encaustic

"manny"

encaustic on wood panel

12 x12

 

a special project for my friend Elizabeth

this is her "baby"



soutache statement necklace

"midnight leaves"

(statement necklace made with soutache cord, tilapia leather ,

vintage  cabochons, beads, pearls and rhinestone chain, all from john bead )

 

last summer my friend carmi gave me a preview copy of

 Fernando DaSilva's soutache book

asking me to create a few small samples

well little did she know that I would become addicted!!

a few months ago I was commissioned to create the a showcase piece for John Bead

using their  fabulous line of soutache cords

The necklace was displayed in their “New Innovations” booth at the

 Craft and Hobby show earlier this month

it was a pleasure to work with Fernando, 

at our first meeting I presented my ideas and

 with his guidance and materials selections i immediately got to work

  with his  full confidence in my artist abilities it was easy to get carried away

"the bigger the better"

I started out creating individual pieces, once I had about 20 components made

I started "collaging" them into groups

moving them around constantly until I found a combination I liked

every day I would work on a few pieces and whenever I walked by

my work table I would stop and rearrange

it took me a month to complete using over 50 yards of soutache cord!!

 

i am so grateful to John Bead for giving me this opportunity

( I would have never made anything this big)

thanks carmi for introducing me to Fernando and soutache!

 



back from the CHA show in Anaheim

 what a whirlwind!!

it was an amazing time at the craft and hobby show in California

 (more than 3,000 buyers and 400 exhibitors from 55 plus countries 

 for 5 days of education, networking and trade)

it was a mix of business, demoing soutache at the John Bead booth

and pleasure, taking classes and seminars plus meeting tons of people

 a visit from wendy russell and carmi cimicata

above my demo table and

below a sneak peek at some of the elements from

my showcase necklace

using dazzle-it soutache cord , metal complex fish leather

and a mix of new and vintage beads

all supplied by John Bead

i'm still trying to process it all

as soon as i can i will post more on the show and my necklace

this is the swag bag the delegates attending the CHA Canada Chapter meeting received

a special thank you to

CHA Canada Chapter Members Who Contributed

Amazenwords

BeadFX

Brother International Corporation (Canada)

Coats and Clark

Easy Peasy Patchs

H.A.Kidd

John Bead Corp

Eucalan

Northcott Fabrics

Westcott & C-Thru brands | Acme United Limited

Westminster Fabric

Designer Members:

Carmi Cimicata

Emma Ivemey

    Elizabeth Weait Glenday

extra thanks to Northcott for the fabric bag used to haul all the goodies home!

soutache tie, cuff and earings set

ive been busy getting ready for the CHA convention

one of my projects was this set of soutache

it started with the necklace, which turned into a tie

which lead to buying a men's white shirt

( perry ellis , on sale for $20)

which gave me the idea for the cuffs

( i substituted beads for the buttons)

  and the earing's just finished it off

although the earing's matched they seemed a bit formal for me

so I worked on a few alternatives (below)

i love resin

 my friend Carmi has launched her new resin blog

I love resin

Carmi is the queen of resin and her blog is filled tons of inspirations

 

 in November , carmi purchased one of paintings and

 asked if she could use the image for a special project

of course i said yes and couldn't wait to see what she was up to 

 

 

see all the details on her post here

and join her facebook page here

happy new year!

wishing you a happy new year

 and all the best for 2015!