Day 31: Show Off Time, Your 30 in 30 Review!

To all of the 2015 Fused Glass Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge Artists who have completed all 30 days of the challenge...

You have done what seemed impossible,

and your hard work has paid off!  

As Nelson Mandela said, "it always seems impossible until it's done". 

Mr. Mandela was speaking of peace, of course, but for those of you who have completed this seemingly impossible challenge will certainly relate to his wise words.  

 Your work is beautiful and you've improved so much during this normally dismal January.  

I applaud you in your efforts to learn a new skill and start the year off with lots of creativity and fearlessness about the unknown.

Now is the time to post your collage of the pieces you did this month so we can all see your progress!  

If you have trouble creating your collage, please look at yesterday's post for instructions on how to create one.

Although this is the 'official end' of this challenge, I think there are more plans in the works... It is going to be hard for me to just 'quit' when so many of you have given so much of yourselves to participate in this first time endeavor.

If you didn't get a chance to begin the challenge, now is YOUR  time for you to 'get busy'.  You can start at the very beginning and complete the challenges as you go.   To get the most from your efforts, start at the beginning and take each challenge in sequence.  Please post your efforts on the blog page by following the link at the end of each post.  If you would like to join the challenge you can sign up any time through Facebook by clicking the link.

Those of you who have participated, please keep working!  This is not the end, your journey in fused glass powder drawing is only just beginning.  I am sure of it.

I would like to thank this January's participants for your gifts of encouragement towards one another and for

'Playing nice in the sandbox'. 

It is absolutely COMMENDABLE that I did not have to intervene even one time to break up snarky posts and fix hurt feelings.   Hurray to all of you who have been SO AWESOME in participating while encouraging and helping one another without any BS.  I love that. 

You have all made this a project worth doing, and I can't thank you enough for being kind and encouraging  friends toward one another throughout this entire month. 

 That in itself makes it worth it to me to have begun this challenge.

Love to all of you!  ~Kelly

Add your 30 Day Collage Here!

It's Day 30, Congratulations to All of YOU!!

DAY 30 HAS ARRIVED, CONGRATULATIONS 
2015 FUSED GLASS SGRAFFITO ARTISTS!!

The First Ever Fused Glass Powder Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge is now ending, but that doesn't mean that you should stop making small efforts each day to complete SOMETHING!

 I enjoy the daily challenges (and even the frustrations) that go along with working in glass powders, and I've had a really great time working along with you during our 30 days together.  It is sad that the end is at hand, but:

Today is the day to post your gorgeous self-portraits!  

Alas, mine is not finished... I took a 'selfie' and then got insanely busy.

If yours is not finished it's OK... life happens and you can finish it over the weekend and still post it here.

Tomorrow, for Day 31:   I'll put up a link so you can share a collage of your work from the challenge.  
How might one go about making a photo collage, you might ask?.... read on!
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Here are some free websites that you can use to create a collage of your 30 in 30 challenge pieces.  It's really neat to see the progress you've all made, and WOW what progress it has been!  A visual record of everything you've created this month will be a fun thing to share.

The first one is PicMonkey.  

You can connect your photos from Facebook (and I KNOW everyone has their challenge photos ready to go on FB.  ha ha)  
Here is what the screen will look like after you hit 'collage'

The second site you can look at is for everyone who likes Instagram.  If you haven't used it before you should check it out, and then check out Flipagram, which is even betterl!  All of these options work easily and well with Facebook. 

Here is what you'll find on Flipagram.

Post your collage tomorrow, and we'll talk about what happens next :)
Great day to everyone, and THANK YOU for all your hard work this month!

Link your Self-Portrait Here

Day 29: Nearing a Beautiful End

The End of our Fused Glass Sgraffito Challenge is near...

You have all developed into courageous sgraffito-ers, and I am so proud of your progress!

Beginning a challenge like this is difficult even for trained artists, and many of you have told me that your art and drawing experience is very limited.  See what you're capable of???  

YOU HAVE DONE WELL!

Today and tomorrow your challenge is to take a black and white "selfie" and create a glass powder self-portrait from it.  This is a huge challenge for all of us.  I personally have never attempted a self-portrait.  It's very uncomfortable for me to study myself in that way... 

to have a visual record of the way I view "me" is almost too much.  

Maybe that's why I have never tried.  This challenge is on the threshold of what I think I am capable of, both artistically and emotionally.  I think it feels like this for most artists.  

It's a real introspective.

  

It's comforting to know, that should I decide to dump my drawing later  

I'll still have a beautiful, perfect sheet of white glass.  Nothing to lose, right?

 After all, another drawing is jealously waiting to create itself there. 

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I want to tell you about the artist in the photo above, some of you may already be familiar with her.  Frida Kahlo once said,

" I paint myself because I am so often alone, and because I am the subject I know best."  

Aren't we all the subject we know best, but afraid to say it in a permanent way? 

 Maybe we don't want to see ourselves as we really are... read on...

Frida Kahlo was born outside Mexico City in 1907.  She contracted polio as a child, which left one leg slightly disfigured.  

At 18 she was involved in a very serious accident while the bus she was riding on had a collision with a street car.  She suffered a broken spine, ribs, collarbone, pelvis, and a dislocated shoulder.  

As if that were not enough, She also endured eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and an iron handrail pierced her abdomen which would leave her childless...


She spent three months in a full body cast recovering from her injuries, but still she painted.

Frida Kahlo wore long skirts most of her life, perhaps to cover her inability to look like she thought she should.

Although she lived most of her life in horrible pain, bedridden for months at a time, she painted anyway.

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Nobody taught her to paint, she did it anyway.
The curious will always be curious.
The painters will always paint.

Keep working.  You are your own best teacher and 'talent' has so very little to do with anything...

By the way, I haven't even taken my 'selfie' yet and I won't be able to start this challenge until night time...

Add your progress here