NASTURTIUMS

Trying to get over a head cold now, so I took the night off of jewelry making, and decided to play with my watercolors, (have been wanting to do that every single day for months, so why don't I?) and started painting in my sketchbookery journal.There is a link on my sidebar to Mary Ann Moss's sketchboory class...I highly recommend it...it's just fab and so is she! I always start out disliking my paintings terribly at first, but in the end I just go with the flow and seem to like it after all.One of my goals is to loosen up...a lot....and not be so tight. I think I started to do that, so I am happy I accomplished that. I'm also happy I didn't draw it out first with the pen, I just put paint to paper and started! Although, I was VERY tempted to attack it with my black pen as I do in my collages, so I may try that down the line somewhere!  I had fun, and reeeeeally hope to continue in a more regular pattern from now on. 

Wish me luck.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I appreciate all of you so much!

Lately

It's been three months, and it's felt like three days! I am terrible at blogging, at actually getting it done, but I do love to see what all of you are doing, so I'll keep trying and trying!

Here's what's been up....jewelry, and jewelry. I spent the good part of the last 5 weeks getting ready to take my jewelry to a local shop. That turned out really well, and I am sort of slacking a bit now, and enjoying it!!  These are some recent pieces, so I hope you enjoy. I am sure somewhere in there I have made some art, and I will share that soon!

Thanks for visiting! I've been working hard and I hope you will visit my etsy shop! I appreciate all your lovely comments!

NEW JEWELRY

Sharing some new jewelry work I have done recently. I really enjoy working with wire, beads, and baubles. I love the thought process of putting things together, and how I think they connect. 

I think everyone knows I love earrings, so I make a lot of them! These feature gorgeous beads by Gaea and shields by Vincent N Nooma!

I guess I was on a green kick for a while, but who could resist these gorgeous glass beads by Julie Wong Sontag!

I found some vintage amber beads while out at the flea markets, so I thought they were perfect with Kimberly Rogers orange glass headpins! 

These say summer to me.

I've been busy, and plan on being busier! 

Thanks for stopping by!

ART AND MORE ART

       Art is a huge part of my life. It is my break from jewelry. I love them both as creative outlets, and I am usually torn as to which one to devote time to.
       This is a recent collage I did, a 9x12, vintage papers, tissue, vintage stamps, pitt pen and sharpie, gesso and matte medium. I LOVE collage! I feel free with collage. I have no other words. 
     

         This is a sketch I did tonight based on Mary Ann Moss's class Sketchbookery...that I LOVE also, but I haven't devoted a lot of time to, but trying! I am not the best at it, but I really like it, because I am constantly learning with watercolors, it lets me work on practicing drawing, and being looser. This is something I have ALWAYS wanted to do...ALWAYS! I want to try to do this waaaay more often.
    Thanks for stopping by, and next time I hope to show you the jewelry I am working on!

The Balancing Act

It seems like I am having the same problem of trying to balance my jewelry/art/work time. If anyone else has this problem , and has any good solutions, that don't involve lack of sleep, I sure would be interested to know! I would love to hear how you handle it all anyway. My art time suffers the most, and I guess I just need to "DO IT". Question is why does it take me so long to start...why is starting the hardest part? 

Answers anyone???

So now that the mini rant is over, here is the latest jewelry I had fun making......hope you enjoy!

This stunning lampwork bead was made by artisan glass and bead artist Julie Wong Sontag

and here is more of Julie's beautiful beads in a recent pair of earrings

Wonderful lampwork beads by Julie, crusty beads by the fantastic Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads and flame painted copper paddles by me!

I am craving art though, so I hope to show you some soon! Thanks for visiting and your kind comments as always!

TIME FOR ART

The temperatures still have not improved. I am not happy about that. In fact, we are having some of the worst weather I can ever remember, and I know for certain that the -6 degrees this past week was THEE worst I have ever experienced, and neuropathy does not like it! So to distract from that I make more jewelry and make some art, yes, this time I'll show the art!

Collage, which I have become very fond of making, and for some reason in the wee hours of the morning, really seems to set my soul free. It feels like an entire months worth of pent of frustration and/or thoughts of random ideas I just let flow effortlessly onto the paper. Really, there usually isn't a problem, or a block, it just happens. I can't explain it any better than that. It's intuitive, I work with myself, and let it happen, and I am sure many of you know what I am talking about! Small joys!

This is the result.

Thank you so much for stopping by and looking!

CATCHING UP

The holidays have come and gone, hell, it's almost February, and my mind is still swirling with all the new things I want to do! I can't seem to get everything organized though, but I am trying! In the meantime, I am making jewelry on a fairly consistent basis, even though I am tired a lot, and have neuropathy that is killing me with this cold weather. Jewelry and art makes me happy! 

Please wish for the cold weather to go away!

Here is some recent new work.

With these earrings I used beautiful glass beads by Julie Wong Sontag and ceramic discs by Jana Bliznakova.

Here is the link to Julie's shop.....https://www.etsy.com/shop/uglibeads

Here is the link to Jana's shop....https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyFishThings

These earrings were made with beautiful enameled paddles I purchased on etsy that I paired with stone and rustic glass and amazonite beads.

The gorgeous leaf pendant and round donut medallion in this necklace made by Jenny Gholson-Morris inspired this necklace. The earthiness and rustic quality made it easy to tell my story with this long mixed elements piece.

Here is the link to Jenny's shop.....https://www.etsy.com/shop/EclecticPrairie

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to stop by and visit! I love to hear your comments also. I am hoping to get more motivated and start blogging again, and hoping to visit all of you too!

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!