pink tulips - highland park - oil on canvas, 36" x 40"
pink tulip painting detail, and below, the tulips in Highland Park.
arizona highways - handmade flamework beads, turquoise, coral and sterling silver
monet's kitchen at giverny is blue and yellow.
these beads are made with cim's french blue (a gorgeous, dreamy color) and an oddlot yellow that is some weird filigrana (it has an opaque yellow center with transparent yellow encasing) and finally the beads have transparent pink lobes that were draped and twisted down the sides.
your eyes dont lie... this is fascinating.
the sketchbook page that goes with them.
johnny cash - the man in black.
to match the bracelet - night garden earrings - flameworked beads, freshwater pearls, coral & sterling silver
sorry about the low-qual entry. this house is a plague ship right now. fevers, dizziness, coughing, sore throats, ear and head aches and things to gross to mention.
above, are basic instructions drawn out in my bead sketchbook.
picasso's 'night fishing at antibes' (1939)
somedays you're the lizard, and somedays you're the porkchop tied to some squealing girl's head.
side view
from the bottom, and from the top...
my little pumpkin. i never knew a dog could catch a mouse.
my first attempt at needle felting. it's fun - kinda like knitting, more like painting. the knitting guild had a mini workshop on it monday night. i have a little pile of poodle fur (from combing their poofey ears) that i am going to needle felt onto something, how queer is that?
not as queer as this...topo gigio - el rock del quesito (rockin the little cheese)
i think i will make even more - enough for a necklace.
'night garden' 24" x 30" oil pastel on paper
i love my sennelier oil pastels, they are so saturated and buttery, they even smell good. if you use them on a hot summer day they get all soft and gooey, so melty that their pigments stain your fingertips.
a core of some odd lot yellow that i never knew quite what it was... it has a opaque yellow core with a partially transparent yellow outside. sort of like a filigrana.
finally i added a big blob of dark red, shaped the edges like petals and pressed the center with a rivet setting tool.
grace jones - la vie en rose (1983)
fairy stones - a core of CiMs gelly's sty pink that is wrapped in silver foil and then heavily encased with transparent pink.
the foil is nice and bright. the trick is to never let the flame touch the foil.
apply the foil by rolling the hot, but not too hot, bead onto a small square of the metal leaf. then, carefully hold the bead under the flame while draping the molten transparent glass over the bead. if the flame touches the foil it will melt and bead up, so you must not let the flame touch the foil.
it's like alchemy that the silver foil turns gold.
it doesn't happen right away, and that's another trick to making these encased foil beads. the foil doesn't change color until you flame anneal the beads. it seems to take this last slow and gentle heating at the end to 'change into' gold. when it happens - it just happnens - it is really cool.
to get the faceted 'stone' shape i use a cheese knife.
after all the glass is in place, i heat a small area of the bead and press it flat with the side of the blade. do this over and over, and soon the beads will have this chunky, and very reflective, angled surface that enhances the foil sparkle so well.
psst - if you have not tried CiMs (creation is messy) glass, you absolutely must. it is wonderful. my favorites are gelly's sty and cirrus.
'the wish' by Lori Earley
take a look down at this weirdness. it's an old snapshot that was found at an estate sale. definately not sure why i am including it is this blog entry - but it feels like it belongs and i couldn't wait to share it. some party, eh?
it's so cold here the kids didn't have school today. not a snow day - a cold day. that's why the blog about hats - gotta wear a hat today, it's a health & safely issue.
you can leave your hat on - tom jones version
i torched yesterday - so new beads pics very soon. it felt great, it had been a couple weeks since i had gotten a good fix.
i have been daydreaming about making glass beads to go with them since the minute i opened the package. ooh ahh, maybe, the lotus ones are my favorites.
so, something with lotus blossoms or buds.
a photo of lotus buds that jackie took on their trip.
j&j know how much i love lotus flowers becuase this is one of my paintings from several years ago. it is one of my personal favorites and hangs prominently in my home. it is an oil on canvas and it is quite large, measuring 3' x 4.'
a trio of beads, just raku frit on black then encased with clear.
two made into a pair of earrings with freshwater pearls & sterling silver. the tiny left over one got tossed into the orphan bead box - most likely to become a bit in a mexican voodoo pendant.
why would you even ask? of course, it's still snowing here.
