re - refried mexican voodoo

i love making these bad boys, they are absolutely my favorite bead thing to whip-up.

i use up all my stray beads from sets, experiments and other wonky weirdos.

they're also good for recycling bits of junk jewelry. this one has a banged up virgin mary medal hanging from the bottom.

and this one a wee sterling cross and a tumbled onyx heart.

i sell these 'mexican voodoo' pendants for the ridiculously cheap price of $13. that way i can make lots and lots of them and not be buried up to my armpits in them. they always get a lot of comments, not all of them complimentary. when going for the full effect i wear a trio of my favorite ones to parties.

where did the name come from? mexican radio by wall of voodoo.

ginko studies

three more little paintings from the depths of my flat files.

ginko leaves and ginko berries

each one is only 4 1/2" wide.

acrylics on black rag paper. i love painting on black paper, it must be the velvet elvis in me.

mother's nest

new jewelry.

i found the top 'mother' piece of this brooch yesterday at an estate sale and knew almost immediately what i was going to make with it.

the winged heart bead was one i had made ages ago that was just waiting in a drawer.
the little nest is something i made a month ago. i saw a similar one in the blog 'ornamental' written by the amazing nina bagley and i want to credit her with the idea. her's are constructed rather differently from this one, they are much more orderly.

i have painted & drawn nests, sculpted them out of glass and collected real ones by the dozen - i just had to make a little silver one.

using bits of snipped off headpins, lots of 28 gauge dead soft wire and some broken fine silver chain that was in my scrap box, i just started winding and twisting around the tip of my pinkie finger then weaving in and out until i had a nest. i colored the inside with a dab of golden umber oil paint to give it some extra depth and added the little fresh water pearl eggs. yes, it took a whole afternoon to figure it out and finish it.

my boxes and boxes of beads all over the table at my studio. what a disaster.

artist's row & cortlands

studies for a painting of cortland apples (my favorite variety - densely crisp and nicely tart)

acrylic paints on rag paper, each one is about 5" x5"

these four little paintings will be for sale on sunday.

each year at this time i clean out the top drawer of my flatfile. all the little drawings and paintings (studies and toss offs) get shink wrapped and taken to be sold at the artist's row show.

the event is this sunday, september 23rd, 10 -4 at the public market here in rochester. it's just like the clothesline, except smaller, better and admission is free.

i will be set up in booth #65.

the weather is supposed to be gorgeous and i have almost 50 new pairs of earrings made.

night gardening

perhaps taking photos of flowers at night has something to do with my insomnia?

cosmos.
the plan for tomorrow is to the assemble earrings for a show this weekend - so there should be good bead pics soon.

cloudscapes

cel tower with marshmallow.



from the parking lot of more fire glass - looking up at 490w











another from the parking lot of more fire glass - looking up at the 490w exit for winton road.

autumn bracelet

remember tiger balls?
today i finally finshed that bracelet i was rambling on about.

starting with a small sterling round link charm bracelet,

i clipped it in the middle and added one of my glass beads to make it long enough to have a nice tail and fit any size wrist.

then i started wiring on all the tiger ball sculpey beads.
i went thru my bead stash and pulled out all kinds of brown stuff - wood, seed pods, amber, aventurine balls, bone dice, scarabs, agates, african glass beads and glass seed beads for the tips.
adding and adding and adding one headpin stacked with beads after another. the larger beads towards the center and the smallest at the sides, with one dangle on the end.

it makes a fun clunking jangling sound when it's on.

chandelier show - over the top

over the top - rewired
the second annual chandelier show at more fire glass is this friday night.
september 14th, 6-9 pm - 80 rockwood place, rochester, ny

magnolias by elizabeth lyons - 60 hand sculpted flowers on a steel structure

i know a decorator who always says that "lighting is the jewelry of a room."

this show has artists from far and wide hanging their chandeliers at more fire, i got a sneak peak yesterday and there are some amazing light sculptures hanging from the rafters.

so, if you can make it, don't miss it. it's always a great party.

p/s - more fire glass is where i make my glass beads. so, if you're a beader, or dreaming of flames, come see what the flameworking studio looks like.

