Other Blog Giveaways for your enjoyment!

Here's a great blog give away that Chrysti is sponsoring. She is giving away lots of prizes and has others giving prizes away as well. Here's the link: http://chrysti.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/29-days-of-giveaways-for-you/
...and here's another one........Susan Tuttle is giving away a copy of her fabulous new book! Click here to enter the contest. if you don't win you can buy the book from Amazon.
Have fun!

I've been tagged!

I WAS TAGGED....by Toni Curtis. I've been tagged before, but it is always fun.....so i will list 6 new random things about me.....First, Here are the rules.

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

...and here are 6 random Things About Me:

1. I believe in miracles, ghosts and aliens.

2. I wore glasses from the time I was 4 yrs old. I was legally blind in one eye and had 20/75 in the other...but I had amazing really close up vision. 4 years ago I had laser surgery. My blind eye can now see 20/20. Unfortunately my close vision is now normal for a person my age and I must wear glasses to read anything or work on the computer.
3. I get labyrinthitis several times a year and get dizzy and off balance and my body tilts whichever direction my balance is off. Fortunately, an antihistamine keeps my body standing straight and clears up the headache and dizziness.
4. I named one of my sons after a soap opera heart-throb.
5. I was named after my Dads sister(s). His oldest sister was named Concetta. She died when she was 5, so the next girl they had they named Concetta, too.
6. I love baby pablum. (gerber rice or mixed cereal)

I am tagging 6 people but I am breaking the rules and not posting their names. I will notify them privately and hopefully they will play along....

...AND THE WINNER OF MY BLOG GIVEAWAY IS......

FRAN SAPERSTEIN! I used the random number generator to decide a winner. All of the comments were just wonderful and insightful and interesting to boot!
I am still making hands.....some of the copper ones are sitting in ammonia now, turning blue...then they'll get a dip in resin to strengthen them! ...and no, I'm not selling them.....but if you email me I'll tell you my version of how to make your own.....
Congratulations Fran!

"DID YOU VOTE?" Blog Giveaway !

I VOTED! ...and wasn't it marvelous being a part of history and witnessing the election enthusiasm and spirit of young and old alike! Only in America!

DID YOU? If you did, go to Kelly Snelling's Blog and show her a photo of you and your voting stub/sticker. She's having a drawing for an autographed copy of her book "A Charming Exchange"....how cool is that!?!....and while your at it, tell me in a comment what the voting experience was like for you and I'll draw one name to win my latest "hand" ....it's made of stainless steel, florist wire and pink beads. It's about 3-4" inches long and holds a patinaed pewter hummingbird in its hand. Here's a pic. (of course, if you win and you want a copper hand or a black ceramic bird or a different style, etc - let me know and I'll try and make that for you!) PLEASE LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS OR YOUR BLOG SITE SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN! I will draw a winner on Sunday!

PROJECT #? whatever......and my prize!

I won a gorgeous Prize!
This is the beautiful crocheted purse I won as a runner-up prize in the raffle for the "Pink Artist" breast cancer awareness "Love Squared" doll. It was generously made and donated by KAI. It has a tiny pearl button clasp.

Isn't it lovely! THANK YOU KAI!

....back to the metal project from Rivet, Stitch, Wrap, etc.....
This was my first hand. I just love hands )well, and eyeballs, too).
When I heat treated it, I melted some of the wire at the wrist on accident. At this point I couldn't melt copper balls on the ends of the wire, so the fingernails are just bent/hammered wire. It's pretty lame!

These are the 2nd and 3rd hands. I made them into earrings. I tried to make them very neat and even. I could not get Mary's method of wrapping to work for me (wrapping with 2 wires at the same time), so I wrapped the fingers separately first and then wrapped the hands.

This is my 4th hand. I was becoming obsessive - trying to make it perfect. But alas - I just don't have the patience to make perfect double layer coils!

...and this is my 5th - and last - hand! It wasn't heat treated.

It's my favorite....I still haven't figured out how to make decent rivets. I think I need a riveting hammer and a flare tool...is it possible...tools i don't have?

Project #3 and lots of other stuff....

