Prosperity Fish Necklace by Manya Vee

Many of you already know I taught English in Asia for close to 8 years back in the late 80s and early 90s, spending time in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Indonesia, and also traveling to many other Asian countries.  It was there I fell in love with the miniature sculpture of beads - handpainted porcelain, carved stones, antique and contemporary silver, etc.  I taught myself how to put necklaces and earrings together, and voila!  An artist was born.

Naturally I was greatly influenced by the designs I encountered there as well.  I collected a lot of unusual components there.  I part with them slowly over time, creating unusual one-of-a-kind necklaces jam packed with interesting beads with their own history and meaning.  Here's my latest piece, just completed a couple days ago.

 

The pendant is hand-carved stone, and features a prosperity fish (that's why there are always fish tanks at the entrance to Chinese businesses).  There are also several longevity peaches below, and a blossoming lotus flower at the top, which I've embellished with a copper spiral of life.

Hand-carved stone with prosperity fish in center

There are some very old, as well as unusual beads here.  There are 4 brown and ivory patterned beads made of carved water buffalo bone.  The ivory part had wax applied before dying it in a brown dye, then the wax was removed leaving this intriguing design.  There's a pair of Venetian glass beads from the 1800s that were used as African trade beads.  They're yellow with red circles and blue lines.  Also enjoy the hand-carved bone tube at upper left.  I collected a bunch of such beads in Indonesia.  No two are alike, albeit they are similar.  The detail just amazes me.

Detail showing some unique beads

The red spherical glass beads were brought back from Africa by a friend around 1994.  They show signs of having been lovingly worn, but are still in great shape.  They're probably not very old, but they are certainly very pretty.  You can also see 3mm tiger eye spheres on the lower strand, neatly dividing sections.  There are some disk-shaped wood beads, and gold-plated heishi beads highlighting certain beads.

Here's what it looks like on someone (me!)

It's a bit longer to better capture the drama and show off more of the beads.  The two strands are joined in back with a connector and a large lobster clasp.  Simple coordinating earrings are also available.

The earring picks up beads from the necklace without overpowering it.

I have such fun making these unique and pretty pieces from time to time!  If you love it, go up to the first picture to find the "buy now" button, and purchase it with PayPal!

Manya Vee

Ginny Huber's nuno-felted scarves are fiber art

Seattle's Ginny Huber spent many years as a collage artist, honing the unique methods of combining various materials into a compelling whole.  

Huber nuno-felted scarf of terra cotta silk chiffon, with raw merino wool fibers in an enticing abstract pattern in moss greens, deep plum, yellow, and various shades of orange and terra cotta.   70" long and 6-7" wide as it varies
due to the felting process.  $98.

Some years ago, she discovered wet felting, and was smitten. It was an excellent way to use her collage skills with new materials. Nuno-felting
in particular has won her over. This is a technique in which materials like raw wool are felted into a base of silk or cotton.


Calming shades of blue appear in this Huber nuno-felted scarf.  The underlying silk chiffon
is a sapphire/indigo blue, with fine merino wool fibers of yellow, sage, sapphire and deep green.
Note the underside in the lower left quadrant, showing how firmly the wool fibers
have bonded with the silk.  65" long x 9-10" wide.  $125.

Ginny's love of color is evident in the vibrant choices she makes and combines.  Her art background ensures that the color combinations are very pleasing, even while often surprising.


Vibrant raspberry hues make this Huber nuno-felted scarf stand out.  The background silk chiffon
is a sheer raspberry background to which fine merino wool fibers in lime green, evergreen, yellow and red
show themselves to be individual flowers, stems and leaves scattered across the surface.  72" long and 6-8" wide, varying due to the felting process.  $125.

Some of Huber's works are more densely packed with wool, as opposed to the rasperry and blue scarves above, which reveal more of the chiffon.  This other, more densely packed style is thicker and heavier.  It also allows for the reverse side to carry its own design, making for a completely different scarf on the other side.

This densely packed Huber nuno-felted scarf has a silk chiffon core, but you are hard-pressed to see any of it
revealed as there is such a high quantity of wool in this scarf.  Soft pink is the overall background color,
with rich purple and plum weaving trails across the surface, and moss green and amber hues playfully adding
their notes.  A couple pieces of vintage cotton lace, and ivory silk chiffon (note that in the detail photo) are felted
onto the surface, building layer upon layer of soft, flexible fiber art.  60" long x 8-10" wide.  $145.