rain + books = perfect sunday

rain, long drawn out all night and all day rain.
everything hot that was dying from the drought is coming back cool.
my vegetables are wearing the moisture like jewelry.

if it is sunday then big poppa is at the city flea market, buying and selling. when it rains on a sunday it means an unexpected day off for him, kinda like a snow day for a kid.

the two of us rounded up our friend the doc and headed to 'durf's of fairport' (the world's most unassuming restaurant) for brunch.
go ahead, ask me how good the pumpkin and walnut pancakes were.

then off to barnes and noble for a book binge. his two hardcovers on micro economic trends and lobbyists.
and my four, mostly paperbacks, on jewelry.

this book on resin casting because i want to figure out how to cast tiny pencil drawings in resin.

this one because heather powers recommended it. when i looked inside i nearly peed my pants - it's full of gorgeous beads and step by step instructions. i don't know heather powers of humblebeads, but her blog is super great and full of generous information. so, i just emailed her and asked her to recommend some polymer clay books - she wrote me back generously and immediately. when you want to know - ask an expert... politely.

this one on found object jewelry because, i don't know, because it's awesome inside. the jewelry inside is ecentric, mostly lovely and wildly made out of this and that. the artist's inside have taken stuff like old pencils, toothpicks & pearls (cover art), rusty bits, beach rocks and all kinds of the beautiful flotsam and jetsam and turned it all into treasure.

this one on bracelets because it was 50% off and 100% inspirationally mindboggling.

so now i am watching the bill's game, blogging, cooking fresh tomato sauce, digesting 3 cups of coffee and oggling my books - big poppa is napping.

miss mango just called from college - she got the barrista job she wanted off campus and a coveted slot on the campus radio station today. so she is walking on air.

yes, it's a perfect sunday.

hundertwasser socks

last night was the first meeting of the 2007 - 2008 season for the rochester knitting guild.
so, it is officially time to get knitting.

i have kicked off the season with a sock project. as the meeting was called to order at 7:00 i began casting these on.

this is some fabulous opal self-patterning sock yarn. with self patterning yarn all you do is knit, the yarn is dyed in such a way that the pattern appears as the yarn is unwound off the skein.
this yarn came from miss emwee, she gifted it to me all the way from london. the color-way is based on a painting (see yarn wrapper above) by friedensreich hundertwasser - legendary painter, teacher, architect and madman.

i linked his name (in pink) to his wikipedia blurb - i urge you to read about him and be inspired.

i adore hundertwasser.

one of my favorite paintings.

if you live anywhere near rochester, and knit, i urge you come to a monthly meeting of the knitting guild. it is one of the oldest and largest in the country with over 400 members. yes, you sit in a room with 400 women and all of them are knitting - the vibe is incredible.

sculpey pods

i still have not been able to get any torch time. monday is my usual afternoon at the torch and it was memorial day so the studio was closed. pfft.

so, on tuesday (in jittery need of a bead fix) i drove out to the doc's and we had an afternoon of sculpey and non-stop gabbing.

i made a lot of pods. here are some psychedelic strawberry pods

and some rather lumpy pods. i need to spend more time avoiding lumps and sloppy ends. better glasses would help.

this is only my second time using sculpey - so hints would be very welcome.

some marbled, sparkly ivory pods, these i liked best. they are not nearly as glittery as they look in this photo. the glitz is much more subtle.

an action shot of kiki & napoleon rounding the corner and racing/chasing up the front stairs. yes, this is what they do all day long.

art bead scene

i have a bunch of blogs that i check in on every few days.
one of my favorites is art bead scene.

as rolling stone is to music, art bead scene is to, well, art beads.
they have regular columns, interviews with star bead makers, they give great sources for materials and they also host a monthly jewelry challenge.

here's how it works, every month they come up with a theme and you make something lovely inspired by the theme. then just post a nice pic of your piece on their flickr site and check out all the other lovely things other readers have made.

at the end of the month someone who entered gets a randomly selected juicy prize of gorgeous finding and/or beads. guess what?

i won the august challenge. yesss, sweet. the pink fairy stone necklace got choosen outta the hat and i have some loot coming in the mail from art bead scene.

so, don't dawdle. check out this month's theme and get started.


re-discovering the flower paintings of odilion redon.