Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Viking knit is the oldest method of chain making and I've become fascinated by it.  Once I conquered the single knit, I decided to add beads.  I could have googled or asked how it was done but it seemed like something I could just figure out.  And I've learned a lot as I proceeded first with tumbled turquoise beads and then with pearls.  I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.   Iif you want a great tutorial on viking knit technique, Trina Ann at http://blog.trinaann.com/  has written a clear concise easy to understand tutorial.  I highly recommend it.    Tumbled tuquoise beads in viking knit  I used tumbled turquoise beads in the first viking knit chain and I did not really know what I was doing.  But I went right ahead and as it turned out, I liked the end result.  Since the beads were irregular in shape there was a random quality to the finished product. During that process, I beg...

 Just how I felt!  Last week I went to Cosanti, Paolo Soleri’s Gallery in Paradise Valley Arizona.   This is a place I have wanted to go since getting my college design degree.    Ceiling of the Gallery  Soleri is a world-renowned architectural innovator and Cosanti is a place that he designed and built that features experimental earth-formed concrete structures in terraced landscaping.   It is once again gaining in popularity because it was originally built to be ecologically friendly.   More with less!   It is one of Arizona’s historic sites and over the years many architectural students have studied here.   Cosanti   ( http://www.cosanti.com/ ) is a non-profit organization and   produces bronze bells that Soleri is famous for designing.     There is a foundry on site and I was able to watch the process of the pouring of the bells and of course take pictures.   Some bells are polished, some have patina, some are signed...

Remember how it feels when you see something you’ve always known about and all at once you realize you’ve never really looked at it?   That’s what happened when I started taking pictures of early music keyboard instruments.   I realized that I had never really looked at the black and ivory keys on a keyboard.   Peter (my significant other) has an avid interest in early music especially the harpsichord.   He planned a trip to England and Scotland around collections of harpsichords, virginals, forte pianos and other early music instruments.   What an amazing trip and I’ll talk about it in other blogs.   He also planned a trip to the National Museum of Music in Vermillion South Dakota.   Check out their website and you just might want to go too!   http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/     After taking hundreds of pictures of keyboards, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the variations.   Remember my previous posts about ‘The difference is in...

   In many cultures, owls are omens of death, destruction and harbingers of bad luck.   Fortunately in our Western culture, we see owls as a symbol of wisdom.   Their image is used often in our art.   And the ‘scary’ Barn Owl is associated with Halloween.   The Barn Owl is white and hunts at night taking on a ‘ghostly’ quality in moonlight and their screech ends abruptly sounding like someone just died.   Good time to find out more about owls! It turns out there are 19 species of owls in the U.S. and over 200 species in the world.   Many of them like the climate and terrain of Arizona.   I’ve seen only a few because they hunt during the night and rest during the day.   Just opposite of my activities!     Great Horned Owl - Portal AZ  Owls have large round heads, forward facing big eyes (about the size of ours), sharp beaks and long strong talons.   The placement of their eyes allows them to see straight ahead (binocular ...

Sometimes when you finish a project or in my case a piece of jewelry, you just want to show it to someone.   So I took my just finished necklace, bracelet and earrings to show my friend, Kim, at Bead-It here in Prescott.     This group of jewelry was my experiment into using sheet metals with eyelets and rivets.     She had asked earlier if I wanted to teach a class in cold connections and I agreed.   Cold connections are ways to connect individual parts and make a piece of jewelry without soldering or using a kiln.   I’ve learned many techniques at the classes I’ve taken in cold connections from some of the best teachers – Susan Lenart Kazmer and Deryn Mentock .   So I thought why not? Well, Kim was as excited about my new pieces as I was and so I will be teaching how to make this necklace.   In order to teach a class of 4 to 6 people, I need to be organized!   So I’ve started a syllabus with a list of materials needed and how much the...

 see the silver metal clay pendant at the end of this post  I have to confess that I am not a mushroom lover.   I also must confess that I am intrigued with their appearance and have taken a great many photos of them from the east coast to the west; from forests to mountains and in my brother’s front yard in Missouri.   Many of the books I read (you know- the romance novels about Ireland and Scotland) often talk about the importance of fungi in medical treatment and in witch’s brews!   So I thought October would be a great month to share some of those pictures as well as share some of their history. The ancient Egyptians (about 4600 years ago according to hieroglyphics) thought the mushroom was the plant of immortality.   Mushrooms were declared to be the food for only royalty; no commoners could touch them much less eat them.   Other civilizations thought the mushroom could provide superhuman strength and could lead the souls of men to the land of the god...