Simple can Help .................

Sometime early last week, I came across a neat Tutorial for making Beaded Christmas Ornaments using trash and left over bits of jewelry and beads.  The tutorial is available here and I must thank Jenny at  Jenniebellie Studio for her wonderful blog and terrific artistic spirit.  I watched her video tutorial and then set out to make this technique more my own.  For the interior of each ball, I used wadded up plastic grocery bags for the first and then moved on to wadded up used drier sheets wrapped in a plastic bag for the second.  After wrapping the bags the held it all in place with lots of scotch tape, as Jenny suggests, and then covered that with white tissue held on with white glue. This first ornament I did according to Jenny's instructions.

You can see that I used some vintage buttons and some bits of old jewelry along with seed beads and larger beads from my stash of left over beady bits. For the next ornament, after drying, I added some of my own fabric/paper scraps in various patterns. Jenny showed her "Baubles" as she calls them, done entirely in beads and jewelry, I wanted to speed up the beading process and also to add more of my own style to each ornament.  I am now calling these creations, my Mosaic Beaded Ornaments.

Here is the first ornament done with my fabric/paper and beads.

Ornament #1 and #2.

With the horrific and heart-wrenching news of last Friday, I turned to my art to calm my nerves and force me to concentrate on something other than the huge flood of pain that is washing over us all. This process of creating from "trash" and gluing on beads and bits in a haphazard mosaic fashion was, and is, very soothing and gratifying. The repetitive and quiet process of adding beads and bits was extremely soothing and peaceful for me. With each sparkling crystal I place, I think of a child's laughter and the joy that was brought into the lives of parents and their teachers despite the life being taken far far too early.  that laughter and joy can Never be erased from the hearts of the loved ones who are left behind.  As the ornaments hang sparkling and twinkling on our tree, I look at each twinkle as representing the precious smile of a child.  These ornaments are gifts for other's and those that receive them will know that they were created to help me walk out of the darkness through the power of Art!  I have quite a few of these ornaments planned and it will be an activity that I look forward to after a busy day, for quite awhile.

We must all work hard to overcome the strangle hold that the gun lobby has on our society. We MUST be able to honestly tell our children that we are doing everything in our power to keep them safe and secure.

For the next Mosaic Beaded Ornament, I started thinking about combining fiber with the beads and bits. So after the tissue paper drying bit was done, I glued on bits and snips of vintage lace and trim and then filled in the spaces with crystals and old pearls and flat backed crystals.  ( A great place to find inexpensive, very sparkly flat backed crystals is in the Scrap booking area of your local craft store!! If they have adhesive backs, be sure to add some glue as the sticky back will probably not hold up well over time.)

I also added some strips of muslin that I had written on.  these bits were left over from an old project and I am pleased with the vintage text effect that the scraps add to this ornament.

There are so many directions that this tutorial can be taken, be sure to stop by Jenny's blog and check out all of the fabulous projects and inspiration that she has to offer!!!

Some New Work !

Recently I have been doing many projects using re-purposed wool sweaters .  I made several pairs of finger-less mitts for Christmas  gifts and even sold several pairs around the holidays. With these various projects I had many wool bits left over and being one to ALWAYS think before I throw away, tried my hand at making some cording from the felted wool sweater seam allowances. The resulting cording is what you see below.

Now what to do with this fun and sturdy cording.  It could be used for any number of things.  I could be braided together to create purse handles and straps.  how about combined at necklaces with some fun hand made beads?  ALL of these ideas are on my list, believe me!  As I am really enjoying some bead work right now I decided to try and combine the cording with some Ultra Suede, heavy interfacing and BEADS to create some organic looking bracelets.  Here is my first attempt!!!

I put this piece on Face Book and got an order for a similar one and I put this actual piece in the Gallery at Artful Dimensions just before Valentines Day and it sold after two days.  I think I am on to something!!!

