first of the two 'the sacred bone and the medicine man' necklaces done.

tonight i finished it.  it was 'bout ready to drive this arty girl bonkers. 

i love asymmetry.  love, love, love it. 

one would think it would be easier to achieve a flawless design, but in the end getting everything to line up properly when it comes to the closure can be a flippin nightmare  challenge. 

when i first started on this piece it was just going to be the sacred bone.  i had it all planned, just how it was going to look and then wham out the window  with that plan.  

the large beads had smaller holes than some of the smaller beads, so that meant i could not wire wrap them.

i originally started on this (these) necklaces a couple of months ago, and when my original plan was nixed my inner kindergartener had a fit and decided she did not want to play with that for awhile.  that is when i started working on all of the other pieces you have seen posted here recently.

well, i had to have a little sit down with my inner kindergartener and tell her she could not make any other new goodies until she finished these.  so, with that said off to work we went. 

this photo is a wee bit blurry...but it gives the an idea of what a mad scientist i am in the studio.  i have a 5 foot long table and about 4 square inches of work space!

from this angle  anything looks good....

this was, in my original plan,  going to be the finished piece....before i soldered the vintage medicine label (which is in the post just prior to this one, i even give a few soldering tips)

you know it is funny, as i found myself flustered that this piece was not coming together as I had originally planned it, i just knew that this must not be the plan for it....ya know what i mean.  having that 'knowing'  made me feel a bit less frustrated and very calm instead. 

i posted on facebook that this piece was not coming together as planned and a few minutes after coming to the realization that there was another plan for all of these arty parts a fb friend commented

 'The Native Americans in New Mexico say, "Talk to the clay" - what you have in mind may not happen....the materials must be listened to because it will come, in the way it should. (And I love the development so far.)'

yipes, that made the wee hairs on my body stand straight up! 


i went to bed not sure how i felt about the necklace, and about 4am decided maybe i needed to march right downstairs and tear it apart and start again....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....i fell asleep with that thought.

when i awoke in the morning i felt a bit better about it and decided a break from it for a day or two to do some yard work.... might just be what i needed to fall in love with this piece.  sometimes, just a few and far in between sometimes,  it is not love at first sight when i assemble a piece.

to help get a better vision for the completed piece i pinned the soldered piece to the mannequin and decided to let the 'vision' of it all sink in.

yesterday i did 2 1/2 hours of yard work.  i was so excited to be able to do as much as i could before the beast started whippin my butt. 

i still have several more days of yard work ahead as i, over the years, have done a ton of landscaping.  when it is all pretty i will take a picture for show and tell. 

i woke up this morning hurting in places scientists have yet to name from all of that yardwork.  my left hand  hurt from using the clippers to clip all of the dead remains on a few of the decorative grasses we have.  my pointer finger and thumb were swollen and my thumb was kinda dead feeling....kind of  scary....almost like someone had come during the night and snatched all my thumb innerds and left me with a hollow thumb!  

i was not sure if i was even going to be able to work on the necklace, but by this afternoon i knew what i wanted to do and i was going to do it even it i had to use my toes in place of my fingers!

this was plan b.  this is where i was going to say...tada!  i am done....but it was still speaking to me and it was not saying i could tell everyone i was done with it. 

the edges were hard and there was all of this spacey space that needed something.

i have told the story before that i would have loved to have been an anthropologist or archaeologist.  i grew up with learning disabilities but no one 'got it'  that it was  what i had. back in the day if you weren't gorked out and drooling all over yourself, then you were just plain lazy or did not care...or did not love your parents enough to try hard enough. 

i loved science, and still do.   had i understood what i do today i would have had the courage to pursue my dreams in the field of science, but, just like this necklace had plans other than what i had for them i believe God had better plans for me as well.  i kinda feel like i am still waiting to see it....maybe it is not about me at all......where was i.....

i wanted this necklace to represent the process of modern man (1930's) discovering and hidden lost tribe.  modern medicine, as the label states, meets the witch doctor.  the modern medicine man meeting the tribal medicine man.....and how beliefs and faiths came together......hmmmm....belief and faith.....vintage religious trinkets and newer religious trinkets.....i think i have just what i need to fill the gaps and holes and soften this piece......

better, but still not 'it'

i think i can call it done now.  i have fallen in love. 

