bunny necklace.....done

well, as i said in my post earlier today....it was so hard to go down in my studio and stay put.

the weather was gorgeous,  the birds were all singing, and  the trees are blooming even more than last night

last night there were just 2 blooms open on this purple flowering plum...today it was in full bloom. 

it was a perfect day to blow bubbles

these truly are amazing bubbles....i swear you could blow a zillion and a half at a time.  it is so relaxing to blow them and then watch them float.

 after finding every excuse under the sun to stay upstairs and enjoy the beautiful weather, i finally made it downstairs to my studio. 




for the bunny necklace, i  originally started wiring the beads using this expensive and hard to find tool.....the vintage bird cage perch

and decided i did not like the look, so i switched to this tool....a pencil

like the smaller loops better.

both sides done and ready to make the clasp.

and the clasp....

while i was busy with the wire, i waited for a coat of this to dry

on the backsides of these

now to play and figure out how to attach the bunny to the necklace

and ta-daaaaaa....the first one is complete.  one more to assemble.....tomorrow.

i even made 2 more vintage door knob photo holders

and all of that wire work left my already chippy nails looking a bit haggard

i made my nails shiny and new.  not nearly as pretty of a color as what it looked like in the bottle, but that is okay because by this time tomorrow i will need another redo.

hope you had a beautiful day.

smooches to you.

vintage door knob photo holder

sheesh am i having a hard time staying down in my studio.  the weather is beautiful, and this girl is loves hearing the birds chirp and sing.....something i can not do in the basement. 

my dream house has my studio on the third floor with a balcony and french doors and lots of large windows. 

i thought i would play a bit-o-show-n-tell....makes for a good excuse to stay upstairs for awhile anyway!

i first saw this on etsy one day while cruising for inspiration.

finally a use for the couple of vintage door knobs i had picked up years ago on the cheap at an estate sale.

i made it a bit on the tall side,  the other one will be a bit shorter.

ok....i can not put this off any longer....i am heading down to the studio.

i think i found my mojo

i have spent a couple of weeks cleaning and reorganizing my studio, getting rid of things that after years i have not used, but  will in a week or month or so i will find a use for....as always.

my studio still needs some work done, but i have enough room to work and this arty girl is starting to find her oh-so-lost mojo again.

since easter is around the corner i figured what better project to start off with than one that has a bunny.

about a year ago while wandering the bead section of a local artsy fartsy store i came across the beads for this project and knew exactly what i was going to do with them.  one set of beads have flowers printed on them...the other remind me of heads of lettuce or cabbage.


 i needed this guy (and his twin) for the necklaces....... because this is one of those make one to sell and one for meeeee kind of pieces.    these bunnies have been part of our easter decorations for about 20 years. 

even though the bunnies are 20 years old, they did not look old enough so i aged them with a bit of sanding and......

how about that chippy neon pink polish i am sporting....huh?   every time i would look down at my nails it would about blind me!

i using a sponge brush i rubbed a bit of this over the bunnies....

the top bunny has been aged with the distress ink, and the bottom one....not yet. 

later today i will spray a bit of clear coat on it to seal the distress ink. 


the next few steps were very tedious.....i cut 60+ 4" pieces of 18 gauge steel wire.

there are 2 very important tools, besides the clippers, for this job.....

i love my nitrile gloves.  they help keep my hands clean....er, and keep me from getting poked by the wire.  after a messy job like this i give them a good washing with some dish soap and ring them out. 

my safety glasses with built in bi-focals.   this arty girl will be 47 this april, and even though i feel like i could be my 21 year old daughters twin sister, my eyes and their abililty to focus on objects within arms length would beg to differ.  


i use to wear my safety glasses all willy nilly until a few years ago when cutting the tip off of a large sewing needle, about the size of 18 gauge wire,  the chunk hit me dead center in my eyeball.  yipes!  i kept looking at my eyeball all evening expecting to find the chunk imbedded in my eyeball...several hours later i found the quarter inch piece in the lower part of my eye lid.  it took over an hour to get it out of my eye....believe it or not, it is much easier to get an eyelash out of the ole eyeball than a chunk of a needle. 


