Lost Aussie on the loose

An Online Jewelry Class

My dear friend and long time Art Pal, Deryn Mentock is debuting the first of her solo online jewlery class workshops and I am so excited to be able to play "student" instead of teacher for a while.

Fiddling with wire and beads has been a long time passion of mine - but well, what with travel and many other "life" moments it's hard to get to take a workshop.

Deryn has come up with my perfect solution - an online event that will offer me the opportunity to refresh some old skills and build upon some new.

I'm excited and if jewelry making is your thing, I know you will be too....

Check out Deryn's workshop here....

Pigs and Pink

My earring jag continues and I've made two more pairs today as well as this FuN Pink Pig Piece. 

The Pig is in fact a little bell, and was a curious find at the bead store in Eastport and I only made one as I recently learned that my friend Chris has a bit of a penchant for single earrings (hehe)...

All this earring therapy today was a result of me being hamstrung and off limits to my main 'pooter'.  In my infinite wisdom I set my new 1.5terrabyte hard drive to back up at 10am (when I am usually not at the computer) - of course I forgot to factor in the fact that today would be the first new back-up and it took hours, and hours and hours! 8 in fact.

So, I finally get my hands back on da' machine and am able to catch up on a few of the electronic thoughts that have crossed my mind today......Pink seemed to be Pervasive :-)

And I think this one will be entitled - "Ode to Fashion Week"

An "other" thought..

As opposed to an "afterthought"
- today I determined that I would "make" something concrete, as opposed to some digital "thing" that I can stow away on my hard drive....

(I've been struggling with that whole concept lately!)

So, grabbed the first magazine that was lying around, which happened to be an issue of Belle Armoire - Winter 2009, flicked through the pages and settled on creating a pair of earrings a la Deryn Mentock. 
Deryn and I have been art friends for many years, long before she became the jewelery artist and teacher that she is now and I continue to admire her wonderful craftsmanship and skills.

Her instructions to make these wrapped and beaded earrings were simple and easy to follow.  Of course I had to make my own detours along the way, but I guess that's the point really?? 
Instead of leather and beads I used Sari silk for the wrapping and found some other wonderful heart beads out of my stash to hang off the end.

I already know where these are going to fly home to and it was quite a lot of fun to pull them together - so I see a few more pairs of these being made quite soon!

Hearts, Flowers and Friendship

My California Gal Pal and I are having a blast this week, creating art, messing with my new etching press, touring the sights of New York City and today, playing with PMC.

It's so nice to be able to share time with Catherine, exchange ideas, gossip some and have the opportunity to try new things!

Today Catherine hauled out her PMC supplies and I got an up close and personal lesson in the art of Silver jewelry making.  I made my first ever ring, two pairs of earrings, a charm or two and had a total blast!
Of course there will be a whole slew of supplies needed to feed my new addiction but I somehow think they will wait until I have mastered skills with the Etching Press and all the opportunities THAT provides! Ideas are already burbling in my head!