there are still some shiny parts that i need to patina to give it that oh-so-old-and-crusty-dig-site look and i will do that tomorrow.  my brain said E-nuf after this!.....that and the hubby and daughter had just gotten home and i missed um.

to be honest it will be monday i am sure before i start on number two.  i just really don't feel like starting the project all over again....there are lots of bits and pieces of the struggle i left out because they are boring, and those are the parts i don't feel like doing again just at this moment. 

oh....the bone is real.  it is the toe bone of a coyote that the etsy seller promised a friend found dead on the side of the road that had been hit by a car.  i really don't like to picture the back story of this....makes me sad and gives me the heebies at the same time, but i did not want you all to think i was tricking coyotes in to giving me their toes. 

i am hoping to get at least 1 blog post in over the weekend....we will have to see...pms is hitting and i am thinking this month might be one of those curled up in the corner sobbing for no apparent reason type of months.  i could live on chocolate covered pretzels and orange juice....it makes the pms happy.....we did not have either of those a couple of hours ago so i ate a spoonful of brown sugar and gulped milk straight out of the jug aftward, even though just an hour or so before i read an article on how sugar is killing peeps.    i will be 47 next month according to my birth certificate...my brain says about 22.  i just love the wild ride the hormones have been taking lately.   oy. 

nighty night.  sleep tight.

have a beautiful weekend! 

big squishy hugs and sloppy kisses to you all.  xo

take that blah monster...this arty girl is back

it has been a long couple of years, but the last 5 months have been intense to say the least. 

a couple of years ago i would not have made it 5 weeks in, a couple years before that i would have been lucky to make it to 5 days. 

this girl has been playing cheerleader to the peeps here at our home and being brave, and i think that no matter who you are and how strong you are...... there comes a point where even a brave girl has her moment   where she becomes vulnerable to the blah monster...'specially when the poo hit not just 'the fan'...but a room full of them.....and there was no dodging it.

so....... the blah monster got a good grip on me and held tight for a few weeks, but i  broke free and i am standing in faith once again that we are going to make it through this storm and be better than we were before.....and soon.

during my moment of utter and complete blah-ness i had the urge, stronger than when i was nesting during my baby making days, to clean and purge....the whole entire house. 

normally when stressed i clean drawers, closets, and all the hidden places and spaces of my domain.  the laundry may back up, the dishes pile a mile high in the sink but this girl got clean drawers!

 i am sure if i were to lay back on a therapists couch i would find that this enhanced and amplified nesting is a need to take control and symbolically clean up what ever mess i felt i was in the middle of.  this feels different, though, and it feels good to be getting rid of schtuff..... and the floors are mopped, toilets scrubbed, the dishes done, next weeks laundry is done.....

okayyyyyyy...with the ick out of the way now i can catch up on some of what went on here the last few weeks.

so, this cute little guy here, the one fast asleep with the pink veener dog toy.....

uh-dorable isn't he?

a couple of weeks ago i looked out in the back yard and noticed he was behaving in such a way that i knew in a mega instant that he was playing with a critter of some sort. 

now, it was 1 in the afternoon.   i had just crawled outta bed.....this arty girl is part night owl and does not shut down until 4....5, 6, 7 in the morning.   i had major bed head, blanket crinkles and drool on my face, no bra, and the beast was misbehaving so i was walking like a drunk person trying to walk across a waterbed.  we have privacy fence, buuuuut the neighbors have decks and the neighbors on both sides of us were outside.   lovely.  just lovely. 

mike refused to come when i called him cuz he knew mommy was gonna take his play mate away, which meant that the mommy had to come out after him in all my fresh-out-of-the-bed-glory.  again....lovely, just lovely. 

let the chase begin.  thankfully i was able to grab michael.   clenched between his teeth was a soggy, drippy, and now dead playmate.

  it was either a vole or baby possum.  

i had michael by the scruff of his neck, and gave him a few gentle tough love shakes and told him to drop it and drop it now! 

michael looked at me and i just knew what he was thinking....no way iz i spittn 'im out,  dis bees my toy not yours.  (i just know that is how he sounds...take my word for it)

with that he did what the gators and crocs do on the wild life shows when eating an antelope in one swallow....he did that flick of his head thing so that the vole/possum was not laying cross ways in his little mouth any longer, but now long ways.....then he swallowed it.....whole. 

