Synergy Win

 Last weekend was the big dinner for the Great Lakes Beadworker's Guild 20th anniversary.  It also was the presentation of the Synergy awards.  My partner texted me at the dinner telling me that we came in 3rd place.  We were to present a representation of Detroit in beads.  My partner chose Belle Isle which houses a garden, statues and a aquarium.  I chose to make a water sprite doll on a turtle's back.  Cyndy made the glass bouquet with flowers she had made and all the glass fish. 

Please met Belle Isle Voyagers 

"Photograph by Sylvus Tarn ~ Rejiquar Works"

To view other pieces from this event click here to see Synergy 2012.  There were so many wonderful pieces depicting various places and themes all revolving around Beading Detroit.  Also click here to see the installation of Synergy by our president Sharon Wagner.  And click here to see an article written about the gallery show and YES!  that is a picture of the bead work on my piece.

It was so enjoyable to work with Cyndy taking ideas and presenting them with beads and glass. We got to know each other while working on this project and are already talking about other collaborations.  

I want to Thank Sharon for all the hard work with this gallery show and to Sylvus for doing all the professional photograph for me to use.  But most of all to Cyndy show invited me to spend a couple days at her beautiful home in Michigan where we laughed, talked, and beaded away a whole afternoon.

Pocket MOnsters give away

October is tomorrow & I just can't wait. My favorite month of the year because I love the Fall weather, I love pumpkins, and I love Halloween! When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we'd spend weeks trying to figure out what we were going to wear to go trick or treating. Now this was back in the days when kids went out and night (yes! when it was DARK!) without parental supervision with pillow cases crawling the neighborhoods begging for candy. In LA, begger's night was always on Halloween the 31st. It was shocking when we moved to Ohio & found out it was Oct. 30th & you could only be out for 4 hours. How could you get enough candy to last until Christmas? I remember one year so vividly as Halloween was on a Sunday, so our town let kids go out BOTH the 30th & the 31st! We made out like bandits. My Mom let us cross the 4 lane road separating our neighborhood with the other & there was virgin candy beggin' ground. I think we had candy until Easter that year. And I'm not talking about tiny little pieces of hard candy...I'm talking about bars of chocolate and bags of popcorn balls! We were so bloated. I remember coming home with our loot (what we didn't eat on the run) & pouring it all out on sheets my Mom had in the front room. There's she's sort through it all taking her cut (Heath bars, and Pay Days) as she did help us with out costumes. So I do have fun memories of Halloween. What's yours?



To celebrate the day before October, I'm showing you a new treat I've been working on. My bead Muse has been in a slump lately, but I've been practicing sewing away. I call these Pocket Monsters. It all started when I ripped the pocket off a shirt & looked at it & decided it would be perfect for something. Then a glance at my scrap bag & and ideas! Delivery of Pocket MOnsters! I've got a big basket of a dozen so far. They are so fun to make that I can't help myself. Would you like one???? Leave me a comment with your e-mail by October 15th. & I'll pick out one lucky follower to get one of these scary scary monsters by Halloween.



Chris is busy working on our vacation pictures still. He is almost done. Here's another picture of the coast of Kauaii. I want to go back! I can see that my tan is slowly going away. Boy don't I miss the Sun.

Dotee Dollz

I've seen these done everywhere on the Internet. They are wee little dolls called Dotee Dolls. I'd never made up one until Doll Street Dreamers had a swap challenge. The rules were they had to be 3-6 inches long, with a loop and a tail that was to be homemade bead/s. I still have some of the fabric faces that Chris printed up for my class two years ago at AFIC, so I used them for these. One is called "chicken or egg?". I made this square stitch chicken from a chart on a Jill Oxton magazine & never could figure out what to do with it. The other is from material I made in the Embellisher class from Janet Clarke's class. The last was some left over beads from my BFAC 2010 kit. I had fun making them. Hardest part was NOT encrusting them with beads
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Oliver

Here is my Oliver. He is from a class I took with Cyndy Sieving. It was her class on face & body building. I had a blast turning my doll into a vampire. I've worked in a hospital lab for 25 years and have always wanted to make a vampire. I can't tell you how much money I'd have accumulated over the years if only I had collected a dollar for each time I was called a vampire, or had to endure the endless lab vs. vampire jokes. Yes, rich enough to own a private island perhaps.

I did enter Oliver in the competition for EDAC (Enchanted Doll Artist Conference) back in July. I entered the beginning professional category. Oliver got be a 3rd place ribbon. The story I had with Oliver was that he was a "model employee" working in the Blood Bank through his lunch break. The glass tube has paint in it...I actually had someone ask me if it was real blood! And the bag is just a bag with painted yarn to give it a more natural look. I actually had a couple people stand shocked when they saw that I really didn't bead the whole thing. But, if you look real close, Oliver does have some beads on his cape. I think he is perfect for this time of the year...oh & yes, he gets his pay in units! Of blood, that is!

Tiki Goddess

Along with beading like mad! I've also been playing around with mixed media doll making and decided to take a plunge into working with Apoxie Sculpt. I took a class back in May with Jean Bernard, and never got a real chance to sit with the stuff & get mess. Well, I did just that. I took a fashion doll (my niece told me this was Ariel) that I bought at the thrift store. All those poor sad unloved/unwanted dolls sitting on the shelf made me so sad so I bought 6 of them. I got the head at the Dollar Store. After playing around, getting paint every where & getting my husband to help me figure out how to mount the doll onto a stand, I finally came up with this final doll. I'm going to send slides of her to Art Doll Quarterly for their Altered Fashion Doll challenge. Keep my fingers crossed that they like her & want to print a picture of my funky Goddess.