My second Fiber Necklace, also in Brown -- In Progress

The Beads and Baubels Show was requesting entires into a competition and I thought that I would make a fiber necklace similar to the one I made my sister a couple months ago (which she liked). I started it last Monday; stitched the bobbins together (versus wiring) and got the yarns cut and then, instead of continuing, watched Lilly for a week, went the Bywater and the Palmer Art Market ... even cleaned house a (very) little ... everything but finished the fiber necklace. As a result, I entered ... nada .. to the show.

And then, on Sunday, my dearest sister called and indicated she had a friend who was in want of a similar necklace ... red. So, I thought that I'd make several of these and put online in my store and let her choose which one ... i.e., get my sister out of the middle.

Now, back to the necklace. Cleared off my table this afternoon and pulled the necklace back to the center. Selected the probably beads and started making the bead sets. I'll continue tomorrow.

Chub Chub Chocker & Pull upcycled from an sad belt

I don't remember when I picked up this sad little belt, but it's been hanging out for some time amongst my found objects. I came across it yesterday while looking for something else, and ... not really sure why, but it demanded it's turn for a new life.



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I pulled it out and started taking it apart. And, by the time I was half finished, the idea of the choker sprang forward. So, pulled out the beads ... purple of course (you know, gold & purple ... LSU Tigers and all that) and added a new clasp.


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Then, still had 9 of the gold ball/beads and some chain left, so made a few more bead sets (well yes ... purple), and made a matching Zipper Pull. Changed out the Lobster Clasp as the one on the original belt was in bad shape. There are still 6 of the ball/beads left; I returned them to inventory.

With the exception of the findings and the clasps, everything in these two are found objects. I'll be listing them in my artfire shop.

Beads & Baubels Extravaganza, Mandeville Trailhead

Okay, my first 'not mosaic' show. The weather cooled back to the upper 60's and it really did stop raining. Great deal. The show was just three hours. Sign in at 11:30am, setup for a 1pm start and finish at 4pm. I didn't hear the number of artists present, but I'd guess around 30.

On the low side, the Trailhead never really got around to advertising it, so turn-out was VERY VERY low. In talking with those around me, seems we averaged about one sale per artist and I had one ... thank you Kelly; I appreciate your support and hope you love the wrist cuff.

On the High Side ... the weather was wonderful, I was surrounded by a great group of artists, the woman playing the keyboard and horns was quite good and provided a enjoyable environment, some woman came by selling pastries @ 2 for $1.00, and they were great! I also learned that set up of the current configuration takes about 30 and dear Beau continues to be the greatest sport a husband and best friend could be.

I also added a few items to my needs improvement list:

• I have to make a fitted table cover; pinning the tablecloth to keep it from flying away is none to classy.
• I don't like the display I created for the charm bracelets and will need to invent something different. (Poked around looking for clues online and found nada).
• I need to make some type of backdrops for the gridwalls (for when the tent sides are not in use). I think the open space creates distraction. I need to make the wrist cuffs the features. I'll contemplate this over the next few days.

So, although I just had one sale (again, thank you Kelly), I'm considering it a success.

Yard Sale Saturday, March 28th ... Abita Whole Town Yardsale, Postponed

March 29th is the official date for the Abita Springs Whole Town Yard Sale. But, it rained in preparation. It rained Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ... a little over 4".

This is one of the biggest yard sales of the year ... like yard sales everywhere. Just drive up and down the streets and there they are. Like so many yard sales that at some point one gets tired of stopping for them and just goes home.

Got up early in preparation and just as I was getting ready to go out the door, Beau heard on TV that it was being postponed until next weekend. Ya right! Now I know that some city governments can pull off big things, but a whole town yardsale !! So, I drove up there anyways ... the whole 6 miles. And, as it turns out, only 1/2 (my guess) the town postponed the sale. Heard a variety of times that it appears the rain had stopped and since they had everything ready they just proceeded, even if their town hall postponed.

So yard sale it was .... I lost count, but I'm guess-ti-mating that I made around 25 before getting a bit bored and going home. For this number, my finds are incredible low. Usually on this particular adventure I come home with bags and bags ... but, this time ...

