Birdcage necklace

I played with different beads and pendants and the result was four necklaces for four color types named after seasons. This one is definitely Summer - with its cool powdered colors,darkened metal and slick casual appearance.
Planned to put it on Etsy but other urgent plans made me put the holidays Etsy selling on stop.

There is a tiny bird in a ring inside the cage!

During the Bead Extravaganza show I was stopped with compliments by every other person when I wore this necklace:)

Artjournaling with friend

My artist friend from Germany came to visit me. So much fun! We brought catalogs from some shops in nearby plaza and sat down in the evening to make new pages in our artist journals.

When I saw the lamps on photo it immediately brought to my mind the pictures of ladies in crinolines and ballerinas in tutus.



Have you noticed that a hummingbird on a stamp is made entirely from butterflies?

Why am I not working???

I want to feel like that:



But actually I feel like that:



Something is preventing me from drawing:(

Artist's date. Old bicycle necklace.

I went to my artist's date to Michaels this time. My first intention was to check some unfamiliar things - for the crafts I didn't yet have a chance to try. But all in vain! They have a surprisingly big bead department now so I ended up rummaging through all the treasures. I put parts and beads together enjoying mock designing. And then I saw a fantastic old bicycle pendant. I start thinking - if I put this and this together and make the pendant a focal point and finish it for selling... But wait a minute! It's my artist's date! I am not doing this for profit - just for nurturing my little artist inside! I should make this necklace for myself!

So I bought everything I thought would go well with the pendant. And the pendant itself, of course:)

The store was closed, I went home. And made this. And I love it! Will definitely wear it for the next artist's date.

New notebook, new lists

Last week I decided to try Mark Forster's system AutoFocus. I have a certain obsession for lists of things and his system is build on one continuous stream of listed items. You sure would need a new notebook for the new system - so I decided to go to an artist's date ( as I'm on week two of Julia Cameron's Artist's Way) and find a perfect notebook. It shouldn't be too small - Mark said 25-35 lines to a page. But it shouldn't be too big - my backpack is rather small.

I spent an hour in the paper department of Borders and was almost desperate - nothing said eureka! to me.
But finally on the last shelf it was - my preciousss!

Funny and bright new notebook - love it, love it, love it!

Handmade Ideas Book

I always carry with me a small pocket notebook for ideas. If you think that you'll remember that bright flick without writing it down - you are most definitely wrong. The other wrong thing to do is to write it down on some scraps of paper. They will be lost almost immediately. The small book in sturdy cover is the best friend of ideas! I write in it when see good idea in a book or during the show or something coming to me just among everyday chores. They are a great pleasure to flip through while waiting for something. You will be surprised how many of the ideas have already escaped your memory.
This is one of my ideas book that I made myself. It based on the notebook that I bought in the art shop in Israel long ago.


It's 1/4 of letter size paper (A4 for the other world). The covers are made of book cardboard covered with silver decorative paper. I drew pictures on heavy textured paper and glued them on the front cover - my favorite cat, words "ideas" and just tiny decorated strip.


Paper inside is rather heavy extra white printer paper.


The binding is a variation of Japanese stab binding done with a narrow satin ribbon.

I still have my previous ideas book not filled so this book is waiting its turn.
May be some day I'll make a little bunch of them for selling on Etsy.

I love little things

One more of my flower fairies.

What I've brought from the book store

Bag full of treasures. I'm so afraid that due to crisis some great magazines may be terminated! Hope we don't stop buying them and all of them survive.

Some cute bunnies

A couple of weeks ago we spotted a pair of fat cute bunnies on our backyard. Our first impression was that was some kind of garden sculpture. But no - they were real bunnies. I decided to take them inside and send my daughter to ask neighbors, maybe someone cried already missing them. Bunnies were quite friendly, the smaller one - I guessed it was a girl - came to me to make introduction. The boy ran a little around then also was caught and brought inside.



Our guinea pig Cyrano was very agitated - he squeaked, he stood high in his pen and I took him out to make acquaintance with the bunnies.

Meanwhile our daughter found the owners. They asked her when she had found them - which day - they didn't even know that their bunnies had escaped!


One last glance - they are so, so, so cute! Yellow, big and round - like from kids book.



And off they go!

Next time they are in our backyard I'll keep them!!

Flower Faires

I decided to change my buddy icon on flickr and tried different photos of my works. It's not easy to cut a picture 48x48 px and make it look good. Now I have an icon from this picture. I love making tiny flower fairies from the silk flowers! You see they are really small - they are sitting on some kind of a computer manual and have a pack of compacts behind them.