even stickier

more flameworked sticks.


this wee twig is my favorite.

the glass is effetre special brown rolled in raku frit.

after the sticks these two beads just sort of happened -
i was thinking about beads that could be a twist on rustic twig frames.

i like them a lot, especially the one on the right that looks like it has birch bark in the center.

perched on a thin branch

just look at these new earrings by nancy topolski.
i scored them at the boulder cafe farmer's market thrusday night.

they're made from fragments of beer bottles and sterling silver.
how lux is that?


it's a lady bug crawling on my husband's shoulder.
"honey, hold still there's a bug on you."
he thought i was going to save him by swatting it away, instead i whipped out my camera and took a bug's ass portrait.

tattered

it's the end of the dance and the beautiful girls are in shambles.

the coneflowers are faded and torn -

brittle and burnt.

a peony seed pod is bursting & mildewing at the same time.


a gratuitous dog snapshot - it's miss kiki p. oodle helping me out with my macro lens.

twiggy

summer's ending. my sleeves are getting longer and i thought about digging out a sweater this morning. obstinately i decided it would be better to be chilly than admit that autumn is creeping up on us. the leaves are starting to yellow and crinkle around the edges, the ferns are browning out and giving up. seed pods are popping open and the apples are coming on.

and i am still making glass sticks - i now have 9 that i am happy with. lots of these little suckers break coming off the mandrels.

the glass colors are:
top row - fossil, light silver plum, gray, black and fossil again.
bottom row - special brown, avocado, dark gray transparent w/white and ask silver cinnamon.

sooner of later these will be mixed with big white pearls to become a necklace.

pale & luscious greens

hydrangea blossom

what a color combination.
think of it as lots of chunky white & pale green homemade frit on a black core.

2nd etsy treasury

i woke up this morning to an email informing me i am in another etsy treasury!

etsy treasury :: preciousness

here's a screen pic of the page:

that's my little glass cardinal bead in the upper right hand corner.
who says lightning cannot strike twice?

fly by night

it's late.

i took this macro snapshot of a fly today - it's so creepy.
what's with the hairs on its back?

1st etsy treasury

i am in my first etsy treasury -
and i don't even know what an etsy treasury is.

etsy treasury :: some undiscovereds have the blues

here's a screen shot of the treasury.

that's my bluebird charm - bottom row center.
i am all flustered.

slap happy

running around in circles getting the sophmore back to college,
a battle otherwise know as the old gray lady v.s. little miss slapdash.

my question of the day -
how can you forget a refrigerator?

there is so much to love about alfred university -
like this recycling collection can somewhere in the school of art & design. harder hall is such a convoluted maze it might as well be hogwarts.

rust never sleeps

more new pearls...




and more old street trash...

i am still threatening to make that rusty bottle cap and pearl charm bracelet.

cardinal rouge

effetre dark red glass.

this little red cardinal, and it's mate, are for sale in my etsy shop.

singing his heart out.

urban gardening

last night on our way to john's tex mex i spotted this ersatz vegetable patch.

yes - that's one magnificent tomato plant growing, in a recycle bucket, on the stoop of a walkdown apartment.

night blooming

twenty odd years ago my best friend bob used to bring me single blossoms from his hostas. each evening i would pin a new flower to the wall with an old victorian hat pin and at night its powerful fragrance, which i adored, would fill my whole bedroom.

after he died i searched and searched for the same variety of hosta and never found a match. pure white, night blooming - and with that beautiful smell.

one perfect morning, three summers ago, i was driving past his old house and the new owners were having a garage sale. they were selling freshly dug pots of his hostas. i wonder if they still talk about the woman who burst into tears, cradling plants, in their driveway? anyway, these beautiful plants are budding right now and my thoughts are trailing after bob.

little cock robin

another of the 'rosary' necklaces.

the 6 little flower shapes are bronze freshwater pearls.


the chain and findings are all sterling silver.

glass beads



a single tumbled shale heart.


a small 1" square painting on paper that i sandwiched into a soldered charm and then applied a black patina to the silver.

a flameworked robin sitting on an antique coral branch.

little cock robin
sitting on a pole
niddle noddle went his head
poop went his hole.

madame X earrings

new earrings.

madame X.

flame worked party dress beads, sterling silver, freshwater pearls & tiny garnets.

clouds of joy

just as i was heading into the bead show yesterday we had a summer cloudburst, the sun never stopped shining and the rain drops were as big as gumdrops. i relaxed in my parked car enjoying the sound of the storm on the roof, but as is always the way with that kind of rain shower it was over in just a few minutes.


doesn't this bead look like a cartoon cloud?


and these, both above and below, like rain drops?

a laboradite binge.


and really, really big white pearls like billowy cumulus clouds?



after a whole summer admiring and photographing skyscapes i must be getting ready to make some jewelry pieces about clouds and water?

once i realized that everything i was buying at the bead show looked like water it was fun to wander around looking for more bits of rain and clouds to add to the stash.

lilac earrings

some of my jewelry is complicated and ornate and some, like these earrings, could not be simpler. each earring is just a bead, a headpin and a couple of tiny sterling beads.

and this - because sometimes nothing succeeds like excess.

helmut zacharias & his magic violins - 'when the lilacs bloom again'

pearls between her toes

this morning i slipped on my old black birks there was a 'stone' in my right shoe. when i kicked it off and shook it a little freshwater pearl fell out. doesn't it sounds like something that could happen in a fairytale? an old witch who can make pearls between her toes?

this necklace is all red and ripe and strawberries.

strawberry rosary - it's not really a rosary it just reminds me of one.


this flame worked glass red bird bead is one of my favorite beads from this summer's torching harvest. i plan on making a smaller pair just like it this afternoon so i can have earrings.


a small painted stawberry soldered charm.


wonderfully lustrous white stick pearls and a glass strawberry.


the one tiny grape purple pearl was a happy accident that just had be left in place.

nest necklace

i want to share pictures of one of the new necklaces i made - but i shot the pictures early, early this morning and they are about as sharp as i was at the time i took them.

the necklace has already been delivered to the gallery shop so there is no chance of re-photographing it. yes, i should have checked the pics before dashing off to sell the thing...

nevertheless, here are some bad photos.

i should be jailed for blurry and hideous foreshortening.


the charm and its dangling bits.


a close-up the hand painted nest charm.


the sterling chain and one of the three pearl segments.
the necklace is quite long, my daughter said it reminded her of a rosary.


and finally the flame workd glass berry bauble at the end, made with my favorite opalino carnelian italian glass and gold leaf.