My Emerald Beaded Bracelet, pt. 1

I started working on my Emerald Beaded Bracelet from Mag knits. I purchased all the materials I needed from The San Gabriel Bead Company. I really like the colors I chose, but boy are those 0000 needles small. If you drop a stitch you have to rip back because it is almost impossible to pick it back up.

The pattern is well written, but I wish it has specified how many inches of beads to thread on. I probably totally over did it and strung on 9' 6" of beads. I will write an update when the bracelet is complete.

Knit Leia Wig in Craft Magazine

The current version of Craft magazine has included a picture and link to my knit Leia Wig. It is located on page 24 of the 'Our Favorite Trinkets & Treasures' section.

If you have not had a chance to check this magazine out, I highly recommend it. It full of inspiration. Thanks Craft!

Artist Colwyn Griffith

I was looking at the Modern Contemporary Art blog today and came across the artwork of Colwyn Griffith.

Griffith creates these diorama like installations and then photographs them. I especially like his I Can’t Believe It’s Not Empire series where he "investigates the multifarious nature of empire" by "blend(ing) domestic craft, sculpture and architectural set design with heavily processed, multinational-produced junk foods to emphasize a new empirical reality of corporate colonization."

Pictured at the right is his Great Wall, 2004 which is made of rice cereal.

Wool Felt Rugs at Peace Industry

Last weekend I was in San Francisco and came across the Peace Industry store. They manufacture an amazing array of contemporary hand felted rugs. I had already seen the film they made with a felt master in Iran a while back. Unfortunatly the video link is not working right now. They were all so beautiful, I would have liked to purchase many of them.

Rib-And-Cable Mits, Pt.2

My Rib-And-Cable Mitts which I started back in January are complete!

Because I used a thicker yarn than called for, the Berroco Ultra Alpaca, I had to do a little modification. The body of the gloves turned out fine, but thumb gusset was too long and wide. I frogged back to the picked up stitches, decreased the number of stitches and knit fewer rows.

I still need to block the gloves, but I am happy with how they turned out. I especially love the colors. I am looking for the perfect pattern to make a matching scarf with the leftover yarn.

Knit Emerald Beaded Bracelet

The new MAG Knits magazine is out. They provide free knitting patterns just like Knitty does. In this issue of Mag Knits there is a wonderful knitted beaded project called the Emerald Beaded Bracelet. The pattern was designed by Heather from Surrey, UK. You can view her blog here.

Although I am a very experienced beader, I have never knit with beads and have never knit anything so small. I really like this project and think I will have to head over to the San Gabriel Bead Company to pick up the supplies for this project. Thanks to Heather and MAG Knits!

Wool Breast Pads for nursing moms

One of my dear friends is having a baby shower this weekend. When I looked at her gift registry, I saw she had organic wool breast pads on her list. It got me thinking….
I have wool and I felt. So, I came up with these felted breast pads. I used a Merino-Corriedale wool bat for the base and embellished the top with colorful tussah silk top and merino wool roving. Because this is an experiment, I made them in two sizes. I hope they work out well for her.

Betz White Pincushion Tutorial

I am completely taken with the adorable felt work by Betz White. I particularly like these cupcake pincushions. The other day, while browsing on Whip Up, I noticed that Betz appeared on the Martha Stewart show. She has a tutorial on how to make her cup o’ joe pincushions. You can read more about her appearance on the show in her blog and you can purchase her work from her etsy store. Thanks Betz!

Fascinating table on display at Scripps

I made it over to the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College for their 63d Ceramic Annual exhibition over in Claremont. The show was guest curated by Tony Hepburn who is the Head of Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

Many have been critical of the exhibition by saying they felt like they were in an Ikea showroom. At first glance it may be easy agree with this comment, but any second thought would prove this notion wrong. I believe the curator and exhibition designer may have been able to help extinguish these ideas by removing duplicate items and refraining from displaying objects in a symmetrical fashion.

One thing I was very intrigued by was this table that was used for the display. I am always attracted to stylish designs that use inexpensive, everyday materials. The table was constructed from 2” thick plywood. The two white legs were galvanized pipe screwed into bases that were screwed into the table. I like it so much, I may have to make one for myself.

Recycled Design

During the opening party for MOCA’s SKIN + BONES: Parallel practices in Fashion and Architecture exhibition they had some interesting designs in the courtyard.

First there were these amazing benches that were bails of old clothing. Next, the tables were topped with crumpled wire mesh which acted as a vase for a few Tillandsia plants, also know as air plants.

The benches reminded me of this very interesting recycled clothing chair I saw a while back that was designed by Tejo Remy. Besides the great use of recycled materials, I really liked how these designs created new uses for ordinary materials.

New jewelry at my Etsy store

Here are a few of the new items I have listed in my online Etsy store.



These earrings are sterling silver hoops that I have adorned with Garnet and Carnelian gemstone beads.

This pair of earrings are made from sterling silver wire that I have hand forged into the swirly shapes. I have adorned them with Swarovski crystals.

