Friday again! And another batch of Fabulous Friday Finds. Once again, I had no trouble at all compiling this bunch of goodies. They're from all over the place, because I'm all over the place. :-)
My first Fabulous Friday Find is a teeny tiny little creature by the incredibly talented Aleah Klay.
I first "discovered" Aleah on Facebook, and now I ooh and aah over every one of these little pieces she creates.
Her creations range from little people to teddy bears to all kinds of other furry creatures, but when you look closely and realize that these little guys are only about an inch tall, you'll be as flabbergasted as I am. There's so much detail in each piece it's just incredible.
That little guy you see to the left is currently listed on eBay. He won't be there long, though.
My second Fabulous Friday Find is from a new Etsy seller named Tim Scull. I saw one of Tim's pots when one of my Facebook friends posted it, and I immediately went to check out his shop.
This pot is one of my favorites, but he also has some saggar fired pieces that are incredible. This piece is raku fired (and I'm a big fan of raku), with a white crackle glaze with inlayed copper thread, copper mesh, and fused glass, and finally fumed with ferrous chloride. Incredible!
I could see having a whole row of these pots sitting on a shelf... couldn't you?
My third Fabulous Friday Find is an unusual lampwork bead created by my friend Jennifer Cameron (whose Etsy shop is called GlassAddictions). Actually, Jennifer's another Facebook friend (I just keep meeting nice people on there!), a lampwork artist who creates some really unusual pieces.
If you check out her Facebook fan page, you'll see my favorite of her beads as her profile picture. (While you're there, I'm sure she'd love to have a few extra fans.)
This bead to the left, though, completely intrigues me. It's called The Gorgons, a name taken from Greek Mythology. I've grown to really like the combination of lime green and cobalt blue, and this piece with its tentacles and bumps that look like molten lava is just fascinating.
The title for this next piece is a little out of season, but I actually chuckle to myself every time I look in my favorites and see this guy. No, Summer Will Not End is a piece made by a fellow beadweaver and fellow member of Bead Art Originals, Dawn Chastain.
That face just cracks me up.
I swear I've had that very look on my face when I've been on vacation and realized it was time to go home. You know the feeling, right? When your family practically has to pry you away from that sandy beach? Waaaaaaaaah.
If you still have room on your shelf next to all those pottery pieces, maybe you'll enjoy this next Fabulous Friday Find I found in an Etsy shop called OffTheLathe.
I've always wanted a lathe, and every time I visit an arts/crafts show or shop I'm immediately drawn to the turned wood pieces.
This artist does a whole variety of styles and uses lots of different woods. I'm going to keep my eye out on his shop because I have a feeling there's going to be something I just can't live without showing up there... the only thing saving me right now is that we live in a rented house and don't have room for much of anything. My whole collection of turned wood bowls and vases is packed away until we build a new house.
I think that's it for this week's Fabulous Friday Finds. If you have fabulous finds, leave a comment on my blog! Although I like hunting down some of these myself, I'd love to see the things you find and consider fabulous.
Happy Friday!
:-)
Comment #8 by Allison Cecil! Hooray, Allison!!!
Allison's comment was chosen by the trusty random number generator, so she wins a $25 gift certificate for my Etsy shop. Wonder what she'll buy???
She said her favorite thing was this Southwestern Checks cuff, but she might just change her mind. :-)
***
Didn't win this giveaway? Stay tuned. I'm going to be doing more of them throughout the rest of the month, and I'm also going to do some on my Facebook fan page.
In fact, I think I'll go add one there right now.
I've decided. I'm going to try something new this year. I'm going to try to create a new design every week. Ambitious? Truth be told, I have no shortage of ideas -- just time to execute them. We'll see how this works out.
So far I'm on track. It's week #2, and I have two new designs.
The first one, Two Hearts, was obviously inspired by Valentine's Day. It's a relatively simple design with two hearts facing opposite directions, separated by a swoosh. I'm thinking of making another version of this one using more than just two colors. Any suggestions?
