One whole month! Only 11 more to go.....I'm liking this experiment, the making of things is becoming a daily practice, there's less judgment and/or anxiety about the commercial value or what people will think. My necklace time in the morning is just about playing around and being satisfied with a project being done.
2nd day of orange. This is from a plastic bag that was the former home of a mess of grapefruit. I love the sober looking legend of "TEXAS" on one of the grapefruit. All on a copper coil. I love the color of copper, and it's said to have healing properties as a material.
Okay, it's red week. This is some beautiful cotton lace that I've always been afraid to cut up and use it's so pretty. there's more needle hitching on this, but it's very subtle on account of it all being red. the balls at the bottom are felted wool. I had a minor obsession with felting for a hot minute. It's a lot of fun to do.
Continuing the red theme, I might do for the whole week, get it out of my system. That's needle hitching above the big beads, I've used this technique for a long time before recently discovering a name for it in a book on sailor's knots. It's all been done before, you just have to do it your way is all.
I had a dream about a girl wearing a necklace she made of pine cones cut in half so you could see the the pattern inside, I tried that with this one but the inside wasn't as neat as in the dream, these hairy fibers pulled and stuck out. I might need a better saw. Or a dream saw. It got quick spray paint job in the end. I like it in red, looks like fingernails.
Another bead I've made on the lathe. Again, learning what not to do, which is plenty. I love the Cinderella moment with wood, after a rotted looking stick is cleaned up, sanded and polished, oiled and buffed, you can get a smooth and glowing quality to it, like human skin. It really comes to life with a little attention.
I've just invested in a lathe for turning wood, these are a few beads I've made. I'm mostly learning what not to do, which is very important. The wood is cherry and walnut. I like the two together, it reminds me of a wooden chess set my dad had. He was an excellent player, and he tried to teach me to play as a kid, but I was never competitive enough to learn. I was content to simply arrange the pieces in pleasing patterns on the board, that's all.
The beads at the top are an ancient abandoned project. The drop was one of a small group on display in a dusty bead shop window. They were porcelain pendants painted with little asian scenes and motifs. They looked really magical, nestled in with the more pedestrian goods offered. I admired these for years, but only asked about them shortly before I left New York. By then only this and one other style were left from the group, and I had to buy at least six each, which I did. For some reason, I've never used them. This one is supposed to be a peacock I'm sure, although he always looked a little shrub like to me. Still a fine looking fellow.
Made with scraps from my old factory job and a sycamore branch. The pink material is rhinestone chain set with glass moonstone. One of my first jobs in the costume jewelry world was working on a factory line soldering rhinestone tiaras and scepters for the beauty pageant circuit. My first time at the bench, I held the torch with some apprehension. My benchmate, a sweet latina lady of a certain age with a beehive hairdo kindly suggested that I should imagine the torch to be a certain part of my boyfriend's anatomy to get over my hesitation, and that was one of my first lessons in jewelry making.....
In the center is a rotted twig with some lovely lichen on it. I broke into my trunk and found some fun materials unearthed from the flower district in New York years ago. Hunting and gathering was my favorite full contact sport back then. I like all the textures together, man made and non-man made.
Found this nice dirty card on the sidewalk today. A long time ago I had a necklace I made out of the King of Hearts. I ended up giving it to a waitress at the Washington Square Hotel. Lovely girl. I hope she has a real King of Hearts to match now.
Watched "The Great Zeigfeld" yesterday, which I will recommend to any drag queen, the costumes and the sets were just wild. I really enjoyed it and found it very inspiring design wise. One of the things that caught my eye was a simple backdrop of cellophane that covered the entire stage. There was a lot of fascination with this material in the 20's and 30's, and so it will always evoke the modern age for me. I thought a cellophane tribute would be nice, this is actually plastic, but a good stand in anyway.
A couple of metal pieces found on the street. The ropes I made myself. I started making my own when I was having a hard time finding ropes made from silk or good colors in cotton. Rope mostly seems to be produced in nylon, cotton, sisal or hemp. I once had lunch with a nice young lady who was involved in the S & M community, She informed me of a high demand for silk rope in her circle. Especially if it could be guaranteed that no worms were harmed in the making of the silk. I thought that was very sweet.
My first week finished! Already I can tell I need a better lighting setup, so I'll be working on that, my camera I'm going to have to make do with. Maybe if I do a little research on digital photography I could make better use of it. Well, it's all a learning experience anyway, at the very least I'm pleased the necklaces got made. Today's necklace is a product of last night's pistachio frenzy. I just drilled the shells and threaded them together. Back in my costume jewelry days, the graduated three row was a pretty popular silhouette. I came across more than a few designers in my time who insisted on bei
ng provided with a fancy neck form to make a perfectly nested sample. But I've never found a better neck form than my own knee, and that's what I've always used.