FINDS:

• 2 Fishermen Rulers
• a handful of jewelry pieces, old earrings, a necklace .... nothing really special but decent additions for charm bracelets, pulls and such.
• A whole bunch of buttons .. probably 300 or more
• 5 Scarves
• Some Gold String Ties
• A Childrens Tie with a tie tac that says GAP. (I wanted the tie tac)
• A Metal Belt

A Charm Bracelet with Silver Leaves and Green Beads

I brought home a green necklace & earrings from yard sale last Saturday. I took the necklace apart this morning to put away to inventory, and noticed there were a couple links of metal leaves I'd picked up at Hobby Lobby a month or two ago also laying o the side table (waiting to be put away). Seemed these two would match up to an attractive bracelet. Liked the idea of the leaves being silver (to correspond with the chain) and the beads being green. (Versus green leaves and silver beads).

Pulled a silver necklace chain from the inventory drawer. Cut it down to be bracelet size and reattached the same clasp. Dug around in the inventory drawer and pulled out some small accent beads in lighter green, yellow and orange. Seperated 8 silver leaves and made up 14 bead sets and attached all to the silver bracelet.

So, for this piece, the leaves and findings were purchased new, everything else is found object.
Packaged up the remaining materials and put away in inventory. I'll add this to the charm bracelets for sale on Sunday, and should it not sell, I'll list it in my Artfire shop next week.

Five More Charm Bracelets

I made these right before Lilly came to visit to add to the items I'm taking to the Beads and Baubles show.

I like Charm bracelets; the way they clink about and have a variety of interests. I've not yet made just a simple bead bracelet ... seems a bit boring ... I start with selecting chain from the 'chain' container .. quite a few bracelet chain in there, then select somethings from the found items, and fill in the rest with beads. This set of 5 bracelets is a good 90% found items. All the findings are new; 2 of the bracelets have new clasps and about 10 of the beads. Whatever doesn't sell this weekend will be listed in my Artfire shop next week.

I have one more in progress using Pegasus Doubloons on the workbench, and, if time permits before Sunday, just might do another one or two.

Lillian, my sweet granddaughter

Lillian came last weekend for a visit with her daddy and then stayed with us for an extra 4 days so her mommy could get unpacked from a recent move. She went back to her Mississippi home this afternoon.

I got very little done over this last week and I'm absolutely exhausted, but gosh, I do love this little girl so !

Sally, ready for her first Modeling Job

Okay, after the base coat, added some spray paint here and there and then added some of the song lyrics to "Mama Don't Allow", just for fun. Then, a few stamps in acrylic paint and abit more spray paint and a couple layers of polyacrylic and two coats of purple spray paint on the inside to seal and ... whew ... finished. Now, I think that she looks a little better in person than this picture ... which I took 4 times and they all look the same. She'll be attached to the Gridwall with a bungee band and will model the Fabric Bead Necklaces.

I'll take another picture when the show is setup on Sunday.

It's Sally, My First Model .... In Progress

I need a model for my tent to display the fabric neckaces. Something unique, not one of those ebay bought wall mannequins. I do have one of those though that I've been using to photo necklaces. I want the piece to be very light and stackable (in case an entire team gets created ... as sometimes happens with me). So, I decided to use the wall mannequin as a paper machie form.

Made a stop by Ace and picked up a new box of wallpaper paste. Beau (being the nice guy he is), shredded newspaper for me while watching basketball. Here's she is on the 2 nd of three layers of paper machie.

I'd used her as a concrete mold a couple times before (in my mosaic days). For form itself is quite thick (since it's meant to be a clothes model. I don't really like that thick look for an art piece, so I'd marked down a couple inches on the inside, so she's still 3-dimensional, but thin and sleek.

I'm working her on the Kitchen counter as that just seems a great place to be for 'Mess Control'. Cleans up nicely. After each layer, I put a fan on her on low and let her dry for a good 2 days. Somewhere between the second and third layer, I decided upon Sally for her name.

After applying the third layer, I let her dry for three days. I wanted to make sure there would be no mold problems growing within.

I took a small sanding pad and lightly went over her and then applied a layer of light brownish acrylic paint. The paint immedialy shows off all of her faults ... that lumpy, bumpy middle age cottage cheese thing going on, even if the breasts don't have the sag. Now, I've seem papier mache pieces that were incredible .. smooth like satin But, this certainly isn't one of them. I guess one could say that Sally is a model that only a mother could love!

No fret however, she's a great kid.

Yard Sale Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Thursday paper had an ad for a 200 family + yard sale at the new Arch Bishop Hannah School out on 1077. Well, I had to go to that. I've driven past the school a couple times while it was being built and, was interested to see what it looked like up close. So, dropped Beau off at the Trailhead, at 7am and headed out.

The sale itself was abit of a disappointment, alot of clothing (much that should have just been recycled to rags) and misc. stuff. Spent about 30 minutes browsing and then moved on.

