I'm a big girl now!

so, I've been working diligently on my art. I've been painting, fusing glass, making pendants galore, and even finally opened the Etsy shop I had been wanting to.

Things are moving slowly. I have a show for April 25th (depending on whether or not I'm in chicago or not) and am working on many new ideas. My glass jewelry is evolving and getting better all the time and people seem to really like them, which makes me feel awesome.

The weather has changed, miss O is allowing me more free time to myself, and the ideas are flowing more readily.

I have no pictures to update what I'm doing. I need to get better about that. I also have a crapton of auction items that need to go up and I haven't done that either.

so...I'll be updating. I just got this thing hooked up to my Facebook page, so that helps a little bit.
for those curious.....

www.loadedevolver.etsy.com

2009 is craft year

Christmas came and went in a flurry of wrapping paper and car rides here and there. We all got the flu, which made the holidays rather hard to enjoy at times. But...crafting fever has struck me again and I have been making more jewelry than ever and my brain is going a mile a minute. I haven't taken pictures of my recent stuff yet, but I did two little paintings (two in a series so far) and experimented with the glories of lacquer and polymer clay. I found out how much i hate firing glass on kiln shelf paper (it makes for yucky backs and sharp edges) and mostly, I have a crap ton of ideas for Etsy stuff and also the makings of summer workshops with my mother. Yes, I will be putting together several crafting/jewelry workshops for young kids to make their own stuff.

Between the felted hairclips, polymer clay and glass pendants, the stencil ideas, and some knitting goodness....I'm staying true to my 2009 crafting promise to make sure I do something artsy every week. Right now, it's almost been every day!!! That feels so good.


pictures to come very soon.

Olivia's Xmas Doll

I am currently working on this fairy for Olivia. I am needle felting everything (yes, including the doll's body) and using various different kinds of fiber. Her hair is Angora goat (mohair) that's been dyed in purple hues. The body and head are white wool roving and her features are also felted on with my fine needle using either alpaca fiber or wool, depending on what colors I have.

The wings are taking a long time right now, but are various shades of wool felted onto a cut shape made from crafting felt. It works very well as a good canvas for this and adds some stability. Once the wings are done, then I plan on knitting her a teeny dress or felting something onto her shape and then attaching the wings by hand sewing them to her. I am trying not to embellish this with anything because it's a gift for a baby who WILL be chewing on her, but I can see that my next doll will have to have some bead work and possibly some embroidery or wire and bead flair.

I'm really excited to finish this doll. It's hard to get to this point where I'm almost done and make sure I finish it because my next project is already in my head and I get impatient and my brain moves faster than my hands or my time allows. Felted dolls are getting easier for me now and I'm looking forward to making some for sale on my Etsy or perhaps at some crafting shows, which I'm hoping to do some of this next year.

I'm pretty happy with how my felting is coming along these days. I'll be sure to post the finished project.

christmas time's a comin!!

I've been experimenting with some Sculpey recently and decided to make some ornaments for Tom's family since I'm not real good at shopping for them yet. I thought this way, they'd have some one of a kind ornaments to hang this year. I can't say they're super original or super cool, but I'm pretty proud of how they turned out. Tom's mom is crazy for Jesus, so I made her a holy baby for her tree. And the yellow submarine? I'm having a real hard time parting with that one, as it's by far my favorite, but it's for Tom's brother. He's a huge Beatles fan and clearly the one with the best taste in the family. :) I worked hard on it and I think it turned out amazing! And I finally made an ornament for me and Tom in honor of our third Xmas together (I made sure to put A & T and NOT T & A, lol) and the heart with wings turned out very rock n roll awesome and he was very touched to receive it to hang on our sweet tree.

So here's to Scupley, my new favorite little friend and all it's possibilites.
The simple fact that it hardens opens this up to many possibilites (I'm thinking hair goods and magnets of course!)

so much to do, so little time

As you can see, I have been crafting like crazy recently! There have been all sorts of wondrous creations seeping from my pores. I found a new love in scupley and also finally put to use the tiny pictures that come with your picture CD's. They're always so darn cute, but I hadn't gotten the right kind of glass to use with them.

Dyeing fiber and selling the roving is cool and all, but I truly love turning it into cute things. The pictures are a couple examples of some of the cute hairclips I spent some time making and giving out this holiday season.

And that lovely dessert you see here is my "big O" cookie pizza I made for the election day party I went to. Turned out fabulous if you ask me.

Christmas is handmade this year and I'm loving the price tag that comes with it for sure.

my first doll "Olive"

This was finished around February of this past year, in honor of my daughter Olivia's soon to be arrival in May. I wanted to make her first doll, not just go out and buy something and with this being my first daughter, I wanted to make it while I was pregnant so that the time waiting for her could be tangibly seen as this beautiful thing. So, even though I never really had an interest in making dolls before, I was overcome with the desire to felt this giant doll, completely using a needle, block of foam, and many bags of fiber. Overall, it took me about 4 months (resting my sore fingers off and on of course) to really get this one right and finish her (and she's still not finished in my eyes). She stands about 8 inches tall and is made with alpaca, sheep, and angora goat. There is nothing artificial on her except for her skirt, which I knitted with acrylic yarn because let's face it....it's easier to knit tiny with. Each section of her body was needle felted separately and then felted together at the joints. I reinforced her arms and legs by felting her clothing over them. The shirt is black baby alpaca and her panties are felted over the leg joints with pink sheep fiber (and black alpaca dots). The curly hair is the angora goat fiber which was hand dyed and applied and felted strand by strand so that I could build up the smooth, but curly bob she has.

Her arms and legs were wet felted (my first experience with that) AFTER I needle felted them, just to get rid of some of that hairy look. The skirt was knitted on the tiniest knitting needles I'd ever used and I sort of made up my own pattern for it, but it turned out pretty good! I didn't like the color 100%, but it was the skinniest yarn I had at the time.

A giant thank you goes out to my mother, who gave me all of the supplies for this project. She put together quite a giant box of various fiber and accoutrements for me to use for crafting. And as to whether or not it was worth it? I was very proud the day I was able to give this one to Olivia and watch her really look at it and smile. I think it's pretty cool that he first doll is one that her mama made for her and really put a lot of love into.

"Fang", my second needle felting accomplishment

This little guy was made for Halloween as a mix between my two favorite things...skulls and vampires. It took me an evening to make up (about 3 hours) and the needle felting became more comfortable this time around. Enough so, that I was able to actually needle felt the lines for the face from alpaca fiber (which felts differently than sheep fiber). This was intended to be a keychain, but I have yet to get the ring and chain to attach it. Soon......