My Mom has a great talent: she can recreate anything in the kitchen after tasting it once. I wrote about her ability to deconstruct & reconstruct recipes in a prior post.
I do not share this culinary talent, however I have a similar ability with jewelry. I will see something beautiful at the accessory counter at Nordstrom and can (usually) figure out how to recreate it at home. Even when shiny things are on deep discount, I think to myself I can make that for sooooo much less...
Case in point: I have seen variations of cup chain bracelets all over the place. Here are some that I made in my studio after studying the ones at Bloomingdale's:
I made six of these in various color combinations and wore several at once on our recent vacation. With the button closures staggered it creates an interesting look--stacked bracelets are so hot right now.
The purpose of this post is two-fold; to show you new finished work and to blow my own horn. In late July I will be teaching a workshop in which I teach this technique at Artside Studio in Fullerton. Carol & Steffi of Artside have created a wonderful gallery, studio and workshop space and I'm sure they would appreciate it if you like them on Facebook. I am terribly excited about the opportunity to teach at Artside, and I am grateful to Steffi for taking this gorgeous photo of my work.
If you are in the Orange County area and would like to take this class, you can get more information on the Artside website page for the workshop.
Art is fun!
The family agreed several years ago to give mostly hand-made or home-made gifts at the holiday season.
This year, the offerings were wonderful and varied:
Oldest daughter Kage made coffee/sugar facial scrub for the women of the family and peppermint bark for the men, both presented in mason jars. Here's hoping that none of the couples mix up their jars...
Son BeanBeanMoreBean created dozens of tiny (business-card sized) paintings and asked us each to chose our favorite.
Youngest daughter Smallest of All took a photograph of a table that my grandmother (G-Nan to the kids) had given her. She then altered the photo to add one of G-Nan's most familiar sayings in a font that looks like cross-stitch and gave us each a large print of the final product.
I worked for several weeks making holiday-themed earrings, which I hung on a jewelry organizer from Home Goods. (Slight diversion: If you do not have a Home Goods nearby, I weep for you.) Everyone was invited to chose a pair for herself or for his significant other.
This is what the selection looked like before the family arrived on Christmas Day:
The jewelry organizer was perched on the music rail of our 1910 Milton upright piano. My Mom disassembled the piano and refinished it in the garage of my childhood home back in 1969. I come from crafty stock.
Here are a few close-ups of the earrings:
From the left, the designs are: Christmas tree, angel, Christmas tree again, gold snowflake with lots of dangles and holiday gift with bow on top.
Another close-up:
Besides another view of the Christmas tree and holiday gift design, this view shows the snowman design.
It was fun to see which design each family member and friend selected. Making the earrings was great fun, too, because they were finished so quickly that I didn't experience my usual foot-dragging dislike of finishing a piece.
Which design do you think was most popular? Which one do you like best?
Happy Holidays to all! I am looking forward to a creative New Year.
