Funky Fabric Rings

I have three shows coming up soon, and hope to show my jewelry in two of them - the third one is an art show where I will show only my paintings and my framed works in fabric.

So here's some more of my boho-chic jewelry...I need a hand model, or one of those eerie cut-off-at-the-wrist ring display hands, though :)  It's hard to depict in pictures how quite large these pieces really are.

All of these funky fabric rings are one-of-a-kind pieces and are on adjustable bases to fit all sizes.  They are made from new reclaimed fabric and then adorned with hand-sewn embellishments - a bit of eco-friendly, bohemian fashion for your fingers!

Dreaming in White

When I imagine my dream space, it's always white.  White may seem sterile and impersonal to some, and it can be that way sometimes, depending on how it's being used, and of course there's the question of keeping it well, white.

BUT,

white is so liberating, so clean, so fresh, and so incredibly versatile.

You can play with textures in an all-white room, or just simply combine it with another favorite color.  Small touches of bright hues shine against a crisp white backdrop.  The results is usually stunning.

For a period of time, a long time ago, I had a red and white room.  I still remember that space with fondness.  This is a tribute to that old room of mine.

They are not real rooms, but clever renderings (look closely!) and only some of them have names of the designer, but they are all pretty fab, don't you think?

When I studied design, making perspective drawings was one of my favorite subjects, and I made a LOT of white rooms!!!  Those were all done by hand, but computer renderings are now the norm, and look real enough to deceive.

In any case, they are a great way of playing with color without the fear of commitment!

Do you have a dream-space dream color?

Enjoy!

 

Custom Ring

Black and white - YUMMY!  I'm almost tempted to keep it for myself.

Black cotton with white embroidery, white seed beads and translucent white beads, and a few tiny silvery sequins on an adjustable ring.

Lunch

Emerge

I've been super laid-back the last ten days or so!!!  This piece was finished a week and a half ago, and I didn't get around to listing it until now.

Well, red it is!

Fabric, like paint, or anything else you could do with your hands, is so therapeutic to mess aound with.  As usual, I allowed the piece to evolve and just kept layering.  Then a shy flower appeared, and began to step out.

I called it "Emerge".

I didn't shoot these in good light.  The piece is much softer-looking in person. 

Anyway, it's in the store now!

Sold A Photograph!

And then it got picked for a treasury, the very next day.

Coincidence?

Anyway, I'm just so happy someone liked my amateurish photography enough to buy it!  The original was 8x10, but she requested a custom listing of 5x5.  Fortunately, it looks good in both formats.

It's a geranium leaf from a potted plant in out patio last summer, just after some rain.

Sometimes a piece of work just gets stuck, and I begin to wonder if it's gone to Never Land (as in never to be retrieved).  Sometimes, though, it suddenly falls into place after a long, long time in limbo.

That's what happened with Perpetual Astonishment, and that's what happened with this piece.

I call this one Comet.

And you can get it here!

My favorite blues...and they look amazing in that dark wood frame. 

I think I need some red now, though!

Perpetual Astonishment

For months (months!!!)  I've had a painting hanging in our living room - unfinished.  No one seemed to be able to tell, but everytime I looked at it I cringed.  I knew I needed to work on it, but that canvas is two feet square.  I didn't want to do it section by section.  It would look so weird, plus I don't work like that.  So it languished there on the wall.  In this state:

This is a very bad shot, and not taken in natural light, but you get the picture.

So yes, I just stopped looking at it.  Lately though, I've been working with my sewing machine, and really enjoying it too.  Ironically, making fabric jewelry somehow inspired me to get back to this painting, and two days ago I just pulled it down and finished it - just like that!

And in a matter of hours, this is what it became:

Our wall just got a makeover!!!

I've replaced a lot of my favorite turquoise (which is color of the year this year!) with intense red and orange, but it's making the blue pop even more.

I call it Perpetual Astonishment (you'll find out why!), and you can get it here.

Naturally, all that painting has inspired me with more fabric jewelry ideas.  Weird, huh?

In The Bag!

OK - not completely: I'm still learning how to make a little purse, but sitting down (a lot of sitting down!) and actually making one taught me a couple of things that I now know how to fix in my next one.  Like sewing the lining part separately from the outside part and then inserting the lining into the outside part, and then sewing them together!  I also didn't have a clasp available so until I put one in (I'm thinking just a plain magnetic closure) this purse doesn't close...

But this was a weekend's worth of work for me - all those little bits first patched together, then the outlines to each shape, for which I used a variety of methods: handsewn bunched up strip of fabric - those puffy ones that you see - cord, twisted bits of fabric and well, more cord.  I tried riboon too but the width didn't look right so I took it off.  Also I could have used more layers of fabric sewn together for the handles but my back was starting to give out and I just used wide brocade ribbon instead.

And oh yes, each side has its very own metallic brown rose!

I love crazy quilting, and this was my very first time doing it.

I'm so happy with it!

My very first bag, and that too a crazy-quilted patchwork one!

YAY!

Kookaburra Sits On An Old Gum Tree (almost)

Know that song about the kookaburra?  We saw one.  Almost.  Sometimes people go to Australia to see one.  Sometimes they go to Niagara Falls.

Australia was a little far, so we chose the latter. 

OK, so we visited the Bird Kingdom there, one of the Fall's attractions that I have studiuosly avoided.  Tropical birds in a cold country can only mean one thing - cages.  But when I looked up the info it said the place was the biggest free-flying aviary in the world - 400 specimens of 80 species frolicked there, it said.  So we went.  I was still dubious, but we went. 

There was a caged parrot right at the entrance.  That's about when DaddyBoy had to start shushing me.  Anyway, we kept going.  Well, that poor kookaburra was in a cage.  No wonder he wasn't laughing.

They did have a large aviary where the birds were free, but how does an aviary compare with a tropical forest?  Are there really any educational merits to something like this?  I'm not really sure.  The LittleBug loved petting the lizards and the alligator (he was two feet long - a baby) and the snake, and she enjoyed the birds, all of which the lady assured me had never seen anything but captivity, so they couldn't possibly miss the freedom of well, being free.  But what about their instincts, I thought.  Why would a snake enjoy being handled the whole day?  Why was the poor baby alligator in a plastic tote box that wasn't any bigger than itself?

The NanoBot, free of such conflicts, had a good time. 

A few pics:

We couldn't help marveling at the birds.  Don't they look hand-painted?

This is a zebra finch.

And this is some sort of waxbill, I think.

I can't remember looking up this guy, but he was an amazing combination of colors.

And this big guy, called a Victoria Crwon Pigeon, is actually the largest of the pigeons - he was huge. 

So pretty!

They had some Javanese architectural elements replicated to give the place a more authentic rainforest feel.  I somehow managed to botch all those pics.

I spotted this lovely tree, so of course I had to take pictures of its leaves.

And the kookaburra?  Yes, I did take a couple of pics, but the cage bars are showing.  I just couldn't post it.