3 Generations of Struthers

My family was recently approached by the Creative 360 Studio in Midland, MI to do a exhibit with them. I come from a family of artists and they said that they were interested in doing a generation show.

If anyone is in or around Midland January 18 - February 22, please stop by and see our work - Creative 360 Stage, Studio & Gallery 1517 Bayliss Rd. The opening will be on January 18 from 7:00pm - 8:30pm. Visit their website for further information: http://becreative360.org/class-942.htm

Just to give you an idea, there will be five of us showing our work:

Carol Struthers - My Grandma - She will be showing her beautiful woodblock prints
Clint Struthers - My Dad - He will be showing his wonderful handcrafted furniture
Leslie Struthers - My Aunt - She will be showing her carefully handcrafted turned wood
Jodie Struthers - My Mom - She will be showing her outstanding oil paintings
Me - I will be showing my watercolor and oil paintings

Hope to see you all there!

New Year

Hello everyone! I have been bad and not written on here at all lately! Between work and traveling for the holidays, I haven't had any free time.

I have some resolutions this year for my design and jewelry:

1. Post on my blog at least every other day - might have to work up to this
2. Possibly start another blog that would be dedicated to my design work. Possibly update this blog and use this one too.
3. Get my jewelry into some galleries around Grand Rapids and the possibly other states.
4. Create some more glass wall hangings and get them into galleries.
5. Promote my Etsy shop - get it all over the web!
6. Create more designs that I can post
7. Create a website to showcase my design work and to use as a portfolio

Ok, this may seem simple and easy but I think it will take some time. I am getting my mind set on how I want to achieve all this and in what order I need to do it in.

For now, I hope you all have a happy New Year!

Happy belated Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has had a nice couple days with family and friends.

I am very thankful for the love of my family and my husband. For my job where I learn something new everyday and my coworkers that make me smile.

After a couple days with family in Iowa we are headed back to GR this morning anPd Payton is happy to be heading home with her new Thunder Blanket!

Happy Monday

Mondays are always hard to get back in the swing of things, but knowing I get to come home and snuggle this sweet girl makes my day!

Finished Display

Finally finished!

Jewelry Display

Fun DIY way to display my pendants. I bought some old frames at a garage sale, then cut foam core board to fit in it. Then I found some fabric I liked and wrapped the board with it. After taping it in place in the frame, I used sewing pins to hold the pendants up. Very simple!

Happy Weekend!

I know for my little girl, the weekends are the best. Hope everyone else has a great one!

Promotional Material

I don't know about everyone else, but I love to create things, but I am horrible at marketing my work. Creating this blog and creating my Etsy shop was a big step for me. With the holidays coming around, I thought that a postcard might be a good way to get the word out there. I am sending it to the printer tomorrow, can't wait to see it!

ArtPrize

In 2010 and 2011 I participated in a wonderful city wide even in Grand Rapids called ArtPrize. I didn't have the time to do anything this year, but I thought I would share with you my painting from last year.

I would love to be painting more, but I find that there are so many things that I want to do that there just isn't enough time in the day! This is to help inspire me to get back into painting soon :)

The painting in 2010 was dedicated to my Grandma because she would garden with me as a child and started my love of flowers. The 2011painting was dedicated to my Grandpa. He passed away that year and this was my tribute to him. This was the most difficult and challenging painting I have done and I think he would have liked that I pushed myself with it.

Both painting are done on 200lb cold press watercolor paper with watercolor paint.

 

Here is the beginning stages of the bottom Iris.

 

 

View of the two iris as they develop. I like to work all over the canvas as I go, but this one was a little different. I completed the bottom iris first then went on to the second. Then I went back in and added the darkest parts.

 

After the flowers and background were done, I went in and added the fuzzy yellow part of the iris.

 

This is a picture of the 2010 and 2011 paintings together. They are framed and matted the same so that they are a pair, just like my Grandparents were for over 60 years. :)

Pinterest

I have had a Pinterest page for about a year now and for some reason it never occurred to me to link it here! Being one of those people are addicted to Pinterest, there are a ton of fun things for you to check out. Everything from design, glass, clothes and fun pet pictures, you name it I probably like to pin it!

Struthers Studios on Pinterest

Here are a couple images I found on there this morning - might give you an idea of what I like to pin :)