Sparrow Bracelet

I've been experimenting with a lot of bracelets lately. I really love how this one turned out. I have collected tons of findings and components and really need to make a lot of pieces and start selling more of my work. I am trying to simplify more and I hate to just destash everything. I would really like to keep it all but, I find that I wear just a few items. Right now selling is the best thing I guess. I am very drawn to the birds in art and jewelry. I also am starting to work in more of the shiny and antiqued combo pieces like this one and with the brass and silver. I recently went to Monte Vista here in Colorado. I checked out a bead store there and bought a couple things and am in the middle of a project I'll share next couple posts. I've been trying to create jewelry in ways I haven't in the past and trying to use elements that I've never used before. As of yet I still don't have a "style" like a lot of people. I like such diverse things that I don't know how to stick to one style.

My Birthday is coming up soon and my husband keeps asking me what I would like. I have finally decided (I think) that I would like a flex shaft. If you've never heard of one you can check them out at Rio Grande or Contenti. I think it would enable me to do more with metal.

A New Inspirational Book by Kelly Rae Roberts and Repurposed Necklace

Over the holidays I received a Barnes and Noble gift card and went to town looking for some art books for inspiration and instruction in my art. I ordered this book "Taking Flight Inspiration and Techniques to give your Creative Spirit Wings" by Kelly Rae Roberts and started reading it a couple days ago. With  a soon to be two year old I only get a couple pages down a day but how inspiring they have been. She writes like she is talking to my heart. I feel like a friend is talking to me and urging me to push myself more. Sometimes it's hard to know if other people feel like you do, if they struggle with things like you do. She has written and expressed so much about how I feel and what I think it's almost scary. As I explore more into this world of creating I have come to realize there are A LOT of women out there that feel like I do. I would recommend this book to everyone that wants to know more about themselves and where they want to be with their creative lives. I think our hearts sing when someone understands us and your heart will sing with this book. I was inspired to create a couple paintings that I will share over the next week or so.

Here's my jewelry work area, I don't know how I get anything made. I remember a quote that says " Creative people are seldom tidy". Hello that is me once I get started.

Well at least something came out of it here's my newest creation.

I love the colors in this necklace. This may be a keeper pretty much like almost everything I make.

A New Year to Create

Wow, the rest of the year just flew by. Before I knew it Christmas had come and gone and I hadn't posted for months. My son has been keeping me going and I started and finished a business class. I'm looking forward to starting my own business on-line besides the etsy shop and doing more jewelry and mixed media. I've temporarily set up a painting station in the middle of my kitchen. It sounds weird I know but it's the only room I can gate off from my son and still be able to watch him. Plus I have this huge counter top height table in the center where I can paint etc. I know I need to write more it is very therapeutic for me. Everything had just started culminating all at once and this was one of the extras that got booted for awhile.

I just picked up the latest "Artful Blogging" magazine and am so inspired by the beautiful blogs. I highly recommend the magazine if you've never read it. I have to say this is the first magazine I have read from start to finish every word. Usually I just read a couple articles here and there in other ones and focus on the pictures. My 22  month old son helped in the reading,  I would lay him down for a nap and read it out loud to him till he fell asleep.

I made several handmade gifts this year for presents and devoted a lot of time to the season so I haven't created much to sell. I did find a sorry little bunny that I painted. Here's the before and after.

I just love how she turned out with the hard candy crackle finish and pretty collar. I have a thing for bunnies so I pretty much think I'm keeping her.

 I have completed a painting but most of my time has been on the computer looking for found objects and vintage jewelry to repurpose. I've become a rhinestone addict. Not very many people still wear brooches or rhinestone but I love the repurposing of them into new necklaces etc. The Rosa and Josies blog has really gotten my creative juices going again too,  such lovely rhinestone creations. I'll be posting my new creations soon.

Repurposed Adornments

I've recently started to do more jewelry. I love the books that show how to re-use items that you no longer wear into new items or to take vintage pieces and re-make them into more vogue pieces. Here is a necklace I made from a vintage glass brooch. The beads were recycled from a vintage necklace with vintage buttons, brass findings and glass pearls. 

I wholesaled this assemblage to a chic store upstate for re-sale. I've been listing some creations on my etsy site too.  I've married new pieces with vintage to make some very pretty items. 

Artist retreat and such

It has been forever since I've been able to sit down and write. This is a new piece I made the other day. Jewelry has been my passion of late. This is a rose quartz pink carved rose with glass pearls, seed beads and Czech iridescent pressed glass beads. The chain is double rings of antiqued brass. I have been drawn to the antiqued brass because it doesn't tarnish or change like silver and isn't expensive to work with. I making a ton of pieces to take to a store in Denver where a lady is interested in my creations.
When I was out yesterday I ran across the book "Rejuvenated Jewels" by Amy Hanna. I love this book! She makes such beautiful things. I love the fact of reusing items to make something new. She mixes metals and mediums. I love antique and vintage items and rarely buy them because they're usually beat up a bit and now I think I can find ways to incorporate them into some of my jewelry.

I went to an artist retreat a little over a week ago in Durango Colorado. This is the wonderful place I spent the retreat in. Obaro Cabins is on the Florida river . The cabin has two sides with a dividing door. There is an upstairs bedroom and a pullout sofa in the living room. This is such a beautiful place I am looking forward to returning with my husband. It was a four day three night retreat with about eighteen women I had never met. This worked out great for me because I hadn't been away from the baby or my husband for 15months and I needed somewhere fun and safe to travel by myself. We worked in watercolor, inks, collage and also did some writing and acting. The instructors talked about getting into areas you've never done anything in before to re-start your creative abilities and think of new things. The writing exercises were a little challenging for me but they brought up all kinds of feelings and new memories many of the women hadn't thought of in a long time. One of the exercises was to think of an article of clothing you had worn and when and why it had a strong memory. I loved the inks section, we did a mandala which is a circle cut into sections and everyone takes a different section. In the section you look at some pictures and a word is written to embody the mandala and you're suppose to ink something in that represents that word. I had fire and the blue gold and red section to the upper left is mine.

