Linda & Opie's Burnt Offerings

A Blast From The Past

does anyone remember coney island in N.Y.

well last night we went to our next town, Geneva-On-The Lake for a birthday dinner with close friends to a funky restaurant called The Sandy Chanty (our town isn't known for it's eateries). when patt the owner first opened it and was looking for storage space and took down a wall and discovered this gem... a functional shooting gallery from the 1930's coney island amusement park. what a rare find!

and boy did it bring back memories of our days in new york.

Geneva-On-The-Lake was quite the place back in the day and was called the Riviera of the Midwest where millionaires had summer homes. now it's just a funky kind of town and patt is a food historian chef who's food offerings include lobster lasagna and a desert made with tan and black ale ice cream topped with pralines. it's quite an experience to say the least and one i had to share with you.

happy sunday and happy father's day.

Funniest Birthday Wish Goes To...

anyone remember the deities, dada's & the chapel at artfest post in april?

well lelainia from the tattered edge did and here's the birthday wish she sent opie.

she gave her permission to post this and i couldn't resist!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPIE!!

*genuflects before the mighty one*

(sung to the mac davis tune of Oh Lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way".)

Oh lord it's hard to have birthdays

when you're perfect in every way...

it's hard to look in the mirror-

you're gettin' more grey hair each day!

We know you're another year older,

You're aging but what can you do?

Oh lord it's hard to have birthdays

so we'll sing happy birthday to you!!

Hope you have a god...oops! good one!

:) Lelainia

Happy Birthday Opie, Monica & Gemini's Everywhere

How great to be a Gemini... you're so grounded yet your head is always somewhere in the clouds... ready to take flight at a moment's notice. your duality splits you and one moment you're here... then suddenly you're there... and then you're back among us once again... in the twinkling of an eye!

How exciting to be you.

As a Pisces i embrace duality - i understand you - i applaud you and most of all - i celebrate you

So Happy Birthday Dear Gemini's... May You Soar Ever Higher

We're Back...Really!!!

what a month this has been. we've wanted to post but there has not been a week without one, two and even three doctor appointments for opie's mom. we've actually rescheduled our summer so we can be close to home and now that we are, we look forward to posting on a regular basis. we do want to thank all of you who emailed us privately, wondering if we fell off the face of the earth. we haven't but we did go down to the grand-daddy of all flea markets last weekend in the amish county about 2 hours away.

vendors were everywhere, with lots of interesting stuff. we left a little after 5am and got there a little before 7 and it was already difficult to get a parking space. we had some breakfast in the indoor

eatery with a biz-illion other early arrivals and then we hit the ground running and didn't stop for a good 6 hours.

fortunately, the amish think of everything, including wonderful homemade ice cream, made right on the spot in this set-up.

it runs on gasoline, as the amish do not use electricity. in the words of rachael ray... all we can say is YUM-O

the weather was fantastic, the exercise great and here's a peek at just a few of our finds.

we're already looking forward to

going back in sept. over the labor

day weekend. we try to go down

there at least twice a year. it always the best on a holiday weekend!

take a good look at this tin can, isn't it amazing.

i actually wept with joy imagining the DADA's that will be created from this.

oh sweet joy!!!

we'll more later - it feels good to be back and posting.

Happy Sunday...

WE'RE Back.....

art and soul hampton was amazing and we're almost unpacked (not quite - but we're working on it). our studios look like a disaster area, so we've got our work cut out for us as there's not a lot of time between artfest and hampton and opie's mom's health has been problematic since april (lots of doctors - lots of tests - not a lot of results) so this has been our first opportunity to post.    

thank you for your emails and comments... it seems as if we know you all and we love hearing from you.

blogging is truly a great way to connect to like-minded souls and so many of you have become friends in such a short time.

our classes were great and our students were fantastic.

here's a peek at some of the Dada's... aren't they awesome!

this workshop and the entire Dada series of workshops are so eclectic that we never tire of teaching them.

in fact - Who's Your Dada: Redefining the Doll through Mixed-Media is the subject and title of our next book which we're very excited about it.

yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well - more later. happy mother's day... it's a beautiful weekend here in northeast ohio and one of our favorite bi-yearly flea markets is happening tomorrow and as they say...

the early bird catches the worm ;-)

Deities, Dada's & the Chapel at Artfest

the chapel at artfest is a magical place and over the years some really fantastic art has been created in it. but on the last day this year, a serendipitous moment occurred proving the adage - timing is everything!
at the exact moment that opie was leaving the chapel to get something from his vehicle, a student was entering and they met face to face in the threshold of the center of the foyer.
she genuflected before him and opie immediately threw his hands on his chest like Jack Benny, then waved them about saying " Oh  Please, Please... Stop! Stop! "
she looked up at him as if he just landed from another planet and said: "I wasn't genuflecting at YOU... I'm in a CHAPEL. when a friend who was visiting us during the lunch break heard this, she asked opie when had he achieved Deity status as she hadn't been informed. he innocently replied: what was i to think... she genuflected at my feet.
we laughed until we cried, i'm still laughing as i type this and we'll laugh whenever we think of it. i only wish we had it on tape.
we're always humbled by the work our students create and this year even more so, especially opie... LOL!  for some unknown reason our camera had issues, but here's a peek at some of the Dada's that we're displayed at the show and tell on saturday night.. 

we're now in the process of getting ready for Art & Soul in Va. in two weeks, there's still lots to do, especially for the upcoming generation of Dada's that will created there, but we'll try to post again before we leave. in the meantime  we wish you all happy creations.