My second new design is this stylized Feather. It's simple and modern and oh so much fun, and I've already created a second version of this one (no photographs yet). I just love the look of it, don't you?
Do you have any special goals for this year? Resolutions? If you do, and you feel like sharing, and you're on Facebook, join the 2010 Beady Resolutions group! Lots of people have already joined and are sharing away. There are even some great discussions going on about organization and storage and several other topics.
And... if you're on Facebook, become a fan of my page: time2cre8
:-)
Don't you love getting packages? Even when it's something you've purchased online, it's fun to open the box and to get to hold your new goodies in your hand. Even if it's just a stack of books (I have LOTS of books!), it's nice to hold them in your hands and anticipate the joy of reading them later. (BTW, I thought of books because I just recently received a package of eight books by some of my favorite authors -- Stephen King, John Sandford, Karin Slaughter...)
Well, I'm practically stalking the mailman now that I know I'm going to be getting a couple of packages from some of my favorite bead artists. I entered Lisa Peters' Black Friday Blog giveaway, and I won $100 worth of her goodies!!! I don't know what they are, but I'm VERY familiar with Lisa's work and know I'm going to love everything. Since I don't know what's going to be in the package, I can't show you exactly what I won; but you can check out Lisa's Etsy shop to see some of her goodies. Be forewarned... Lisa has stalkers, and whenever she starts listing new things in her Etsy shop, they seem to disappear just about as quickly as they're added.
I'm also stalking the mailman in anticipation of receiving this INCREDIBLE set of polymer clay beads from Dee Wilder (aka Malodora). I also have a good-sized collection of Dee's creations, but that doesn't stop me from wanting more. I love everything about Dee's beads. They're varied in style and color, but there's always something unmistakeably Dee about them. The last batch I received were lathe-turned beads, and even my husband was amazed at the look of them - even more so when I told him they were turned on a lathe. When I saw these sitting in her Etsy shop, I knew they had to be mine.
One of my favorite things about these is their size. They're HUGE. In addition to these lavender and orange beauties (aren't those colors great together?!), Dee's been making and saving beads in my favorite color combination: black and white. Some Natasha beads and some more lathe-turned beads. I can hardly wait. (Where's that mailman?!!?)
I've been pondering whether to treat myself to some beads by another of my favorite artists on Etsy -- Kristie Roeder (aka ArtisanClay). I'm especially tempted now that she's selling $25 gift certificates for only $20!!! If you look back through some of my recent posts, you'll see that I had quite a lot of fun using Kristie's beads and cabs for several projects; but since I received my last batch, she's created even more goodies like this sagger fired square bead. Yep, I might just have to grab that one before it's gone. Kristie's also doing a giveaway on her blog, for one of her $25 gift certificates. I could spend that in a heartbeat.
Okay, enough drooling over all these beautiful beads... I have to get a couple of bracelets made for the giveaways I've done this week (one on this blog and one to my Facebook Fans). Speaking of which, are you a fan of my Facebook page? If you're not, I'd love to have you become a fan. I'm going to do more giveaways just for fans, so you could even win something.
Time to do some beadweaving now!
:-)
I have a pretty vivid imagination, but I have to admit to being surprised when so many of my Facebook friends commented on what they saw in the design of my newly listed beadwoven cuff - Fractured.
This design started out as a tree. Of course, I had to create the branches first; and then I planned to add some leaves to it. Once I had the branches done, though, I thought it looked pretty cool the way it was; and I decided to just stop there.
I wasn't even sure what colors I'd use for the initial version of this piece, but when I came across these gorgeous silver-lined bronze and silver-lined crystal beads and put them next to each other, the decision was made.
So what I saw in this design was...
- a tree
- a river
- lightning
- a fracture (hence the name of the piece I listed in my Etsy shop)
And what some of my friends saw was...
- giraffe skin
- snake skin
- blood vessels
Now I have all sorts of possible color choices! What do you see?
