Saturday, December 7, 2013

Gold Leaf for the Holidays

I got out my gold leaf the other day for a little bit of holiday flash. I'm pretty pleased with the results on these opalescent headpins.
Winners!

Extra long brass wires on these blingy transparent leaf headpins

Goldstone latticino limpet bead caps with metallic edges.

see how they match my prop shell

I was experimenting with layered headpins. The second one just didn't behave so I flattened and twisted it. Makes even a more interesting set and I know you guys aren't afraid of mismatched!

I might have shown these before but they are merchandise now.
In my Etsy shop

I decided to finally list some of these Numi- Petra combos
( that's ScorchedEarthOnEtsy who makes these ceramic spikes)

Butter criffles 'n' spikes

Blueberry, Cranberry - Alaskan inspired criffles

Mmmm, lookit that pale green!

Orphan assortments in the shop. lots of them!

"Whorlpools"
asymmetrical crusty large whorls
( rust not included. I find such great things on my walks around this high desert town)


A great focal. If you don't want this, I do!

It's been a great year in ye olde numinositye shoppe and many thanks to you all that keep me going.
I know I've fallen off on blogging and following partly because I've been so dang busy in the studio keeping my shop stocked. Also I became a guest blogger over on LoveMyArtJewelry Blog twice a month and I guess I don't have so many blog blathers in me to overflow into my own.
So if you want to see what I've written there you just need to head over on the first and last Thursday of every month. There are new posts there every day from many talented artists with a wealth of skills to share.
I just did a post this week about murrini and millefiore  cane.
Check it out here.

And now for some potatoes that my son illustrated to send you on your way.


Saturday, November 16, 2013

Trippin'

We just arrived back in Arizona after the 5 week trip to the states from Alaska.
It was pretty intense with lots of road travel and socializing.
I started out  by attending Art Is You in Stamford, Connecticut which put me on the east coast, my former stomping grounds.
I had been wanting to take a class from Michael DeMeng for years, in fact had one canceled here in Arizona that I had signed up for a few years back. He does have online classes too.
I ended up taking two of his classes to make up for that  missed one.
What you see here is some of my "Good Brushes Gone Bad" projects.
I learned a lot about some really cool paint applications and new materials that I'm itching to expand on ( notice the baby being birthed beneath the eye)
That eye was from some Bollywood CD trash that I found in India)

This one seemed very Alaskan totemic don't you think?

The face in the middle was from my Uruguay Haul last year and I'd been saving that little stub of a pencil for a long, long time.
Those little paw thingies radiating out from the face are the bottom half of some plastic squeeze toy.
That's the kind of  fun you can have in a Micahel DeMeng class!

I used one of my old lampwork dog bead attempts in this one. he always seemed rather Simpsonesque to me.

Using another one of my relaxing babies and a anenomonic lampwork piece I made this cover for this tin in the "Teeny Tiney Shriney" class. I still need to paint where I connected the glass to the top.

I loved learned his technique of coloring mica to make it look really old.
I forget what he called it -"Dead Guy Under Ice" or something to that effect.
I used a lighthouse from a Beech Cliff sardine can to harken back to my Maine roots and since it was my first job at the cannery and all.


I took Cat Kerr's "Tube Soldered Pendants" class and it was my first foray into playing with solder.

I filled the tubes with glass stringer nubs from my lampworking.

It was great to finally meet Cat after years of blogging and she had been a participant of my ill-fated Candace, the traveling doll escapade.
We grieved a bit at the loss of our dear Candace who went missing right before she was to be returned to me after a year of travel  'round the world.


I also took a class with Seth Apter of mixed media fame.
Learned a lot about layering and glazes that I'll be able to put to use. This class was called
"52 Pick Up" which was going to be a mini journal of  52 playing cards that are painted and collaged.
This is front and back cover- reflecting a bit of Indian theme it turns out.

The most challenging class was with Richard Salley and Jessica Jordan as I have only a couple of day long metal smithing classes under my belt. This was also made in one day. 
I'm pleased to know that they will be providing workshops during the gem show in Tucson in February.
How convenient!

Little did I realize that the influence of Michael DeMeng would translate so directly into my lampwork upon my return home. I had used murrini on the ends of headpins before but when I used Donna Millard's murrini that I had picked up when I saw her in Alaska these magnificent eyeballs appeared!

I warmed up to the torch making some more matchsticks and have been trying to come up with some batches to list so that I can fill my shop once again.
I am taking custom orders and that's why you might not be seeing so much new stuff appearing quite yet. I am working on it!
After my CT workshop I flew to Dayton and met my bead buddy and jewelry artist extraordinaire Nikki of LoveRoot. She has a new facebook page by the way and is already sharing some of her magic  in tutes and such. Go Nikki!
We had a great lunch together, her and her man and mine and she gave me some uber cool handcrafted vodka for my birthday. It just so happened to be her birthday when we met that day.  
I gave her some beads of course. I still have some of the vodka left and perhaps she still has some beads left.
From there we set out for the Michigan cottage that has been recently reacquired into my husband's family and hung out with his two sisters and some cousins for several days.
We then drove up and through Canada and down into New England ending up at my Mom's place where my brother and his family from Bali were still staying.
We got to celebrate our respective birthdays a day apart, my brother and I and also did Halloween with his young children
Don't I look older now?...this is right after my birthday

After that we had a whirlwind trip in a southerly direction meeting up with folks at every turn.
We did six states in one day once. All in all I saw 3 sister in laws, 1 brother in law,
1 bro, 2 sis's, 1 mom, 1 aunt, 4 cousins ( one I hadn't seen in 40 years) 3 old high school friends, 1 junior high school friend that I hadn't seen in 40 years, 2 art workshop/ blog friends, one new bead buddy and another Etsy customer. 2 old Alaskan friends, 2 nephews and one niece.
I apologize to those of you that I had hoped to visit along the way but nearing the end of the trip we were getting anxious to head to the barn. Next time, OK?

