Tag: craft

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And that’s a wrap…

Today marked the final in-person class in the studio for 2022!

Beautiful beachy handmade ornaments with Sierra James and her family was a wonderful end to a wonderful year at Refind Creations Studio & Gift Shop.

After the shut downs and stops and restarts, it seems that we are creating a beautiful experience for the community and for the artists as well. To get creative in small groups of 1-8 participants has been such a joyful experience.

Thanks to artist Candice Christie for being the first guest artist! Candice is a prolific artist and teacher. We first met back in April at the Whatcom Art Guild. When I offered my space to host the first Acrylics Special Interest Group, Candice stepped right up and took on the planning and execution of so many wonderful projects. From Acrylic Pour to Gelli Plates, Candice has filled our imagination with so many fun experiences.

Artist Janille Dutton has created so many beautiful and unique art projects in her life and she is a joy to create with! Janille has led Acrylic Pour workshops that were so much fun and I look forward to many more classes with her.

Kim Snider’s love of all things flowers instantly bonded us! I can’t wait to see what kinds of creativity we explore in the new year, including attending an artists retreat! God has been so good to bring us together and you will definitely want to sign up for her Art Journal workshop in January!

To say that Colin Molaski’s classes were popular would be an understatement! Colin approached me about teaching abstract acrylics and his schedule filled with curious creatives who were inspired to create with the freedom that abstracts have to offer.

Sierra James is a new member of Whatcom Art Guild who has caught the acrylic pour and resin bug! She is so creative and has great ideas for classes. You can definitely look forward to taking one of her workshops.

The new year will be filled with many more creative classes and we all hope to meet you there. Cold wax and oil, abstract art, pressed flowers, and who knows what’s next. I’m so happy to be in this space for another year as I plan a new adventure for all of us in the future.

My dream space includes artist studios with gallery space, teaching space, and creative community collaboration… dream with me as I pursue the plan!

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Art Walk

Featured Artist – like they’re talking about someone else. I’ve been Mark’s Mom. Nicki’s Mom. MRI Tech. The boss. The chauffeur of Mark and Nicki. The daughter. The wife. And now The Artist!

Tomorrow-Friday February 22- I get to have my art in a new display. It’s featured every day at Whatcom Art Market of course. It took me months to not laugh at the idea of being an artist.

Now I’m excited to show my Petals as Paint and other creations – candles, collages, and magnets to people out enjoying a cold evening strolling around one of my favorite places – Fairhaven in Bellingham WA.

So happy to be at Sweet Bellingham, a bakery in town that has the most inspired edible creations! What a fun opportunity to meet people who are out having fun! Homemade marshmallows anyone??

I meet people all day every day who are hurting or suffering in my normal job. This will be a great change to see people buying candied apples and cookies, baking supplies and candies. Thank you Sweet Bellingham for letting me set your tables with tiny easels and candles and to hang and display my art!

For all the locals come on out tomorrow night! Head to Sweet Bellingham and Whatcom Art Market. And thanks to Fairhaven Art Walk for giving local artists an opportunity to share our passion with the community!

©Belindabotzong2019

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Petals as Paint – Secret Garden

Grand finale for 2018– secret garden is an eclectic collection of many petals and botanical beauty. Hydrangea and rose petal sky. Trees of Japanese maple leaves and an unknown perennial. A garden of moss, purple stasis, butterfly bush, geranium, wheat, and other unidentifiable petals.
Substrate of ceramic tile which will all be framed in reclaimed wood
©Belindabotzong2018

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Petals as Paint—Swirl

Next design in process! This one is vibrant red and yellow painted in a swirl of Dahlia, sunflower, geranium, rose, and fuchsia petals- swirl of copper leaf and topped with a swirl of a copper wire clef.
12×12 ceramic tile substrate which will be framed in recycled wood
https://amzn.to/2RjZ8sU
Mod Podge
https://amzn.to/2LCXU6I
Liquitex gloss gel acrylic medium
https://amzn.to/2Sr67NI
US Art Supply Gloss Acrylic Medium
https://amzn.to/2SoSPRT
Krylon spray adhesive
©Belindabotzong2018

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When Doubts Fill Your Mind…

In memory of my mom who went to receive hope and cheer eternally on October 16 2018 –
Roses, twine, handmade paper, architectural hardware, brass tacks, burlap, crushed glass, reclaimed wood frames, copper and lots of mod podge. Hope these bless someone’s soul.

https://amzn.to/2RjZ8sU
Mod Podge
https://amzn.to/2LCXU6I
Liquitex gloss gel acrylic medium
https://amzn.to/2Sr67NI
US Art Supply Gloss Acrylic Medium
https://amzn.to/2SoSPRT
Krylon spray adhesive
©Belindabotzong2018

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Petals as Paint —Purple Passion

Painted in Dahlia, rose, saffron, hydrangea, crocosmia and geranium– And even a few bougenvilla petals from Israel– this Beauty is the next project heading to Whatcom Art Market and getting transformed into uniquely designed home decor. Each one is my favorite!


