Adorable nephew - check out that smile!

Dancing under a tree? Or falling off a waterfall?

...help me decide which way to hang this....

a bird sitting in a tree... oblivious to the chaos around him

watercolor swirls

arguing dragons

more watercolors..... i did not set out to create arguing dragons, but rather I watercolor colors and stuff together, let them dry and then come back to stare at the blobs of color until I see something interesting in the swirls of color.... then use another media to make whatever *I* see more visible to anyone looking at the piece. In all of the pictures from this week, it was india ink. Next week, I think I will be back to oil pastels.

a watercolor lizard

Not my favorite watercolor of the year, but I may as well post a picture of it.

Stripey Earrings

These were actually made in November... that's how long it is taking me to post these days. yeeesh.

Hmmmmm..... it really *does* feel like google is taking over the world.... but I've switched.... so far so good.... I guess....

Much like the previous post, these aerring follow the same process as the pins, just that I have to try to repeat the design a second time --- which can be more challenging than it looks - don't look too closely at the size of each bend ;) also, I'd say it's even harder to come up with two identical beads in my garage studio, so if you are looking at these earrings, you'll see that they beads are not exactly identical... however, when they are displayed on the opposite sides of someone's head, most people won't notice that they are a little different.

three pins

these pins are incredibly entertaining for me to make. You could say that they are somethign close to 'instant gratification' although, thinking back on it, they are certainly *not* instant. Many steps go into these, starting from making the glass beads out in my garage studio (how will I continue torch work when it's cold outside??? :( to bending the wire, hardening the wire, sharpening the tip of the pine and then cleaning up any scratches or dings i've done to the metal... at any rate, I really enjoy making them.

milky white swarovski earrings

These ended up much more cross shaped than intended. still, they sparkle nicely.

The Angry Bee

cement fun from this summer....

two more light switch covers

there are a couple more... but I ran out of energy for photo editing.... they'll (hopefully) be posted up here tomorrow.

two projects from my classes at MATC

WELDING PROJECTS
These were *not* my idea... but they've (both) kind of grown on me.... it's either a napkin holder or something to hold bills/letters/mail.... at any rate, it's *heavy* and still quite *dirty*.... and slightly out of season, I guess...




SHEET METAL PROJECT
Here is what tonight's project was. This tool box was incredibly fun to make :) I like sheet metal!

Some new light switch covers

more stuff that came out of those magazines I got at SOFA

Coasters - the new stuff from the weekend

THREE BIRDS:

A BIRD and A BUTTERFLY:

ONE LADY:

Coasters - coreopsis

These are coreopsis from Birds & Bloom magazine. Birds & Bloom is one of my favorites to use, as you will see later this week when I post more pictures of coasters & light switch covers. Incidentally, I have coresopsis like the ones on the lower left in my yard. I never knew they came in colors other than yellow - I think I may go get some red & pink ones in the spring :)

4 Coasters

All four are paintings by Malva - images found in an Art & Antiques magazine I picked up while in Chicago visitng SOFA 2 weeks ago.

Sterling silver earrings with swarovski crystal

More pins!

Some more pins...

Some more pins...

More pins

Still working on that whole camera/focus thing....

glass beads

Here are a few of the results of all of my hours spent in my garage studio. I have a whole bunch of beads that are slowly being made into focal points on a new line of jewelry I'm working on. I want to do soemthing different than just stringing beads on a sharp stick...

ummm... still working on getting the hang of the new camera... the middle left pin was photographed with amazing focus.. the rest of them... not so hot... I'm going to try again over the weekend and update with clearer pictures if possible.

More next steps include... finding a supplier for jewelry boxes. I've been looking locally over lunch with not much luck... after checking out one more 'lead' this weekend, I may have to order off of the internet... somewhere. I haven't looked on-line just yet.... I get too tired of sitting in front of a comptuer while at work...

Jack-o-lantern!

Inspired by Paul R's drawrings!