Hiding in My Studio

Bamboo Silk Cuff Bracelet with Brown Bamboo Coral

Crochet Stone and Silk Cuff in Sea Green Jade

Gray Silk Crocheted Cuff Wide and Thick with Mother of Pearl Beads

Crochet Silk Cuff in Chartreuse with Peridot Jasper Beads

Nougat Silk Cuff with Firebrick Red Glass and Bone Beads

It's a sad 10 year anniversary today in the USA. I carry my own heavy memories of that fateful day but cannot dwell there now as I'm clawing my way back up to some happier level these 10 years later. Instead, I'm posting some new work that has made it's way into my Etsy shop this weekend. All are imagined for Fall and Winter use, all are made of this wonderful artisan dyed pure heavy silk fiber crocheted to capture beads and bits, and all close with a silver plated slide clasp.

Influenced by nature: shrubs, trees, budding plants and other wild tangles. Distinctive statement cuffs that are also so comfortable to wear, it's easy to forget they are on your wrist. Easy to wash and dry. Easy to order for a custom fit (see details in the studio listings!)

Have a peaceful, gentle day, whatever your memories hold. Remember to embrace the present moment--it becomes the past all too quickly! Namaste'

Phun With Photos

I got my first digital camera in 2003. I was clueless but intrigued by a list of different "modes" one could shoot in, so I sort of went crazy and hardly took any "normal" photos!! Experimentation was so exciting. Two images here of house plants (above) are from that early series.



Sometime later, I began to learn about editing on the computer and have been enchanted ever since. The orchid and the collage of variations on Red Kitty on the Red Cushion are just a few more recent experiments.

True confession, I'm clueless about the Photoshop approach to editing. Learning it someday is on my "to do" list...I have other, cruder but easier ways to manipulate photos and examples of this are used here. While I'm not writing this to endorse any products, if anyone is interested in aspects of software or other technical info, please drop me a note!

Have a great day--it's finally above freezing here and feels positively balmy!!

An Old Tradition

"Share the Love"

Nothing too heavy, but every year, I'm compelled to make a 2-D, handmade, original Valentine greeting card. Since fiddling with paste and paper doesn't fit into my schedule this year, and since that urge to fulfill my tradition is so compelling, I made this "card" today, after raiding some of my garden photos from last summer, and taking liberties with them.

It's all ready to be popped into an e-mail envelope....this isn't cheating, is it? I'm having way too much fun crocheting silk and pearls right now to stop what I'm doing and to switch over to paper and doilies....so this sort of "happened" instead.

Enjoy your Sunday AND the Super Bowl!

Is It Spring Yet?

While fresh snow is very beautiful, now we've gone into melting and nasty mode since the last storm. I guess I'm glad it's warming up enough to melt, and I noted really long icicles growing from a defective gutter that I wasn't able to get repaired before winter moved in. But I have got a yearning for flowers. And I noted that Ratty over at "Everyday Adventurer" magically produced butterflies on flowers on his blog yesterday. I looked up a group of photos I had made back in April and basically, "pinned them all up on a board" to enjoy.

I also picked up a few cut flowers from the store last night, to see if there's a way to work them into the photo shoot I expect to be working on today....

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday and are not getting too stressed about preparing for the holidays!

What a Day - Beginning new photos

I'm getting just a little bit ahead here with posting these photos. But not really because I worked to get a lot of new work finished for the past 2 weekend shows, but then ran out of time to take photographs of the new work. But I'm ahead in that I'm posting some of the photos here before I have the full photo spread finished to actually list these pieces in my shops...I should finish and list tomorrow, I hope.

Meanwhile, it was really a gray and gloomy day here, and I only had a couple of hours to get going on this "photo catch up" this morning before I had to hit the road to take care of some things. I was concerned that my existing light might also be a bit gloomy, so I tried moving a big mirror over to my photo area to intercept the window light and throw it back into my set up. It helped some, I think.

I'm really fascinated by how these clear crystal pieces...and there are several different ones still to finish...translate as if they were shot in black and white. There might be some pretty cool design possibilities here...to be continued! And this simple neck piece was designed to be worn from choker style to longer length, where the crystals begin to drape in a lovely "U" shape. There's a jet black version in the works...same shapes and design, very different effect.

I've also been back into making my signature pearl neck pieces, and this new one incorporates a spectrum of "brandy citrine" rondelles which range from deep brandy brown to pale yellow paired with very pale peach tinted natural pearls. I organized the citrine so that the deepest color is in the front ordered to the palest ones in the back. This piece is assembled on knotted, fine leather that I hand dyed in my effort to get more "browns" into my palette. While I do like the "ready made" brown leather that I use quite a bit...these hand dyed leathers do have a little more natural variation, which is also a nice contrast.

Finally, due to the chilly day, I turned around to find Red and Mariah looking just too cute as they cuddled in my big chair...and I love the contrast of the red and black. Kind of seasonal, aren't they?!

Comparing the Contrasts

Two mornings, about 3 days apart, and the conditions couldn't be more different. The brighter set features sunlight breaking through intense, glowering cloud cover, so that the backdrop was darkness and the foreground was bathed in golden light.