Other scarves, like the terra cotta and blue examples above, use less wool, and thus reveal more of the background silk.  These styles in particular have excellent drape and weight, and are very flexible.  While quite thin, they are actually quite warm and suitable for cooler temperatures.  Yet because they are natural fibers, they also breathe nicely, so can be worn in more temperate climes.

There's something very enticing about the golden amber tones of ochre. In this Huber nuno-felted scarf, silk chiffon that has been dyed ochre has a lovely yet light array of quality merino wool fibers in a vibrant brick red, celery green, evergreen, yellow and ivory. A splash of burgundy is splashed here and there.
80" long x 8-10" wide, varying due to the felting process.  $125.

Several other scarves are available at Manya Vee Selects at this time.  If you'd like to see more examples, just write it in the comments, or call the gallery for even more information (425-776-3778).

Choosing a Ginny Huber nuno-felted scarf is a way to enhance your unique and distinctive style.  Wearing such beautiful things is a great way to share a moment of beauty with a complete stranger!  What more could one ask in our world today?  We hope you'll find one you love!

Gale Franko's Dichroic Glass Jewelry

After 30 years as an Emmy-award-winning television producer, writer and editor, Gale Franko had had enough.  Along the way, to combat stress, Franko began making jewelry from glass beads.  It was not only therapeutic, it was addictive.

Determined to learn how to make glass beads herself, Franko invested in a torch, glass rods, and other necessary equipment.  The first attempts were exciting, but a final element was missing.  In order to prevent easy breakage of the glass, the beads must be held in a kiln at a specific temperature in a process call annealing.  This ensures that all the glass molecules heat and cool at the same rate, preventing the glass from cracking after it has cooled.

In the end, it was the kiln and it's multiple possibilities that won over Franko's heart and lured her into glass fusing.  The magical sparkle of dichroic glass was irresistable.  Thus began her part-time business of Looking Glass Designs, making pendants, earrings and other jewelry.  She began to build up some wholesale accounts, developing relationships with boutiques and galleries that sold her jewelry.

Dichroic Glass pendant by Gale Franko

The high stress of the job finally got to be too much, and a few years ago, Franko took the plunge into being a full-time artist.  Always a big leap, this required a big move into growing those wholesale accounts.  That means doing wholesale trade shows, and coming up with new and clever ways to get in touch with galleries and boutiques.


Selection of dichroic
glass rings

The recession has been a particularly difficult time for artists.  The most resilient ones continue to grow and innovate.  Franko is among those, and came up with a line of home decor objects to expand her potential sales and potential gallery representation.  Fused glass votive holders, spoon rests, cheese trays, picture frames and more are now a regular part of her line.

Glass cheese tray

To differentiate herself from the myriad other artists doing such work, Franko creates the glass designs herself, by melting powdered glass and thin glass rods onto clear glass, and making things out of that.  Check out the gorgeous lime-aqua-purple cheese tray pictured here.  It's a wowzer!  And because she creates the glass, no two will ever be exactly alike.

Franko now shows her work in  34 states around the country, plus the Virgin Islands.  The sparkle of the dichroic glass, combined with the simplicity of her shapes, has an ever-growing group of collectors always on the lookout for her latest colors and shapes.

Come see Franko's jewelry and home decor items, and meet the woman herself!  She'll be our featured artist at the December 20 Art Walk in Edmonds, and on hand to answer questions from 5 - 8 pm that evening.

"Rain Forest House" pendant
of dichroic glass

Mosaic Master Angie Heinrich of Zetamari

From her tiny studio in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood, Angie Heinrich creates artworks of classical elegance using small glass tiles and beads.  Her mission is "to create spaces that vibrate with positive energy, opening doors to inspiration, joy, and serenity."

Since 1998, Heinrich has been making a variety of things with mosaics.  She enjoys "the soothing symmetries" of glass tiles.  A love of ancient Moroccan art and architecture informs her color and design choices.



