Fabulous Friday Finds for April 30

Wow. It's the end of April already. That sure went fast. One third of 2010 has passed!

I'm a little late in posting my Fabulous Friday Finds for this week, but it's still Friday, so here goes:

Fabulous Friday Find #1 is a website I can't read! Maria Wojtiuk has such a sense of humor that I don't need to read Polish to have a good time looking at all her creations.

Click here to visit her gallery. It's easy to navigate once you're there, and it's well worth your time to click on the images and view them larger so you can see more of the detail. And what detail! Just look at those faces in the picture to the left! Don't they just make you want to hop in your car and go on vacation with them? (Well, okay, maybe not - but they are fun!)

Maria also has an Etsy shop, where you can see some of her oil paintings and more of her ceramics.

I did notice one thing as I was looking at all her art... I think all of her cats are happy!

:-)










The second Fabulous Friday Find are the art dolls known as Mrs. T. Bagg, the creations of Rose Farnsworth Davis.

Rose creates these little dolls (well, parts of dolls, since they don't really have bodies) to fit into teacups. I don't think it matters that they don't have arms and legs to get around... their little faces are so adorable!

I swear I've seen little old ladies like this walking down the street, sitting in restaurants (sipping their tea, of course). The years of wisdom show up as lines in their little faces, and they all have the slightest hint of a smile.

The one pictured here is Lucile. In a red hat. I love that she's in a red hat. :-)

You can see more of Rose's Mrs. T. Bagg dolls in her Etsy shop and on her blog.

My husband will tell you that I'm notorious for "finding" things. Stones, sticks, bits of wood, oddly shaped and deformed pieces of metal... I have a whole collection of them, knowing that someday I'll do something with them. I don't know quite what. But something.

My third Fabulous Friday Find is an artist named Cathy Rose, an artist who has used a whole collection of "found" objects, combining them with porcelain, wood, and metal to create works of art that draw you in and make you feel what the subjects are feeling.

The picture here is a sculpture called Wind. Can't you just feel the wind blowing through your hair as you look at this? The horses' faces, even though they don't have much detail, are perfect in their own right.

You can see her other works on her website, Cathy Rose. I'd love to be able to see these in person. From every angle. Alas, I checked the show schedule, and there's nothing close to me. Maybe someday she'll visit North Carolina. :-)

I'm drawn to little teeny tiny things, and that's what made me immediately add this Little Blue Butterfly Cottage to my favorites on Etsy.

This little cottage, and all the other wonderful little miniature habitats, houses, and terrariums, was made by Jessica from little bits of moss, stones, twigs and tendrils, and a bit of polymer clay. And a LOT of whimsy.

Jessica's Etsy shop is called BettysFanstasy, named after her Grandmother, who is her inspiration for all things good.

Her profile says it all:
Betty's Fantasy is a place where fairies fly and innocence rules over all. A place where you can be yourself and embrace your imagination.

Another piece which immediately made it into my favorites list is the last Fabulous Friday Find for this last day in April.

It's the Mad Hatter.

Specifically, a wonderfully sculpted Mad Hatter ala Tim Burton / Johnny Depp. The outlandish outfit, the red hair, and of course, the HAT.

Of all the Alice characters, the Hatter is my favorite. I know he's crazy. Maybe that's why he appeals.

This doll, the creation of William Bezek, is amazing. You can see more of William's work in his Etsy shop, WormwoodHollow.

And even more on his blog. Where he appears to be freaked out by the blooming azaleas.

:-)

And now it's time for me to do a little beading. I have two bead crochet ropes to finish, a peyote cuff to finish, a new square stitch bracelet to photograph and list on Etsy, and beads to track down for a special order.

Hoe you enjoy my Fabulous Friday Finds. :-)

Fabulous Friday Finds for March 26

Welcome to this week's Fabulous Friday Finds post! I have a whole bunch of new goodies to share with you this week, so here goes:

Fabulous Friday Find #1 is kind of a continuation of last week's goodies. More dolls.

I've long been a fan of Miss Millificent's Mesdamoiselles, ever since I first saw them on the weblog of Athena Workman. I was even lucky enough to win a print of one of Athena's drawings on a blog giveaway. As soon as we build our house, it's going to have a special place so everyone who visits can enjoy it.

