Sea Glass Shop Update - First Day of Spring

My etsy shop is stocked! (as of Noon EST 3/20)

 All these pretties will be there (above and below, and more!) Go check them out :) Free domestic shipping, and $5.95 shipping for all internat'l friends. Purchase by 8am 3/22 and I will ship on 3/22!

This shop update includes wire wrapped sea glass pendants on a variety of chains, dangly earrings on sterling silver ear hooks and studs on sterling silver posts. All the sea glass has been hand picked by me from the Atlantic coast, specifically the Virginia Beach area.

Let me know what you think! I appreciate feedback on the shop: feel free to comment below, or direct message me through facebook or instagram.

You guys are the best and I thank you for your continued support!

Isn't bonfire glass just amazing and organic feeling!

Blessings!
Chelsea Rose

March Madness!

Madness in the best possible way.
Had a booth at the Art Bazaar hosted by The Tar Roof on the 6th. Pungo is a beautiful area and I was so happy to meet the people at The Tar Roof and everyone that came out to see the vendors and hear the music. Hope to join them again in the future.

I've started using more metal types for the sea glass jewelry - now offering a 14k gold plated necklace and dangly earrings, antique copper necklace and dangly earrings, and stainless silver (hypoallergenic) dangly earrings and studs, in addition to the original sterling silver dangly earrings, studs and necklaces.

Antique Copper Wrapper Dangly Earrings

14K Gold Plated Dangly Earrings

Antique Copper Wrapped Necklaces

Walking the beach was a warm adventure this past week and I was able to get my toes on the sand and cool off in the beautiful temperature water.

Have a great week lovelies - Monday is soon upon us, we've "sprung" forward and I will be balancing jewelry making and graphic designing this week. (oh and exercise and hopefully a walk or two on the beach).

Much love,

Chelsea

Keepin' it Up in 2016!

Back on the wire wrapping grind (just kidding, it's not remotely a grind - although sometimes my fingers are a bit tender from working the wire!). 

Finding pieces on the beach isn't always super easy, but some days the stars align, the tides are perfect and the beach is littered - in the best way. Oh and I even had my husband as a buddy on one of my last trips! He snapped a shot of me as I was scoping out a slightly more debris filled area, and I got one of him on the rocks (yes, the ones you probably aren't supposed to be on). 

In the next month I plan to add some variety to my offerings... stay tuned to see what I add! (exciting!)

From Raw... to Wrapped!

Look at that handsome fella.

Yeah, his phone is different than mine - forgive the grainy quality!

Hope everyone is having a lovely 2016 so far! Follow your daydreams y'all! (I saw that recently on instagram, and I basically love it). 

Take care, 

Chelsea 

NEON Holiday Art Market

Yesterday was so lovely at the NEON Holiday Art Market in Norfolk!
I was excited and nervous leading up to it - but I was really happy to see the community out and about checking out the different vendors (me included). It was nice to hear your suggestions for new products and locations for finding sea glass around the US and beyond (it's so fueling my travel itch).

If I met any of you yesterday, let me know! I have an instagram account (where sneak peaks of what I'm working on are regularly posted) and a facebook page where I less regularly post my whereabouts.

See you later lovelies!

Chelsea

Ramping up for the Holiday Season

As Halloween ended, I jumped head first into some awesome ideas that had me up way into the night - what is the best way to adhere crayon shavings to the inside of an ornament? Can I use sand as glitter inside an ornament? What will I do with all this sea glass that I've been finding (from the trip in Rhode Island and my daily life in Virginia Beach)?

What do you think about these beach sand ornaments? Handpainted beauties on the outside, Hand collected and cleaned local sand on the inside?

These weren't totally done, I finished them off with pretty tops, and a photoshoot on a fir tree. Talk about beachy christmas-y!

     

Of course, originally - I was just making some awesome digi camo themed ornaments because of my love for a sailor... which then grew to a different digi camo for my respect for the army... but that's for another post! Or you can see them on the etsy shop!