Talk About a Head Case!

Well - we saved the best for last and these little disembodied, soon to be dada's, are now enroute to artfest anticipating their creative transformations.

i can only imagine what they must be talking to each other about - or the postal service for that matter!

one of the nine boxes we shipped to an artist friend who lives in port townsend, contained only found materials that we collected on our lakeshore and the carrier suggested she open it as it seemed "rattly" -  ohh... is that what cool "junque" sounds like!

she called us and we said she could open it but cautioned her that there was a dolls head in it somewhere that required an advance viewer warning, she offered to give her a good hair conditioning and the postal guy... well he just went postal!!! oh well - you know what they say about one mans trash...

Parting is such Sweet Sorrow!

I received the following email from a close friend today and since opie and i will be offline and artfest bound before we know it, i thought i'd post it with this picture until we return from seattle. the picture is me and my girlfriends at Most Holy Trinity, the catholic school we all went to, back in the 50's. some of us still keep in touch and sometimes it feels as if we're right back in Trinity... still young at heart. i turned us all into rubber stamps along with most of my family and opie's, and years ago created an artpiece titled "Bad Girls Training School"..... can you guess which one is me?

anyway, here's the email i received today and i do not believe i could have answered it any better:

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, she was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let her know.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko (in my case saxophone playing frog) that I didn't need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until  4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to (well maybe not...LOL!), despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet passes on?  But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like growing old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

All Work and No Play

Between this ungodly weather and preparing for our classes at Artfest at the end of the month, opie and i haven't come up for air. we've been making class kits non-stop for the last two weeks and there's plenty more to go.

All of the handouts, resource information and paperwork are nicely sorted and packed. we've cut and sanded 30 wood substrates for our DADA class, as the focus on this particular class is working with wood substrates, dowels, altered heads and more. 

here's a sample of a few of them.

We've etched endless nickel silver panels for both our flat to stacked bracelet class which focuses on patination using a torch, riveting layers of metal together as well as riveting through acrylic and working with bezels and cabochons. the results are always so cool and the level of diversity always amazes us, since everyone starts out with pretty much the same basic supplies.

here's a couple of samples:

our last class on saturday is called fe fi faux and then some, because it transforms ordinary materials into more than the sum of their parts. it's a  pendant-book class which begins with a very cool water torch patina that sort of looks like old gold. as you've probably figured out by now, we love using the torch - which is evident in our studio name... LOL!

In this class we will etch a panel of nickel silver to demonstrate the process of blue-paper etching but being as involved as it is and because there would be so much etchant to dispose of, pre-etched panels will be included in every student kit.  this class will also focus on a relatively new PVC material called faux bone, which was developed by the talented and very funny, robert dancik, teacher and all-around excellent person. drawn bead copper jumprings will finish the piece once everything is riveted together. i think this is a great class for making pin rivets, because there really is no end as to how many layers can actually be riveted together.   

and once that's done, it will look something like this:   

And it's Bambi by a Nose!

when we looked out our window the other day, this is what we saw in our yard. now we know why they were running...LOL!  the ice storm came last night knocking out power everywhere. it was kinda cool in a surreal sort of creepy way, having to immediately stop what we were doing (we're in the midst of preparing for artfest) and just be content in the majesty of it all. we listened to our favorite audio tape from the agent pendergast series by the glow of a lantern, wrapped in blankets with our two cats curled up by our side. opie tried to capture it on film, but he couldn't do it justice. it was an icicle fairyland. unfortunately in the light of day, the aftermath wasn't quite as beautiful. trees fell, branches are everywhere and while our power returned this morning, our neighboring village (just a few blocks away) is still without power. stores are closed even now and they evacuated the assisted living facility where opie's mom lives, so she'll be with us until her power and heat is restored. fortunately she has the soul of an artist and understands our non-stop let's get it done teaching mode attitude. we're like possessed art demons making 85 student kits for two jewelry and a dada doll class and she just watches in amazement as we pack boxes of disembodied doll heads, cool beach-combing finds and other strange yet wonderful things we consider precious. but i just had to stop and take a few minutes to share this with you as life can be so unpredictable from one moment to the next.

...AND... ( doing the happy dance ) our updated website is finally up and running!