Summer Love

Over the last few days I've managed to squeeze in some time to make a couple of necklaces for store. May followed by June are my most favorite months of the year. Why??? Cuz the weather is nearly perfect. In the low 80s with the humidity down in the very pleasant range. The other reason is it's so lovely and quiet here. We have the city, beaches and restaurants to ourselves. School for the Northlands is done this weekend so vacations haven't started. It's around the 20th of June before summer vacation starts for the kids in Mexico.

 

It's this time of the year that we really take advantage of the lovey quietude and spend as much time as we can at the beaches. The "kids" say it's the bestest place for an afternoon siesta :)

So now do you understand why it's really hard to stay in my little art corner working, much less finding much inspiration there!!

I did make a little garnet and tourmaline necklace.

I made a little bridge piece with 2 faceted oval tourmaline garnets and iolite heishi beads. I finished up with a couple of little scraps of vintage silk sari. Which by the way is how customers know it's my work. What?? I said to Helena. Yep no one else in Mexico does that so it's become you signature. Who knew?? Oh! Oh! I have to show you something I've been practicing, now that we have found stubby propane bottles for my bench torch. Yeah well those tall narrow ones used in BBQs are way to tippy for this klutz. They are a disaster waiting to happen on my work bench. Okay so what I've been practicing is putting a ball on the end of my copper and sterling wire!!! See the ends of the wire holding the verdigris patina heart??? Hum kinda small, hang on a minute you can see it better on the next piece.  

For the clasp I used a vintage screw type. I thought it would fit the whole simple uncomplicated feminine look of the necklace

In keeping with the Summer Love theme the second piece's focal is a good size vintage chandelier prism that I transferred a piece of clip art. The infamous Romeo and Juliette balcony scene. I mean what could be more romantic?? I finished off the edge with some copper tape. I think it kinda frames the scene and helps your eye focus, or that could be a bunch of artsy fartsy hooey and it just looks cool. Whatever I liked it so I did it! ;)

I used a vintage rhinestone necklace to hang the crystal on. It's nice and well worn, with a few greying stones. On this piece I made a bridge with garnet stones and a little annealed heart locket. Then attached both the rhinestone string and garnets together with a couple of nice chunky garnets and faceted quartz crystals.

I attached the "bead" sections to some luscious  pomegranate colored sari silk. I folded the torn strips in half lengthwise and did a bit of a decorative stitch down both pieces. Sometimes the torn silk can get a bit ratty looking after it's been tied and worn a few times. I thought doing it this way would help slow down the ratty looking stage. Around the ribbons I wrapped some copper wire that I strung garnets and iridescent crystals on. Oh yeah see where I finished off the wires with cute little balls??? ;) I have been wanting to do this since I read Deryn's article in the Autumn 09 issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry!! It's such a nice clean finish to the wire, I think.

I'm rather pleased with the way it all came together. And with the ribbon ties you can wear it at whatever length you'd like depending on your outfit and how you want it to look. even with the bling it's still most definitely a bit playful. There's nothing serious "black tie" about it. More like miniature golf (do they even have it any more?) and cheeseburgers :)

Hopefully you have made it this far and didn't get stuck up there watching Rubi and Charli sleeping. If you did (make it this far)I wish you an audacious art filled day no matter where you are in the world  p;)

What!! Even Paradise Has Problems????

Oh Yeah even Paradise isn't perfect. Well at least not my Paradise. Not that I would want it to be perfect. That could prove to be very boring after awhile!!! I mean half of the fun in life is figuring out how to make something from nothing,or how to make something work, or how to get something done, or...well you get the idea.

One of the lovely things is my Paradise is soooooooo far away from the rat race of "civilization"!!! but it's just that plus which creates a bit of a negative.

Our kindred sister Cindy of Sweet Bead Studio and her planning partner Jeanette have put together a most awesome, incredible,not to be missed art retreat!!!! Yea!!!

Art Bliss 2010 be there or be sadly left out!! sigh...catch...sigh
Just think Deryn from Something Sublime will be there with workshops on the magical techniques that sets her jewelry worlds apart from anyone else. SO will Kerry Bogert from Kab's Creative Concepts who's lampwork beads always make you smile and bring to mind a few of your favorite things!! There's Melissa Manley metal worker extraordinar!! Lesley Venable will be there to hold your hand and lead you through the ever intimidating (well at least for me!!) world of vintage ephamera!! 

http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/

You can't tell me that this isn't going to be 2 days of sheer and complete BLISS!!!!! But alas the Washington DC, Virgina part of the Northlands is just a might ways away from this little sad girl artist! :( So I think the only answer would be for those of you that live a tad closer then mi need to be heading over to register for this stupendous retreat!!! I've even made it ever so easy for you. All you have to do is put your cursor on the button (just up there) or the one in my right column, or on Cindy's name. They will all take you right to Cindy's blog for all the details and how to register!!!

