Back to charm bracelets again

I took a little painting break this weekend to whip up this charm bracelet, inspired by the great vintage-look findings at Michael's, including 'Industrial Chic' by Susan Lenart Kazmer, whom I met at Art & Soul one year, and 'Vintage Groove It' by Jill Schwartz.

I've been selling a few bracelets along with other artisans at Feja's Hair Design and Wellness Spa in Gaithersburg. It's a beautiful two-floor affair in an historic building, and owner Feja Kim is an artist in her own right, now only with hair, but with beautiful watercolors, which can be seen on her Web site, including the charming painting of her building.
If you are charm bracelet crazy like me, or into making jewelry, here's a few of my previous charm bracelets here, here and here.

Still Nesting

I finished a couple more projects into the wee hours of Saturday night, or I guess that would actually be the wee hours this morning. I had been saving this last nest, a nice nosegay shape, for quite some time, along with the pearl clusters, which had been part of a ponytail holder. Together with the vintage millinery leaves, old button and piece of a doily, it just seemed to say "wedding." I still have a few more finishing touches to add.

The baby shoe is another one of my pin cushions. I love finding baby shoes at an antique mall, so I can alter them up in some way. It seems nice to preserve something so significant. I always feel sad when I see them for sale, instead of handed down generation to generation. And since I have no plans to alter my children's baby shoes, or my own, it's fun to dress up these vintage finds.

I also made a wire-wrapped primary color bracelet just for fun, with beads I found on a recent trip to Pittsburgh. Not sure if the bracelet will be for me or will go to my Etsy shop, but that moment of reflection seems to be required for everything I make. I always want to keep everything, but that just isn't sensible, considering the amount of stuff I make, as evidenced by this post and the one immediately below.

Lastly, I added some new charms to my most recent "artsy" charm bracelet. The original charms were ones I received at Art and Soul, Portland, in 2008. The newest charms (the ones on the top row), were received in the recent Cloth Paper Scissors magazine charm swap (the geisha, the nicho, the brown clay with turquoise string and the wrapped sheet music). The "Blue Willow"-like teacup is from my art friend Constanza, who is downsizing for an apartment and has tons of cool stuff for sale in her Etsy shop. The leaf and the Art in Ashland charm are from a swap with another art friend, Michelle Geller of Hold Dear. I love my charm bracelets! Every one of them, and every charm, has a story.

I feel a little guilty spending so much time inside--in the basement no less-- making art on beautiful summer days. But, weekends are my only art time, and at 90+ degrees and humid, I don't necessarily think of that as a beautiful summer day--especially when I can see my next-door neighbors enjoying their in-ground swimming pool--while my pool-sized back yard looks like a pool-less football field full of dead or dying grass, shriveling in the heat.

So off to the basement I go. Time to pick up where I left off at midnight. Oh, but if you think I went to bed when the clock struck twelve, silly you. From midnight to 3 a.m. I worked on my novel. I'm 16,000+ words in and feeling good. Please stop by my writing blog. It could use some visitors! Sneak peek of chapter one is way down the road, but it will be there. Sometime.

The Blog As A Visual Chronicle

"Visual Chronicles" has been used before, as a title for various art books and publications, but I like to think of my blog as my visual chronicle. So, I like to record pictures of stuff I've made, such as the seed-beaded starfish and beach glass pendant here. I only got one picture, and it's kind of fuzzy, but since I posted the beginning of the project here, I wanted to wrap it up properly.

The other way I keep a visual record is not only by posting my photos on Flickr, the photo-sharing site, but also by making Moo cards every now and then of my photos. Moo is a service found on Flickr, and for $19.99 you can get 100 different 1" x 3" (approx) photo cards of your work with your contact info on the back. You can also get stickers, albums, labels and much more. But I like the Moo cards best. This is my third set of 100. I posted some others on my Blythe blog.

Charms, Charm Swaps, Charm Bracelets: All So Charming!

While I was waiting for charms to dry this weekend, I decided to photograph some of my bracelets from past charms swaps. These beauties contain all original artwork from so many special art friends. They're really too bulky and noisy to wear, and I don't want to break or lose any of the charms, but I have worn some of them before, to art events. I wish I had a good way to display them all the time so I could enjoy looking at them.

I also photographed my high school charm bracelet. It's the mostly silver one above, containing Monet charms from the 1970's. The black and white charm bracelet above is one I made for myself in recent years. The turquoise bracelet was made by the talented Altered Kat/Great Musings of ZNE and on Etsy. I have purchased several from her for gifts. And the very full white and clear bracelet is by Miss Vicky, who sells these gorgeous versions in all colors and all themes in her store, The Funny Pharm.

