Stained glass belt

I started off thinking I was making a necklace out of tubular peyote.  Lot of bright colors, and some matte black for a stained glass look.  However, when I finished, I realized that it was not flexible enough for the neck.  So.....  add a little braided suede, and voila, it's a belt!  It's 5 feet long, and so can be worn by folks with a variety of waist sizes.  The beaded portion is 17 inches.  You can, of course, find the belt in my Etsy shop. :D  I'm pretty pleased with it, and will probably have to make more at some point.

ps - see post below to win one of three polymer clay buttons!!

Blog Giveaway!!

You may (or may not) have noticed my recent launch of a polymer clay button section in my Etsy shop, to which I am still adding new pieces.  To help launch this new section, I'm hosting a giveaway on this blog!  I'm giving away THREE buttons.  Each of three lucky recipients will win one of the following three buttons:

A) A burgundy-based triangle with ropes and dots of green, yellow, pink, and white.  This triangle is ~ 1.25 inches (3 cm) on each side.

B) An orange square with translucent ropes, and dots of white and purple.  Each side is 1 inch long (2.5 cm)

3) A mustard-yellow/light brown rectangle, surrounded by a shimmering white rope and dotted with white, teal, and a deep purple.  This button measures 1 x 1.25 in (2.5 x 3 cm)

Any of these buttons can be used as a closure on a piece of jewelry, an embellishment on any number of crafts (just don't send it through the washer!), or some other use you may find for it.  

To enter the giveaway, leave me a comment with a name and link to an artist (other than yourself) you think I should feature on my blog, and why you like that artist.  I'll use some of the suggestions in the future!  All comments must be in by next Wednesday (March 4th), and I will announce the winners on Thursday the 5th.  Button A will go to the first winner selected, B to the second, and C to the third.

If your comment doesn't automatically link to a blogger profile, be sure to also leave me a way to contact you - a link to your blog, shop, profile, or an email address will suffice!

Now go find a favorite artist!

Monday again!

I promised you a look at who's behind the art every Monday - and this time I'm a little more prepared than last time!

Fact of the week: I had the most awesomely fun wedding ever. It's true! We had sack races, enchilada casserole, fry bread, chai, and even a ring-heist. I figured that something has to go wrong at every wedding, so why not create our own disaster? We had the ring-bearer bring up two boxes. The one that was supposed to contain my ring had a ring pop, and the one for my husband's ring was empty. One of my friends in the audience had the real rings, and when the ring pop and empty box were revealed, she took off running into the bushes. Three other friends chased her down and recovered the rings. These were the only people (other than us and the ring-bearer's parents) who knew what was up. I was surprised at the number of people who came up to me afterwards thinking I had known nothing about this switch ahead of time. :)

If all that wasn't enough to make it fun, the scenery was gorgeous up at the base of the Magdalena mountains in New Mexico!

(If you're surprised by the lack of jewelry, this was before I started making it - I did, however, make my dress!) ;)

Sneak Peak

The March Etsy Beadweaver's challenge is themed "Temptation."  On 1000 Markets, I've joined the Jewelry Artisans Market which is also doing a monthly challenge (only, there's no voting or winning, but pieces submitted are displayed on the JAM blog).  The February theme is "Sunrise."  I'm making one piece to fit both themes, and here's your sneak peak!  It's gonna be big.  I think the sunrise part is obvious.  When it's done, I'll explain to you why it fits the "Temptation" theme (for reasons other than that I hope it will tempt buyers :D ). 

Voting is Open!

Voting is in full swing for the Etsy Beadweaver's "Tropical Holiday" challenge, and you can vote for your favorite entry here until February 15th!

If you're having a hard time deciding, my Scorpion Fish necklace is number 2 on the mosaic. ;)

(You know, of course, that while I appreciate every vote for my necklace, I want you to vote for your honest-to-goodness favorite!!)

Monday again!

Eeek, has it been a full week since my last blog post?  I should regularly schedule a second blog post each week (maybe Fridays?) to keep myself on track!  

Anyhow, I've promised you regular 'get to know me Mondays' so here I am ready to deliver!  (If I can just think of a good topic...)

How 'bout this one: I'm a procrastinator.  Here I am, Monday evening, with no blog post and no ideas that have been floating around in my head.  I was nearly voted 'worst procrastinator' of the girls in my senior class - I think the only reason I didn't win that prestigious award is because the guys didn't realize it (I did, however win most artistic for the girls!).  I went to boarding school, so ALL of the girls knew about my procrastination skills from dorm life.

I think I have this tendency for two main reasons: 

1) I work fast, and I know it.  I also get distracted way too easily when I don't have a time crunch, so I work much slower when the deadline is not fast approaching.

2) I like to live in the moment.  Some say that if you get your work done now, you'll have time to play later.  I say if I get my work done now, there will be more to do later.  However, if I play now, I'll work faster later and therefore have time for both!  Sometimes this works for me, and sometimes it doesn't.  But I usually can get away with it, soooooo....  (shame upon my head!)

I'll leave you now with my latest creation, a teal/turquoise two-drop peyote cuff with a fun polymer clay button closure:

Get to know me Monday!

You know what they say, the eye is the window to your soul.  In that case, welcome to my SOUL. (said in a deep, guttural voice)

Though neither of my parents would consider themselves artists, they provided plenty of opportunities for my siblings and I.  They were able to purchase boxes of scrap paper dirt cheap from a printing press, so we never ran out!  Among our favorite games were pictionary, and what we called 'chain pictures' where everyone would have a given amount of time to draw a picture, and then we would pass it to the next person who would add to it for a set amount of time - so on and so forth until we went all the way around the circle.  At that point, we would explain the whole picture - if we could get through it without laughing too hard!  (armies of marching ants as well as some advertisement for 'Eat at Joe's' were common occurrences)

I kept up with art in highschool.  My teacher did a great job of teaching us how to draw.  Or, teaching us how to see, and then translating that onto paper.  I branched out into ceramics, painting, a little bit of sculptural work, and more.  In college, I took art classes whenever my schedule would allow, and learned a LOT from those teachers.  

Yesterday, I decided it's been too long since I've done any drawing, so I pulled out a mirror, paper, and pencils for a sketch of my eye.  Which you now see above.  I want to keep up with my drawing.  I think it's a good exercise to draw from reality every now and again, and I want to be a well-rounded artist as much as possible.  Speaking of, I should probably pull out my oils sometime soon...  Maybe I should do a series on eyes in different media.