Amber & Silver

I really had to grit my teeth to made this necklace with some of my much hoarded Chiapas Amber. Ya'al know it's much easier for a true hoarder to rationalize hanging on to our stash, then to convince ourselves to willingly part with it! But it was time to return a bit of my stash to the public world. I can do this as long as I don't think to hard how this amazing eternally beautiful and millenniums old gems can't possibly be as appreciated as much as I do? Do you think their new owner will be amazed at how warm it is to the touch, not cold like stone? Will they see the delicate colorings, along with each one being it's own original creation, like finger prints?? When they hold it will they feel all the positive energy this simple millions of years old piece of nature carries?? "Nope" huh I agree with you, but if I continue to hoard it how will they ever find out?? I just have to hope that I have done the amber's beauty justice with the necklace I created with it. It took a couple of alterations to the vision, but I'm pleased with the results.

I suspended the amber nuggets with 24gage sterling wire in the center of the links of large polished pewter chain.

For the back half I used both sterling and pewter beads. With little heishi amber beads, between them. On one side I joined the two ends together with a little vintage hand carved bone tortoise.                          

         On the other side I made a sterling hook closure. Then added 2 little fish Milagros. Helena said that now when people come into the shop to see new pieces, the milagros are how they identify them as mine! :) Cool I only have ohhh maybe 1400+- milagros left! And if  by some slim chance I run out in my life time I know where to get more. ;)

Of all the different ways to use or "string" the amber, I really like when I'm able to "suspend" it like these. The link tends to frame the amber sorta like a frame around a master piece painting. And in my mind's eye, amber is one heck of an incredible master piece. I will confess that my personal taste is for the silver to have a lovely patina, however I learned early that "patina" hasn't quite caught on here. But I keep trying by slipping in a bit of patina here and there. :)

Well there it is, how one hoarder managed to let go of some of her well loved stash. Shhhhhh Not to worry I have it on good authority that we'll have a chance to replenish our stashes before to long, Whew  ;)

I did get a couple of pictures of the earrings I made before all of them were gone. I'll get them downloaded and posted in the next couple of days. Ohhhhh and the pictures of the decorations for "Carneval"!! They are really great this year!

Until them, have a most audacious art filled day, no matter where in the world you are  p;)

A LOVEly Day For The Beach

Sooo how was your Valentine's Day???? Or your unValentine's Day depending on which holiday you are celebrating??? Ours was quite wonderful. The days are tending to be a bit warmer, so thoughts of the beach are playing in our heads. While I was in the kitchen starting a scrumptious "Lunper". Wait, what's a Lunper you ask?? Well it's that meal that combines lunch & supper, you know like brunch is to breakfast & lunch. :) One of the many intelligent customs we have embraced here in our adopted country is to have the day's main meal in the afternoon around 1-2 followed by a siesta. It really works out perfectly, for us. Gives you time to burn off the calories acquired. And you don't fight that overfed,over stuffed pig feeling late in the evening. You know that one that causes heartburn and restless nights. Besides like the Mediterranean countries many Mexican businesses close from 1-ish to 4-ish for the family meal time. Because we are a resort/tourist town a lot of our retail businesses don't close but much of the government,and professional offices do. And as much as possible we like to follow that wise old saying, "when in Rome..."

Wooo did I get off the beaten path! Okay back to the kitchen and that sumptuous meal. LW walked in and suggested we put all the fixins away for Manana (tomorrow) and grab a panga (little ferry) over to Stone Island for lunch at Rudi's!! Sorta a little Valentine Day gift to each other. Well that's a no brainer, Stone Island is one of my favorite beaches to stroll. So we threw a few things in the beach tote and headed down to the ferries. Because this is Monday a work&school day,& not a cruise ship in port day, the beaches are nearly deserted.

 It was a little breezy & misty but the sun was shining and was nice and warm to our reptilian acclimated bodies.

Of course those lovely quiet beaches are a real double edged sword here. Quiet beaches = no business. This is not good for our little community. And according to most of the merchants this "season" is proving to be a "bad" one! :( We practically had Rudi, and "Senora Rudi" all to ourselves.

Most of our dry season flowering plants are really coming into their own amazing beauty The days are getting longer and warmer, the humidity is still lower and we haven't had rain for a good 4 months.

The hibiscus are as bright as they could be the doubles (like the one above) are about the size of dessert plates.

And the huge singles are at least the size of large salad plates!

We had ceviche and shrimp for "lunper" and strolled down the beach holding hands and making plans.

                             

I can't imagine a more precious gift then to wake up each morning with my most handsome soulmate (& adorable geek) in this amazing place we called paradise! :)

Oh my gosh LW I don't have any idea how that cutie patootie picture got there! Honest, you know this whole internet thing is magic to me!! Hmmmm I bet you didn't even know I took that picture, huuuh, but it's a true mystery on how it got on my blog! :)

Time for this lit'l chick-a-dee to say goodnight. I think I better do some perfecting on my excuse...er... explanation of my cyber-ignorance before LW sees this in the morning! ;) So on that note have a most audacious art filled day, no matter where in the world

 you are.  p;)

A Couple of Finished Projects

I don't remember where I found this cutie patootie picture if any of you guys know (where I could have found it) please let me know so I can give the artist credit!

