WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO...

I have been busy with lots of things...somehow posting on my blog has taken a back burner...I swore i wasn't going to obligate myself to any swaps, especially around the Holidays. This was going to be the year I got all of my Christmas stuff done early and would actually have time to enjoy them and not feel under pressure......
but no - I signed up for 3 (yes THREE) art projects- all due at the end of Nov- early December.
I finally got them all finished.....but I am hopelessly behind on my Christmas gifts and cards....
First I was involved in a Poe Tarot Swap....these are my 2 cards:

The Six of Wands ... the Victory card...angels high above the desolation and darkness, lighting the way....the graveyards are from an illustration of an early Poe book and a photoshopped photo of Poe's actual gravesite.

...the 10 of Pentacles... survival against all odds....reaping the rewards you have worked hard for....The background is made from copied letters written by Poe...and no creature has survived longer, against all odds and still is winning - than the cockroach.
I also was part of a "Rosary Bead" Swap...you had to make a bead that represented yourself. This, I discovered was way more difficult than I thought!

Here is my bead, showing both sides. A wooden bead, painted white with a spider on one side and an eye on the other. then it was coated with resin and sprinkled with clear glass microbeads and clear fine glitter.
My 3rd project was an Eight days Of Channukah Swap. As luck would have it, I was assigned Day ONE! YeeGads....
So, feeeling ambitious, I decided i was going to make English crackers, with hats and a joke and a little gift....
The gift I decided would be my first foray into using Bronze Clay.
Hah!
It was a disaster. Out of 9 medallions 3 were acceptable, but even these had cracks! The stuff took 2 firings and over 10 hours (not including cooling in between) in the kiln. Needless to say by the time I made something usable (2 more projects down the road!) I was lucky to just send out the gifts - the English cracker idea was just not going to happen...

These are the rejects. The backs have a texture and a word stamped on them...
I may drill tiny holes in these and attempt to lace up the cracks as if I'd done it on purpose....but they will probably just become scrap...

This is a necklace I gave away in the swap to my friend Joanne. I know she likes eyes - she has a bunch of eye stuff from me...so i sent it to her. She's already opened it, so that's why I can show it to you! It also has vintage brass chain, turquoise, white coral and vintage brass beads.
Another bronze eye necklace I gave to my fiber artist friend Lorri. Lorri has some incredible Kauai pics of an endangered monk seal and her pup on her blog, so go take a look!
Hers I didn't take a picture of, but I patinaed it blue.
The last one I made into a necklace with all carnelian beads. For some reason the name "Tears for my mama" kept playing over and over in my head.....it doesn't have a clasp yet...it will probably end up on my Etsy shop.

I still didn't have my giftees for the 8 Days of Channukah swap, so I decided to take silverplate forks and make bracelets. Here's the one I did. It doesn't have a clasp yet, not does it have any decorative beads on the top...


But I was not happy with it and all of the pounding was killing my wrists - these utensils were TOUGH! ...and then I had to get all the firescale off!...So I moved onto a project that I KNEW would work.....but they haven't all opened them yet, so I will show them to you tomorrow!

This is a picture of the lighthouse on Monday....not very big waves here, but we did have some 40 footers I was told, in Haena and Hanalei.