Impractical Perfume Bottle Sketch

© Chromeheart

This is a really, really, really impractical perfume bottle that lives on my deskamathing for purely decorative purposes.  The dippy part doesn't reach the reservoir where the scented oil lives, and said oil is too viscous for turning it upside down to work very effectively.

It is pretty, though.

To answer the unspoken question, YES there are christmas lights on my desk, and yes they are usually on while I'm doing things.

Quick Midnight Sketch

© Chromeheart

Yesterday, I cleaned my apartment top to bottom.  When everything was said and done and dusted and
put away, I removed my sorely neglected Handbook journal from its place on the bookshelf and threw it on the table.  I made a cup of tea.  I sat my patootey in the chair, made an ugly face at the last of my drawings in the book, and opened to the next blank page.

What to draw?

I looked up.  Incense burner that had been a sugar bowl in its past life.  Laptop.  Stereo.  Beanie boo.  Ripped note to self.  Blah, all boring stuff.

A former professor's voice came into my head unbidden.  No matter what, don't stop drawing.  It doesn't matter what you're drawing.  If you don't know what to draw, just draw whatever's in front of your face.  (paraphrase)

Okay, then.

The reasoning is that if you're not drawing constantly, you're not getting any better at drawing.  You're not refining your personal style.  You're not... doing anything remotely productive, if you're in the drawing-things trade.  Not that the things I was doing instead of drawing (learning to make masks &etc) weren't productive; they just weren't productive toward becoming a better visual artist.

A Chrome Heart: One of a Kind Jewelry

© Chromeheart / Oscura Photography

Here's a sneak peek at some of the new items that were JUST made available in my etsy store!  Okay, I lied a little bit, the snake necklace in the front isn't for sale.  I just wanted to show it off because I lovelovelove the way it came out!  Unfortunately, I only had enough materials for one, and the snake charms are no longer made.

When I say my jewelry is unique/one of a kind, it really is.  I don't like making the same design over and over and over again like I have nothing better to do.  I'll make one for myself and one or two for the store, and then move on to something new.  Also, I tend not to buy jewelry supplies in bulk, with exception of ribbon, chain, things of this nature.  Pendants, special baubles &etc, I don't normally buy more than three of the exact same thing.  So yes, anything you purchase from A Chrome Heart on etsy that is labeled "one of a kind" truly is the only one of its kind!  I don't have the supplies to make another one, even if I wanted to.  Which I don't.  Break the monotony.

I've always made jewelry on an off and on basis, where I'd get really interested in it for a while, then get sidetracked by art, photography and whathaveyou, and pick it up again a few months or a year later, but I never really stuck with it.  Lately, I find myself getting very irritated with jewelry.  I'm a girl with a baaaaaad case of magpie syndrome.  If it's sparkly, I want it!  If it's not sparkly, I don't, unless it's matte black or something, and don't even get me started on plastic costume jewelry.  It defeats the purpose!  More to the point, the jewelry on the shelves in almost every store I walk into is either cheap plastic and base metal crap that I'd be allergic to even if I didn't hate it, or too expensive for me to mentally justify the cost.

Not that I'm much of a "fashionista" by any means.  I like what I like, and if nobody sells things I like at a reasonable cost, I'll break out the pliers and make it myself.

NaNoWriMo: Insane, Inane, and Completely Worth It.

© Chromeheart / Oscura Photography

NaNoWriMo is a quasi-acronym for National Novel-Writing Month, which authors and aspiring authors celebrate by... writing a novel in a month, regardless of how many other priorities try (or succeed) in getting in the way.  Well, maybe not an *entire* novel, but there is a relatively daunting 50k word count goal.  Full details to be found at www.nanowrimo.org.

Now you might be thinking, "I thought this was an art blog.  That has zip to do with art."

It has to do with the entirety of my excuse for not doing any art since Halloween.  I'm using NaNo to get down an idea for a fantasy novel that's been fermenting in my brainmush for quite some time.  I'd had to stop writing to focus on the things in front of my face through four years of art college, and haven't quite been sure how to 'get back into writing,' as the saying goes.  Rusty writer cogs and whatnot.  On the night of October 31st, I made a snap decision to unceremoniously jump off the dock fully clothed, into... a lake?  An ocean?  A 50,000 word book, perhaps?

My current word count is 40,626 and I'm genuinely surprised how well the book is coming together.  Nine days and 10k words to go!