SandFibers - SALE

Today is SandFibers 3rd year anniversary. You can read about it here. To honor the date, she's having a sale - 20% off! See you there!

This one was inspired by an African mudcloth. How did I ever miss it?

Marvelous Monday Follow-Up

The other day I blogged about a polymer clay artist who had a blog called gRIs bLEu. At the time I couldn't find her name or her shop. I've since received some information about her and thought I would pass it on. Her name is Celine Charuau. She's only been working with polymer clay since June 2007. Her shop address is http://grisbleushop.canalblog.com/, she's also on DaWanda http://fr.dawanda.com/shop/gRiSbLEu, and her flickr page is http://www.flickr.com/photos/grisbleu/.

Feeling the Love Friday

This week, I had the good fortune of being in two treasuries. Any treasuries in my future "Feeling the Love Friday" posts that are still "live" on Etsy, I will give a link so you can check them out.

The first treasury was made by gulinoartware and it contained one of my newer beads. What a beautiful palette she selected!

And now I'm sending love back to guilinoartware who resides in my home state. My favorite at the moment in her shop are the Orange Crush earrings! You'll see why!

Ooooooh!

The other treasury was made by another expert treasury curator (can this go on a resume?) who goes by chrdesigns. Get those shades out . . . kazaaam! This treasury is smokin' . . .

And now I'm sending some love back to chrdesigns (and to her shop). My favorite item, at the moment, is her Peach Moonstone earrings (a real tough decision!).

Ahhhhhh . . .

Out of the Studio Wednesday

With the kids back in school, I haven't yet found my groove in the studio. I suppose it doesn't help that I have a case of the sniffles and sneezes. I did manage to complete a couple items on the to do list though. First was a custom order for a pair of earrings to match a customer's bead.

The second thing, I'm almost embarassed to say, was that I've been wanting to use a particular work of art by Gustav Klimt ("The Kiss") and make a bead to match. I'm not totally thrilled with it - too much green, not enough black. Or maybe it's just the background in the bead picture. But I did enjoy the process!

Marvelous Monday

I recently found this polymer clay artist online. I'm not sure if you're familiar with this work, but be prepared to be inspired by this artist who has a wonderful sense of color and design. The following work comes from the website is gRIs bLEu. Unfortunately, I don't have a name for this artist - maybe someone can help. I couldn't stop myself from gathering photos for this feature as his/her work is so unique! I'm sure you'll agree. Grab a cup of coffee, relax, and take a trip inside the world of "Blue Gray". And by the way, play along and see if you can match the following titles to the work: Necklace with three blue triangles, cactus flower, coffee bean, orange peas travelling in small boats, pink iris and Shadocks collar. (Hint: the earrings have no title.)

Have a marvelous Monday!

One last note - Gwen Gibson just announced she has a blog. If you want to read about goings on in "La Cascade" in the south of France, take a peak - oh to dream . . .

BAO Item of the Week

This week, from 2/23/09 - 3/2/09 I'm offering free shipping on my "Copperfields" bead. Along with that special, nine other members of the BAO team are having specials as well. For details, click on the mosaic below.

Feeling the Love Fridays

This week, thanks to KathyS711, I was in a beautifully curated treasury titled "Erin Go Bragh Less". One of my newer beads was in it, one that I had blogged about on Wednesday.


If you like polymer clay, especially rings, take a look at KathyS711's shop. Here's one of my favorites called "Bit of Licorice" - it's always about the food, better yet, sweets!

Out of the Studio Wednesday

As luck would have it, I managed to sneak into the studio this morning. I ran out to Dunkin' Donuts (the breakfast for champions!) early and purchased some hot chocolate and donuts to buy me more studio time if Lily woke and needed breakfast. School vacation is upon us, and studio time is limited. I had started some polymer clay sheets the other day and was very happy to start using them. I hadn't really done a lot of skinner blends in the past, but I'm being drawn to using them now. I'm sure you'll see more blends appear in my work in the future

BAO Item of the Week

This week, the BAO team has put together yet another group of fabulous pieces, each with its own special associated with it. Click here for details!

Marvelous Monday

Kathryn Osgood is a studio artist who has been published in a number of books including the Art of Enameling, 1000 Rings, and 500 Necklaces. I couldn't find a website for her but I found some of these photos on Flickr. I enjoy her pierced 3-D forms and her beautiful sense of color.

Whether they're from from the land or the sea, they're sure to inspire. Enjoy - and have a marvelous Monday!

Feeling the Love Friday

This week, thanks to some wonderful Etsians, my work was seen in their treasuries.

The first treasury was by BeadsandWeaves and the title is "Kits and Tutorials".

I would love BeadsandWeaves to make a tutorial for this bracelet, wouldn't you?

And this next treasury was called simply "Brown" by Njema.

Njema's "Offset Squares Herringbone Cuff" could easily have been in that treasury!

Out of the Studio Wednesday

This week, I've continued to do some patterns you've seen before and added a few new. My color palette was pink, black and white. Then I did a mokume sheet that those same colors combined with gold. Some of the raspberry, brown and white from last week was worked into various sides of the beads as well.

Side 1














Side 2



And for the rest of the week, I hope to make some jewelry for my Etsy shop!

BAO Item of the Week

This week we have another beautiful mosaic of items from my BAO Team.

To see what the specials are this week, just click!

Marvelous Monday

Using beautiful colors, shapes and textures the two-time Niche award winners Bob and Laurie Kliss create gorgeous glass sculptural forms. It amazes me how something so fragile can look so fluid.






