I'm A Wreck (the halls)

I love designing posters!

Really looking forward to this party!

Glassy Holiday Recipe

Home cookin' that's cute as a button.
Val Cox 'Raku Jitterbug' frit on a base of Cim's 'Sangre.'
You're welcome!

Chain Gang

Sometimes something so stinkin' simple works perfectly.

Just sterling silver and tiny, tiny flameworked beads.

Super fun to make and there are endless color possibilities.
Easy to wear, they're very lightweight.

'Ice Princess' Necklace

A new necklace - 'Ice Princess'
Lampwork glass beads, rock crystal and sterling silver

I used a whole bunch of beautiful Lauscha clear glass shorts that I was gifted.
The barrel shaped beads are rock crystal (clear quartz).

Winter is coming.

Distractification

I'm just going to hole up in my house and sew catnip mice until I wrap my head around this mess.

They're O so terribly posh.
Made with thrifted cashmere and fine wool sweaters, organic American grown catnip and organic cotton stuffing.

Here's my friend Jen's cat, Miss Amelia B, enjoying her mousie.

And another satisfied cat customer.
(cat-stomer)

Autumn Pod Necklace

'Autumn Pod' necklace
lampwork glass pendant and beads, antique amber prayer beads, soapstone and vintage chain

The amber beads are floating on a lighter weight chain so that you can slide them around for lots of fidgeting fun while you're wearing the necklace.

This one is at the fine craft gallery at RIT - Shop One2.

Heart Throb

A new necklace.
One of my lampwork glass heart pendants, labradorite, pyrite, garnet and rock crystal wired with a vintage chain.

Summer Seeds Necklace

Inspiration is where you find it.

The beads in this necklace were inspired by the hundreds of tiny bright yellow-green burrs I hand-picked out of Miss Kiki's black fur. About a month ago she came back from a night-time walk plastered in them. A few test beads later I had the color I was looking for and it was just a matter of making enough of them for a rope of burrs.

It's one continuous strand made with hand-hammered bronze links.

The core of the beads is Effetre 'petroleum green' and the encasing is a mix of Effetre 'pale apple green' and 'grass green light transparent.'

I used a wonderful inexpensive press from Devardi Glass to shape the beads.

My furry muse, Miss Kiki P. Oodle.

Grape Jam

There's some progress on the grape painting but it's embarrassingly slow.
I'm so focused on getting beads made for holiday jewelry that I am neglecting the easel.

I need more hours in my days... I know you can relate.

I'm A Button Makin' Maniac

This is what I do with a lot of my short rods.

I make buttons.

The quilters love them, the knitters love them and so do jewelry makers.

You can almost always find a mess of them in my Etsy 'Belvedere' shoppe.

I make them off mandrel so the holes are flame polished, which means they are very round and smooth all the through. They will never, ever cut your thread or yarn like some other glass buttons.

Gettin' My Autumn On

A new fall necklace.

A big lampwork glass pod made on the end of a mandrel.
Rough cut garnet, freshwater pearls and vintage chain.

I wish I had spools of this chain with it's little pod like links.

Halloween is Coming

Halloween is coming and I will be ready.

Leather bangles with skulls.
The skulls stay in place but the beads move freely around the bracelet.
Great fun if you like to fidget with your jewelry.

Is It Fall Yet?

Fall.
I'm feeling it.

Some tried and true earring designs in some new seasonal colors.

Boo Berries

Halloween is coming and this year I will be ready.

'Boo Berry' earrings - lampwork glass beads, rhinestone rondelles, ceramic skulls and tiny colored bells

It's Show Time

Every now and again I make a band poster.

Back From The Dead - Again

'Strawberry Deathcake' earrings.
I haven't made a pair of these in ages.

Glass strawberry headpins on black steel wires.
The glass is Cim's 'Sangre' rolled in clear frit.
Olive green rhinestone rondelles.
Hand carved bone skulls.
Gunmetal leverbacks and a couple little gunmetal spacer beads to anchor the skulls.

I Am So Sewing

After much hemming (pun intended) and hawing I have one of my mother's old Bernina sewing machines working.

I found a ruin of an old crazy quilt at an estate sale and am working on replacing all the rotten silk pieces.
It's more of a project than I intended, the more I repair the more that falls apart.

Quilting is a certain kind of fun.

Rescuing and repairing old ones it far more interesting to me than making them from scratch.
I don't really understand going to the store and buying fabric, cutting it up and putting it back together.
I like to thrift my fabrics - isn't the whole point of quilting making something from nothing?
I don't know, but I do like rescuing things.

So Many Buttons...

In an attempt to make a dent in my dish of short rods I went on a button making binge.

These, and many more, are all up in my etsy 'Belvedere' shoppe.

In case you're a flameworker and wonder how I make them...
they're worked off mandrel and I use a tool called a 'Handy Andy' to make the holes.

The holes are flame polished so that they're super smooth and will never, ever cut your thread or yarn.

Baked

The summer doldrums.
I am a slug, a mess of creative inactivity.

But I did bake something, a fresh blueberry breakfast cake

Grape Jam

Beads right?
Nope.
It's been way too hot to torch.

Instead of working with the flame I have been painting.
Which is also slow going because my studio is sweltering hot.

You maybe asking "why is she painting it in the frame?"
Because I bought the frame at a yard sale for $10 with a painting already in it, and I could NOT get the canvas out of the frame. The frame was intricately built around the canvas by some mad genius. So rather than just chuck it I decided to paint right over the painting that was already in there. Sorry (not sorry) previous painter.