October Full Moon #3

Hello Ladies,

This month has been CRAZY BUSY!  I took a few hours for myself and visited Peg at the Best Of The Northwest show and what a treat that was!!!  Relaxing and fun.  Her work, as always was beautiful and her booth warm and inviting.  It wasn’t difficult for me to find something beautiful for my mom’s birthday in March!

This month my spot is for Lou, who, if I remember correctly not only LOVES HALLOWEEN but has a birthday on October 13!!!!

Early in this art exchange several of you used Shrink Film aka Shrinky Dink so for many months I have been committed to trying it!!!!  THIS IS THE MONTH!  I also wanted to introduce some of you to Pebeo Vitrea 160 paints (since you are all so creative some of you may have used them in the past).  For those of you have not heard of them or had a chance to try these amazing paints I will provide a brief overview of the process.  These paints are meant for hand painting glass and dishes.  You paint it on.  Let it dry for 24 hours.  After it has dried completely you place it in the oven, turn it on to 300 degrees for 40 minutes.  When it’s done you turn off the oven, open the door, and let the piece air cool because it is glass and will crack if you cool it too quickly.  TADA!!!!

I decided to cut out a cute and adorable pumpkin in Brass.  I used the process of chasing and repousse to give it texture and volume.  I then hand mixed the colors that I wanted and created a deep pumpkin orange color with a touch of pearlescence.  You have probably figured out  like that little bit of pop in my pieces that it gives.  I wanted FLAMES for the background so you could see it through the HAPPY PUMPKIN’S eyes which would give it just a little bit of menace but not too much.  Last, but certainly not least,  I needed an adorable Halloween Witch flying past the moon on her broom!!!  This is where the Shrinky Dink came in.  I found my witch, printed her out, cut her out, then put her in the oven to shrink to size.  I hope the pictures help capture as much of the process as possible.  The pumpkin color was a little darker after it went in the oven but it is still a pumpkin!

It will be front heavy so I would suggest hot glue to hold it in if you like it and want to keep it.  It is glued to the background.

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Halloween this year!             

Many blessings to everyone,

Lynn Vernon

July Full Moon #7

The Chakras.

I just can't stop thinking about the Chakras. 

The rainbow colors. The symbols. 

Cleaning & Clearing them.          

 Base. 

Sacral. 

Solar Plexus. 

Heart. 

Throat. 

Third Eye. 

Crown. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5.

6.

7.

When I first looked at the 2 spaces for July, tall skinny bits they are, I planned to make a pile of Faeries. But... I couldn't get the Chakras out of my mind. So, I didn't fight the flow or the inspiration, I jumped in to work with the Chakras.  Wanting to learn the sanskrit symbols and understand why the chakras are made with 2, then 4, then many more petals, surrounding, then start all over again with 2 petals around the third eye chakra.  It seems so... so... disjointed. I figured there must be a reason.  

I looked up the symbols in all my books and checked out things online, like About.com.  I practiced the symbols by looking at them and trying my hand. Oh boy. That was WAY harder than it looked. Many of those brush or pen strokes are so foreign to my hand that they looked wobbly and weird, not like the symbol I was attempting. Argh. What to do? Time was running out fast. 

Just as my last few hours of time left before the moon deadline were quickly sprinting away, I grabbed my shrinky-dinks and my double-decker box of practically every color sharpie in the world. I cut 2 pcs of shrink plastic out in the exact dimension of the 2 spaces, pre-shrink. That meant I would not shrink them. I had no idea what I would create, how each chakra would look, if they'd have the right number of petals or other such stuff, etc. I just drew. What I ended up with is what you see immediately below on the right with my rainbow of sharpies. I loved it. I was thrilled. It was my original art (no copying, no iterations, all me) and it was the chakras. Aaaaaaaaaaand, then I tried to fit them into the 2 spots. Crap-a-doodle! They were 1" too long. Gee maybe I should measure twice before I let the muse take over. But, failed attempt resulted in an even better Chakra end result.

Since that didn't work and I was already behind, I indulged my muse in the circles.  See, I've listened to several meditations that talk of the chakras as spinning spheres or discs. Why not make these into circles?  Why not find a way to make them spin. They don't quite free-spin the way I visualized, but the end result of 2 different sized circles spinning for the Chakras is pretty freakin awesome!  And when they shrank, oh wow. So wee & tiny!  The image above on the left is "Before" shrinking.  The images below are the full 7 Chakras "After" shrinking.  My guess is that Lou needs to learn about and play with the Chakras as much as me. So, my dear Lou here is my suggested visualization/meditation.

Gwennie's Chakra Clearing: 

Recommended when you're feeling blocked, down, bombarded, disconnected / unable to ground, etc. Remember, you can do this for each, a few, or all chakras.  There are no hard & fast rules.  I recommend that you look up what each Chakra means/represents and take that into consideration when you are looking to do some clearing/cleaning.

To set your chakras back right & spinning...
If this is your first time, I recommend you start with the Root/Base Chakra in Red and work your way up to your Crown in Purple. Do that several times - say once a day or so until you get the hang of it or start to feel good.  Then introduce this practice whenever you are called / guided to do so.

1. Take stock of how your chakras feel.  Are they muddy? Broken? Black? Dull? Hard? Not spinning? Flat? Do they not feel "right" or not feel like they are functioning at "your body's normal" to you? 
2. Visualize a white light (gentle, strong, beautiful, bubbly - what ever feels right to you) being sent to that chakra/area of the body.  Allow the light to clear out the area like scrubbing bubbles, crystal clear mountain spring water, or like the fresh air after a spring rain does for your scent sense.
3. Visualize the chakra returning to it's brilliant color - Red if base, Purple if Crown, etc. If your Chakras show you that they spin, then imagine them spinning like a top.  If they glow, then fuel that light with more so that it is positively blindingly brilliant. 
4. Move on to each Chakra until you feel you are done.

May you find joy and bliss in every day.
~GG~
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