Supplies-
Ceramic tile substrate with reclaimed wood frame
Dahlia, Rose, hydrangea, crocosmia, saffron, geranium petals
https://amzn.to/2RjZ8sU
Mod Podge
https://amzn.to/2LCXU6I
Liquitex gloss gel acrylic medium
https://amzn.to/2Sr67NI
US Art Supply Gloss Acrylic Medium
https://amzn.to/2SoSPRT
Krylon spray adhesive
copyright – BelindaBotzong2018

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100 Year Old Barn Windows


It’s a glorious day to be Refind Creations when I get to drive in the pouring buckets of rain to get some barn windows from a barn built in the late 1800s!
After two days of back and forth messaging with a sweet lady we finally connected and made a plan for me to head out on my lunch hour about ten miles north. Such a beautiful drive into Whatcom County where acres of land surround old and new farms, berry farms, flower nurseries, silos and cows.
She told me to meet her at the big white hay barn. As if I know which one that might be. I pulled into a homestead with this giant barn filled with brand new windows. If I was storing hay I think that’s where I’d put it. She comes out in the downpour well dressed for such delightful conditions in her rubber boots and rain slicker. The high winds push blonde wisps over her cheeks. And she has a huge smile and a kindness I think only farmers exude.
I step out into the muck trying to hold my baggy scrub pants above my tennis shoes and she tells me to back up to the hay barn. Apparently the other white barn that looks like where you might feed baby cows – or an old milk parlor. I told her I wouldn’t know a hay barn from a hole in the ground.
A barn is a barn to me. Beautiful, rustic, full of old stories and lives gone before us. A work of Art. A labor of love. A necessary part of a farmer life.
She shakes my hand as I again attempt to hold my pant legs out of the mud and the wind whips my hood off so my bangs get drenched and stick to my forehead.
She shows me the different sizes and I pick four that will be great for a project I have in mind. They are filthy and layered in years of dusty cobwebs that I find disturbing but she’s wearing gloves and gets them into my trunk safely.
I tell her I passed the house on the way there where I got piles of dahlias just a few months ago and that soon her windows will merge with her neighbors dahlia petals into my art. She likes that concept a lot and I’m glad.
I head back to work feeling blessed to drive out and meet her and to know I have four windows on history to Refind. It’s a beautiful day!

Windows to the past. How many days spent taking in light as the farmer mucked. How many sunrises reflected from their panes? How many sunsets let the last drops of sunlight in on her? How many windowpanes replaced after a nor’easter blew? How many hours and days and years of hard work, memories, sweat, and worry passed by the windows of the hundred year old barn leaving bittersweet idyllic treasures of times gone by?

Petals as Paint- designed by nature. Refind by me!
©Belindabotzong2018

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Translucence

Petals as Paint has transformed into stained glass effect. This one is magical. There are rose petals sunset clouds over trees made from elderberry blooms. A pretty field of blue hydrangea and a hedge of peegee hydrangea petals creates a peaceful scene between two panes of glass – like looking out a kitchen window as the summer sun sets in a blaze of glory. Framed in distressed wood this would look amazing hanging in a window with the sunlight shining through opaque glass. Be still my heart.
There is a lamp behind to give the effect of what it will look like if hung in a window

©Belindabotzong2018
This one will go in Etsy store – search Refind Creations and order the original for $125. There is no other art so natural as Petals as Paint

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Petals as Paint

The thing I like about art is that 20 people can be given the same exact supplies and be told to do what they will
And 20 different designs will be created!
I was thinking about this as I develop my Petals as Paint technique. It started with picking up seaglass and thinking that scanning it on my printer/scanner would be a cool way to save the look of it rather than photography.
The first scan got me hooked on the idea because if I just took a picture I wouldn’t see the intricacy of a little pile of glass and shells and coral. And I especially wouldn’t see the grains of sand and little debris that surrounds it. It was so magical to me. I started scanning leaves and sticks and all manner of found objects. I fell in love with that degree of detail!
Last spring I started scanning flowers and petals and blossoms and stems.. oh that first scan nearly made me cry. It was so beautiful to see the intricacies of creation and I couldn’t then just throw them out! So I started preserving them. I pressed them the only way I knew– between pages in the Children’s Encyclopedia. That works great most of the time but I didn’t like how long it took. So I read about microwaving. That works instantly and a majority turn out beautifully preserved in color. It reminded me of paint. It’s time consuming but it’s beautiful but not for every flower. And I learned about silica. I tried a little container and it preserves them in their original shape beautifully. So I got a big airtight bucket and more and more silica and soon I was using that bucket for weeks and the petals reminded me of paint strokes. And that made me think.. what if I used the petals as paint? I don’t have my children’s gift of painting with acrylic.. but the petals come in so many hues and shades with little details already built in. All I’d have to do is find a way to stick them on a substrate and arrange them how I want, thus led me to my battle with adhesives! (See an earlier post about that!!!).
So over the past few months this has been my joyous attempt at art. Each one becomes my favorite! And I am hoping they become other people’s favorite!

And now I hope you’ll visit Whatcom Art Market in Bellingham WA to see the originals or go online and shop for products with my designs at society6.com/refindcreations or in my Etsy store which is under construction!!
©Belindabotzong2018
To find the very best adhesives at the best price – I recommend the following:


Acrylic Medium Glossy https://amzn.to/2LCuLsd
Mod Podge https://amzn.to/2RjZ8sU
Krylon Spray Adhesive https://amzn.to/2BMfRLC