Happy Birthday America

I always love a birthday celebration! Today we say happy birthday to America. We will be celebrating in our quiet little corner of the world with a BBQ of ribs and chix wings, potato salad, corn on the cob and popsicles! If we are lucky we will be able to see the fireworks they shoot off the end of the pier from our backyard. We are being lazy, watching movies, reading, blog lurking and enjoying life in the slow lane.
The picture I am posting today is my project from Laurie Mika's class a few weeks ago. I really liked working on this piece. It measures 8"x8" and one of my favorite things in it is the little girl who is made from ceramic clay and has "be yourself" stamped on her. I find working on these polymer tiles very relaxing and it is easy to get into a zone, stamping, painting, and thinking about what you want to do with them. It helps to have a stash of tiles made when you go to put a piece together, so doing a bunch in advance is a good idea. It's one of those projects that doesn't have a right or wrong to it so it feels very playful when you are engaged in it. I highly recommend Laurie's book Mixed_Media Mosaics. It is very well written, lots of pictures, excellent instruction and very inspirational. It's one of the best art books I have seen in awhile.
I have been working on several more jewelry pieces, to be posted later this weekend. I have been having fun with them and I am wearing one of project four pieces as I type! So today, remember take pause, think about what it means to you to be an American. If you are not liking what you think about, then think about what you can do to help make it be the America you want it to be.