My 365 Blog...

If you're not watching my 365 Blog, you're missing a lot of creativity! Go check it out! --Jai

A name plate for my husband

I bought this wood plaque last week to make a name plate for my husband to put in his office. I finished it yesterday. While I'm pleased with how it turned out, I probably won't try to do a human in this small of an area again...it was very difficult to get his features right! Animals, birds, flowers...yeah, I can handle those! But doing the human face in 2 1/2" was pretty difficult!

I picked up some smaller wood pieces in round, oval and teardrop shapes last week to burn some pendants. I haven't completed any yet, but probably will try to do a couple this week on my days off work. I also picked up some 16x20" pieces of cream colored mat board to attempt a few larger fire paintings.

I've been updating my photo blog daily and I'm having a ball taking pictures. All of my photos are available in my shop as prints and greeting cards, and I also have a section on my website now to sell the images for royalty-free stock photo use. Hope you'll stop by and take a look at my 365 photo project, and visit the links to others who are doing this same project along with me.

InJoy,
Jai

Roses are red...or are they?

Well Blogger wouldn't let me upload a photo this morning, so I've grabbed the link from my website. This is my latest fire painting....a single rose. See the detailed photo on this page of my site.

Also check out my custom digital pet portraits I'm now offering and the sample one on the page. I just finished that commission piece yesterday. The owner was THRILLED! The owner's comments:

OH MY GOD!

WE LOVE IT!

CHEWY LOVES IT!

It's so life-like - it looks like he's going to come out of the

screen, and you got the subtle red highlights in his hair, and his

little grey whiskers - I just LOVE it!!!!

:)

InJoy,
Jai

A photography project

An online friend started a project to take 365 days of photos in the area she lives in. Myself and several others are jumping on the bandwagon and joining in on the project. I've set up this project on a different blog here: http://365daysonsouthdixielane.blogspot.com/

Hope you'll bookmark it and see what neat things we can find to photograph in - literally - our little corner of the world!

InJoy,
Jai

P.S. If you set up a 365 days photo project for your space in the world, send me the link here and I'll add it to my link list! Put "365 project" in the subject line to make sure I don't miss your email!

New art for Halloween - BOO! A hamster scares the family cat

Perfect for HALLOWEEN...a hamster wearing a witch hat jumps out and scares the family cat in this original illustration. This one is also completed using pyrography on mat board. See all of my fire paintings here.

InJoy,
Jai

Marketing Miracle Phrases now available in EBOOK form

The revised edition of my book Marketing Miracle Phrases is now available in EBOOK form as well as print format. Please visit my storefront at Lulu.com to preview and purchase either version. Also available as ebook downloads are my books Create Miniature Carved Paintings (in polymer clay) and Preparing Your Home For Sale, 159 Tips & Tricks. More titles coming soon!

--Jai

New painting for kitten lovers! Fire painting - pyrography - woodburning

It's only fitting with the new kittens I have at my house to use the cat/kitten subject as a theme. :)

This is another original "fire painting" (pyrography; woodburning) completed on mat board. This is the larger than the ACEO's I did last week - this one is 9"x11" in size. Also, I added a bit of color to the eyes, nose and mouth using Prismacolor pencils. I think it turned out very well! And my daughter's boyfriend actually said it "hey, that's really cool!"...so I guess I did okay (compliments are RARE coming from him...LOL).

--Jai

Kittens! New inspiration!

How ironic is it that as I'm working on a fire painting of an adorable kitten, our outdoor female who had babies about 6 weeks ago brings them up to the house finally? Yes, after 6 weeks of about giving up on ever seeing her family, she finally brought them. I walked out onto the carport yesterday to a kitten party! They are scared of me still, but I sat out there really quiet and waited on them to come out from their hiding place. This is a photo of Bootsie's little family.

She took them away last night, but hopefully she'll bring them back again so I can get more photos for inspiration for my art. I just LOVE kittens...they are so cute! Click on the photo to see a larger version.

We have given them names, too. The tiger faced one behind the others is Niko (nee-ko). The white and black one is Oreo. And the blonde/orangy colored one in front is either going to be Rowdy (that one is definitely the most rowdy in play) or Peaches. We haven't decided for sure yet.

--Jai

Playing With Fire

So over the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking - how do I rekindle a creative fire in myself after a rough time? And I decided the best way to do that would be with....FIRE! :)

These are two of my first fire paintings. Using a woodburning tool, I have created these two ACEOs by burning the design on mat board.



The first is called "Baby Blue", and it is a fire painting of a baby bluebird I photographed recently. My photo stunk (came out too blurry), but I took the pose and turned it into something artistic.





This second design features a little hamster, hiding under a large mushroom during a rain storm. It's titled "Waiting Out the Storm".

The art of wood burning is called "Pyrography". I have worked with this craft about 20 years ago. I made several gifts for family members one year (my mother still has the pineapple design I did for her on her kitchen wall!). I picked up a wood burning tool last week and of course, I started re-orienting myself to the tool by using some wood. I have a bunch of mat boards in the studio, and I thought, I wonder what would happen if I used this material instead of wood? At first I was afraid I'd catch the house on fire, but I soon learned this tool is very good at burning this material in a controlled way.

I love the sepia tones that come out as a result of using this burner on paper like this. It's a totally natural look, and simple. And hey, the way my life's been lately, I'm all for simple. :)

I think tomorrow I'll work on a larger piece to see how that comes out.

--Jai