deviantART is GO!

Apologies to all, my dear friends ... I've recently found that I have been negligent with my deviantART page and wanted to spend some time on updating it with my favourite and most recent photographs of jewelry, nature, portraits and graphic art design.  I've got a great portfolio happening, I'd love for you to come and stop by!

deviantART is a positive community of artists who share their work for critique and feedback, as well as a chance to sell prints and merchandise of their work.  You can get some of my photographs on magnets, mugs, coasters and postcards ... and lots more!  I've made some great connections and met some fantastic artists of all mediums, and I hope we continue to inspire each other.

Please enjoy the work I've produced, and let me know what you think.  I've got a master plan to build a portfolio to apply to a design school, so be ruthless!  Look for the button above on the left hand side of the blog to take you to the gallery!

Denim Fabric Necklaces

More fun stuff to share!

A big "first off", thank you to everyone for all of your love and support during this transition!  I am incredibly excited and nervous about my new and exciting career as a theatre arts teacher, as I have lots of love and experience to share with today's youth.  I'll be detailing my thoughts and processes on my music and theatre performance blog, The Pursuit.  Theatre touches everyone in many different ways, either as artist or appreciator, and everyone's input is appreciated and more than welcome.  Got ideas for kid's theatre games?  Favourite childhood memories from school plays?  I'll be talking about it all and sharing the joy!

Onward to that fun stuff to share - fabric necklaces!

My best friend, Graham, gave me a pair of his jeans many moons ago, thinking I was going to turn them into a skirt.  It never really got to that process, but I did have lots of fun creating multi-strand fabric necklaces with beads in all sorts of 'organic' materials.  He was a little disappointed, I think - he thought it would be really cool to see his own favourite pair turn into something else of a favourite - but he does give his stamp of approval on them.  He is my best friend, after all; his opinion matters to me! :)  I have loads more of that vintage fabric from those dresses than I know what to do with, and I'm coming up with more and more ideas on how to use it.  Check out what's what so far!

Change has happened!

I apologize for the "dropped-off-the-face-of-the-Earth" absence!  I've missed you all very much, and I'm looking forward to getting back to getting my hands dirty.  

You probably remember a somewhat 'cryptic' post I had put up a little while ago, talking about a "shit-or-get-off-the-pot" change in life.  Well, it's all happening!

I am happy to announce that I am embarking on a fantastic career in teaching youth the craft of theatre arts!  I will be working with Synergy Performing Arts Academy and am excited for the opportunity to help shape young minds in performance arts, something I feel very passionate about and has been a part of my life since I was three apples high myself. 

I'll be documenting this exciting journey on my music and theatre performance blog, The Pursuit, along with some pictures of our production of Shout! The Mod Musical that has just wrapped up.  From one opportunity to another, it's an experience to remember that has helped me push forward!  Thanks to everyone for your support!

New/Old Jewelry Ideas With Paper!

Well, they're new because it's the first time I'm talking about 'em.  They're old because I made them a little while ago!

I apologize for the absence!  Shout! The Mod Musical is in full swing for opening night on Friday, May 6th, and I've been up to my eyeballs in dance steps and Dusty Springfield to put on a fabulous show.  In the meantime, I've been meaning to show you some excellent experiments turned awesome in paper bead making!

I found a tattered vintage copy of Rudyard Kipling's short stories, pages hanging on by a whisper of the thread binding.  I ripped a few out from strategic places and made the book itself a 'book safe', whilst the pages rescued were made into paper beads.  I had also made coloured paper beads with traditional origami paper made from recycled materials - you can see chunks of fibres and print newspaper in the sheets!  The paper itself is delicate enough for fine rolls and manipulations, and is strong enough to take some abuse during the process.  I'll be posting my very first 'How-To' for my very simple - and potentially messy - paper-bead making process with some everyday household items hopefully very soon.  It's a fantastic personal touch to any design!

A Peek at the Workspace ...

I thought I'd give you a peek at my workspace/dining room!

I've taken over the dining room in our modest two-bedroom apartment.  My stuff is spread out everywhere, I hope to reign it in a little with a larger unit that will house everything.  The view that you see is if you were standing on my couch in the living room, looking over its back to the dining room.  The round table is something that's been in the family for years - I have pictures from my first birthday and beyond blowing out candles at this table!  Eventually, I will find a gorgeous storage unit that will fit just about everything and reclaim the dining room  into something that will become a pleasant eating atmosphere without a tower of beads or some other crafting project that's about to topple over you.  In the meantime, I've made good use out of lots of recycled, reclaimed and reused materials for unique storage solutions - with a little flair!

Here's an idea ...

'Sketching' some ideas for my upcoming Artbeads.com project with vintage elements. 

No. 1 - pin/brooch with ribbon detail and charms, reclaimed bracelet component

No. 2 - two-tone metal (gold, brass) gears and charms, vintage Chanel charm and gold-plated rope chain

Bead Table Wednesday, Issue #3: Vintage Possibilities

I'm getting ready for my next Artbeads.com Design Partner Portfolio project, which will require me to incorporate a vintage item into my jewelry design.  I went rooting through my stash and came up with a few things ... now I just can't make up my mind!