Project # 3 "bead shelf necklace" - really didn't appeal to me - but I went ahead and made it anyway. I used the torch a lot on this one. A BIGGER torch that gets really hot. It helped a lot to make the copper turn red red. Yay! I was getting way frustrated with trying to melt balls on the ends of the copper. It just wouldn't work with the little hand torch I was using - the wire would break first or just turn black and brittle. But the big torch does it quick! I used many techniques making this necklace. Pounding, texturing, drilling holes, punching holes, balling the ends of copper, and wrapping metal beads.

...and this is a fused fine silver jump ring! MY FIRST ONE! I have a great book called "Silver Wire Fusing" by Liz Jones . This is the first project from this book that I have tried. EASY PEASY! I just made a fine silver ring by wrapping the silver around a dowel and cutting it I had to make sure the edges were flush. Then I heated the whole ring in a circular motion for just a moment and touched the blue tip of the torch flame to the cut edges of the ring and waited for the cut edges to get really shiny (liquefy!). I quickly lifted the heat away and then plunged the ring into water. Fine silver doesn't tarnish when heated and doesn't need any flux.

I also made another project towards the end of the book - I have no idea what project number it is - but I liked it. It's called the "wire hands bracelet" only I didn't make a bracelet. You had to make 16 hands to make a bracelet. Forget it. I was lucky I made 3. How did Mary Hettmansperger ever make 16! These hands are tedious and time consuming....and I am so anal mine had to be as precise as I could make them.... So, after the first one that turned out way lame, I made 2 more, sort of my own version. I made them into earrings. I haven't taken the pics yet for this one. ...Manana....

Oh...here's the final version of the "guardian angel" painting.


Let's see - what else? I got my jewelers saw to work! I couldn't get it to hold the blades for the life of me! So I took the set screws out and - lo and behold - all of the broken blade tips were still inside...what a maroon! So I used it to cut some shapes out of copper, and I'm sawing away....really killing my wrists trying to hold the copper in place and level.....and then it dawns on me - duh! - CLAMP the copper down. I don't need to try and hold it with my hands and saw at the same time. Sometimes taking a class first is probably a good idea........

"ART IN A CARTON"

Look at all the fun stuff my friend Renata sent me ! Renata and I are part of "Art in a Carton" She sent me an adorable mini clay pot, too, but I didn't get a pic of that. Renata made the wonderful quiltie in the picture, and personalized it, just for me!
THANK YOU, RENATA!


This is a necklace I finished.

Eh. I am not thrilled...I will probably tear this apart and start over.

RIDING THE RUCKUS

Lance bought a new motor scooter - an '09 Honda Ruckus. He's put all kinds of new fancy cool extras on it and insisted I learn to ride. I ride a bike all the time - but I am afraid of driving any motorized vehicle I am unfamiliar with. Heck - i didn't even drive a car until i was 25! But I'm working really hard on using new tools that I am afraid of. So, I am practicing a little every day. It's really easy to drive, but it takes continuous concentration - at least it feels that way to me...lots more than just a car. Fortunately it is not heavy like a regular motorcycle is. Chalupa, our dog, likes to run with me when I'm on the scooter - so it is an easy way to exercise her! Here are some pics of me riding....

project #2

This is Project # 2 - Folded earrings. My favorite part of these earrings, which is hard to see in the photos, is the patina. This is totally just a HEAT patina. I wanted the copper to be deep red, and I'd read that if you heat the copper until glowing and then plunge it into ice water, it will turn red. I did this, but first it just turned black. So I torched it again, and this time I left the blue ice pack in the water, too be sure it was icy. The copper turned deep red with some black. I liked it! But then I wrapped the earrings in copper wire and added the copper hanging strips, and I did not like the look of the shiny new copper, so I heated the whole thing again and plunged them into water. It did not turn red - just sort of sooty gray black. I scrubbed this with lava liquid soap and a wire brush - and this is the result I got...very bronzy with a deep satin gloss.

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.....

Outside my Comfort Zone....

Today I tried a new tool. I wanted to cut some copper and had never tried a jewelers saw before. First I put a blade in - it was really a pain. The blade was so fine and so thin I had to put on my magnifier headband. I finally got it on and I sawed a bit -it cut pretty easy! - but the copper I was cutting was too big for the saw and there was not enough room to cut it all the way around. Then I looked in a book I had, and saw I had the blade in backwards....I was trying to cut INSIDE between the saw and it's handle.....so I tried to reverse it. No matter what i did, I could not get the blade back in. Then i snapped the blade in two...so I tried a new blade....then I gave up. My DH wanted to know why I didn't just use my micromark electric mini scroll saw. Now this is a tool I have had for about 4 years....but have never used...because, well...it scares me....ALL power tools SCARE me.....
It was sitting on one of my workbenches, all set up, with a blade in it and everything........
So I glued a paper design onto a sheet of 25 gauge copper and I turned it on -
and I did it!

