Artful Adventures

Sharing some new necklaces

Ok, this will be the third attempt at making this post today.  If I can get the photos up, there may be few words rather than tempt fate again!  Sure wish typepad would get this new format figured out!

This is totally whacked out tonight, the last 2 photos didn't size right, so click on them to see them as intended-geez, can't win tonight!  The first necklace is made of stick pearls, yellow freshwater & white coin freshwater pearls, citrine, chinese charoite, and an antique trade bead.  The second necklace was made with the intention of being able to wear it with the first one shown, using coral, lava stone, antique trade beads, a couple of Lake Michigan stones, and a wonderful hammered sterling chain.  Last but not least, this one is made using a reconstructed vintage necklace, the most gorgeous labradorite that I've ever seen, prehinite, and white pearls.  Wish you could see this one in person!  So far so good, the computer hasn't come crashing down yet, so I'll post tomorow-hope you all had a lovely week end! 

A "Must-Have" Book

A couple of weeks ago, armed with a couple of Amazon gift certificates and having made the decision to join Northlight Book Club (seems most of the books I want are published by them anyway) I painstakingly chose 8 books-4 from each place.  As I looked them through (or sometimes I just sort of skim through, looking at the pictures) I'll let you know how I like them.  But one that jumped out at me, that I did actually sit down and start reading, was The New Creative Artist written by Nita Leland .  Not only did I start to read it, I hauled out a notebook just to jot things down as I read.  She's teaching this summer at Peninsula Art School(scroll down on the page that this link takes you, to see the class description) which is about an hour drive from here, literally in my back yard.  I had pretty much made up my mind that I had signed up for enough classes this summer, but after getting this book, I may have to rethink that decision!  There are loads of things of try, ideas to keep you motivated, enough quotes & invaluable verbiage to convince all of us, even on our worst days when we question why we do what we do, that YES, we are creative, it's all worth it, and how to get over that hump.  But there was a statement in particular that hooked me, reeled me in and has made me a fan of hers forever, it's this sentence from her book "Your work should be your own.  When you copy, you deny your uniqueness.  Copying isn't creativity; it's just the business of making a picture."  Making it your own is a phrase that's been tossed around for awhile, but obviously everyone hasn't bought into it by everyone.  It's something that I firmly believe in, so was more than pleased to see it addressed in a book.  And that's one of the big reasons we all need this book, we need to make art & create, but we need to make it our own as we go along.  You won't regret buying this book, no matter what medium you work in!  And on that note, I leave you with a photo of a necklace I did a couple of weeks ago, like the rest, it too is for sale at The Flying Pig. 

Looking around & a new necklace. too!

With Mother's Day almost upon us, it seemed fitting to share another of the necklaces that I finished up this past week, since it has mother of pearl nuggets and vintage mother of pearl buttons in it, along with some lovely creamy/peachy colored pearls.  Remember yesterday when I was saying how nice the pearls were at Mother Bead ?  See, I wasn't kidding!

It can be worn as a long necklace, as shown in the first photo, or unhooked and worn as a shorter necklace and a bracelet.  This is also for sale at The Flying Pig, along with a couple more that I'll post in a day or so.  While dropping them off the other day, Gary took the camera and was walking around the grounds there, in and around the greenspace, which is quickly turning into a fabulous summer oasis of trees, flowers, and garden art, tis the season!  I'll share a couple of the photos he took that day.

How cool is this?  Our very own local version of Easter Island!

Check out that panel with peeling paint and the bird on it-love it!  While I'm sharing photos, here's a few from around the yard last week.                                                                                    

   

I'd love it if you'd all go outside (or inside, doesn't matter) and find some beauty in something that you've never paid that close of attention to before and share your photos so we all can see.  Really, it's all around us, we just need to take the time to actually see it!   

Can't pass up a sale!

Here's one of several necklaces that I recently finished, those new acquisitions from Rings & Things was driving me crazy, I was wanting to just dig in and make something!  Coral, lava stone, and stick pearls, along with all hand wired, twisted, yelled at (sometimes) sterling silver make up this one-I even made the chain!  This and more of my jewelry, is all for sale at The Flying Pig. 

More new stones in this one, begging to be wired!  There's Chinese Charoite, lemon quartz, and pearls, all wired up with a key.  Having never heard of or seen the Chinese Charoite before, curiosity got the better of me and I had to look it up.  If you ever "need to know" you'll find it all over at Rings & Things, they have a wealth of information there, just click here for anything you ever wanted to know about a gemstone and odds are that you'll find what you're looking for.  You'd think that I'd  be all done bead shopping for awhile, but sure enough, our local bead shop, Mother Bead is running a sale right now, until May 15.  Buy 3 strands, get the 4th free , and you can mix & match the strands.  As if that wasn't enticing enough, if you have a Bead Junkie card (buy one & it gives you a percentage off all of your purchases), you could use that AND still get the free strand, or strands:)  The pearls there are to die for, they're big, smooth, round, and yummy, so I knew I'd "need" some of those.  But then Tara pulled out the most gorgeous Labradorite that I've ever seen!  After searching for what seemed like forever when I needed that particular stone for a commisioned necklace a while back, I knew better than to pass them up.  Needless to say, I'll be frantically making more jewelry soon, with all the bead shopping I've done lately-and I'm thikning about going back for more pearls-someone stop me!!

First Oriole of the year spotted the other day, and the first hummingbird today-spring is officially here, with summer coming soon-we hope!  More jewelry, stories, and photos to share, but dinner is smelling too good right now to pass up!  I'll be back tomorrow:)

Mission accomplished!

