~*Caryl*~ Sent me a BEAUTIFUL arch!

Thank you ~*Caryl*~ I LOVE IT!!!

(To my surprise, she sent it to me as a gift!)

I have to tell you, it is even LOVELIER
and sparkles in person!

Click the picture to see her blog .

~*Totally Awesome Artistic Vintage Pin Exchange!*~

Gathering together with my friends
Ro Bruhn,
Linda Koch
Lilla LeVine,
Gillian Allen,
Jenny Crossley,
Evie Zaccardelli,
Nancy Hunt Bartek,

We have been busy at work designing our own vintage inspired works of art to wear.

Thank you ladies for entertaining me with your inspired work!
*Smiles*
Gillian will post to the Zine site for us to share!

Amber

Tues. fun on the 7 train

I was on my way to Grand Central Station to meet Suzi at the Grand Hyatt hotel. It was a cold and rainy day and I had hoped to see someone familiar on the 7 train.

A few stops after I got on, I decided to move to the other side of the train car. At the next stop I looked out the door and there was Alan... That was a fun and unexpected surprise. What made the train ride even more enjoyable for me was having the chance to see his current portfolio.

Alan is a creative guy who along with his two sisters, when they were much younger, would spend time with me for most of the summer doing various art projects and take classes from me. They were like family.
Since those kids know me and my way of thinking, I let him know that I had hoped to see someone whom I knew... Also told him that out of any possible person, he was one of the best to meet that day.
He happened to be getting off at the same stop as me... That made it even more fun.

**I like to make a point when my simple everyday wishes come true... To tell the world, well anyone who will listen that is, that there is a method to the order of life around us.
And wishes do come true.**

I spent most of the day passing time by walking through shops and took a LONG walk from the fashion district to Chelsea to the East Village and back up to Union Square.

I bought a HUGE artichoke at Balducci's... This is it next to a 10 ounce container of salt!
.
Then walked to ABC Carpet and home where I spent a few minutes with Stacy the counter manager for the Tinsel Trading section. I bought some metal angel hair to use on a piece that I am working on.
After that I walked through the Tibetan section and saw some of the cutest felted kids shoes.
Then, there I was just 10 paces away amidst the fantastic delights of Michal Negrin who is one of my inspirations.
The sales girl was so sweet!
I bought a note pad as a gift using some of my birthday money. Cisco met me at ABC and then we went to Big Daddy's for dinner.
I was so tired that I couldn't finish my order, I just wanted to sleep.
It was a very full day. Full of anticipation, hope, excitement, gifts treats, good friends, new friends, love, joy and most of all... Great memories.

New experiment for me ~*Thanks to Mija!*~

I offer trades for rusty bezels and one of the treasure stashes that I got in return so far included a sheet of images that Mija had put together.

The images I used for these brooches are from one of those sheets.

Thank you Mija!

These are a work in progress. I have to find a few ways to improve the final results. You may be able to see that some of the gloss has surfaced to the glass. I am going to try and fix it.

~*My Ocean Dreamer*~ and an added polymer clay rant...

I sculpted this brooch from scrap "mud color" polymer clay. Circa 2005.
The face is meant to look as if it were wrapped in cozy tentacles.

The loop is for hanging glasses or a pen.

The crystals are all Swarovski and the paint was made by mixing pearl-ex with a clear medium. There is also ultra fine gold hologram glitter on the piece and that is what looks gritty on the surface.


I found my "Ocean Dreamer" eye glass holder on Sunday. Buried deep within my dresser drawer... Hidden away in a fancy tin box.


No one I know, likes looking at him besides me. Is there ANYONE reading this that thinks Ocean Dreamer is cool? My friends and family do not appreciate the art.

Rant follows---- involves complaining and kvetching...

It's been a couple of months since I have been able to work and relax with the polymer clay. Yet another material that I have a HUGE collection of that I LOVE to work with, yet makes me sick. I thought that I blogged about this before, but I guess I didn't.

I wrote about it on Jai's blog a while back...
Read about our polymer clay poisoning if you want CLICK ME

Polymer clay actually makes me really sick and causes severe pain internally.

From what I hear, the companies knew about the danger and have begun to reformulate their clays.

I miss molding and sculpting with it, I have so many ideas and am always so inspired to use it... But I do not like the painful and gross effects that it has on me.

*humph*

Those darn' phthalates...

Gloves don't work for me cause they make creases and wrinkles in my work.

~*Charity*~ A heart warming word for me.

LOVE Squared is an art doll made by a LOT of talented and caring artists to help raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.

I will be posting a button on my blog to help everyone stay up to date with the happenings of the fundraiser.

*please* consider posting it to your sites and blogs when it is made available. Advertisement and word of mouth is needed to help propel the event and grant it more exposure.

A wise person with connections should book this on a news site or even a talk show!

It is pretty amazing!

Click the link HERE if you have not yet done so and SEE the art doll.

Here is one of the pieces that I have made to share as a runner up prize.

It is a deep wine burgundy feather cuff with a scorched heart which says "Mon Ami", mounted on a vintage filigree flower. The cuff is a black velvet ribbon wrapped bangle.

