Crystal Charms

I'm hosting a swap with my Charmsters group. The theme is "Crystal Twins," and the idea is to make two matching charms, using some kind of crystal. I used Swarovski crystals and some others. I like the idea of matching crystals with metal. I used brass and copper metals, and some sterling chain.

Latest Collage

Just so you don't think I'm only doing jewelry right now, let me tell you about my latest collage. When I signed up for the Fall Fling art festival, I decided to go all out and submit something for the poster contest. Well, I didn't win, but here's the collage I did for it. I prepared a wooden board using gesso, then painted with acrylics. I added oil pastels and charcoal pencil. The photos are color copies, and I added oil pastels to some of them. The whole picture is sealed with a clear gloss spray.


The theme was "Wild Things." I took photos of wild things around my home in Florida. Wild animals, wild plant life. The dolphin is semi-wild, since he lives at the Miami Seaquarium. We watched the dolphin show, then stayed around to take more pictures. This time of year we have mild weather, with lots of sun, so it's a great time to get some wonderful pictures. Here are some other photos I took that day.



This last photo is of a wild iguana outside. In South Florida, there are areas that have huge populations of these reptiles. I guess people had them as pets, then when they got too big, just released them outside. Since they're not native to this area, they have no natural predators. There's a neighborhood down south that is so overrun by them, that they call it Jurassic Park. So far, our neighborhood doesn't have any. But we do have a "Jesus lizard" living in our front garden. That's the kind that runs away when frightened on its back two legs, standing up. He's so skittish, I haven't been able to snap a picture of him.

My First Art Festival

Well, I did it. I entered my first outdoor art festival, displayed and sold my jewelry, and was a success. The weather was beautiful, and we had a good turnout. I sold quite a few pieces on Saturday. Sunday, however, was another story. Lots of people looked, but not many were buying. At the end of the weekend, I was pleased with the results since Saturday was such a good day. Would I do a show again? Absolutely. But maybe I'll pick a show that's bigger; this had only about 30 artists' booths. At least I can say now that I've done one. I shared a booth with another artist, but next time I'll go solo. I over-prepared for this one, and had so much jewelry to show that it looked a little crowded on my one table. Here are some photos.