I'm happy for all the changes coming up. It's been a year of something, and I know it's just getting better every day!

Blessings!

Chelsea

SO many changes!

In the last couple of months, I took a hiatus from the blogging world - but my adventures have been mostly cataloged on my instagram.
The highlights include: a roadtrip, a marriage, a move, a new nephew, and some art (more to come).

It's back to the grind (the most flexible grind I've encountered). I am currently in Rhode Island, working as a graphic designer and making art on the side, while I hang out with my fantastic huszband (yes, huszband).

Hope everyone is having a delightful Fall, I have just started to learn of it's magical qualities.

Chelsea

Recent Work: Chaplain's Church Service at Sea

Well howdy all, 

New stuff is on the horizon, and I am anxious to learn about what comes next. Give me another week or so and I'll news. In any case, I have been doing some nice watercolor pieces recently for a few couples in the Navy. A custom watercolor of the ship with the chaplain's flag flying can be seen below. I was really happy with my work, and can't wait for them to get it framed so that I can see it in all its completed glory. 

14" x 11" watercolor painting of the USS New York (LPD 21)

I got to watch the lucky recipient as he got his custom painting, and what I saw that amazed me the most was the look of love and adoration towards his wife. His little girl and wife had seen the piece in production and when the painting was shown to the almost 2 year old, she said, "daddy's boat!" Heart melting stuff ya'll. 

I love being a part of their family history, in this little way marking his first deployment as Chaplain, with the painting of the ship. Of course the wife is the mastermind, I was just the hired worker! haha. 

Live every day in love, 

Chelsea 

P.S. If you're local to Jacksonville/Jacksonville Beach - go to the Beaches Art Walk next Tuesday 8/11 - I unfortunately won't have a table this month, but it's bound to be a nice event. 

Do you teach private or small group classes?

A common question I have been getting recently is - do you teach private or small group lessons for children?

The answer - yes! I am a K-12 certified Art Teacher with the Florida Department of Education with experience teaching all the grade levels as well as 4-6 year olds. I am a 2011 graduate from the University of North Florida with a B.A. in Art Education. I have taught at Wayman Academy of the Arts, Jefferson Davis Middle School and the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.

Sessions are an hour long for students 4-7, 8-11, or 12-15. Older students and adults may be interested in 1 hour or longer sessions. Lessons are adjusted to be appropriate for the age range. If your child is younger than 4 yrs old - don't worry, we can figure something out - possibly a "Parent and Me" style session where the students engage in art materials to create something with some assistance.

We can customize your lessons to your media and interests. Media include pencil, watercolor, acrylic, oil pastels, chalk pastels and charcoal. Other media can include mixed media for collage, air dry clay, sculpture, beading, weaving, and more.

I can come to your home, "pack in and pack out" the supplies, or you can come to me off of San Pablo Rd S. and Atlantic Blvd.

For prices, deals and to get a little more insight to your wants for yourself or your children, please email me.

Let's get creating!

(You can also ask for pictures of sample student work).

Painting for Love

I have recently been approached by a few fiances and wives to make something special for their special someone. I gotta tell you - I LOVE making these pieces. Now, since they haven't received them and been able to appropriately gift them to their people - I can't post them here. But I can tell you about one of the ideas that I loved making.

Hand-painted wedding guest "book" canvas. So, that's a lot of descriptive words to explain that I painted a canvas with a unique design to represent the soon-to-be-married couple. Their guests can sign in the details or background with the appropriately assigned sharpies or paint pens (still going through a research phase to determine the best markers for the job).

It's a nautical/Navy themed guest book, with the size of the sections for the rope perfect for signatures from the guests. Alternatively, a black ultra fine tipped sharpie can be used in the background over the blue to sign slightly longer notes to the happy bride and groom. It is adorned with an anchor and the date of the wedding. Optional to include the names of the bride and groom or to put the last initial within the curving rope. Let's just say, I can't wait til I can post this design up and then create your custom piece (assuming you fine reader would also like a rope and possibly nautical themed wedding guest "book" - the colors of the rope, anchor and background could be adjusted to your preferences as well). So many options to truly make it perfect for you and yours.

