a series of very small paintings based on images of food displayed in windows, and he focused on their basic shapes.

Challenge Color Palette

Blog Challenge

On January 30th we will host a blog tour of everyone who blogs about their challenge entry! To participate, blog about your challenge piece and leave a link in the comments below. Your link must be posted here by January 30th to be included in the blog tour. There will be a bonus prize for those who enter in the blog tour and a prizes for our readers!

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on February 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Marsha Neal Studio, and Artybecca please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title JAN ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is January 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

December Monthly Challenge Prize Winner + Blog Tour Winners

Congratulations to this Months winner! 

Every month one winner is chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.

Venuschka of VeruDesigns is this months lucky winner. Her entry is wonderful interpretation of  

two enchanted paintings by John Anster Fitzgerald. 

Venuschka has won beautiful beads from Gaea and a $50 gift certificate from Fired Up Ladies 

E-mail Heather with your information so your prizes can be sent to you.

A Big THANK YOU to everyone who entered this month. 

There were so many beautiful entries and such creativity from our wonderful readers.

Visit tomorrow to see what January's challenge brings.

Blog Tour Winners

Our Blog Tour Participant winner is Birgitta Lejonklou of Create With Spirit.

Birgitta will receive Cynthia Thornton's, Enchanted Adornments and 2 Pendants from Nan Emmet of Sprited Earth.

Our 4 lucky Blog commenters...

Jill Palumbo wins Ceramic Bead Jewelry by Jennifer Heynen. 

Andrea/ZenithJade wins Making Metal Beads by Pauline Warg. 

Rosebud 101 wins The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking by Kimberely Adams.

Mackin-Art wins 2 Pendants from Nan Emmett of Sprited Earth.

Congratulations to all of our winners!!

Please send your information to Heather so your prizes can be sent to you.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Designer of the Week - Too Aquarius

Each Monday the Art Bead Scene features the Designer of the Week. One of our editors picks her favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries. This week's featured designer is Elaine of Too Aquarius! 

 Here's what Art Bead Scene editor Shannon LeVart had to say about Elaine's piece...

 "If I were a fairy this would be the To Have Accessory Of The Year! Elaine's impeccable clay cane work combined with tiny glints of glass beads make for a simply enchanted art bead focal piece in her necklace.
This is a  fantastic photo, too. Perfect light, angle and background!"


 Get to know Elaine and her work a little better through her blog, her etsy shop, her artfire shop,  and her Flickr photo stream.

Much Love & Respect,
Shannon
missficklemedia.com

Cindy's Little Sister Giveaway and Linky Love

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box has stopped at my house. Like many of us at the end of 2010, she's a bit overweight. I'm helping lose some of that extra weight by giving away a few "little sister" grab bags. Details are on Cindy's blog so don't forget to check it out before or after you read up on what the bead bloggers are up to this week....

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene reviews the different options for accepting payment.

Beading Arts
Cyndi has finished her last Bead Journal Project piece for the year. Yay!!

Beading & Books
Michelle shares the 10 most memorable blog posts she read in 2010.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Cindy re-reads her KISS post before planning for 2011.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie reviews a wonderful book about making chain.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean gives a shout out for a fab class she took at Beaducation online, which as you will see, will revv up your urge to bead and have FUN!--Happy New Year!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Two publications from Interweave Press have hit the stands and Andrew suggests you check them out!

Studio Saturday with Shannon LeVart

graphic by golhart

  Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
  The winner for last weeks offering of Helen Harle's Create Colorful Aluminum Jewelry is Imaginative Jewelry!
Congratulations! Please email Tari your address so she can ship that off to you.

 Now it's my turn to share a bit of my studio(s) with you! Here in the chaotic, confused, bumbling world of missficklemedia, there is occasionally something of value to share. I am happy the Studio Saturday I get to do is on this special day. I LOVE New Years! Love it Love it Love it! To me, and probably many others, a new year is embraced with all the hopeful expectancy of a child at Christmas. What is coming in this new year? What changes will I experience? What will I learn? Who will I help?  What challenges will I overcome and how will I grow as a person? And really, most importantly, what will I make? :)
 I am already working on acquiring the tools and materials for my next big project for 2011. But I can't share that yet, it's a secret. I did however promise myself that in addition to eating better for the next year I will use the supplies I already have in my possession. All the little odds-n-ends that have accumulated and piled up will be designed into jewelry, given away or sold.
 
  Less than perfect fine silver pendants are layered with copper bits, crystals and chain for inexpensive but lovely charm necklaces.

  Left over beads will be used for bangles and tassel necklaces.

Ceramic face bead by Gaea.

 And complimenting color combination's of patina-ted components, ceramic beads, free form stones and silk will be photographed and listed as de-stash bundles for the online shop.

Golden Peridot Ginkgo paired with macarrolls Metallic Ceramic Beads.

  Which brings us to the give-away for this Studio Saturday! What are you looking forward to in this New Year? What fresh hope does 2011 bring you? Please share with us in the comment section of this post and next Saturday your name will entered into a drawing for a chance to win this Golden Peridot Ginkgo Bundle.

 So here's to sloughing off the old and embracing the new! Raise your glass and give a CHEER! 2011 is here!
Have a Happy New Year from all of us here at Art Bead Scene Blog.

Much Love & Respect,
Shannon

missficklemedia.com