Relics & Artifacts® Holiday Story Challenge Happening NOW!

Do you have a favorite holiday movie or story?  Is it a classic like "White Christmas" or "The Christmas Carol"?  Is it modern like "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" or "Elf"?  Is it untraditional like "Die Hard"?  We are hosting our annual holiday challenge now in our Tribe on Facebook and we want you to join in the fun!

Create a piece that illustrates your favorite holiday story whether it be a movie or literary piece and post it in the Tribe under the appropriate album.  Use #RAHolidayStory in your caption to be entered to win an awesome prize.  One winner for each category will be chosen and we've added a twist!  Your fellow Tribe members will choose!  Entry deadline is December 24!

#RALiteraryHauntings Halloween Challenge with RELICS & ARTIFACTS®

Every year, we do a Halloween challenge within our Relics & Artifacts® Tribe on Facebook.  This year, we are going to ratchet up our typical Halloween challenge a bit since we are all about the challenging, inspiring, and really stepping out of our creative comfort zones.

For this year's spooktacular, we are going to tap into literary history and provide our own interpretations that will be illustrated through our art. Art is also about exploring other realms and letting those artful realms inspire us. Often, a big inspiration for artists, aside from life, is literature.

With this one, please read the literary passages below. They are from two classic spooky, scary, writings by two authors who are almost synonymous with Halloween. The first is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. The second is from Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

Choose the passage that resonates with you and haunts your soul.  Create a piece of art using MUSE Art Stamps, resin, craft blanks, and whatever else calls to you that illustrates your chosen passage based on your interpretation.

Be sure to use #RALiteraryHauntings in your upload to be entered! When uploading your piece, please be sure to provide a brief background story on your interpretation and what about your chosen passage moved you to make you chose. Who knows? We might feature your piece and story on the Muse!

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“The Tell-Tale Heart”
Edgar Allan Poe

“Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief--oh no!--it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me.”

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“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving

“Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air.”

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All submissions are due by midnight October 31.  You can enter your piece by joining our Relics & Artifact® Tribe on Facebook or by using #RALiteraryHauntings on Instagram.

RELICS & ARTIFACTS® Featured Artist: Carrie Eckert

We are constantly amazed by the talent our Relics & Artifacts® Tribe exhibits and from time to time, we like to feature exceptional talent and innovation here on the Muse.  Today's featured artist is Carrie Eckert.  She is widely known in our Tribe for her astounding Frida collages.  Let us take a moment to get to know a bit more about Carrie.

I have been a compulsive creator of art since I was a little girl. I started by making sand candles and purses as a young child and sold them to a few stores in my town. Later in my early teens years, I studied ballet. During all the time spent in between rehearsals, all the girls would knit. I also learned to quilt at that time. Our ballet instructor, who came from Russia, taught us how to make ballet costumes and headpieces.  I also choreographed ballets and taught ballet. After I stopped dancing, I needed to fill  that creative void.  I taught myself how to paint faux finishes. I also created bead work for clothes.

While my children were babies and I stayed home, I began to make jewelry and sold them to stores and to special customers. While visiting Barcelona, Spain one year, I was in awe with the works of Antoni Gaudi. I loved the vibrance of all the colors in mosaics. That was my new passion in the '90's! I began reading everything on how to make mosaic structures with cement. 

Fast forward to 2014, when we moved to La Quinta, California. I finally have an art studio where I can create 24/7! I  branched out from just using mosaics to adding mixed media.  And one thing leads to another. Now I am an obsessive junk yard dog. I'm making weekly trips to the local thrift stores in the hunt for vintage and upcycled castaways! (I sneak it home  so my husband doesn't see my new treasures.)

Now I use metal, canvas, wood, plastic,  paint and just about anything I find to create mixed media and assemblage art. I continue to branch out and try new things. I am a self taught artist, doing what I love to do, creating unique art stories with a theme. I do not  limit my work to one style because I would become too bored. I like to mix up my art to keep myself interested.

Carrie continues to wow the senses on her Facebook page, Mosaics By Carrie, as well as on Twitter (@mosaicsbycarrie).  She welcomes commission requests and can be reached via her website, Mosaics By Carrie.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful art, vision, and creative brilliance with us, Carrie!  We look forward to seeing your future works.

RELICS & ARTIFACTS® International Talent Search: You Have Moved Us

We recently held an International Talent Search within our Relics & Artifacts Tribe on Facebook and let me tell you.  They did not disappoint!  Our Tribe answered the call with so much creativity, imagination, intuition, brilliance, and such a range of styles that we felt compelled to share each and every entry with all of you.

The contest is to have one of our Tribe member's project professionally photographed and then featured alongside the Ambassador projects in a full-size advertisement campaign within the illustrious pages of "Where Women Create" magazine.

We received well over sixty submissions, each one unique and profound.  Each piece an expression of the creator's heart and soul.  Each submission a risk being taken and vulnerability being shared.

To say we are overwhelmed by the level of participation is a gross understatement.  We were moved.  We were blown away.  We were emotional.

What was even more compelling than the sheer volume of entries was the genuine support each artist and craftsman shared with their peers.  The comments and cheers for their fellow creatives captured the essence of what the Relics & Artifacts® ethos, no movement, is all about.

We have always tried to make sure that this mantra of shared inspiration, creativity, and artistic enlightenment transfers not only through the pieces themselves, but the community these pieces have helped to create.

We have our work cut out for us in choosing a winner and as of today, we are still trying to figure out who that artist will be.

But what an amazing challenge to have before us!  While the decision is by far the toughest we've had to make to date, it is a glorious feeling to see all of these pieces showcased together.

Every style, aesthetic, and skill level represented in vivid color, side by side with seasoned veterans is a thing of beauty and something uniquely special about our Tribe.

You are one of the biggest and greatest gifts this Relics & Artifacts journey has blessed us with.  We treasure not only your works, but you as well.  Your creativity, heart, soul, and love is reflected on a universal scale. 

You have moved us.  And for that, we love you and we thank you.