Beaded Forest

Makin' some jewelry

I've spent the weekend doing all sorts of non-craft stuff...spending time with friends, doing housework, taxes (oh boy!), etc.  I put a few household items up on eBay, since they've been sitting around way too long.  As soon as I finished posting them, David tells me there's a big eBay boycott week starting today!  I had no idea. Well, too late to do anything about it now.
Finally I got around to doing some beading this afternoon.  One of my co-workers wants to buy some gift jewelry from me, so I made a couple of pairs of earrings for him to check out.  And the necklace is for me!  I love this ceramic focal bead from ArtBeads, and had to put it to use.  I combined it with faceted glass, jade, pearls, and hessonite garnet.   It'll go with a lot of my outfits. 
I've been experiencing something of a creative slump, but hopefully getting my hands wet with the beading will get me back on track. 

My dish is done!

I'm so pleased!  Here's my first-ever pottery project, glazed and fired.  It's not fancy, and it definitely has flaws, but I love the way the glaze turned out and I'm very satisfied with my first attempt.  I might have to go back and do more! 

Here's Harry, looking pensive after watching the Westminster Dog Show.  You see, Wirehaired Vizslas are still not recognized by the American Kennel Club, and he's disappointed.  Poor Harry.

Experiments...

This is the general state of my work area.  Chaos.  I've been experimenting with various things, and haven't come up with too many finished projects to show off.  Some of my experiments are paying off, though, so I'll hopefully have some fun stuff posted soon!

In the meantime, I just found out yesterday that Rockland Center for the Arts wants teachers to display/sell some items in their new display cabinets, so I came up with a couple of new things to put in there:

A couple pairs of earrings, and...

...a Spring scarf.  Guess I'm into the blues, pinks, and purples right now!

Pottery Party!

I was thinking of titling this post "Pot Party", but people might get the wrong idea!  The most serious substance there was my tin of homemade oatmeal-raisin cookies, although things got a bit crazy when the power went out for a while!  I know nothing about pottery, but my neighbor Paula has her own pottery shop here at the Co-op, and invited members to come over and throw a pot or two.  Given the freezing rain and other wintry nastiness falling from the sky, only a few of us showed up (and I nearly fell over more than once on my way), but we had a great time...and I learned a lot!  Here's Paula at her wheel:

And here's my first-ever plate!  The feel of the clay and the wheel are so wonderful, it was really a pleasure.

So later it'll get fired, and then I can play around with glazes.  I hope I get invited back soon!

Slavic Soul Party!

This is me last night at an event hosted by the Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA), where I teach jewelry classes (in fact, I taught a beginner's class yesterday morning!).  It was a fabulous time!  There was a pasta dinner, which was great, and we sat next to some of the board of directors of RoCA...they were a lot of fun, and it's always good to make those kinds of connections!  Dinner was followed by music by Slavic Soul Party, which is an amazingly cool brass band.   

Go to their website and listen to some of their music...there's no way I can describe it here!  I brought my friend Barb, and we danced all night (boy, am I sore today!).  Here's the crowd having a good time:

And here's Barb, dancing with our friend Andre...

I whipped up a necklace and earrings to wear to the event, using raw sapphires (aren't they gorgeous?), pearls, silver, and a great ceramic pendant from ArtBeads.

It was a terrific evening, and made me realize I have to get out more!

More scarves!

I made a couple new scarves for gifts.  I hope the recipients like them!

I've been so busy!  I got a few computer programs (iWork '08, Photoshop Elements, and LineForm), and I've been teaching myself the basics and playing around with logo ideas.  I've got so many things I want to get off the ground, and learning these programs and getting basic business stuff together (like a logo, business card, etc.) are the first steps.  A friend of mine was recently shopping in a little boutique in Nyack, and the owner/designer got all excited about the scarf she was wearing...a gift from me!  She wants to see my "Spring line"...uhh...I've got some work to do!  I know the shop also carries jewelry, so who knows, I might bring by a few jewelry ideas as well.  I'm not sure when I'll have time to do all this, what with that full-time job I have (what a bothersome time-stealer!), but I'll try to pace myself and see what I can accomplish.

Winter Wonder Swap package received!

I got home today to a lovely package from Tina, my swap partner for the Winter Wonders swap!  The note explains:

Warm, fuzzy socks to keep cozy;
Indulge yourself and your skin with some bath beads and lotion;
New beads for a new project;
Tasty treat;
Enjoy your new book;
Really great-smelling candle...

And that spells WINTER!  So now I can take a nice bath, put on my new socks, light my candle and hop into bed with my book and chocolate-covered cherries!  The beads are really beautiful, but they'll have to wait until my luxuriating is done.  For some reason I couldn't sleep last night, so I'm sooo tired and ready for a nice, relaxing evening...this is perfect!

Thanks so much for the package, Tina!!!

Harry and the plastic water bottle

Harry found a plastic water bottle outside, and who knew?  It was the best toy ever!  Here's what happened:

Winter Wonderland Swap

Here's what I've been working on over the past week...my package for the Winter Wonders swap!  Participants give 6 items that embody the season, with each item representing one letter in the word WINTER.  I've blurred out the descriptive tags in my picture here, in case my swap partner is reading my blog.  I hope the recipient has as much fun opening the gifts as I had putting them together!  Now I have to find the right box to fit everything, and head over to the post office...today is the deadline to send it out!

I think I got this one right...

I think I've finally got skirt-making out of my system for the time being!  After my experience with the last skirt, I needed something more of a sure thing.  The material is a neat embroidered wool blend, and I've added a slight flare on the bottom (not a ruffle!) and a little trim.  It's the length I wanted, it fits, and will do great with a sweater and boots.   Yay! 

Now, what to do next?  I made a list of possible projects, but none of them are singing out to me.  I was going non-stop on projects before Christmas, and now it seems my creative juices are moving a bit sluggishly.  Does that mean I should take a break?  Or just keep plugging along?  Any suggestions?