Thanks for the Treasuries - February 2014

Eight different Etsians and one Etsy team let me know that they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during February. Eleven February Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during February. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below (in alphabetical order) links to the 8 Etsy sellers that let me know that they featured one of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. You will also see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured items of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the shop links of anything that catches your eye.

Alenahandmade
Find great decoupaged home decor items created by this artisan in her home studio.

Carnivalamigo
This shop carries a variety of items from jewelry and accessories to photography and art to home decor.

CorkyCrafts
If you or someone you know is a wine connoisseur who appreciates hand made items, check out this shop.

GirlieGals
Girlie Gals offers you jewelry that sparkles and shines at affordable prices.

HotdogCrafts
Put some fun in your life with pocket mirrors, earrings, bookmarks and Scrabble Tile necklaces.

KimsTexasCreations
Embroidery, fabric postcards, quilts, jewelry, baskets and more are created by Kim.

MarcellasMoments
Here you will find unique & one of a kind jewelry made in the USA.

SpecialtyShoppe
This shop specializes in original crochet patterns and creations in addition to vintage items.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Artist Spotlight - Selkie Masks

With Mardi Gras just around the corner (Tuesday, March 4, 2014), I felt it was time to introduce you to Selkie Masks. Forget the plain, black half face masks that most everyone wore when I was of trick or treating age. Selkie Masks are wearable pieces of art. They are perfect for Mardi Gras parades and celebrations as well as masquerade balls, Halloween, costume parties and more.

I first met Connie, owner and artist behind Selkie Masks, at a Dallas Handmade Arts Market that I was also showing at in 2012 and loved the creativity and artistry of her masks. I was pleased when she took me up on my invitation to be a part of last year's Happy Holidays Gift Store at the Arlington Museum of Art. I was blown away by the variety and artistry of the masks that she stocked in the store. They were even more elaborate than what I remembered. Not only were they great finds for being the focal point of a fabulous costume, they were art pieces in their own right that would be perfect home decor accents hanging from an ornament stand or framed in a shadow box.

It was difficult to choose a favorite, however the floral design and colors of one of the masks kept drawing me back to it. I had a grouping of items on a bookshelf that the mask's colors would complement beautifully so I finally decided to take it home. It is a beautiful addition to that eclectic group of decor pieces that I had been thinking of. (Yes that is my flying pig and geek earring gazelle model in that grouping.)

You will find photos of other fabulous masks on the Selkie Masks website as well as where to find them in person or how to contact Connie to purchase one if you are not located near one of those locations. Celebrate Mardi Gras in style.

Great Backyard Bird Count Montage

This year during the Great Backyard Bird Count I realized that I have never shared any of my results with my readers and decided I needed to change that. Below you will see a montage of some of the birds that I saw during this year's count. A few of the photos were taken during the count but most of them were taken previously. Click on the montage to enlarge it.

(birds in the montage - center: immature Red-tailed Hawk; clockwise from top left: Dark-eyed Junco, Mourning Dove, White-winged Dove, baby Eastern Bluebird, female Northern Cardinal, male Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Field Sparrow and House Finch)

Following is a list of all of the birds that I was able to identify during this year's count: Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, American Crow, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, European Starling, House Sparrow, Field Sparrow, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Mourning Dove, White-winged Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Eastern Bluebird, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Cedar Waxwing.

If you participated this year, I hope you had fun. If not I hope this post is inspiration for you to do so next year. If you have been hesitant to count because you are unsure you can identify enough species of birds, I have a great new, free app for you from Cornell Labs, Merlin. It is different than flipping through pages and pages of a field guide and I found it to be very easy to use.

Waterlily Wave Pattern in AVAA 2014 Regional Show

My waterlily image “Blue Reflections” was my first photographic art image that I had printed on metal. It was well received (and purchased, yay!) at the 2013 Happy Holidays Gift Store. I made an abstract image, “Waterlily Wave Pattern”, from “Blue Reflections” and decided to have it printed on a slightly smaller, 11x14, piece of metal. I liked how the surface of the metal gave a clean, contemporary look to the abstract and decided to enter it in the 2014 AVAA Regional Juried Show.

I should mention here that in the first AVAA show that I entered, in 2012, my Gulf Fritillary entry received a merit award but my entry in 2013 was not hung in the show, so I was hoping this year’s entry would make it in. I went to the reception and awards ceremony last night for the 2014 show. I was pleased to see my “Waterlily Wave Pattern” hanging on the wall.

