The Bees Knees

I so wished I had a couple of these to fill with some delightful beverage, sweetened with honey during the wedding! Bah, I'm still getting one! After we're moved and settled.



Listing.

Bright ideas

We had the house inspection on Tuesday and it went very, very well! We're scheduled to close the first week of June. In the meantime, we need to organize a yard sale and pack. I know we need to unload things and not really add more to the inventory, but sometimes it can't be helped. I'm a sucker for awesome light fixtures. Mom and I went to an estate sale a few weeks back and scored this beauty....



I've lost out on a few that have been on eBay in the last couple of years, and I think we took it for a damn good deal. It's very heavy. I really, really want to paint it red and then paint our bamboo sconces (those we did score on eBay) the same color.

Playing with himself

I'm working on a website design for a friend which has kept me from working on my crafts. The good side is that it's making me WANT to get back to work, and I will soon. In the meantime, more Michael! I really enjoy sharing him with everyone, he's just that awesome. :)

It was late one night when I walked in his studio to find three chairs sitting together. I asked if he was taking some 'friends' for a ride. Nope, he was playing with himself. It certainly made me giggle.



Playtime was over and he turned the lens on something of a smaller stature.



Spark gap:




His studio has so many wonderful things to photograph. I'm looking forward to more!

Franklin's Bells

Sorry, but I have to pimp Michael's newest project. He just finished building at set of Franklin's Bells.



The bells and hardware are all brass. The terminals are vintage as are the Bakelite standoffs used for the base of the bells and the terminals.

Electrostatic bells like these are often referred to as Franklin's Bells, after the eminent American scientist Benjamin Franklin, who installed them in his house to warn him of approaching thunderstorms, as is recorded in a famous portrait of Franklin observing his set of electrostatic bells as a thunderstorm raged outside. This electrostatic device actually was invented in about 1742 by Andrew Gordon, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University at Erfurt, Germany. Gordon's Bells constituted the first device that converted electrical energy into mechanical energy in the form of continuous mechanical motion, in this case, the moving of a bell clapper back and forth between two oppositely charged bells.

Franklin made use of Gordon's idea by connecting one bell to a pointed rod attached to his chimney and a second bell to ground. This pointed rod discharged electrical energy from heavily charged passing clouds that would cause Franklin's set of Gordon's Bells to ring.

Those two new shoe clips I mentioned the other day...

    
Red glitter vinyl base with Swarovski rhinestones, 30 on each clip. A double faced red satin ribbon ties through red metal grommets.

I have a few more sassy glitter vinyl designs in the works. Glitter vinyl is sooooo much fun!

Listing



    
Purple fabric flower shoe clips with grey glass pearl beads. Silver leaves with grey machine stitched detailing. Accented with black velvet ric rac and backed with silver glitter vinyl.

Listing

Heirloom Romance

I see things around the house and imagine how it would look as either wedding or event decor. So, in the spirit of reuse I decided to challenge myself to create little vignettes using only items found around the house or in the yard. That means china, glasses, vases, trinkets and even scraps of fabric from my studio as well as using the abundance of nature. It also makes for something beautiful to pull cherished familial elements into one's celebration.

I started this project last fall and these were taken in early October. We hope to get another photo shoot finished before we move that will actually feature us.

This is a guest book table scene. We used our guest book which was an old photo album we found in the attic that appears to have never been used. I made a new sign from our invitation layout. We still had leftover sandwich boards. The table cloth is the from the same linen yardage we used for Michael's coat. The black box is the old Babbitt box my grandfather kept at their house. My grandmother painted the birds. The lotus bowl came from my mother, the silver flower pin came from Colombia, the tea cup was a gift to my grandmother, the carriage clock was purchased in Paris by my great grandfather as a gift to my great grandmother on their honeymoon, in the late 1800's. The fleur-de-lis cloche is a modern piece.

The Carew Rice scene is an original and one of our beloved tumblers also makes an appearance. My parents received a set of them as a wedding gift, 54 years ago.

Long time, no post!

I feel like I've completely abandoned my blog. Where, o where have I been? The answer to that is...house hunting! We started looking in January for a place suitable for me & Michael, our studios, my mother and a guest room. That's a lot of space needed. We found a house at the end of January that was a wonderful fit but the offer/counter offer process fell apart. We held off on continuing to look until we returned home from our trip. Sadly, we had to cut some of our housing budget which made the hunt a little more challenging. It has taken up most of my time and energy but yesterday we hit pay dirt! We put an offer on another house and today the sellers accepted our counter. It's a huge weight lifted from us and we're excitedly starting to plan our garden and other awesome domestic things. We won't close until June so that the seller's children can finish out their school year at home. They're moving to Ohio. The house hadn't been on the market very long and they made a large price cut that allowed it to show up on our radar. Yay!

Anyway, during this time I filled a custom order for a necklace. I found myself to be a tad nervous making this one, as I wanted everything to be perfect because it is for Ariel, who does Offbeat Bride. In her ongoing support of independent artists, she will do trades for ad space. I decided to bite the bullet and submit my photos to see if anything tickled her interests. I was very excited when she replied back saying she'd love a version of the very first piece I made, but with hot pink detailing. I finished it last week and it's on it's way to her. Ariel, I really hope you like it!





I have finally added the first pair of shoe clips to my Etsy page and have two more ready to photo. I'll post those soon, if it will stop raining!

More rain...