Herbfest

I've been a busy jewelry maker this week for the Herbfest show this Sunday July 29. It's my first time participating in this show so I'm excited to see how it goes. I've been to the show a few times and highly recommend it. They have lovely gardens to view and a great variety of vendors. Check out their web site to see their schedule of activities.  The Tin Man usually finds lots of food samples to taste!

I still have much to do but I just wanted to share with you a few of the pieces I finished this week to bring along.

 I recently purchased these blue/green crystals and just had to use them some where. I'm hoping to get a bracelet done with these crystals too.LOL

 My birds nest necklaces are always popular so I was able to finish 5 this week. They are all different designs. On this one I let the pearls take over.

I'm still having so much fun with making and using funky dangles on almost everything. I can't seem to get enough of them. This flower has a layer of leather for a little change .

Well I'm off to make more jewelry and start to pack things up. I hope to see you at the Herbfest!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Circle ATC theme

Yes another great ATC meeting this month. We had a great turn out and a wonderful visit at Louise's place. Thanks again Louise for having us. We really appreciated the a/c and your wonderful hospitality.  The theme this month was circles. I quite liked this theme although again I limited myself to what I could do since I left it to the last minutes. But the possibilities in my mind were end less. I could see doing Circles for a theme for a whole book, hmmm maybe the next book swap!

Any way here are the inspiring card that we traded.

 Linda

 Lucie

 Nancy

 Olive

 Veronica

 Virginia

Wendy

Well it's back to work today. Have to make lot's of jewelry for Herbfest coming up on July 29th. And maybe a little more studio reorganizing.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Altered drawer set.

 We're having another heat wave here in the Ottawa area and without air conditioning I've been moving in slow motion. Since the Tin Man was in a baseball tournament all weekend I decided to focus on reorganizing and moving the studio upstairs. This worked out well in this heat since mostly I need to be in the basement to do the reorganizing.
 I've had four Ikea drawer sets for years and have never done anything with them. So while looking around for some interesting storage ideas for the new studio these shouted out for a new look.

 I started off by pasting decorative papers to all the sides and the fronts of the drawers with gel medium. I do this by putting a layer of gel medium on the wood and placing a pre-cut paper on, then adding more gel medium to the top of the paper. This is a bit slow since it is somewhat slow drying but it just meant I could organize other things in between doing a few sides.

  After it's all dry, it's time to take the sand paper to it. No it just wouldn't look grungy enough without a bit of sanding. All the edges and and corners were sanded.

 And then of course a bit of antiquing with Distress Inks. I used my favourite, Vintage Photo. The sanded edges and exposed wood picks up the colours a little more than the paper for that great aged look.

I wasn't sure where I was going to put this so I even covered the back. This is a great piece since the drawers are square, letting me configure it in a number of different ways as you can see from the picture on the top.
Now to decide what to do with the other 3 sets. They're all a little different sizes and drawer configurations!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Fairy dreams

Jazzy Faeire

I dance

I sing

I swing

To rhythm all my own.

As most of you know I'm fascinated and enamoured with copper but you may not know that I also feel this way about Fairies. So when I received this present from my sister last month my heart did a little pitter patter of joy!

This is my second fairy from Repousse artist Kathryn Looby. She does amazing work with copper, not only fairies but also amazing trees, celtic designs, dragons and so much more. Really you have to go check out her work at Dragon Fire Art.

Flag Dancer

Flutter free little flag

And dance amongst the clouds

We celebrate life and all it's little mysteries.

Here is my first Fairy from Kathryn that I purchased a few years ago. I think they will both find a spot in the new studio. Oh ya I was suppose to keep you posted about the studio progress.Sorry I haven't been too good at that but it's going a little slow so not too much to see. I do hope to get some thing moved in this week so hopefully next week I'll have a little to show you.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Weekend wonders.

I hope your weekend was as wonderful and fulfilling as mine was. I love to take workshops and learn new things. So it was no surprise that I loved taking a torch enameling class with Deborah Read at The Glass Shoppe Studio here in Ottawa. It was my first time taking a class there and they we so welcoming and helpful. It was also my first time trying torch enameling and Deborah was an excellent teacher. I not only wanted to learn torch enameling but also get more comfortable with a torch and the ladies at The Glass Shoppe Studio and Deborah did a great job at this. I  think I'm finally ready to set up my own torch and get creative with fire.

Here are the beads I made. I need more practice but I think they came out pretty good for a first try.

 While I was busy playing with the torch the Tin man was out working and garage saling. Look what he got for me this week! I've been eyeing quite a few of these here and there but he finally found one with a nice price tag on it. I was so excited to share with you I didn't even wipe it down so you can see the dust and all, such is life or at least mine is!

Then to finish off the weekend we had lovely family dinner at my parent with extra relatives over from Denmark. Sorry no pics! I really must remember to tote along my camera to these things. Maybe then I would get back at doing some scrapbooking. Ya I'll just put that on the list!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Auction surprises.

The Tin man likes to go to auctions. Sometimes I go along but most of the time I let him go on his own and get the fun surprise of seeing what he comes home with each time. So this past weekend he went on his own and this is what he brought back.
 First off is the butcher paper holder/cutter. I had recently ask him if he could make me something to hold a large paper roll so silly me I thought that's why he bought it but apparently not. He thought it would make a good display for my jewelry. So I'll have to play with it a little as a display and see how things look. What do you think paper holder or jewelry display?
 When I looked at the auction items on line they had a lot of interesting old boxes, so I asked the Tin man to try to get me some and this is the one he got. I guess they are pretty popular right now and the prices were over his budget. It's bigger than I was thinking so I'm not sure what I'll use it for. I was thinking of some smaller ones for studio storage. What do you think? What would you use it for?
  And the last item is a pair of wooden shoes. I think he just thought they were fun! I'll probably just put them in the front hall for now but I'm thinking they're big enough to use as some kind of storage in the studio!

Happy Creating!

Wendy