The charm bracelet with antique brass and the silver one with beach-y charms like the pail and sand dollar are bracelets I have made and sold in my Etsy shop, Lilly*s of London*ish. The silver one uses fantastic lampwork beads from Marianna as well as Coach charms from a deconstructed keyring.

Some of the most full bracelets above are made from charms swaps. The very top one represents charms collected at Art & Soul, Hampton 2008 and contains 32 different charms from 32 artists. The bracelet with the soldered 'G' Scrabble tile front and center is from a swap at the ZNE Castle in the Meadow event in Detroit this past summer, and the silver bracelet with the fabric circle charm, soldered Marie Antoinette charm and brass and metal findings charm, among others, is from Art & Soul Portland, October, 2009. At Portland I was lucky enough to swap with members of the exclusive Charmsters group, thanks to my 'in' with art buddy Michelle Geller, who also made several of the charms on this bracelet.

One of the best parts of charm swaps is the presentation of the charms. I have received charms in matchbooks, match boxes, test tubes, mint cans, on Moo cards and in some many creative and elegant presentations it makes it tempting not to take them apart to attach to a bracelet.

So with charms due for the Arte du Blythe charm swap and a charm swap sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, as well as wanting to turn in a project for my pitifully-neglected spot on the Hannah Grey Design Team, I banished myself to the basement to see what I could do.

The "I Dream in French" charms are made by stamping on rolled-out paper clay with a rubber stamp from Hannah Grey and a basic ink pad (Staz-On does not work for this project). I cut the charms out with canape cutters and poked a hole with a wood stick. The charms dry light and hard within about 24 hours. I sprayed some with a clear finishing coat and some, I sprayed the backs with silver or gold spray paint and edged them with a silver or gold leaf pen. I added a French brass charm also from Hannay Grey and jump rings and tied them to watercolor paper artist trading cards. The cards are stamped in French script with a large stamp from Stampin' Up; the stickers are from Paula's Kit Club as well as the ribbon.

The "little girl" and "eyeball" charms are a completely different project, obviously. There are eight members of my Arte du Blythe group making and swapping charms, for a bracelet hosted and finished by Miss Vicky. Some of the charms are just outstanding. Check out my Blythe blog for a sneak peek.

'By the Sea' Treasures from Art & Soul

I felt like a kid on Halloween night, dumping out all of my treasures from Art & Soul Portland; arranging, rearranging, mentally cataloging and slowly putting away all that I had collected in the way of supplies, trades, purchases and finished art.

It is tradition to bring small pieces of art to swap, such as charms and artist trading cards. Charms were very popular since many A&S attendees belong to a group called Charmsters, including my hostess Michelle. I swapped enough charms to make an entire bracelet, nicely full of handmade goodness (top). A few extra charms from Michelle made their way into my pile of goodies during our 1:1 swap (second photo). I also received two lovely 4 x 4 fat book pages from her for my 2008 book. The other pics/piles are more swap receipts, ephemera collected, class supplies, purchases from the on-site store, Collage, and vintage finds from around Portland.

The bottom three photos are my background papers completed in Traci Bautista's Doodling & Letters class. The will now be cut up for ATC or other backgrounds.

Portland Art & Soul Even More than Expected

Beautiful but soggy Portland was the site of another Art & Soul retreat, and I had a spectacular time staying with Michelle. She's shown above in her home studio which is much more like a store-make that a candy store for grown-ups. Cassondra joined us most of the time-what a cheerful, sweet person she is!

We shopped 'til we truly dropped on two different days. I'll be posting pics of my goodies. Portland is an amazing city, and there is such a hip, happening, vintage and artsy vibe. Every place we went was so cool. I walked nearly a mile up and down Alberta Street in heels because I just couldn't get enough of shops with names like Frock, Flutter, Collage, Imp, Bolt, Swoon, Red Bird and more. We ate at places called Hula Hands, Pizzicato, Picazzo's, and I went nuts over the New Seasons funky grocery we went to twice. Let's just say I got a finger puppet, heirloom tomatoes, 10 different kinds of Luna bars and $15 cookies at the green grocer.

Gas was even a bargain at $3.22 a gal for 87 with no self-service allowed to support entry-level jobs. I do think all the grown-up hippies have re-located there as I lost count of VW buses-seriously. We all agreed they needed lots of collage and painted daisies on them. There was a baby blue one right out of my 1970s teenage dreams.

Michelle and her family were fun to hang with. Even her cats were amazing!
Julie Collings and friends (Deb is fun!) also joined us one day. Julie has a new book out, Pretty Little Felts, which she signed for me. Just adorable projects! Julie also produces ArtNest in Utah. Oh yeah, and she has a family and four children and makes art. Nothin' to it.

