collecting my thoughts

packing up my pack of dogs and heading out this morning.

if you need me, you can find me sitting in an old aluminum lawn chair on the left side of this photo. my feet will be in the water and i will be happily finishing these damn harry potter books.

i have never written any personal stuff in my blog, but i just have to say that yesterday was one spectacularly unpleasant day. i am going to stand under these falls and wash the dirt of life off me.

as juju says in one of her songs "i'm not coming out of my box until everyone's forgotten me."

halloween mask & tiger balls

autumn is sneaking around the corner.
everyone needs a sweater in the evening - july is almost over...

'mask' oil on canvas 30" x 30"
another newly reworked old painting

some more of the sculpey beads from last week. let's call them tiger balls 'the doc' (my polyclay guru) will like that.

i need to make a very dense and excessive charm bracelet with them and about a million other round tigerish beads. it will be fun to have a new fall bracelet that clatters.

a bonfire on the beach - living the good life here on the north coast.

devilsfood with double cherries

yes, i love to paint.
and yes, i spend way too much time with the flame.

and then, there's the cupcake thing.
i love to make overly decorative cupcakes.

this little monster is a devilsfood cupcake with sourcream chocolate frosting and a rather 'dirty' looking fresh double red cherry on the top. (photo by lady j)

love cupcakes?
then hurry up and click here.

flickr be mine

i joined flickr today - just so i could participate in 'art bead scene.'

they have a monthly challenge to create jewelry to a theme - this month it is 'mermaid's grotto.'

the beads were made about a week ago and yesterday i put the set together just so i could participate.

the flameworked beads are a mixture of transparent greens, blues & teal rods with dichroic layered inside.
i pressed them freehand and created swirls by spot heating and twisting with thick stringers.

the necklace and earrings are all sterling silver, freshwater pearls along with my flameworked beads.

please, click here to see my flickr photos.

eggplants

in an unfocused moment i planted exotic eggplants in the flower bed next to our front door.

i had no idea how they grew, or what the plants were going to look like.
but look, the foliage is beautiful and now, tiny eggplants are starting to form

i cleaned piles of new beads today, so there should be lots of photos tomorrow.

thistles & lace

queen anne's lace is a delightful flower - i transplanted loads of them into my garden.

don't call them weeds around me.

a roadside field of thistles and queen anne's lace.

more new earrings.

these have inch long handmade 'twisted' tube beads that elizabeth (of morefire glass) made in one of her free monday night demo's. i am going to give it a try, but it was kind of daunting. you make a big hollow tube on the end of a fat boro rod, then seal another fat boro rod to the other end, heat the mess and pull like a giant hollow twistie. cool, knock it off the boro and clip into individual tube beads - very cool.

the earrings also have tumbled onyx hearts that look like worn lake rocks, freshwater pearls and sterling silver findings.

lucinda s. sees lucinda w.

lucinda williams is one of my favorite musicians.

here she is at the armory thursday night singing a bit of 'essence', what a hot steamy night, we all melted.

and here, a minute of her doing one of her love songs...

another new pair of earrings. the beads are cones of opalino yellow and black. for each earring i added freshwater pearls, a carved onyx hearts dangle end, some stray antique glass seed beads and sterling silver findings.

common crow & chickadee

at twilight, tonight's view from my studio porch.

walk thru the front door into my studio -

as promised, progress photos of the two most recent oils from the series of paintings based on "audubon's birds of north america."

commom crow

i think, this little one of a chickadee is done.

children's school sculptures of white rabbits keep me company on my work table.

sculpey cherry

i was a sculpey virgin until today. my friend, the doc, took me under her wing and showed me the way. armed with only a wooden toothpick and a razor blade i made a mess of beads.

first a familiar form - black birds.

by the way, crows are much, much easier to make with polymer clay than glass.

then a stick. (q: what's brown and sticky? a: a stick)

a fresh seed pod from the doc's hollyhock garden.

and a pair of sculpey pods inspired by it.

i never had any particular desire to try polymer clay until i stumbled onto the blog called humble beads by heather powers. if you have never seen her beads - go there now. they are just exquisite.

the zen summer of jug bands

more new earrings.

silvered ivory & iris blue frit pressed beads with freshwater pearls and antique jet beads all with sterling silver findings.

white petunias.