For whatever reason, a personal challenge, a crazy goal, or maybe just plain old fashioned determination, I told myself that I was going to present at least 10 necklaces to the gals at The Flying Pig no later than yesterday, for their consideration to offer for sale in the gallery.  I barely made my own deadline, but the important thing is that I did make it!  With the exception of a couple of detail shots, most of the photos didn't turn out good enough to post just now, so maybe after Thanksgiving I'll try it again to show you what I made out of my ever growing stash of gemstones, pearls, vintage glass beads, and more.  I can see where this could become addictive, can you ever really have enough beads?  I think not!  It's also a nice change of pace from collage.  If I could get organized enough, I'd love to have separate work stations set up throughout the house (well, I sort of do already really) so that I can move from one thing to the next, working on whatever feels right on any given day.  But until then, tomorrow I have to move all the jewelry stuff back into the studio-I'm going to need that kitchen island for Thanksgiving.  I tried to figure out a way around it, but couldn't:)  Still haven't worked all the way through my list that I mentioned the other day, but at least progress has been made, and another list started.  One more detail shot of another necklace, and a huge thank you to Nina- if you're reading this, I can't thank you enough for believing in me, teaching me, and having the fortitude that it took to get me to wrap that wire.  Believe me, her job wasn't an easy one:) 

I really have been working--

Welcome to my mess!  Even though I have a perfectly good studio to work in, I've hauled all my jewelry stuff out onto the kitchen island, and have been busy making lotsa knots:)  It works out good for me this way, I can't ignore it, and sit down to work a little every time I walk through the room.  Believe it or not, there's at least 7 necklaces in various stages of completion here.  Practice, practice, practice, the more I do, the more consistent I'm becoming.  We all know that this technique didn't come easily for me, so sometimes I'm pleased, sometimes frustrated, but overall pretty damn proud of myself!  I can't believe I just patted myself on the back like that, geez!!  What seems to be working out the best for me, is to play around with different beads, get a design going, if it works I keep going to the point of knowing how I'll finish it off, then move on to another one.  In reality, I'll likely change my mind on finishing some when it comes right down to it, but this method is keeping me productive, so I'm sticking with it for now.  Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming, should be living in WI this fall!  Many years, we've seriously had snow up to our knees by this time in November, but the last few years have been not so bad.  But to have flowers still blooming this time of year is just plain weird!  Granted, there's not a lot and we had to look around to find the stray blooms, but the fact that we even found them amazes me.  Here's what we found, just to prove that we're not the frozen tundra all the time:)                                                                                                                               After resizing all these pictures, I have a feeling they're going to be all over the place instead of a nice neat row, at least how it looks now, we'll see when I hit "publish"-I tried-LOL!  Tomorrow morning we're heading down to Madison, and spending the night there.  Whenever we get down there, it's always a mad rush to get there to spend a few hours & turn around and drive another 3 hours to get home.  This way, I can actually shop!  If we get to State Street, I should have some cool pictures, there's always something fun happening there.  Gary got his date for his last day of work, it'll be Dec. 19.  Doesn't seem possible, even though we had planned all along for him to be able to take an early retirement at age 59, this will actually be a couple of months ahead of schedule.  But-----does this mean I have to turn into a Susie homemaker??  I'm not so good at that:)  He's always worked weird shifts, so neither one of us is used to living a 9-5 kind of lifestyle.  I'm looking at it as another adventure, it'll be good, and good to know that neither one of us will have to be out on the roads this winter to go to work.  Strange, but good:)  See ya in a couple of days!

Accessories for the Ball

In preparation for the Bloglandia Ball tomorrow, I decided to make a new necklace to go with the gown that I may or may not actually have finished in time-so far it looks more like a purse than a dress, so we'll see:)  When I said I can't sew very well, I wasn't kidding!  But thanks to the ever patient Nina Bagley , and over the course of several classes taken at Valley Ridge Art Studio  (did I tell you that I'm heading over there again in less than 2 weeks for a class taught by Michelle Ward ?) I'm finally understanding the jewelry making thing-much less frustrating than sewing, and actually a rewarding experience.  This is a long one, made with the thought of wearing another necklace with it, a look that I've always liked.  The salt shaker on the end, is attached so that it can be opened, to hold a little special something or other, that's near & dear to your heart.  The black stones were picked over the course of the summer on the beach, and the freshwater pearls seemed like a natural choice to go with them (besides, black & white will match anything) and the key is symbolic of the mysteries of the sea that may never be discovered.  Besides new jewelry, a girl's got to complete the ensemble with a new purse, right?  That justification works for me, anyway:)  When I saw this purse, made by the talented  Lori Bartel , I knew I had to have it.  I love purses that are handmade, and have a hard time resisting them.  For a long time, I couldn't justify buying them, but then I got the idea to hang them on a wall in my studio. and I've done the same thing with the necklaces that I've gotten from Nina.  Yes, they're accessories, but they're also art, so why not be able to see them, enjoy & appreciate them, each & every day?     

Some sparkle, for a change!

After taking several classes from the ever patient

Nina, and having her show me over & over again, I finally hauled out the sterling wire and took the plunge to design and make a necklace, and I'm hoping I did her proud.  There were a lot of discoveries in tackling this myself, without having someone around to double check and ask questions-in other words, I had to learn to trust myself.  Some things I learned were:  those darn little pearls get kind of warm while you're reaming them out, I need new glasses if I really want to see what I'm doing, and that practice, practice, practice will be my new mantra.  But I'm tickled with my little creation, and proudly wore it today with a big grin on my face, that I actually faced my fears of "what if I screw up", and just DID it.  Looking those fears square in the eye, and telling them to go take a flying leap and take that old inner critic with them, is crucial for me to make art and call myself an artist.  It's all about pushing the limits, experimenting, playing, trusting yourself, and most importantly-having fun in the process.  And I AM having some fun lately!