HANDMADE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Please consider buying handmade this year for the holidays and supporting the many artisans that rely on their own self supporting businesses to make a living, and produce beautiful handcrafted quality merchandise, with a real passion!

 

Below and to the side is a link to some of these artists that have amazing talents, where you can find amazing gifts.....give them a try!

Thank you for supporting handmade!

AND AGAIN............

Let's try this again!  Summer is gone already, the high today was 50, and right now it is 35.....brrrrrr!!   Too soon for that I think, but that is living in the northeast. The past two months were spent creating jewelry for a boutique, and now I am listing some new pieces in my etsy shop.

I thought I would share some here.....

I guess I have autumn on my mind, leaves, rich brown, orange and green tones, champagnes, and mixed textures. These are the things I feel when I create my jewelry, tone on tone, diverse elements, all in harmony.

Thank you for stopping by, and I will be by to visit you also!

I appreciate your comments so much!

IT'S BEEN AWHILE

It's been awhile, but I am still here. It just seems that summer is so short here, and I don't want to miss any of it, so we sit outside a lot, just relaxing, talking, watching the hummingbirds, doing nothing, being lazy. The rest of the days are spent working the day job and or running errands and squeezing in doctor appointments and a host of other mundane chores.  The few hours in between I manage to accomplish some jewelry and sketching, so here is what I have been up to lately......

I have been enjoying working with metal, I have always liked the physical part of pounding , hammering, and making noise! I loved making that rough leaf! 

More pounding, more noise, more fun!

And then there are these watercolors I have been practicing on from Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery Class!  I really enjoy it, and I feel I am getting a tad better, but I just like doing it no matter what and that is all that I care about! So I thought I would share! 

So that's been the past few weeks with more jewelry but that's been sold! So thank you so much for coming back and taking a look ! I love having you!

SKETCHBOOKERY CONTINUED......

I am plugging along nicely at the sketchbookery class, fooling around with watercolors and drawing, and starting to loosen up more and more. I must admit, I was not liking my odd little pieces, but they are starting to grow on me, these quirky looking distorted images, and I think I like them! Here they are.....

This is my poor little orchid the I transplanted just 2 weeks ago after being in the same tiny pot for at least 4 years....send love and light please that she makes it, she is struggling as you can clearly see! But I enjoyed painting her!

 

This is a begonia flower I stole off of my plant outside. I love these flowers. I like the old jade plate I put the flower on. I had a fun time with it. Like I said, it's quirky, but I am liking it.  Oh, notice the red blob on the upper right side edge of the plate. I thought I was doing just fabulously and then I accidentally brushed my page with the red. Nothing like making a major blunder to bring you back to reality! And to keep it loose!

I want to go back and add more lettering and or color to these, but haven't had time to practice the lettering part yet, and haven't allowed myself to get to that point of looseness yet! 

  It's coming though!

Thanks for dropping by!

CONTOUR DRAWING 101

I am taking Mary Ann Moss's online class called Sketchbookery! I am loving it! It is my effort to try to get back to my roots of 30+ years ago of sketching all the time in college and drawing. I'd like to be in the habit of being able to pick up a pencil or pen and draw without inhibition, without self judgement, just draw for the sake of drawing and be able to do that in effort to get better at it but most of all to ENJOY IT! I think I am on my way! Art school never taught me this! Mary Ann is! 

    I am going to share some pretty funny stuff....Blind contour drawing. Haven't done that in 30+ years either! It's very freeing, very funny, a great learning experience. So here they are, drawings I have done without looking at the paper at all, just the subject matter, never lifting the pen either! I plan to do more! I laughed a lot...it was good!
BTW, I have no idea why the paper looks pink, I usually don't have that problem with my photos, so I apologize for that, it is white of course!
 

Okay, I am sure you can recognize these....I hope!

 This, in case you are wondering, are a bunch of micron pens in a rubberband.

A pair of small craft scissors, not too bad I guess, but I saved the best for last....

  Our long haired dachsund,  Iggy,  sleeping, unknowingly aware that I am doing such unjustice to him...poor guy!

Well, shows over, but there will be more, and thanks for visiting and your support guys! Check out Mary Ann's class, I think it's pretty cool!

BEAUTIFUL BIRTHDAY GIFTS!

