Studio Updates

Instead of doing all the things I should be doing to get ready for the Bead & Button show, I am fooling around rearranging the studio and finishing a painting. Not that I would ever call painting a waste of time! Sometimes, rearranging things makes order in my mind and I can get work done that should be done. All the rain we have been having just makes me want to go into hibernation mode, sleep and dream.

 Painting has been my savior. I love painting and often think I am working on my interior life when I paint. The images in my head, the colors that surround my thoughts, the music that only I hear while i paint. This piece is just rhythmic. The imagery bounces up and down between bird and song house and sun. It is mixed media and colored pencil on gessoed canvas paper.

 I had this vintage vinyl, wonderful yellow drop leaf table in the classroom above my shop in town. When i bought it, I had no use for it but I took the leap, made the purchase and figured I would find a use. The color makes me happy! It is all chrome, old chrome and it is on wheels. Awesome, I can move it around, too! The little table in front is an old telephone table from the 1940's, refinished and painted a purple orchid color. Love those rounded corners! How smart is that? No knocked shins!

Loads of colored pencils and a water jar! 

Something beginning to replace the finished piece. Can you tell I have a thing for stripes and barred patterns?

the early evening is calling to me to make a decision about what to do with the rest of my day: paint, bead, silversmith, sleep - better decide and get about it!

Bleck!

My Mother's Day gift from Jake. A handmade card and roses made from Hershey Kisses!
Although, it was the sickest, most miserable Mom day I think I have ever had!
Sweet gift though! I loved it!

I have had a flu like stomach thing for the last few days and I am just now feeling that there is light at the end of my misery tunnel. I am so irritated with the flu shot that I took for the first time in my life this past winter. In the last two months, I have had two colds and a flu! More than normal although some people are blaming all of it on the weather seeing as sun has been missing from our daily lives. Along with that missing sun, there is also no warmth. I feel it is around the corner. It being spring and I have heard the forecast and that by this afternoon, the sun is to make an appearance along with temps into the high 50's. It will be welcomed by all! The dogs will play, the cats bask about in it, the birds flit, the swallows build nests and catch the elusive bugs and me? I will sit in a warm sunny spot outside for however long the light lasts. I am not a heat lover. I just want a little sun and warmth. Bless those poor people along the mighty Mississippi! Here I am whining and they are losing everything! Need to send them prayers and a donation. Lots of prayer!

Sun?! What Sun?

It has been raining now for days and if I did not know that today was May 7th, I would swear it was a November day. Rain has been coming down all day, not big Missouri drops as Phil says but the kind of rain that just soaks everything hour after hour at the same rate. I love rain and gray days. It is good for business but I am longing for some sun! I do not want hot weather just some sun! I want to feel my cheeks redden in the light, feel the warmth through the blackness of my leggings, turn my whole body like a flowering plant to the sun.

Zip. Guess it is not happening anytime soon but I did take some pictures of a day not too long ago when the sun made an appearance and the day basked in its glory!

The new Maritime Center.

So for tonight feel the sun, love the sun, wish for it and enjoy PT in the sun through these pictures. Can you feel it? I want it!

p.s. We last saw the sun around lunch time on Tuesday! This is the Port Hudson Marina in town, five blocks from my shop.

I am in LOVE

For just the first time with a pair of shoes. Red, shiny patent leather, peep toe bow in front 5 inch heel shoes! I have never found anything that fit my big long feet so prettily and made me feel, birkenstock Lois feel, pretty! Like a girl! In girly shoes! How crazy could that be?

The Muse

Bottle cap work. 

Resin work.

Sketch in the book kept by the TV.

I think that maybe my muse has returned in the form of the ten zillion projects I have going in the studio. I am working like mad on things for June's Bead and Button show but I really feel like painting, knitting and embroidering. The sunshine we have had on and off ( mostly off ) since Friday has given me a burst of energy! Thank heavens, I was seriously getting worried about myself! Creativity is all around me and if I do not partake of it, I feel dry like a desert, lost like old hubcaps along a roadway.  So, even though a regular person might look at my mess and think I can not get order out of it, I see the potential of things being finished! I am having fun! I think I was missing the sun. Me,  who lives for gray and rainy days and lusts for long, cold, dark nights - was missing the light of the sun. Amazing!

p.s. I can never figure out how to add my pictures in where I want them unless I write the blog backwards and my brain just can not fathom that concept! So please excuse the order and if you have a hint for me - please let me know!

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

New Work!

Sacred Heart and reverse side, Madonna & Christ child. 

Our Lady of the Highway and Saint Christopher.
This is perfect to hang around your rear view mirror for a safe journey. 

A close up of Saint Christopher showing lots of detail !

These are a few pieces recently cast in Britanium for the upcoming Bead & Button show. I have so many new things cast in new metals for that show! Whooooeeee!