The square not on the left is pictured without it's final shadowing detail, whereas the "heart" knot on the right is pictured complete (and a hint of the anchor gold/yellow is peaking in!).

Anyways, that's one of three that are on deck - hope to see everyone at the art walk at the Beaches tomorrow! :)

Florida Love

Over the last couple days, weeks, months, I have been toying around with the plethora of adorable home state love expressions seen around the web and the craft stores. I have been fascinated by combining the state, the map, the outline, of where I live or have lived with the dates, initials or shapes of important factors from that time frame.

Well, last night, I finally made something. Tape resist with the shape of the state of choice (FL) in this case, with some more tape resist as the month and year we started living in said state. Oh, and a cute heart that plays with positive and negative space (because our city is on the coast) over the city we live in (Jacksonville).

I added a couple little dolphins as they have some significant meaning to my and my significant other, and used variations of blues for the "background" a play on the coast and well, something for the cute dolphins to come out of. I love commemorating happy moments, and this is just something I think will be a great addition to our home. (Plus, if we move, it's a pretty quick and simple thing to make another one that's different but the same!)

I haven't shown Alex it yet - but I think it's going in his next package! What do you think about it? I'd love to make one of your state, dates, significant things if you'd like :) By the way, this is on an 8x10" canvas panel, so super easy to mail.

Looking forward to heading to the Beaches Art Walk tonight as it's the Second Tuesday of the month! Come visit! :)

Natural Awakenings Conference

This past weekend I got the delightful opportunity to meet in person a few people that I have been working with for the last six months. Sometimes, when you work digitally in often times far away places, you don't get to know your supervisors or fellow employees.

Over the weekend, that changed for me - I got to meet some fantastic humans and it only confirmed that I love the variety in my life to work with publishers of different locations of Natural Awakenings magazine (here and here), as well as my independent art business. I am able to layout magazines when that season is in session and spend the remaining time creating and sharing physical art - so fun!

I have some new goals in mind for the next few months, to accept and embrace consistency in the most mundane of tasks to ensure that I am as efficient and spectacular in my profession as possible.

By the way - Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to all the fantastic people in the world who put their time and energy sharing with others and learning extreme patience and compassion. Below are some pictures from my trip!

The conference was in a hotel on the beach in Marco Island, FL. When there was a break between sessions we could take a quick walk in this beautiful splendor. 

    

On the last day, went to this delicious place on the marina called Mango's - and I am excited to go back in the future to have some more yummy food. 

UNF Sculpture: Iron Pour

Rock star humans of UNF Sculpture hosted an Iron Pour a few weeks back on the University of North Florida's campus. Hundreds of pounds of cast iron was poured into molds made by students, faculty and community supporters (like me!). They were dressed in leathers in the hot hot sun, moving hot hot metal. Being in an environment like an iron pour (even though I was just watching) where everyone needs to help and watch out for each other all in order to pull of this massive art making endeavor, is truly amazing.

To give you a bit more of a visual, you better bet I took pictures! It's just so darn neat!

So, I decided, "Yes, of course I want to make a scratch block and contribute to this awesome program." I got a rectangular scratch block, and then gathered around any hard pointy, scoopy, flat "tools" I had around the house. Predominately, I used a tool for scooping designs out of plastic clay and a dremel bit. But I also had some butter knives and a nail/screw or two.

Transporting the blocks (I got three, one for me and two for my friends) in the box, saved my car from some sand, and made it easier to handle - sand can get heavy!

After I 'scratched' in my design into the sand/epoxy/resin block.

