Happy Halloween 2010

BOO!

Have a safe and fabulous Halloween everyone!

I'm off for the weekend to visit the kiddies and pass out the candy.

I hope to report back that Maddie leaves her princess dress on for at least two minutes!

Happy sweet tooth.

Riki

My talented friends

I'm a lucky girl!

Every now and then, you just get lucky. I must have eaten my lucky charms, because I have so many talented friends in this blogging world. If I haven't mentioned lately how many talented ladies I've met through blogging land, shame on me.

So I would like to showcase a few right now.

Below are a darling pair of earrings made by the talented Maire Dodd. Not only are these beautiful, they are mine! I was lucky enough to win these in her on line contest at Love My Art Jewelry, where she is a contributing artist with some other talented ladies.

Maire describes these earrings as "journey earrings...the powerful symbol of the unending circle, combined with papers preserved in resin that encourage one to live...hand dyed fibers in beautiful blue/green...and iolite-a stone for spiritual seekers which helps to balance the yin/yang energies".

I love the beautiful insight, thoughtfulness and love that goes in to her work. I have worn these many times already, and they feel good. Not only beautiful, but knowing a dear friend made them.

Thank you MJ.

Another talented designer, and dear friend, is the lovely Diane Cook. I was lucky enough to meet Diane in the blogging world, take a three day workshop with her in LA, then got to teach with her in Houston at Adorn Me last March. I find Diane to be a very talented designer, a wonderful teacher, has a wonderful flare for composition, and one heck of a photographer. She is on fire these days, incredibly busy in the jewelry world and great at organizing challenges.

So....here's you chance to play! Diane has set up a challenge to use beautiful findings by her favorite finding supplier, Brass Bouquet. The button is on my sidebar, so just click it for the details. She's got a fun challenge she's organized.

Way to go Diane.

Thanks for getting to know my friends!

Hugs to all.

Princess Maddie

She's all set for Halloween! Our little girls is 5 months old this week! Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? I've never had a little girl doggie, so of course she is our little princess. Finally, I get to dress up a girl for Halloween! Chester got to be a devil every year, because the costume was so funny. But now....pink and princess!

I got her to hold still long enough for a shot by giving her a chewy bone! Lovely in the picture, but this is the only one that isn't blurry. You know what I mean! Forget the tiara!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment about my "bling" necklaces. The verdict is these should sell. I really appreciate each of you leaving me some feedback, because I really wanted to know what you think of this collection.

Here are a couple more I've finished. They are just so much fun to work on. I am feeling the pull back to do some etching and soldering, but for now, found objects, deeply hidden away, are getting new life.

The brass piece below is from France. Bought it at an antique show. Love it.

And the medal on this one is from a wonderful military shop in Victoria, Canada, that my friend Diana Frey recommended, and my friend Jill Rockwell took me to when I was visiting. Thanks girlfriends!

Thanks for looking guys. I'll post more as they get done!

Bling anyone?

Hugs,

Riki

rhinestone fun

Could use your HONEST opinion!

Remember all the fun bling I bought at the Alameda Antique show weeks ago? Tons of bling in the form of vintage earrings, buttons and necklaces. To say I got carried away is putting it mildly. But they are just sooooo beautiful, and I wanted to play with some new ideas. If you knew how many found objects I've been collecting over the years...well, suffice it to say that its tough moving them around all the time, with all the containers they are in.

So here's my thinking. Make some really feminine pieces, since a client has requested I make some more "girlie", and use up a ton of found objects, and the bling from the "collection" I now have.

So, what do you think of using these vintage rhinestone necklaces?

Will the ladies buy them?

Who do you think the target is, income wise, age wise?

Do you like these, and can I improve upon them? I'm not used to all the bling, but I've worn these out, and I have to say, are very fun!

Would love to hear from you. Thumbs up??

Hugs and love to all,

Riki

Upcoming February Workshop

Our next workshop...

Queen for a day

Diana Frey and I are now filling the next workshop, Queen for a day. We are so excited about this one. There will be two projects (more if we have time). I am going to show you how to etch my sweet little boxes, then adorn them. We are going to make a crown from scratch, how fun is that? Click the flyer about to read all the details. And Diana is going to show you how to make a darling box bezel, fill it, and make a beautiful pendant to hang.

These projects will surely produce royal bling!

Hope you can join us.

To reserve your spot email Diana at belladonna1351@charter.net

Please don't wait too long!

On the Cuff workshop

What did Maddie do this weekend?

She helped out all weekend! She was exhausted.

Diana Frey and I completed another workshop, and it was so much fun.

Here is the "Wonder Woman" shot, with all the ladies modeling their beautiful cuffs they completed. Everyone made one, or more, each day.

Diana and I were thrilled that everyone finished their projects both days.

Here are a few close ups of some of the completed hinged cuff bracelets.

Sorry ladies, I don't know whose these are, but they are awesome!

This is the handout we included at each of their stations, giving instructions to take home.

Don't you love that skeleton with the bling?

And here is the kit I teased you with earlier. Diana and I made these from scratch, it was a blast. They are heavy cotton, cut out with plastic on the inside. We stamped them, then sewed them. I used my new machine, the electric one I LOVE. Diana brought some beautiful fabrics, and satin ribbon, and we sewed vintage skeletons from the Alameda antique show, to the front. Too darn cute, huh?