I only misplaced/left behind one hairbrush and one set of sunglasses and only lost one earring ( one of my own) gained quite a few pounds with the impossibility of avoiding wheat and gluten on the trip which I hope to wear off quickly now that I'm ensconced in Studio South.
I have two new paintings of my brother's to hang in our house here and one of Michael DeMeng's own teeny tiney shrinies for my collection.

Always a little overwhelmed as to where to begin. I missed creating after several weeks without and felt envious when I saw what you all were doing. 
Best thing I can do right now is to go melt some glass!




Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Random Road Trip Pics

A few pics from the trip. Trying to see if I can manage to blog from my phone.
I made a ring at Art is You. Went on a paddle wheel river cruise and met LoveRoot Nikki. Not in that order.
My laptop computer battery was all bulged out from it's storage in Arizona these last 6 months so that's kind of dead in the water until I find a new one.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Surprises in the Mail and Plans in the Making

It's been an interesting month since I returned from my trip to Maine.
I hit the ground running in my shop with a backlog of custom orders and what turned out to be a record breaking amount of components going out of my shop.
I was in full production mode as I knew I was going to be shutting down for all of October and partway into November. I did happen to let a few of my regular customers know it so that may have accounted for some of the rush.
I've had some interesting mail days with surprises from some very nice people.
This beautiful postcard made by Marcia Dunne from
showed up with this lovely snack pack of goodies. What's even more amazing is that it went to our address in Arizona first and got forwarded to me here in Alaska!


here's an example of Marcia's work 
(with some nice scorchedearthonetsy pieces used to quite an advantage))

and then I got these in a trade that I didn't know was a trade when I sent some headpins to Deborah of Tribalis to try out. This design knocks me out in its grace and rustic simplicity. She has more to sell too in her shop.
Check out her blog too.

And then Priscilla Moore of ReadBetweenTheLines was decommissioning some consignment pieces that she had recently gotten back and was GIVING these away! I spoke up quickly.


I literally only had a handful of beads left to sell at my next two shows, one of which is an actual bead show so I had to get busy and devote some time to some pieces I would not list in my shop.
Fortunately my next show is one that I can resell beads at too so there will be some other things to fill out the table. Oh, and I do hope some will be tempted to buy some of my jewelry too.

I had some little copper tube beads that I enameled. They are a little sharp edged for stringing and I'm not sure if I could command the price I need to make for these little numbers.  A buck a bead? what do you think?

I'm finding that the salmon leather and copper enamel are a winning combination especially for Alaskans apparently.



I thought I would show you one of my focal beads that I  have saved out as it is one of my favorites. I'm thinking of branching back out into making more of these. Focals used to be my primary focus in beadmaking. I kind of miss it.

And now I'm about to embark on my epic travel starting with a 300 mile trip to sell at a bead show in Anchorage and flying through the night to the east coast to meet up with my sister who I talked into attending Art Is You art retreat in CT. I'll be taking five days of classes with some of the biggies in mixed media like Michael DeMeng, Seth Apter, Cat Kerr and Richard Salley hoping to play a bit with the mixed media which I just haven't seemed to have much time for  in trying to keep my shop stocked.
I hope to pick up a few skills in soldering and metalwork too.
I also talked my sister into manning my table that will be set up for a day in hopes of introducing my work to some new folks.

After that I'm flying to Ohio to meet up with my husband who is driving up from Arizona and get to meet Ms. LoveRoot herself - Nikki Zehler on her birthday, no less!

Then it's off to check out my husband's old family cottage which he managed to re-acquire recently in Michigan and have a little reunion with his two sisters. 
Off to drive to Maine from there and have another visit with my family again and then simply drive back to Arizona with the intent of visiting and meeting a few more folks along the way like polymer clay guru Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree and the illustrious Janet of AnvilArtifacts

We should be back in Arizona by the second week of November or thereabouts where I will be getting back in the mode in my Bisbee studio.  I do hope to be filling you in along the way with some tidbits from my road trip.

I did a post today over at LoveMyArtJewelry today too  discussing frit and some of its uses. Stop on by.
Until later, CIAO!
Kim





Sunday, September 15, 2013

Kristi Bowman Wonky Bead Blog Hop

 I don't usually participate in these sort of challenges but I was intrigued with the beads that Kristi Bowman had made up and one of the requirements for purchasing was to use them  for this blog hop.

Doubling the challenge for me was that this was out of my color comfort zone added to the fact that designing with chunky beads was outside of my comfort zone as well. I also had never designed using primarily polymer beads.
I went strait to work as soon as I had the beads in my hand and had this necklace finished the same day as I knew that I wouldn't have the time during or after my trip back east.


I had some really nice WondrousStrange ceramic shell disc pieces that were screaming to be included.
Also a wonderful Shipwreck Dandy faceted polymer piece that was perfect in it's gemlike splendor to balance out the chunk and funk. 
Let's see yes I had some  numinositybeads mini criffles of my own that were hanging about. This necklace was making itself! 
With a ragged worm tube remnant for which to dangle as a focal piece and then accented by some faceted turquoise rondelles and a few red Tibetan mala bead to finish it off, I was quite pleased.
I'm not accustomed to wiring pieces together so this has a stiffer design than most of my necklaces.


I just had to give you a close up of the faceted polymer bead. I just love it!