Make a Little Free Library

These tiny houses hold books...free to borrow, and can be placed in a garden or along any walkway...

I think I need to make one...or get Kim Joris from The FolksArt in Georgia to make me one...

read the entire article here
thanks to my friend Patti Digh for the link

Win a copy of Heather Power's new book!

Win a copy of Heather Power's new book Jewelry Designs From Nature and a kit of Elaine Ray beads, findings, ribbon, chain and other goodies that will help you make some of the fabulous projects in the book.
Enter to win by leaving a comment here on this post OR by writing 'I want to win Heather Powers new book!' on our Facebook wall. Click the Facebook link in the tab bar on the top of the blog.

Good luck!

See the book here!

added on Tuesday, August, August 23rd
NOTE: Yes, you can win if you live outside the U.S. To enter just leave a comment HERE or on our Facebook page and we'll enter you. We are taking entries through Wednesday (tomorrow!) and will draw the name on Thursday and announce the winner on the facebook page. You will be contacted via your facebook page, your email or the name you use to post comments here. 

Inspired by Nature Retreat

One of my favorite bead artist, Heather Powers, is holding a retreat in Michigan in September that you should attend. This three-day retreat will inspire with the lovely surroundings of Lake Michigan and the autumnal woods. Oh, and there's three days of beading in a porch, surrounded by nature and new friends.

Doesn't that sound dreamy?

check out all the details at Inspired By Nature.

*and if you are thinking, 'gee, I just love Cynthia and would like to send her off on a retreat to show my affection' this would be a good choice!  ;-)

Garden Jewelry

Vintage chandelier crystals hanging from our bamboo bean trellis.
I used Wildfire to hang them, just looped it over the bamboo.

They are very pretty in the sun and surprisingly sparkly in the dim light of evening.

Elaine's new bead shape...and how she works

This is a new bead shape from Elaine Ray...a square version of her washer. She wrote about this bead:

'A new bead shape: Many of you know how I work - think of a new bead shape, make just a couple and see how it is to glaze and fire them, then make a handful more to get a success / failure rate, and then decide if I want to make them in production. But not for this bead - I was so excited with the first flash vision in my head I didn't bother to think it through and just jumped in and made 100 in each color of clay I use (buff, brown and white). My plan was to glaze the flat side and leave the skinny edges of clay showing, sort of opposite of my washer beads. As soon as I attempt to glaze the first one of those 300 beads it hits me - this won't work! The glaze will run and stick to the wire in the kiln unless I'm super, super, super careful when applying the glaze and use only glazes that don't run. Well, I'm not capable of being that careful and most of my glazes run. Hmmmmm - I can't just toss out 300 beads so I figure I'll just glaze them same at the washer beads and say good bye to the shape forever.

BUT - now I'm loving the shape and edges so will most likely make more and more of them.'

Oh, Elaine, we agree! I can't wait to see these at the Trunk Show at Ornamentea on Friday and Saturday. I can think of about ten projects that I need these for...and there will be a fab class with Lorelei Eurto on Friday night where I could use the beads if I want...this is going to be a great weekend!

Said the Gramophone

I love this blog...
but how do I explain this blog? great songs, great images...a great way to spend a few minutes when you need to recharge your head...

Reconnections Mail Art with Patti Digh

I have a friend I wish I kept in touch with a bit more. I adore her, but time and louder demands keep me from picking up the phone on a regular basis.  I dream of writing her long, insightful letters with prosey details about my life and beautiful snap-shots of my children, but somehow the actual paper and pen is too daunting. After all, since I haven't written her a letter in a long while (okay, ever!) I want to make it a good letter. No, I want to make it a great letter. A masterpiece. A letter to treasure and keep wrapped in a pink silk ribbon, tucked in the corner of the top drawer of the dresser and taken out for frequent re-readings.