18 x 22 oval mirror featuring brick red and
molten gold tesserae, with bead accents.

In fact, she loves that ancient style so much that she went all the way to Italy and Spain just to study mosaic making with masters of the art over there.  Being surrounded by intricate mosaic imagery hundreds, and sometimes over a thousand years old, further solidified her admiration.

Heinrich emphasizes that in addition to honing her design sense, the masters instilled an unwavering devotion to technique, and pride of workmanship.

A close inspection of any of Heinrich's pieces reveals that to be true, as the careful placement of each tiny piece makes the finished whole a beautiful and complete work of art.




Picture frame holds 4x6 photos
with blue iris and silver tesserae
and accents

While mirrors of various shapes and sizes make up the majority of Heinrich's line, she also creates frames for 4x6 photos, jewelry boxes, and a lovely line of candle cups that retail for $24.

A Heinrich art piece can be made in any color the hand-made Italian glass tiles, or tesserae, come in.  That covers the entire rainbow of color options.



Jewelry box with mosaic lid

The variety of options also means there's something affordable for everyone.  While the mirrors range in price from $98 for a small 10" diameter round to $675 for the amazing 30" diameter round, the jewelry boxes are $120, the picture frames $68, and the lovely candle cups just $24.

Candle Cups

A big part of Heinrich's fascination with this medium is found in her own words: "My journey with this art form is intensely spiritual as I aspire to express an interconnected world where seemingly small and inconsequential experiences affect the whole.  Mosaic is a medium effect at illustrating how carefully shaped pieces can unite with other tesserae to create something rich with texture, color, and meaning.  There's something magical about mosaic when it offers a detailed holistic view simultaneously."

Heinrich makes a personal appearance with her art at Manya Vee Selects on Thursday, November 15, from 5 - 8 pm, in conjunction with the Edmonds Art Walk.  You are invited to stop by and meet her, and enjoy her art in person.  If you aren't able to make it, stop by any time, because we always offer a variety of mirrors, jewelry boxes, frames and candle cups!  Or simply call us to place an order: 425-776-3778.

Enjoy our special slide show of a Heinrich studio tour!

Artfully yours,
Manya

Jewelry - Sharing Beauty With The World

Rings, Bracelets, Earrings, Necklaces by Manya Vee Selects artists

Jewelry. According to Wikipedia, jewelry has no other purpose than to look appealing. Well, we here at Manya Vee Selects take issue with that! To us, jewelry is a way each and every one of us can share a little piece of beauty with the world around us as we walk through our day. It makes not only you feel a bit more beautiful yourself, but also brings delight and enjoyment to friends and complete strangers.

Here she is, sporting her
new garnet necklace, earrings
and bracelet!

The oldest-known jewelry is over 100,000 years old, made of Nassarius shells. (How many of you had a puka shell necklace at some point in your life?) Since then, people have been making jewelry out of all kinds of materials, including metals, stones, glass, bone, feathers, and whatever else they can get their hands on.

Puka Shell Necklace

I love that the derivation of the word “jewelry” comes from the Latin “jocale”, meaning plaything! I often see people playing with their jewelry: twisting a ring, or moving a pendant along its chain. It's a fun aspect to life indeed. But throughout history, jewelry has taken on a number of purposes, including currency or wealth display, function - as in clasps or fasteners, symbolism - to show membership or status, protection - in the form of an amulet or talisman, or simply artistic display.

When I was hiking in the Himalayas, in passing through a village, you could always tell which woman was the chieftan's wife because of the ostentatious array of turquoise, coral and amber jewelry she'd be wearing.

Interestingly, function and wealth have been the main roles of jewelry. Although making those look beautiful has always been part of it, it has played a secondary role. Until the 19th century, that is. In the late 19th century, jewelry masters Peter Carl Faberge and Rene Lalique emphasized the artistic qualities that jewelry could embody.

Brooch by Lalique

That trend has continued until today, with many thinking of jewelry in terms of miniature sculpture. Alexander Calder influenced many of the jewelers at Manya Vee Selects, including Manya herself. Also a sculptor, Calder reduced the scale of sculpture to jewelry size, and made a name for himself as an innovator in terms of style as well as materials used. He often used materials viewed as non-precious including pottery shards and woven cording, and less-precious metals like brass and copper.

