I am currently in high gear, or as my wonderful husband says "the sweatshop is up and running."  I am going thru my stash of beads so fast I can't wait for the show next Sunday to stock back up.  My new goal is to have 400 pieces of available jewelry for my next 3 shows.  Ambitious, but I think I can do it.  I am also getting ready to start a new blog area featuring other artists on the web.  So yes, I have a lot of irons in the fire.

I have created more altered art pendants and charms to be used in my jewelry.  I am finding so many wonderful resources on the web.  I get many vintage type images from a group on Flickr.  You need to be a member of this group but it is great Collage Images. Google images is always an interesting source and I just recently stumbled on a site called Polyvore.

Polyvore is very interesting.  You can create your own collage images using a variety of sources.  I can spend hours just looking at the work already on the site, and I haven't even tried to make my own yet.   Here are some pictures of my recent creations:

All these pieces are available on Art Fire

October 24th Cash and Carry Sale

 

Here is the flyer for my upcoming show!  Come see me October 24th at the Alexandria VFW for the Cash and Carry Sale!

Silk Flower Pins

Well, I saw a flower on a dress on Etsy and loved it, but couldn't buy just the flower, and the dress was too small!  So I have thought about it for about a week and whipped out the hot glue gun to create my own.  I searched the web for a variety of sites about how to do this, and the only thing I didn't already have was the flower petals.  I saw some really pretty petals at Michael's called Daisy Doodles for about $5 a jar (for 36 flower pieces).  I just wasn't ready to spend a lot of money for an experiment!  So off to WalMart, where you can find a little bit of everything. 
First I needed to buy more glue, I hadn't used that gun in years and have no idea where the glue could be.  I looked for some clips for the pins, but didn't find any, so I figured I would just use the pin parts I already had at home.  Then to the silk flower section!  Prices ranged from $.94 to $7.00.  Since this was my first try, I went with the less expensive ones.  Then home to tear the flowers apart for their pieces, a great way to deal with life's little frustrations. 
I made one...not so good, I made a second one...better, but still not right...but the third and fourth one  I think I got it!  I used wire for one with a little hot glue, and the other one was just glued.  I think I like the wired and glue one the best.  I added some crystals and beads for the centers.  Here are the results:



I think I would even make Martha proud!


These are available for sale on ArtFire