I can't just jot down a few lines and say 'hope you are well!' I am frightened by what the poet Etienne Mallarme called le vide papier (the blank sheet) and the idea that my chit-chatty words aren't quite enough for a letter to a friend I haven't written to in years.

You too?

So, this is where Mail Art can come to our rescue. Mail art is collage (usually) that is mailed. Artists create round-robin mail art extravaganzas that go on for years and become layered with meaning and import. We are not going to stress ourselves out, a la Etienne. No, we are going to sit down in a room with Patti Digh and eleven friends and make a collage-y bit of mail art that will be mailed, after the class, to that friend. Patti is one of those writers who makes you think that you, too, dear friend, can be creative and accomplished. For me, I am thinking that being in the room with you and my friend's address and Patti will make la terreur de le vide papier disappear!

All you need to bring is the current address of that friend. We'll take care of the postage!

Class details are here. Call to register, spaces are limited. 919-834-6260.

Ode to a glue

I'm a big gluer. Are you?
This is my favorite, all-around glue.
When I have to pack craft supplies for a trip and space is tight, this is the one I bring.
If I was being marooned on a deserted island and could pick only one glue, this would be it.

Yes, it is smelly. That is why it works.

This is a partial list of items I have glued to one-another with 527 in the pursuit of art, fashion and home repair:

glass to metal (see this project)
plastic goat head to button (see this blog post)
pearl trim to fabric handbag
tiny cardboard letters to aluminum foil birthday hat (the glue gun was AWOL)
button to jacket (the sewing machine was AWOL, just kidding, I was feeling lazy)
shoe sole to leather shoe (years ago and they are still going strong!)
metal knob to cabinet door
plastic emblem-thingy to car door (shh, don't tell my spouse)
wood perch to bird feeder

What about you? What's your Deserted Island craft supply?

you can buy my favorite glue right here

See the new tee logo tonight!

Join us Friday night for a special Handmade Holiday party.

• wear any vintage beadfreak tee and you can register to win your choice of one of our new tees or a $15 store gift certificate
• pick up a free felting tutorial project sheet
• see the new product I am so excited about and register to win your own
• get great 20% discounts on selected classes when you register during the party
• check out our many new items this week (metal, enamels, beads by Loriola, more!)
• enjoy cider, cookies, wine and more!
• no registration, just show up and have fun!

see you there!

Snail Mail

I love this little snail...he was created as an entry to a contest to depict a figure of speech. He is so sweet.

Something I really want...

is one of these paperclip chandeliers from ReDesign Technologies in Merritt, BC. That's made out of paperclips. I bet it is kind of swishy if you touch it. Genius. Sheer genius.

I nicked this photo from their Etsy shop here. Go visit. I have to search my couch cushions to find enough money to order this...heck, I may have to come search your couch cushions, too...

Vintage flowers and leaves make me happy...

We have acquired these lovely french beaded flowers and leaves in soft wedding whites and crystals that are really making my head spin. I keep thinking of ideas for ways to use them on earrings, on the front of a filigree locket, on a ring. Oh-oh-oh...

See all the flowers here...I'll have some projects next week, maybe several!

And I know, these flowers aren't so hard to make but these are DONE and that is kinda nice! I am tempted to cheat a bit and use some of these leaves to make a ring like the Monkey Garden ring I am teaching at Ornamentea on May 21st. In that class, we'll make our own leaves but maybe an all-white garden would be nice for a monkey?)


If you want to join me for the Monkey Garden Ring, call the store at 919-834-6260. We use the oval screen rings to bead on. The class isn't up yet on the website, but we have started a sign-up sheet.

our sweet petal beadcaps on Art Bead Scene

EDITED to correct the artist! These earrings were made by Heather Powers, Tari just sent me the link and I was so excited by the jewelry that I didn't read clearly! Sorry!

I just love the Art Bead Scene blog. Not only do I admire the bead artists who contribute to the blog; I adore the way they really show how beautiful artist-made beads are. Handmade, artist-made beads are just about all I want to work with anymore.