I designed this necklace after seeing the movie ‘Shakespear in Love’. It is constructed from hand forged copper wire and embellished with vintage, olive green Swarovski crystals.

100th Second Saturday Art Walk this Saturday in Pomona, CA

This Saturday will be the 100th second Saturday Art Walk in the Downtown Pomona Arts Colony. There will be a celebration featuring fresh art, live music, food, rickshaw rides, and an antique auction. The festivities are from 4pm – 9pm.

The American Museum of Ceramic Art, in conjunction with it’s exhibition Rudy Autio, In the Round, is hosting a Drawing in Clay workshop. Designed for adults and families, people may drop in at anytime during scheduled hours from 11am – 4pm.

American Museum of Ceramic Art
340 S. Garey Ave
Pomona, CA 91766

My Favorite Stitch Markers

I really enjoy knitting in the round and have recently discovered cables. So, I need to use stitch markers all the time. I have purchased several types of stitch markers that have not impressed me.

The first type I purchased were like these split lock markers. The ridge on them was so wide that they created ladders in my knitting.

Next I purchased some metal rings with beads dangling from them that were akin to these. They were really pretty, but I found the dangles were a bit cumbersome and only added extra weight to my project. Extra weight is a problem when you are prone to tendonitis.

Finally, after being unable to find my pile of markers, I ended up tying my scrap yarn into loops. This works perfectly for me. They are extremely inexpensive, and I can color code them for meaning. Green can mean the beginning of a round, red can mean the end of a cable etc. The only downfall to these is if you knit by touch, yarn stitch markers do not have enough texture to tell you hands to ‘do the next thing’.

Super find at Michael's

I stopped by Michael's craft store this weekend to pick up some supplies to make Valentine cards for the Valentine's Day Postcard Swap happening at Flickr. I looked through the dollar bins and found this cute journal made from really thick die-cut felt. It will be perfect for keeping notes about all my current projects. It is amazing it only cost one dollar.

Art on Chung King Road, Chinatown

I made it over to the art galleries on Chung King Road in Chinatown this weekend. I have always enjoyed walking around looking at art in that area, but I and am usually unimpressed. This weekend there was a great deal of wonderful things to see. There were three galleries that have exceptional work on display.

First were the colorful New Works in Pastel by Stan Kaplan and Eric Niebuhr at the Mary Goldman Gallery. I have always thought of this gallery as a leader amongst the many on Chung King Road.

Next were the stunning paper sculptures in Organic Transformed by Rachel Portenstein at LMAN Gallery.

Finally, there were a series of captivatingly detailed drawings from Body Swallows World by Aurel Schmidt at Peres Projects.

Quartzsite, Arizona

I spent last weekend in the craziness of Quartzsite, Arizona. It is always amazing to go and see what treasures are there in the outdoor swap meets each year. I particularly enjoy all the gigantic fossils from Morocco and the Amethyst and Citrine geodes from Brazil.

I made sure to visit one of my favorite artists, Gary Andruss of The Stoneworks in Hood River, Oregon. He hand cuts beads and pendants from gorgeous stones. He also sells quality uncut stones for the Lapidary enthusiast. Gary has no website, but can be contacted at Stone22@charter.net.

I could not resist getting my picture taken with these amazing fossil fish and table full of beautiful fossil ammonites.

Moxie's how-to: needle felted finger puppet

The amazing Moxie has created a great photo tutorial on how to make a needle-felted finger puppet. Be sure to check out all of her fantastic finger puppet monsters.

Knit Rib-And-Cable-Mitts

I have been working on the knit Rib-And-Cable-Mitts pattern from the spring’06 Interweave Knits. It is my first attempt at doing cables. It was a bit challenging at first and I had to frog a couple of times, but then I had the ‘a-ha’ moment.

I am using Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn in 6285, Oceanic Mix, and 6205, Dark Chocolate. I adore this teal/brown color combo. The yarn is a bit thicker than the recommended so these are coming out a bit larger and chunkier.

Solid Perfume

I really enjoy the smell of essential oils. My two particular favorites right now, which my acupuncturist first used on me, are Geranium and Neroli. I like to wear them as perfume, but because they are not created to be a perfume, they evaporate very quickly leaving me scentless. I have been mixing them with vitamin e oil when I wear them, which helps them last the day. Unfortunately, oily wrists and neck are not so good for the clothes. Luckily, Instructables came up with this tutorial on making solid perfume. It is basicly the same as making lip balm which I wrote about here.

Outdoor design at Joshua Tree National Park

I spent the New Year’s weekend away in Joshua Tree National Park. It was gorgeous, but a bit chilly at night since the sun went down around 4:30pm at our campsite. I saw some fabulous outdoor sculpture and patio furniture at the Western entrance visitor center. I may need to consider some of it for future projects.

There was this gorgeous weather vane at the entrance.


Outside on the patio there were these cast concrete benches and tables. I particularly like how they made the surface look like stone. You can also see that the table bases were cast from paper sonotubes.


Another thing I really enjoyed were these concrete posts (perfect for potted plants) and the metal siding of the building.



Finally, I really liked this wooden gate that pivots around the rusty metal pipe.