Thursday, July 31, 2008

Where did July go?

I certainly haven't blogged very much this month, and here the month is gone! We have been busy with our self portraits for the Graham Gallery juried show in August and packing for our vacation. Mina did her self portrait with acrylic paints and canvas, I made mine with scrapbooking papers, beads, yarn, and brads, and Chris made his from wire, wood, and lampwork beads. His is so AWESOME! He made a head, neck, hands, heart, and shoes from glass, and the torso from a small block of wood which we painted to look like a tie dyed tshirt. There is an indention where his heart sets and the heart is nearly anatomically correct. He made the arms and legs from wire covered with coils of wire, and a pair of shorts from colored coiled wire. Amazing! Mine self portrait is more a look at what events have led up to me being who I am instead of what I look like. I really love how it turned out, I had participated in an evening "girls night out" at a great shop in Hastings called Great Dames where I learned to do this. It was about loving yourself and your body, and it was a really fun evening. I knew when I had the idea for my self portrait what to do! I had to cut up the girl I had on the first one as a pattern for the second one, since it is impossible to find blank paper doll people to decorate! So I managed, and it turned out great. I beaded around the words and even made a girl scout patch to look like the ones the girls earn for my GS leader spot on the self portrait. We will get pics up and soon since we leave Saturday for our vacation to head to the wedding in Missouri!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

This is why I've been away...

"You don't write, you don't call..." I know, I know, it has been awhile since the last post. Thanks for your patience. I have been beading a wedding veil for my soon to be sister in law, and it has taken me this long to finish! I made pretty good progress until I ran out of 2mm pink Swarovskis and since that is a pretty specialized thing, I had to order and wait for them to arrive to finish the one edge of the veil. Here are the pictures! Well one anyway, the upload doesn't want to cooperate tonight. The veil also has an edge that is encrusted with size 15 seed beads, hex beads, and a bit of delicas, and the bottom layer of the veil on the edge is embellished with the tiny 2mm Swarovski rounds in light pink, peridot, and crystal ab in clusters spaced along the satin edge every inch and a half or so. It is gorgeous, just very difficult to photograph! Now to box it up and mail it to the bride to be tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Mina's "Pimped" Aardvark

A month or two ago, I read an entry on Tara "beadygirl's" blog about an art project called "Pimp My Aardvark". It works in a similar fashion to the summer art series involving bicycles, buffalo, cranes, etc. Everyone starts with the basic item and then you "Pimp" it by doing whatever you are inspired to do with the item in an "artistic" way. This is Mina's Pimped Aardvark. We received two (squeaky) aardvarks to pimp through the starving artist program from Aardvark Art. Mina decided after going through some toys she hadn't played with in awhile, and finding a Bratz doll she forgot she owned that she was the perfect size for an aardvark ride similar to the elephant rides in India, or at the circus or fair. So her pimped aardvark involves a Tommy doll assisting the Bratz doll on to her majestic aardvark which has a seat and steps made from Mega building blocks (generic Legos). (The umbrella is to keep the sun from causing skin cancer to the Bratz doll (how bad can it get her feet have to be remove to change her shoes!)) The Kelly doll is observing from the bushes, and all are apparently listening to tunes on the radio. There were several photos of this (including one that had a naked Tommy doll hanging by his arms from the back fence) aardvark, but since I am the blog master of our house, I chose this one. Keep it clean for the kids! An interesting side note, the back drop and hedge come from my Barbie swimming cabana set from when I was a kid. That was like the greatest Christmas I ever had (except for the one when I found out just before that we were expecting Mina), I got the cabana set and a Barbie case filled with matching Barbie and Ken outfits that my Mom had sewn for me! THAT is love, boys and girls, I have made doll clothes (baby doll clothes not Barbie clothes) for my niece Caitlyn, and I really love her because I have NOT made them for either Mina or my other niece Creighton! COMPLETE INSANITY!

Friday, July 4, 2008

New Pictures

Goddess beads (aka naked women) are all over beading sites these days. This is Chris's version of the Goddess. He made about 6 of them for Cottonwood, and though they were greatly admired, (especially by teenage boys and Dads) we haven't sold any. Chris put this necklace together to take into Graham Gallery.
While I was sitting at the Cottonwood Festival, I had time to bead and embroider this felted bead key chain. I really love all the fun things that these beads inspire!

This simple bracelet uses the fringe style seed beads and has a pretty sterling silver charm on it with a mama and baby dolphin.

This gorgeous bracelet puts together Chris's lampwork tab beads, turquoise, and picture jasper with sterling silver accents and toggle.

Here is another bracelet using Chris's lampwork tab beads, but we put silver lined clear seed bead cubes, large Montana Czech glass, and sterling silver rings for movement with the tabs. I LOVE this color combination!

This is the stone fringe bracelet I mentioned in my last post, and the picture doesn't do it justice. The gold and copper in the crystal and seed beads doesn't show up very well against the gray background. We were rushing to get pictures taken of our jewelry so that it could go into Graham Gallery on Thursday.

This gorgeous bracelet was made with apple green magnesite, chocolate brown seed beads, and copper. I love that copper goes so well with so many colors, it is a great value, and a nice change from gold and silver. The large ring in the center front was made by Carla Kocher at beads and botanicals. I really love her hand made accents!

This is a unisex bracelet with turquoise, clear beach glass, jasper, and silver. Love the chunky texture to it, and it all works so well with the beach glass.

This was a special order bead for Matt. We can relate, as it is part of the Call of Cthulu world in the role playing game universe. He plays, and Chris taught me how to play Dungeons and Dragons when we first started dating. One of these days we need to dig through our dusty books, so we can teach Mina how to play! The bead is so cool, and Chris is getting so awesome at doing his character beads.
These next pieces are for another special order for a gal Chris works with who is starting to work on her gift list for Christmas.


This was also part of the special order using a Day of the Dead skull Chris made and sold to the gal at the Cottonwood Festival and her daughter wanted it made into a bracelet like Chris had made with his Shrunken Head Dude. The hair is made from hemp cording that he frayed out.

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