Yep I did get a couple of things made. One was this new vestita. I decided it was time to add a bit of color to my somewhat earthy colored wardrobe, since I was making this one for me, (I think). So I really stepped out there and created this new vestita in red! Okay it's more like a nice dark (earthy) color red not fire engine/stop light red. But still it's red. :) Well sometimes it's best to take little steps out of one's comfort zone. Don't ya think?? I know me well enough that if it was bright red it would spend it's life in the dark corner of the closet. I used some luscious rayon, light,soft and drapes oh so nice. This one is shorter then the last couple, ending just below the waist.

                                               

For the bottom ruffles I used some red ticking and a rose print on cotton. You know the kind of cotton that is used for quilts. Here it's called "American cotton". Which is not to be confused with Mexican cotton. And yep there's a different. Mexican cotton is, larger more open, & less thread count, then it's northern cousin. The American cotton is more expensive (import duty fees) but that hasn't slowed to many of us die hard "sewistas" down. It is something we don't get here and just in case it was an ordering boo boo all my Mexican friends are stocking up! Heck I can take a hint! :) 

 Course I used tea dyed lace, but did you notice there isn't one little speck of sparkly on it??? Yep not one. In fact the only "closure is the tie. I did however sew 11pairs of hooks&eyes on it. Kinda gives it a bit of a vintage undergarment/corset sorta feel.

Notice anything a little wonky in that picture??? I managed to sew all 11 hooks facing up, makes it really hard to "hook" with them in that position! But I rationalized not redoing them by telling myself that they were only there for looks & didn't have to work. And besides by the time someone figures it out I will have already walked buy and blended back into the crowd. :) There's a little sleeve on this one with the ticking for trim.

Even the back is plain this time.

                                         

I did put all the gathering for the two ruffles there (in the back). Sorta just a hint of a bustle feel.

Since this was beginning to look like something someone pieced together from different pieces of clothing, I decided to run with the "makedo"  wonky vintage feeling. See the decorative scalloped stitches on the ticking?? I thought I'd also use it around the sleeves and down the front.

Notice anything hmmm??? Oh besides it being a bad fuzzy photo. Yep your eyes are seeing right and the monitor didn't distort those stitches either. The ticking has lovely feminine scallops and the top has a sorta " Greek key" kinda stitch going on??? How??? Idon'tno??? All I can do is blame it on my machine. When I set the stitch for the scallop it stitched the key shape instead. Maybe the ol' gal was looking to change things up a bit, maybe she was tired of the same old stitches?? So I thought, no problem I'll just go with it. But the next time I went to set the stitch all I could get was the scallop it was suppose to do. And it isn't even a computerized machine, just ol' fashion machanical. Sooooo now I had 2 different looking decorative stitches on the same piece. I suppose I could have ripped out all the key stitches but remember I'm the lazy girl that didn't turn 11hooks around! Besides the fact that by the time I got all the stitches out there wouldn't be much of the fabric left, it is so light&thin. What to do???  I know I'll say I was going for a "vintage, makedo" kinda look!!! Yeah, that will work perfectly!!! So that's exactly what I did.

Have a most audacious art filled day, no matter where in the world you are.   p;)

PS. Oh yeah, I did say a couple of projects huh?? Well I made 8 pairs of earrings and a sterling and amber necklace for the art walk last Friday. But I can't show you them cuz I forgot to get pictures before taking them to the store. :( But I promise to take the camera down to the store tomorrow and get some pictures. I'll show them to you on my next posting. :)

A Mexican Happy Dance

Today is February and that's when Stampington's quarterly magazine Altered Couture will be on the news stands. And thanks to you my amazing family, friends,lit'l sisters and greatest supporters, my little brown vestita will be in it!!! yeah!  Yep it's sharing covers with some extremely gifted art to wear artists! Who would have thought?? Certainly not me. In fact if it wasn't for all the support, encouragement a plain old handholding you guys have so lovingly gifted me, Annalise & my head cheerleader (LW) would be the only ones to see it! I will never be able to tell you how much this means to me. As far as saying thank you, I'm not sure there is a THANK YOU big enough! I am a very lucky girl to have such an incredible gifted and loving artsisters and family!!!

I guess starting this year Stampington emails you a copy of the article as it will appear in the magazine.  Which is a darn good thing, cuz some of us like the author won't get her hard copy for another 3-4 weeks :( So my ever handsome geek is helping me post a copy (actually a picture) of the article, because there is something about all these letters not wanting to play together-- PDF,Jpeg, IDON'TKNOW, IDON'TCARE...it's all just alphabet soup to me!! But the next time you find yourself standing in front of the magazine rack maybe you could check out Altered Couture and let me know how it looks. 
                                

Have a most audacious art filled day my Bloglandian family, no matter where in the world you are  p;)
PS: It seems that the only way we could keep Blogger,and every other acronyms happy was to print out the article then scan it back onto my desktop and then put it on the blog through the picture thingy. Lousy at best I'm sorry!!