Splendiferous BEAUTY and LIFE!

The sun beams breaking through the clouds were INTENSE. I changed the light value in PS to show how STRONG it was. The freedom and peace we felt through the entire day was incredible!

The two pictures combined, don't even show the whole view. I had to catch the two ends and paste them together --that is why the angle in the pics are off from one another.

It started to fade a few seconds after we got home, and so we caught it just in time.
I posted two of the pics that I joined together to show how big it was.

Leaving a comment to a post... You do not have to be a blog member to do it!

My comments section is actually moderated by me and I approve messages that are not private to be posted to the blog.


You do not have to be a blogger to leave a comment.
All you have to do is click on the word "comments" under each post. This will make a window pop up that lets you type in a comment. Then you can sign your name and choose the "Anonymous"
button. That will prevent you from needing to sign in and enter a password.

If you would like to leave me a message, and you just want to keep it private, just let me know, and I will not approve the message to be added to the public forum.

IF you have a question you should leave me an email address so that I can get back to you.

As many of you who already know how to leave comments may see, I do not always "approve" the comments that you leave for me to be posted to the blog to be seen by the public.
But I do get your comments.

I would like to have a super duper machine

Above: My Paris purse


Well, I want a great machine.
The machine and programs that I *need* for the type of work that I hope to do, not just want is the price of a used car!
($3,500) with the feet and threads etc.

Shifting the voice of color.

I love manipulating color and light.

Here is my experimentation for the day.

Well,
I love messing with Photoshop! Hope that I didn't scare you away talking about pollution.

If you are still here, reading, the guy in the pic that I used to make the art is my best friend from HS.

:o)

*big grin*

He is the one making the AMAZING custom designed wall unit too!

~*Yay*~ An Emmy! And Pages for Vickie Enkoff's Daughters and Husband

So I somehow flipped the TV on to FOX and got used to the mindless chatter of pre award show red carpet banter.
What I mean is, I turned the TV on for background noise and wound up watching the Emmy's.
It was funny at times, dry at others... I think the best part was when some guy got on the stage and started saying things that I wish I could tell the Network "masters."

Stop interrupting programs and stop giving us A.D.D.! LET THE CREDITS ROLL AT A NORMAL SPEED AND DO NOT DO A SPLIT SCREEN!!!!
He said some other great stuff too, but I was so busy listening to DH agree with everything the guy on TV was saying that I sort of lost track of it all.


It was a cheer out loud moment for me as I was happy to see Current TV win an award, and *TOM* presented it.
Well, I guess I was happy mainly because I am on a featured POD shown on that TV station so it was like cheering for something that I was actually a part of!
LOL

I also got to see another few friends from school on TV too.
It is fun to see people grow, evolve, and be involved with the arts that we worked so hard to learn growing up.

OK, I logged on just to post pictures of the pages I had made for Vickie Enkoff's family.
Michelle Young is making a chunky book with our embellished pages for Vickie's 2 daughters and her husband Grady.
Catherine van der Hoeff was kind enough to let me use a picture that I took of her artwork as the base of my page.
It was not easy making work for this project, because of the stabbing sadness that I still feel over the loss of my old friend Vickie. I know that she would have just been happy to be told that she was appreciated. I needed to "show her" that I appreciated her.

It would have been nicer to have more time to spend on making these pages, but I only had a few hours to play around with my ideas.
Each page has a mini book and a Frida shrink plastic portrait on it.
The blurry image is intentional.
Shows a "brokeness" to the physical form.
The glue I had on hand when I glued the images to the cardstock did not cooperate, and I did not have time for a do over.


Amber

~*Goodies for Lori*~

Lori A. sent me a book with a CD in it.
It was a book I had never seen before, and had hand drawn fairy tale illustrations within. It is a scrapbook layout embellishment book. I like it!
Lori asked if I could use the book to create a charm for her in exchange.
Here are a few of the pieces I put together.

~*Black & Whites*~

Here is a sample of what I made for the Black and White swap.
Too many people dropped out at the last moment so I ended up making a set of charms for each member.

I also swapped for a partial set for Kari Bryde.

Here is what I made for Ann Marie.

I will be using some of the extra charms that I was sent to raise money in an auction!

Here is a sample of what I made for the Black and White swap.
Too many people dropped out at the last moment so I ended up making a set of charms for each member.

I also swapped for a partial set for Kari Bryde.

Here is what I made for Ann Marie.

~*Orlita likes to dance & Amber likes to design.*~

Orla, a friend of mine, sent me a bag full of lace and ribbons in the spring.
In exchange, I needed to create something for her to wear.
Since Orla likes to dance, and Tango, I decided to make her a wristlette.
I used dozens of Swarovski Vintage Congac, Seal, Topaz dentelles and a hematite color square stones.

I loved the paisley shape of this piece and felt it would look best sitting vertically on the wrist.

Thank you for the goodies ORLA!

Amber

Trials with the flame. I am experimenting. Self taught *ADVENTURES*!

Fun abstract beads.

FUN character skin test. For cartoon beads I want to make.

Blended glass with intentionaly trapped air bubbles.

Triangular shaped bead.

Trying to encase... Bead Release got loose. Had to quit. The design was SO cool. I had intentional trapped bubbles, and my stringer design was encased green and mint.
Bubbles... Intentional and cuter in person.

The letter "J" for Jan in CA.

These two beads fused together by mistake. so I added the dots to tie them together.

My little sister and I designed this one together. She stood next to me and directed the general placement of color and form of the bead as I went along. The red dots were my extra little touch.

These beads were made too fast and I had them in the wrong spot of the flame, too hot. So hot in fact, the glass looked CLEAR when I was working with it! It was a LOT of fun to see this stuff all hot and gooey!!! Now it is hard and makes a very pretty clinking noise.
I LOVE GLASS!!!

Zines, swaps, glass beads, and more.......

I have been SO busy doing it all in the past month that I have barely been online.
I bound 8 zines (3.5) yesterday, before I set up my makeshift glass bead studio in the kitchen.

The month of August was extra busy for me in that I had a house guest for the majority of the month and house guests require a lot of attention and entertaining!

Making a neatly embellished glass bead is NOT as easy as I had hoped that it would be!
I am so used to the ease of rolling a polymer clay bead into a perfectly round shape.
Rolling a glass bead into a perfectly round shape is something I will need a lot more practice with.
My interest is really not in making perfect round beads, but rather sculptural and artistically expressive pieces.
Still, it would be good to know how to master the flame and molten glass to achieve those results.

I am in full swing zine production again, I just have to wing it for issue #4 (After I finish mailing the dozens of #3.5 Bling Bling Glitz Baby copies)

I will take pictures of the beads, they have been in the kiln for a few hours and as soon as the cycle is done, I will take pictures and share my interesting trials.
*Smiles*

Oh, I shipped all but a few of the black and whites.
Lori, Ruth and Heather, I still have yours.
You guys have the extra trade stuff that I have to include, and I plan on shipping them out before Friday.

I joined in a small project for the Enkoff family, and will be working diligently on that as well.

New charm swaps for OCT. are open for sign ups.