new figural earrings

a couple of new pairs of earrings for the sale this weekend at more fire glass.



i thought it would be fun to make some figural beads for earrings.
so monday i made some winged hearts and some tiny strawberries.



i also made some bird beads which i like so much that i am going to do a sketched tutorial on how to make them. check back in a day or two and i should have it posted.

winter twilight

cloudscapes snapped on my drive home from making beads yesterday afternoon.

those dark gray cloulds can only mean one dismal thing - snow.

the sky was so dramatic that it is was sort of freaky and frightening.

the new beads are out of the kiln and soaking downstairs in the kitchen. there will be bead photos tomorrow.

cheese dog

if you come to my house for thanksgiving you better be ready to eat and then chase the dogs.

one pair of guests brought the most extravagant spread of appetizers - olives, fruit, pates, crackers and cheeses...

especially new york state sharp cheddar.

which napoleon p. oodle eeked and catapulted off the table using the cutting board as a fulcrum.
that's the cheese thief under the noguchi coffee table with his maw full of purloined cheddar.

an after shot of a fat old minature poodle trying to digest a pound of cheese.

blackbird fly

a new bracelet.

a flock of small black polymer clay crows from last summer,

mixed with my flameworked glass beads, bright white freshwater rice pearls, ebony & tumbled onyx,

wired with sterling onto a sterling silver chain bracelet.

it makes a great sound on your wrist, a very quiet rustle of pearls and wood.

the photograph that was the inspiration for the bracelet.

sorry that this photo is somewhat blurry - but the little birds were already at a show when i downloaded the photos.

new & improved mexican voodoo

just for the more fire glass holiday show i made some new mexican voodoo pendants.

these re-vamped babies all have little charms on their bottoms. little treasure bits found at garage sales and wired on for extra zestiness.

a stray eiffel tower.

a child riding a duck (wtf)

a teapot

a wee basket of pearly eggs

and, of course, the infant of prague

who is that handsome dog?
napoleon p. oodle.

cayuga stone

a new necklace made with a stone found on the shore of cayuga lake.
i grew up in ithaca, new york and love taughannock falls state park.

cayuga stone - sterling silver, rock, black suede, flameworked glass beads, freshwater pearls and tumbled black onyx hearts

it's another piece of jewelry that will be in the more fire glass holiday sale which starts this friday morning at 10:00. come on over, i will be there all day.

both of my glass focal beads are made from dark ivory, silver foil and raku frit.

i think this simple combination is endlessly beautiful.

a detail of the wire wrapping on the suede pieces - i just launched into it, with no real idea of what i was doing, but i love the sort of 'girl scout craft' look to the wire lashing.

taughannock falls, ithaca, new york

maple leaf glad rags

the grand maple tree at my studio is a magnificent golden honey yellow.

some detail photographs of another new necklace and earring set for the more fire glass holiday show.
this one with autumn colors.

the focal bead is one of my favorites and is almost 1 1/2" long -
i made it with a base of dark ivory, it has light silver plum ends, lots of raku frit and silver foil.

i may have used every style of bead in my horde - freshwater pearls, ceramics, smoky quartz, bone...

gold leafed ceramic and a scarab.

another glass bead, this one cloudy red rolled in raku frit with some gold leaf.

a bead that is a polished cross section slice of an antler.

amber, citrines and a giant pea green freshwater pearl that looks like a bird foot.

sorry it's a little blurry.

matching earrings and a very boring full view of the necklace.

even though there are thousands of leaves still on the maple there is an incredible 6" carpet of fallen leaves on the driveway and front stairs.

amber blossoms necklace & earrings

starting friday the 23rd, the day after thanksgiving, it's time for the holiday sale at more fire glass.
here's a new necklace and earring set that will not be on display.
it's going to my girlfriend diana for her birthday.

amber blossoms - my glass beads, freshwater pearls & sterling silver

a little closer.

the center bead.

another detail.
matching earrings

all this week i will be blogging new jewelry i have put together just for this show.

double dammit & back again

clank, clank, clank...
and then there was no computer.

do i adore the computer guys who saved my stuff and put it on the new huge hard drive?
yes.

but now i have drivers galore to find and reload. sigh.

jens lekman - you are the light
i love this kid, he reminds me of johnny halliday crossed with petula clark.

ginko leaves

we have three magnificent ginko trees at the street edge of our front yard.

every autumn they drop all their leaves in the matter of a few hours, it's like a switch goes off in their ancient tree brain that says drop your leaves - now.

ginko leaves - oil on canvas - 36" x 45"

yesterday we had our first hard frost and as the sun came up the leaves started to fall, by lunchtime all the leaves from all three trees were on the ground.

(source photograph for the painting above)

having the leaves drop yesterday was a terrible shame because the trees had not turned yellow yet, they were still bright green. very unusual. i look forward to their yellow splendor all year...

here are some snapshots from last autumn when they were incredible

all honey and sunlight.

ginko trees have a beautiful architecture.

all three of our trees are females - which means they each drop thousands of karo syrup sticky pinky orange berries with nuts/pits in the center. they smell noxious as they rot, the squirrels won't eat them and they stick to the rake. but oh, those beautiful leaves.

breathing in and breathing out

i stopped by the studio today to grab a bead sketchbook and my house guest was not there. so, i grabbed a paintbrush and had a stolen half hour of painting. i know he hates the smell of oil paint but it had been amost 6 weeks - whine.

it's a painting of snowdrops
here are four progress snapshots of it - with the last one being what i painted today.



it is sort of hard to see because the underpainting is metallic silver.







it was like an oil paint explosion.
when he arrived he very graciously shrugged it off and i felt like a little kid who had been caught doing something deliciously naughty.