I'd decided to take the back roads back home and just stop at where ever there might be a sign ... and found a good 8 yards sales. Finds :

• A set of green beads and matching clip earrings.
• 4 gumby's. These were in a package that indicate they were helpers to plant stands. Put the plant up against the stake and hold in place with the Gumby. Pretty Cool. I thought they might be handy in the tent to hold something in place against the gridwall. Not sure what the something might be, but for 50 cents, it's worth the guess.
• 1 inspirational stencil
• 3 scarves
• a package of 8 crochet hooks. I have no idea why I'm collecting these, however, have a good starting at a container of hooks and knitting needles.
• one old looking wood ruler.
• 2 bottles metallic silver fabric writing paint
• a sheet with three metal bookmarks. These are very thin metal and I thought they might be a fit on a bracelet.
• a package of small metal dominos

Visited the Covington Art Market and discovered the works of Robin Daning

We visited the Covington Art Market on Lee Lane this morning and was introduced to the works of Robin Daning. This incredible talented woman uses ink to paint intricate faces on dominos and then applies layer upon layer of laquer to them and then creates wonderful mixed media wall art.

INCREDIBLE STUFF. If I had money, by Gosh, I'd have purchased a good half dozen of her pieces. (As it stands, I'm going to have to be happy with the lone domino business card she gave me!). But, I'm addin her to my list of favorites and I'm recommending you take a few minutes to look over her work; it'll be time well spent !!!

r o b i n d a n i n g
	back to gallery carl and jojo pigmented ink, acrylic, and composite tile on board 5" x 5"
	r o b i n @ r o b i n d a n i n g . c o m	5 0 4 . 2 6 1 . 3 0 0 3	n e w o r l e a n s

Yard Sale Saturday, March 14, 2009

The first yard sale I visited this morning was just 14 houses down the road; talk about convenient .... and they had these two wonderful guitars. Although they are child size, they are intact ... strings and all and the sound quite good. They were marked $8.00 each, but the woman agreed to take $10.00 for both. THANK YOU. I'm quite excited (if you can't tell). I currently have three art guitars on my wall and would love to have a few more.

Visited 5 sales and have some great finds .... besides the guitars.

• 2 picture stands. I'm thinking I'll use these in my tent display.
• 10 Stencils. These are a great addition to my current supply. I'd looked a couple times at Hobby Lobby for some new stencils, but there are hardly any. Apparently these are no longer a popular item.
• 2 rubber stamps, golf related.
• 4 Scarves ... (as if I need any more, but jsut can't help myself)
• 6 pieces of scrap fabric. I like the colors and think they will make a great backdrop for wrist cuffs.
• A bag with a big variety of wood cutouts. Thought these might be handy as a base for brooches, and, perhaps, painted, turned into beads and sewed onto wrist cuffs. (sure hope folks like these wrist cuffs; they are fun to create and I'm collecting some great stuff for them).
• 1 roll of black thread (last but not least).

Charm Bracelets and alot of being sidetracked

Around 10am, decided I was going to spend a day or two putting together some charm bracelets. This seems like a logical move as my beads and found objects containers are almost overflowing. Need to create something with them so that I can, at least, move these items to another container ... finished items.

But, did I mention sidetracked .... I had just pulled out the 'chains' container (where I put all those chains I find at yard sales), and selected a few, when .... my dearest Farmer Beau ... shows at the back door with an entire bucket filled with Green Onions from the garden. It seems the jest of our household is Beau is responsible for the veggies until the are brought inside. Then, they are my problem ... uh, woops ... opportunity. So, I found myself standing at the sink washing probably 4 pounds of green onions .... what to do with them .... freeze, give away (did I mention there is probably another 4-5 pounds waiting to be pulled). Then, inspiration hit me and I pulled out the dehydrator and cut all those little onions into slices. They will be wonderful in future soups, stews, etc. And then, since I'm already in the kitchen and it's almost 11:30am, I cook up some Broccoli Cheese Soup and then we have lunch, and then we do the dishes and clean the kitchen and then I go to the Gym (with a quick stop by Grans, where I find a wonder red scarf that will be perfect for something), and then back to my studio to continue working on the bracelets. Gosh, it's 3pm !!!

But, was able to make some design decisions and work on two of them.

Big day tomorrow .... Yard Sale Saturday !! Sure hope it doesn't rain.

Enough Fabric / Scarf Necklaces, for now anyway

Over the last three days I created 13 of these necklaces, to go along with the 10 I created a month or two back, for a total of 23 to take to the Beads & Baubels Show.

