Marie Mail Art Project...off in the mail

My Marie Antoinette starter charm bracelet heads off to California tomorrow, complete with a sign-in book for the guest artists to take and leave a Moo card in the envelope pocket pages. There will be eight artists in our Marie Antoinette Mail Art group's charm bracelet sub-group besides myself who will add charms to my bracelet in this round robin swap. Eventually the finished bracelet will make its way back to my wrist, fuller for the experience. Can hardly wait to see it!

Like Candy...

Inspiration awaits. Free time, where art thou? There are new bracelets and earrings in my Etsy shop, though. Click here or see link at right.

Yay Me! (again) and Thanks to Shonna of Twisted Figures

The above goodies are winging their way to me, courtesy of Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures. I entered a drawing on her blog for her '100th Follower' celebration, and somehow her cutie son drew my name out of a jar.

You might recognize another piece of Shonna's art, "Busy Bee," which I bought from her Etsy shop and blogged about here. Shonna also turned me on to Suzi Blu's Web site and art classes. Love this style! Thanks, Shonna.

Big Hair is Always Good

Just some crazy big-haired Marie Antoinette artist trading cards I made Sunday for a swap in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. Marie was well-known for trend-setting and elaborate hats and poufs were at the top of her list. She is said to have worn a replica of a ship on her head and live nature settings; I wonder if she ever had a fish, a bee skep, bird's nest, fruit salad or sea shells on her head?

Finally! My Prince Cometh.

Along with some great swaps of a darling painted canvas from Kelly of Little Pink Trailer and an altered tin from Heather of Creative Solace, my prince arrived in the mail Thursday. And he even brought my favorite pie. Okay, so he's still a frog. But, I'm working on that. And he's, well, metal. But I've always had a thing for heavy metal and big hair. And so he didn't bring a pie, big deal. The fact remains: he's here. And he's mine.

Actually, Mr. Squibb/Boric Acid (you know those heavy metal types) comes from Mike in Wisconsin from Etsy. I first posted about Mike's work on Vintage Indie in my review of the American Visionary Museum. Mike and I then decided to do an art swap and we're happy as clams, er frogs.

And besides, my prince doesn't hog the strawberry/blueberry pie I made.

Here's what I sent Heather: a nicho. And here's what I sent Kelly: a bracelet with vintage beads; and here's part of what I sent Mike: ephemera. I have more listed on Etsy. That pack is marked reserved- for yet another trade, with Fishstikks. But there's always more ephemera.

I Love My Little Office

My upstairs office is where I do 'real' work, unlike my downstairs office and studio, where I do 'unreal' work, I guess. This office is 'close' enough to be called cozy, and I do find it cozy to work in here: surrounded by my art treasurers, stuff I've made, stuff from friends. I can try to get inspired to do spreadsheets and reports by looking at some of my 'fat books,' my 'library' of art books, cook books and fiction, my antiques, even my old stuffed animals.

My office is very neutral- a little beige and sage- so it's a good foil for anything I want to display. My unstuffed, real cats have a bed in here, too, an actual breakfast tray that they claimed. So, I bought a rug for inside it and made it no longer a breakfast tray, of course!

The sun comes cheerily in through two windows, so I can catch it from the north or east. These photos were taken at 8:30 p.m., and the Indiana sun is still making big shadows. I spend a lot of time in here, so I might as well make the best of it!

Insomnia Must Be Purple

With a 6 a.m. alarm looming, I found myself unable to stop stringing pendants for this charm bracelet, even at 1 a.m. I didn't even get the idea for this until about 10 p.m. And actually, stringing is a misleading term: there's no string, not even wire. It simply means forming the danglies on headpins (straight pins) and wire-wrapping the stem to make a loop. This pink and purple beauty has over 25 different charms and lots of whimsy.

After forming and wrapping all the charms, I attached each one to the chain with jump rings and then attached a sterling-filled magnetic clasp closure to the ends. It's going to take a bold outfit or a bold wrist to wear this one, as it should be. And go figure: I woke up at 5 a.m. ready to photograph and blog about it.

Still beading away, a little collage and Georgia O'Keeffe

I am in love with the earthy colors of this latest bracelet I put together tonight. It's a really unusual mix- sort of burnt umber, burnt sienna, magenta, browns, coppers and some animal print. It has a nest, birds, leaves and beads of glass, resin, pewter, ceramic and lampwork. I don't want to love it too much, though, because I really want to sell it.

The coral and silver bracelet has some really great findings, especially some lacey bead caps on the tiniest bits of coral. This one is just waiting for me to string up the turquoise table-cut beads and then assemble the whole thing. The beads look like Chiclets to me: a gum I used to obsess about. I've also always been partial to turquoise and coral when they are done up like this- in an Indian or southwest/cowgirl style. Oh-oh, another bracelet trying to talk its way into my jewelry box.

I'm pretty sure after that one, I am done with jewelry-making for awhile. I've pretty much exhausted my stash of beads and findings, so I need to make some more mad money!

The collage above is part of an 8.5 x 11 inch collage I started last year. I thought it was finished once, but I found some more great ephemera to add to it. I still haven't figured out if it is done yet, or what it means, since I've never seen any of those sites.

