We are proud to announce that you can find our Broken Branches jewelry line at The Stamp Act in Marshfield, MA. You can also find our recycled window frames with pictures of the Cape in the gallery. This is the first time we are selling our recycled window frames.

This is the frame and photo of Chatham for sale at The Stamp Act. We’ll be adding two more frames in the next couple of weeks at the gallery. We also make custom window frames and can mat any size image. For custom work, please email us at marissa@brokenbranches.com.

This frame is currently in our family room. I love looking at it every day. It reminds me of our wonderful vacations on the outer cape.

This is one of the frames we made for our families a couple of years ago. This is Kevin’s frame. Jim did the custom matting.

You’ll find art from many local artists including: hand-made cards, framed photographs, jewelry, and other fun items. Kelly Kimer bought several rings and framed photos when she was in town. The gallery is awesome. Even though we are in the store weekly, there is new art constantly being added. Be sure to stop by and support your local artists! Jim has even been seen taking a quick nap in the gallery next to the fire place.

The Stamp Act will be having a grand opening for the gallery shortly. I will keep you posted on the date and time. They will also be hosting artist openings each month.

Have a great long holiday weekend. I’ll be working on my journals I made in Kelly Kilmer’s classes over the last two weeks. I even managed to start organizing all my ephemera. You might even find our family kayaking this weekend in Hingham harbor.

Andrew is an amazing artist. He has an eye to turn the ordinary into beautiful works of art. Over the last couple of months Andrew has been posting images he’s digitally altered.

Here are some of his more recent posts of digitally altered art and photos:

Altered fungus

Rendered art

Altered flowers

More flowers

And more flowers here

I love all of Andew’s art and his use of colors.   This is my interpretation of a digitally altered butterfly.  This is the butterfly before:

After:

More on our week in Truro.  We pulled into the driveway for the apartment.  It’s a spacious cape with the print press classrooms on the first floor.  Everything at this school is top notch.  Whether you are here as a teacher or student, the campus has everything to offer you as far as space, equipment, and inspiration.  For me the inspiration was seeing the shed behind the house.  The roof had an overhang that allowed students to paint outside, but be protected from the sun….so cool.

Next we entered the apartment.  At the stop of the stairs is a life size altered doll made of wood and other fragments of metal. I’m sorry I did not photograph the inside of the apartment.  The walls were filled with art.  The kitchen and family room had tons of homemade pottery and art books.  Part of the family room was three older desks in a row over looking the outside.  I parked all my paints and collage media on the drafting table.  I was only in the house for 5 minutes and I already felt inspired to paint and work in my journals.  There was just something about this place that was peaceful and encoured your inner artist to come out.

We had a wonderful roommate, Mitch Lyons.  Mitch teaches clay monoprint classes all over the world including Greece and Tuscany.  I peeked in on one of his classes and I was so jealous….I want to take his class.  Everyone was pulling the coolest prints from their clay slabs.  Mitch is also know for his broomstick method of adding textures and colors to clay form….this is a must dvd for any potter.

On Monday, our dear friend Marie from The Stamp Act, came down to visit.  We were going to work on our journals, but after the rain cleared up, we had sunny skies and decided to take a trip into Provincetown, one of my favorite places on the Cape.  Here are pictures of Daisy and Jim pretending to be Dorothy from the Wizard Oz.  There was a line of people waiting to take pictures of Daisy.

Marie mentioned she had a favorite house off Commercial Street that had the coolest sculptures, gardens, and stone wall.  The stone wall had amethyst crystals, crystal globes and other geods embedded into the wall.   Here are some pictures of the house and a window of a shop that sold altered clocks.

This is a question we have been asked by many since I have not updated the blog in a while. We got back a week ago from teaching a wonderful PMC class for 5 days at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.

The class was for beginners to advanced students. The first day we did introductions and then a demo on the basics of working with PMC. The second through fourth day we did hollow forms, draping, rings, and stone setting. The students had a great time with hollow forms. The last day was for Keum-boo, patinas, and finishing. After the first day I knew this was going to be a great group. It was an amazing class.

Meryl had previous experience with PMC. She makes amazing pieces that look like mini sculptures of nature. I’ll let you know when Meryl starts to sell her jewelry, I’m telling you, it’s amazing! Below are some pictures of the PMC Meryl made in class. The rose is set with a dichroic stone, to the right is a draped pendant that looked like an octopus, and the lower right is a hollow form.

Joe is a metal sculptor. He was enthusiastic and really into the class. He made some really cool hollow forms. We’re hoping Joe will update his blog with pictures of some of his sculptures…hint…hint…

Joe had a great with with Keum-Boo. I think he Keum-Boo’ed almost every piece of PMC on the last day. Joe also had great results with the liver of sulfur patinas.

Celine had an open adventurous approach to PMC. She would like to incorporate her sculptures of animals with PMC. Celine was a lot of fun in class. We even had an in-depth discussion about Airstream campers. Celine made several pendants, hollow forms, and a drum bead. Again, this was a great day for patinas with liver of sulfur.

Last but not least, was Susan. She owns Jobi Pottery and Gallery in Truro, MA. She makes beautiful pottery using slips molds. We bought a starfish and pinch bowl. We loved the simple minnow design. Susan was a lot of fun to have in class. She made beautiful pieces of jewelry. She had some great vintage buttons with her that added some cool textures to her jewelry. I’m sorry Susan left before I got a change to photograph her pieces…..maybe she’ll email me pictures.

I’ll keep posting from my adventures over the last week, including my 5 classes with Kelly Kilmer.