The feeling of bliss when finding an artist that you really admire and love their work. Today I've found that moment of bliss in the work of artist Cindy Kane. Look at how beautiful this image is. The delicate flowers perfectly suspending the little bird in an aura of light. Then to make this painting even more interesting she's used a magazine cover as the canvas. I'm guessing the magazine cover is mounted on some sort of board but it really doesn't matter. This painting is just beautiful.

She has others available that are really cool too including one called Daunting. At first glance it looks like a bunch of old pieces of notebook paper glued on a canvas. Then you realize she has painted them on. Perfection.

Be sure to check out her work and other great artists at Cheryl Pelavin Gallery.

Pretty soon I'll be adding prints and ephemera to the Charming Sam site. I've been wildly collecting over the last few weeks. The graphic shown here is a little sample of some of the stuff I am working on.

In the mean time I think a couple of these sites I've found have some good stuff and worth checking out if your looking for interesting things.

http://www.vintage-ephemera.com/

http://www.oldimprints.com/OldImprints/

http://www.mantofev.com/

http://www.madametalbot.com/42vintephemera.htm - This site is very interesting and has some unusual items.

I've been to this blog many times and it is one of my favorites. Why I've never told you about it I can't imagine. Check out Vintage Indie for all kinds of great indie companies and small businesses. She has lots and lots of stuff that is vintage inspired and really has a great eye for wonderful things!

That is Cooking with the "other" Amy and not me. I found an awesome blog all about cooking with recipes developed by the writer AND she is in San Francisco. My favorite city!

There are lots of food blogs out there but the Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken Recipe got me drooling. Years ago I worked for a restaurant called Horatio's in Honolulu. O.k., in another life time I worked at a restaurant...blah, blah, blah. Anyway, they made a panko chicken breast with this AWESOME mustard sauce stuff...mmmmmmm!!!! I'd totally forgotten about that chicken until I saw this recipe and all my taste buds started to pop!

The blog is awesome with lots of pics and loads of recipes. Yes, the Culinary Arts...another favorite topic that I don't give near enough time to here. Hop over to Cooking with Amy for great recipes!

Looking for more bits of paper and other cool stuff for your mixed media or scrapbooking projects? Well, Scrapologie has tons and tons of stuff.

I love the Monthly kits you can buy. They include stamps, papers, stickers, embellishments and if you sign up for multiple months then you get one of these every month. That's one way to keep the projects moving when you know more stuff is coming soon so you better finish what you've got.

They have several designers with their own lines of papers and digital products AND some books with more ideas.

Happy art-ing!

Nothing like a Friday for something sort of unusual. Deadly Squire products are hip but not unusual...it is the strange site. Clever is probably a better word actually. I like this tie. It's not often you find something for a guy that is cool and from a nice indie company.

They have oven mitts, bags, ties and other stuff but all in these extra hip fabrics. Keep this on the list for the holidays for the guys in your life.

I ran across this company a couple of years ago but some how I lost track of them. Jess Imports has a humongous selection of jewelry clasps. Thousands of them! And, if you aren't sure about the quality from looking just at the website I can assure you they are top notch. I perused their booth at a recent gem show and there were so many nice ones I was completely overwhelmed.

Here are a couple of my favorites but be sure to give yourself enough time because they have sari, enamel, gemstone, button, vintage, new, designer...you name it.

I talk about art all the time and I have talked about artists but I've never really gone out to find blogs about art. That was my goal today to find some good resources for artists and people who love art. I sort of had a hard time...although if you go to Delightfulblogs.com there are a lot of options and I need more time.

Here are two other sites I found that I also need more time for....

1) ARTrepreneur - I think my favorite resource is The Pauper which is a giant listing of artists and their art. Filmmakers, sculptors, poets, painters, mixed media artists and the list goes on. They also have lots of articles for starving artists about helping to promote yourself, your business and stuff.

2) ArtSpan - Artspan is home to over 1800 artist, artisan and art photographer member art sites. There is honestly so much here that it is over whelming. I did however happen upon "The One Million Masterpiece".

As defined by the site "The One Million Masterpiece is a global arts project. As a community we are creating a piece of artwork that will provide a unique snapshot of modern society through the eyes of one million people scattered across the world. To do this we are asking artists and non-artists alike to complete one small square of a giant digital canvas. The project is supported by the largest online arts communities, is an official world record holder and aims to raise $5 million for charitable causes. "

Sometimes I feel like I live under a rock. I'm definitely joining! Why not? Sounds fun huh?

Learn more about artist J. West who created the painting shown above.

Yes, a little shameless self promotion today. I just uploaded a bunch of beads and such to my Etsy store. I'm cleaning out and getting ready for the new launch of my website. Yes, that is right...a new store, a new site, new colors AND bunches and bunches of new jewelry and art.

It gets better though! I am merging my Charming Sam and Amy Steinberg sites in to one and adding a new category called Ephemera. That's right! I have beautiful Paris collage sheets, vintage magic poster sheets, childrens book stuff and tons more. The engineers tell me my site will be done the 1st week of October. I should have everything up and ready by the end of October.

