Birdies, Berries and Classes!

Before we had all of our rain last week, I noticed a piece of thin plastic waving about in the climbing rose bush. I figured the wind had deposited it there but when I went to pull it down, I found that it had been put there by Mr or Mrs Cardinal!! IT was firmly woven into the structure of the nest that was hidden in the thorny canes of the bush. So smart!!! I did cut out the bit that was flapping in the wind and free from the nest. If it had not been for the plastic tail, I would have never noticed the nest. Now Mrs is getting pretty used to me stopping by for a chat. If you click on the photo and enlarge it you can really see her sitting in on her nest. that orange beak really glows. I love all of the wildlife that makes our yard their home. another benefit of organic gardening. Last week as I planted the tomatoes, I was joined by a large Box Turtle- I shared a few worms with him just to let him know he was welcome any time:).

this is my first year to harvest the Rhubarb and I am thrilled with how my first batch of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam came out.

Yesterday I made a batch of bread and it seems that I have to make another batch tomorrow. Today Matthew ate 3/4 of a loaf of bread as toast, slathered with fresh jam. Strawberry Rhubarb jam is his favorite! I hope that I have enough for another batch!!!! He has been all grins for most of the day!!! YUM!!

Last Saturday I taught my second session of my Collage Jewelry Class. After my first go at teaching this class, I shook things up a bit and the class went much more smoothly! I am starting to have return students and new students who have come to class because they have heard about the classes form their friends! Validation is always so very rewarding!!! Julia did a fabulous job on the necklace that you see above and created a second one as well. Several folks were having trouble with breaking wire till we discovered that they were using pliers with teeth in them, i.e not jewelry grade pliers. Once we changed out the pliers, things went so much more smoothly!!!!

This is Julia's second piece.

this piece was made by a wonderful gal who had a huge collection of her Mom's costume jewelry. We repaired a few pieces and then put a group of them together in this lovely necklace. She was thrilled and so was I !! I love it when students leave classes happy and satisfied!!

Names are flying from my brain at the moment, I hate that, but I love this simple piece with the glorious red sari ribbon! The student wrapped the found stone without any help from me and added a few accent beads. This young gal is a natural!!! I can see a lot more jewelry in her creative future!!

I realized that I never posted the pieces made during my most recent Beaded Cuff class, so here they are.

Meg had some time constraints so she was not able to finish her bead work but she followed our finishing process and will complete her cuff on her own. What she has done was so very pretty and full of personal symbols. I love it when students make their pieces their own!!!

Kathi chose her palette of colors from the sea and did a fabulous job with her hand work!!

Gloria made this stunning Black and Gold creation and was almost done with a second piece!!

Jan used shells and turquoise to conjure thoughts of the ocean for her design. by the time class was over we had most of the beaded cuffs complete and all were excited to be starting on new pieces. They all purchased lots of supplies to keep themselves well stocked!!


I want to leave you with a few shots of my spectacular pink iris from before our week of rain and storms! the delicate blossoms really do not hold up well to rain and they are pretty much done for another year. While they were untouched they were simply stunning and soooo very fragrant!! The roses were not overly happy with the drenching either but at least Belinda's Dream will bloom hard for me all summer. Especially after I give her a banana skin coffee grounds egg shell cocktail to give herr a shot of energy!!!

The Siberian iris are such a stunning sapphire blue, almost purple color and the yellow iris hung in there long enough to give some wonderful contrasting color play in the garden bed. The rose in the background is just coming into her own and is super fragrant.

I hope that where ever you are the flowers are blooming or the leaves are turning to give you the wonderful colors of nature's gifts!!

Bits and Pieces

I have lots of little up dates to share with you today!! I saw some of my Beading students at our Art group meeting yesterday. They brought along their Beaded Cuff projects for the Show and Tell portion of our meeting(I had hoped that they would!!) Here is Judy's first piece (which she was worried aobut having time to finish for a specific event!!!!!)

I just love it- It will be soooo stunning when it is wrapped around the cuff and the excess ultra suede is trimmed.

Here is her secong piece!! YES she created two!!!!