Tari Sasser, who makes really lovely beads and buttons (AND is a fellow Ohioan!) used some of our petal caps to create sweet blossoms in a tutorial today on Art Bead Scene in their Findings Worth Finding feature. Check out the original post, with the full tutorial, here.

The bead caps she used are here. For those beads from Humblebeads, go here and tell Heather I sent you. To visit Tari's work go to Creative Impressions.

Mincing Mockingbird and Frantic Meerkat Steal A Car, news at 11

This photo shows Kim of the Frantic Meerkat, the mysterious Mincing Mockingbird and me at the Stationary Show last year. The Humanized Animals (as we call them but not to their faces) are two artists or maybe writers who create paintings, collages and really, really funny cards. I love their work and send these cards to friends and family who will get it. That list can be kinda short. Really, who DO you send a card featuring a collage of men fencing with kittycats? or a perfectly lovely painting of a songbird and the text "It's hard out here for a finch" ? Somehow, though, that card is just right for someone...someone I know. The Mockingbird also has created a giant freeway-billboard-sized painting of cars running off an overpass that is on my list of 10 Things I Will Buy If I Come Into A Giant Fortune. Sadly, the link I had to it no longer works so the image only lives in my brain. If I do Come Into My Giant Fortune I shall purchase a large billboard on I-440 and put that sucker right up there for all the hapless communters to ponder.

read their blogs for inspiration or amusement or just the sheer time-wasting fun of it all:
Mincing Mockingbird and Frantic Meerkat

and check out the cards at both stores.

Escazu is expanding

Which means more chocolate for me, right?

Go read the story...mmm...I think am getting a cup of chocolate right now at their convenient Glenwood Ave. shop. I am sorry to have it go, but I understand that they have to focus on their new space.

Chocolatier to open factory - Wake County - NewsObserver.com

photo from the N&O article

Patti Digh Reading at Panopolie

I know you remember me talking about this fabulous book, Life Is A Verb, and the equally wonderful author Patti Digh when she first came to Panopolie to read from her book. I am so excited to announce that she's coming back in December to do another reading. I have given this book to so many friends and family who treasure it as I do, both for Patti's stories and the amazing artwork contained within the pages. At the last reading Patti went beyond the selections, giving us some background to each essay, plus a few new stories. We all laughed and cried.

This would be a great event to attend with a girlfriend, mom or sister. We'll have refreshments, maybe even fudge.

Saturday, December 12th
author reception 5:45
author reading 6:15

Why I should not have access to the internet late at night...

So we just returned from a week-long vacation. I did a few posts but mainly I ignored the entire world and just took long bike rides with my family, ate seafood and great fall salads and stared at the waves looking for dolphins. It was wonderful. We got back this weekend and now, tonight, I am officially Back At Work. I dug through new emails, cleaned out my real, paper-filled mailbox and even returned a phone call. I ignored Twitter and (mostly) avoided Facebook. I was good. I stayed on task. I focused.

Then somehow I found myself looking at an entry in Betz White's blog (that's research, right?) and saw this lovely fabric on her etsy shop. My brain is still way in vacation mode, so it immediately started thinking about a new curtain for the girl's bedroom closet (no door, long story) and about curtains for the shelves in the studio that cover all the ugly-but-useful storage containers. I couldn't help myself. I ordered some.



Really, could you help yourself? I didn't think so.

Now, get back to work. Focus.

Check It Out...

This is my weekend to revel in all the downtown Raleigh fun I can. I ate at The Busy Bee last night (one word: yum) and then today I decided to take my three-year-old to Beerfest. Well, not actually Beerfest, just the perimeter. We still got to see the drunk people walking around with their souvenir, non-breakable-plastic, miniature beer flutes, stumbling and laughing. I just didn't actually pay for a ticket ($45) seeing as how Nora isn't much of a beer drinker anyway. As we approached Moore Square and she saw everyone milling about in a drunken stupor she said "we can't go up there, we'll bump into all those people.' I took her advice. We wandered the City Market area and I stopped in to see my old friend Leeann Hynes at her new business venture.