Calder Necklace of brass

The late-20th century has seen the emergence of a strong art jewelry movement, defined specially as jewelry designed to promote a concept. The concept is more important than the materials used. It might be a plastic-coated photograph, encased in an acrylic frame hanging on a cotton cord, as opposed to diamonds and gold. The content of the photograph and the way it is presented are what provide the value here, as opposed to the intrinsic value of gold and diamonds.

Photo encased in resin
on metal

The Pacific Northwest has a very strong group of art jewelers who are known on an international scale. Instrumental in paving the way for this was the now-deceased Ramona Solberg, whose work was clearly influenced by Calder. Ms. Solberg was a fine artist, as well as a teacher and mentor. Under her tutelage, strong jewelry programs arose at various community colleges and even high schools. The Seattle Metals Guild counts among its members many of these intriguing jewelry artists.

Solberg fibula brooch

Judy Morgan of J Heather Designs is among the Manya Vee Selects jewelers who says she is influenced by Calder. Even more so, however, she is influenced by the universe and its myriad stars, constellations, comets and other wonders. Her newest jewelry collection incorporates blackened sterling silver, 18-karat gold, raw stones and pearls to great effect. Price range: $125 - $285.

Pendant by Judy Morgan

Hickman earrings, inspired
by Calder

Emily Hickman is another Manya Vee Selects jeweler who loves Calder. She's currently developing an entire collection devoted to his influence. This pair of earrings is a great example. Price range: $22 - $225.

Parrott necklace, inspired by
the way leaves and fruit
hang off vines

Cheryl Parrott fits into the art jewelry category by her use of glass beads and copper-coated wire that looks like antiqued brass. Cheryl studies the way fruit and leaves hang off vines, and tries to capture that in her jewelry. Notice how it is assymetrical, yet balanced. Price range: $28 - $150.

Three rings by Bill Booze:
Amethyst, Tourmaline,
London Blue Topaz

I can't help but be fond of colorful, sparkly stones. Bill Booze buys his stones raw and facets them himself, using only the most amazing and high quality stones available. He sets them himself, often in sterling silver to keep the costs within a more reasonable level. Simple settings make the stone itself stand out. Priced from $300 - $1200.

Fused, Forged and Woven
from Manya Vee's new collection

I myself have been influenced by a number of factors over the past year, which is culminating in an entirely new and completely different line of jewelry for me. Rounded shapes like circles, ovals and teardrops are forged out of fine silver. Then, I weave a very fine 14k gold-fill wire around the frame. Finally, a single, wrapped stone is added at the bottom. Prices range from $48 to $138.

Whatever your reasons are for wearing jewelry, we hope you'll enjoy the wide variety of jewelry offered by over 25 jewelry artists at Manya Vee Selects!

Artfully Yours,
Manya Vee

www.ManyaVeeSelects.com

Kelly Sooter's Fascination with Landscapes

Quiet Moments, by Kelly Sooter.  11z14 oil painting

Kelly Sooter's favorite books as a child were a series of books depicting the scenery of America through photographs. She poured over those books again and again, and experiencing the height deficiency of most 5-year-olds, enjoyed them even more once her mother placed them on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf.

Sooter painting in her home studio

On road trips between home in Spokane and vacations to the San Juan Islands, Sooter would stay awake the whole trip, staring at her favorite parts of the landscape flying by outside the car window. She often wanted to ask her father to stop to she could examine something more closely, but knew he wouldn't understand.  This early fascination is only recently finding its way into her long career as a painter, as many obstacles got in the way.

Being part of a very musical family led her into singing and piano rather than painting. There were no visual artists in her family, so no tools or influences were around. Then in Junior High School, she took an art class that included painting, and absolutely loved it! Despite more art classes being unavailable, it always stuck in her mind.

Bled Castle in Slovenia,
by Sooter's mother

Out of the blue, while in high school, her mother picked up some canvases, paints and a palette knife and began painting scenes from National Geographic magazine. Many as large as 4' high, Sooter enjoyed the thick layers of paint and her realistic results.

A Moment in Desert Canyon, by Kelly Sooter. Oil Painting.

