Miss Ezra Will Make Her Appearance on The Primitive Gathering

The past few days have been very busy, getting ready to debut some of my creations on a website, called The Primitive Gathering.  I'll include a link here so that you can check it out.  Miss Ezra is a primitive gal handrawn by me, and used with mixed media and vintage pieces, to create a very special Valentine.  She will make her appearance on the 15th of January, along with several other soldered glass Valentines.

I'm very excited to have been approved to be one of the artists that participate on this website.  One of my best friends from Oregon, Susan Grant of Country Presence is also a participating artist, and encouraged me to join.  I'll include a link to her also. 

I wanted to post a photograph of Miss Ezra here, but will wait until after her debut on The Primitive Gathering!  I hope you'll check out the site, and the other artists there.
http://www.theprimitivegathering.com/
http://www.countrypresence.com/ 

All That Glitters

I thought I would get these other soldered Valentine's Day projects photographed and posted yesterday, but that didn't happen.  So, here are the other 2 projects I finished.  The main portion of the piece is 3x2 inches in size, slightly larger than a standard size business card.  Of course, the glitter flowed freely on this one.  The handbeaded dangles consist of genuine freshwater pearls, trumpet flower beads, vintage swarovski crystals from the 1950's, and red aurora borealis faceted czech glass beads. 

On the other one, the little child's chair knobs have been accented in red.  This was such a sweet vintage postcard image, I just couldn't resist using it for this piece.  The large red faceted glass crystal bead is also vintage from the 1940's or 1950's.  I'm pleased with both.  The sparkle so much better in person.  One thing I have to work on this year, is learning how to photograph my work more professionally.

I had a friend ask me to photograph the process, step by step.  I'll try and do that in one of my upcoming posts here on my Blog.  Well, back to work.  I have Ebay orders to fill, new designs to list, and some collectibles to put up for auction on Ebay as well.

Vintage Valentine Postcards & Altered Art Projects for 2010

Good Morning!  It is January 3, 2010 already!  I'm  working on some Valentine's Day altered art projects.  I love vintage postcards and glitter!  Yes, lots of GLITTER!  I remember an animated movie, where a strange little crow just loved his "sparklies".  Well, I guess I'm like that .  I love glass beads, suncatchers, and I love glitter.  If it catches the light, I like it.


For this particular project,  I took a vintage Valentine's Day postcard image, digitally altered it to a 3x2 inch size, accented with soft pink glitter, backed it with soft pink and white paisley decorative paper, and sandwiched between glass, then soldered the edges.  I use only lead-free solder.  I then bent 18 gauge silver wire into a fun 3 loop shape, and then soldered it to the top edge as you can see in the photo.  To the bottom edge, I soldered a 6mm jump ring, then hung a vintage light pink teardrop faceted crystal and vintage jadeite green bead.  It turned out well, nice heavy quality, and after adding the ribbon for hanging, this can be hung from cabinet knobs just like you would a decorative tassel, or hang from your Valentine's Day tree, or keep for use as a Christmas ornament.  It makes a great little gift also.  Overall, the length is 6 inches from the top of the 3 loop edge, to the bottom of the pink crystal, so this is a very nice large size, and much more beautiful in person, as the photo just doesn't show the glitter and polished silver edges of the piece well, but I hope you get the idea


I have 2 more of these in different images and accents.  I'll be adding those photos to my blog later today.  I have never had much luck with New Year's resolutions and wish that I could vow to make at least 1 art project each day for the remainder of 2010.  I doubt I would be able to stick to that intention, but we'll see.  I hope you'll check back later today to see the other 2 projects in their completion.