This and that......

I was blog hopping and stopped to take a look at the wonderful things on Deryn Mentock's blog. Deryn has been making all of the projects in Mary Hettmansperger's book " Wrap, Stitch, Fold and Rivet" and has issued a challenge to complete the projects along with her. My copper necklace I posted last week has beads on it that I made using some of Mary's techniques. Anyway, I decided to actually try the projects as they were written (OK, as best as I could interpret them...I just had to make them MY way). So here is project #1 - The Spinner necklace. ...and yes, i got carried away and added a few more embellishments than were called for. I did all the techniques she said to try except using a sharpened screwdriver to cut the metal. ...Alas, I couldn't find one to sharpen amidst my mess.

The white things on the top are two spine bones from a boa constrictor. They were pretty pointed and sharp, so I filed them round. I got the bones when I was at Venice Beach shopping along the boardwalk with Joanne....I have a thing for bones.....

Over on Kelly Snellings Blog, Kelly has been doing self portraits. She challenged others to try and do one too. So I tried to paint myself from memory. Kelly's paintings are very 3 dimensional - mine, unfortunately turned out very....flat. My DH said it didn't look at all like me, that my face was much rounder, so this is a revised "round faced" version. I think it looks a little itty bit like me, but the face shape isn't right, or the mouth...or the eyes. But the HAIRCOLOR - well that's pretty accurate. On the weekend before my last day of work in Los Angeles, I got my hair recolored so it would look good when I came home. I asked for BRIGHTER red highlights. The hair dresser mixed together what he said was "mahogany"...but it came out MAGENTA. All I could say to him was "But it looks pink!".... I went to work the next day, quite embarrassed, but tried to pull it off as if I liked it. I got comments like " wow - you went punk!" I am getting it recolored normal - no weave and back to my original dark hair - this week.

And lastly, I have been working on a Halloween painting. Well, sort of. It's supposed to be a No-Nonsense Kick-butt Guardian Angel. Here are the various stages. it's not done yet....

The Background

The Angel


The painting toned down, with parts masked off so I can redo the background......
I think it is turning out rather ghoulish.....