Village Gallery Art Challenge Show Starts May 6th

The Village Gallery of Arts 2014 Art Challenge Show starts Tuesday, May 6th. I totally redid my four 6x6 pieces for the show. I took floral drawings from my sketchbook and reworked them in acyclic paint. I really like using Golden's modern palette.

This year, I also participated in the jewelry challenge.  It was fun to play with painted paper, collage, a Copperplate calligraphic word- "discover", resin, fiber, beads and wire. The Gallery gave each person in this challenge the pendant in the middle of my necklace. I took off the hanging loop on the top, changed the orientation to landscape and filled it with collage and resin, set it in a larger bezel.  Stop by the Gallery and check out the one-hundred participants' four 6x6 pieces and the jewelry.  The show will be up until the end of May.

Word Keys for Open Doors Show

I made more word keys for our Portland Art Collective Show and Sale in December. Last year, they were very popular. The safety deposit keys are flooded with solder with metal stamped words, hand soldered silver jump rings, beads and a bit of fiber.

Words become keys to life, a reminder to dream or play. Many artists choose a word for the New Year to guide them in their artwork. Selecting one can be a powerful affirmation and tool for change for anyone.
I used the skills that I learned in Stephanie Lee's Homesteaders Metalsmithing online class
to make the keys and brooches.

Jewelry for Portland Art Collective December Show

Completing projects for our December Portland Art Collective Show is keeping me busy. The brooches are now finished. The pin back has a bail so they may be worn as a pendant.




Last summer, I took Stephanie Lee's Homesteaders Metalsmithing online course. These brooches were inspired by her class. They are soldered bezels with my drawings, resin, sterling silver branches and wire wraps. In the coming weeks, I'll share more of my artwork for the show.

Homesteader's Metalsmithing

For the past month, I've been taking Stephanie Lee's online class called Homesteader's Metalsmithing. She's offering another class starting September 8th. I highly recommend her course- good quality videos and PDF files. We learned how to make soldered bezels, patina them and add resin.

I flooded the key above with solder, stamped the word 'Dream', added patina and a soldered link and beads.

The butterfly is a brass stamped image that I added to a solder-flooded piece of metal, added patina and eyelets. All will be made into jewelry that I'll sell at our Portland Art Collective Art Show December 3rd and 4th at Multnomah Art Center. With fall here and school starting, I feel like getting back to work to create items for our show. I like this homesteader's metalsmithing.

Fabric Jewelry Ideas

Saturday, I took a class from Dawn Grunwald on making fabric jewelry. She shared a couple ideas that help make free motion machine stitching easier. First, use an embroidery hoop. It helps to give more control in moving the fabric. Use small stitch setting on machine. Move the hoop slowly with fast speed stitching. The results are smaller stitches and a better way to create your design.
She layers sheers over fabric, cuts the stitched forms out and makes a necklace. See how Alisa Burke takes a similar idea using M and J Trims here.
We also made pins with layer of reclaimed silk fabric, felt, a little needle felted yarn and a button on top.
For the pin back, we cut a piece of felt into a circle, made a couple slits to feed the pin back and glued the felt and pin back to the layered pin. It's a great idea and the pin back will not come off.
This makes me want to get out fabric scraps and play.

Kimono Fabric Bead Necklaces Ready for Show

The kimono fabric bead necklaces are ready for the Portland Art Collective "Open Doors" Show this coming Friday and Saturday. I enjoyed making tags for them. It feels good to finish a project.

Here's a photo of several necklaces lined up and below is a close up view.

I hope you can come to the show. It's in the gymnasium of the Multnomah Arts Center. Multnomah Village celebrates their Holiday Gala December 4th & 5th with carriage rides, a tree lighting, caroling and other events. Check HERE for more information. It's great fun for the whole family

Sweets? Sushi? No, Kimono Fabric Beads

The sewing needle flew yesterday as I added seed beads to my kimono fabric beads.

Here the kimono fabric beads are unadorned.

The seed beads add sparkle and interest. Today, I'm crocheting chains with Japanese fibers from Habu Textiles to assemble the necklaces. I like the nubby texture of their yarns.

Lucky Dress Form Find at Monticello Antiques

It's amazing when you put your radar out there to find something, it appears when least expected. I've been looking for a dress form to display my handmade jewelry at our Portland Art Collective 'Open Doors' Show. The perfect dress form found me today. I don't know how old it is but I love all the wing nuts and metal inner workings. It rests on a four claw-footed metal stand that can be floor or table height.

Here's the outer label. Thanks to our sketch date at Monticello Antiques, the discovery is made.

More Wire Crocheted & Beaded Necklaces

My crochet hook is flying and making more necklaces for our Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show next month. I really like this three strand beauty.

Be sure to mark your calendars for December 4th & 5th. Detailed information on the show is located on the sidebar. Hope to see you there.

Prayer Box Bracelets for "Open Doors" Show

This week, I made prayer box bracelets for our Portland Art Collective "Open Doors" Show in December. All of the show details are located to the right in the sidebar. I plan to sell different types of necklaces. You can see an example of the kimono bead necklace Here, the bead crocheted wire necklaces Here and the fabric, bead and wire vintage-look necklaces Here. You're welcome to come to the show. It's a wonderful place to find handmade artwork for holiday gifts.

Mark your calendar now for December 4th and December 5th.

Art & Soul Wing Keeper Necklace Workshop

The past week, I saw many friends and took some workshops at Art & Soul in Portland. Deryn Mentock's "Wing Keeper Necklace" class really got my creative juices flowing. Check out her blog Here for more examples of her work and her teaching schedule. I wanted to learn how she makes her fabric, wire wrapped beads, attachments to ribbons and other cold connections. Her design combinations of wire, chain, beads, antique jewels and fiber make beautiful necklaces and bracelets. Here's my necklace-

the fabric, wire wrapped beads-

the clasp and dream catcher beads-

I'll be adding posts for other workshops I attended during the next week.

Crochet Bead and Wire Jewelry

About ten years ago, my first artistic endeavors led me to beading. The colors and textures of the beads and all the infinite combinations drew me into making jewelry. My grandmother taught me how to crochet. Now I can't stop combining the two with wire.

Check here for my first post on crocheting with beads and wire. Here are a few examples of necklaces and earrings that I've made recently.

The earrings coordinate with the necklaces. We all need a little bling in our lives.

Fiber Jewelry- A Kimono Fabric Bead Necklace

This summer, I learned how to make these fabric beads at Mary Stanley's Charm School. Here's the necklace that I completed. One of my goals for our Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show in December is to make more fiber jewelry. It's light weight, different and fun to create.

Gem Faire Crocheted Wire Necklace

Before going on vacation, I took a crochet wire class at the Bead Faire from Jade Gunnarson. She's a jewelry designer and offers classes for Gem Faire. The examples of her jewelry designs linked above come from Kazuri- handcrafted beads from Kenya.
My art and craft interests started with beading. I've always wanted to learn how to crochet with wire. The necklace contains tiger eye, crystals and seed beads. It's a fun process and very different than crocheting with fibers. Jade is a great teacher and I highly recommend her Gem Faire classes.