Tuesday, October 29, 2019

2019 Squared Bangle (headed straight to Lansing Art Gallery)


I haven't posted the Cat's Meow Bangle yet, but I think it's appropriate to post this little set that I just dropped off at the Lansing Art Gallery today.  The colors come from the Cat bangle, but I dropped in some lavender and then went through my old patterns to see what I haven't made in a long time or do not have in stock anymore.  This Squared Bangle pattern popped up, originally inspired by a tunic/dress that I got from Grace years ago (2010 to be exact), the pattern still holds well in other colors.


I did decide to create a different style earring this morning from the pattern since I wasn't a fan of the original one I had made 10 years ago (see above link).  I love how it turned out so much I'm making a similar one for my holiday stock.


Speaking of holiday stuff, I'm not doing a ton this year, but I will have new jewelry at Lansing Art Gallery, and you can catch me at their Opening Reception on Friday, November 8th.

I have also already shipped work to the Textile Center in Minneapolis, MN for their Holiday Gift Shop.


The Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild Show is Saturday November 9th, 2019, 10am to 4pm  Check out their Facebook Event Here.  I'll be there all day helping, demonstrating, etc.

I have one pop up event (so far, I may do one other) at REACH Art Studio's Not So Silent Night On December 14th, 2019.



Saturday, October 26, 2019

Erte Inspiration 2005


I am frequently inspired by other artists and Erte happens to be a consistent one for me.  I was really focused on the simplicity of how he represented his faces and so I started this design with a face in the bottom left corner.  This is before I was using photoshop to draft my designs so I drew it out on the floor of my 1 bedroom apartment in Boulder, Colorado and went from there.  I think if I had been using a computer for this design, it would have turned out a bit different.


I was using leftover hand dyed rayon for the base of this Theo Moorman weaving, the design portion is cotton and rayon chenille which gives Theo Moorman Inlay a great texture.


This piece is currently on view at the Haslett Library through the end of October 2019, but I'm looking forward to having it back home in m bedroom, it's usually one of the first things that I see when I wake up in the morning.


Friday, October 18, 2019

Always Rooted Tapestry 2010


I was playing a lot with tapestry back when I had my loom set up at Grove Gallery.  Sometimes when I'm stumped on pattern or inspiration but I just need to keep making, I default to checks.  I like even numbers, multiples of 4, there's a certain ease of organization to it that I need.  Hence referring to this piece as "Always Rooted" going back to that root equation for me.


Checks or "two-tone" also represents one of my favorite music styles, ska.  So it's another level of a reminder of what I default to.  I never go completely black and white though, as you can see in the above detail I mixed some variegated yarn in that had black in it, but I always need some color.


This piece is currently showing at the Haslett Library (in the Bookend) through the end of the month.  I thought it was only going to the end of last month but when I contacted them as to when to take it down they were happy to leave it up and I'm happy to have one less thing to do as I prep for Halloween and get jewelry together for galleries and upcoming shows!


Thursday, October 3, 2019

Aziraphale x Crowley Bangle


For Halloween this year Bryan thought we should be Crowley and Aziraphale from the book/Amazon show Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen.  Some Halloweens costume research inspires me to create new jewelry designs.  This year I've been looking at a lot of angel wings. 


I had a more traditional image in mind, wings evenly spread aligned next to each other.  The more images I looked at of Crowley and Aziraphale with their wings crossed or spread next to each other, the more the idea of showing both angel and demon wings together in one piece emerged.  


If you've been following along on Instagram, I appreciate all the likes and comments as I've been beading along!


I am so pleased as to how this piece turned out.  It also seems to go with all of the outfits I'm wearing to work right now.  It shows both black and white, the black wings lined in a matte silver and the white wings lined in a matte 24K gold bead.  



I'm also trying to post videos a bit more often.  I would say I'm no good at editing, but it's a start and I figure the more I do it, the more I'll learn (and laugh at old videos).  I think I cut the beginning of this one too much, but it shows part of my process on this bangle:

So here's a video of my slow process, showing a little bit of beading on this bangle.


Playing with Fire (Small Weaving)

I doodled these matches back in 2015. I had gotten divorced, I was out a lot and "playing with fire" was feeling like the best des...