My large Moleskine...

Since I've finished up my smaller Moleskine, I decided to continue in my larger one. Pilot V-5 pen and watercolors.

Smallworks Today

The Lollipop Zone

City Life

I had some time this morning to add color to these line drawings I did with India ink on Bristol the other day. Of course, that meant that I didn't get to shower until 1:00 pm. Some Saturdays were just meant for being lazy with art priorities up near the top of the to-do list. :)

These were both added to the FineArtsATC trading group about 40 minutes ago, and they've already been traded! That was fast. :) Looks like I'll need to make some more. I've got some great art coming in return to add to my original trading card collection.

Glass Wrapped Pendant

I'm still experimenting with various jewelry projects. These were glass chips that I wrapped with wire and then added little wire wrapped bead charms. Once again, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing when I start these pieces, but the time spent bending the wire and constructing the abstract shapes is quite relaxing. I'm still using inexpensive materials, so the fear of destroying sterling silver wire is not hovering over me. eeeeek!

Original Art Beads

I have missed painting the real tiny paintings that I used to do a few years ago, so I decided to paint on one of my hand formed polymer beads. I used a variety of acrylics, pencils, and ink to decorate this piece and finished with a glaze for protection. It measures 1 5/8" wide, 1" high, and is 1/4" thick. I've opened a store on Etsy to sell some of my collaged smallworks as well as my jewelry projects, or else I will be buried under the swelling creations.

I am looking forward to making more of these beads. It combines my two interests... painting and jewelry.

Wired Necklace

This poor thing is NOT perfect, as it is my first fully wired necklace. Each link and curly doodad was done with a pair of round nose pliers and my uncoordinated fingers. I didn't use a pattern for the necklace concept, sort of made up wired elements as I went along and then linked them together. An original design???? ha ha! Humor me please...

I think I learned a lot by tackling this project---like maybe it's easier to use a wigjig to form wired sections that completely match, but I really wanted to try and make this entirely by "primitive" methods. I used a knitting needle to construct jump rings (wrapping the wire around and around into lots of coils and then cutting) and also tried those spiral end pins. Perhaps with practice, I will get more "accomplished". :) Still, it's always a thrill to do something that I've never done before. For those that know me, the repetition thing really bores me, so I've always got my hands in something new.

This is made from cheap beads that I had picked up at Joannes with inexpensive craft wire. No sense in wasting good sterling silver wire to learn on!!!! I made the earring hooks and the necklace loop/clasp all by hand. These aren't even MY colors... so, now I don't know what to do with them. LOL

Stay tuned for more "I don't know what I'm doing" jewelry-making adventures.

Antique Look Applied

My polymer learning project... paint applied and sealed after baking. It was hard to photograph all the fine details and texture that the gold glaze brought out in each pendant/bead. Now what to do with them???? Enter the creative zone... more to come. :)

I've come to the end of the small Moleskine. This is my last page, so I thought I'd close with a snapshot of where I am now. I think I'll end each journal like this... with a visual of who I am at the end of each creative chapter of my life.

Graphite, watercolor, altered photograph.

Dreaming Under An Aqua Moon

The other page I did yesterday with Caitlin while watching television on our rainy "drawing" day. I just realized that I put down the incorrect date on these pages... obviously I was not concerned about what day it was... LOL

Watercolor pencils, graphite and water soluble pastels in my small Moleskine.

Lazy, rainy afternoon

Caitlin and I watched television from the master bed as we sketched together in our books... skimming through magazines looking for images that inspired us. It was raining outside, and we totally enjoyed being lazy, lounge-lizards.

This was a strawberry that I saw in my Real Simple magazine. Voila! A real simple sketch. :)

Pencil and watercolor pencils in my small Moleskine.

Fourth of July fun...

Dogs just wanna have fun!

Jeff and our Golden Retriever, Bentley.

Our fourth of July may look like it was spent entertaining our dog, but we did have human fun too. Mom and Dad came over for a barbecue, and earlier in the day we took Caitlin to see Superman Returns. Later in the evening we watched the neighborhood fireworks from our pool. Caitlin and I went in for an evening swim, and Bentley the Golden was extremely jealous that he was NOT invited for the night water fun. :)

A double strand bracelet

I wanted to try a double strand bracelet using up some extra stone beads that I had from previous necklace creations. I didn't leave enough play at the end for the toggle to insert smoothly, so I had to take it apart and restring the last few beads... lessons learned the hard way. :) But now it works just right.

Beginning of an antique pendant

I'm working from a book entitled CREATING YOUR OWN ANTIQUE JEWELRY by Cris Dupouy. This is my first pendant with a glass focal piece. This will be glazed with metallic gold paints to give it an antique patina character.

Made from black premo polymer clay. It measures 2 x 2 3/4 inches, including the handmade bail on top. I took a basic idea from the book, but I changed the design and made my own embellishments according to what I was capable of at the time. :)

The baking part went fine until I took it out of the oven and was concerned about the flexibility of the piece, which did harden more as it cooled down, but at first I thought I had "undercooked" it. I wish they would tell you what to expect on the polymer packaging. I think a lot of people unfamiliar with this type of clay would expect it to be very hard like a ceramic piece, but in fact it is more like a very hard rubber texture, which is actually much better for it ends up feeling very lightweight and perfect for the larger pendants that I want to design.

Collaged Beads

I rummaged through my art boxes and found some wooden rectangular beads that were already pre-drilled with holes--perfect for beading! I decided to take bits of collage materials and make vintage type beads using old papers... which then led to Asian style beads and an Egyptian bead. Now I just have to design the necklaces and string them into something wearable.