Let's Go For a Stroll

An Art Stroll!

Friday... that's tomorrow... I'll be there from 5pm and it ends at 9pm... Artspace Commons at the corner of 800S and 400W... Art, some crafty vendors... I'll even have jewelry WITH Art on it... well, as part of it:

Miniature Original Watercolor Paintings by Phil... who's previous band (Audio Dyslexia) has a song in the movie Pariah in this years Sundance Festival (which started today. first screening of Pariah at Eccles tonight at 9:30)... Swans gets back on tour in the Southwest and West Coast in a month...

So, if you're downtown in Salt Lake tomorrow evening/night, swing by Artspace Commons and say hi, pick up some Art, some wearable Art, some crafty stuff and stuff.

Making New Jewelry for Indiemade

Allentown has been bery bery good to me...

From Scratch got off to a good 1st year start and it went so well, it looks like they're planning a second event in Spring. I'm looking forward to it already! Of course, if it weren't for the people who saw me at Indiemade last year and recommended me to the organizers, I wouldn't be there at all. So, THANKS Indiemade!

Speaking of which, I'm in the process of making some new jewelry that will be debuting there. At the December 5th Indiemade Craft Market that is. Here's a little sneak peak:

The beads are all early 1950's and Japanese in origin. All Lampwork beads by nature. Throwing in some gemstones too. See em? Yep. There they are. Haven't finalized the designs yet, but will be working on that today when I'm done with this... and once I do the dishes.

Oh, and it looks like I won't be able to do anymore Squish Markets til next year. Can't do this month after all and next month the date is earlier and conflicts with my first day up at the Tight Knit market up in Troy... oh well. I'll definitely do some more next year, but probably the next one will be in February cause I think I'll be at Tight Knit on the January date too. I'll keep you posted.

I will be at the Beth Am Temple in Pearl River NY this Sunday though and Phil has a show with the Children on Friday in The City - at Label. It's a store. I'll write more about that tomorrow when I know what time they plan to launch into song.

Speaking of which, PLEASE, click on the link for Phil's project and pledge all you can... let everyone you know know... and help him get his new CD made. All it takes is a contribution of $25 to be able to contribute your voice to his music... literally.

Thanks!

Oh ya. Phil's watercolor painting based necklaces are selling like hotcakes and he painted two more last night that I'm going to try finish up in necklace form to take with me this weekend... though, if I don't get them finished in time for that, I'll have them with me in Griffin, GA for sure... going to do a party trunk show at The Next Chapter Bookstore on N. Hill Street on Black Friday... look for those pictures later in the week or Monday before I drive South. More on that later too.

Toodles til the next update... toodley toodleee toodle

Wire Knitting on a Spool

So, if anyone is thinking about buying the book: Wire Knitting... on a spool by Sharon Hessoun, DON'T DO IT! It's a total waste of money and time... unless you want to get so frustrated that you feel like ripping the book in half! Seriously. I came THIS close every time I tried to follow the instructions. And I'm pretty good at figuring things out from books. Almost all the bead weaving techniques I know I learned from books.

Anyway... I got this book with a knitting spool and, even though it's supposed to be for people who've neither knitted or worked with wire, there are almost no illustrations and the actual photos are blurry. Plus, it's $20 for a book that looks like it was put together at Kinkos! Plastic binding through square punch holes and all.

I wasn't very impressed when I got the book but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I picked it up and started and got frustrated and put it away (for a couple months before trying again) several times over the last 8 months. After about 6 tries to start learning how to do this technique, using the written instructions (that mostly read like jibberish), I once more restrained myself from flinging everything and thought back to when I was 12 - the last time I knitted or crocheted - and finally just figured it out on my own. After a lot of deep breathing.

To be fair, the first couple illustrations make it possible to follow the written directions, but that's just for wrapping the wire on the spool to begin with. After that, there are no illustrations and the written directions make absolutely no sense. Very annoying.

So, I finally figured it out on my own and knitted a few lengths of tubey whatsits and now I have my first necklace using wire knitting (on a spool):

Thanks again to Phil for the watercolor. It's painted to look like stained glass. But you knew that, right?! Oh, and there's some vintage beads and little brass flower links; Quartz, (reconstituted) Larimar, Goshenite, Peridot, and Peruvian Pink Opal beads; and all the wire is actually Gold Fill. [I grabbed the wrong spool for practicing and didn't realize it til I got home and saw the Brass spool sitting there. Kind of hard to tell the difference when the wire is that small, unless there's really good lighting. Good thing I didn't screw it up too much...]

So, whatya think?

I did another couple of banana sections (they really do look like it, only holey and in wire) with beads on them. Still working out the design and bits for using them. Then I figured out I could use wire AND thread. So I did a couple with some Fiber Artist thready stuff. That was actually really hard. I still need some thinking for the design and bits for those too. I'll post pics when I figure the other two out and get them finished up as well.

In case you've just fallen in love with it... I sent an e-mail to Riverwinds to see if they want to add it to my other h2o painting necklaces they have. Just waiting to hear if they want to carry it in the Gallery or not. If so, you can run over and get it there next week. Of course, if you just can't live without it and need it RIGHT now, let me know that (you just have to have it) and I'll make sure you get it. Right now.

Ok.

Back to the book.

I actually did some serious research before I ordered it and only got it because it seemed to be the only one of it's kind. If anyone knows of another wire spool knitting book out there for sale, please, let me know. I'd like to see it but, I'm actually thinking that after a couple months of working on my technique with this, that I'll have Phil take pics while I'm doing it and make my own book. Apparently, if I take it to Kinkos for "publishing", I can still sell it for $20 each, so I might as well give it a shot. Right?

Let me know if you want to reserve your copy now, I think I'll have it finished by Spring. Just leave me a message and I'll put one aside for you. Actually, I'll probably do it as a pdf, buy it online version first. Then, I guess, I'll shop it around to some instructional craft type publishing houses for printing. Since it's said that anything's possible, that means there's always a chance I can get it published by a real publisher too. Right?

You can start crossing fingers and toes for that outcome once I get the online version up. Talk to you more about it then.