There are many photos on their website to browse through. Give yourself a visual treat and get lost in the beauty. And have a marvelous Monday!

What's Your Story?

In the past, I've talked about connecting. When you're making your art, what are your thoughts? What are your intentions? This often leads to naming your work. A lot of us do. As a customer, there is this level of connection that takes place. I particularly remember when I was at a show quite a few years ago, this guy came up to my table. I had noticed him walking my way and saw that he had been just browsing, kind of aimlessly. He probably came with his wife so he was just killing time. When he arrived at my table, he started looking at my jewelry. He picked one necklace up looked a little closer and put it down. I could feel his energy shift and knew that he was moving on. But something made me start a conversation about the piece he had just put down. Now it had been a really slow day and I decided my goal at this point was to just have fun and make the best of it. I started telling him a story about the necklace. It somehow grabbed his attention and I could see he was truly interested in hearing what I had to say. I could literally see a connection taking place. We ended up talking for a short while and before he left, he bought the necklace for his wife.



But how often do we literally hear the thoughts that go through the artist's mind when they are creating? My BAO team member, Carol of SandFibers, selflessly worked on a blog project (you can see it on the BAO Blog). She asked every member of the group to send her a picture of their "Proudest Creation" and to describe, in their words, why that is. You might have seen this picture of mine before, but now you can read about it in this series.















Mine all started when I thought it would be cool to incorporate a glass eye into one of my pieces. There are 5 different media that went into the necklace. This piece probably goes back to around 2004. I guess that would make it vintage, right? :o)

You can read my story about this necklace here. And you may want to read my team members' stories as well. I loved reading them all . . . making that connection.

So far, we have Malodora, SalamanderHouse, thebeadedlily, SmadarsTreasure, MakuStudio, BeadsandWeaves (formerly known as MistyRidgeBeads), Humblebeads, Triz, LisaPetersArt, thejadedog, and time2cre8.

Feeling the Love Fridays

It's Friday again and time to celebrate my fellow Etsians for their curating power. This week is an hommage to SmadarsTreasure who put my work in two of her treasuries. The first one was called Bead Art Beauties. In the bottom middle you'll see my faux reptilian buttons.

The next treasury she curated was called "Oh So Gorgeous". And what a beautiful treasury it was! In it, you'll see my Boa Earrings.

I had noticed a necklace of hers last week and I'm so glad I have the opportunity to showcase it. I really love the colors and the design! Be still me heart . . .

And this other necklace is much simpler but beautiful as well. It looks like the kind of necklace you could wear with anything. And I like the way she has the antique brass chain as the focal part of the necklace. It must move beautifully when you wear it. And movement is good, yes?

Thank God it's Friday! Two daughters, now both of them with bruised tendons. One still on crutches, the other one benched for the week. And to make matters even more tenuous is not just the fact of living with a 13 year old female in the house (I guess it's my payback time), is a 13 year old female with new braces. Oy gevalt the drama! :o)

Out of the Studio Wednesday

Well, I think a new weekly blog post has been born - Out of the Studio (or OOTS). This week it's purple and brown. Same beads - just reversed (in their same position).

I took these pictures fairly quickly and they seem way too muted. The colors are actually more intense. I'm not sure if it's the background paper or if there was some sort of camera adjustment needed.

I have a friend here in town who's been making these very nice handpainted wooden pocketbooks. Anyway, she had a problem with solving how to secure the straps (she was using cording) onto the bag. The more we talked, it became clear she needed to secure them with some type of screw. But, she didn't want to have the screw head visible, and was looking for some sort of solution. I love these things - especially when they're not mine! I suggested polymer (not surprised, right?). We talked about how they would be formed, adhered, etc. Anyway, she came over the other day with 14 of these bags. When I saw the bags, I immediately went to my stash of polymer clay painted sheets and found some black and gold crackled pieces. I took a small piece and bam! Wow! The really cool thing is that they work so well together. It was meant to be. I would love to take a picture, but she's off to the Mexican Riviera for the remainder of the week (ah, grown kids, and a husband who has many business opportunities for fabulous travel). I'll wait for her to come back and ask her permission to photograph. Maybe that'll be next week's OOTS post.

Marvelous Monday - Today, It's a Smorgasbord

It's Monday and as you know, that means I post a bunch of pictures that I hope will inspire you. Today, it's not so much of a collection of work from a particular artist - it's more like - "hey, did you see that?" And then of course, "what a great idea!" That's how I felt when I saw some pictures of Kabi Designs on flickr. She's now selling these crochet stitch markers - how cool is that? It makes me want to get back to crocheting!

Here's what's sweet about it - they're donuts! I love it's practical use and besides, they're just little niblets - not too many calories there. Oh yeah, they're not real food, right - I knew that!

I found something else in my studio when I was cleaning up (or trying to organize). I was into making paste paper for a while. My best tool for manipulating the paste paint was a credit card. Take that credit card and use it to make something beautiful. It was very freeing!

I learned this technique from a book called "The Art of Making Paste Paper" by Diane K. Maurer-Mathison.

But I can't sign off until I show you a couple pieces of some amazing cloisonee enamel art by Ricky Frank Enamels. Enjoy and have a Marvelous Monday!

Mondays I announce the BAO Item of the Week. We have a beautiful mosaic put together by our own SandFibers along with some very nice specials (running 2/2 - 2/8). This week, I'm running an introductory tutorial and bead frame special. Click on the photo to see every item and its' special deal!