The Sweetest Month

I haven't been taking pictures of any of my work lately.  Not even our new puppy has had her picture taken except with my phone...I packed my Nikon on our little three day get away and never took it out of the case..

I am in the process of re-doing my studio.  It seems I have so much STUFF that I am in the need for more shelves. I also am going to add another table.  I got a Circut the ultimate paper cutter.  Hopefully I can get organized and keep my tables cleared off for work space.

Puppy's take up a lot of your time.. I guess I forgot how much attention they need. I take her to work so when we are home I feel I have to give her some play time and some training.  Yesterday the weather was nice so I worked with her on a leash for the first time.  She did really good. Of course she is so little, about 2 pounds now, you barely feel her on the end of the leash....

Hope my blog friends missed me a little...I promise I will get some pictures of the puppy that is taking all my art time away from me, and hopefully I can keep up with my blog friendships this the sweetest month..Hugs and blessings.......................................DIANE GLASS

Christmas Jewels

Barely enough room for my coffee mug...Finished 30 pair's of earrings. Each one carded with inked edges and embossed with fancy stamp on the bottom.  Each pair has the little rubber stoppers on the back. My name and date...whew....what a project.  I also made six necklaces.  They are going into the Flower and Tea Shop.  It is really amazing how many beads I have and still buy more..Every time I think I will use up the one's that I have, I find the need to buy just a little something to enhance my project..You know how it is?!

The price on these is $15.00.  I have some that are as low as 6.00.  Keep in mind that the Tea Shop gets 20%.  How does that sound? Think I will sell them? Think that is a good price?  Please let me know what you think.   Any and all suggestions appreciated.    HUGS...................DIANE

Pearls of Wisdom

Pearls of Wisdom is what my Mother always called those little quotes that got you through the little bumps in the road of life. "Life is 10% what happens to you an 90% what you do with what happens to you."  How you handle the bumps that life gives you. The black eye and the bruises. The light at the end of the tunnel. The Rainbow at the end of a storm. The sigh at the end of a good cry.  If we count our BLESSINGS and not our TROUBLES...we will always have more blessings...........Pray for the people of Haiti and the rescue workers............DIANE

A DOZEN ROSES

The flowers that I got for our anniversary were so beautiful.  I am so glad I could photograph them and look at them long after they are gone.  Christmas is gone for another year, the house lights are down and put away. One more day and they will all be gone until next year.

I don't believe in making New Year Resolutions. I always have things in my head that I would like to change or make time for.

I was Skyping with my Brother last night.  It was so fun and this morning I feel like a kid with a new toy.  Now all I need to keep up with the youngsters is an account for TWEET AND TWITTER.  I have my Facebook, Etsy,Ebay, Flicker, Blog and Art Site......and YouTube......OMG I don't spend too much time on the Computer...do I???  It's no wonder I haven't had time for Art lately. I have made several beaded necklaces that I need to finish and photograph and post. I have a lot of things to up load to Etsy if I get the time. I am seriously thinking of "Sell, Sell, Sell this year. Maybe some of the collectibles that I have. May check out Ebay. I have bought stuff there for years but never sold. I was wondering if it was any faster to up load and list than resizing everything for Etsy.  Any HELP from my fellow bloggers would be appreciated.

Oh ya I bought a painting from Suzan Buckner. My first from her. Can't wait to get it and see it in person.  I just love her art and my goodness she is productive. I will ask her if I can share what I bought with you.
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK.............DIANE

How to Relax and Enjoy The Holiday

Yes I am finished with all my shopping.  Everything is wrapped with lovely little bows and glitter sprayed pine cones that I gathered while walking my three mile after Turkey Dinner walk.  The tree that my husband cut is lovely this year.  I like to change the theme every year and this year we choose green and gold. It means that I have to change all my decorations but I love starting fresh every year. Buying all the lovely ribbon and tying up over 100  6 inch bows to go with the new gold balls that are all glittery.  I have my cookie making stuff all fresh and will try a new recipe this year.  I haven't decided which six types I will use.  I always make six different kinds.  I am going to try a new fudge recipe too.  Found one that sounds fabulous with chopped cherries in it.  I love Christmas. I would love it more if I was Martha Stewart. If I had a staff of twelve or so......In my dreams all of the above would be true..still it is fun to fantasize...Hugs to all and I am sorry I have been gone for so long.  I lost my background and haven't had the time to find it. I have been busy making Jewelry and hope to publish it soon.         DIANE