I took photos of the 13 new necklaces this morning, and then pulled out the other 10 and applied sales tags and descriptions to all ... getting them ready. The only thing left to do is decide how I want to display them in the tent ..... hummmmm

All but three of the necklaces are created using the scarves from my yard sale finds. The three not scarves ... one is a heavy silk, one a tapestry material and one a medium weight cotton. Of these, I like the scarves the best. I find the fabric ones are a bit stiffer on the ties. Don't get me wrong, they are attractive and great necklaces ... just a bit stiffer to tie. I did learn that the scarves have to be of a certain weight ... the shears shred in the cutting process. (Or, perhaps, I just need to upgrade my sissors .... again, hummmm ).

I'm not planning on creating anymore before they show. This number should be adequate to determine if there is community interest in these, as well as give the shopper some variety to choose from.

I'll be posting these in my Artfire shop, as well, as I go through the next week ... evening TV time activity.

Fabric Necklaces, some yes and some no

For the last two days I've been creating Fabric Necklaces. Actually the fabric is the vintage and/or upcycled scarves from my yard sale finds .... I've created 7 so far. It's continuing to be a learning experience. In addition to the 7, I've thrown out 3. With this group, I've learned that some of the scarf fabrics are too fragile for sewing. Discovered this when the seams of one of the first (in this batch) of necklaces started coming loose while inserting the styrofoam balls. So, took up double stitching the bias and side seams. On the most fragile of fabrics, however, it didn't make much difference. Sew and learn !!!. I'll have to find a different use for these most fragile scraves.

I really like these. I think the variations of patterns on the scarves make for an interesting appearance. I have three more of the scraves that I've cut. Then, I'm going to open up the container of the vintage 60's fabric sitting in the corner and select a couple of those to try with regular lightweight fabrics. That is whats' on tomorrows slate anyway.

Yard Sale Saturday, March 7, 2009

What a great morning; the sky is blue and clear and the temp is in the upper 60's. I saw only two ads in Thursday' paper in my circle, however, came across a good half dozen on my journey. A good assortment of finds :

• Two storage boxes
• Half a package of plastic clothes pins
• 4 rolls of USPS tape; 1 with dispenser (stocking up for upcoming mailings)
• a half dozen bracelets; 4 beaded & 2 chained.
• 10 pair of vintage metal type earrings ... large and a bit gawdy; The woman said they had belonged to her aunt and were worn in the 70s.
• 7 packages of silk flowers (to sew onto whatever)
• 25 pieces of ribbon (from a woman who made barretts for her granddaughter)
• 3 scarves
• 2 fabric pins
• 8 tassels
• 2 disney keychains

Expenditures = $17.25 (since I'm going to start keeping track of what I'm spending).

My favorite stop was over on America Street (where I picked up the 3 scarves). There were 3 ladies (I'd say in their 70's) sitting at the checkout table. I told them to close their eyes while I pulled my money from my bra. One of the ladies confessed that, when she goes to the Casino, she puts her cell phone in her bra. She said she wished someone would make some kind of necklace that would hold her cellphone ... like those eyeglass holders. Hummm ..

Planning on another group of Scarf Beaded Necklaces

I'm going to make up another group of the fabric beaded necklaces for the upcoming Beads & Baubles show. I currently have 10 and would like to have around 30 for the show so there is some variety to choose from.

Pulled out my container of oblong scarves and selected about a dozen of them. There is a lovely selection here. It seems sad that these were unwanted and landed in yard sales.

Going through them, I realized the pink cotton scarf is a FORD product ... I was thinking how funny and wondering if perhaps they were giving away scarves with purchases of pink vehicles. Then, as I was writing this, jumped over and did a Google ... woops, similar ones are selling on Ebay for $15 to $30. Appears this Ford's Breast Cancer Awareness Program. Guess I should have looked before I measured it out and cut it up !

Cut up all but 2 of the scarves. Those two, I put back in the container thinking they might be too fragile.

Painted Canvas Wrist Cuffs

I've been working for the last couple days creating another set of Canvas Wrist Cuffs for the upcoming Beads & Baubles Show. These are great fun to create. Each piece is like a minature collage ... endless possibilities.

BEADS & BAUBLES EXTRAVAGANZA

Received an e-mail from a member of the Lartisans Team indicating she was going to participate in the Beads & Baubles Show at the Trailhead on 3/29 and suggested I join her.

Well, what the heck ... I've not done a show in a long time and I've not gone out with my fabric cuffs or necklaces at all. So, went on over to the Trailhead this morning and paid my $25.00 table fee.

Now ... going to have to get in gear and dedicate some time to create some nice pieces.