This is the saw.

This is the paper design glued onto the copper.

...and this is my cut design! Not exactly, perfect - but it was my first cut.... Cool, huh?
Tomorrow I'm going to switch to a fine blade and see if i can be more precise. Eventually I want to try acid etching a design onto it.
Remember the copper beads I was hammering/forming/ making last week?


Well I put them together into a necklace.


It also has 3mm copper round beads, forged copper washers, and handmade copper jump rings, copper spacers and copper clasp.

Then I tumbled and work hardened the whole thing in my lortone tumbler.

Evolution of nonsense paintings.....

OK I forced myself to revisit Jesse's painting techniques. For some reason I have been fighting what i learned. I am so structured with my art...it is very hard for me to just let it go....let it evolve into whatever it wants to be..........These are my attempts......

The background...

Making designs from the shapes I see in the background....
Then, in between, but no picture, I tried to paint "The Woman Who Laughed At The Snakes In The Tree".....but alas - she looked like a cat with long hair! ..... and I couldn't draw her a decent body... I wanted something flowy and angel or maybe even ghost-like....

Turning it into a lion with spiders body. This idea didn't last long....

So I made her into a balloon, and I added another snake.

...more painting....

...and there you have it "The Balloon Who Loved the Tree and Laughed at the Snakes"....Done!

The above blurry image is the only photo of what this canvas started as.
It was tissue paper on canvas painted to look like flames. Then I drew images onto the canvas suggested by the colors and the shapes. I wish i had taken a picture then, but it was so gawd awful ugly I just kept the pregnant lady and gessoed over the rest. it was a mess!...and because I used black prismacolor, (instead of the special pencil that was recommended - typical me) the paint would not cover the lines i had drawn. Finally I varnished over the whole painting and gessoed over this...... at last I got the old ugly design lines to disappear.
This is what remained.

I didn't like the pregnant lady's stance, so I changed it. But she didn't look right pregnant, so i changed that too. I painted in a colorful background and then decided to put a dark glaze on it so that all of the texture could show through. The result was really blaH bleh!,,, so I ripped off a ton of the crummy texture and then gessoed over that, and left this:

But I still didn't like the leg positions or the background, so i tried again.....

Then I came up with the concept of adding the earth.

...then I added the stars and more background.

This is the finished painting ....at least for now!
"The Girl Who Leapt From The Earth and Found Her Star"

5 things I hate...

Shoshonah Jennings who owns Hannah Grey had a contest on her blog. You had to list 5 things you really hate. The person who "amused" her the most, would be the winner of a flat rate box full of goodies......and I won!
here's what I wrote:

Hah! only five?….. ok here are a few of my pet peeves:
1. i hate all the “menopause” “aging gracefully” and “you’re ok, you’re over 50- woohoo!” books that lie through omission. Oh, they tell you about the pot belly and the lack of sex drive and the weight gain…. but they don’t tell you about the crepy skin that shows up everywhere and gets caught in your epilator. ….or the hair issue. as in hair in odd places - bristles on your chin, long strands on your EYELIDS, course gray hair that needs to be redyed a week after you just had it done, that bald patch on the top of your head you can’t see. …and what about those pesky skin tags that turn up in the most darned places or those white spots that are the opposite of all those brown spots that take over your arms and legs and face and you are convinced they are irregular in shape and the wrong color and so you have them removed and it leaves a huge scarred hole but at my age better safe than sorry? hah! i could write a book about my “age” discoveries!
2. I hate that I think I can take an exercise class just like everyone else, and that my age is not a consideration. Like when my friend (age 57) and myself (above the age of consent - way above) signed up for an african drumming class. dress comfortable it said. yah right. Me and my pal, huffing and puffing in our sweats, having hot flashes, pouncing and dripping to the beat of 3 fabulous drummers with a drill sergeant instructor who wouldn’t let us stop for 2 hours alongside 20 something year olds in tiny tops and mini sarongs. it took 2 weeks to recover from that one. …and brings me to #3.
3. I hate it that whatever i do anymore makes me hurt , eventually. Stay in bed too long because you are being being indulgent…er i mean not feeling well, and darned if it doesn’t kill your back. Plant those sort of dried up -are-they-still-alive? tulip bulbs that have been chilling in the fridge for over a year - my butt muscles ache in places I didn’t know existed! wave to a friend across the parking lot - tennis elbow that takes 6 months to heal.
4. I hate my lack of mental clarity, menopause moments, brain farts…. whatever. you know, when you go to the sale of the century, after hours of gathering up your i can’t live without them finds and when it’s your turn finally to pay the cashier - where is that credit card? where’s my wallet? i know it’s in here somewhere? with 30 women behind you, not so humored by your dilemma. or how about standing in the bank line and noticing your shirt is on inside out and then trying to act cool like you did it on purpose? Or finding the car keys you lost a month ago in the freezer. hey my favorite was when i was half way down the street, riding my bike, in full gear - helmet, gloves, tank top,running shoes, camelback water bottle and fanny pack and i felt a bit of a chill …i’d forgotten to put on my exercise shorts and was still in my underwear.
5. i hate cockroaches. I love spiders and snakes and rats and all living creatures. except cockroaches. here in hawaii we have great big brown flying ones. I abhor them…they terrify me. really. once my husband picked up an old Quaker Oats box he’d stored some of his men’s treasures in. he was in his boxer shorts at the time. Well heck if there wasn’t a huge cockroach on the bottom of the box that was positioned perfectly to jump on his leg and run up his shorts. Good thing for him they aren’t poisonous - cuz I was long gone the moment I saw what was happening and he was on his own to defend his manhood!

New Art Work

I started several new canvasses. Jesse Reno (in the class I took) suggested one work on several pieces at once - so when you are uninspired with one, you can go to the next. Jesse also doesn't exactly plan what the artwork is to become, he just looks at it as it forms and lets it go however it wants. I worked on the original painting I did in his class....i wish i could say it was done, but i keep adding/subtracting from it. here is how it looks now:

I created 4 other backgrounds and worked very hard on one particular canvas that was red orange and yellow flames made from molding paste and tissue paper. Looking at it I decided what the shapes and colors suggested to me, and drew them in with a black marker. Then i proceeded to paint and highlight my new creation.
It sucked. I hated it. I added tar gel strings, thread for more texture, and highlighting colors. I covered up the parts didn't like and tried to turn the designs into new designs. Finally I ripped off all the texture and white gessoed over the whole thing. Yuck. I just can't free form design...i really need to draw out and plan and fuss and slave over it .....I'm obsessive about that.....I'm not good outside my box....
So I switched to jewelry making.
I finished a baby rosary for my grand niece.
It is made from AB swarovski 3mm crystals and light siam 4mm swarovski crystals, on fine silver. The center piece is a silver cherub.
I made a Black and White necklace using new beads I'd bought in LA. It turned out way cool - it has eyeball beads on it and is made with fine silver. If I ever open an etsy shop I'll save this for it. I love black and white!

Then I made some charms for the "Ties That Bind" Project.



The last one is one of my "fight tooth and nail" charms ( as in "fighting tooth and nail")
My friend Amber Dawn sent me a way cool package of rusty bezels that she had collected for me.

I traded with her for them. She has to poke under the fence of an old factory and dig them out of the mud with a stick one by one to find them. Very time consuming and a lot of work! They are really wonderful. Thank you Amber Dawn!
Here is a charm I made with one of the rusty bezels for a special friend. The vintage bee I thought was copper, but it cleans up like brass. It is set in the bezel with resin.
I bought a copy of "Wrap, Stitch Fold and Rivet" by Mary Hettmansperger - great ideas in this book - and so simple! I made these 2 copper beads. I'm still experimenting.. Next one I make I'll put rivets on it to lace thru - these two are too messy for me to use for anything, but they did open up a world of new possibilities... very organic....just what I need - more stuff to play with!

...and on another note, we have two huge mango trees at our house. The fruit is usually ready to pick early August. Since I was gone at this time, I knew I had missed out this year. But my DH had left one on the tree - and it lasted until I got home and could pick it. It will still take another week or so until it turns yellow and is ripe - I can hardly wait!

It is so very good to be home.