But today, I want to show you one of Athena's dolls. It was tough for me to pick a favorite to show here, but I finally settled on A Murder of Crows. Just look at the expression on that face!

If any of you are close to Nashville, Tennessee, you can visit some of her dolls in person. I just read in Athena's Etsy shop announcement that some of her dolls are leaving her shop for a month to go with her to her gallery show. I have a feeling some (or all!) of them may find new homes.

You can see more dolls, ornies, and artwork at MissMillificent.com.




My second Fabulous Friday Find is by an Etsy artist named Natalya Sots. Natalya has some of the most whimsical, fun, cute, and creative bits of pottery I've ever encountered. I love everything in her shop!!

My favorite things, though, are her Alice in Wonderland inspired pieces. I love love love this Mad Hatter cup!

Just look at all those swirls and spots and stripes and COLORS! You just couldn't be sad drinking a latte from that cup. (I know, I know -- it's supposed to be a tea cup, in honor of the Hatter, but I drink a lot of latte.)

This next Fabulous Friday Find takes me back to when I was making all kinds of tags. And even though I'm not making them any more, I'm still just flat out tempted to buy a big spool of this baker's string! I don't know why. I just like it.

I never actually tried to find it, but apparently there are lots of people who like it. It would look great for tying up packages or for making tags.

This ginormous spool of 9072 feet can be had for only $18 from Black Ink Boston and Cambridge.

There's some other stuff on that site, too.

You can have all the string.

I don't need it. Really. But only $18?!?! :-)

Next on the Fabulous Friday Finds list is a website suggested to me by a Facebook friend. I've been searching for containers to hold my massive collection of delica beads, and although I have a "system," it could use some improvement.

This site, called FDJ On Time, has everything imaginable in terms of storage containers, displays, and tools -- just about anything you could want if you're a jewelry maker.

I haven't finished browsing, but these Dot Box containers are what intrigue me. At 3.3" tall x 1.7" wide x 1.7" deep, they seem like a good size for bead storage. And 16 of them are only $3.99, which isn't bad either. They also offer volume discounts, so I could get 16 of these for as little as $2.89 if I bought a lot of them.

I just have to decide whether I want to invest in ~500 of them to store my delicas... decisions, decisions.


Okay, back to cool, artsy Fabulous Friday Finds. This next find is from one of my favorite Etsy shops, uniquebuttons.

You know I like playing around with cabs and beads made by artisans, and LeAnn's buttons look great! I have a couple of them (including that one you see to the left) in my favorites list, and I pretty regularly check out her shop for more goodies.

This face pendant is so cool, and it's on sale right now for only $3.50. Wow.

I think I might have to add it to my cart before someone else snags it. :-) She has more, though. Never fear.


Another one of my favorite shops for cabs, pendants, and beads is JoanMillerPorcelain. I get to see new things from Joan all the time as she posts them on Facebook, and this dragonfly lentil bead recently flew past me.

Just look at those big red eyes and the veining on his (her?) wings!

One of the things I like most is the variety of goodies in Joan's shop. Just looking at her banner makes me want to go exploring.












You know how sometimes you see something you like and you're not exactly sure why you like it? Yes, I know that sounds like a strange way to compliment someone's work, but that's how it is with the neckpieces I found in an Etsy shop called giia.

I could never carry this look off, but there's something about it that I just like.

Texture. Color. Boldness.

Couldn't you see one of these on a fashion runway?

The piece pictured here is called ARMIE. The first one of these I saw was done in shades of red, but I like this gray and black one.

Cool.




My last Fabulous Friday Find is offered up by one of my Full Time Etsy Crafters teammates, Ralph of UnkamenSupplies.

Ralph makes jumprings. Millions and millions of jumprings. In all kinds of colors. And even though I don't do chainmaille, I'm intrigued by all these little rings in all their bright colors. And he has sample packs of all different sizes, just tempting me to try them.

Wonder what I could do with these.

You think I could somehow work them into my beadweaving? Hmmmm.

