My first keum-boo jewelry piece ... a Twilight tribute

I came late to the Twilight fan party, but I'm definitely here and can't wait for the next film in the series, Eclipse.  (Team Edward here!)

So ... once I was booked into a keum-boo class and knew I had to create a jewelry piece as pre-work for the class, the Twilight series was the first thing that came to mind.

My tribute to Twilight is a round box bead strung on a sterling silver ball chain.  The texture, although so subtle as to hardly be recognizable, is a forest of evergreen trees over which a full moon shines.  The moon is a bezel-set rainbow topaz cabochon, and the 24-karat gold foil keum boo burnished onto the surface is a cloud drifting across the sky.  All around the rim of the bead are the words Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.

I was able to achieve some amazing oxidation colors on this piece ... it looks like the bead is about to burst into flame with the bright coppers, purples and blues, especially on the back.  I polished up the text to highlight it.  Next will come a coat of Renaissance Wax  to protect the patina, which would be heartbreaking to lose.

... And the award for Most Beautiful Holiday Cocktail goes to ...

The Winter White Cosmopolitan served by Bonefish Grill in Bonita Springs, Florida.  What a feast for the eyes ... as well as the palate!

Ingredients:  Stoli Cranberry Vodka, Cointreau, fresh lime juice and white cranberry juice -- garnished with floating cranberries.  (Almost) too lovely to drink, although I did force myself.  :)

Thin excuse for a blog post, I freely admit.  Just looking for one more excuse to say Merry Christmas!  And may all your winter cocktails be white.

Classes and glasses!

Although I've got some new metal clay pieces in the works, I seem to be having a problem these days finding time to finish them ... so I've turned back to glass cabs again.  I found a stash of unlisted pairs and put them online this evening.  Hope you like them!

Took two wonderful classes recently ... textures with Barbara Becker Simon, and keum-boo with Mary Ann Devos.  I am about a finish a keum-boo box bead with a Twilight theme; I just need to oxidize it.  I learned how to make tear-away textures, photopolymer plates, and hand-carve with the proper tools on the proper materials.  Fun -- and I can't wait to get going on all these new options right after the holidays!

Speaking of holidays, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all the happiest, healthiest and most peaceful of holiday seasons ever.  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog ... I appreciate it!

Steampunk + Resin = Something new and different!

Wow, I see it's been quite a while since I posted a blog update.  High time!

Speaking of time, I really wanted to try another steampunk jewelry piece.  I also wanted to experiment with UV resin.  So I combined both into my latest piece which I had so much fun making, I'm thinking of turning it into the first of a series!

I've called this Slow Growth.  It represents the passage of time while a botanical goes through its life cycle.  The frame of this piece probably speaks for itself, as do the assorted watch innards gracing the center of the pendant.  What may be harder to identify in my photo is the gold-colored skeleton of a leaf under the watch parts.

I'm really loving embedding items in resin.  It speaks to my background as a miniaturist.  Things embedded in liquids have always held a strange fascination for me.  In my dollhouse days, it might have been faux ice cubes embedded in a tiny glass of faux iced tea.  So many parallels between two such contrasting crafts ...

It's all about the view ...

I took this photo early this morning -- just after sunrise -- from our lanai looking west/southwest.  The quality of the light shining on the mangrove swamp was just stunning with a cloudless blue sky.  The backwaters are Upper Clam Pass, with the Gulf of Mexico in the background.  The sun was not yet high enough to reflect the glorious turquoise waters so often seen down here.  As I look out the window now, the Gulf is a thousand different shades of aqua.

All the vegetation you see in this photo is mangrove swamp and part of the protected wetlands of Pelican Bay, the community we live in.  There's a wide boardwalk that snakes through the mangroves to the beach.  As I walked to the beach this morning, I recalled with some amusement that while walking through this area with a friend, she was annoyed that I pointed out the hundreds of very large, colorful spiders that cling to their webs overhead and on both sides of the boardwalk between the mangrove branches.  These grow to be as much as three inches long and have yellow bodies and black-and-white legs.  "Gee," she said, warily looking up; "Did you have to mention that?  I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said anything.  Now I'll never be able to walk through here again!"

