Monday, June 28, 2010
Week 16
i also duplicated one of my hair pieces and added it to my etsy site:
You know, I titled it "Phoenix" based on the feathers and flame-colors...but the irony of photographing orange discs ontop of pumpkin leaves has just hit me...
So, Friday has rolled around and I have the day off and felt oddly obligated to make something else this week. I went for a silver hair accessory and added some dangled beading:
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Headband Video
Week 15
I decided I want to start sketching again. There was a point in my life where I really enjoyed doodling- both the process and the tiny picture that resulted, and I'm really not sure why I stopped...Anywho, here's tonight's doodle:
Friday, June 18, 2010
Week 14
This one is simple but pretty and is a basic base for any other beaded necklace, like this one I made in college:
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Week 13
Monday, June 7, 2010
Interrim Garden Post
Firstly, my front door, surrounded in morning glories. I didn't put these here, but i love them, and i was quite put out to come home tonight and find that my landlord took it upon herself to rip out the vine going up the left hand side of the door in the picture(but the obnoxious vine growing under the house and into the basement that tries to choke out everything- THAT they leave growing. I'M the one who ripped it out from nearly strangling the roses but the morning glories, they need to go ::rolls eyes::). I was so close to having it framed in morning glory wonderousness...
This is my flower garden. Most of the flowers are currently done(entire bottom left is columbine) or not yet blooming. Bob bought me the little fairy... The landlord mentioned that the little fence wouldn't keep the bunnies out and i admitted that i put it there to keep their lawnmower and weedwacker out (i've had several plants mowed/wacked since we moved in a year ago) and could care less about the bunnies. It may sound harsh but as evident from the morning glory situation- i have reason to partition plants i don't want destroyed. I have another flower garden bordering the side of the house that faces the yard, but i just planted summer bulbs so all it has in it right now is a small forsythia bush, a bleeding heart, and a garden gnome- not much to look at.
This is my herb garden, mostly overflowing with mint. There's lemonbalm on the right, a variety of small herbs on the left (lavender, thyme, basil, parsley, chives) and some cilantro hidden on the other side of the mint. There is a small lilac bush in the right hand corner not pictured.
My little veggie garden. It's only existed for about a week and a half and it's shaped like a stretched out half-circle. On the left, behind the flower garden, you see the pumpkin vine borne of last year's halloween pumpkin. next to it in the dirt is a bit of the vine i dug up on the off chance landlord decided to whack my pumpkin vine (though i told both the landlord and her son who does the mowing that it is a pumpkin and i want it there, one can never be too careful). Then there's carrots, cucumber, turnips, zucchini, radishes, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, and a tomato plant. the whole front is lined with lettuce seeds which i hope will grow. I also have little pots of planting soil with some tiny cherry tomato plants and more lettuce seeds.
I'm still contemplating this week's "art project". I may be compelled to paint...feeling some watercolor...
edit: i did go out to the weeded pile and pull out a very long rope of morning glories with roots still attached at the end and put the roots in the ground and tuck the vine up the side of the door. If it dies, i'll rip it out, but at least i tried. It's from the side of the house that i don't care for. There are 2 gardens I don't touch on either side of the house- one is full of some green and white leafy thing that was clearly planted there and overtook interspersed with irises, daffodils, and queen anne's lace. I tried to add a plant there once and it didn't go well so i leave it alone. The other side of the house (where we park our cars) is a mess of weeds, evil vines, a cute ground-variety of phlox they plant here in Hershey (which she whacked with the rest of it in the spring) and more morning glories which i am happy to have (and she rips out). In this garden, all i touch is the rose bush and the rose of sharon bush to keep the evil vines from killing them because the garden is just not worth saving. By the door there are tigerlillies which again, i only touch to unstrangle. I planted hyacinths in this little front door garden near the tigerlillies(which they weedwhacked to the ground in the spring) and a mum on the other side of the porch step (which they weedwhacked to the ground in the spring). I think i just need to repossess all of the gardens touching the house and then she won't touch them anymore. This may be the best policy...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Week 12
behold: POLYMER CREATIONS!!!
It's been a long time since I've played with clay and even longer since I've played with polymer. In some ways, polymer is a little more fun to work with than stoneware clay because it's less brittle in its molding state- less fun because it isn't as carve-able. I eased into playtime with my very first fae door (approx. 2" x 3"):
Isn't it CUTE- see the tiny mushrooms? which naturally led to bigger mushrooms:
It doesn't really have a function, paperweight, garden decor- i prefer to think of it as an escape to the fairytale inside my head- kind of like a snowglobe (except you don't have to shake it for it to be cool). I did promptly break it when i took it out of the oven by trying to fix a slumped mushroom (which obviously cannot be done, i was just being stubborn) so the one on the right is the do-over.
So then i decided to make a hair piece, because -let's face it- i really enjoy hair decoration. So i stuck a hair pin in a clay piece and away we go:
I also took my first foray into treating clay like metal (ok that's not entirely true, i once made a stoneware teapot with a filigree handle, but it was purely decorative). I've never really liked polymer jewelry, i always think it looks cliche or art-fair, but since i was had the polymer and hairpins out and felt like playing, i chose some black (least tacky looking) and went to town on another hair piece. Then it occurred to me that polymer- being a low fire clay, can be used to set stones, so i added a stone for the fun of it. (i have no idea what the stone is. It's a dark colored rectangular cabochon.):
And since I was treating clay like metal, i decided it might be fun to try embossing- a technique i've done in wax (cast in silver) as well as stoneware with leaves. I feel like nothing makes a better leaf pattern than a leaf- i have yet to see this theory disproven. So i rolled out a few sheets of clay, thieved some leaves out of the yard and this was the result:
yes i did make an acorn and no the leaf i paired it with is not oak.
I've decided I'm going fabric shopping this week and launching my headbands on etsy for around $3.75 with package options (3 for $9 kinda thing). I need to expand my color base however (i have no real brights nor solids) so a trip to joann fabrics is in order.
Gardening: Happily, my garden survived without me, though i did have to weed it today. It SHOULD yield me pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, cayenne peppers, jalapenos, and tomatos, radishes, turnips, and carrots, and 5 kinds of lettuce. The herb garden is overflowing with mint and lemonbalm as well as basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, chives, and a little bitty oregano plant i transferred from my aerogarden. Flower-wise, my summer lillies are shooting up and my columbine is done. My wysteria looks pretty sad but i have hope that it's a necessary side effect of rebuilding an entire root-system (i dug it up at my mom's house- i had similar problems with other dug up plants and they all recovered- this is just the worst)and that it will look beautiful come late summer and next spring.