more chickadees

there has been so much knitting and sewing around here lately perhaps you're thinking that i have forsaken my beading? nah.

i gift bagged two brand new pairs of chickadee earrings up today and delivered them.

someone is going to get these for christmas.

i did the encasing on these two little chickadees (above) in transparent pale pink. i always like to encase in a sheer color rather than with clear, i think it makes the colors in my beads richer.


this chickadee was encased in pale transparent gray. the earrings have little garnets on the bottom under the black stick pearls.

knitted gingerbread ornaments - done

i planned to make dozens of these to give as gifts -
but they take forever.

so, for now, there are only four.

each one of these fussy little cookie boys is 6" tall and took about 3 hours to make.

winter berries

another pair of my felted mittens.

these are a dark chocolate brown that are made from an especially soft and heavy recycled wool sweater that i felted.


the berries were needle felted on with red and pink roving.


this time of year the ornamental tree at the end of my driveway is covered with little red berries. it was the inspiration for these mittens.

i might make another pair with the same berry motif on a frosty blue-gray pair of mittens - but at the time i cut out this pair of mittens i was more interested in chocolate than wintery skies.

the mittens are up on etsy.

mighty mittens of joy

what a long and delightful day. the little holiday show i did today was fun - i sold a fair bit and traded even more. phew - now some of my hardest shopping is done.

as promised, here they are -

the mittens.


this green wool pair have little felted nests on them.

the 'eggs' are vintage carved (shell?) buttons.


i love it when a plan comes together. all summer and fall i collected sad wool and cashmere sweaters at estate and garage sales. no sweater was too dirty, stained or moth eaten. i brought them all home and washed them in steamy hot water and then tossed them in to the dryer. what i ended up with were two big baskets of gorgeous felt.


these are a luscious coral cashmere with little birds needle felted onto them with a little free motion machine stitching on top of that.


the birdies are already sold and the nest mittens are up on etsy.
i will post pictures of the other ones tomorrow.

kittens & cabbages

i have a little show tomorrow -
so i made some new merchandise tags this evening.

this one is for all the mittens i made today.
it is 2" wide and 3" tall, big enough to really see and enjoy the vintage kitten illustration. i am in love with making mittens and can't wait to show them off.

q: is making fancy tags worth the time?
a: yes, they absolutely increase sales.

this little tag is smaller than a business card. it is something i like to have on my selling table so that i can give people my blog address.

why a cabbage?
because if i were a vegetable i would be a cabbage.

p/s i downloaded these wonderful free clip are images from clip art etc. then hand colored them in photoshop and added the text in corel draw.

waffle perfect

such a feat of breakfast precision can mean only one thing...

miss baby is home from college.

i can't seem to remember that it going to get dark outside at four-thirty. i spent a delightful day crafting my brains out. the plan was to stop mid-afternoon and take some photos to share. by the time i looked up from my trusty sewing machine it was pitch black outside and i just can't take a decent snapshot without natural light.

so the needle felted cashmere mittens, new beads and wool frosted knitted gingerbread men will be on tomorrow's blog menu. please, stop by for some crafty holiday snacks.

ornaments

knit knit knit as fast as you can

you can't make enough gingerbread men.
they still need their white wool icing, but they are coming along nicely.

and while i knit, napoieon naps.

apparently his christmas crafting is done.

holiday hen

a christmas bird.





pea green with carrot red swirls encased in a thin layer of clear with a white head and red beak.

a fresh flock

finally, some new beads to share


here's a little glimpse of my home -
a tiny nest that sits on a sill in the library.

it's rather silly to call it the library - it's just a tiny room with built in bookcases where we keep a ridiculous amount of art books. there are books everywhere in our home, it's kind of a problem, but a nice problem.

chick-a-dee-dee-dee

this batch of beads included another pair of chickadee beads - and i still need to make more. everyone wants chickadee earrings.

like a moth to a flame

today is the last day of the more fire glass holiday open house. i will be hanging out there from 10 to 4 today if you want to stop in. there will be glass blowing demos most of the day and maybe some bead making too.

the postcard i designed for the event

if you can't make it today - more fire will be open weekdays from 10 to 4 from now thru the holidays.

"i am as light as a feather...

...can we put the feather down now?"

'the spider, the mistress & the tangerine'
an intimate documentary film featuring the artist louise bourgeois.

this movie is amazing - almost the entire film is footage of her talking about her work and her intense and colorful life.
click here to watch the theatrical trailer, the preview does not really represent the movie well, it has other people blathering on about the artist and the actual movie devotes very little time to this sort of thing.


one of her giant spiders (maman) at the tate modern in london.

"my emotions are inappropriate to my size."
- louise bourgeois

breathing in & breathing out

sorry for the absence!

it's been a beading, painting, knitting, sewing and designing madhouse at my house.

felted mittens, fingerless gloves, things i cannot talk about, a new coffee bag label, wonderful thrifting scores - it's been a wacky week. i wish i could post pictures - but everything is a big secret - because it's holiday time.

time to fly - this old gray elf has gotta clean her mandrels.

p/s it's so cold here you'd think it's december.

milkweed - part 9

after months of waiting my milkweed pods have finally cracked open

and begun to disperse their fluff,

with the promise of an even larger crop of plants next year.

each downy puff feel likes like a bit of silk.