i now wear my safety glasses 99 % of the time and usually won't even cut a piece of paper without them on.

so after cutting these 60 pieces, which takes some muscle let me tell ya, i then began sanding off the annealing.

i have found that the easiest method for this is to sandwich the wire between 2 sanding blocks.

 i use the super cheapies from harbor freight.

below you can see the difference.  i love the aged look the annealing gives, but it rubs off and it is icky, so if i want to age and darken the steel i rub a bit of novacan black patina on it...which i do not have a picture of.  you can buy it at shops that sell stain glass and soldering schtuff. 

thank goodness i have a tiny t.v. from the dark ages in my studio.  it gave me something to watch while i undertook this boring task.  i am too antsy to sit for too very long doing something like this.  even while engrossed in a movie i had seen a dozen times before.....eagle eye....i still had to get up and fidget in my studio every 15 or 20 pieces. 

by the time i was done with this my shoulders and hands were in cramps, so i decided it was a good time to join the peeps upstairs for the evening....and if i began to feel a bit guilty,  all i had to do was remind myself that my nitrile glubs were-a-drying and i had to wait for them to dry for the next task anyway.


the next task will be to apply a coating of this stuff.....

this will seal the steel and help prevent rusting in case it comes in contact with water.   i have not had much experience with this stuff, just under a year of working with it, but many artists that work with steel use it and swear by it.  

i am hoping by later today i will have completed this step and be well on my way wire wrapping the beads and assembling this piece.

you will have to excuse the blurry-ness of this photo, but it is a bit of a peek of what is to come. 


i am still not sure of  how the bunny will connect to the necklace.



and i am ending this post with a pat on my back, because the beast (meniere's disease vertigo) has been kicking my butt big and bad...i spent two days in bed because i was unable to walk....i was able to do all of this while my world was still spinning and tilting.   i am able to walk at this point, but i kinda look like a drunk trying to walk on a waterbed, and my hands sometimes forget they are attached to my body and i drop things.....alot....which makes the whole entire process of creating slow going  at times.   my fear of becoming an invalid from this disease has given me the strength and determination to push myself beyond what i thought i could do.  i am pretty darn proud of myself.

with that said, and my back patted, i hope to be able to post later this evening with photos of what i have completed.

xo

dipping a toe back in the waters of blogging......

i know, i know i have been gone for quite awhile. 

november and december were a roller coaster ride and this arty girl was playing cheerleader to the hubby and kids while trying to hold on to faith and believe all that i was telling them to get through the holidays with cheer, and when january arrived i was drained and well in need of someone to tell ME everything was going to not just be ok, but wonderful if i could just hang in there, and to hold me tight.

in january our 2 year old computer bit the dust the night i was going to do a blog post.   we were told that it would cost 120.00 to fix it, and i thought how are we going to pay for this....then we were told 170.00....a couple of days later even worse.  the computer was not fixable.  i am thankful for qvc...we now have a new computer and we are making monthly payments....i so luvs my new computer, but hate the next six months of payments.   never, ever, ever, ever again will i own a gateway.  this hp is pretty darn cool.  to log in to sites that require a password i swipe a finger on the scanner.  my right hand index finger is facebook, and my flipper finger is blogger.....squeeeeeee!  and so now if you wanna hack in to my facebook you know which one of my fingers you need.....maybe i should not have given out such classified information.


i have so much to say.  so much to catch up on.   can't wait to share the story of our christmas miracle.   still makes me smile and gives me hope for a beautiful future.....i am in total awe to be truthful.. but  first i am dipping a toe or two back in the waters of blogging.  getting my feet wet and working up to my ankles....and so on.   i still feel a bit blaaaaaaaah and eeeeeeeee with a little waaaaaaa on the side.  not full on crazy, just kinda like what an exposed nerve might feel like after having been sanded on repeatedly.

