rhododendron hat

another crazy hat.

made with a variety of yarn scraps, including wool, cotton chenille, an unnaturally brite orange acrylic and some italian pink mohair. the big sequins are vintage - they're clear with a hint of iridescence like soap bubbles.

do they even make these giant sequins anymore?
please, does anyone know where to buy them?

p/s all the hats are gone now, on their way to a ukulele festival in indiana. they're merchandise for the hat wearing crown princess of the uke - julia nunes

gardening

a couple more little murrini gardens.

murrini in the garden of good & evil

guess what?
i figured out how to make those little tiny fine lines on beads.



they are too impossibly thin and evenly straight to have been drawn on with a stringer. i finally realized they were applied like frit, that they are hair thin hand pulled stringers, broken into short lengths, and pressed into the bead.



when i announced it to some fellow beaders they were all like... "i knew that..." so, when i was asking about it why didn't anyone tell me how it was done?



i don't like crafty secrets.
if i make something and you want to know how it's done, just ask me. i will be glad to share any, and all, of the beady knowledge i have. i'd rather be generously creative than competitive.

blaue blume

blue flowers are a romantic symbol of desire & unreachable love.


i love these inspirational little blue flowers because they bloom by the thousands in the early, early spring and promise that winter is almost over.


these little blue blossom beads were made the same way as the previous 'spring blossoms' entry.
each bead is no bigger than my thumbnail.


the colors used were white encased in clear for the center. the extra long petals are opalino blue, the tips are a darker blue because i added a small dot of transparent blue to end of each petal before pulling and shaping it


"i merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues"
- duke ellington

spring blossom beads

these beads were made ages ago, but were finally photographed late this afternoon.


i rather like them, so i drew a little illustrated tutorial in my bead sketchbook so that they can be made again later.


here it is step by step:

these floral beads could be fun in lots of color combinations, or with clear in the center which sort of disappears leaving just the petals.


i actually dipped the warmed white rod of glass into some rubino oro homemade frit before applying the petals to the bead - if you look below you can see the hints of pink.



sometimes if the flattened petal bottoms won't cover the whole of the inside bead, it this happens add a drop or two more of the white glass and flatten it to cover better. i use a stainless steel cheese knife.



the tweezers should be non-serrated with fine pointed tips. when you do a final flame anneal on the beads after pulling the petals, the tips of the petals will round out a little bit and look nice and natural.


these are great to make in pairs for earrings - strung on headpins, with freshwater pearls, either petals up or petals down.

decoration day

"glory guards, with solemn round, the bivouac of the dead!"

i just want to take a minute to remember memorial day.

i may not have time for a real post today - it's been a crazy weekend. it started friday night with a close friend celebrating a significant birthday, then big poppa performed leopard skin pillbox hat at the annual bob dylan birthday party, yesterday my niece graduated from cornell u. oh, and my parents are in town and somewhere in there we had friends over for bbq and shopped for rhubarb.

my life is moving at a cartoon pace.

redstart

another old, small audubon painting.

redstart - acrylic on paper, 8" x 8"

old bird

since i didn't have time for a single creative minute today, i am posting something i made last fall and forgot about. i found it while organizing the audubon pictures in my computer, there is another one for tomorrow.

starling - acrylic on paper - 8" x 8"

banana rum cupcakes

with only 6 minutes to spare, to make my 'post a day in may' deadline...
i bring you banana rum cupcakes.

the sprinkles that look like fleas are actually little black cats - in honor of felix's master's birthday.

audubon book

i make my audubon paintings & drawings from a really old, cheap edition of audubon's birds of north america.

while working on the paintings i usually mess around in the book too.

on the right is the page of cardinals. i pushed some leftover paint onto the page the other morning before cleaning up.

i really like the pastel french blue with the red bird.

eventually, i imagine, the book will be something kinda special - all full of altered illustrations.

my modern-matic

mine, mine, mine!
look what i found at an estate sale today.


it's a cherry vintage sewing machine - works like a dream.


it's the modern-matic, model naz, super zig zag.


look at that design -
just like a late 50's plymouth belvedere coupe...


this little sweetie came with a lovely wooden case, all her manuals and deluxe attachments. i say, $20.00 well spent.

ready to leave the nest...

the nine 6"x6" bird paintings are finished and ready to be delivered.


all are acrylics on paper. sorry about the glare on some, there is pearl paint in them which makes them nearly impossible to photograph.


painted bunting #271


kentucky warbler #249


slate colored junco #281


cardinal #265


warbling vireo #238


orchard oriole #259


blue winged warbler #243


purple finch #273


two grosbeaks #266

the event starts on june 7th at the rochester contemporary art center all are for sale for $20 each.

tic tac crow

here's where the 9 unfinished little bird paintings on paper stand this morning.

some are done, most are not quite there yet.

charity birds

i am participating in a fund raising event for my local art space.

it's called 6x6x2008, the rochester contemporary is going to sell 2008 6" x 6" works of art for $20.00 each.

it feels like i am off to a good start - i want to complete 9 and the first 4 are well on their way.

they are the first paintings i have done since moving out of my old studio months ago. it's still very unsettled and i am unhappy with my work space, but it felt wonderful to paint again.

these small paintings are acrylic paint on paper, each is a from a series of drawings and paintings which mess around with shapes and images from audubon's birds of north america.


#281 - slate-colored junco


#273 - purple finch


#271 - painted bunting


#266 - two grosbeaks
* the number in each title refers to the reference # of the audubon print.

rainy sunday

it's a deliciously cool, dark, rainy spring sunday.


we shopped the flower market early this morning before the rain truly started. just look at this huge lemony yellow iris, each bloom is the size of my hand. i knew where i was going to plant it the moment i saw it.

now for a snuggly nap with the poodles and maybe a movie later.

i promise to bring you something beady and artsy tomorrow.

mellow's afterlife

reuse & recycle.

with nothing up my sleeve, except some garage sale yarn and a gently used beanie baby named mellow, i whipped up this hat.


i started by scissoring a beanie baby in half and emptying out the pellets. believe me, this is best done over a garbage can. he needed a little bit of extra poly fill stuffing in his tummy to replace his pellets and plump him back up.


next, i crocheted a small, round flat circle the same size as the hole in the beanie baby. it covered the base of the beanie baby so the stuffing would be held in place.

once the crocheted circle was the right size i attached it by poking small holes into the beanie baby fabric and looping the crochet right thru the holes all the way around the circle. the goofy blue-green fun fur yarn helped hide the rough edges.


next, i switched from the crochet hook over to double pointed knitting needles buy picking up stitches around the edge of the crocheted circle. now all there was left to do was knit my way down the body of the hat.

i used size 10 needles, increasing here and there to form the hat's crown.

when the length was good i finished it off with a rib stitch band.

viola.

not a very well focused photo, but my hat model has gone to bed and i am certainly not going to wake her up just to re-shoot it.