Several other artists were on hand signing books, including LK Ludwig of Extreme Visual Journaling and Nature Journals, Kelly Rae Roberts of Taking Flight (I bought a journal from her), Sally Jean Alexander, whom I met at ZNE, Tonia Davenport of Plexi-Class and jewelry acquisitions editor for F+W Northlight and Mary Ann Hall of Quay/Quarry who is editing my friend Lisa Kettell's book Altered Art Circus that I am in and which comes out this winter. I missed seeing Dawn Devries Sokol of 1000 Artist Journals, whom I met at ZNE, but she had bookplates for everyone. So many great people! It was a joy to finally meet James and Helga Strauss of ArtChix Studio. They were selling collage sheets like mad. I haven't been as active lately but am still thrilled to say I have designs on their Pet Faux Post and Pink Faux Post sheets. Get yourself a bazillion copies! Helga's new mini pins are great, too, and the By The Sea and Mermaid collage products are super. I love the work of my IRL friend Jade Adams on them! It was also a joy to see Mike and Shosh of Hannah Grey again, although I was so exhausted by the end of vendor night Saturday, I was standing about one inch from Shosh and didn't even know it! We were shopping at the tres Francais Vintage Charmings booth of Kate and her sister. More hugs and love were shared in Lisa Kaus' darling booth. I'm so glad some friends bought originals.

I had two classes Friday: the Beachcomber with Beverly Gilbert of Gilbert Designs. I was almost dreading this class, having avoided seed beads like a disease. I didn't have a task light, didn't have beading needles, didn't even know why I picked the class. It must have been good karma, though, because I knew in the first five minutes I would love it. And I did. I didn't even leave the room for lunch or when class ended. I could have attached myself permanently to Beverly. She is so sweet and so enthusiastic about color and what she does. Her jewelry is amazing. Check out her Web site. I'll be posting more pics, and I can't wait to play with my 'bead soup' I bought from her for class. Pictured above are the two pendants I made, wrapping sead beads around found treasures like beach glass, with a mix of free-form peyote and netting stitches. That's me with Beverly. She has a great fashion sensibility as well. No surprise.

The goodies are still needing to be unpacked and photographed as well as my charms (enough for a bracelet) and other swap goodies. I also need to take pics of my work from Traci Bautista's class. It was all just an incredible experience! Can't wait to do it again.

Off to Art & Soul PDX and Blog-land Friends

Yes, that is one grumpy cat. The suitcase has been perpetually out for weeks and weeks. In fact, one day last week I was in four states in one day. You can see here where Larry tried to go to A&S once already. Tomorrow, I head west, instead of my usual Midwest or east, to Art and Soul, Portland. This will be my second A&S this year, having already gone to Hampton, VA in May. Yes, I liked it so much, I wanted to go to another.

But the real attraction is not only Portland itself, which I have never seen, but my dear blog friend Michelle of Hold Dear whom I have also never seen! But will. Tomorrow. We've been blog friends for well over a year, having bonded over charms and mermaids and other common interests. I don't think we can even remember who contacted whom, but we've been emailing and speaking on the telephone and have decided we are like-minded enough that a brief co-habitation is not too scary!

So, Michelle graciously invited me to stay with her and her husband Glenn, and some other art girlies, specifically Cassondra and Julie of ArtNest, will also be there.

After my cross-country flight, we're planning lots of artsy shopping and acquainting me with the Portland art community. Friday, we both have classes with internationally-acclaimed instructors. I'm taking a jewelry and beading class to make a necklace called "The Beachcomber" with Beverly of Gilbert Designs and a collage and doodling class with Traci Bautista, whom I've met a couple times before, most notably at CHA where she signed her book for me. Traci also knows a couple of my Cali art friends, Miss Vicky and Shosh, both of whom will also be at A&S.

Since Michelle lives there, she is also taking classes Wednesday and Sunday, and I can't even keep up with all she is doing. I do know one class sounds great: Junk Drawer Metalsmithing. Can't wait to see what she does.

Friday night there will be a number of authors there for book-signings, including the charming Michael DeMeng and also Kelly Rae Roberts, whose new book I absolutely love: Taking Flight. Some ZNE friends will also be there, signing books and teaching, like Miss Sally Jean and Lisa Kaus. Saturday we are hitting more vintage and artsy spots before the nearly-famous A&S vendor night. One could drop mega-bucks...or just drool a lot. All-in-all it should be a very supportive, art-filled weekend before I hop a red-eye or should I say red-eye-all-day-and-night-long flight back into my own time zone. Can't wait to post pics from the event.