I became so entranced by this I had to work after hours to finish it one night. I'm looking forward to getting my own set of inks and starting a mandala myself. The pictures that weren't finished the instructor was going to finish and then all of the twelve that we started are going to be printed into a calender for all of us as a keepsake. We had full days from 8:00 a.m to about 5:30 p.m. The breakfast and lunch were provided and appetizers and wine for the evening. The caterer was great. She made a feta, butter, thyme and lemon spread that I fell in love with and lemon usually isn't my thing. We had a roasted red pepper dip also that I could have eaten on anything. The most unusual was a lentil and beet salad that was really good and light. I enjoy pickled beets in salad but haven't ever had lentils except in soup.

Anyway every night I sat out on the deck and read "Pride and Prejudice" and loved the cool nights next to the river with some wine then went inside next to the fire and worked on a collage I wanted to do to take home. I'm still working on it a little slow going but it should be done and I'll post a picture. The picture down below is the river not twenty feet from the cabin.

What a beautiful view!

Here's another cuff bracelet I've made from re-purposed materials. This fabric is so bright and beautiful. The piece has embroidery, glass beading, vintage laces. I made the rose from a hot pink shirt I found at the thrift store. I love the texture of the rose. This is to be worn loosely on the wrist. There is batting between the two layers of fabric to give it more structure. I left the lace for the closure a little long for a nice bow or hanging. The width is 2 in thick which is around the size I've been working with and about 7 1/2 inches in length. I did just complete a romantic goth cuff that I'll be posting soon and that one is much wider. I got the inspiration for these cuffs in the Sew Somerset Magazine Dec/Jan/Feb 2010 edition. The article talked about a workshop the author attended from an artist Sally Casper. One of the pictures showed  a vintage, rhinestone jewelry piece that was re-purposed for the cuff and some vintage lace on a pale blue remnant of fabric. The article was by Norma Kooi, she had several pictures of cuffs in different designs. I've enjoyed working on these they can be completed in an hour or so and really help the creative process for other works of art. I have found if I don't try and create something regularly I have a difficult time trying to accomplish anything. I do have this item for sell in my etsy shop listed above. Have a great day! 

More Wrist Cuff Bracelets

I am loving these wrist cuff bracelets. Last year when I was doing my garage sale thing I found a ton of fabrics in clothing and unused upholstery fabric swatches. Now I have found a way to use some of these and create some beautiful works of wearable art. I am using some jewelry findings that are new on some of these if I can't find something I like to add otherwise. I have starting seeing these in the celebrity circles even on the men, but they are really basic and plain. I love the more vintage, romantic feel of jewelry. I'll be continuing to make more and list them on my etsy site. http://www.repurposingbeauty.etsy.com/  I have been thinking about some kits also but haven't taken that too far yet. Enjoy!

Romantic Wrist Cuff Bracelets

I love to work with re-purposing items. The hot term is upcycling. I have recently found a love of fabric collage and making wrist cuff bracelets. I search thrift stores etc. for fabrics to reuse. I like the idea of wearable art being able to wear a piece and have people express how much they love it.  Telling someone that you made what they admire and that they can have one of there own is so much fun. The experience is very validating. As an artist sometimes you wonder to yourself if what you make will be liked by others. I spent countless years never even showing my work for fear people wouldn't like it. I have a new outlook now. I try to spend a lot more time on my art and being creative in life. I've made several of these cuffs and am looking forward to making more. Hope you enjoy them.

A New Day

I feel the need to share and I hope there will be people out there interested. I've never blogged before so pardon my grammar. My mind tends to go faster than my fingers. I became interested in blogging because I LOVE to learn new things and I research on the web constantly. So hopefully I can help some people learn some new things and be inspired. Now a little background: I used to be a Dental Hygienist but decide to stay home with my son when I got pregnant last year. I find the experience wonderful although sometimes BORING. I am a creative person but at many times find myself unmotivated. I call myself an artist and have been since I was a child. Okay sometimes I lean closer to a crafter but in my mind they're almost the same. What was once a crafter is now an artist through mixed media etc. Artist use to be thought of as just painters or sculptors but that idea has expanded greatly. There are so many talented people out there and so many ways to create art that many people don't know about so hopefully I will enlighten some and they can enlighten me. I will also blog about food because that can be so creative and I'm sad to say a lot of people I know can't cook. I was raised with multicultural foods that a lot of people experience now with restaurant food but don't know how to cookat home. I didn't get alot of bland food at home thank goodness and my family didn't cook a lot of traditional italian but the basics I have down. I cook many things now that I never grew up eating but, I find myself getting trapped in several basic dishes so hopefully with the blogging I will be inspired to new meals.

Next, I may at times go on and on about weight loss and exercise. I find that if I keep my focus on those two things they might just happen. I will of course try not to bore you. If you haven't noticed I will be writing as though I am speaking right to you I hope it doesn't annoy!

By and by the dog in the photo is my Fraiser one of three Shih Tzu's that we are priviledged to have. If anyone wants a fantastic dog get a Shih Tzu but please pronounce it correctly (sheed zoo). Everyone thinks it's shit-zu. My three are great with my son even if he's a little rough.

My next post will be later tonight because I want to post about my newest craze fabric wrist cuff bracelets. I know a lot of people don't know what they are but they are getting hot!!!