Getting my Hands Dirty

It has been a whirlwind around here.  Lots of fun and exciting things going on.  The kids had a week of fun days at school, including crazy sock day, crazy hair day, future career day and hat day.  It was a week of fun to honor Dr. Suess!  So we had fun being creative all week!

 My Little Pony Socks

 crazy socks

Crazy Hair, Julia had a faux hawk with buns, and collin wore a wig

Future Career Day

Julia as an artist and Collin as an explorer

Hat Day

Then the hubs and I got away to NY to visit friends and spend some time on their organic farm, just relaxing and with no kids in tow.  We also got to see Enter the Haggis while we were there, which is always a treat!  

On the way up to NY, I found out I would be doing a jewelry show the next Saturday (the North Penn Select Craft show).  It's quite a nice show, and I didn't want to miss the chance to participate.  I needed to create some sort of pipe and drape, since it was an indoor show, AND make jewelry, since I was low.  

I had a great time figuring out my booth and making lots of new jewelry.  My hands were dirty and happy as I worked antiqued copper and soldered silver.

Thank goodness I had an old pipe style tent to work with.  There were size constraints, so it was a bit rigged.  Here it is in my family room being worked on

And here it was at the show.  I was really happy it all came together nicely.

Here are some of the new pieces I made for the show

 I didn't get a good pic of the finished bracelets.  I made a ton of them!  Oh my dirty sore fingers!

This pieces is sterling silver, crystal, polymer clay, fossils, bezels, pyrite, rutilated quartz.....its a show stopper!

This piece below is rockin' copper choker with ceramic, bronze, kyanite, 2 pieces of leeland blue!!!!, and turquoise (ceramic by marsha neal, bronze by me)

More polymer clay, ceramic and stone

I made more but just didn't get pics of everything due to time contraints.

My oldest son, Aiden, came to the rescue and helped me all day at the show.  My hubs and I had tickets, again, to see Enter the Haggis that night in Philly, and we had to get out of the show ASAP when it was over.  

We kicked butt with a 1/2 hour tear down and load.  I ran home, changed and was right back out the door.  Aiden and I also had a great time laughing and hanging out all day.

And got to see these guys again!!!!

These guys are just an amazing group to witness live.  They cross genre's, and have a wonderfully diverse following of people who just appreciate wonderfully written and executed music!  (they are extremely nice people too!)

Check out their Facebook page, and go and see them if you can!

https://www.facebook.com/enterthehaggis/?fref=ts

or you can just listen here to their newest release Mrs. Elliot here

Turn it up, cause its good!

http://www.enterthehaggis.com/

Yesterday I recovered.  I ran non stop for two weeks!  Oh yeah, we had our tax appointment in there too!  (both self employed).  

My kids and the dogs were all feeling the stress of the busy weeks and time away.  So yesterday after lots of snuggles and hugs, my Julia and I spent hours painting and she learned some new techniques to add to paintings.  She learned to start on the background first, we talked about varying shades, and blending colors.  She learned to stencil.  And she painted her own Pony on top so it would POP off the background.  She was hesitant to go in the order I was telling her, but she did it and now she is really proud.  I love that she got to work through the process of a painting start to finish, so she could see that it doesn't always look how it will in the end when you start, or are even in the middle.  

 (Julia loves My Little Ponies and draws her own versions endlessly.  She has made pony versions of all her friend and family too!!!)

I feel so refreshed after so much creative time, time spent around other amazing artists, time with friends we only see once or twice a year, time enjoying music I love and time with the family.  Now, I MUST finish a class, and prep for my April Bead Fest classes as well.

Have you signed up? Carving is going to be SOOOO FUN!

http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/content/teaching

Thank you to everyone who participated in my destash event as well.  You guys are awesome!  Hopefully I will get to make some more beads in the next few weeks as well and have a HUGE sale!  I will also be bringing beads to sell during my class at Beadfest.  I hope to see you there!

The Last Hoorah

Why is it that when we have little to no time left at all, our inspiration kicks it into overdrive?

