Peonies, Peonies and Peonies!

I've been completely obsessed with making peonies. The more I study them, sketch them and finally make them, I come to increasingly love this flower more.

I'm just amazed at how God took the time to intricately design and make each petal and then place them together to create this beautiful masterpiece.  Before I started making flowers, I never took the time to really appreciate them.  Better yet, I never knew names of different flowers until a couple of months ago.  I didn't know the difference between a peony or a poppy.  Bernie actually loves to buy me flowers and when he would bring home an arrangement, I would just look back and admire them from a distance, but never really saw the depth of detail and beauty of each bloom.

Here's an arrangement that I made that incorporates some of my peony studies.  It's difficult to replicate the whimsical nature of a real peony, but I think I'm getting closer.  It's challenging to make each petal thin and lifelike with clay, but my motto is practice makes close to perfect!  The arrangement below consists of peonies, roses and a small gerber daisy all made from Deco clay.

I hope you have an amazing day and really soak in the beauty of God's creation all around you!

New Beginnings

After a month and a half hiatus, I have decided to revisit my very neglected blog with an update on how I've spent the first part of 2010.  I love New Year's because it's always an opportunity for a fresh start.  It's only been a couple of weeks, but already the year has been busy with new resolutions to accomplish and projects to complete!

My Debut at the Santiago Art Walk 

With our big move to the art district in Santa Ana, I've been preparing to open my art gallery to debut my own artwork, but the debut came earlier than I had anticipated.  One of our neighbors, who is also Bernie's coworker, offered his gallery to showcase my work this weekend since my own gallery was not ready.  I was hesitant because I felt I didn't have enough work to show, but my amazing and supportive husband wouldn't take no for an answer.

With one day to prepare, we both frantically spent the morning putting together arrangements for that evening's art walk.  I feel so lucky to have a professional artist for a husband because we were figuring out compositions, color and texture together.  We literally were working against to clock to have everything completed before the art walk was to start.

I was starting with nothing but my work.  No business cards, no company name, no logo... just a simple printout of a sign up sheet if people wanted more information about future purchases or classes.

As people would walk by my work, Bernie would whisper excitedly about how people were signing up or complimenting my pieces.  He would nudge me to go over, but I just couldn't get myself to look. Overall, I felt it was a successful yet humble beginning to my new venture into my career in art.

Here are some pictures that Bernie took of that night.

The center arrangement is actually a wedding bouquet that I just put into a silver vase.  I needed to be resourceful with so little time to prepare. 

I have a lot more pictures, but I think I'll save those for another post. Have a blessing week!