I've just finished making new bull kelp rattles. What fun! It took a long time testing the kelp to get it to dry right (dead kelp heads all over my house--pretty sad--they looked like shrunken heads) and then we had a freeze. Mother Nature took care of the problem for me, freezing the washed-up kelp into great textural forms. This is so much fun, gathering the kelp off the beach (people stop me and ask why) and then beach combing or scouring the woods for interesting pieces of wood for the handles. I fill the dried heads with glass beads and wrap them onto the handles, add ornamentation and here they are. Check out the great photography by my son Scott who used a plastic shopping bag for the background giving them their original marine environment look.About Me
- Jan Steinbright
- Sitka, Alaska, United States
- I lived in beautiful Alaska for 30 years, raised my family there and had a dream job working for a grassroots Native organization which assisted Native aritsts to fulfill their dreams. Now I live in beautiful Mexico and am trying to do my own artwork full time, am enjoying the weather, the people and the culture.
Greetings from the temperate rain forest of Sitka Sound. We live at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and on the edge of an island named Baranof. Our view to the west is a stunning volcano which is snow-capped in the winter named Mt. Edgecumbe.
One cannot help but be influenced by the landscape here, the rugged mountains, the forests and the surging sea. My artwork is immersed in this imagery from the kelp baskets, pendants and pins I make from locally-gathered macrosystis and bull kelp to raku sculpture and paintings of marine mammals.
Welcome to Lake Chapala, Mexico.
This where I now live. We are a community on the north side of Mexico's largest lake at 5000 ft. above sea level. The weather runs about 70 degrees year round except for the months of May and June which are hot. Our rainy season starts then which I, as a Sitkan, relish. (never thought I'd say that after living theTongass National Rain Forest for 12 years.) Everything grows here--just take a cutting, stick it into the ground and in a month, you have a new plant! The local people are friendly, the arts community is thriving; I never run out of image ideas for my own art.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bull Kelp Rattles
I've just finished making new bull kelp rattles. What fun! It took a long time testing the kelp to get it to dry right (dead kelp heads all over my house--pretty sad--they looked like shrunken heads) and then we had a freeze. Mother Nature took care of the problem for me, freezing the washed-up kelp into great textural forms. This is so much fun, gathering the kelp off the beach (people stop me and ask why) and then beach combing or scouring the woods for interesting pieces of wood for the handles. I fill the dried heads with glass beads and wrap them onto the handles, add ornamentation and here they are. Check out the great photography by my son Scott who used a plastic shopping bag for the background giving them their original marine environment look.
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1 comment:
Jan - What the link to your Esty store?
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