I have my last jewelry show of the year this coming weekend

(Crafts in the Meadow- Tyler Park PA...it's a wonderful juried show full of amazing artists)

Since Beadfest I have been dying to play with all my beads.  Not only the ones I have made, but the ones I bought and traded for.

I have been sketching necklaces for weeks, trying to figure out what to make.  I really don't need anymore to fill my booth, but I HAD to make new stuff!!!  I have really been loving the way more and more artists are embracing wire, and wanted to really play with wire this year.  I got to see some of Susan Lenart Kazmers work in person at Beadfest this year, and I love her free form use of wire.  I also loved how she used wire as the back of the necklace in lots of fun ways.....like this piece.

Great use of wire to make a cage sort of neck wire to match the cage on the ammonite. As I admired her work, I promised myself to do even more fun stuff with wire.

This may sound funny, but the piece above sort of inspired this new style. I had originally wanted the wire part in the back of the necklace, but liked how it looked in the front better.  Plus, its is much more comfortable this way.  I love me some fun art jewelry, but it also has to be wearable to me.

They look really nice on as well.  It allows me to let the focal shine, yet still gives some character to the necklace.

I also wanted to make more charm necklaces.  I have always adored charm necklaces, and haven't made any new styles in this past year.  Here are a couple from last year.

I love chunky charm necklaces, and I have tried in the past to do the "over - charmed" look.  Yet I can never make it work.  It always felt too busy to me.  

Then I found this on Pinterest, and I loved that the chunky front was balanced by that wire back that I had been admiring.  I thought I would give the "over-kill" charm look a go again.

The necklace is by Allison Bellows

www.allisonbellowsjewelry.net 

(take a peek, all her stuff is amazing!!!!!!!!!!)

So with this sort of wire in the back, charm necklace idea..I started to draw pictures and think about it. How things lay for me is important, which I think is what always stopped me from completing this style.  I like to be able to see everything and don't want things to turn sideways, or be hidden, ect........... I also need things to be very wearable and comfortable, which to me, means they should be adjustable.  So, I started to play.  I am very happy with the results- and even more happy that I got to use a ton of my favorite beads on each one of these!!!!!!!!!!

This was my first one, not tooooo much charm wise.  I added the sari silk last, because I thought it needed another long element and another pop of color.

I decided to use chain in the front, along with one larger element, and then hang the charms off the chain, so that way, they can still lay sort of flat and be seen.  Plus, it totally allows this to be adjustable.  The hook at the end of the neck wire is where you fasten the chain.  even better, the weight of the charms holds the chain down, so it doesn't come undone.  I also did little spirals at the end of the hook clasp so it couldn't come off easily.

This was my last one I made.....lol!  You can see I made my way to overly charmed!  But i like it.

 I had some very pricey brass chain I had been hoarding (all these chains are handmade solid brass- not made by me) and so, I made this one for me.  I haven't taken it off at all!!!  I love the jingly heavy charm feel of it!

Picture of me wearing it.  It is soooo mine!

This one I just had some fun with.  I had to re-do it quite a few times until it had the right flow to it.

I kinda laughed at myself, because you would think these would be quick to make, just adding this or that, but they all took a lot of adding something, removing something, or shifting it to the side, ect ect.....

Anyhow, I am hooked.  Crazy wire everywhere.  I had more fun then I can even imagine.  I have been sketching and looking at my beads for far too long!  Often when I sketch a new idea, it doesn't always pan out, but I think these did.

If you are planning to come out to the show this weekend (if you are local, you should, it is a GREAT show!) please stop by.  I have lots of new stuff to show you!

Here are some more pieces I made for this weekend.  I still want to spend a couple days doing silver bezels of odd stones.  I have movement in mind with that batch, so we will see how movement and silver bezels end up.

Sorry for the loooong post and all the exclamation points.  It just felt that good to get to play with all this stuff that has been brewing in my brain.

How about you?  Do you sketch your designs?  And if yes, how excited are you when they work out????