Detour!

I had planned a "trip" to Italy but was detoured to Japan. I had gone through some old sketches and thought that this idea fit nicely with my world tour! A japanese lantern pendant has been one of those back burner things... I could totally see these as a charm bracelet. Or a locket!!!

The vacation I would take...

Since I will not be off on that fabulous vacation anytime soon, I decided to take a visual vacation... come with me on a trip to Paris, mon amour...



Next stop... Italy! I can dream can't I!

Deep sigh! The taxes are filed!

So now that the taxes are all tucked safely in at the IRS, I have so much catch up to do it is unreal! How can two charming and (almost) perfect children make such a mess (I had nothing to do with it! I swear!)? Bad parenting! I should be showing them how to become clean, tidy, responsible citizens. Well, at least I'm on the right track with responsible. I feel like I've spent so much time on all the yucky paper work and tax stuff that I can't settle my mind on a fun project to do. I haven't worked much with the clouds. They are very tempting. I did get a chance to do some mold making for some new "tulip" pendants. I've been wanting to work on a mold for an "eiffel tower" frame. I tend to list items for sale, but don't have them actually made yet. I think it would be nice for people to actually see what they are ordering, but nicely enough people usually end up ordering items with no image shown. Very trusting! Here is the new "tulip", I can't wait to see her with some glaze! Unglazed clay always looks so neked! I did a heart shape too that I'm very fond of. The two pendants are slightly different. Would you choose one over the other?

Taxes Schmaxes!

Ugh! I love this spring weather. I hate these spring taxes! And I'm a bit leery about this economic stimulation money that we are supposed to get in a few weeks. I have a feeling it isn't what it seems. Although I could easily see spending a good chunk on jewelry supplies! Wheee! If you are sent money for stimulating the economy, how or what would you splurge on yourself?

Spring has sprung... Let the cleaning begin!

It was a funny, bunny filled weekend with lots of candy and spring cleaning. I could have spent another two days on just the studio alone. Our yard sale/donation boxes have piled up to the point where my studio looked like a dysfunctional thrift store rather than a ceramic work area. It is now neatly piled into two sections. The Rescue Mission pile is awaiting it's pick up while the yard sale pile is waiting for a yet to be determined date. I hope it is sooner rather than later! It's time in the sun will soon be here!

Sunday the Easter Bunny made a visit to our house and my big boy shouted "Thank you Easter Bunny! Where ever you are!!!" My little one just had fun following her big brother. Calder noticed that we really don't know what the Big Bunny looks like "for real". I put my two cents in and imagined that he looks like Mr. Herriman from Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends (a house hold favorite!) The Easter Bunny brought us a fun new "Harry the Dirty Dog" book. This one is about a neighbor who sings too loudly for Harry's ears! How did the bunny know we had our eye on that new Doug and Melissa play sushi set?!? It is seriously the cutest thing ever! It has chop sticks!


I did get a chance to play with a few new beads and pendants this weekend and incorporated some of the new seed beads that I got back in February. They were such beautiful ocean-esque colors that I had to work in an ocean/mermaid theme. I love giving jewelry "titles", maybe because they seem like art to me. I like "Caught in Her Net" or "The Mermaids Garden". I don't know if it is obvious if the tail is a mermaid tail, my husband didn't guess that. I guess it could just as easily be a fish tail. The glaze is my new favorite color combo, Robins Egg on Brick! Ok. Enough play time, the taxes will not do them selves!

Spring has sprung.

It has been so beautiful lately it makes it hard to concentrate. Spring fever indeed. We NEVER water the yard so the bit of rain we've had this winter has had a greening effect on our yard. Makes it hard to find the doggie bombs but oh well. I don't really care to. I did manage to take a few pictures around town of some particularly beautiful scenery.... you can see Shrek and Fiona just behind the trees...



The sky really is that blue!

The Acatia trees are just amazing and photos don't do them justice.

Back in the saddle...

