Posts

Showing posts with the label design

Canyonland's Bangle

Image
As most of you know, my Tuesday blogs for a few weeks will be about my trip to several Utah monuments and parks.   Friday blogs usually have something to do with jewelry and creativity.   I always take a sketch pad and camera with me on trips.   So many things I see spark an idea for a piece of jewelry I want to make.   This trip was no different and one of the ideas I had after seeing the magnificent rock formations was to combine the vertical slabs of rock with the angled layers.   Since I’ve been taking several polymer clay classes, I decided that would be the medium.   Rock colors (copper, black, white, gold) mixed with some metallic mica powder and pepper represents the minerals.   I made some canes that combined the colors and that I could flatten for the long vertical rock formations.   For those of you who don’t know what a polymer clay cane is, picture a long cylinder of clay that has a design running through it.   You slice off a thin slab and apply it to a base of c

The Art of Presentation

Image
I’m getting ready to participate in my first Holiday Sale!   Our homeowner’s association is having a one day holiday sale (September 17).   I will have a table to display my creations of jewelry, silk flowers and blank cards with my photos.   And I’m wondering how to present these items to the best advantage.   Displaying my products in a way that attracts buyers has me thinking about the art of presentation. How things look and are presented can mean success or not!   I remember my mother telling me that it was very important to set a pretty table.   If the presentation for the food was inviting, the food and the conversation would be better.   If it looked like dinner was planned, Dad would not mind waiting for it!   So now, even with pizza, I set the table with candlelight and napkins.   A Ladies Afternoon Tea Such fun to make this presentation and then eat it!! When I taught, I wanted my students to listen.   Junior high and high school students are a tough crowd and the prese

The Difference is in the Details - Textures

Image
Noun  TEXTURE texture ( plural   textures ) The feel or shape of a surface or substance ; the smoothness , roughness , softness , etc. of something. The beans had a grainy, gritty texture in her mouth. ( art ) The quality given to a work of art by the composition and interaction of its parts. The piece of music had a mainly smooth texture . ( computer graphics ) An image applied to a polygon to create the appearance of a surface, Verb texture ( third-person singular simple present textures , present participle texturing , simple past and past participle textured ) to create or apply a texture Drag the trowel through the plaster to texture the wall. Texture gives us so much information.   It gives variety to shapes and it helps us distinguish between items.   It helps identify plants and animals and we can tell what kind of bird lost its feather by the size, color and texture.   It tells us about health.   Is the skin dry and flaky?   Is it soft and supple? W

Patterns, Textures and Details – Impressions from Africa

Image
Visitng another culture broadens and enriches my view of the world as I try to understand how we are all connected.   I am fascinated by how we are the same and yet so different.   I take lots of pictures of the details, patterns and textures when I travel and bring them home to sort through and absorb.   I let my imagination go to see what I can create that reminds me of my experiences. I am sharing some of my photos and impressions with you.                                                                                               At the base of this kopje, there are petroglyphs - ancient paintings from the Masai people.   Animals, maps, and other information left to assist or tell a story to the next passerby.   This rock formation is tall and wide.  The drawings on the rock are about 5 ft. high. This is a great example of being inspired by nature!  The beautiful crowned crane was the basis for this airplane's tail.        The columns of wood are carved by artists to t

Beautiful Beaded Jewelry by the Maasai

Image
I found a surprise on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.   Jewelry!   Beautiful beaded jewelry for sale made by the Maasai tribe in that area.   Somewhere around the 1900’s the Maasai and the Europeans met and began trading goods.   The Europeans had beads – glass beads- colorful beads.   So the Maasai became makers and sellers of their jewelry. The Maasai tribe in Africa numbers about half a million people.   Men herd the cattle and women make the jewelry to survive.   The traditional beads were seeds, copper, bone, wood and gourds. Today they use mostly glass. The women sit together watching the children and cooking.   They milk cows and build their homes and cattle pens.   They also bead their jewelry giving great attention to creating beauty with contrast and balance.   Not so different than jewelry makers everywhere. As in most cultures, the intricate pattern and colorful designs are indications of social standing. The more intricate and the more colorful the higher you are

The Draw of the Mojave Desert or Why I Started Designing Jewelry

Image
When you look at my etsy stores you see Mojave Stone jewelry .  In the 1970's, my father and two brothers mined a stone in the Mojave Desert in the middle of nowhere California!  Actually, the mine was somewhat but not very close to Desert Center.  It had been a gold/silver mine before they staked their claim and began mining stone.  My family lived in Missouri and the stone had to be trucked from the desert after strip mining it.  I was married and away from home so I got to hear the stories of making a road, fighting off bees, surviving the heat, being careful of the critters and all the other 'Wild West' excitement.  And I did not have to rough it! Dad was going to retire (some day) and make and sell the polished cabochons (a stone cut and polished usually with a flat back and a convex top) for jewelry.  In the meantime, he had some distributors sell it, some metal smiths create pieces, and he trademarked it as 'Mojave Royal Blue' and 'Mojave Stone'.  He