If you want to see what can be done with these, check out Ralph's (and family's) other Etsy shop, UnkamenGifts.

Now if these jumprings were SQUARE, I know I could use them. :-)

Okay, that's enough for me for this week. I have a pretty endless list of favorites, so I hope you'll come back next week to see more of my Fabulous Friday Finds.

Hello, Alice!

Spend just a couple of minutes in my Etsy shop, and it'll quickly become obvious to you that I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. Actually, I just love the Sir John Tenniel illustrations; and I have a great time thinking of ways to use them for cards and tags. My favorite of all the characters is the Mad Hatter. How could you not love a character who runs around in checked pants, a bowtie, and a top hat???

With all the different cards and tags I've made featuring the Alice illustrations - in their original black and white, in the original colors, and then my altered versions which have red highlights and pink highlights - I can't believe it didn't occur to me earlier to do a version in sepia! As soon as that thought flitted through my head, I edited a bunch of my favorites of the images to make them sepia toned; and I just finished making them into greeting cards, printed on some beautiful offwhite parchment.

I guess I was thinking about the Alice illustrations more than usual because I was working on this HUGE pile of Alice cards and envelopes for a custom order. These are on their way to the customer - I hope she loves them! It took me awhile to cut, fold, and glue all those envelopes (250 of them). And since I just kept seeing Alice and the words from Jabberwocky (which is what I printed onto the envelope), it's only natural that I'd be thinking of other Alice things to make.


Lest you think I've ONLY been working on Alice things, that's not the case at all. I'm still playing with my beads pretty much every day. I do almost all of my beadweaving at night while I'm watching TV (have I ever mentioned that I can rarely do just one thing at a time???).

One of my newest creations is this Oglala bracelet, called Cherry Lime Fizz. Doesn't it look fizzy to you? When I bought the beads that run down the center I had no idea what color I'd use with them. I first picked up a tube of red beads, but then I saw the tube of lime green ones lying there; and it just seemed like they wanted to be used for this.


Now that I know that Barbara (the customer who requested the freeform bracelet and Oglala necklace I wrote about in earlier posts) has received her package, I can show off the little pendant I made as a gift for her.

Obviously, this was made to be the perfect complement to the freeform bracelet.

I don't think I've ever done a freeform pendant before, but it was just as much fun as the bracelets are to do! In fact, it might have been a little MORE fun because it took less time.

I may just have to do more of these...

in my spare time.
Ha.

I love Alice in Wonderland (especially the Mad Hatter)!

Sir John Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland illustrations are so insanely popular, and it's easy to see why. They have such great detail, and they bring the story to life. I was really excited recently when I tracked down some of the full color ones, and I could hardly wait to make something from them. After doing some cleanup to them (removing speckles, cleaning up the backgrounds a bit, etc.), I decided to make some vintage looking tags and some notecards from them. Aren't these beautiful?


There are lots of Alice lovers out there in Etsy land. One of them is my buddy Beth (aka bethtastic). She recently asked me about getting copies of the black and white Alice images I've used in my other tags, so we worked out a deal... I'd send her the images, and she'd make me a pendant with my favorite character - The Mad Hatter. Shortly after I sent her the images, I was looking at Pounce (one of the cool Etsy features) and saw one of her Alice pendants go by. It's no wonder it sold so quickly!!! Just look how great these are.

No beadweaving to show off today... I finished a couple of new pieces, but I didn't get a chance for photos yet.

I did have one adventure this morning. And I have to tell you. In a battle between a utility knife and a thumb, chances are very good that the utility knife is going to win. My husband always tells me to be careful, and I really do try. But it doesn't always work. So this morning, as I was slicing matboard into ACEO-sized blanks, my thumb slipped. Right into the path of the utility knife. Ouch. The bleeding stopped about 20 minutes after the cut. I actually debated whether to go get stitches in it, but I opted to tough it out with just a big bandage (you probably won't be surprised to learn that we have lots of those around - my favorite brand is the 3M Nexcare because it stays on forever, even when saturated with water, and it's made of a kind of foam material that lets me grip things).

And the next time I use the utility knife, I will be more careful. Wonder if I could work in chainmaille gloves?