Necklace Round Robins

I'm hosting two necklace round robins over at my Charmsters group. For each one, there are eight women participating. (I'm in both groups.) You start by buying or making a chain, and creating a focal piece for it. You also make a book to go with it and a box to put it in. Then for the next eight months, they travel around the country to each woman in the group. She adds a charm or something to it. In September, we'll get our necklaces back and will see how everyone has added to our design.

One of my necklaces, I call Blue Dreams. Since blue is my favorite color, I thought it would be fun to have a necklace with all blue elements. I bought a silver chain, cut it in pieces, and made a clasp. The focal is glass beads hung by chain, and silver wire that has been bent and hammered. The box is an old cigar box that I painted. The book's covers have been altered with acrylic-painted tissue paper. And the whole thing is tied together with beautiful yarns.



I called my other necklace Natural Beauty. I love the look of wire, copper, and stones. I chose a few beads that look like stones and glass. They're strung on sterling wire and wrapped around a piece of copper sheet that I cut and torched for color. The box is a cardboard box that was junk mail. It contained a spot for a CD and business cards. I adapted these for the necklace and name plate. The notebook is covered with a sheet I made by sandwiching tissue paper, polymer medium, and twigs and leaves from my backyard. I then brushed a thin glaze of orange/brown over top. The whole thing was tied together with various yarns, but I didn't get a photo of that.

Valentine Banners

I was challenged to make these cute mini-banners by a swap group I'm in. I'll be sending these out today, and will get different ones in return. My base is a white tissue paper that's been altered with pink, gold and cream paints. Then I attached it to the banner-shaped cardstock with polymer medium. And last, the embellishments. These were fun to do. Both sides are decorated, so my photos are the first side, then the second side. Stay tuned for photos of the ones I receive, ready for Valentine's Day!

Wandering Around

I love it when an errand brings me to another part of town. I get an opportunity to wander an area I haven't been to in awhile. I drive by a new shopping area in Palm Beach Gardens, but have only visited it once. I admire its outdoor sculptures as I'm zipping past at 60 m.p.h. Today I stopped by with my camera.

Right on the road, they've placed a beautiful butterfly sculpture. It's split into vertical pieces, and you can see parts of the butterfly from all angles. It's made of a reflective material so it picks up the sun. Here's a photo straight-on.


And here are a couple close-ups.



As you walk around the shops, you'll come across metal, windmill-type sculptures. They're done in copper and have a nice green patina. I started taking pictures of a few before I realized there's a whole garden of them. I then was so enthralled walking through them that I never got a good shot of the whole gang of them. They're created by the artist Lyman Whitaker, from Utah, and he calls them Wind Machines. They are on display there by Studio E Gallery. My photos don't do them justice, but you can check out the artist's website.

Cocoon Beads

Recently the Charmsters group that I'm in did a "cocoon bead" swap. This was hosted by the wonderful Maureen, who always does a super job running a swap. Our inspiration for this swap was a couple of photos of beads that some of the girls did while at the Art & Soul retreat in Portland. I really had no instructions for making them, but I was impressed by their look: a wire base, wrapped in fabric or ribbon, then wrapped in a thin wire that has been strung with beads. That was enough to go on for me. I tried a few with a silk ribbon. They were nice, but not spectacular. I then pulled out my box of yarn. Jackpot! Thick yarn, wavy yarn, "hairy" yarn -- they all looked wonderful when wrapped with wire and beads. Each wire base was two inches long. I experimented with 12 - 24" of yarn, depending on how thick it was. I also used silver wire, copper wire, and black artistic wire. I found that matching the outer beads to the yarn color wasn't the best idea. They got lost in the yarn. Contrasting, brighter beads worked better. I also tried the "more is more" theory, and some of them really looked fantastic with a ton of beads. I ended up making six different kinds for the swap. Here is a photo with the yarns that I used.

I've seen these beads called fiber-wrapped beads, fabric-wrapped, and what we called them, cocoon beads. Going with the cocoon name, of course I just had to package them as if they were butterflies. I rubber stamped a card, punched holes in it, then attached the cocoons with wire, twisting the ends in the back.


Here are the groups of beads that I made. They were so fun to make -- my kids even tried their hands at it. I think for awhile I was addicted. I've even bought more yarn since I did these so I can do more.






For the swap, we send all our packaged beads to Maureen. In this case, there were 19 of us participating. Maureen then sorts them so we all received two beads from each person. She mails them back and -- surprise -- it's like Christmas when you receive that package in the mail! It's so fun opening it up and looking at everyon'e creations. I immediately put mine on a chain, and made one heckuva necklace. There were so many that I made another, more sedate necklace. But you've just gotta have a wild necklace like the first one -- and be bold enough to wear it out. I did, and got lots of raves from my friends.

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.