And of course candy was inside as well, for that necessary midday break!

Here's Lady Di at work instructing on Saturday. Great smile Diana!

And here I am on Sunday, with a silly look on my face for some reason! Good to see they are taking notes! Way to go ladies, you did great. We are so proud of all of you.

Here is the lovely group shot. You can almost see Gwynnie and Marlene peeking out back there. Thanks again Susan, Brenda (from San Diego area), Gwynnie, Marlene, Sara, Jackie, Tricia, Jennifer (from Las Vegas area), Carrie, Mari, Pat, Christina and Julie!

Thank you to many returning for another workshop from the dynamic duo!

We truly appreciate it, and loved having every single one of you in class.

The next workshop was announced in the class, and many signed up.

I'll post about it tomorrow.

I will tease you with crowns, bling and fun! The dates are February 26-27.

Hope to see you next time!

On the cuff class this weekend

On the Cuff class

is this coming weekend!

And do we have some wonderful surprises in store!!!

This photo is just a teaser of what we made for the class. I can't tell you what it is yet, don't want to give anything away. What I can tell you, is that EVERY student gets one!

Pretty cool, huh?

And WH and I were busy at work today making some hand made bench pins for the student to use. I got the idea from Thomas Mann when I took his class in Houston at Adorn Me. He had hand built bench pins for each student, because we were going to do a lot of sawing with our jewelry saws. And boy were those handy. The challenge here is making sure they fit on those dang plastic eight foot tables. For those who teach, these are incredibly handy. Then use C-clamps or adjustable clamps to clamp them on the table for each student. You never know what tables you are going to be supplied to teach with at a convention! I learned that quickly.

Here's WH cutting the patterns out for the bench pins.

Here is an attractive picture of me sanding each one with the new belt sander. I use this for metal too, its fabulous, thank you Jill! And it is over 80 degrees out there today! Yikes. Ah well, just an excuse to go get a cold drink and watch a movie until it cools off!

And here's what they look like when done.

If you're coming to the class, feel free to dress up for Halloween! If you can't make it this time, hope to see you another time. We're working on the next class, so stay tuned!

Oh, and Happy Halloween all you little goblins!

Weekend treasures!

OH WHAT A WEEKEND!

We had a ball!! Diana Frey and I went to a darling antique show in a neighboring town, Nipomo, on Saturday, called Remnants from the Past. It is a darling show that happens twice a year. Ladies were in line at 7:30am, and the doors didn't open until 9am! I'd call that a success.

And guess who was there? Amy Hanna! That was fun. I hadn't seen her since we taught at Adorn Me in Houston last year. She is such a nice lady, and was gracious enough to pose for a photo with Freddy, a wonderful French man, who has a great store in SF and had a booth at the show. I tried using what little French I know, that took about two seconds! Good thing his English is so good. Not bad to look at, huh?

Here's some fun pics of some of the wonderful things I saw. I would have taken more, but I was having too much fun shopping with all the

eye candy!

The show had a ton of vendors, with beautiful things. Gwynnie was there from Gwynnie B designs, a great friend here in the Central Coast of CA. Check out her work, it's lovely. She specializes in pmc work.

Okay, now for pics of some of the haul I brought home. Three baby dolls came home with me. Aren't they adorable? The two heads I got at the Alameda Antique Fair in SF, and the little girl from the Remants of the Past show in Nipomo. That's ALL the dolls I'm buying! They can join my other little doll head in my workshop and keep me company.

And did I say BLING?! Here's a small sample of all the bling I picked up. It will be so much fun to play with these and add some fun found objects. I had the bling bug! Diana and I had too much fun, spent the entire day going to all the booths we could get to. So many beautiful things, but I bought from vendors I could afford. Some were out of site! You'd think they would drop their prices with the economy on its patoonie!

I didn't mention that Diana and I got to spend a lovely evening with Catherine Witherall!! We went to a fabulous restaurant and spent hours chatting away over yummy food. She is a doll, and lives in the SF area, so we got to hook up over dinner. Then she joined us the next day to shop a little, but we weren't the greatest company...we were HAULING! Great to see you Catherine! You can visit her blog at Happy Day Art. She makes beautiful pmc jewelry and always has amazing information to teach you about cool stuff!

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

And if you're looking for something new to learn, Diana and I still have some room in our upcoming "On the Cuff" class coming up Oct. 16-17.

I'm so excited!

I get to go antique shopping

all weekend!!

Tomorrow, my fabulous weekend journey begins with my dear friend, and partner in crime, Diana Frey. We are starting our journey early with a trip to a sweet little town called Nipomo. There is a darling antique show there on Saturday called Remants of the Past.

I try to pick up things for my jewelry, but you know how that goes. It never fails I fall in love with something that will look so darn cute in the workshop, I can't resist.

I'm really going to try to hold out for the next adventure, the Alameda Flea Market on Sunday in Oakland, CA. They have hundreds of vendors! It takes all day to wade through the booths, and I hardly ever finish. After we finish at the first little antique show, we're driving up the coast to SF and settling in the for night, after a fabulous dinner. Then is it early to rise at o' dawn hundred, and try to be at the GIANT flea market at 7am or so. Whew.

Then the four hour drive home, after we've "dropped"!

I hope to make some "wise" choices, and pick up some pretties that I can turn into some wearable art.

Wish me luck with that!