Studio Graffiti Jewelry Series 2024

Every year in my studio, I change out the protective plywood covering on my workbench where I have painted hundreds if not thousands of pieces of art and jewelry over the course of 12 months. The piece of painted 1/8" plywood is an accidental work art. It's every color I've used all year, layered, splattered, and pooled in random patterns. Once the surface is cut up into 4 smaller pieces (so it fits in the laser cutter), these authentic layers of paint from my work surface become little jewels of abstract art. Everything is one-of-a-kind.

The time-lapse video shows my process, and gives a glimpse of just how colorful and unexpected each piece will be once it’s cutout. No two pieces are exactly alike, but if you have a certain color you’d like to be included, just let me know when you order (choose one of the color swatches at checkout) and I’ll find a spot on the plywood that includes that particular color.

This New Year’s tradition is something I always look forward to. The change in my plywood to a fresh unmarked piece, and looking back at the previous year’s colorful mess. It’s a new series where the recipient gets a little surprise, not knowing exactly what the finished piece will look like. It’s abstract art, but it’s also mistakes and overpainting marks.

But really, the reason I love this series so much and continue to make these year after year is that it’s a fun way to repurpose and use something old, ONCE AGAIN, in a whole new way. And that, my friends, is why I started this business.

Studio Graffiti: Raspberry Tart

Inspired by the Pantone Color of the Year “Viva Magenta” I added a brand new color way to the Studio Graffiti Jewelry Collection: Raspberry Tart. Using bold berry tones, pinks, red, plum and of course a vibrant magenta, this new color way is a great pop of color during these cold & dark days of winter. Plus, it’s an easy way to participate in color trends without committing to redecorating your entire house or buying a whole new wardrobe!

As with everything in the Studio Graffiti line, each pendant and earring is completely unique, featuring brushstrokes and splatters, so no two will ever be identical, even if the pieces were adjacent to each other on the sheet when I cut them out. It’s your own original piece of art that you can wear every day.

Enjoy this process video that shares how this hand painted collection comes to life, from the very first brush stroke, to the layers and layers of paint, laser cutting the modern shapes, and final assembly. These are a lot of fun to create and I’m already planning my next color way for the spring! I’m thinking something turquoise …

The new series is available on the website, retailing for $24-32, and please feel free to use coupon code RASPBERRY20 to get 20% off your order now through February 14th at www.onceagainsam.com

Artist-In-Residence: Dreher Island State Park

My 5th Artist-in-Residence opportunity with South Carolina State Parks brought me to Dreher Island State Park this October, just outside of Columbia, SC. I spent the week hiking, exploring, observing, and creating art. The spacious lake-side villa gave me an opportunity to watch the sunset every single day of my stay and also a peaceful place to create fiber art & paintings surrounded by nature.

I only left the park for a few hours one day to hike the Firebreak Trail in Harbison State Forrest, but other than that, all of my hikes and explorations were inside the park. There’s enough trails and flat walkable roads that you can see almost all of the park on foot, if you like. It’s a large park but most of it is lake, so although I didn’t have a boat, I can see why so many people visit just for the fishing. The park is on a series of islands in Lake Murray and so there’s an enormous amount of shoreline, countless coves and plenty of peninsulas.

During my time at Dreher Island I created eleven needle felted landscapes, one mixed media fiber art landscape, two small paintings, and two series of painted pendants, all inspired by the natural beauty around the lake and forest. I loved the way the color of the lake depended on the sky, and one of my favorite color observations was the shock of orange at the shore where the water meets the red clay.

A huge thank you to South Carolina State Parks for selecting me for this program - it’s an honor! And thank you to Dreher Island State Park for hosting me for the week - I really enjoyed it! South Carolina really is a beautiful state and we are lucky to have so many parks to visit. I can easily find inspiration in all of them!

I hope you enjoy this short recap video of my week and all pieces are now available at www.onceagainsam.com

In Love with a Palette Knife

Have you ever felt like you need to loosen up? I’ve been chasing precision with my recent needle felted and mixed media landscapes, and felt like it was time to shake things out a bit. I switched gears for a few glorious weeks and had a love affair with my neglected palette knife. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually tried to move paint around this way before but man, it’s so satisfying!

New Palette Knife Landscape Paintings

First, I played around with some abstracted landscapes, mostly minis, just to see what I could come up with and how it felt to not have full control over what the paint was doing on my panels. Keeping the subject matter safe, I did some mountains, fields, and lake scenes and called it a day. It was fun, but it wasn’t quite scratching the itch.

Statement Necklace

Next I moved onto jewelry, revisiting my Studio Graffiti Collection which in the past has always been on clear acrylic, which I paint with random brush strokes from the backside. Changing things up, I used the palette knife and some heavy matte medium to thicken up my paint, and went to town scraping and sliding pigment all over my thin boards. Pleased with the first few test pieces, I got a little carried away and turn this experiment into a whole series, and I don’t regret a thing!

Painted Pendant

Enjoy the new mini paintings and on-of-a-kind jewelry just added to the website. All pieces are painted with my trust palette knife, with acrylic paint on wood, and are one-of-a-kinds.

Painted Earrings

Paint Rings

Water Towers & Waterfalls

Water Tower Sampler

Coming May 1, 2022, a 2-part series featuring water towers and waterfalls, all needle felted in wool fiber. Although many of the scenes are from my home city of Greenville, SC, several pieces are inspired by other southern mill towns elsewhere and water falls a bit further north. The rushing water is the whole reason these towns exist; it's what brought the industry and the people here. The waterfalls remain constant, slowing during the dry season and raging after the rains, while the water towers rust in place, a reminder of what used to be.

This series has been on my brain for some time - I’ve certainly needle felted both waterfalls and water towers many times over the years, but both always present a challenge when needle felting. Water falls are almost too simple, and it’s almost too easy to mess them up by adding too much wool fiber or overworking the thin layers of wool representing the veil of water. Water towers on the other hand are extremely complicated. The thin lines of the structure are asking a lot of those wool fibers, plus there’s a lot shading required in order to make the tower appear cylindrical, which is tricky to do in this medium.

Liberty Bridge at Falls Park

Waterfall #4

Water Tower #9 & #10

Are your walls full, or you’re not ready to commit to a piece of art for your home? I’ve got you covered! Both the water tower and waterfall theme carry over into my hand painted jewelry line. The water tower silhouette is available in my running line in your choice of background color, but the new waterfall landscape pendants are new and extremely limited edition. Only a dozen of these beauties are up for grabs!

Painted Waterfall Landscape Pendant

Water Tower Pendants

All pieces will be available at www.onceagainsam.com starting May 1 and I hope you enjoy this sneak peek of the new collection! Newsletter subscribers will get first dibs on the new collection (plus a coupon) so if you’d like to get added to the list, I’d love to keep in touch: http://www.sarahmandell.com/newsletter