I've been really sick and really busy. The two don't marry well. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few new pictures later this week. I haven't even emptied the kiln to see if the new ideas came out alright. Some celestial and nouveau goddesses! A talented jewelry designer LORELEI created a really pretty necklace using one of our leaf pendants. If you check out her blog and leave a comment you could win the necklace this week.

Maaahtha

A beading/craft friend Stephanie Bodine was recently on Martha. She had a great segment with a really fun project! Check her out! Yay Stephanie! www.bocageny.com

Just because it's a great song and a great song with a whakado video

Goin' with the flow

I was invited by fellow bead artist Tari Sasser, the artist behind claybuttons.com to do a collaboration with her and another bead artist Elaine Ray which we will all be blogging about later.... Tari sent me some of her amazing Tie Dye pendants to work with and as I was working with them one idea flowed into another (don't you just love when that happens) and inspired me to start working more with the copper wire that I am fond of using in my necklaces. I've also been very inspired by Melanie of Earthenwoods amazing necklaces using beautiful brass findings. I'll save the three projects for when we all blog about them but for now I can show my other inspirations.

It's all so glamorous!

I just adore the Oscars! Even if I've only seen a few of the nominated films the idea of people all dolled up and glammed out is just mesmerizing! The clothes and shoes and jewelry and the amount of time spent on this seemingly frivolous event is just plain fun! I like to think about all the behind the scenes people working hard to make every one look fab! I had my own tiny bit of glamour yesterday... shopping for some very pretty gems and the gem faire Saturday in Santa Barbara. I met a fellow jewelry designer Robin back in November at a jewelry sale hosed by a mutual friend. Luckily we timed out venture out (with out the kids this time!) between rain storms! I had some specific goodies in mind like some oh so glamours semi precious beads (chalcedony) but found quite a few fun and cheap goodies (oodles of seed beads)! We had a great time and just about couldn't walk out of the place with our booty! I only went a tad over budget but it was all worth it! I think the show could have used some artist beads and was sadly lacking in anything that wasn't mass produced. I've considered a booth but wondered about the cost ($600+ travel expenses) and the long hours away from my babies! Oh well... The Earth Day celebration is just around the corner... At least I will be well supplied to make jewelry!

I'm addicted...

This show is totally addicting!

Fun new things...

Since my throat is sore... I'll just let the photos do the talking...

I just can't wait...

to open the kiln! I have a few new goodies that I am jumping up and down to see. One of them is a new glaze technique that I hope will make the bubble pendants look more like bubbles! A few are some old pendants that never made it into production and will round out my "Victorian" pendant group. I had been putting groups of old and test items up for sale on my etsy site (www.gaea.etsy.com) and came across a few items that at the time were overshadowed by other pendants (the three flowers in cream on chocolate) some flowers and what not... I am also hoping to get hopping on the valentine/lovers plaques that I sketched and put up on the coming soon page. They will hopefully have a "tattoo" feel and be a fun customizable! More photos later....

The Golden Ring (a love story) final chapter

I met Robert through a friend. His ex girlfriend to be exact. She was fun and crazy in a way that only a Pisces can be. Wild hair. Wild words. Wild woman. One night she brought Robert to our late night, nightly Dennys coffee. She thought we would be good for each other. April 1st, 1990. April fools indeed. We talked about VW's and and movies. He was so cute and charming. I was sure they were together. I couldn't imagine him noticing me. I just had to know who this Robert fella was. So the next day I called her house. "Oh! You wanna know..." and the following spoken more loudly so as who ever might be in the next zip code would hear "...who my CUTE FRIEND IS? HEY ROBERT, GAEA WANTS TO KNOW WHO MY CUTE FRIEND IS?" Ugh. Thirty shades of crimson later she had us set up on a date. We drove around all night. Talking and laughing and having the best time. Getting to know each other. "I'm a Capricorn, January, 12th! And you?"....."February 6th... Aquarius." It was meant to be! The golden ring was for him and he was for me....

Happy Valentines Day!