If you are in the area and would like to see some great artwork from artists from around the region in a variety of media, stop by the Bob Duncan Center in Vandergriff Park in Arlington, TX. The artwork is hung in the north/south hall on the west side of the Center and in the large room on the west side of that hall. My entry is in the large room at the north end of the west wall. The show will be up through March 28, 2014 and then the winners will be moved to the Arlington Museum of Art to be displayed during April and May.

Thanks for the Treasuries - January 2014

Four different Etsians and one Etsy team let me know that they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during January. Sixteen January Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. One of them was even featured twice. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during January. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below (in alphabetical order) links to the 4 Etsy sellers that let me know that they featured one of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. You will also see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured items of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the shop links of anything that catches your eye.

HotdogCrafts
Put some fun in your life with pocket mirrors, earrings, bookmarks and Scrabble Tile necklaces.

MarasKeepsakes
This shop has lots of great finds to give or keep for yourself for years to come.

MarcellasMoments
Here you will find unique & one of a kind jewelry made in the USA.






TheYellowRoses
In addition to great rag dolls & stuffed animals, this shop is branching out into mosaics.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Design This – Beaded Necklace to Match Azurite and Malachite Pendant

Two years ago I purchased a beautiful azurite and malachite cabochon that had been formed and set in a handmade sterling silver mounting by Donato 2 Hawks. I looked forward to making a beaded necklace to incorporate the pendant into. The azurite is such a beautiful blue but it is different than most of the blues that I have in my bead collection and I didn’t have any malachite greens either so I needed to do some searching for the right materials. There was a bit of light blue in the pendant that reminded me of some of my turquoise beads.

At each trade show I went to after that I looked for appropriate beads. I found that some chrysocolla beads had potential. During the first year I found some nice large rounded rectangular chrysocolla beads and some faceted dark green synthetic beads. At the beginning of the second year I found some medium sized spherical malachite beads but the azurite blue continued to elude me. Just recently I found what I hoped would prove to be the final pieces to the necklace puzzle. I found some small, spherical, high shine colorful chrysocolla beads and two sizes of faceted agate spheres that were dyed a blue that looked like it would complement the azurite. I normally don’t purchase dyed components but these were a nice color that didn’t scream fake, so I brought them home.

Soon after, I had a chance to see if my collection would allow me to design a necklace that would do my pendant justice. In addition to the beads I already mentioned, I also included some silver and some opalite beads in my pile of components that looked promising. After laying out some different combinations, I settled on a few turquoise teardrops and small spheres, the rounded rectangular and high shine chrysocolla beads and both sizes of the blue dyed agate that turned out to be a good foil for the azurite in the pendant. Once I had a design that I liked, I began to string it up. Before finishing off the second end, I took a moment to see how the necklace would wear and found that the very large bail of the pendant was going to cause the pendant to slide too easily back and forth along the necklace.

Luckily this was only a minor setback. Looking closely at what I had already strung up, I saw the potential to create a loop that would keep the pendant in place. It turned out that the loop idea worked well to corral the pendant if I could find some smaller beads to allow it to bend tightly enough. Again I was lucky in that I had some dark blue seed beads in my stash that worked perfectly. The first try at making the loop took some attention away from the focal pendant however. Before I tried downsizing the loop I took a photo so I could compare my second attempt to the first one. I was pleased with the second loop. (You can see the first and second attempts above.) Now that I had a pleasing and functional design it was time to finish off the second end. Since the pendant was sterling silver, I also used sterling silver findings to complete the necklace.

If you have a special component that you would like to have incorporated into a custom piece of jewelry for you, contact me to see if I have what is needed to accomplish that for you.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2014

It's that time of year again to dust off your binoculars and print out your local bird checklist. The Great Backyard Bird Count is scheduled for February 14-17, 2014.

If you aren't familiar with the GBBC it "is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are." Why is this important? Analyzing the data can help scientists answer a variety of questions about migratory patterns, health of bird populations, climate changes, etc. They need our help as citizen scientists to gather this data as there are not enough scientists in all parts of the world to do so. Do your part and have some fun while you are at it. Grab your checklist and head out with your binoculars for some fun outdoors while you count birds. Data submission is easy. GBBC has online resources to help you identify the birds that you find. If you enjoy photographing birds, there is even a photo contest. See last year's winners for inspiration. Happy Counting!