he paints again

after neglecting this painting for weeks he's back at it.

i started a label category for dick's paintings - it's there in the right sidebar (under flavors) called 'dick paints.'

polka dots

goofy, happy beads.

copper green dots on a variety of base colors.
by making every base bead out of a different color i used up a bunch of pesky leftover short rods. the copper green polka dots do all the work of unifying the set - and i had the fun of watching all the reactions the copper glass had (and didn't have) with each shade of glass.

i have a big afternoon of torching planned, i even sketched a working list of beads to make. time to run and pack my glass. i am wiggling with excitement.

strawberry soup

my brain is soup today, a sort of strawberry miasma.

above - is a closeup photograph of a piece of mid-century italian glass. a rubino oro plunged dot candy dish. a favorite object.

below - vintage plastic strawberries.

i ask you, what would possess someone to buy plastic strawberries?

these vintage fakes turned up at an estate sale and i cannot stop thinking about the irony of plastic strawberries. these even have their original price tag still attached, they were never even used - for what? what was the decorating plan?

what could be less plastic than a fresh juicy strawberry? what could be more fleeting than strawberries? plastic strawberries - it's just weird.

chocolate cherries

felt beads.

other then when you skewer a finger with your felting needle these are really fun to make.

i like the idea of these mixed with glass and perhaps i will follow the lead of steph at vlad the bat's attic and make some pet fur felt beads...

the dog of the futurists - or - napoleon dynamo

napoleon in motion.

a tip of the hat to giacomo balla and his painting 'dynamism of a dog on a leash' (1912)

rakish earrings

can you believe it?
i just learned how to rake glass. i vaguely remember some mention of it in a beginning bead class but i had never actually done it - until last week. now i am a raking fool.

these lentils were first decorated, then raked and finally pressed.
they started with a base of messy (cim's) sangre, then ribbons of carrot red and an iridescent violet blue glass from double helix called psyche were added.

february snow deluxe

i wired a necklace together today using all the dirty snow lentil beads - 16 in all.

it's a bit over the top in terms of luxe - but i love pearls.

each hand pressed glass lentil is like a little painting.

every bead started with a base of dark ivory glass wrapped in ribbons of cims canyon de chelly,

then other bits of color were added here and there. finally, each bead was decorated with lines and dots of double helix psyche.

i did not use a traditional press, but rather a pair of stainless steel ice tongs to shape these beads.
i wanted these beads to be more organic than the uniform ones that are made a press.

the entire necklace is constructed with 26 gauge sterling silver wire.
each bead has a tiny hand faceted opal tucked into each end to stabilize its wrapped wire link.

the necklace.

sweet revenge

it's weird how you meet people through their blogs.
i was immediately drawn to the blog vLaDtHeBaT's aTTiC because steph has a pet chicken - i knew from her art, her patterns of speech, her photos and her lovely jewelry that we were moving in the same orbits. never mind she's in belgium.

i sent her a birthday gift - and she replied "revenge is on it's way."
look what arrived in today's mail - she sent me a present back.
the package has a drawing of 'cocotte' on the back.


inside there were trinkets for jewelry, a small package for miss margaret and some sweet soap.

and there was this, a magnificent necklace that she made.

i am pretty sure that is not my birthday - but it is the middle of wretched february so i will accept all the joy that arrives in my mailbox.

isn't it gorgeous?

i adore all the amulets and gathered bits of treasure she's put to work on it.
thank you so much for my not-birthday gifts.

the mandarine

there were mandarin oranges at the market this morning.

kraftwerk - craftwork

miss margaret just called, from college, to say that she was spending her afternoon twiddling the knobs on one of kraftwerk's original sythesizers. how cool is that? imagine, she is the same age now that i was when i was a complete ralf and florian loving art student. what kind of class is she taking where she gets to use this rock artifact? sonic arts.


kraftwerk 'pocket calculator' 1981 (live)

for your craftwork

i torched some glass buttons, designed presentation cards for them and tucked them into bed on etsy.

swamp witch necklace

i hammered this together yesterday and named it after the old jim stafford song 'swamp witch' (black water hattie). i loved this melodramatic song as a pre-teen. it's about a sinister bayou voodoo woman.

the links are all sterling

the little green beads on the ends of my lampwork beads are some sort of murky jade salvaged from an estate sale necklace.

i like how the glass distorts the threaded wire to look as though it is bent. glass is such mysterious stuff.

this piece is headed to the memorial art gallery's museum store.

she's got a big heart

front:


back:

an end of the day bead made with all the stumpy rods, popped off bits, leftover fine silver foil, un-used frit and whatever else that was within arms length of my torch.
it is 3 1/4" long.

swamp hollow

a very large hollow bead.

it is part of a set of swamp inspired beads.
i used lots of different colors of transparent glass in these beads - but primarily kelp, light gray and light topaz. i also used a vetrofond oddlot color called swamp moss. each little piece of glass also has a sprinkling of raku frit and intense black wrapped trails.

a couple of the lentil shaped beads even have 'frog eggs' on them.