What you're still here??? Well I think I shall go feel a bit sorry for myself (until LW reminds me of all that is perfect in paradise)! Until next time have an audacious day and make a bit of art no matter where in the world you are   p;)

PS. Sometimes blogger can irk me somethin fierce @#$&*%** no matter what I try tonight I can't get the picture to link to Cindy's blog. The closes is that stupid little url stuck of to the side. Jeeezzzz has anyone told blogger lately that life doesn't need to be this complicated??

So What Happens When We Really Get Busy????

That would be at Casa Etnika, where El Pajarita y El Jaguar's jewelry is for sale. Helena set our things out on display about a month ago. Remember we introduced it on the April First Friday art walk? It was the middle of April when the display went up and Helena started selling it. The first art walk we sold 3 pairs of earrings. The art walk in May we sold one necklace and 2 pairs of earrings. I was really pleased!!!! No kidding I had told myself that if we sold 1-2 necklaces and a couple of earring sets, I would be more then over the moon. I kept cautioning Martha not to get her hopes or expectations up because we are now in some of the slowest months of the year. There are just not that many visitors (national or foreign) right now. Besides we will quickly run out of people we can shame into buying a piece to support the poor starving birdies.

I made 11 necklaces and 14 pairs of earrings. I was pretty sure that would take us through till Christmas. Helena said she thought we should get through the slow season and the Mexican holiday season, the last 2 weeks of July. Today my trusty secretary/money man LW and I went by to pick up the first 30 days sale money. Helena tells me I need to bring her more earrings and and and necklaces!!!!! What???? Yep there are 3 pairs of earrings left and 2 necklaces!!!! Holy sh** er mackerel, how did that happen??? And then she says I might want to think about making a good batch of both so that we are ready in July when the country's vacations start!!!

Now I'm rubbing my temples wondering if this is what happens when you set your imagination free...

 and Martha is doing the happy dance while singing "We're in the bird seed lovely, lovely bird seed" to the "We're in the Money" tune!! :)

So I'm thinking I kinda wasted a goodly amount of great worry/stress time on whether anyone would want to by my jewelry that I could have saved for a really ginormous snit, .  

I do have 4 sets of earrings done and ready to go to the store. I guess I know what I'll be doing for the weekend!

I made this turquoise and coral set with copper wires.

This set is dark brown and natural color bone heishi beads with a Canadian jade drop and copper wires.

 

Here is a pair with little tourmaline squares and a melon colored amazonite heart. These are made with sterling wires. Which reminds me I need to find a "sweet mule" headed this way, cuz I'm really low on sterling wire.

 

This set is two electric blue baroque pearls on gold wires.

This last pair I made as a little Thank you gift for a friend. They are white freshwater baroque pearls and sterling wires.

I guess I'll take these 4 pairs over to the store, hopefully they will tide Helena over till I get some more necklaces and earrings made. We are thinking that the reason the earrings are so popular is because there are very few others in the store, that aren't part of a necklace set. Plus Helena says her customers like to buy (as she calls them) "completely hand made work", "because you are the only one with hand made wires and everything" :) Okie Dokie whatever it takes to buy birdseed and oranges!

Next post I'll share with you some of the cool things I have learned. You know things you guys have been doing for ages and I just discovered but I think are the bee's knees!! :)  

Until next time have an audacious day and make a bit of art no matter where in the world you are   p;)     

Whatcha Up To?????

I only ask because I've been up to diddly squat. Haven't gone anywhere of any consequence. Haven't started or finished any great projects. You know it's just been a few days of doing a bit over here. Doing a bit of cleaning and rearranging over there. Adding a few beads on the work bench. Thinking about cutting out a pattern but not getting any farther then the thinkin part. Can't even claim to be reading an exciting book. We are not the proud owners of a TV  so I spend my time "catching up" with the shows. It's been more like just puttering around. But some how the day is still gone before I know it. Aaah heck I guess I can do that in the morning seems to be the catch phrase.

I'm beginning to think that tomorrow might have to be a beach day because I've just about exhausted the items on the doin nothing list of  things to do. :)

I did a few days ago finish a new, as they have now been dubbed  "Vestitas" It's a good Spanglish word combining vest from English and "ita" the Spanish suffix designating the little version of something...(hermanita-little sister). Thus making vestita, little vest. 

 

I used all white (which I coffee dyed) and ivory lace. For the body I coffee dyed a vintage card table cloth. The only sparkle I added was one vintage rhinestone earring at the top, where the hook and eye closure is.

