floating bell flower

another addition to my ongoing theme of floating flowers --- organic and earthy--  made with enamel and sterling silver... this necklace will be listed this weekend in my etsy shop

sneak preview..

i've had this bell flower necklace sitting in pieces in my "to do" box for months-- waiting, and waiting-- patiently-- and finally not so patiently-- for me to steal some time to put this altogether.. i love making this chain--although it's a task... i use it frequently because of it's lightness -- and it reminds me of the long legs of mosquito hawks ( crane flies) or daddy long legs... i know i know--insects!...but they have their peculiar beauty...  i decided to give this a deep gun metal patina-- a more moody and poetic group of flowers for the autumn and winter season..
so... here are a few photos from different angles... i really enjoyed photographing this necklace--it cooperated nicely with me--- happy to be finally finished.  this will be listed soon in my etsy shop-- with some other new pieces to follow...

more cobalt and white

i photographed one of my favorite thrown porcelain bowls from my pottery making days-- more cobalt  blue and white.  i wanted to post it with the last bunch of blue and white faves but i didn't have the photo of it ready....and i found this shot from my old studio with some of my blue and white polka dot series...

blue and white

the very first image above is one of peter's paintings --a new one which i love quite a lot ...and having spent many years making pottery and sculpture made of clay, i have a passion for the sweet soft stuff--both before and after it's fired. for a while i worked with cobalt blue and white glazes and porcelain-- i loved its simplicity and freshness. here is a ceramics piece --a tromp'loeil made of clay and glaze by marianne hallberg and a few inspiring lovelies for you... two images by the dittybops,  and a lovely light filled room that belongs to maria skeppstrom via finelittleday . the mussel shell assemblage is made by carolyn saxby via flickr

some dogs can dance.. and some old dogs even learn new tricks...

my husband was watching this link on face book. i just couldn't help but find this incredibly ... i don't know-- fantastic!-- yes that 's the word i'm thinking of!  i think the dog is the more graceful dancer-- what do you think? perhaps the dog taught the man to dance...  i do think the sweet pooch deserves a skirt that's a bit more festive --maybe with some flair capability for those turns... i hope this leaves you with a smile and an urge to go learn some new dance steps...

work

a few shots of work on the bench-- an order for a customer.... now finished and shipped out.. these are disks that have had 23kt gold leaf fused to their surfaces. also a photo of the plastic box that i melted by accident on my burner-- looks like a galaxy of stars with a black hole....

these are the disks after hammering.. ready to be soldered to the bangles...

here are the finished bangles with their disks and a pair of my golden pod earrings-- final step is some clean up, polishing and then some patina

finished--- now of these will go in the mail --

an interview and an illustrator

today i've been featured on megan marie eckman's blog- studio m.m.e.  i just want to thank megan for her thoughtful feature and clue you in to her work as well. she's an illustrator of fairy tale visions and captures the sense of wonder and fantasy that makes the child in us light up... here's a sample of one of her wonderful versions of a classic tale...