The foggier views are dimmer, darker, mistier. I've tried to pair up similar views for the fun of the comparison. While I was shooting the fall foliage color down in Missouri, we were losing what was left of the year's foliage up north here. The hard frosts have turned all the corn to a dry, golden texture.

With weather this extreme and changeable, it really makes sense to keep the camera at the ready! Unfortunately, I forgot to grab it for my evening walk with Dakota where the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Oh well, maybe tonight?

A few other Autumn notes:
-- The Canadian geese have been very active. I've been told that the adults must teach the new youngsters about flying in formation before their final migration begins...but I'm not sure if this is true. But they are constantly flying around and honking like crazy.
--I'm actually waiting and listening for the Sand Hill Crane migration to fly overhead. They are usually up so high, they are hard to spot EXCEPT that they are so noisy (raucous!) that if I'm on hand when this event begins, it gives me a thrill to watch them.
--And finally, although I personally don't eat meat, I do allow one friend, who is an experienced bow hunter, to prowl our acreage here in search of deer in season. He is a true hunter, who dresses and consumes what he kills, and is very grateful for this food! Plus, there is a lot of overpopulation pressure by deer in our area as there are no natural predators. For this reason, the hunting season is necessary. Growing up as a farm girl, I don't mind guns for hunting...but I don't allow them on the farm anymore because too many hunters get too nutty and careless in season. It's bad enough it sounds like we're in a battle around here during the annual deer gun hunting weekends.

New Ad Box Designs

I interrupt my regularly scheduled foliage tour to bring you this special announcement:

Readers here have seen this before--I go on a tear with trying new ad box designs when I get antsy with the one I'm using. In a funny way, my art school training is showing here. The assignment: how many different designs can you invent to fit the "XYZ parameter"?

This grouping includes the ones that are a little better than the rest. I'm glad I've laid it out like this, because I'm seeing that trying again with photos of more colorful pieces would be a good experiment, too. Heaven knows, the "ad box noise" between EC, Project Wonderful, Adgitize, CMF, etc. etc. is loud enough--just look at the sides of any blog!

And as I mentioned in my earlier Winter hint post, the icy crystals are prevalent here, for sure! By the way, these ads are being designed to eventually link to my Etsy and Artfire shops. I put the red one in play already as a new Adgitize ad before their rates go up on November 1.

More autumn foliage will come over the weekend!

Thinking About Advertising-A Visual Challenge

I'm starting to think about changing my tiny ad design and image. I don't have a very long history with this, and was pretty clueless when I started. In fact, about 8 months ago, when I began to realize I needed a tiny 125 pixel square, I had one heck of a time getting something to work. There are several folders here of early efforts--some of them make me laugh now and maybe in due time, I'll post some of the "outtakes" for some chuckles. But eventually, I settled on this one and have happily used it for several months and many ads, etc. now.


A few months ago, I added this one, but haven't used it much yet. I guess I decided that the earlier one was better somehow.

So recently, I decided to see what some of my new pieces/photos might look like squeezed into "my ad" and for now, there are 8 that I'm sort of looking at, randomly clumped into 2 groups here, and sized to something like the tiny size that they'd be viewed...



I welcome any feedback--good bad and ugly--on these efforts! Although I did study art, I was mainly in sculpture, and I didn't study graphics or web design or the like, I've just been sort of stumbling my way through it for the sake of my blog and my little shops.

So lean back, squint your eyes, and then tell me which one or ones JUMP OUT for YOU!! I've often done my best work with a good editor(s).

I was thinking this would be good in some kind of "poll" format...but haven't figured out how to do that little trick yet. Thanks for any ideas here...and yes, "none of the above" is a choice!!

Gardens + Studio II

A few more examples of the "Knot Bracelets" series (new working title...too clever?) The pale, greenish yellow jade is NOT strung on leather or linen but rather, jade beads alternate with embossed Thai silver tubes (with round beads in between to act as ball bearings) on sturdy Accuflex wire.

A collection of rutilated quartz lozenges in different muted, natural colors, is captured on knotted multiple strands of natural leather. I couldn't quite match this one with a plant or flower image this time around! However, for me it is reminiscent of a creek bed or the tide's edge when water darkens the stones to bring out lots of soft colors.

And finally, soft natural rose quartz beads in several different shapes on knotted pink leather with a kissing cousin of rose and cream quartz beads captured on knotted brown leather. For me, these soft pinks with just a touch of contrast provided by the dyed leather, reminded me of some of the pink flowers I've enjoyed in the garden the past few weeks.

These pieces, and a few others in this series, will soon be available in my Etsy shop, just in case you're interested in a closer look!

Celebrate Yellow, Green, Pink

When I began to plant the gardens here, about 5 years ago, I had an extreme fondness for colorful foliage. Oh, the flowers are always appreciated, but to find plants with leaves in different colors and textures was my "assignment." I was on a pretty tight budget, so Hosta "grab bags" from Walmart, small shrub and tree starts from local growers, plant swaps with friends, and planting seeds of some perennials helped me create the variety I wanted...I just had to add patience!