Look at this wonderful little card I made yesterday – it opens up to become a votive candle holder. It folds flat to fit in a envelope. I fund the pattern in a half-price book about garden cards (seed packets and markers) but this is a gem! It’s made from one 9×12″ sheet of construction paper with little round windows cut out for translucent paper. This card could be a present all by itself, especially with a little votive candle added.
In class tomorrow, my students will be making Wordle graphics from their first blog entries. I did one myself of my most recent entries – these word clouds feature words you use most often. I’m wondering why mine has “POT” as a main element. “Shard” makes sense, but how about “easy” and “roll”? Interesting. If you want to make your own, go to the Wordle site.
Mechanical solutions do not come easy to me, but I needed a way to keep my heavy recycled kraft paper available and easy to unroll. I “visioned” a solution – a clay flower pot turned upside down, a wooden dowel that would fit thru both the roll and the pot hole, and three round furniture slider discs between the roll and the pot to keep it turning smoothly. The sucker works! And the extra dowel space above the roll give me a place to hang scissors and tape. Now off to the patent office . . .
My friend Gina and I met today to discuss a collaborative project we’re thinking about, and she surprised me with a beautiful gift – earrings she had made from tiny glass vials filled with grains of sand she gathered on the beach at Enniscrone, County Sligo, Ireland. I was totally speechless when I opened them. They are lovely and delicate and filled with symbolism as well as sand – she crafted the tiny copper spirals herself (there’s one even on the bottom of the vials) and even wrapped the wire around the glass so that they are secure but still seem to float. Gina, you are amazing -I think you have a new direction to explore along with your wonderful journals!
(. . . . . . .if I do say so myself)
A friend purchased my magnetic adornment shard called “Canyon”, but she wodered if there was any way she could wear it as a necklace. After looking at the back, I figured out a way to attach a section of soda straw, the translucent kind, above the magnet so a cord could be strung through it. The shard can still be worn as a brooch if the cord is removed, but this makes it doubly versatile. Thanks, Teri, for giving me the challenge! See the pics of the front and back:
After a few weeks of hectic holiday activity (including a *great* visit with my Austin Brother and my Philadelphia Brother) I went back to work in the studio on Sunday and made a kilnful of shard faces. When I fired late last night, it had started to rain. I worried a bit even though the kiln is under a canopy, but when I opened it this morning, everything was perfect – no breakage, no overfiring. It was grand! Now to surface-finish and sign each piece – what a good way to start the new year. Here’s what I saw when I opened the kiln lid early this morning:
I’m sure Haley’s ADD runs in the family – it’s so hard for me to sit down and bead shard necklaces. I love the way they look and feel, and I have a bunch of request for them, but stringing beads is like pulling teeth for me. Some people might find it relaxing – not me. I did complete one last night for a friend, Barbara. Here it is, and I do love it. But, dang, that’s a lot of beads!
Grandson Haley was featured on last night’s local news with an inspiring message for other kids with learning disabilities: “You can do it!”. Hopefully, his encouragement will keep teens with learning difficulties channeling their talents in creative directions and away from the “other” kind of nightly news. I am so proud of him and predict his career as an author will be just as successful and meaningful as his father’s.
This last-minute idea was wonderful – it was practically a sell-out and I had the best time visiting with friends and talking about art. It’s something I plan to do again on a regular basis every few months.
Many thanks to everyone who came (and purchased).
