Scottie Sunday

I thought I'd show you another one of my Scottie treasures that I've been collecting since 1989 when I bought my first Scottie Fala Pink. This is one of my Remler Radios. I could never afford a working radio as they are highly collectible by Scottie collectors and antique radio collectors. But you know when you want something, you want it. Here is where I am in lucky. When eBay first started out, you could find such great deals there. I found an auction where the person was selling two Remler's that were in bad shape. I got them both for a song but since they are vintage radios & the chassis were so heavy, I did pay a hefty shipping cost, but it was still a deal. Then the magic happened. Chris loves to refurbish vintage radios and televisions. To him it was a challenge. Of of the chassis were a wreck and on the other the shell was cracked. So Chris set to work to build one working complete radio from the wreckage of those two. Here is what he came up with. Isn't it great...and the best part is that IT WORKS!



Here is a little history about Remler Radios. There are so many more models out there & I'm always looking to add another on to my collection.
---------------

Remler Radio Remler is best known to collectors for their striking black-and-white plastic radios with little Scottie dog mascots. These deco-inspired case styles has made many Remler sets much sought after radios. Elmer Cunningham,who had made a mark in the radio world in the manufacturing of Cunningham brand radios tubes, founded Remler in San Francisco in 1918 along with Thomas B. Gray and Ernest G. Danielson. Cunningham came up with the name "Remler" for the new company by spelling his first name backwards and adding an extra "R" for "radio" to the end of it. They started by making radio parts, sockets, switches, and other small components. By 1922 Cunningham had dropped out and although it's products were still branded "Remler," the company became the Gray and Danielson Mfg. Co. In 1924 they produced the first of their line of high quality super-heterodyne radio recievers. In 1931 the company officially renamed itself "The Remler Company. Ltd." again. The original factory had been destroyed by fire a year earlier, and they had just built a new plant at 2101 Bryant Street in San Francisco (the building still stands today, and is still labeled "Remler Co. Ltd" across the top) and was making a major marketing effort for their two new sets, the Remler "Cameo" priced at $64.50 and the Remler "Super-Heterodyne" priced at $77.50. Remler built consumer radios (and even had a quick flirtation with television manufacturing) up until the early 1950s. They had a reputation for high quality sets, and their plastic cabinets were quite handsome. After the war Remler had sold 25,000 sets on consignment to a salesman on the East Coast, but it turned out that only a few thousand were actually paid for, and the bulk of the sets were returned to the factory. Many of the cabinets for the hefty radios didn't fare well in shipping, and the company sustained considerable loses on the sets. After that they left the consumer radio market.

Goodies from ArtBeads

Monday I received a great package from ArtBeads. I'm a one of their Design bloggers & this time around the event and challenge is "What is Old is New". Right up my alley, right? I have an idea, but I still need to have some time to let it percolate in the old noggin before I get these beads and cabochons to really "speak" to me. Aren't these great glass Cabs? And I love the new copper retro buttons. I'm thinking of doing something with one of the old vintage transistor radios Chris has decided to part with. Something beach theme. Also don't you just love the fire polish? These actually look copper when you take them out into the Sun. Which I would do today on this Earth Day but it disappeared (AGAIN) and looks like we won't have Sun until next Thursday.


ArtBeads is also having a Mom's Challenge : Enter your Mother's Day design & win a $250 worth gift card. AMAZING! I doubt I have time to do this as AFIC is next week & I still have things to get done for DC Design's vendor booth...like weigh out some wool roving, put prices on things & just organize a little better.

Well, I have tonight off from work. I've got so much to do but I hear my beads calling me, calling me, calling me. One thing I MUST do tonight & give some dogs bathes. I think some people will probably come over here next week since I live only 5 minutes from the hotel & I don't want them all thinking my house stinks like dog (it does, but come on...we have three dogs). Fiona has very oily skin so I don't want folks getting stains on their clothes when they pet my sweet Fi & then rub their hands on their pants...and Arwen is a little "greasy" too because it is Spring & she gets so itchy. Frodo...nothing wrong with that boy. I think if I gave him a bath once a year that would be good for him. Funny, but he always smells so sweet...guess it is just his personality.

Hope you all are having a great Earth Day. I think I need to thinking about recycling those beads from one area of my work table to another! You know I'll get down there start looking at things & just get into a sparkle trance.

Bad News, Good News

Okay, I'm going to start out with the bad news right up front and in one sentence. My two dolls DID not get into Bead Dreams. There. I said it. I have no idea why. I have had really a hard time getting the beading community to accept bead dolls as Art. I think I either have to give up trying to stop entering them into competitions or take a step back and instead of doing whimsical pieces try to concentrate on pretty figures with pretty faces.