Speaking of southwest, I did some interesting reading today about the great American painter Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, the great photographer, Arthur Stieglitz. O'Keeffe is known for her paintings of the flora and fauna of the southwest, but Stieglitz is best known for his nude photographs of O'Keeffe. When one pictures O'Keeffe we probably think of her in her later years- small, gray, wrinkled, weather-beaten, sort of an artistic version of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. But O'Keeffe was aparently quite the sensual creature in her earlier years, becoming Stieglitz's muse and most important influence.

I was doing a little refresher because there is an O'Keeffee exhibit in Kalamazoo until Sept. 13 that I would like to see: Georgia O'Keeffe and her times: American Modernism along with Through the Photographer's Lens: O'Keeffe and her circle. You can find more about it at the Kalamazoo Art Institute here. And thanks to Joanne Thieme-Huffman for the heads up.

What I've Still Been Up To

I've been making jewelry- frantically it seems- until 2 a.m. Friday, 3:3o a.m. Saturday and for eight hours straight on Sunday- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. without a lunch break. I'll even accept the title frantic or manic, because it does seem when I get "on a roll" as they say, time just flies, to use even more euphemisms, and I don't even want to stop.

It's almost therapeutic, I think, to express myself this way. It bewilders even me sometimes. Some of these beads I bought more than a year ago, and just simply have stared at them ever since, unable to make anything happen. I'd string some up and then cut them back apart because I didn't like what I had created. And now, all of a sudden, everything looks good to me, makes sense, matches, falls into place. My wire-wrapping and bead-crimping skills seem to have returned.

The only thing on my mind when I am spending so much time making jewelry is that I'd also like to be painting, drawing, writing, making collages and altered art assemblages. In fact, I even keep an art 'to-do' list. I don't like to have "works in progress" as I mentioned some time ago. It's just not my style to have several things (or even two) going at once. It bugs me. I like to finish one thing at a time, although I will admit to having another afghan about half done. But, I really have to take breaks from crocheting or my golfer's elbow comes back. It happened once before- lower than tennis elbow and aggravated from repetitive motion- like crocheting.

So, what's on my to-do list? I have two 10 x 10 canvasses and some paint and colors in mind for some impressionistic painting, a la Ceza'nne for a Somerset challenge. I have some weird parts gathered up for an Alice in Wonderland challenge. I want to make a little robot out of scrap parts. I have a couple doll heads waiting for bodies out of bird cages or bottles. I have an Americana canvas I want to paint. I have a project on "colors" that I want to do. I have some rusty numbers I want to use. I want to do some more rubber-stamping and card-making to submit. I have a nicho I want to fill. I have at least one more charm bracelet in mind, and I just accepted an invitation to a Marie Antoinette charm swap and maybe a fabric journal page swap. I have a poem about escalators in my head and a short story about waking up at Teesha Moore's fun house in my pajamas. I have a novel started (okay, so that's a major WIP). I have five short stories that need edited and sent out. I want to make some more sugar skull ATCs. And I do want to finish that afghan. Nevermind about a full-time job and sending a child to college. Weeds to pull? What weeds? Girls just wanna have fun and do art.

I attended a nice little wedding this weekend in Michigan in the midst of all this creating. Congratulations to my co-workers Amy & Brian who are on their way to an Alaskan cruise now, via Vancouver.

Where's all this jewelry going? Not sure, but definitely for sale soon. Happy creating. How great to live in a free America where we can be as creative as we want, whenever, however we want.

What I've Been Up To....

...a little doodling, a little jewelry-making, a little painting, a little cooking, a little traveling, a little paper mache, a little reading (Double Image by David Morrell), a little writing, a little poetry, a little wedding today.

What She Said

I said a few words in a previous post when I'd heard about the celebrity deaths last week. A post on Facebook by my art friend and teacher Gina Gabriell of Dublin, CA stopped me in my tracks. I asked her for permission to print it here.
When I first met Gina in August of 2008, I couldn't believe she was my age. In fact, I probably should have gotten her driver's license. She's young and hip and talented and down to earth and smart and nice, all really significant adjectives in my book. I took a very fun class at the ZNE convention, almost by accident, in Gina's brand new shop, Tangerine. She also has a studio, Eleven Morning. Her memories of Farrah and Michael mirror mine. It's that age thing.

But, she probed a bit deeper. The Stevie she refers to below is her daughter, who died in early 2007 with a brain tumor at age 19.

Her post (I edited a bit for length):

"I remember my cousin Ron (and every other teenage boy) had the Farah in the red bathing suit- nipples at attention poster hanging in his room. I remember thinking how beautiful she was and how I wanted more than anything in the world to have two things: 1. Boobs and 2. Big Hair.

Lucky for me curling irons and a home perm weren't too expensive but the boobs would be harder to come by and a long wait. The boob fairy finally did visit me after the birth of my first child. Because this fairy was late she decided to make up for it by giving my great-grandmothers heavy breasts. It is feast or famine with me always.

Charlie’s Angels...sigh. You had to love that cheesy show, the original crew made me want a jump suit, made me want to learn karate, made me want to wear lipstick. Alas I was trapped in a skinny boy's body but I loved those Angels.

