Stuff, stuff, stuff....

Lotsa stuff has been going on here lately... some of it jewelry-ish in nature, some of it teachery in nature... But, the really fun stuff has been pure crafty. 

Here's a piece I'm especially fond of. It has no name, per se, so I'm just calling it "really cool thing hanging on my door"...   Here it is:

Cool, huh?  See, it's these really massively huge-ish leaves that I stole from my mom (love you, mom! Okay, really, I saw them hanging in her closet, and she gave them to me...)  Here's a close-up of one:

There were six, but I ended up only needing five (so now I have an extra, and I'm not sure what to do with it.  I'll figure something out...) So I arranged them in a big circle and wove the stems behind the pretty bits, and then hot glued it all down to keep it together.  Then, I wasn't sure what to do with the center.  But, my friend Amy was on hand, and started playing with the big bunch of fall flowers I had sitting on the table. So, after she got done, it looked like this:

Pretty, huh?!?  Amy's pretty darned crafty when she wants to be (which isn't nearly often enough, in my opinion...)

Artfire Collections and the People who curate them ROCK!!!

I was included in another collection on Artfire!

Blissed

Curated By: Remarcs

ArtFire.com

Handmade Soap

Check out the awesome company I'm keeping! YAY!!!!

Jewelry weekend

I had a good weekend!  And now I should be reading essays, but I'm not feeling it, so I'll do them later.  Instead, I want to blog about the fun stuff I made!  :D

So, I started last week playing with the resin beads I won as part of the Art with Heart Viewer's Choice contest (thanks again, everyone who voted!)  I absolutely love these beads, and it's especially cool, because I doubt I would ever have bought them for myself.  Here they are:

Resin Beads from Happy Mango Beads

So, I've been pondering these beads for awhile now, and the very cool Softflex: Trios™ Color Wire Set I received as well, in the Harmony colors (I'm so going to have to get some more of this stuff.  It's great!!)

Finally, I decided it would be fun to make myself a set.  So I did.  Here's all 3 pieces:

Resin Jewelry set

  I absolutely love the earrings and bracelet:

They look like little purses! (I have since been told, by my students, that they're reminiscent of Jolly Ranchers Watermelon)

So feminine and light!!! I tell you, it weighs nothing! (and the bracelet, according to my dad, looks like candy...)

But the necklace, I just don't know about.  I mean, I like it.  I just don't know if I like it for me. You know?  Here's a close-up:

It is a lot of fun, this necklace, but I just don't know.  This one may make it into the shop...

So that was the week.  This weekend, I worked on bracelets that some ladies I work with ordered.  I'm not done with the one order (4 African Helix bracelets for Christmas gifts) but I got a pretty good start on it.  Here's some of what I did:

I love the topaz shades against the mossy green here.  Such a fun color combo!

Black with silver. The customer I made this for wants it to match a necklace she already has.  I'll find out this week if she likes it!

Something I'm playing with--a Spiral rope with gradations of color to emulate a blooming tree. I kinda like it!

 Here's a close-up of that last one:

I love Spiral Rope.  For all that it's a relatively simple stitch, it's so variable!  There's literally, from what I can tell, no limit to what you can do with it!  I plan to play with some more spirals this week, while also working on some more helix bracelets.


Hope you like the new work!

Hee hee... I has pretty blog...

So yes, I have a pretty blog now.  In my online wonderings the other day, I found a link to Shabby Blogs, a very nifty site that has all sorts of free headers and backgrounds and fun stuff! So now, I have a pretty blog!  This is the Shabby Blooms pattern, isn't it cute? 

I still can't get the dividers to work, but I have the tags and everything!

Megan, the brilliant crafty brain behind the site, has also provided a number of tutorials to create various other things, including badges!  I'm going to work on that next.  

Hope you like it!

R. Wilson

oh, and feel free to follow me, too... the link's over there on the right... :D

No-Craft Crafty Wednesday...

So, I had a rather good crafty day, although I haven't made a thing (I was in class all day...) But, I had a friend at work who desperately needed a gift, so there went my favorite earrings (it's okay, I can make more!) And then I got home to see an email that I had been included in a Collection on Artfire.  Check it out below! Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!! :D

Artists who Followed their Bliss

Curated By: Marokel

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Taking Photos...

Picture taking is not my strong suit...  I don't totally suck at it, but nor am I anything even remotely resembling a photographer.  I'd like to be, but.. yeah, not so much....

So, any-who, I've spent the past 2 weeks (only because of that silly job thing) re-taking and editing, to the best of my ability, all the photos of all the items in my Artfire Shop. It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.  Especially when the computer wouldn't always recognize the new photos in iPhoto.  But I finally got it all done, and the shop is all newly updated with better pics... And, I have a Pro account, now, so it's all pretty and organized!  You should go check it out!  :D

R.Wilson