Epona and Oak is a lovely-smelling store with natural body care, teas and lots of handmade crafts. I bought two tee shirts (see one above) and some amazing candles while Nora wandered around, looking ultra cool as she refused to take off her sunglasses and hat. The store is really soothing; the only thing it was missing was a nice big couch where I could lounge and just drink in the smells and sights. I can hardly wait to go back for a massage and a cup of tea.

LeAnn used to work with me at Bedizen Ornaments; first as an 'elf' assembling jewelry and finally as our head buyer. She has top-knotch craft skills and an amazing attention to detail coupled with a bizarre sense of humor. She left Ornamentea to persue her own work and because the store owner (that's me!) was probably driving her nuts. Now she gets to be the store owner AND buyer and drive herself nuts. Have fun!

Tomorrow we are all heading down to Marbles for the Handmade Market. Something tells me Nora will like that a lot better than the Beerfest crowds. I always end up getting lots of great clothes and gifts (for me!) at the Handmade Market: knowing my children and spouse are happily playing at Marbles will make it that much nicer...

P.S. We took the new R line to Moore Square today. I just want to thank the Raleigh City Council and Mayor Meeker for creating this bus line just for me. I swear, it is exactly what I need. Free. Easy. Right by Ornamentea...

getting dressy...

Ahh, the dress quest continues and is fruitful. I found this fabulous polka-dotted dress from Galatea that makes me oh-so-happy. When I put it on, it made me feel both efficient and a little bit naughty. I had to bring it home. I think I may add a snap at the neckline to make it less naughty, but otherwise it fit so perfectly I almost laughed out loud in the dressing room!

There are loads of great dresses at Get Dressed, too, and just across the street from Ornamentea. I have to walk over there and spend some time going through all the racks of vintage goodies and look for items in my size.

Thanks to all the folks who emailed me dress buying tips!

(oh, Galatea now has a consignment section where you can sell gently-used clothing that you previously purchased at Galatea. The problem for me is that I don't have a SINGLE thing I have purchased there that I didn't wear down to the bare threads. I did, however, see a great slip dress on the consignment rack for just $20...)

Art Bead Scene Challenge for March

This month's Art Bead Scene Challenge is inspired by Matisse's painting, Goldfish. You can read more about the challenge here.

I love this painting, it hung on the wall of Marburn Elementary in the hallway across from the drinking fountains. When I lined up for recess with my class every day it was there, above my head. Also on the wall was Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Luetze, but I tried each day to be under the goldfish. Mrs. Safford, my second grade teacher always stood at the head of the line with an extended finger pressed to her lips. Shhh...now I wonder why it was so important to get 26 eight-year-olds so very quiet, only to pour us outside those double doors to run under the flat Ohio sky, but back then I just stared at the goldfish. I stood there for a long time; most second graders aren't all that quiet and her standards were pretty high. I loved looking up at the flat, printed surface with the bright goldfish and the pink, dotted background. I loved tracing the obvious brushstrokes with my eyes, thinking how I could make paint do that myself. Later, much later, as an adult I saw this painting and other Matisse paintings in person and I was stunned at how they were so alive and so deep. The print was colorful, though, and it occupied me quietly during our daily line up. Maybe all those minutes spent staring at that print did something to me, now I think I should pay it a bit of honor and enter the Challenge this month. You can enter, too, you'll win a goodie bag of handmade art beads from talented bead artists.

If I do enter the Challenge, I will be sure to use some of Elaine Ray's new brighter beads. She's bringing them to the trunk show at Ornamentea on March 13th and 14th. I wonder how I can make a necklace that is about both this painting and what it was like to be a caged-up second grader, held in line, daydreaming about swirling paint while waiting to run like crazy to the monkey bars or the swings. That may take some doing.