Now to the good news. My piece Mother's Love came in 5th in the Beading for a Cure competition AND don't forget that she's up for auction starting next Monday. I was told I was to receive a winning prize & it came yesterday. Wow is about all I can say. I was shaking with excitement as I opened the box and treasure after treasure kept pouring out. I'm going to try to tell you everything that was in the box & if I've forgotten to thank anyone then my apologizes to all. First off was books and folder with all kinds of posters off Crystallized Swarovski Elements. Some of the posters are going to be put in in the studio as the colors are just amazing and will give me color suggestion idea. There were two boards with crystals colors with real crystals embedded in the board. Now I won't have to guess what color crystals I want to order as there they are for me to actually match up. I also got Crystal Chic which is by Debbi Simon. Lots of great ideas in there to push me to start using metal and crystals together.


Next was a great brown and blue craft bag from BeadinPath with a package of lucite beads inside. AND a $50 gift certificate inside an envelope. I am going to go crazy trying to decide what kind of lovely lucite beads to order from them. Then a kit from Jeannette Cook called "the tiles of Antoni Guadi Cuff". Jeannette is coming to Columbus this Summer to teach at 1 Stop Bead Shop so I'll have to get the story of what that name means then. I got another kit called " Silver Lining" but there was no name of who the designer or the contributor of this is. Thank you to whomever this mystery person is.

Then in a box was a beautiful necklace and earring set from Beads: All about it from Gainesville Florida. Lovely colors with a sweet Czech button as the focal piece. Then a book from Rita Sova of Butterfly and Fairy Designs all in brick stitch. Wow! I'm going to have to back track and rediscover brick stitch to make some of these beauties. Then a bag of Vintage Cabs from Marilee Layman. WoW! These are amazing. I can see some lovely cuff coming from these. In another plastic bag was a lovely glass focal bead from Ann Sherm Baldwin. It is BEAUTIFUL. I sat and starred at it looking at the design and colors and dreamed of the ocean off Kauai.

Then opening another envelope there were two gift certificates for $25 each. One was from Betcey at Beyond Beadery and the other was from Beki from Whimbeads. These are two of my favorite online bead stores and boy am I going to have fun trying to figure out what I need.

The very last thing was a mind blower as this is what Beading for a Cure is all about. IN a bag donated by Jeannette was one of Layne's beads she owned & left to Jeannette after she passed away. I was in tears & I still am. It is a beautiful focal bead made by Nancy Tobey. Layne bought it & treasured it so therefore, I'm going to treasure this piece of Art that Layne loved enough to take home. I never really knew Layne as she passed away before I joined the online group, but I would love to think that she held this bead in her hand and loved it. I'm going to do that too & send my prayers to her and every other person on this planet who has had to receive the news that they have colon cancer. I also will send prayers to those family members and friends who have had a loved one pass away or who is still fighting the fight.

Thank you the board of Beading for a Cure. Thank you the judges. And thank you to everyone who takes time to go to our auction site and purchase a piece of our Art so that we can help make sure no one else has to go through what Layne has

Scottie Sunday

I have been neglectful of Scottie Sunday and haven't had a chance to get any pictures of the things I have collected over the years. It is Spring, and I have a bad bad case of "puppyitis" since people have been showing pictures of new puppies all over the Web. So, I had Chris get out the file with the pictures of Frodo as a puppy. He with two other brothers and one sister were born 8 years ago next month. Fiona is his mother. Now Fiona is a wheaten colored Scottie and back then it was extremely difficult for me to find a male with the wheaten gene that was not related to her. I would have had to have sperm flown in from Canada to find a male I could safely breed her with. And it would have been really expensive. My mentor told me that since she wasn't "tested" or in other words hadn't had a live litter yet, we should wait before spending all that money. So I breed her with a WildWind black male. The puppies are all brindle which is hard to see when they were still so young, but if you look really really close, you can see a bit of brown fur by one puppy's closed eyes.


I don't know who was more excited about the puppies...me, Chris or Skye. Fiona could care less & it took three days before she finally became a Mom. She did a great job, but she really didn't care for being a Mom so this was the only litter of puppies she had. We have Frodo, Cynthia had Forrest (he passed away last Summer), Irene has Andy, and Fiona's breeder HAD the only girl but her husband "lost" the puppy when she was only 9 months old.



So enjoy some really Scottie Sunday pictures from me. Fiona has the red collar on in the above picture and Auntie Skye has the black collar on.

SteamPunk ShowDown

Chris & I have been having fun doing more collaboration pieces. This one is a semi Steampunk set which is called "SteamPunk ShowDown". It is for the DollStreet Dreamer's Steampunk challenge that will be displayed at AFIC the last weekend of this month. Chris did the Bot and I did the boy.


They boy started out as my new pattern. My New Year's resolution to myself this year is to learn to make my own doll forms so I can use them for my work without having to give credit to other artist. Plus in the future, I hope to sell my patterns or actually teach doll making. Therefore, I spend time drawing patterns, sewing them up, stuffing them, tweaking them, needle sculpting them, and doing it all over again until I can be happy. I wanted to make this a chubby little boy who spends more time tinkering in his work shop building things such as the robot he is facing with his remote control. He's dressed up in his space boy helmet and has a cape around his neck as he's always trying to figure out how to fly. His helmet is an old glass votive holder and the remote control box started off as a flippie container for beads. His eyes are vintage nail heads and he is standing on a piece of lucite. The only thing I'm unhappy about with this is the shoes. I didn't have time to finish up around the shoes so he just looks like he is standing in a puddle of mud. I've been experimenting with faces, and here I gave him a gap tooth grin which is hard to see from these pictures, but he does have a sweet little smile.