The colors are much richer in person.

Not only is charity a beautiful ideal, it is a sustaining and supportive entity which nurtures and enables the spirit of all natural kind. -Amber Dawn

Electric Vibes--- An expressive piece that tells of how I feel around certain people.

Nest in a mess.

This reminds me of my life a bit.

This is outside of my window.

I live in a house that has an opening where the house next to us joins. This is the ground way below us one story down. It is incredible how a set of birds decided to nest here. Their first hatchlings have already grown and have flown away. The nest is right next to the cart. You can see the two white eggs surrounded by paint chips, wires, wood and other debris.

The boy bird is NOISY! But it is nice to hear something other than cars, horns, and airplanes!

Black and whites!

Black and whites swap STILL OPEN for sign ups!

I have already gotten a few sets so far, but I just got these and have not yet put them away. So I just decided to take a couple of pictures of each to share.


The beaded felt one is actually a sample from Christi Miller's Felt Zine... She wrote a little article on how she made the charms for our swap and added in a little sample.





The soldered glass charm is created by Brenda Wampler. Her initials are B&W!






JOIN THE FUN!
Comment me or email me if you would like to join us!

Christi Miller ROCKS my SOCKS!

Oh how I love this girl!
She is so creative and fun!
Look what she made!
(I joined her zine swap!- this is her zine and the TINY felt book pictured below the zine is just TOO CUTE!
I adore it!

Cool Diary project 2009!

Last year I participated with the 2008 Diary project with several online artists and Etsy sellers.
I just found out that we can sign up again for the 2009 project!
If you are an Etsy seller, or have a fun spot to advertise, and know how to design a graphic or well designed diary page, then this project might just be for you too!
I had fun!
I am signing up again right now!
http://www.fantazya.ca/diary2009.html
Amber

letting stuff go.

I'm taking a break from sorting and cleaning a few boxes of findings. Despite being sleepy, I need to keep dusting and polishing the metals.

Has anyone else tried to limit their Internet use lately in order to get more done?

I have found much relief by sorting through my supplies... Getting rid of things I held on to for too long with no motivation to use them.

I have been overwhelmed for years by the amount of merchandise which I have collected.

So now is my time to get through the task of letting go of the virtual art weeds...

A piece made by me for Judy, last Christmas.

I tried it on to see how it would hang.

It represents a vessel and water.

Made from Sterling Silver and CZ stones.

Lowered my prices on Etsy!

I love sales don't you?
Etsy

My stencil and rubber stamp design.

I used a photo from Art-E-Zine to create this piece.

Please give me credit if you use it.

Amber Dawn

Mental Circus Part Duex not Deux

These mini charm book necklaces, were made with the paper I had mentioned buying at ABC Carpet & Home store in Downtown NYC last week.


When the world makes you feel like you are part of a three ring circus...

Above is pictured a few of the pages from, Mental Circus Part Duex by me, Amber Dawn 2008
(This is a swap zine)
What does she mean duex?
*due times* actually when I wrote it I wanted it just to be due time but the x means times as in multiplication.
This zine is going on sale in a couple of weeks after the swap. I will have 13 copies available. It is a cute mini zine. The size is about a quarter of a sheet of copy paper and 6 pages long. Each copy comes with a charm book necklace. $8. Plus first class shipping to anywhere in the world. 

Bursts of spring around NYC

Happy Momber's Day!

What is a momber you may ask...?

I am!

I raised my sister who would often confuse the words Mom and Amber.

So the little kid invented the name Momber for me! She is now a young lady and just calls me Amber.

Here is the card that she just gave to me-

So sweet.

Thanks girl!

~*CHARMS!*~

Assorted charms from the Charms2007swap group.

~*Below is an order I filled for Mother's Day*~

This is one of the boxes of stones that I am working with at the moment.

I am making bejeweled art to wear.

More black and white charmers please? Lots of blog entries today!

It's been a while since I last posted. So I will be posting pictures and more stuff today, be sure to check back to see the *colorful* posts.

After my last post about my black and white charm swap, several signed up, then dropped out. (this is not uncommon, but I do hope that if you say you want to join, that you do follow through.)
The charms that have come in so far are pretty interesting and artistic.
It would be great to have more artists join us on this swap.
Create 25 interesting and artistic charms with a creative packaging or display tag. The size and quality requirements are an important factor to heed because these pieces will be worn on the skin by many joining in the swap.
The details are in a couple of previous posts.
If you are interested let me know and I will send you the full details.
The due date is at the end of the month and they MUST arrive to me during the first week of June at the very latest.

giving it a try

I usually post 5 or more entries over the weekend to catch up for the week. Many people miss them because they only subscribe to my blog which does not tell them that I put up more than one post... Via email that is... Check my blog to see what you may have missed...
I am typing from a tiny handheld. This is my first blog attempt using this device.
It took me a year to figure out how to bypass the settings on this handheld, that kept me from leaving a comment...
And now I am posting my 1st blog entry using this thing!!
YAY it works!!!

Try try again!