Here's a cute little experiment that worked out fairly well. I wanted to explore tiny books, as the big ones are too hard for me at the moment, with all that measuring and stitching. The main problem here is that the paper's not strong enough to make it stand up on its own. Nice curiosity, tho.
The most awesome brooch I've ever made ;) It's got a skull and shit!!! Wears well, too.
When I last went to the Newark Museum, I visited the Tibetan exhibit, and fell in love with the books. Apparently, traditional Tibetan crafters didn't work from the codex model. Instead, the holy books were stacks of loose paper held between two large wood/leather/metal plates and tied. Really elegant. I decided this would make a good use of that Tarot deck I've been noodling around with for years. The pages are really straightforward, but I have to puzzle out the covers now.
Probably the *prettiest* thing I've made in a while. Its coordinating earrings are below...white is such a departure for me, but I think it's a useful "cleansing of the palette".
Finally, there's a revisit of a necklace I made over the summer. I was never 100% happy with it, and this is because it's too small. Too simple. I tried to stay away from excess in my own jewelry for a long time, but I came to realize that too much is too much, but way too much is just getting warmed up.
Here's the pendant i'm making for the thing. The cork is decorated, as you can see - I ran a pin through it which will allow me to use the bottle as a pendant without wrapping it in wire. The photo below doens't quite capture the colors, but I was goign for a sunkentreasure thing. There's a cowrie shell, a lot of iridescent black seed beads glued all over, some tiny trinkets, and a dangle from the underside of the cork. Very ambitious, but I like it. I'm now, as of writing this, torn between putting it on my necklace or making it its own piece.
This is not my first foray into bracelets, but I think it's my first big-link item and I guess it's acceptable. I'm not sure how much I like it - i may or may not keep it in its present state. There's too little on the chain.
The companion earrings turned out much better - I don't have copper backings for them, but that can wait for a while.
The other day there were 2 jewelry stands at school, selling the usual costume/'junk' pieces. I found a couple dollar-bin things to part out, as well as this awesome ring for $4! The original "stone" popped out that day but being the veteran of cheap jewelry that I am, I saw this as an opportunity to make it into something cooler. So on goes the Bead for Life bead, as well as some bone-looking rounds and amber seeds. Nothing valuable, breakable, or irreplaceable.
Good craft move! If it wasn't for the bra strap showing, I'd call this my dust jacket shot ;)
ln a weird way, I feel I owe Ms. McKennitt a percentage of all sales :) Don't ask me how, but her music has transmuted into art for me! These earrings are simple and charming, but I'm not sold on the mixed metals here. I need more antiqued brass findings, so they may have to be shelved for the moment."There are visions, there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires, there is laughter
There's the sound of a thousand doves"-"Night Ride Across the Caucasus", Loreen McKennitt
"Gaze into our depths: we are the Emerald,
Everlasting and leafy, like the soul of the oceans,
Where perfumes roam through the warm night,
And flows the wave of the great angels of the wind."-"Gaze into our depths: we are the Emerald", Charles van Lergerghe
This has been the week of getting things DONE! I've been hanging onto this really simple project for I don't know how long. It went from tray to tray and finally the worktable. I took inspiration from 14th/15th century Venetian jewelry. Using some beads from an old costume strand of pearls, and a medallion from a dollar store belt (!) I now have my own little piece of quattre-/cinquecento elegance!
While doing this, I started to work on a bracelet idea, but it's not done yet. Here's a hint:
Started fooling around with dollar store finds and old pieces I was parting out, and this resulted. One of my best yet, I think. This one's for sale, certainly!
This was later colored in and put in some multimedia piece, but I wasn't too fond of the coloring, so I'll save this as a pattern for a round 2.
Finally, I've been on a kick to update my beloved cardigans, rather than buying new, so I added some ribbon trim and small metal charms to this - hard to see in this photo, but I'm pretty happy with the alterations.
I decided I'd refurbish an old string of "pearls" into something I'd wear more often...
Pretty classy!
This is a companion piece to the pearls - I originally intended to join them into 1 necklace, but I love to mix and match more.
I was sorting through a pile of old beading mags over the weekend, and I cut out a couple ads I thought were too pretty to recycle. One looked like a queen or goddess on a throne with handfuls of beads, so I figured she'd make a great addition to my craft room - my own beading goddess!
I took the semi-tacky frame and painted up the edges in a nice black, then glued paper to the front - the paper's a olive/forest green and gold. Much nicer.
At first I thought I'd use a brad-charm thing and poke it thru the ad where it said "show" - hence the hole in there. That ended up not working...
So I glued the thing in place, and it covered the last of the lettering
Now it's a pretty thing! I pitched the glass, since I knew I'd have to go 3d to hide the text - I think it turned out well.
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This is a deviation. I'm not sure where I'm going with anything in here, but I wanted to try new techniques, mainly mixed media/fiber, so here goes!
I was making iced tea the other day and I noticed the little tags on the teabags had wonderful sentiments on them. I saved two and decided to see if they coudl be made into earrings.
When they were done I laminated them both.
...but not before I poked a hole to get them on some earwires!
Ehhh, I'm still on the fence. Nice decal, but the paper - ehh.
The pendant is turning out much nicer. I trimmed an image from one of the teabag-bags:
And then I laminated the back to make it stronger. It's pretty, but with no way of incorporating it into a necklace...
Oh, wait, now there is :P A frilly fold of lace that I can sew to rings/chain/charms as needed.
Made a sweet little necklace with some bead for life beads and wire link/frame things that have been hanging around for ages:
Sort of. My man-pet's mother never lets me pay for anything...instead she said "make me something". So I thought about it for a while and remembered a design I stalled on months ago (silk road part two). She likes length and simplicity, so I cleaned up the layout:
Earrings to match, of course, and a bracelet in case she's into them:
Part Two!
I ordered loose beads from BeadForLife.org and I was throwing them around, trying to come up with a cool necklace, at least (there's a lot of beads!)
This one is in the same spirit, but I'm not 100% sure where it's going just yet:
I think there will be a coordinating bracelet in copper with silver charms and green glass beads, too.
I've been wanting to do a memorial scrapbook/album/something for my Mom for a while, and I've been noodling with a large photo album for years, not getting much of anything done. Today, I go on etsy, look at some handmade books, and think of all the empty journals I have laying around. And it clicks...reclaim old journals. And make my album :)
I began with a little notebook she bought me at least a decade ago, when we first visited the Met in New York:
And next I tried for a general theme thing going on, and started incorporating the ribbons, which make the whole piece look more crafty:
Then the next pages:
Recent Comments
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Liz, Damnit said:
Ain't it the truth ^_^ mind you, if the stuff doesn't move, there, I'm donating, and that's that! read more
on a solution to the craft room clutter -
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Liz, Damnit said:
nuttin' yet! i'm hoping to use them for the semester ahead, since text margins are only so big read more
on eternally fussing with paper/notebook fetish
Thank you! ^_^ Good to see someone else liking it! I was in a creative rut for the *longest* time... read more
on mm-hmm