Here is a screen shot of the new site as a sneak preview! Oh, and don't forget my Etsy store for a bunch of new beads and jewerly type stuff.

Today I was thinking it might be interesting to see what kinds of items are on Etsy in specific categories BUT had been there the longest. (Was that a run on sentence?) Here are a couple I found.

Owl = Jochris12 has this cute owl pendant for only $12.00.

Bubbles = Eva666 has these beautiful earrings for $48.00

Both of these jewelry artists have many other items that are quite pretty and worth checking out.

Today is another beautiful day and Digital Paperie has made it that much more beautiful. Another wonderful calligraphy artist. I guess I am going to have to pick up a book on calligraphy and start doing some practicing. So, so beautiful!

Hop on over to Digital Paperie and see all her wonderful calligraphy tags, cards and ephemera.

I love these pretty tags. I'm buying them for me.....

I forgot to post yesterday? I'm not sure how that happened but anyway I found a very interesting calligraphy group on DeviantArt called Scriptorium. Oh, my what beautiful calligraphy, art, calligraphy, etc.

This beautiful piece can be seen here http://psychiatry.deviantart.com/art/Calligraphy-of-a-name-26165594.

Be sure to explore there are many different types and all beautiful.

I am continuing with the calligraphy theme. Yesterday I received an interesting comment from a calligraphy artist by the name of Alice Young. Peeked my interest and after following her comment back to her blog and then her website I am absolutely thrilled to share her work here.

Once again I am amazed with the talent people have and unlimited ways they express themselves through art. I am being educated because my little world only contained a limited view of calligraphy as something my mom tried during one of her artistic hippie phases. She was good but I never really thought about people doing it for a living. Yes, yes I know ... "typography".

Anyway, Alice has incorporated her calligraphy in to beautiful paintings. I love this piece in particular. Called Transcend it is just so beautiful. And I'll be the first to say that working in only black and white is really, really hard not to mention the amazing calligraphy elements.

Enjoy Alice's work. Maybe I'll spend the whole week on calligraphy...

Today I had the fortune of meeting a gentleman of Afghani background by way of Tokyo and the United States. Besides being very passionate about life he shared with me some photos of his art...Islamic Calligraphy. While I have seen this type of art in the past I never really thought about the "real" art of it. I think maybe I just assumed it wasn't as much an art as just a way of writing. Naive, yes I am.

Then I was shown some photographs of the most beautiful ART I think I have ever seen. It brought tears to my eyes. Honestly it did. For the rest of the day all I could think about was how truly beautiful his art work is. I am going to ask him to do some Islamic calligraphy and do two things;

1) Get something tattooed on my lower middle back.

2) Incorporate in to as many paintings as I possibly can.

Oh and the third thing.... I'm going to paint it on the wall of my living room.

I've always had a thing about Islamic art but now a whole new world has opened up. I wonder how hard it is to learn arabic?

Anyway, the picture shown here I found on the Internet and is from the 1300's, Damascus.

Here is a resource that "could" be interesting for a lot of artists, crafters, etc. But you are going to have to dig around this industrial looking site to see what you can find. Contenti has a little bit of everything especially for the serious jeweler or metal smith. For those of you who are dabbling in taking your jewelry making one step further then you should spend some time on this site. They sell everything from jewelers saws, dapping tools to lamps and drills.

They have an amazing Reference Library that includes a collection of charts, formulas, and other resources to aid jewelers, beading artists, and other craftspeople.

Contenti also has a Tips & Tricks section that I've found to be helpful. *Note - The photo shown here is for one of their many stamping kits.

Ahhhhh.....to be strolling through the streets of Paris. Wish I were there now. But alas I am not and instead left to dream of beautiful things that can only be found in Paris. That is where Ugly Home comes in the dream...so brush up on your French and get ready for a dip in paradise.

Ugly Home has everything from tableware, stickers, vases, textiles and a few other things that will make your heart swoon. All prices are in Euro's so be sure to do your conversion before buying.

I love this Euro Damask paper! Not to long ago I saw a chair covered in this fabric and have been coveting the pattern ever since.

Enjoy!

I love Etsy. Why, besides the obvious? Because Etsy allows artists to open a webstore for $0.00. I think if Etsy would have been around five years ago I would have opened an Etsy store long before I sunk money in to an ecommerce site.

Anyway, today I saw an ad for artist Jill Dryer and was immediately directed to her Etsy store. She does very pretty art and I had a hard time picking between the butterfly art or the bird art as my favorite. Stop by her store, buy something and say hello!

I love to see what creative and wonderful ways artist blend different art forms and create something unique and beautiful. I love The Intuitive Garden for just this reason. Photography, illustration and paintings all come together to make necklaces, earrings and rings. AND, they are very sweet and contemporary. Stop by and see The Intuitive Garden for a twist on jewelry design that is very nice.