rain + books = perfect sunday

rain, long drawn out all night and all day rain.
everything hot that was dying from the drought is coming back cool.
my vegetables are wearing the moisture like jewelry.

if it is sunday then big poppa is at the city flea market, buying and selling. when it rains on a sunday it means an unexpected day off for him, kinda like a snow day for a kid.

the two of us rounded up our friend the doc and headed to 'durf's of fairport' (the world's most unassuming restaurant) for brunch.
go ahead, ask me how good the pumpkin and walnut pancakes were.

then off to barnes and noble for a book binge. his two hardcovers on micro economic trends and lobbyists.
and my four, mostly paperbacks, on jewelry.

this book on resin casting because i want to figure out how to cast tiny pencil drawings in resin.

this one because heather powers recommended it. when i looked inside i nearly peed my pants - it's full of gorgeous beads and step by step instructions. i don't know heather powers of humblebeads, but her blog is super great and full of generous information. so, i just emailed her and asked her to recommend some polymer clay books - she wrote me back generously and immediately. when you want to know - ask an expert... politely.

this one on found object jewelry because, i don't know, because it's awesome inside. the jewelry inside is ecentric, mostly lovely and wildly made out of this and that. the artist's inside have taken stuff like old pencils, toothpicks & pearls (cover art), rusty bits, beach rocks and all kinds of the beautiful flotsam and jetsam and turned it all into treasure.

this one on bracelets because it was 50% off and 100% inspirationally mindboggling.

so now i am watching the bill's game, blogging, cooking fresh tomato sauce, digesting 3 cups of coffee and oggling my books - big poppa is napping.

miss mango just called from college - she got the barrista job she wanted off campus and a coveted slot on the campus radio station today. so she is walking on air.

yes, it's a perfect sunday.

hundertwasser socks

last night was the first meeting of the 2007 - 2008 season for the rochester knitting guild.
so, it is officially time to get knitting.

i have kicked off the season with a sock project. as the meeting was called to order at 7:00 i began casting these on.

this is some fabulous opal self-patterning sock yarn. with self patterning yarn all you do is knit, the yarn is dyed in such a way that the pattern appears as the yarn is unwound off the skein.
this yarn came from miss emwee, she gifted it to me all the way from london. the color-way is based on a painting (see yarn wrapper above) by friedensreich hundertwasser - legendary painter, teacher, architect and madman.

i linked his name (in pink) to his wikipedia blurb - i urge you to read about him and be inspired.

i adore hundertwasser.

one of my favorite paintings.

if you live anywhere near rochester, and knit, i urge you come to a monthly meeting of the knitting guild. it is one of the oldest and largest in the country with over 400 members. yes, you sit in a room with 400 women and all of them are knitting - the vibe is incredible.

sculpey pods

i still have not been able to get any torch time. monday is my usual afternoon at the torch and it was memorial day so the studio was closed. pfft.

so, on tuesday (in jittery need of a bead fix) i drove out to the doc's and we had an afternoon of sculpey and non-stop gabbing.

i made a lot of pods. here are some psychedelic strawberry pods

and some rather lumpy pods. i need to spend more time avoiding lumps and sloppy ends. better glasses would help.

this is only my second time using sculpey - so hints would be very welcome.

some marbled, sparkly ivory pods, these i liked best. they are not nearly as glittery as they look in this photo. the glitz is much more subtle.

an action shot of kiki & napoleon rounding the corner and racing/chasing up the front stairs. yes, this is what they do all day long.

art bead scene

i have a bunch of blogs that i check in on every few days.
one of my favorites is art bead scene.

as rolling stone is to music, art bead scene is to, well, art beads.
they have regular columns, interviews with star bead makers, they give great sources for materials and they also host a monthly jewelry challenge.

here's how it works, every month they come up with a theme and you make something lovely inspired by the theme. then just post a nice pic of your piece on their flickr site and check out all the other lovely things other readers have made.

at the end of the month someone who entered gets a randomly selected juicy prize of gorgeous finding and/or beads. guess what?

i won the august challenge. yesss, sweet. the pink fairy stone necklace got choosen outta the hat and i have some loot coming in the mail from art bead scene.