Kat also brough her cuff which is going to be glorious when finished. I love all of the pearl and shell elements that she is working with.!!

as I told you in my last Post, i ws prepping for an Artist's Yard Sale. IT was such fun!! Many of the buyers were there to buy artists seconds and some were htere looking for supplies and then some where just die hard yard salers. I did quite well and donated all that was left to a friend who will take it to the local Animal Rescue SHelter for their annual Yard Sale. Bottom line- it did not come back home with me!!!!!!!

I did manage to pick up some gems form some of my favorite Liberty Town Artists- now you don't think that I could possibly resist ,do you???????

The manager of Liberty Town, the wondrous Ailine, had glorious plants for sale at bargain prices. She is an avid gardener and loves to grow veggies from seed. Her is a picture of her wonderful offerings! She sold the vast majority of her beautiful starts!!

Off to the far right in this picture you can see half of potter Neal Reed. I adore Neal's work and I ahve been covetting it for quite awhile. Neal does sgraffito-a process of scratching designs through layers of colored glazes to achieve his wonderful designs. Here is a shot of his gallery space at Liberty Town. DROOL!!!!!

Following are two pieces that I bought from Neal at The Yard Sale.

I just love his fish platters- this one is medium sized and when not in use it will hang in my Ocean themed art area!!!

This next piece literally lept into my hands.!! It spoke to me of my two crazy dogs, Buddy and Pepper. It even looks like them!!!!

I had never seen this pattern in Neal's work and it will be such fun to use for a sandwich or salad!! Clean your plate and look at what you will get to find!!!! LOL!!!!

Last but not least, you may remember form a post awhile back, that I made two fiber leaves for the International Fiber Collaborative Tree Project. The title of the Tree Project is Interdependence. The tree has been constructed and all of the leaves added and is now on display at a park in Huntsville Alabama. Here is the link to read more about this project. I am so thrilled to see the finished product!! What a glorious construction!!! My two little leaves are in wonderful company with all of these colorful contributions from other artists!!

Simply Fabulous!!

I hope that you all have a simply maaaarvelous day!!

Learning to Teach or Teaching to Learn??

((I attempted to load this picture three times, but Blogger insisted on loading it vertically- ARGH!!!! ))

When ever I teach a class, I always come away with so many insights ideas and wonderful tips! I always feel that I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me! My first efforts with teaching Beaded Zipper Cuffs was no exception. The class was held at The Artistic Arifacts Annex in Alexandria, Virgina and I had 5 "Students". I put the word in quotes as several had aquite a bit of beading experience already. Judy, the proprietress of Artistic Artifacts joined in and she has alot fo experience with fabrics and beading. My Friend Karen Scudder was there and she has taken several beading classes. My new friend Kat, an amazing fiber artist, beader, and Public School Art Teacher also came. ( Watch for an upcoming post about Kat and her incredible art works and talents!) I made some new friends in Jackie and Barbara!

We had a wonderful time even though there were times when I had a hard time keeping to my lesson plan as we were laughing and sharing so much- the two and a half hour time slot just flew by!!

Everyone left having accomplished the set out goals, with a good idea of what was to be accomplished as homework before our next class meeting. Karen Scudder shared a neat little threading tip with all of us. She had picked this up at a previous class. We were discussing threading of needles and how best to accomplish this with a higher level of success. She said that we needed to approach it differently. Instead of threading the needle, we needed to NEEDLE THE THREAD! So insteaad of trying to move the thread thru the eye of the needle switch the needle to your dominant hand and move the needle eye ONTO the thread. Amazing how this works , but IT REALLY DOES!! Try it!!

Towards the back you can see Karen stitching away and in the foreground is Barbara working on the placement of her zippers. for this class we did all of our stitching on Ultra Suede.

Here you see a picture of Kat working very intently on her piece, with Barb beside her. Judy was off making some sales as the shop was open for business while the class was underway. (These shots give you a great idea of the marvelous classroom space available, so be sure to check out the website for a schedule of ongoing classes!!!
Here are a few shots of the new bracelet that I started during the class.

This piece will be mostly Turquoise blue and lime green with dashes of orange, purple and white.

This will be a two inch wide cuff when finished and will be available for SALE.

Our last class meeting, in roughly two weeks, will cover the finishing of the bracelet. This includes placement on the metal cuff, lining and final bead edging. I will have more pictures when the piece is finished!!!