Along comes college, a business degree, and a husband! Sooter wanted to take art classes as well, but knew she wanted to learn structure, composition, design and color theory. Such things were not possible in any art schools with their emphasis on deconstruction, abstraction and modernism. She knew she wanted classical European training.

Bookcover of book
by Bjorg Kleivi

Her persistence paid off when she found Norwegian traditional folk artist Bjorg Kleivi, with whom she studied for 10 years. Kleivi would come to Burien every 18 months or so to work on 96 panels commissioned by a church there. Working in acrylics, Sooter studied hard, and her drive and focus paid off as her own panels now hang next the works of this master in the church, being done with such great skill.

Zhostovo style tray by
Slava Letkov

After that, she wished to move beyond that form and sought the tutelage of Russian Zhostovo master Slava Letkov, who is today the last master of this art form in Russia. This distinctive style features a group of highly realistic flowers on a black background, painted onto a tray. Sooter mastered this art form so well that she became a highly sought after teacher in this country herself. She continued to paint and sell her own works in this technique until 2010.

Pair of alder boxes, replicated by Sooter, inspired by
two boxes brought here from Europe

About two years ago, a life-altering trip to Laguna Beach brought it all together for Sooter. She'd been photographing landscapes for many years, but saw it only as a hobby. Then she began sketching the landscapes as well, with Bend and Leavenworth being favorite subjects. But it was in Laguna Beach that she encountered works by landscape masters Scott Christensen, Shane Townley and (now deceased) Wolfgang Bloch. Sooter knew she needed to do this herself, and let that 5-year-old who fell in love with those landscape pictures in the books find her voice.

Photo and initial sketching on left.  Final painting on right of
A Plumb Line in La Connor, oil painting by Kelly Sooter

She studied the works of these 3 painters, who were melding texture with landscapes. “What I needed to do with my art hit me with full force. It opened my artistic world to mediums and design that let my real artistic voice come to the surface.”

In the studio, showing various stages of a painting,
View of studio from corner,
Wet Paint area, waiting for next layers

Various brushes, and color
blending experiments

What we see in Sooter's landscapes today is a culmination of her very early, and lifelong, infatuation with landscapes, informed by the specific skills and methods learned from her mentors. This includes things like pushing oneself to “tone” colors (e.g. add some red to blue to gray it down for a good sky color, as opposed to simply adding white); applying composition and design tenets by finding balance between the lightest and darkest points on the canvas; pushing paint brushes to their maximum potential by knowing when to apply pressure, how much to apply, and when to release it. This last aspect is especially noticeable in the water features of her current landscapes.

Tubes of oil paints
in the Sooter studio

Having used acrylic paints in her previous art experience, Sooter also made a move to oil at this point. “The luminosity is simply not possible in any other medium.” And luminosity within her landscapes is a major goal for Sooter. In a 10-day Russian icon painting classes taken some years ago, she was mesmerized by the application of gold leaf, creating a fascinating effect. Sooter found a perfect oil to achieve her desired effect in Chroma's Pale Gold, which she applies as an undercoat to each canvas, helping achieve the luminous effect.

Early on in her landscape attempts, Sooter was frustrated with not getting just the right translucence in her clouds. A friend painter turned her on to Old Holland paint, which is the paint Vincent Van Gogh used, and is the only oil paint she has found that gets just the right look for clouds.

Reflections of a Young Heart, oil painting
by Kelly Sooter.  Great example of using
Old Holland paint for the clouds.

She loves to use Vasari paints, which like Old Holland paints, are made with actual stone-ground pigments. She also uses Gamblin oils, which are not stone-ground, but of very high quality. Each type of paint yields a different result, which her years of skill applies to the canvas to achieve exactly the result she's after.

Her love of landscapes is evident in her current paintings, which meld classical and impressionist art forms, striving to capture the beauty and serenity of the view. The Pacific Northwest offers a plethora of picturesque views to capture, and all the works in our current exhibition were inspired by them.

Meet Kelly Sooter in person on Thursday, September 20, at Manya Vee Selects. Enjoy a large showing of her work through October 16, as well as a smaller collection thereafter.

Manya Vee Selects

409 Main St

Edmonds, WA  98020

425-776-3778

www.ManyaVeeSelects.com