After it the cast iron solidified and any sharp corner bits were removed by UNF students (thanks!) Ironically enough, for my friends I remembered to remind them that everything they made would come out mirror image (so they needed to write letters backwards) but I forgot the same goes for pictures, but I think it looks pretty darn neat anyways. 

My inspiration, the USS New York. 

For images of the pour itself, click on ahead!

Jacksonville Beach Art Walk

Tonight's Art Walk was great! It was my first time out there and I'm pumped to do it again!

Met some great people was reminded to keep the passion! And got to make a couple of pieces out by the breeze and in the sunshine. If you'd like to connect with me for future news, updates and special offers find me on Facebook or Instagram!

Set up with my kente cloth as table cloth, assorted art print postcards and original painting. 

I was able to make some awesome pieces while chatting with folks about the Art Parties (the one still in the spiral watercolor note book is one of the pieces).

And some of my friends stopped by as well! So glad that they can go home with their first original acrylic painting. 

And I'd love to hear some feedback from people who went - comment below or email me art[dot]chelsearose[at]gmail[dot]com What did you like best? What could be improved? What are you looking for on the website?

Hope to see you and everyone again at the Jacksonville Beach Second Tuesday Art Walk!

Babyshower Decorations - The Lorax

Anybody love The Lorax? Well, my friend Jenni does and our friend Jessica wanted to throw her a Lorax themed baby shower party with all sorts of other visiting Dr Seuss characters. So, I set about creating large Truffula trees, mini Truffula trees, and some images for the wall (the Lorax and the fish from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish).

At first it was difficult finding swimming noodles in the end of winter, but thankfully I live in Florida and I found them eventually!

Maybe I'll post details on how I created them, or you can check out a combination of blog posts from this person, this person or this person. But, I sorta mixed and matched to create mine. Take a look! :)

Supplies:
Large Truffula Trees
- Tissue Paper
- Swimming Noodles (Yellow)
- Crepe Paper (Black)
- 14-20 gauge wire
- Tape
Small Truffula Trees
- Tissue Paper
- Neon Extra Long Drinking Straws (moderately difficult - have to wrap in tape to stabilize the bendy part - I used tape)

Art Party Types

Art Parties I've been itching to host! Which means, it's time for me to make some samples and get creative! It feels like it's been too long!

Simple analogous color wash background with a single color detail and layered line design mandala. It's so cute with so many possible variations! I'd love a lime green and yellow with a orange or purple mandala! Or gray and white with a red/maroon design.

Fun variation on all the melted crayon art that's out there, play with heat and color mixing, and while the dreamcatcher design isn't very true to form - it's easy with lots of tear shapes radiating out of the center point!

I'm sure there are more out there that I want to do and make, but those are the ones that jump out at me as I scroll through my pinned materials on pinterest. Thank you pinners of the world who lead me to these images!

Chelsea *

Success and Happiness!

Yay! The goal was reached!!! This weekend was a whirlwind of positivity! The goal was reached on indiegogo (for the details check out igg.me/at/chelsearoseart) and my school fronted me the money to purchase art supplies. As well as my friend got married in Naples (I made an appearance after 6 hours of driving and then left the next day) and I got to see some of my favorite people while I was down. 

So much love and good things happening in my life and I can't wait to share it with everyone. Tonight I order the prints for the postcards and they look like this on their fancy post-consumer recycled paper and they will be found at Thoughtful Threads, an organic clothing and home goods store in Naples, Florida (if you too, are interested in selling them as a retailer, email me here).

I just want to take a moment to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who has made this possible. Not only will the art print postcards come from this campaign, but more art parties will too, like the ones here and here!

This week I am giving back and organizing an art party night for the significant others of the sailors on the USS New York to make squares for a group calendar that will be on display aboard while they are continuing their deployment. I can't wait to snap some photos of us while we are getting ready to send some love in calendar square form! 

"Prepping for Valentine's" Art Party

This Saturday, the 31st we are getting our valentine's feels on over at my place.

