New recipe and new art

I've recently got in a shipment of brass findings and have started to do some necklaces. I've never really used focals like this before. I love the vintage look and style and want to really show that in my work. Please pray for me though, everything I make I want to keep! I need to either sell some stuff or get another neck. Some of the beads and other findings I'm adding are vintage and some are new. I love being able to re-purpose old jewelry into new. Some pieces are so dated with their look but are really still useful to re-purpose. I like that everything doesn't need to be new and fresh. Pearls can have paint missing and chain can be worn.

Anyway I made this wonderful chicken recipe I got from watching Martha Stewart. She had on several guys that own their own restaurants in NY. One of them had a recipe for Buffalo chicken wing meatballs. I tried it and wow! I love them, no mess when eating them and the same great taste but a little less fat because you don't use the skins and they aren't fried you cook them in the oven. I used chicken breasts 2 lb and I cut it up in 2 in pieces then put it in my food processor and got it to a nice large grind. I did 2 ribs of celery the same way but a fine dice. Then added in a bowl 1 2/3 c bread crumbs(I just used what was on hand progresso Italian), 2 eggs, 2 tsp salt to the chicken and celery. I melted 1 stick butter in saucepan and then added the 1 c Franks original hot sauce mixed and used a 2 inch cookie scoop for the meatball size. I rolled them and placed them touching and came up with 46 meatballs on a cookie sheet then cooked them for 20 min at 450. I made my own blue cheese sauce instead of the regular blue cheese salad dressing. It was 2/3 c blue cheese, 1/2 c sour cream, 1-8oz cream cheese and 1/2c franks sauce in a sauce pan and heated till the cheese melted stirring constantly. It makes it much more intense than just mixing the ingredients and serving it cold. But once the sauce it done the first time and we ate more for a different meal I didn't heat it again. These turned out really spicy and so good. I would try it with the original before you go spicier or you could even put sauce over the top after they're cooked. This recipe was so much faster than doing the wings and about 5 fill you up where most people eat about 10 wings.

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.

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! 

Textile Collage

This is a textile collage I created from re-purposed fabrics like clothes etc. I used a broad cloth for the substructure and built upon that. The fabric on the right is upholstery sample fabric from a garage sale. I was able to purchase several boxes for a couple dollars from a lady that was getting rid of old hobby stuff. I have a huge box of wool yarn I haven't found projects for yet. Most of what I create with is from thrift stores and garage sales. I found a package of wooden beads with only certain letters and was able to use some for this piece. The picture is from a collage pack I bought 8 years ago. I love the velvet leaves,  I found those on a dealer's site on etsy. I have just realized recently a lot of people have no idea what etsy is. This site is like ebay but for artist and crafters. People also sell vintage items and supplies for creating art etc. This is a wonderful site for inspiration. Sometimes I go to the buy section and click the button for "pounce". Pounce is for seeing something that is newly sold which is helpful to see what is selling. I "favorite" several shops and try to see what they're selling new.  My shop is http://www.repurposedbeauty.etsy.com/ and from my site you can see what shops I like and items I'm selling. I always keep an eye out for vintage lace.  I love these collages so much. I just started working on them after seeing examples in Somerset. I'll be showing another one soon, I'm thinking about changing it a bit before showing it. Most of the piece here is embroidered with some gluing here and there. A section of an old torn table cloth has been tea dyed and applied on the right side. Hand painted vintage buttons are in a handmade nest on the left. This collage kind of goes into the mixed media, assemblage area of creating which I find fascinating.  I am amazed at assemblage artist sometimes and how they re-purpose items. I laugh because my husband doesn't quite get the assemblage aspect of art but he is very supportive. Hope those that see this are inspired. Let me know what you think.

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.