The vintage fabric is courtesy of a few dresses that were given to me by a family friend, handsewn in the 1960s with these incredibly psychedelic patterns.  I've already started using the fabrics in other projects, experimenting with sewing and shaping techniques.  The porcelain pendant, rose brooch and copper-tone brooch (that one's bottom left) were all picked up from a local thrift store.  The striped blue-and-white glass cabochon in oxidized copper setting were previously part of a bracelet; in fact, you've already seen its part of the bracelet's "repurposement" in the Winter Enchantment project!  I have a few more pieces left over that are in need of a home.  The antiqued silver owl pendant with lucite setting - owls are always on trend, it seems - are vintage from the '70s, if I remember my mother telling me correctly.  (The pendant belonged to my grandmother.)  The gold-plated Chanel charm - an authentic! - was part of an awesome find Nick happened upon at a garage sale; the thoughtful man he is, he bought them for me and surprised me with them.  I've this one left, and I'll need to make it special.  The gold-plated piece with filigree detail was part of a necklace I had picked up at an antiques store in Sherkston Shores whilst on vacation with Nick and his family.  The gold-plated rope chain originally held the asymmetrical heart-shaped pendant that found its setting in the Desert Heart necklace, part of the Bead Soup Collection.  Maybe it'll find it's way into something here?

I already have about three or four ideas cookin', but I gotta focus and pick one.  Which ones are your favourites?

Making a Homemade 'White Box' for Product Photography

I've come a long way, baby.

That's how it happens with photography.  I've had a lot of practice with lots of sub-level cameras, where my good shots were out of luck.   My parents had given me a Canon PowerShot IS 2000 a few years ago for my birthday - it's incredible.  (All the shots on this blog thus far have been captured by this camera!)  Now that I finally have a camera that is meant to take high-quality pictures for the detail I want, I've taken full advantage of its features.  The only issue - creating an ambience for the product itself, with both lighting and setting.

These elements are more crucial - and a lot more difficult - to put together than expected.  When I first opened shop on Etsy, my jewelry was photographed against fabrics of my collection of pashmina scarves and patterned clothes.  I love those scarves, and I've got great clothes, and I turned on all the lights in the room.  I thought it was enough, really.  Some of the shots turned out to have a great atmosphere to them, but I would credit that more to luck.  Some of them, I found, got lost in the background of the crazy pattern, or the colours didn't come through right.  I didn't get it myself - with my own eye, it looked great.  Why didn't it come out the way I saw it in the camera's lens?  A good example of those shots will be from my first Artbeads.com Design Project with Swarovski materials.  Nice idea, poor execution.  Really, I just didn't know where I was really going, or what I was really doing.

Strolling around Etsy and a few forums, it seems that the common opinion is that when all else fails, the 'white box' is the best.  It brings a true representation to the colours and it's easier to balance out tricky elements like shadow, brightness, sharpness and exposure.  It also helps if you have a really good camera, like my PowerShot.  Ten mexapixels!  It's amazing in macro!

Lemme show you my very simple setup.

The cardboard box was something that had fit an electric vegetable steamer.  The cardstock is opaque and stiff, as supposed to regular paper that may not give a true white background and flop over.  The carstock piece on the bottom isn't fixed in, and is occasionally replaced with another colour background.  (You can see examples of that in the Artbeads.com Pantone Fall 2010 Project, where I had used a page from a French wine calendar, or the Artbeads.com Winter Enchantment Project, using a friend's artwork to complement the presentation.)

7000 Bracelets For Hope Blog Hop!

Lori Anderson, you work much too hard!

We're up for a new blog hop for a good cause with The Global Genes Project, an advocacy group who has created the "7000 Bracelets for Hope" initiative, a children's rare disease campaign.  Bracelets are made by jewelry makers all over the world and sent to families who have children afflicted with rare diseases to show them love and support.  The only condition of the bracelet is that it's main colour must be blue - their awareness ribbon is blue denim!  :)  I had signed up a little late for this blog hop, so I looked to my stash right away for some 'true blue!'

Some really excellent options, but there was one idea that kept leaping out at me.  Here it is!

If this bracelet was going to be sent to a special family, I wanted to make sure it was going to be a treasure.  These Czech glass beads glow with the most vibrant sapphire blue, they were my favourite of the bunch.  I love the brass cap detail that adds a delicacy to such a bold colour.  The headpins (a recent Etsy purchase!) were too thin for the beads to feed through and stop at the ball end, so I turned them into little 'curly cues' for an added detail.  The chain and lobster clasp both came from a thrifted necklace.

This bracelet, along with a note of encouragement, will be sent to one of seven thousand families who have children suffering from rare diseases.  This important campaign helps raise awareness for the needs of millions of these children around the world, and I am only too happy to help boost a family's spirits.  Learn more about The Global Genes Project to see how you can contribute!

Visit Lori's blog to check out the rest of the 7000 Bracelets of Hope Blog Hop! ... there's only 112 of them in this round, don't worry!  Thanks again to Lori Anderson at Pretty Things for organizing this Blog Hop!

Costume Jewelry to SHOUT About!

The costume jewelry for SHOUT! is just about done!  We have a meet n' greet at Zehrs Grocery in Orangeville tomorrow - in costume! - and I wanted to finish as much as I could so I can give the ladies some options on accessories.  I would like to make a few more than what I have here for each character, but funds are tight nowadays and so is time - curtain's in under a month!  We're still in the process of dealing with the finer details in the costumes themselves, which will be showstopping!  A few details have changed in the accessories, as well - instead of clip-on earrings, they'll have earwires; I couldn't find silver clip-ons for the life of me, and was concerned about their hold during our dance numbers.  I won't be putting magnet clasps on the necklaces, either - again, funds are tight nowadays!  A lobster clasp will be used for the necklaces; still has that same security when dancing around.  Let's check out what we have!

The Green Girl (that's me!)  Matching lampwork glass in coin and tube beads made a great chunky bracelet, strung on stretch wire, with a pair of earrings to match! I had made a second pair with faceted acrylic beads for a costume change.