These cuffs are very comfortable to wear as there is no stiff inner metal cuff to increase the weight of the piece. Several people who adore other beaded cuff bracelets that I create, have expressed interest in a softer formed piece as they have joint issues and cannot wear things that are hard, on their wrists.  These interactions with customers greatly influenced my design process with these new softer, gentler beaded pieces.  These beaded works stitch up in no time at all relative to the copper lined cuffs ,also a bonus.

As this Red Corded Cuff sold so quickly, I had to start on another one.  The Purple Corded Cuff was just completed and will be going to Artful Dimensions this weekend.  Now I have folks who want to learn how, so I am working on a third piece that will serve as a class sample so I can advertise classes at Artful Dimensions.

The Purple Corded Cuff  available for purchase at Artful Dimensions Gallery, Fredericksburg, VA.

Inside shots are all well and good but there is nothing like outdoor natural light for taking pictures and getting true color representations!!  I simply had to add the next three shots so you could really see the true colors in this piece.

All of this wonderful beadiness from a bit of felted wool sweater seam trash and a few conversations with bead lovers!!  Don't you just love those Light Bulb Moments??????

2012 Creativity Kick Off Winners!!!

So sorry to be so tardy with the results of the Give Away. I have barely had time to sit at the computer over the past several days!!
I have just plugged the numbers assigned to each comment-or into the Random Numbers Generator and ............................. Drumroll, PLEASE

The winner of the BEADS is Wendy with #7!! Congrats to Wendy of Quilts by the Sea and it is delightful to meet you!!!

The winner of the Fabric is Penny of Back Valley Seasons with #4. And you said that you never win anything- can't make that claim any more!!!

Both of these creative ladies have wonderful blogs that I am just now discovering so be sure to stop by and pay them a visit. And if you would be so kind,leave them a quick comment , I am sure that they enjoy comments as much as I do!!!
So ladies, I need to get your snail mail addresses so I can get these little tokens on their way to you!!!
Thank you all for sharing your words for 2012 and your many comments and all of the support that you give me throughout the year!! Getting comments from my readers really means a lot to me.
Let the awesome creativeness that we all possess begin !!!! May your Muse feed you well all year through!!!

Welcome 2012 Give Away!!

I have been wanting to have a Give Away for a long time. I am so very grateful for all of you who visit my blog and extra thank full to those of you who leave comments and tell me that you have stopped by. It really means a lot to me that you take some of your time to say hello!!!!
Now that Christmas is over I am again rearranging things in my studio, in my never ending search fro efficient storage solutions for my methods of creating. Today the stamp wall is coming down with the narrow little stamp holding shelves being replaced by big functional hand me down wooden shelves from Tom's mother's kitchen reno. I have boxed and categorized the stamps that I wish to keep, in clear plastic bins. now all we have to do is locate the brackets that hold up the shelves. Then we will get to installation of the "new" old shelves and much more storage space!!!

In my efforts to FOCUS and SHARE ( my two words for 2012) this year, I plan to Focus on my textile collage art and share all that I learned about other media thru teaching classes and tutorials on my blog.

As big THANK YOU'S to all of my wonderful readers I am offering two small tokens of my appreciation.

A collection of my Sun Printed Cotton Fabrics.



#2 A Great Big Handful of my hand crafted Fabric/Paper resin coated beads in a range of sizes.



All that you have to do is leave a comment for me here, telling me which gift you would prefer and then share with me your words for 2012. I am always so interested to hear what everyone has chosen for their words to live by for the coming year. If you post to Facebook with a link to this giveaway, be sure to let me know as I will enter your name into the drawing TWICE.
I will draw a name from each pool (so don't forget to leave me your choice- beads or fabric) at 6pm EST on January 1, 2012!!
I hope that everyone had a very Happy Holiday Season and that 2012 brings Peace Sanity and Compassion back into the world and that you are all able to climb to new creative heights!!!
Happy NEW YEAR!!!