In order to keep up with this project, I've gotten into the habit of putting the necklace together first thing when I wake up, around 6:00am. Sometimes I can see I've made some pretty sleepy, unmindful things when I finally join the land of the fully awake. That's okay. Today I found a practice knot I did a while back, it's called the Monkey's Fist if you're into the old sailor culture. The wood is me learning on the lathe with some sycamore I believe.....
Materials: handmade linen/rayon rope, hand turned sycamore, copper ring, rayon ribbon.

Yes, you can find zen in a parking lot in case you were wondering. That's were I found this slip of paper with a few Buddhist type maxims written on it. It was soaking wet with the rain, so I carried it home held between my fingers and let the wind dry it on the way. That's where I got the notion to make a kind of prayer flag thing with it.
Materials: found paper, rayon ribbon.

This is another early carving I did when I didn't know what I was doing. I like reviewing the work I've done last year. Especially in this way. I like tying up loose ends. Literally and figuratively.
Materials: hand carved wood, acrylic cord, rayon ribbon.

This was an experiment in needle hitching, an old sailors knotting technique. It came out pretty loose so I wove back into it with the yellow thread. I'm slowly liberating my work desk from all those motherless children I never had a home for. It's like voicing a thought that hasn't quite formed itself yet.
Materials:linen and cotton threads, glass and wooden beads.

Another early wood carving experiment, another lesson learned. Took a long time to do this thing and it did a lot for the carpal tunnel. The old left hand has been acting up, maybe that's why I'm unearthing these projects of the past and bringing them to the light.
Materials: hand carved wood, recycled silk shawl.

Another early adventure in woodworking that didn't quite pan out. The idea was good, I wanted to layer different woods and carve them so you could see the them all. It ended up very flat. I learned something though.
Materials:layered and hand carved hardwoods, handmade cotton rope.

Scraps from the scroll saw. Feel like a blockhead today so this is a good expression of that.
Materials: recovered wood, banana silk yarn, food coloring.

A mashup of some found stuff, I did the masterful finger painting on the disc though. Reminds me of the eighties a little bit. I started in costume jewelry in the early nineties, a period where grunge was in and there was no jewelry being used on the runway or in magazines. Not helping an already flagging manufacturing industry in New York and Rhode Island. A lot of businesses folded in that period.(Thanks a lot, Marc Jacobs...) Anyway, I'd work with more seasoned designers who used to wistfully recount how easy the accessories business was in the eighties, anything on a string would sell and the streets were paved with gold....
Materials: hand painted clear disc, found spring, rayon chenille yarn, rayon ribbon.

Another lathe adventure. I'm starting to use up all the scrap wood I've salvaged from the roadside in my neighborhood. Even the scrappiest pine. It's good practice, but it makes you appreciate the hardwoods all the more, they can give you such a silky skin like texture when you're finished with them.
Materials: turned pine, quartz, handmade linen rope.

A piece of white poplar that I carved about a year ago. Took a day and an age to do and it still dosen't have the kind of finish I would like on it. I thought I'd use it anyway as a nice try but no cigar necklace.
Materials: carved poplar, rayon ribbon.

Long restless dream filled night for me. The kind were you're exhausted at he end and just glad to get up and away from it all. I found this layout of watches in a magazine first thing this morning, somehow they seemed comforting to me after a long psychic workout.
Materials: magazine page, rayon ribbon.

An impromptu paste up of some old materials and new, found materials and handmade. While I do enjoy comments, I can go without any Freudian speculation that might apply to someone putting fuzzy fairy wings on a pink purse. I saw that myself as soon as I made it thank you very much.
Materials: felted wool petals, found cardboard purse, handmade cotton rope.

More tiles from the street. I'm slowly finding this blog is becoming some sort of trash diary for me. Which is okay, almost anything can be precious when you put some attention to it.
Materials: Found tiles, rayon velour yarn, rayon ribbon.

The craft store has an outdoor display of fake flowers. Some lose their heads in the wind and get blown to the back parking lot where I walk the shelter dogs. I found these with Elvis, a handsome black hound gentleman with a spray of brindle coloring about the ears and legs. Big fella but an easy walker, good company. Hope this post brings him luck.
Materials:found fake flowers, glass beads, brass wire.

Happy St. Patricks Day! I had a friend back in New York who called it "Amateur Night" and you'd know what he means if you could see the state of the subways at the end of the day!
Materials: found foil shamrocks, glass beads, brass wire.

I've been making these little bedposty things on the lathe, to get practice in and get myself on my way to making finials. I love me some finials. It took about an hour and a half to do this first one. If you turn wood you can pause and have a good laugh at my expense if you like. Now I can do four in that amount of time, and hoping to improve.
Materials:cherry wood, handmade linen rope with coral beads, olive quartz.

More recycled kimono. A few years ago, I did this project of sewing and folding different prints into this kite like object. This was one I still had kicking around, so this was a very fast and easy job for today. It was hard to get started. I hate daylight savings. It's difficult to get up an hour early and act as though you didn't.
Materials: recycled kimono, handmade linen rope.

This is a true reversible necklace. I've developped a little obsession with wood veneers. This is recycled kimono scraps pasted to a maple veneer. The little tiles in the center were found on the street.
Materials:recycled kimono, maple veneer, found tiles, linen cord, handmade linen/rayon rope.

More things found lying around on the street. I worried about making a clasp for this thing, it's very strong cable, I was trying to figure a way to pierce it or cap it or what. Then I thought: Who says I need to make a clasp? I can do a claspless necklace if I want. So I did.
Materials: found cable, found iron scrap, chinese mulberry vine, banana silk yarn.

These I found by the movie theater, exactly in this arrangement. I guess they were showing Avatar. The good thing about this necklace is that you are 3-D ready whenever you wear it. Although everything's in 3-D anyway once you're out of the theater.
Materials: found 3-D glasses linen and acrylic cords, rayon ribbon.

This is a tribute to my friend Clarabell. She's a young, beautiful Treeing Walker Coonhound at the shelter, a simple country girl with no training whatsoever. She's very good humored though, so she lets me pull her around the parking lots on a leash of all things. That's where we found this daisy. It reminds me of her.
Materials: found fake daisy, linen cord, rayon ribbon, glass beads.

Another Target parking lot discovery. I think this is an example of one of the wholesome entertainments that can be found behind the store in the wee hours. I'm always facsinated by those forgotten spots, the basement, the attic, that shady spot in the yard were odd bits accumulate. It's like the subconscious of a place. People leave things there and forget them, but they're still there.
Materials:recycled Smirnoff bottle, glass beads, acrylic and cotton/silk blend cords.

There's a woman who goes on kimono buying trips to Kyoto and salvages fabric from the ones that are damaged. She sells them at kyotokimono.com. This is part of a scrap, and the rest is from the wonderful streets.....
Materials:recycled kimono, metal scrap, linen and acrylic cord.

The fish is another Target parking lot find, the rest is flotsam from the work bench.
Materials:copper wire, brass star, glass beads, plastic fish, acrylic cord.

This week might be "Stuff I Found Around the Target Parking Lot" week. The drop above was once a solid shard of a cd, but it broke again in transit. I just stitched it back together.
Materials: recycled cd, silk shawl tassels, glass beads, linen and acrylic cords, rayon ribbon.