Is it just me that finds Blogger a complete pain in the toosh?? Sometimes I can't get a picture to load or it gets turned on it's side or a closeup requires a magnifying glass. And don't even get me started on Bloggers need to save to file every single sentence or anything else when you go longer then a nanosecond between typing letters!!!! GGGGrrrrr. Do know how often that is when you are a girl who never took the time to learn to type??? Do You???? Well sometimes it can take 5 minutes to get a line typed!!! Ooops that little rant sorta slipped out :(

The only color I added to the vestita was a little strip of garnet red sari silk down each side of the front and woven through the lace on the bottom.

Kinda nice and monochrome. It will go with just about everything so it's a good little go to piece.

Okay this is me calling uncle. I'm getting way to cranky trying to find where my pictures are going to turn up, or even if they are going to. I think it's time for this little Bloglandian to do a bit of blog hopping before she puts the laptop to bed for the night.

So my bloglandianitas, hmmmmm maybe it doesn't work with every word??? Ahhh what the heck if it's used long enough it will get added into the dictionary as acceptable. So my Bloglandianitas. For those of the male gender that's Bloglandianitos. Don't ever let anyone tell you Spanish is easy!! Have an audacious day and make a bit of art, no matter where in the world you are   p;) 

I Just Hate When That Happens...

In one of the bags of stash I have been so generously given over the last few months, was a cross. Kinda rustic metal with a bit of wire wrapping where the cross arms meet, so it looks like the arms where wired on. It was a pewter color but was even softer then pewter, (lead??? naw...)  I thought it would be cool to play a bit with patinas on it. I really like the way I've been able to use the rust and verdigris on the same pieces. I think it really adds some great visual and tactile layers. With a ton of experimenting I can now put the patinas where I want them to be and not have them run into each other casing yuk! It's beginning to look more like Ma Nature did the work instead of Ma Pattie ;)

Let me put this disclaimer in right now. Nope I do not have a before picture. But I now have a big sign over my bench that says to remember to take a before picture!! :) Well you never know it might help! And you have to admit I'm taking a proactive approach to this issue.  I did a bit of rusting on the cross and added the verdigris on the wrapped wire. At the center of the cross While messing with the cross I realized that the structural flaw is that the wire is only wrapped around each appendage. There is only the 2 thin metal pieces as they all meet together in the middle. Soooooooo the arms want to bend in with just the slightest bit of persuasion. My thought was to wire a garnet on one side...

On the other I wired an old chandelier prism. I used some of the ever soooooo cool transfer medium I brought back from the Northlands, to transfer a small heart to the back of the crystal.

As I was wiring the two on I thought to myself. I'd better be careful or the arms would break before I could get them stabilized..... yep just then the left arm drops into the palm of my hand that is ever so gently supporting the cross!! @%!#&** Have I ever told you that old sailors

 can't hold a candle to old nurses when it comes to a cussing contest?? :)

The nurse named Amelia in the caption, does she look familiar???? Why yes that is Ms Earhart before she earned her wings :)

Can you believe it?? Well I sure couldn't there went 2 days worth of patina layering, and a really cool looking turquoise and coral necklace made to go perfectly with the cross. SOB!!!

Never fear E6000 came to the rescue!

I built up under both the crystal and garnet with the glue after gluing the arm back into it's socket. Then I didn't touch it for 48 hours. Do you know how hard that was??? Sure you do, it goes against every little artistic dendrite we have in our bodies not to fiddle with something when it's drying. :)

Well it seems to have mended together quite well. If you didn't know that it had met with a slight amputation & reattachment surgery you couldn't tell.

I think what I will do is make a necklace to wear the cross on. Remember the original turquoise and coral one went to the Friday art walk with a verdigris heart as it's focal in place of the cross? I'll test drive it for awhile and it it holds up and looks excellent I'll consider adding it to the other pieces for sale.

LW brought home the mail today and the new Stampington "Where Women Create" came with him!! YEA! So this little artist is fixing a cup of tea and curling up to drool dream. I hope you have an audacious day to make a bit of art no matter where you are in the world.  p;

Last Time Around The Block

Well that is for this "season". Most all of the "Snowbirds" have flown home to the Northlands. The tourists have slowed to a trickle until school breaks and summer vacations start. So the Mazatlan Art Walk and Sale takes a bit of a sabbatical until October when the "season" starts again. For El Pajarita y El Jaguar (Little Parrot&Jaguar) this was our second first Friday of the month art walk. Martha my trusty sidekick was gone exploring the wilds in the state of Sonora, so LW was brave enough to set up with me. This was a Slooooooow night but we did manage to sell a couple of necklaces and a few pairs of earrings. I decided since I had to spend four hours looking at my table I'd set it up a bit different then I had it last month.