Sometimes, truthfully, I'm also reluctant to look up and around while walking through.  Spiders kind of freak me out, too.  But then I might miss seeing the egrets, blue herons, storks, crabs, ibis and assorted other creatures that make this area their home.  And that would be a shame. 

Southern Floridians, come and say hi!

I've juried into my first outstanding show in Southwest Florida ... The Estero Fine Art Show, to be held February 27 and 28, 2010, outdoors at Miromar Outlets, just off I-75 at the Corkscrew Road exit in Estero, Florida (just north of Naples/Bonita Beach and just south of Ft. Myers).  Fabulous fine art, beautiful handmade high-end crafts, live music and fabulous food.  Not to mention outstanding outlet shopping right next door.  Come on down and say hi!

Back to the beach!

Our bags are packed, my loaded car is on its way south, and by this time tomorrow we'll be at the airport ready to board our flight to Southwest Florida International Airport in Ft. Myers.  The temperatures on the Cape are about to plummet with talk of a few snow flurries later this week, so I'm thinking our timing is pretty good this year.

Looking forward now to feeling the warm sand between my toes and hearing those Gulf Shore waves rolling onto the beach.

Next post will be from sunny Florida!

A pair of ibis forage for breakfast on Vanderbilt Beach

An off-season love letter to Cape Cod

My beloved Cape Cod:

I adore you always, but never so much as during the off-season.  After the crowds have gone home; after the leaves have finally begun to turn yellow and orange and red; after the traffic is gone and the cranberries have been harvested and the sounds of motor boats on the lake have quieted and all that remains is the sound of a lone seagull circling high above the waves ... and you're mine again.

Here is a loving pictorial tribute to our neighborhood and one of my favorite places on earth, taken during a sunny, brisk early Cape morning.  As we pack our bags and prepare to leave you for the winter months, please know you have my heart and I'll yearn to return to you in the spring.

The Captain Freeman House on Route 6A in Brewster

The Brewster Ladies Library, where I've spent many pleasant hours.

The Stony Brook Grist Mill atop the Brewster Herring Run.  There is actually a sign here asking visitors not to touch, pick up or play with the herring.  :)

The legendary Brewster Store, reproduced in hundreds of paintings and prints.  A favorite spot for the local townsmen to grab a cup of coffee and chat early in the morning.  In fact, if you squint, you can see a few of them sitting on a bench next to the entrance!

Chillingsworth, quite possibly the finest restaurant on the Cape

All has gone quiet on our lake.  This photo was taken from the western shore facing east; we live high atop the lake on the northeastern side.

A well-known landmark in our lakes region, the Pleasant Lake General Store.  During the summer months the parking lot is swamped with cars and bikes.  Just about everyone stops here for ice cream, water or a sandwich as they tour the Cape Cod Rail Trail, a 15-mile-long bike path that runs from Dennis to Wellfleet.

Fall foliage arrives at last in our own front yard.

Creative ways to display a small collection ...

I've enthusiastically begun collecting miniature whimsical hand-painted cat plates thanks to my friend Barb Plevan (http://BarbPlevan.etsy.com) -- Barb and I go way back together from my days as a miniaturist, and I just love her bold, bright, confident folk art painting.

Not satisfied with hiding these wonderful plates in my dollhouse where they're difficult for family and friends to see and admire, I decided to mount them on a wall instead.  Here's what I did:  I bought a color-coordinated 5 x 7 easel-style frame and replaced the glass with a sheet of textured paper.  I then removed the easel mount and replaced it with a wall hanger.  I carefully glued each plate onto the paper backing which, in turn, is glued securely to the frame back.

I love the fact that this display idea allows viewers to enjoy these tiny works of art not only from a visual, but also a tactile, viewpoint.  Who wouldn't want to reach out and caress these adorable kitties and feel the tiny raised bumps of the stitches on their sweaters?

Loading the car ...

We're in the process of loading the car with my show gear to set up tonight.  Finally, an indoor show, so no worries about the weather!   I'm excited about some of the pieces I've created since my last show.  Sneak preview:

Tribal Coral Box Bead Necklace

Seahorse II

Creation

Dive

The Artisans' Guild of Cape Cod Show runs two days -- Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Indoors at the Nauset Middle School, Route 28, Orleans, Mass. on beautiful Cape Cod.  Just a short walk to the Left Bank Gallery at 8 Cove Street, where you can see more of my work!