ah-choo

the boyz and i have been sick for almost 2 weeks now, and steph is starting from the sounds of it.......this week is spring break for the older 2 and the youngest has a couple of weeks off, so this week we are off to have lunch at different parks this week, exercise, feed some ducks stale crackers and bread.......do you ever think if we gave those poor things fresh bread and crackers they would spit them out and say 'yuck these things taste fresh!'

i am hoping to have some playtime in my studio wednesday or thursday....it is suppose to rain so that means my youngest, who is evel knevel on speed, will be confined to the indoors! i feel really guilty, for just a second or two, looking forward to this.....but i haven't arted in almost 2 weeks and i am having withdrawls REALLY BAD!!!!!

hope to have some pics of art to post by friday! now i gotta run since i have just been informed by sam that max in up in the tree in the backyard doing something........uh boy.....hand me a xanax and call 911.......

the necklace

this necklace originally came about because i was going to submit
it for a challenge to somerset for using nature in your art. well, i
decided at the last minute to do it, then had not time to sit and actually work on, except for in my mind. the last day, when it was almost complete so i could mail it, we had a snow storm, it was our youngests birthday, the circuit breaker kept needing to be reset in my studio, which we later found out was due to some new bulbs my husband had been told would be ok to use....thanks home depot man! our hot water heater was working on its 3rd thermo cupler in 4 years, that we found out was due to a manufacturers defect. so during all of the chaos i am trying to get this all together to send off, and while my husband is off trying to get the part for the water heater in freshly fallen snow slick roads the circuit breaker goes again and i have an 'aha' moment when i realize the connection, but can not do anything until he gets home because i can not reach the bulbs, the hubby phones home to say the trucks thermostat is going wonky.....what a day.

well, to make a long story short, i feel there are no accidents, no mistakes and
knew right away there was a reason that the universe was not allowing
me to send this off. there is a call for art for the belle armoire
jewelry book due in april! i might have to make a twin of this though,
i don't know if i can stand to send it away now for 9 - 12 months!

the bottles hold teeney shells, and sand. 1 shell has the vintage image
of a bathing beauty in it. one shell says 'she sells' and another
says 'sea shells'.
there is a 'branch' that comes off the side of the necklace, also
to resemble a form of coral, and because i love asymmetry in my pieces!
some of the soldered blobs are suppose to look like water droplets.

i used the nature made holes in the seashells. i had been told and read many years ago that the dust from drilling into shells is toxic.

some reduced copies of bathing beauty post cards
i purchased last year, the top photo i soldered blobs to
resemble coral!

some more close-ups of the necklace. the images
are from vintage dictionary pages and some
bathing beauty postcards i purchased last year that
i finally got a chance to use!

the bracelet that is not yet complete

smooth soldering

last week i decided i was going to spend the whole weekend in my studio if need be until i mastered perfect soldered dots. up to this point i have only been able to create lumpy-bumpy-rough-scratchy-blobs. i had originally soldered this piece of broken vintage china a year ago and it has just been hanging around my studio waiting to be made into the perfect piece of jewelry.
the more i practiced making dots the more solder accumulated
on this piece and i figured it was destined for the trash.
but after awhile the 'icing' effect grew on me......and the bonus is i mastered the dots!

be mine bling

one of my gifts from my wonderful hubby! this is 100% real
genuine.......c.z. and i love every sparkly bit of it!

i'm back......well, here's back......

ok, so i promised to put pics of my necklace on today, and i just realized as i was sitting down to devour a few pages in a new arty magazine that with all of the running i unexpectedly had done today i forgot to take the pics of my necklace, and it is quite a necklace and it will take several pictures, so i offer up this piece of art instead.....well, ok art is a bit of a stretch.

as a joke i started out planning to shave a checkered flag into the hairy back of my dear hubby, but it ended up looking more like fish scales or snake skin.....he is a laid back guy and after the first few swipes with the razor he said keep going......when i took the picture of this he said he would, however, kill me if i put it on my blog.......well, now he wants to let it grow back so i can perfect the whole checkered flag idea so that when he goes to indy in september for the drag races he will give the guys something new to talk about!

gotta go....late waking the hairy guy for work! will try to post necklace pics tomorrow!