Friday, December 05, 2008
Hello thaRR!!
I have recently adopted a new black lab mix dog for our family. Our kids LOVE her very much. She is so gentle and patient with my kids. Our little doggie does not appreciate all the LOVIN' that our new dog does. She loves following my daughter with her leash on. Most importantly, she needs walks and it encourages me to be healthier and go walking more.
What a cutie pie!
On the BEAD FRONT.... I have been experimenting with the "use" of lampwork beads. They have to be good for other things than jewelry?! Right?! I made up a few experimental business card holders and have glued some beads onto some mixed media type jewelry pieces. I have not had much time to play around with the torch and assembling the beads together. Just keeping my family fed and cared for has been taking up most of my energy these days. I am making it a point to play around though. This Thanksgiving I lassoed my family into experimenting with decoupage light boxes. They ended up being decoupaged shoe boxes..and we lost interest after a few layers of newspaper as the base coat.
I pulled a lot of my art supplies out and spread them over the dinning room and there they have sat since Thanksgiving waiting for me to play some more. I did make a brass decoupaged piece with some costume jewelry paired with my beads. I do not know what to think of it yet. It is always more grandiose in my head than when I actually produce it. haha! I am hoping to make some vintage inspired pieces with the 20's feel to them. Art deco.....costume jewelry paired with modern lampwork. I am hoping to pair my beads with findings that are more common to find, but at the same time unique and beautiful. A lovely project comes to mind. I might write an article about my brass piece on my website. Every new "inspired" creation has to go through all the rigours of quality control before I offer them for sale. These pieces are lovingly being worn and tossed and somewhat abused by myself and my daughter to see if they pass the QC test. haha! Sorry about the image quality. These pictures were taken a minute ago as I am writing this article. I have to have pictures...don't I?
We will see if this tangent of mine survives or not. I am planning on incorporating new types of materials into my collection. there are really awesome polymers, resins, metals, etching, enamels, PMC... to name a few. I have them all spread out on my table, so let's see where this takes me.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Here are the first 2 skull beads I have ever made. It is such a process coming up with a new design. They are not quite what I wanted, but now that I have them cooled down and ready to examine, I have found the design elements that I am going to run with.
Fridas unibrow is a bit "bushy" haha. triangular nostril vs. smooshed up one. The silvered stringer has to be in a deeper ivory color and with more silver foil in it. I prefer the lips raised vs. melted in.These girls take some planning too. I used various sized and styles of stringers to make the various features on their faces and hairstyles. TBecasue they are each individually handmade and take some time to make their price is going to be adjusted accordingly. HOWEVER.....I am going to put the Frida skull up for sale on my website for a bargain price of $23.00 since her design is not quite where I wanted to go with my design. She will be wire wrapped and ready to wear as a pendant. Be on the lookout for more beads in the Dia de los Muertos style coming from me. :) I will be sure to keep you all posted.
Here are a few other beads that I made last night as well in the LATIN style. :)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Here is my lovely necklace from the Beads of Courage Inspired event held on April 4th. Isn't it lovely? the fund raiser made quite a bit of money for the program. Our ASGB calendar raised $1000.00 alone on just auctioning off the donated beads from it. Woo hoo!! I can't wait to get working on the next years calendar for 2009.
This is a great program VERY close to my heart.