Christmas Came & Christmas Went

He sees you when you're sleeping...

...and it shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

It dropped more needles than it kept but we loved it anyways.

I even kept some of the ornaments I made.

Many records were played on the old mono record player. This was my holiday favorite.
Time to pack it all up and stuff it back up the chimney.

Souvenir of Luxembourg

It's necklace season.
An iridescent lampwork focal bead, vintage found chains, a tiny stone heart and a couple of old stray crystal beads to go with this beautiful old souvenir charm from Luxembourg.

On the Fringes

A new necklace.
The focal is one of mine, an off mandrel leaf that is about 2" long.

All sorts of beady fringe goodness.
Labradorite, carnelian, garnet, freshwater pearls, tiger eye, amber, coral and black tourmaline sticks.
The chain is all vintage, scrounged from estate and garage sales.

For you lampworkers out there - the leaf is Cim's 'Sange' with Val Cox's large size 'Raku' frit.

!!! Craftacular !!!

It's that time of year again,
the most wonderful time of the year...
time for CRAFTACULAR!

Cookies and Beer

Another holiday party poster done!
Beer, ugly X-mas sweaters, whiskey, big beef and rock & roll - what could possibly go wrong?

Candy Spangles Bracelet

Bits of a new bracelet.
I found an old, old lid to a candy tin and cut it into spangles with my handy dandy disk cutter.
Then got on the torch and made some beads to match.
Wired it all together with bronze and sterling silver.
Viola!

For the lampworkers out there:
I started with a barrel core of black and rolled in aventurine frit. Then carefully encased it with clear. At the end I added a stripe of transparent olive green around the middle.

Santa / Satan

In my other life I do graphic design.

Rockin' Robin

Day 2 of a small (10"x10") robin painting.
It's a real juicy one.

*please note * that in the photo above I am wearing my lucky red socks.

Old Plush

I shoulda been doing this, I shoulda been doing that.

Instead I squeezed out some oil paint and started a batch of small paintings while blasting the Pogues on my studio stereo.

This is day one of this little painting.

Heart & Seeds

A big mossy glass heart with vintage chain and stray glass beads and a nice chunk of yellow jade.

This necklace is available at:
Shop One2 - the fine craft gallery at RIT.

Pod Necklace

A very simple necklace -
one of my lampwork pod pendants,
some vintage silver tone chain  and two segments of old of rosary chain.

The black glass rosary chain lays against the back of the neck.
That way if you have short hair, or your hair is up, there a nice surprise detail.

This piece is available at:
Shop One2 the fine craft gallery at RIT.

Acorns Galore

Glass acorns and their handmade copper caps all lined up and ready to be assembled.

The wee caps are a pisser.
First you cut the holes and the circles, then texture hammer and dome them, a little filing and you're finally done. To finish you make the copper bails and carefully epoxy them together.

Viola!

Strange Fruit

Glass pod pendants with bronze, or sterling silver, hand hammered bails.

Each one started with a base of coral glass, the pointy ends were rolled in raku frit.
The applied leaves are ocher, or swamp moss.

Pumpkin Spice Everything

Wee glass pumpkin pendants with bronze 'stem' bails.

The pumpkins were made on the end of the mandrel and the bail is two-part epoxied in place.

Colors? I used up some orange short rods that were cluttering up my bench for the base glass and rolled that in ocher frit.

'Late Summer Seeds' necklace - lampwork glass beads and hand hammered bronze links.

This is a new glass from Cim's called 'corn silk.'
I am mad for it.
Also Cim's 'peat moss,' 'maple' and Effetre 'topaz.'

Above is the first batch, fresh out of the kiln.
I use a small brass tong press from Divardi glass to form the beads.

Mid-construction with my trusty hammer.

Jingly Seed Pods

Seed pod pendants with tiny tribal bells, like seeds bursting out of them.
Super fun to wear.

Wee Pods

Tiny pairs of glass 'seed pods.'
Made on the ends of mandrels with the bails added later.
Perfect for earrings.

Podlings

More 'end of the mandrel' pods.

River Rock

"River" heart pendant.
Ivory glass, silver foil, silvered ivory stringer and several shades of transparent blue glass.

Fall-ing off a Plant

 A really large pod pendant.

Made on the end of a mandrel with a bronze bail.

Coral glass with Val Cox Raku frit, the leaves are some unknown mustard green I found in my shorts pile. I wish I knew what it was, I'd like to order some.

The little idea sketch I worked from.

Peace of (my) Mind

Another new button design.

What Is Wrong With Us?

When things are so upsetting that I cannot sleep, I don't just lay there.
I get up, turn on my computer and start designing new buttons.

Finger on the Button

When you can't sleep because you're fretting about political things you can't control.
Get up, turn on your computer, and design some anti-war buttons.

The Devil Is In The Details

 Little bits of the two, new, big paintings of magnolias.

Palette

I love the smell of oil paints.
Finally, a long day of painting at my studio.

Apparently Pirates are Carnivores

Postcard front (above)
Postcard back (below)

Poster (below)

The hardest ones are those that are really an essay and are pretending to be a poster.
Ugh.

Postermaniac

This is the 4th Whiskey Brunch!
So much fun, I wouldn't miss it.

I had a blast making this summery poster and buttons.