Inner beauty

I finally got around to creating a bangle for myself!  You may recognise the design as I did a couple like this before, but ended up  selling them! This one is definitely mine.

For a start, my favorite color is lime green so add a bit of teal to that - probably my second favorite color, and a few other greens and this is definitely a happy color bracelet for Ruth!

If you look closely, the design is made up from images for different cells in the body - particularly the gut and intestines. These include glandular epithelial cells, goblet cells, villi and microvilli.  And of course a little artistic license!  Thus the name "Inner Beauty", which actually was my sister's idea.

The bangle is inspiration for my guts - to become beautiful and work a bit better!  Fingers crossed!

It makes me think of zentangle....I like the doodl-ish style and maybe will try some more with other subjects besides cells and guts.  What style would you like to see me make?

Meet my followers: Nicole

Today let's meet Nicole Sharp from Cole+Josephine who is a follower of my blog. Nicole is a self taught artist and illustrator.

 She works in watercolor, ink, graphite, gauche and colored pencil to create her paintings.  She is a lover of spontaneity and thus appreciates the unpredictability of watercolors.

Here's a self portait of Nicole:

I love the idea of artists creating their own self portrait. I think all artists should do this in their own media. Hmmm, maybe I need to work on one......

The core of her work comes from her love color, and she adds to that a sense of optimism and humor.

 
I do find her work optimistic and fun.  Hope you do too. She has a blog called Cole+Josephine but I'm not sure who Josephine is!

Hope you've enjoyed this little peak into her work.  If you read this Nicole - let us in on who Josephine is!

Weekly bird in the hand

This week's things that I am grateful for:

 

• All the nests with eggs and newly hatched baby birds!  Above, the top left nest is tiny - about the length of my thumb, with brown speckled blue eggs.  Top right is in the new Godello vines with four pale blue eggs.  Bottom left two little babes have just hatched - you can just see them to the left of the third blue egg. Bottom right, the bluebirds in their house, with one especially hungry one. These are the same bluebirds that I showed in last Saturday's post. You can see that their eyes are now open and they have more feathers. It's such a delight to watch nature.
• A successful farmer's market last Sunday with good sales and lovely people.  
• Some aluminum commission work.
• Going to the art museum with a friend.
• Lunch with a friend.
• Acupuncture.
• Creating our latest wine label for our 2009 Birdland Merlot. It's at the printers now!
• Seeing Quentin and Queenie numerous times with 11 babies. Today they can fly and jumped up on our dining table outside.  Phew, they are much safer now they can fly.
• Sitting by the pond after gardening and watching the great blue heron catch frogs and the baby swallows squalk continuously for more food!
• The pleasure of gardening - but I could have done without the reaction I had all over my arms to one plant! 
• Sharing in 4th of July celebrations at a friend's home.
• The lives of Craig, Adam and Charlie, who all shared a birthday on 4th July.

Friday's fascinations: Paper Sculpter Calvin Nicholls

I came across  a wonderful artist this week, and just felt the need to share his work with you.  His name is Calvin Nicholls and he creates animals out of paper. And he seems to create all my favorite animals too!

Here is his chameleon:

His sculptures are made using only paper and a tiny bit of glue, along with a scalpel for cutting the paper and then wooden and metal tools to create texture. There is a short explanation of his technique on his website.

He makes many of his sculptures for use in advertising campaigns, for example:

I love the intricacy of it all. Gosh, this guy has patience.  Look at this porcupine and hedgehog with all those tiny quills of paper:

Gosh, I'd love to have one of these......What an amazing artist.  Here is his Boreal Owl:

Such precise intricate work. Hope you've enjoyed seeing it.  To see more and learn more about him, his website is http://www.calvinnicholls.com

Jump for Joy

Here's another commission for an aluminum bangle, requested by a wonderful customer, Gail.  It's so nice to be getting commissions for the aluminum as well as the silver.

Gail had asked about a fish bangle as she is a Pisces so wanted the little waves, a silver fish and also some printed fish swimming around too.

I think these fish came out looking so happy! Jumping out of the water made me think of "Jump for Joy".  I remember the first time I saw flying fish too.....they look so cool and like they are having such a good time!

So I hope Gail has a good time as she wears this, and finds occasions to "jump for joy".

27/52 Bird a week - Bathtime at Birdland

A customer asked me to make one of my birdbath rings for her. I love watching the birds take their little dip.  Everyday quite a few come into our fountain and splash around and dunk their heads.  We try and put the fountain on everyday for them.  They seem to enjoy it so much.  Our parrot Harold loves his too - although he has showers not baths!

This little birdie seems to be enjoying his bath too. What do you think? Are you a bath or a shower person?

Check out the other birdies created this week by following the links below:

The matched pair

A customer at the farmer's market this week asked me if I could make a cuff for her husband as a gift for their 10th wedding anniversary.  Aluminum is the symbol of the 10th anniversary, so it seemed a good choice.

The symbolism behind it is that aluminum is a flexible but strong metal and a successful marriage needs also to be flexible and durable.

The customer told me that she and her husband like odd numbers, so I did a simple narrow bangle/cuff for him, with black numbers on it. Their partiality for "odd" numbers got me thinking...One of the definitions of "odd" as an adjective, is "being part of a matched pair or set when the other is missing" - as in odd socks!

So "happy anniversary" to Kelly and her husband - the matched pair.

Happy 4th of July

Hope you are having a Happy 4th of July. After a morning of gardening, we are shortly off to a friend's party to celebrate.