I recently received a surprise in my mailbox from my sweet friend Dorthe of Den Lille Lade for my birthday! Dorthe is an amazing artist that creates mixed media pieces and has an extra special talent with sewing. I would like to share the wonderful box she sent me, and you can imagine how amazed I was! 

 Beautiful holy cards, dried roses from her garden, driftwood from her home by the Baltic Sea! (sigh!)

A bag with overflowing laces of all kinds, and an incredible hanging collage you see in the center that says dream...I love it!

 Lovely huge dried leaves! I have never seen anything like them! Beautiful fabrics and hardware for projects!!

BUT....the most gorgeous thing ever!!!..........

A stunning handmade fabric banner filled with birds and all kinds of luscious bits of buttons, laces and stitching! A true labor of love, I have never seen anything quite like it, it is just amazing and so beautiful!

Thank you Dorthe for making me feel extra special on my birthday and gifting me with these beautiful gifts that I will treasure forever! 

Thanks to everyone for stopping by and taking a look!

 

FALLING IN LOVE WITH COLOR AGAIN!

Things have been the same around here, making jewelry, a little bit of art, but now some gardening, and that makes my soul sing! I absolutely DETEST the winter, and now that we finally have sunshine, it is just so special! I love photographing the flowers......

So all of these beautiful gorgeous colors have motivated me into creating some jewelry with some color .........

I hope summertime stays forever! 

As always, thanks for visiting,  I love having you stop by!

MOTHER'S DAY

For Mothers Day we took a nice ride in the country and stopped at a garden center that makes it's own hand made goat soaps, lotions, and,   wait for it.....FUDGE! Chocolate of any form is always a plus! 

We picked up some flowers too, I'm saving those photos for next time! But of course there were the goats. My photography skills with quickly moving goats aren't so great, but here they are....

Who doesn't love a goat , or a bunch of goats who love you! It was a fun day! 

Until next time, thanks so much for stopping by, I always love your comments!

BEAUTY

Recently, I received some beautiful handmade cards from the lovely and kind Suzy of Suziqu's Threadworks.  Suzy is a good friend and such a kind and generous soul to me, and I am so grateful to her for the lovely things she has sent me, but even more for her beautiful friendship. If you are not familiar with Suzy's incredible fiber and textile work, I strongly encourage you to visit her blog!

Amazing, amazing, amazing! I adore all the layers and detail, and the subject matter Suzy has chosen for me, birds and The Mother Mary, so close to my heart. I will treasure these works of art forever. Thank you Suzy! I love them so much!

OBSERVATIONS

While I have been spending a lot of time getting ready for a gallery showing, I spent some time in the yard today, with some precious hours of sunshine and mild temps, and had some fun with my camera. In the near future I hope to post some jewelry, and gifts from friends, but today it is observations in the yard! 

 

Iggy-the boss

Thanks for walking around my yard with me! I'll be back soon with new jewelry and hopefully new art! Hope your spring is bringing you some joy also!

PAPERS AND STONES

Another month gone by without a post, I am beginning to be a hopeless case! I have resigned myself to the fact that I will get to it when I get to it. That's it. Blogging without guilt! 

     I have been busy making jewelry and have done some more art journaling which is good for my soul. A girl needs to do something to lift her spirits in the midst of the cruelist winter ever!

    Hope you enjoy these pages......

 

and then I finished this

It's been a good couple of weeks! 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I always appreciate your comments!

HIBERNATING

It's been a month, and I don't have a very good excuse for not posting. I hate the winter, and I like to come home from work and get right under blankets because I have a cold problem with my hands and feet. It is so hard to get motivated. Eventually I can't sit still, so I get moving, and then it's late, and I get too tired to post. The truth. 

But here I am today. 

So here are some of the things I have been busy doing.

So, that's it!  There is a bit of collage work, (and I am really itching to do more), a lot of jewelry, and the beginning of teaching my self to make bezels and set stones! I am almost finished with it, I'll let you know what happens...fingers crossed!  Thanks for stopping by and not giving up on me totally!

Sharon

COLORFUL

            I enjoyed working on some colorful jewelry this weekend. The winter is getting to me already, the super cold temps and the grayness of the skies have me craving color! I have so many beads, and I just love the way they look when they are all laying next to each other on my bead table, randomly mixed.....serendipity.....bead love. And did I mention sari silk makes me crazy happy,  so I had a rush of color energy and I hope it brightens your day!

Thanks for visiting and taking a peek!