This evening, Nemo and I will lead a Live Tutorial Session in the Apophysis group's chat room (I presume).  We will discuss, obviously, how to create Grand Julians.  I'm hoping it will go well, though I'm a little nervous since I have never been in dAmn before and I'm not exactly a fan of IM.  But, I'm hoping for the best.    

So, if anyone here is still a dA member, feel free to hop over to the Apophysis chat room tonight at 7:30 PM EST.

For more information on the tutorial session, go here: [link]


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Claire is a fractalist/beader/digital artist who writes Witch Hunter Robin fanfiction and absurdly long Apophysis tutorials when she should be working on her novel.

She has a husband, two beautiful sons, a female cat named Gary (after Spongebob's snail) and two computers named Nordom and Hal.



Fractals are the latest in a long string of varied art genres I have pursued over the years. As a young child I enjoyed drawing and was able to take lessons when I was a little older. I soon progressed to beadwork. I have experience in nearly everything related to beads, excluding glass work, but including wire work, many different stitches, pattern designing and polymer clay. I worked in a bead store when I was a teen and designed jewelry that was sold both at the store and later through numerous craft/art fairs over the years. During my time at the bead store, I also gave beading instruction to customers. At the moment, my preference is for peyote stitch as my beading design medium of choice.

I also have experience in pottery and porcelain work. Growing up in the Seattle area, I was fortunate enough to take a workshop instructed by the renowned Russian porcelain artisan, Galina Rein. Later, one of my own pottery pieces, a 1+ foot tall recreation of the Book of Kells, was displayed at my college's art exhibit.

Of course, online I am mostly known for my fractal pieces. I generally use Apophysis as the application of choice to create the majority of my work. On occasion, I will also delve into Fractal Explorer to do more standard fractal pieces. I discovered fractal art by chance on deviantART from a fellow deviant and while it took me awhile to understand the program, I now love creating fractal artwork. I think fractals appeal to me so much because of my technical/mathematical background and love of MC Escher. For me, fractals are unlike most other art forms and I am constantly amazed at what they can do.



1. I love glossy buttons.  I was ecstactic when I finally learned how to make them; though I was bummed when I tried to put them on my Apophysis website and they looked tacky.  I had to switch over to satin buttons instead.

2.  I like...Pokemon!  Not the show (that's just really, really dumb), but the Gameboy games.  We bought the yellow version for our older son, but it was too advanced for him.  One day I picked it up and started playing it.  It's highly addictive for some inexplicable reason.  I had played it for about  a week before I turned to my husband and said in all serisousness, "I need the red and blue versions".  

3. I wear my seven year-old son's socks.  I'm fairly short and have always had a problem with socks (and gloves, pants, etc.) being too large.  One day I ran out of socks and pinched a pair from my son.  Voila!  They fit.  I'm in the process of switching entirely over to boys' socks.

4.  I hate repeating backgrounds.  This is a pet peeve hangover from the early days of the Interweb, but it's still applicable for today.  Repeating backgrounds take a lot of skill to pull off and they usually look horrendous.  If in doubt, go with a hex color.  

5. I love PNGs.  Let me count the ways: great compression, lossless and true transparency.  It's funny considering that I was initially hesitant to use them.  Now, if only Explorer would support PNG transparency...



He's absorbing it like some sort of evil sponge!
~Mermaid Man, Spongebob Squarepants

Now, Gary, we can do this the hard way.  Or the easy way.  Or the medium way.  Or the semi-medium-easy-hard way.  Or the sorta hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficulty-challenging way.
~Spongebob

I have animal magnetism.  When I go outside, squirrels stick to my clothes.

It takes two to tango, but only one to breakdance...