We left the necklaces on the little display stands that Helena has them on in the store. I didn't add any new earrings, since we all know just how much I looove to make them!! But after last night we are down to 4 pairs sooooooooo I guess I'll make a few more. I'm not sure if they are so popular because of my creativity or (much more likely) they love to buy them because of the adorable cabinet cards I attach them to!!

A couple of women came by to "see how I set the table up this time" EEE Gads what kind of monster have I so innocently created??!! I'm afraid my need to constantly rearrange has, as the saying goes "turned around and bitten be in the toosh" :) Oh well if that's what it takes to get them there I'll suffer for the cause :)

This Month

 

Last Month

I like having the necklaces on the display stands and the smaller tags we made for the necklaces. It's a much cleaner, simpler look not so much "visual noise" I suppose I will learn as we go along.

I did make 2 necklaces to add to the show last night. Both are turquoise, Red sea coral, and copper hearts. Helena suggested I make some more heart pieces when the first 2 sold right away. Yea that means I was forced to play with my patinas! :) The first one is oval turquoise rosary wrapped beads with coral on either side of the heart focal.

 

I know I know the pictures leave a lot to be desired. I didn't remember to get pictures of it before I ran it down to the store at the first of the week. So we tried to grab a couple last night. I just haven't made the transition in my thinking yet. It still amazes me that people want to pay real pesos to actually buy my jewelry. Unbelievable! :) I added a couple of little squiggle wires of pounded copper and a cool teardrop shaped piece of coral and turquoise beads at the clasp. Sorry no picture :( you will have to use your imagination. :)

The other necklace didn't start out to be a heart focal. It actually had an awesome pewter cross I added a bit of patina to. But just as I was down to wiring on the crystal and a garnet bead to stabilize the "arms" one of the "arms" came off in my hand... SOB... Two days of patina(ing) and it was soooooo cool. Since I was not willing to admit defeat I pulled out my super duper E-6000 and glued it back together. I'll test drive it for a bit to be sure it's going to stay together and then maybe I'll take it over to the store. I'll show you some pictures when it's good and dry.

So a heart was substituted and I think it looks pretty darn good. You'd even think they were made to go together!

I used just a plain old ...Shhhh store bought (how lazy is that?) toggle clasp. BUT I sorta made up for it by making this adorable "person" to dangle from the clasp. I have is one-ler earring from I can't remember in my stash. I been thinking it would be fun to make a bit bigger one for a necklace. Boy and it was so much fun that my mind ran away with all kinds of variations. I can't wait to play around some more and make one big enough to be a focal!

 

Cute huh??? And sooooo simple. If you would like I can post some pictures on how I bent the wires.

That's about all I have about this months sale. So if you like you can continue to do a bit of blog hopping. But since this is my blog and in a sense it's where I record all the ups +es and downs -es of this amazing art journey, I have a + to record. Last night one of the women on the art walk came up to tell me she had bought my pearl necklace the other day. Of course these are still such complements to me. But she went on to tell me and the friends with her, that she had been searching for my work! Yep she said she had stumbled onto my blog a little while ago and realized I was here in Mazatlan. She just couldn't find my work in any of the stores. Then she saw the post about Helena and Miguel asking us to put El Pajarita y El Jaguar in the store. So she went to the store to ferret it out. She was so excited to find my stuff there that she drug her friend with her last night on the walk so she (the friend) could see my things!! Isn't that just the most ginormous complement??!!! But that's not all her friend bought a necklace and asked me to make a (yeah I know) pair of earrings to go with it! :) Amazing who would have guessed?? Certainly not me, honest!! I was just hoping that maybe we would sell a piece or two so we could buy sunflower seeds for our two little love birds, Paco y Paca!

So there it is, and it looks like there are a few people who enjoy wearing my little creations. Huh, and they don't even have to because they don't want to hurt my feelings. Like I said I find this sooo incredibly amazing and humbling, because now I have to live up to my expectations!!

Now my Bloglandian family I hope that you have an audacious day to make a bit of art no matter where in the world you are  p;)

PS. You know not a day goes by that I'm not ever so thankful for all the love, support, and encouragement that I am given by all of you my kindred family!! I know that I am a very bless girl artist to have all of you accept me into this amazing group!! Thank you!

A Declaration...

Today was declared a .........

Beach Day (fooled ya there for a second huh??)

The rules are very simple. Anyone can declare a beach day, no reason is needed

There is nothing more to be said but to head to the ol "bath house" and change into the appropriate bathing attire.

Set up the beach chairs grab a cold drink, a bit of sunscreen and a good read.

Discuss the important issues like shall we read, nap, or take a bit of a dip. Hmmmmm I say all three. 

Life will return to all non beach activities tomorrowish!! :)

Have an audacious day, and make a bit of art no matter where in the world you are  p;)