Check out the invite for some ideas and come over to make something for yourself, your family or someone special.

Love offerings suggested of $5 or $10 depending on the supplies you choose.

Can't wait to see you there! Bring drinks or snacks and I'll have all the supplies and advice!

*Image above is from google. This and other painting or paper crafts are options for this Saturday. 

Art Parties: Take 2 and 3 in Naples, Florida

My guinea pigs this Holiday break made some fantastic pieces of art down in Naples, Florida - with all of this excitement I have decided to alter my Indiegogo Campaign (that's growing my small business - deadline for all funds raised is Feb 6th!) to include not only these fabulous art print post cards, but also the art parties! In the future each 2-3 hours party will be $15 for all the supplies and guidance, but you can get as many as you'd like now (until Feb 6th) through the indiegogo campaign for only $10 a party! Typically this includes a 12x12 inch canvas and use of paint, brushes, glitter, glue and the technique of the moment (tape resist in these examples). 

Side note, the indiegogo campaign has to reach the goal - or none of the funds come to me - they all go back into your pockets, and I try and grow my small business without your support (sad face, no printed art post cards). My goal is to have art parties at least every other week in Jacksonville, Florida. With special events in Naples, Florida. 

As of writing this post, I am at 54% and have 29 days left! Only 115 passes need to be purchased to make the goal! Not local to Jacksonville or Naples, Florida, but still want to support a creative small business owner? Check out the other perks for contributing or just spread the word, every little bit helps. 

Shown above is Carrie - I have always seen her baking and cooking, but to see this visual artistic side come out in the art party was a real treat! She was so focused with adding her specific details to her painting. She has already purchased a never-expiring art pass - whoohoo go Carrie!

Jake came into the art party and said... I haven't done art since elementary school - something like 20 years ago! He made strong design decisions with some added visual texture to a couple of the pieces. He and his wife Maday enjoyed the party together - both creating something unique and getting back to exploring their creative sides. 

Above is my mother working on a tree with the tape resist, She has always been my inspiration for everything in life and I was glad to be able to share this art party experience with her. Her finished piece is below. 

As we embark upon this new year - I urge you to get creative, check out the tutorial here or other examples here, if you think painting with tape resist may be your thing. 

What do you want to do to get creative this year? 

Art Party: Take One in Jacksonville, FL

A couple of my amazing friends came over this weekend for an Art Party! The inspiration was from this blog post and tutorial. 

Here I will show how with my amazing and creative friends their projects morphed into different things all their own. 

We started with a paper wrapped table, protected chairs and floor (the apartment is new and my boyfriend would want me to keep it as nice as possible). And we used masking tape as a tape resist on the canvas, so that everything covered in tape would have an edge and remain white like the blank canvas. 

Jenni decided to make a design out of basic shapes and repetition. Her cohesive color scheme really brings the focus to the spiral and it's topped off with a little "oomph" of glitter. It will go in the soon-to-be-baby's room!

Kat took a different approach and was inspired by pinterest/google images of love birds, so she made a tape resist tree and border, and painted around it. Her use of glitter was for both accent within the piece on the tree and as a glamorous border. 

Liz loves greens, pinks, purples and blues. She is bold and full of life which is reflected in her painting with broad strokes of tape resist (turned glitter) and vibrant colors. Sorry, I don't have any completed photos to post at this time. 

The ladies brought their own snacks or drinks, I provided the use of my kitchen, glassware, and all the art supplies. Next time I will give a bit more guidance on the glitter (per their request). But overall this was a free space to create, where I encouraged them to try a new technique and see what they could do with it. 

I'd say it was a success! Thank you for being a part of this evening ladies!

More events happening later this week down in Naples, FL. Check out the invite here! All proceeds are going to advance my indiegogo campaign so that I can grow Chelsea Rose Art through postcard sales and Art Party events! Can't make it to an Art Party, but want to support me? Consider contributing to the campaign and get perks of my artwork!