Auction to Benefit Oaxaca Street Children

The time to bid is coming soon for this heartfelt auction to benefit the street children of Oaxaca. ON March 1st bidding starts....go to Rebecca's blog to see all the wonderful shrines made by 80 plus artists and show your support by placing your bid all through the month of March! On the front main page of her blog, you'll see a picture of a young girl and on top it says "cigar box shrine gallery". I was recently informed by the lovely Rebecca that myself and 26 other artists' shrines for this particular auction have been chosen to be featured in the March issue of Pasticcio Quartz! Pasticcio Quartz is a quarterly zine published by Sarah Fishburn and Angela Cartwright. From what I can tell on their blog, it looks like a pretty amazing piece of eyecandy! Sarah and Angela are well known in the mixed media art community and they have a couple of awesome books too!

The pictures of my shrine (above) aren't the best. I was pressed for time to send it out and took crappy pics. It is SUPER, DUPER shiney...the arabesque archway design is completly covered with a mosaic of glitter. Rebecca has better pics~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Go HERE to see:
http://corazon.typepad.com/photos/cigar_box_shrine_gallery/page/2/

Mine is toward the bottom.

Photos w/Ott Lite..

These are my first pictures taken with the new Ott lite. I spoke about it in a previous post and some of you were interested on the out come, so here it is. I like them but I think I could do better and will experiment some more. This necklace is another piece that I finished for a class proposal at Gilding the Lily. I will be teaching how to make it April 25. Email me if you're interested as it is not on the GTL site yet. It's a beg/intermediate class on some basic wire wrapping, crown making (for Charlotte) and soldering.

How I took the pics: I attached the necklace to an old ledger and then placed that inside a box with the lid open and sitting up. The Ott lite was placed very close to the necklace (3 to 6 inches away) and I didn't seem to have a problem with shadows. Turning the Ott lite at different angle allows for shading and different reflections. I had been wanting an Ott lite for a gazillion years but they're so dang expensive that I could never find a good enough reason to purchase one and whenever JoAnn's would have 50% off by the time I got to the store they would be all gone. So my advice to you is to use your regular 40% coupon and go while there is a selection. I bought one of the "cheaper" ones $84.99 with my coupon. It's a good investment and I like mine because it's small, portable and has a clip and stand attachment making it very efficient, not to mention it's a great light!

Yes it's still my blog...

Excuse our mess as we renovate. The new look is good, huh? Not completed yet...stay tuned.

House of Glass~A Reliquary

Here is another piece I have been working on. I will be teaching it at Piecemakers Saturday, June 27th. It requires some soldering experience. It's a glass "shrine" measuring no more than 3 1/4 inches high.... A new home for frozen charlotte who has a crown and wings. Glitter, pearls and a tiny collage are inside for her cozy new space.

Got nothin..except a bird on my head

I have taken a lot of pictures to post but they're all poop! I saw the sun in a great position today before i jotted out to get some shinny fabric for a new belly dance costume and grabbed my camera to shoot some new jewelry. Downloaded them after I came home and didn't like ANY of them...don't you hate when that happens? I will be experimenting with my new OTT lite and hopefully I won't need the sun at 10a.m anymore to take good pics. I like visuals on the blogs I visit and so when I don't have visuals I don't want to post but I am anyway.........with a free clip art image.

I have been busy in my studio working on some innovative jewelry (thanks Nancy from Gilding the Lily), working on my business taxes, my daughters 10th b-day, exercising, cleaning my really cluttered home and studio and dancing. In laws coming soon for the birthday this Saturday....luckily they love me and I love them so I don't have to have a Martha Stewart home!!!

time...

Kits...soldering class

Hi!
Well it has been a whirl wind of a past week or so. Do you ever think, "why didn't I look at my calendar before I said yes?" 4 classes in one week, tons of prep and kits....what was I thinking? My first priority is my family, our business, home....domestic caca. I have too many irons in the fire. I gotta stop saying yes, I can do that! Most moms are super women (heros) but not compensated for their efforts...last year on NPR (National Public Radio) I heard a study was done on "house wives". Their study concluded that if domestic work and child rearing were a real job they would be paid $144 grand a year. So now what about the women that do that AND have one or more home based businesses or work outside the home AND keep up with all the domestic duties? I'm not talking about the women who have nannies and housekeepers either. And I'm not knocking those that do because I understand why.

I have been letting myself take more workshops. I love taking classes and learning new techniques. Yesterday I drove down to Encinitas to The Black Sheep and took a class with the infamous Barbara Chapman. First of all I fell in love with Encinitas which is North of San Diego,Ca. It's a quaint authentic beach town with several blocks of good old American small businesses, beach style, no chains. The Black Sheep is a fabulous yarn and textile establishment that's been in business for 30 years? I have been wanting to take a class with Barbara for a long time. She taught a class on her version of papier mache with fabric, paper and the stuff used for casts. Great surface techinques. I loved it. Pictures above (not great) of some samples.