Me & Larry, Heading to Art & Soul, Except Larry's Not Really Going. Shhh! Don't Tell Him!

With Art & Soul Portland http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/ just 15 days away, I knew I needed to get some swaps made. Trading little bits of art is a wonderful tradition at art retreats. I don't ever want to go empty-handed because the goodies made by other artists are such fun to receive. Some people make little bags of ephemera or supplies; some make artist trading cards (ATCs) or other small-scale art. When I went to Art & Soul Hampton in May, I took both charms and ATCs, and with A&S PDX looming so soon, I resorted to making the very same charms again. I call them Ballerina Moons. It's not hard to see why, although it is hard to see in these pictures. But after several hours to make 28 charms and already putting them in their tiny bags with Moo cards from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/lillysoflondonish, I couldn't see unbagging them all just for a photo-opp. Hopefully, I will get some cards made as well, and I still need to get some class supplies. I am making a 'Beachcomber' necklace with Gilbert Designs http://www.gilbertdesigns.net/ and am taking a collage class with Traci Bautista, author of Collage Unleashed. You can buy her book on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Collage-Unleashed-Traci-Bautista/dp/1581808453/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221365456&sr=8-1. I'm also looking forward to staying with Dear Michelle of Hold Dear http://michellegeller.typepad.com/, my firstest and bestest blog friend, who is going to show me around Portland. Looking forward to seeing Maria of Collage on Alberta http://collageonalberta.typepad.com/ again, and I just found out tonight that Shosh and Mike from Hannah Grey http://www.hannahgrey.com/ will be there, too. And, some of my new ZNE art friends, like Lisa Kaus http://lisakaus.blogspot.com/, will also be in town, especially easy since Lisa lives in Oregon. All in all, it should be like old-home art week. Fetch my umbrella. Can't wait!

Larry the Cat looks really excited, too. But, I have bad news for him. Unlike the charms, he is going to get unpacked, and soon.

Cha Cha Cha! Lucky Me, Attending CHA

How lucky I was to attend the International Craft and Hobby Association's summer trade show Saturday in Rosemont, IL! I represented Hannah Grey Curiosities and Dry Goods as a member of their design team. The show had 400 vendors in four exhibition halls with over 5,000 attendees expected. This is the trade show for manufacturers and distributors to unveil their latest products to buyers for large and small scrapbook and craft stores.
While buyers for Michael's and Archiver's attend, so did the owner of my own local stamp store, Jan Biehl of Stamp-N-Toys in the tiny town of North Webster, IN. I even managed to run into Lisa Dawson, a fellow ZNE  Art member and owner of Your ATC Store.
The show was both overwhelming and frustrating- everything is for show only; nothing is for sale. Samples were few and far between, but I did come home with a few paper samples, including two packs designed by my friend Angela Hoffman of Gemini Angel's Art for Dream Street Papers. There were some amazing new products, a million and one paper patterns and rubber stamps, and I thoroughly enjoyed the F+W Media booth where some of the latest and greatest altered art books were on display. I got to see the lovely yet-to-be-released book from Kellie Rae Roberts called Taking Flight as well as blog friend Jean Yates' new book, Links.
I also was lucky enough to get to the F+W booth just in time for the free book/book signing by Traci Bautista of Collage Unleashed, which I had already studied with the ZNE Book Club earlier this year. I brought Traci greetings from Shoshannah, Mike and Heather, owners of Hannah Grey, and from another fellow Californian, the ubiquitous Miss Vicky. I later sat down with Traci at the Duncan booth to make a collage with her new papers and decoupage medium, which is already being sold at Jo Ann Fabric's (look for Traci's picture on the bottle). I'll be taking a class from Traci this October at Art and Soul, Portland, when I attend with blog bud Michelle Geller of  Hold Dear. So excited for all that!
While I was sitting at Duncan, trying to give my feet and arms a break (from schlepping my heavy bags of catalogs), I was chattering away with Jennifer before I even realized it was Jennifer Perkins of DIY TV fame and of the upcoming book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry.
I also got to meet Danielle Forsgren of Diva Craft Lounge at the Unity Stamp Booth. Danielle will be interviewing me July 30 on Blog Talk Radio at 3:05 pm EST, so it was great to meet her in person! She's a new Blythe collector as well.
My last burst of rubbing elbows with the famous and published- outside of staring at Tim Holtz up close- was chatting with Claudine Hellmuth, she of many books and a Martha Stewart show appearance, at the Ranger booth. Claudine has an exciting new line of products coming out, including 12 x 12 adhesive canvas paper, her own line of paints and a multi-purpose mixed medium, which she was demo-ing.
All-in-all, it was a day of mixed media and altered art heaven!