A Charming Life

A friend always graces us with her homemade sugar cookies. Last Christmas I hoarded them and was a little embarrassed....But they are so good I just didn't want to share. Shame on me.

This is another shot of a day we had in Oregon...It was so beautiful and I always feel renewed when I go to the Ocean. The Sea, the sand and the air.

Just had to share another picture of our new fence and the fall colors of our Snowball Bush.

And some Art...Charms that I made to trade with a group of friends on line. I made ten different charms out of scrabble tiles. Can't wait to get mine from ten other artist. Well I am off to work and if I don't dry my hair soon I will look like a bed head....uggg. Have a beautiful day. Breath in the fall colors, put on a pot of beans or bake something sweet......Hugs, Diane

For The Love Of It

The latest necklace's that I have made were shorter and lighter in theme. I am still using the lovely background which is a beautiful box that is also used to store the finished product.

I have once again broken down my studio and put away most of my beading stuff. Then I realised that I
had joined a charm swap in a altered art group that I am in. Luckily everything is still pretty handy so I didn't have much to do to find the things that would be used in my charms. It was fun to get out my scrabble tiles again. More on that later.

I was really missing my friends on
the site and the fun of trading so...
against my better judgment I joined
a few more swaps. One is a postcard
challenge. Just one card so that
won't be too much and the other is a
Swap of five SKINNY'S. A skinny is
smaller than a postcard 3"x5". The
theme is a fun one and I will keep that
to myself until later. I will share the finished
project later.

Have a creative Sunday and don't forget
the Creator............

Lazy Afternoon

I have been on a Jewelry Kick lately. My old art light burnt out and I had to buy a new one. I up graded to a bigger model with a nice big magnifying glass attached. It took me a while to get the hang of it. You know how your work space is set up and everything has a place. Well this light has a larger base and a bigger (longer) light head. So after bumping my head a few times I moved everything around and set it on my right instead of in front of me. I am learning to move the magnifying glass to suit my back. I still catch myself looking over it but all in all it is much better. Really helps on the beading.

The bottom picture is a collage I did of my grandmother. I took a lot of pictures to see which set-up compliments the jewelry and which detracts. I probably took 100 pictures of several pieces of jewelry I made. Thank goodness for digital pictures.

Last time we were in town I bought a external hard drive to store all my pictures on. Get this......It is one tera bite. I had never heard of it either. Can't really understand how much a gig is...Tee...don't you just love talking computer language??? Anyway 1 TB is equal to 1000 GB. Lucky for us BEST BUY has very helpful young people that will talk slow and try and get you to understand...The boxes are also giving more information. This one tells me it will hold 285,000 JPG's...LOTS OF PICTURES.

I haven't decided if I want to remove from my computer all the files. Might speed up my pc a little or take a chance on loosing all my pictures if my pc crashes. Humm.....I almost never back up my files. baddddd.

Well I guess I will get with my lazy day and throw in a load of wash and head for my messy art table and sort out some beads that have been getting stirred up with a big stick or some Mad Artist.....................Have a creative day. DIANE

I Lied........

Well it wasn't exactly a lie....more like an oversight I guess. I was straightening up my studio and I found these four little goodies in a box with some supplies I had photographed to put on Etsy.

Now these are really the last in this series. That is if I don't go on another kick. The lady's are made on poker chips, and sealed with diamond glaze.

This little jewel is a very delicate watch part and the wings are a lacy gold tone charm.