The bot started out as a metal canister of bath salts and with Chris' imagination he turned into a full fledged bot with his innards magnified with a lens from our collection of corrective eye glass lenses we bought years ago. Chris used his supply of radio tubes, ploy clay, and other things we have in our stash to give his bot life. His glowing eyes are volcano crystal rivolis I beaded. Chris gave the Bot his own remote control as really who here is in control? The Boy or the Bot? The Bot or the Boy?

To see more pictures of the Bot click here which will take you to Chris' blog MacRadioBot

These were so fun to make & we already have more ideas for collaboration after AFIC is complete.

7000 Bracelets for Hope

I decided to join the 7000 Bracelets for Hope after reading about this cause on Lori Anderson's blog. Please click here to read more about the cause and click here to see Lori's list of blogs to visit.
_______________________

If you are interested in joining please read below and think about adding your "voice" by sending a Bracelet of Hope to Global Genes Project.

It’s easy to help show support for kids suffering from rare disease and disorders!

The Global Genes Project (GGP) volunteer team is collecting blue jean/denim inspired bracelets for families living with rare disease, the campaign is called “7,000 Bracelets for Hope.”

To help raise awareness we’re asking 7,000 jewelry designers, volunteers from the craft community and various artists to donate one bracelet to this campaign to show their support for kids living with rare disease, disorders or conditions. These bracelets will then be distributed to participating families in December 2011.

24701 La Plaza, Suite 201 Dana Point, CA 92629

_______________________

These are the three bracelets I'll be mailing off Monday.

Whew...deadline

Well, I managed to make the Deadline for the 2011 Bead Dreams challenge. The deadline is April 5ht, but I was afraid I'd have some computer issues or anything else to get in the way so I completed the entry for just now. I entered Gaia's Playground which is what I called the piece Rachel's Dream after I've spent over 50 hours completing the piece after it was returned to me from Best of 2010 in January. I was never really happy with it as I got so lazy at the end and didn't finish the edges. I made so many flowers and covered the edges all the way around with new types of flowers, crystals and pearls. I'm happy and now say it is DONE! I also entered Wild Wet Ride which was my attempt at making an original doll with my own pattern AND using flat peyote sewn onto the doll using the fabric as a pattern. Last year, I didn't get my two pieces into the show so I'm not holding my breath for this year either, but hey! we have to try don't we??




I was writing to Cynthia that since I decided to let the dolls to the side an concentrate on beading, now all that pops into my head is how to make this doll and that doll. I've actually been drawing patterns and coming up with new ideas for new dolls. One of my AFIC pieces for the Challenge "Look Ma, No Stands" has 7 individual dolls using three new patterns I made by myself. It is close to getting done. All the sewing is done, and tomorrow we are going to finish the top layer, then all I have to do is a little tweaking here and there. I think everyone is going to be blown away at AFIC by this as it is TALL and it has very few beads on it. I've also got on the table another new pattern for the Doll Street Dreamers' Challenge for AFIC calling for Steampunk. I don't haven time to do everything that I want for this piece, so Chris is making half and I'm making the other. I contacted Judy Skeel & she said it was okay as long as I met the criteria and got it to her by the 15th. I've got some sewing to do for this one, but I must admit that Hal and I are fast becoming friends...really...I want to sew now! Imagine me saying this 4 years ago...I don't think so.


Meanwhile, to keep my fingers nimble and to keep beading, I've come up with this little project that I'll be teaching at Bead Club in May at 1 Stop. It might turn into a class. We'll see. It is called Finger Cuffs and yes! it is not an original idea, but I think I've done some things to make it mine.
I've also been working on some beaded bangle to sell at AFIC. I need some slush fund money for my trip in June to Bead and Button.


As for the Scotties, it is that time of the year with thunderstorms and swamps. I keep hearing the weather alert radio going off reminding us that we are in a Flash Flood Alert. I really don't worry to much about that here as our house sits highest in the neighborhood so we rarely get flooding in our basement, but luckily this Winter Victor put in a big new sump pump for us while Chris was sick. I can hear that thing roaring to life all the time, but it keeps my Art Cave dry.

Well, enough for now. I really have to make some dinner and get myself in the mental mood for four more days at work.


{It has been brought to my attention that I have been remiss in several things concerning the ring cuffs pictured above. First is that I did not link to the blog where I had gotten the original inspiration. The blog I was referring to was Nicole Campanella's BeadWright. The post was from March 19th about her Comfort Rings. I follow Nicole's blog all the time, and find great inspiration from all the things she creates and shares with us. Secondly, I should have checked the actual name "Finger Cuffs" to see if it had been copy right by any other artist or was being used in a similar project. Lastly, I will not be teaching a Ring Cuff class as I find it is too challenging for a beginner to work on such a small area while learning basic bead embroidery stitches. Dot. 7/20/11}