still on the jug band thing... big poppa thinks he's gonna have a jug band. so far, his practicing is just wigging-out the dogs.

whistler's jug band - 'folding bed' (1928)

wee favorite tool

i use this little tool all the time.

maybe its original purpose was for setting nails. i use it for making decorative circles - like the black ones on these dark red & aventurine stringer beads.

just make a nice round blobby dot of molten glass on your bead and press.

new earrings made with my beads, some carved onyx leaves, aventurine beads, antique faceted jet beads and sterling silver findings.

i found the tool in an estate sale basement, heres a complete view of it. sorry it's a little blurry, but so am i today. i put it with the pencil so you could get a sense of its size.

the jugging stones - 'it's all over now'

this band plays the music of rolling Stones in the old style of jugbands. unfortunately, you will have to go to their hometown of budapest to see them.

strawberry earrings forever

hanging out in my studio yesterday with gal pal margaret making earrings.

strawberries with garnet tips and freshwater pearl tops.

strawberries with garnet tips and jade and glass tube bead tops.

this is why, since i love making earrings, i always make my test beads in pairs.

strawberry alarmclock - incense & peppermints (1967)

crow shapes

i started a couple of small paintings (8"x12" & 3"x3") over the weekend. i am full of good blogging intentions - and plan to dutifully post pics of these as they progress.

these two little ones are part of rather large series of paintings done from audubon's birds of north america.

his distorted bird shapes are just fascinating, yes i know it's because he was posing dead birds.

it's hot here... and it's all about thunderstorms, backyard cooking, lots of electric fans and bare feet.

algae

these beads are all about funky hot summer pond scum - like sunshine on algae.

made with a zoozii kalera long & lean press. after pressing i reheated one side of the bead and repeatedly twisted the edge into waves using a pair of non- serrated tweezers.

i think i will lightly etch them, trying to get that velvety, scummy sheen of a still summer pond.

i used every bit of every short end of left over green glass in my glass tackle box, also every kind of green frit i had and some i mooched from the beadlady at the next torch over...

mum - green green grass of tunnel

bacon & moon flowers

i am fascinated with other artist's studio spaces.

the painter francis bacon had the work space by which the standard for idiosyncratic studios was set. here are a couple of little movies i found on utube that take you around his studio, and mind.

if you are curious about bacon there is a great biography called 'the gilded gutter - the life of francis bacon' by daniel farson.

a self portrait by bacon.

and a still photo of the studio, it really is mindboggling.

a little pair of test beads called 'moonflowers.' they look so terribly insignificant sitting so close to francis bacon.

i started making beads as a compliment to painting. my paintings are so big and take so long that having something to make that only takes a few minutes was a nice way to have some creative balance and nearly instant gratification.

the recipe for moonflowers - lots of silver foil wrapped and melted onto moretti dark ivory and pressed with the kalera long & lean press. then add a big dot of translucent red and melt it in and re-press. heat just the edges and make the indentations with a wide blade.

topaz & oil

a small set of new beads called 'oil & topaz.'

made with a borrowed zoozii kalera long & lean press - i neeeed to buy one.

these beads are thanks to anne, mistress of the frit. she is so generous with her presses.

these are black and medium topaz with big chunky raku frit and aventurine stringer.

after pressing them i reheated each edge and made a dent in the side with a cheese knife.

if you don't have a stainless steel cheese knife in your bag of bead tricks - get one.

earth kitt - c'est si bonn (1962)

seafoam, silver & rose

these are pictures of a peony's seed pod in my front yard.

can you believe this color combination?

below is a first attempt at recreating its vibrant colors.

opalino nile green, silver foil & translucent cloudy red. i intend to try again with the nile green & silver but the next time with a nice fresh rod of rubino oro.

i plan on having these dangling from my ears by tomorrow night.

red velvet (cake)

it just wouldn't be my birthday without red velvet cake.

yesterday i got two versions, one a grand batch of cupcakes from frank & deb.

and second, a swank one from my sister made from the recipe that was in the new york times a while back.

umm. a leftover cupcake - that's what i call breakfast.
i do not have a pic of the one my sister made - it got devoured instantly...

more test beads. opaque red with aventurine stringer squiggles shaped in a zoozii kalera long & lean press, then an embossed dot of intense black added at the end.