so, don't dawdle. check out this month's theme and get started.


re-discovering the flower paintings of odilion redon.

pink fairy necklace

i made the beads for this necklace & earring set months ago and then agonized over the construction.

i really am almost a complete novice at wire work. other than stringing beads on headpins for earrings and pendants i have no idea what i am doing.

the flameworked beads are silver leaf encased in transparent pink over a core of cim's rose quartz and gelly's sty pinks. the beads were repeatedly heated and faceted with the flat side of a cheese spreader.

all the wire work and findings are sterling silver.
there are lots of different stones and gems mixed into the necklace.

pink and white freshwater pearls...

carved leaves in moonstone & rose quartz...

rose quartz, moonstone and opal round beads...

and my favorite rock crystal chunks.

there are also earrings to match.

the view from the car on the way to alfred university. my daughter started her freshman year last week and her art classes this morning.

that's me in the rearview mirror. i like all the mysterious portraits people post on themselves in their blogs - so i here's my foray into oblique self portraiture.

a rainbow appeared on the drive home - no doubt a good omen.

waterlilies at night

we went to an outdoor concert last night at the george eastman house gardens.

afterwards, as the crowd thinned out, i took these snapshots of the lily pond.

the latest series of paintings, and drawings, is called 'night gardening'

i love these photos -

first there will be oil pastels on black paper.

then, maybe some acrylics on black paper

and finally, some new oil paintings - about time eh?

and, it's kind of hard to see, but there was a wee baby bunny in the yard when we got home. (the brightest white dot is the eye and directly below that the other white dot is the cottontail)

sorry for long gap between posts - i delivered my only child to college on wednesday. first i was crazy busy helping her get ready and then some empty nest malaise set in...

public market perfection

yesterday was one of those perfect days at the rochester public market.
the weather was sunny and glorious.

the company was excellent.
that's miss mango sporting the vintage diors and a basil boquet.

mystery squash.

there were homegrown field tomatoes by the thousands.
we bought a couple of rainbow heirloom tomatoes the size of kittens.

see that yellow cauliflower on the right? it went into my basket and we had cauliflower biryani for supper last night.

i have been so busy with preparing my freshman for college, including getting her wisdom teeth extracted, that i have not been at the torch in 2 weeks. i have my fingers crossed that tomorrow afternoon there will be torchtime.

a garage sale treasure

a stem of antique french hand beaded flowers.

i think they may be bachelor buttons or cornflowers.

look at that amazing beadwork - each wire and bead petal is perfect.

the leaves are made of zillions of hand strung beads.

every stem of the bouquet is wrapped in silk thread.

all this beauty for only one dollar...
and there was also a mess of beautiful snowy white mohair yarn at the same home.

i do so love a good garage sale.

kissing in the dark

first, something new - then something old

what's a girl to do? - bat for lashes

kissing in the dark - memphis minnie
* remember to support your local indie record store *

rusty beer caps

i have a thing for rusty bottle caps.
it's not everyday that you are given a perfect matching pair,
so i made them into charms.

i punched holes in them and then added some decorative scrapbooking rivets.

now what ever will i do with them -
i am thinking maybe they should be dangles on a pair of skull earrings?

simply charming

6 weeks ago miss mango gave me a box of 2part resin for my birthday.
every week or so i hear "mom have you used the resin yet?"
but, having never used the stuff before, i have to think (and rethink) it through...

today i started making some charms.

last week's diet rootbeer bottle caps from john's tex-mex on south ave.

flip them over and there are kiki and napoleon.

champagne cork 'coins'

turn them over and you have miss mango, j&j and a fat robin.

first i punched holes into the sides of the caps with an awl, them using my dremmel filed down the rough edges. then i made sterling silver bales from wire and tucked them thru the holes.

using acrylic molding paste i filled in each cap bottom, thus securing the bale, and plonked the photos in place. when the paste gets good and hard i will add some glitter around the photo edges and let that dry. lastly, the resin will be mixed and poured into the caps. wish me luck.

a gratutitous snapshot of snapshots at my studio.
i am feeling very sentimental about miss mango - in one week she starts college away from home.
things are going to be so dreadfully dull without her.