 the last couple of months..... like a snail that has been poked by stick..... i sought the refuge of my shell,  avoiding even facebook.    thank you from the depths of my heart to all of you who kept on checking on me and poking me and sending me messages and writing on my wall.....you lifted me up and helped make this part of the journey, which like a nasty tasting medicine,  has been hard at times to swallow and keep down.......i am slowly making my way out. 

i just can't seem to hit the publish button with out a bit of show and tell......a post with out photos just is not a post at all....

yesterday:

 my wonderful daughter bought me  some essie sparkkkkkkkkelyyyyy nail polish and a butterfly headband, which i wore all day, even as i cleaned house.....yup cuz i roll that way.  she also brought me a bread co.  cinnamon crunch bagel sliced like biscotti and some honey walnut butter.  there is no photo of that because i ate it all gone!  i am so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter.  i feel so blessed that i have been able to have such a close relationship with my daughter.  my mother and i were never close.  i did not know how to have a mother/daughter relationship...but i am so happy we figured it all out. 

sam and i had a nice talk yesterday....something that has been happening more and more over the past year or so.  he is a quiet, keep to him self kinda guy, so i treasure our talks.  this one was about religion.  as i am growing closer to God, sam is trying to figure out what he believes and how he feels.  i understand him more than he thinks...there are bits of him that remind me of what i was like.  so we talk when he wants to talk and i leave him be most other times...no matter how hard it is, because i know, that like me when i was younger, if i approach him at the wrong time, the wrong way, with information he did not ask for it will only push him away.

and max and i talked and looked through a large bit of his rock collection.  a love we both share.  this morning it was all picked back up and he vacuumed up the dusty mess.  he is such an easy going guy that is going to make an awesome hubby and daddy some day.  he and i are so much alike.  we are goofballs and dorks.  we laugh at the most inappropriate times, especially when i am reprimanding him for his behavior. 

after looking through his collection for a heart rock for his girlfriend, that he is head-over-heals in love with, he stepped outside for a  moment and called me out to see this....

normally we can see jupiter near the moon, but last night there was the moon, and to the left a really really bright shiny planet and to the left of that a smaller bright and shiny planet.  i am not sure what was what but the bright and shiny in the middle was unbelievable.  he and i stared and stared thinking maybe it was a plane...we waited and waited for it to move, but it did not.  

the kids and i have spent a lot of time star gazing over the years, and i am glad we did, and  when most kids mostly don't seem notice or care about the simple little things, these kids of mine have an appreciation for these things. 

oh...one more thing...then i am done for today.....

so this whole etsy thing.   i have been thinking about closing up shop again......the other day i came across this email notification from an etsy peep. 


When curating my collection of weeping plants, I was so happy to find your cherry tree necklace! Curiously, this type of cherry is rarely portrayed in the art that I see. I have always thought these trees so delicate and elegant, and your unique piece truly captures their graceful, wistful beauty. It adds so much to the muted color scheme and the soft, nostalgic mood I was hoping to create with my grouping. So here is the link:
www.etsy.com/treasury/ODA1NDA3MHwyMDIwMDczNDIw/willow-weep-for-me?index=0
I hope you are pleased.
Now that I know you do this unusual and evocative jewelry, I will follow your site. I like to take time with treasuries, often wishing to leave the viewer with a particular feeling. When I am able to include another of your works, I will let you know. Thank you for sharing your gift.
Warm regards,
Diane


thank you God, and thank you Diane for giving me the umph to hang in there and keep going just when i was doubting myself.....again. 

be back soon with some pinterest goodies and a fail......just need to regather photos.

big sloppy smooches and big squishy hugs to you all.

7 years feels like a million and yesterday all at the same time....

sometimes it feels like your  existence was a dream, and every once in awhile i get lucky and get to visit you in one. 

i will never forget that day i hugged you extra tight and long and breathed in your cologne because in my heart something told me it might be the last time.....and it was.

i see bits of you, daddy,  your ears, your nose, your smile, your hands,  your mannerisms and i smell you every so often in strangers and in my youngest son.

sometimes i am angry at you....our relationship was a bumpy one,  but i miss you more and i wish we could have you back.

i love you, daddy.

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.