I am not sure what this was in a former life. It is a found piece, maybe a belt buckle. I attached charms and watch gears. Sorta funky, sorta fun. Anyway these really are the last for a while. Be creative, try something different. There are many things you can do and most do not require a lot of new tools. However I did buy a soldering iron....haven't used it yet but I thought it would be good on some of jewelry......................Diane

A WING AND A CHARM

This is the last of my Victorian Steampunk Jewelry. I can't tell you how much fun it was to create the funky jewelry. I had been saving chain for quite awhile, picking it up at thrift stores here and there. Had not a clue what I would use it for but loved the different sizes that I found.

The dice and game pieces I started collecting when I started on my ALTERED ART journey. Being a collector, the fun was finding the stuff whenever my husband and I would go on a little trip somewhere. I even enlisted him in the quest. And he would always come back with a scrabble game or something I could add to my stash. It was fun. Things that were not already on the list were fun to find. Altered art is all about thinking outside the box. Some of the things I gathered I still haven't thought of a use for, but I will come up with something . Have a creative day............................DIANE

The Eyes Have It

This one was fun....The glasses were given to me in a grab bag swap. They were little Zero's from some alphabet set. I just clipped off the little pegs that were on the back. I used Diamond glaze to seal everything the chain is really cool with these gold color links that came off some vintage jewelry, two vintage dice and her "hat" was some found object with some watch parts.

Have a blessed Sunday.........................DIANE

Victorian Steampunk

Altered art jewelry is always fun to make and the influence of "Steampunk" makes it even more lively and fun. Although I know very little about Victorian steampunk, I think the style is very artsy, different and has a lot of personality. I love the fact that watch parts are used in it, along with wings and things. It is not the culture that interest me as much as the art form.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980's and early 1990's. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used--usually the 19th. century, and often Victorian era England--but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date." Type in "Steampunk Handmade" on Etsy and you will see the varied interpretations of the art form. I would like to think any young hip person would like the style or any older very artsy person..

I have really enjoyed making these necklace's and I will be showing several others over the next week or so. I started cleaning up some of the mess today and can finally see some table in my art room. Enjoy the sweetness of life..............DIANE

STEAMPUNK FUN

Well here is the surprise I have been telling you about. My latest creations. Steampunk style pendents. Altered art in the jewelry world. My chains were really fun to make from vintage necklaces and religious beads and dice. All my chains are long 28 inches. A friend gave me a box of watch parts to use and I have been collecting the vintage jewelry for a long time. I had a hard time cutting them up at first but it got easier. I still have a super long chain with crystal beads that I wanted to use but just couldn't bring myself to cut up...it is so pretty.

Gluing the pieces was probably the hardest. I finally bought some epoxy on Etsy, the kind that you mix two tubes together. Messy stuff to say the least. Then there is the fact that it will harden and you have to mix just the amount that you need at the time. You always mix more than you need so you can't help wasting some. I also bought Sulphur of liver to blacken some of the brass and add a patina to some of the silver pieces. (very stinky stuff) It has been a fun few weeks, but....here comes the BIG but, I am not getting many hits on Etsy. I uploaded to my flickr and here today but still not much going on. I am sure the down turn of the economy has had a lot to do with the art world too. I researched prices and set mine lower than everything I saw that was similar so I know my prices are right in there. Some of the stuff was getting a lot of hits so maybe they are paying to showcase their item. I am fairly new to selling so I guess it will take awhile to figure it all out. Meanwhile if you have any helpful hints you know I will appreciate them. Art on peeps......DIANE

Art Gives Me Wings

Chunky Bird Book made to trade. I made 6 of these little guys. They are 7.75" long by 2" deep. Everyone in the group has a different idea on how to display them when they arrive at our doorstep. Some people are going to put them together in a chunky book and some are making a garland and others still a mobile. I can't wait to see my returns and I still have a couple to make before I mail them off. I am leaning more to a book. I think this was a fun idea and I really enjoyed making them, hummmm wonder what is next on my list of things to do.. Art On..Diane