Although I am not a People magazine reader and I don't follow what goes on in the magic world of all things shiny, I did respect Farrah making the documentary of her cancer journey. I have not seen it, but I think it can only raise awareness when someone who was the standard of beauty in her prime allows the public to see what cancer takes away. It isn't like the movies; it is painful, scary, and ugly.

Michael. It was a shock to hear that he had passed, I knew it would happen some day; I just could never imagine Michael Jackson at 70. It was hard to believe he was 50. My instincts tell me his demise was drug related but it doesn't really matter how he left, it was just his time. His heart breaking seems like a tragic and fitting ending.

The monkey, the out-there clothing, Lisa Presley, Neverland, seriously how could that shock anyone. Hollywood is the land of make-believe and he gave people something to talk about, to wonder about and keep them interested, pure marketing genius.


When I was a kid I went to see The Jackson Five at the Circle Star theater in Oakland. We were way up front and it was spectacular. These boys sang their hearts out. Micheal had a ‘fro back then and all the brothers wore bell bottoms. I thought that was boss. I was a runny nosed little tom-boy, but I danced my little chicken legs off.

While I was driving home I spoke to Stevie. I told her, "Hey Michael Jackson is in heaven now; how cool is that?" She had a little collection of DVDs that she used to watch. To her it was all ‘Old School’ and she loved the music and videos.

Stevie didn't judge people. She liked them or didn't like them. There was never an explanation or an apology, she never wavered or changed her mind. She could just feel to the heart of a person. She didn't have time to waste.

I wonder if that is how we should all live. I could have saved hundreds of hours of my life if I didn't try to help people who didn't really want help, change people who were happy in their misery, trying to build friendships with people I didn't really like because I thought it was the right thing to do. My instincts were always right but always a hindsight observation.

I am not saying people should be hateful or avoid helping another person; it isn't about the worth of a person. What I am saying is that we all have a moral compass/ good instincts, and if we listen to that without judgment we could live a little more effectively.I get lost in this. I always tell myself that that gut feeling isn't a tool for me to move in another direction but a challenge, a hurdle that will help me build a better me if I do the right thing, maybe I am wrong.

The universe gives us a road map for our lives, Point A to Point B. It offers us guidance and direction. We have the freedom to take our own route, and we can make it as long or as difficult as we like. Only two things are for sure: there is a point B and there are no shortcuts.

I think I am going to stick to my map now, listen to that inner guidance, love when my heart tells me to, run when my heart tells me to. My girl had this all figured out by the time she was five; I am a slow learner.

For some reason humans need idols. Icons serve a purpose but they too die and fade away, making room for other icons.We can chose who we love. I think we should learn to see lovable greatness in ourselves and not hang all our hopes and dreams on someone else who seems bigger and better.This is the only life we have and know right now; we have to be kings and queens of our own beauty and promise."

Well said.

If X equals the sum of my evening's art adventures, then WHY do I still have a headache?

If three beads and one charm can send me to the studio for nine-and-a-half hours and produce four bracelets and six pairs of earrings all the while fighting a migraine, then what is x? Just thought I'd try to tie in some of that lovely algebra we were all promised we'd use later in life. Well, I don't know x or why, but my jewelry-designing gene woke me up in the middle of the night with an idea for a bracelet. I received my three free beads from Fried Peas and an unexpected and totally cute crown charm from Debrina Pratt of Spark*Your*Imagination in the mail Friday, and by the wee hours of Saturday, I had a girly pink charm bracelet in mind, using the crown charm and some pink resin beads. I even got up to write myself a note in case my memory faded by morning.

After a late breakfast and one of the worst migraines I've had in awhile, I banished myself to the basement thinking that the charm bracelet work would take my mind off my head pain. It did indeed as I wire-wrapped dangly after dangly for the bracelet, then added jump rings and attached all the charms. A few of the beads I used I had been saving for almost a year for something special. I guess this was it.

The next thing I knew it was six hours and four bracelets later! I came up to make a big salad and homemade croutons for supper and then headed back downstairs to make six pairs of earrings. By the time I finished I had been at it nearly 10 hours. And none of this was on my to-do list for today! I also wanted to put more beeswax on my doll canvas, which I did. I love the smellof beeswax, although I know not everyone does. I also had high hopes of painting my paper clay figures- the mushroom and owl I had molded-so I got to that about midnight. I am always quickly reminded that tired=messy.

I photographed all my creations, and some are shown above. The entire result of Saturday's adventures can be seen on my Flickr photostream here. Some of the goodies are heading to my Etsy shop next. Gotta try to make a little money because that buys more beads.

Tomorrow's art to-do list? An art doll assemblage with the porcelain doll heads I built up with paper clay and something Alice in Wonderland*ish.

It's off to Pittsburgh Tuesday for work and also company year-end Tuesday, so reports and packing are also beckoning, and my reading pile is growing. I've tried stockpiling sleep, and it just doesn't work. In fact, I'm going to guess that weird sleep, feather pillows, stress and too many carbs were the algebraic equation that equalled my migraine. Don' try this at home.