Appreciating Amber...

I got this little bauble while on a mission trip to Ukraine… no, this is not my work…

Ukraine is known for its Amber, and I happen to love Amber… I was actually hoping to pick up some Amber for mounting, but this was a mission trip & there wasn't time to search things out…

The mounting is silver, I like the leaf-like nature of the mounting… looking forward to wearing this piece...

More Lion Around… :)

Lions are ready for inspection…

Some trimming, some re-gluing, some need surgery, some need eye replacements…. and a few more need to be made...

Shannon & Amy...

Shannon & Amy are helping me make sure that we have lots of nice little puppets to send to Ukraine for the orphans…

Roxy

Joining us was Roxy, she was working on costumes for the skit that will be done for the orphans - Daniel & the Lion's Den…

A fun time crafting with these very sweet ladies!!

Preparing for Inspection...

All these lions… packed up and brought home… now they need to be unpacked, dried, and looked over...

Ready to be unpacked...

More ready to be unpacked….

Need to be checked… Oops, we have some tilted heads!

Some of the Lions (there are >250)

Some More of the Lions...

Lots of Happy Smiling Lions!!

Lotsa Lotsa Lions!!!

Wow!!

A group of about 25 of us got together this week to trace, cut, glue, and superglue Lion Finger Puppets… here are some pics:

Supergluing Google-Eyes to Faces.

This wonderful group of volunteers came together to assemble these fun little puppets in support of a group that will be traveling to Ukraine & visiting several orphanages.

Our prayer is that the young people who receive these little puppets would get joy from them.

Cutting out Bodies & Manes.

More Cutting.

And even more Cutting.

Gluing together the Puppets.

More Gluing.

And even more Gluing.

And even a special helper who was in town
from Wisconsin visiting her daughters.

A Good Rainy Day Activity

I am still helping with the craft project for the little Lion Finger Puppets, this week we've had a bit of rain so I worked on getting some faces painted - the one part that needs to be done in advance before a group of us gets together to put together 250 of these… yes 250… they'll have to be packed to take to Ukraine, so I guess its a good thing they're small & lightweight…

I'm getting some other prep work done as well, a team of around 20 people will be working on these… lots of bright colors as well as some traditional colors…

American Craft Council Show - Wonderful!!

Wow!!  So much beautiful stuff to be seen & appreciated!!  The images below belong to the artists mentioned, please go see their web sites (links provided)… this is not my work.

My Favorite: Jennifer McCurdy  - Thrown Porcelain, these images are terrible… please follow the link to her site!!

Coral Nest

Magritte's Flower

Jungle Leaf Flower

One that caught Jeff's attention, and I loved his work as well: James Borden, TimeShapes - large scale beautiful clockwork pieces (yes they move).  Please check out his site.

Intriguing Jewelry: Steve Pflipsen Studio - a husband & wive team create beautiful pieces!!

In The Works

This is a piece of jewelry I was working on today in class, it will eventually be a pendant.


The setting is a mix of Sterling Silver and Fine Silver, and the stone is Lapis Lazuli.

Still Rough & Incomplete

I've got the bezel created, and the decorative wire pieces made (3 out of 4 soldered on at this point).

Stone sitting on top to give an idea what it will look like.

I still need to figure out how to hang this, I may just make a simple decorative wire piece for this purpose. 


The classes are on hiatus for Summer, but there may be an opportunity to me to get in the studio at some point to finish this…