Enjoy your day with family and friends.

Meet my followers: Beth

Bunny bracelet

This week, I'd like to introduce you to Beth Murr.  I think she is a recent follower of my blog and I hadn't come across her work until today, when I came to write this post! But now that I have, I'm very glad.  She does lovely beadwork creating bugs, fish, bees, butterflies.... and needle cases and..

Here's Beth in 2008 at Acadia National Park

She's been working with beads for a long time now, initially beading on a tiny loom.  She is best known for her needle cases, and you can buy her patterns and see her videos on how to make them. Here is lovely collection of some of her needle case patterns:

Of course, the birdhouse one is my favorite of these

I love the honeybee one the best

White rabbit needle case pattern

Beth's website is "Until we bead again" and her blog is untilwebeadagain.blogspot.com

In addition to her needlecase patterns, more recently on her blog, you'll see some other beaded animals and insects made into jewelry:

Buzzy bee bracelet

I can just imagine the wings flapping on these beadwork butterflies. 

All her patterns are instant downloads, so you can get started straight away. She has many free videos too on how to do all the different stitches involved.

In addition to beadwork, Beth also works in clay. These remind me of gargoyles:

When Beth is not busy doing all this creative work, she is a nurse and she has just made the big decision go back to school and get her Master's degree! Good for you Beth.  I hope you still find time to create too! I know how time consuming school can get!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing Beth's work. I love the delicate bead work. I've never done beadwork before and I particularly like to see all the bugs and insects featured in Beth's work.

Weekly bird in the hand

Here is this week's list of the things I am grateful for:

Four newly hatched bluebirds in our bluebird box.  We have a camera and sound in the box, so we can watch their progress!

• Our friend John Randall whose memorial service it was yesterday.  He was a lovely man who devoted so much of his time and energy to others, especially youth. He was one of the first people I sang with when I moved to CA, so it was fitting that I could sing for him yesterday.  He leaves many big holes.... but also many wonderful memories.
• Caroline and Jamie who's first wedding anniversary it is tomorrow. They married here at Birdland on 3rd July 2010, on what was an amazing and touching day.   So many lovely memories of that day....and also their visits here beforehand to arrange everything.
• Finding a new acupuncturist to work with.  I have my second appointment today.
• Finding John Dowland's music to sing. I am working on some of his solos and just loving them. They tend towards melancholy and sadness, but are still gorgeous.
• Having dinner and lunch with friends. This week seemed a week full of catching up with friends with two lunches and three dinners each with different friends.  What a great way to spend time.
• All the baby birds we see in our vineyard - including the bluebirds and also Quentin with his flock of little ones!

Four funerals and a wedding.

This past year - from July 3rd 2010 to July 2nd 2011 has been a year of "four funerals and a wedding".  It started on a high note with my cousin Caroline getting married here at our home on July 3rd 2010.  What a wonderful day that was. Unfortunately, since then we've had 4 funerals, which culminated in a memorial service today for a dear friend of ours, which I was honored to sing at.

It would have been much more preferable if the year had been like the wonderful movie "four weddings and a funeral"...but alas, that didn't happen.

However, I have high hopes for this coming year beginning July 4th....let's start again and see some happy times with maybe weddings, new births, some big anniversaries, some fun birthday celebrations  and many other happy occasions. Fingers crossed....... We've had enough funerals!

The photo I share with you is one of my favorites that I took at Caroline and Jamie's wedding, where they released white doves in the vineyard.  Here's to more happy days like that and "Happy Anniversary" to both of them.

Flutter by, Butterfly

Sadly, it isn't true that the word "butterfly" came from a metathesis (the changing around of the order of syllables) of flutterby, but it is still a nice idea.

The old English word was "buttorfleoge" - combining butter and fly, but there seems to be no agreement on why there is a butter reference.  Some say that butterflies will go to butter if it is left out and uncovered....but I've never heard of that!  Any ideas? 

Maybe because they are attracted to butter colored flowers?.....but then they seem to like all different colored flowers... One of life's mysteries I guess.

But it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of seeing butterflies flutter by.

26/52 Bird a week challenge - Gouda, the happy bird!

This week I'd like to introduce you to Gouda.  Unlike so many birds you hear about lately, she is a happy bird and definitely not an angry bird - although I think the camera startled her a little! She's not used to having her photo taken.

Her favorite place to hang out is in the kitchen - especially in the fridge.  She definitely doesn't like hot weather as she gets a bit sweaty and smelly, so keeping cool is a priority of hers.

She is 4 inches tall, and many describe her as "tasty"!  When you look at those feather markings on her chest, you begin to understand why!

She is delighted to join the rest of the birds in the bird a week challenge - especially this week as we are half way through the challenge! Yes, week 26 of 52.  There is still a group of us keeping up with the challenge so if you want to see their 26th bird, please click on the links below. The linky tool isn't always working right so the Flickr group shows all the birds we've completed so far.

Crawling through the grass

We've had rain ALL day today!  That may not sound like much to many of you, but since we've lived in northern CA, we've never had any rain after the first week of June, at the latest.  So to have a full day of rain is most peculiar.

So today isn't a day for crawling through the grass - not for me anyhow - but this little ladybird doesn't seem to mind the rain.

A new customer commissioned this bracelet from me. I hope she likes it. What do you think Lucie?

How is your weather? Is it unseasonable and odd?  Our vines are in flower which is just the time we don't want rain.  If it rains when they are in flower, all the pollen can just be washed off and then there will be no grapes.  Fingers crossed most have pollinated already.