no way was that dog gonna lick me....evarrrr again. 

everyone was so worried he was not going to be able to poop it out.   ewww. gross, right? 

the loads of dryer sheets he steals seem to have made their way out, pistchio shells, and who knows what else...

everyday as everyone came home from work and school i was asked the same question......so did mike poop it out yet?

really?

why do even my own peeps think i have any desire, or time, to follow the dog around the backyard to see if he has pooped out his playmate.  really.   once my last baby was fully potty trained i gave up having to look at anyone or thing's poop. 

about a week later we let mike have, play with and eat part of a mini pumpkin.    steph, my oldest and only daughter suddenly freaks and started to take it away from him fearing he might get sick from it.....really....he licks his butt daily and eats critters....whole.  i really doubt a mini pumpkin will do any more harm than his other activities do....sheesh. 

halloween came and went....steph and a co-worker of hers dressed up as thing 1 and thing 2 for work and my youngest was a cowboy.

i am lucky i was even able to snap a quickie photo as steph was getting ready to drive max to his girlfriends house for some halloween fun......squuueeeeee i totally forgot to mention that max has a girlfriend, didn't i.  she is cute, and seems mentally well adjusted and normal....thank you Jesus for that!  Lord knows we have had our run of crazy girls between the two boys. 

my smallest baby at birth, only 9 pounds 7 ounces, it now the biggest.  he is 6'2" at the moment.  next week who knows since he is in the middle of the whole puberty thing.

i finished my prototype art doll and am ready to finish up another to send to a swap friend.

these are quickie photos.

i am so in love with this.....and excited.  i am thinking about making one to sell on the nest feathers and twine shop. 

this is a new wire wrapping thing i tried.  i had to figure it out by looking at another artists online.  i am hoping someday soon i can pick up a copy of the book that this technique is in.  the back is up here....and the front down there.....

last night i headed back downstairs to do some more studio purging and cleaning and realized i needed my storage tubs. 

the storage tubs are outside awaiting a rinse down with the hose.

it was 30...40 something degrees and dark and windy.  the hose down is gonna have to wait until this weekend when the temps warm up a bit, so darn it i just had to play a little while doing a little tidying.

i took some of the skulls i had sculpted from polymer a few weeks ago....

i added some acrylic paint to the ones on the left and right.  i was going for a found on the forest floor look. 

 
this afternoon i used a combo of alcohol inks, acrylics and stamps pads  to give these skull their aged and forest floor found look. 

i think i like 'em.

i still like them bone white as well.  i think i will just let each project they will be used in dictate what i do to them. 

i also used utee and regular embossing powder and a stamp to do this to a wooden bead

that is what the stamp looked like i was using to press in to the utee while it was still warm and workable to give the bead texture. 

i also added a vintage stamp to a wee bottle.

i did not like the 'newness' of the cork so i aged it a bit with some ink.

wahlahhh....now it is ready to be used in a future assemblage/collage piece. 

just one of the goodies i found while cleaning the studio....it is gonna be part of a necklace someday real soon...

i have been driving myself looney looking for these and found them....also to be part of a necklace soon, and a few other projects. 

the photo stinks, i know.  i just wanted to snap a quickie to play some show-n-tell of a couple of goodies i have been working on.

i am loving working with the steel wire again.  i did not realized how much i missed it. 

beads i have gathered for another necklace i am working on.   the darned big beads with what i thought were big big holes in them won't take the wire for my original idea.  seems the holes are much smaller in the middle.  so i am rethinking the 'stringing' process for this piece. 

this is the focal for the necklace.  a locket that holds a toe bone from a wolf, or was it a coyote, that was hit by a car and did not survive....according to the etsy seller. 

i am thinking of calling the piece the sacred bone.

i have used steel that i hammered and wrapped it a bit with sari silk. 

i think that is about it.  i am sure i will think of a gazillion and a half more things i wanted to say or show-n-tell as soon as i hit the publish post button. 

i am off to find something of the chocolate variety...wish me luck because i don't think we have anything.  maybe there will still be that swig of pumpkin spice milk. 

i have missed you all.  big squishy hugs and sloppy kisses to you. 

be back soon.