We're All Ears :: July Inspiration :: Visual Music :: My Take

I have been participating in many a fun challenge this summer. It's a great distraction from the Dossier process and gives me that mental health break that I need. 
This month, over at Earrings Everyday the July inspiration is visual music. 
See the original post here. What fun!

I was so inspired, and found the following video to be my springboard::

I started with some recycled copper that I counter enameled::

Then I moved onto making stencils from screen shots of the video::

I then laid on the enamels and torched them up!

Back in my clean space, I gussied them up with some marker strokes that were present in the visuals then gave them some super long hand-formed copper earwires to match the scheme::

In the end, I added some gold leaf and viola! My inspirations::

 But then, in true Darlene fashion,I removed the black lines and like them so much better!

Have a wonderful day all! xoxo

~chandelier

here

~acupuncture

i've been doing acupuncture to help with the headaches. what a wonderful way to spend about 30 minutes, relaxing with needles protruding from all over the place! i'm loving it. we have a community acupuncture program where everyone reclines together in the same room and the doc just goes around the circle pinning and tweaking and then letting you be. very soothing for sure. it is a sliding scale so very affordable at $15 a visit.

brilliant orange love

i'm feeling so much better with this treatment and lots of rest that i've taken on a huge project (on top of my masters-glad i have another week off). i'm redoing all the photos in one of my etsy shops. i found them to be too dark and varied. so i'm brightening up the place with new photos and some consistency. so, almost all of my listings are hidden until they rise to the surface and see the light.

vegas

have a great day all!

mish mosh

~love and faith sunday earrings

found here

school is officially out for the summer though i will be teaching summer school and so look forward to it! i get to meet and work with many of next year's students, so i'll get a sense of how they work and who they are before the beginning of the school year. for a teacher, that's the coolest eva! any who, i'll be working with the new firsts and seconds.
so field day was energetic and wet. the kids had so much fun! and then we waved them all good by. one student yelled from the bus, ~i hate all of you~. poor thing. so much hate. she had a rough year.
so i'm a bit lost this weekend without school work to do, so i started sorting through the Board Certification write ups. wow! i'm gonna be working long hours and enjoying every minutes of it. i'm such a geek when it comes to my profession as i have just as many aha! moments as my students and love, love, love it! the Boards are coined as the best professional development a teacher could ever get, and i'm up to my neck with enthusiasm for this PD.
well, got some time on my hands so i made some earrings and went to a party, went out to celebrate the ending of a fabulous year, heading out for a mountain bike ride and planning my babies 10th birthday tomorrow! water balloons are in the mix with a big fruit salad. his sister is making him a mine craft lemon blueberry cake. fun, fun all around this weekend. oh sure, i'll get in the house cleaning and laundry, but mostly fun! hope yours is as well. cheers!

all for sale at my etsy. xoxo

three day weekend~for the love of pete!

yup. got myself a three day weekend and endless possibilities. dreamt of so many over night. get together with girlfriends and cook a meal. walk to the pub and have a drink. do nothing! make jewelry...gosh. bet i could think of a million more things before lesson planning on monday. ;)
last night and this a.m. i decided on jewelry. three pieces done by 8:30. now photographed and ready for viewing. i'd put in a photo of my workspace (like pipnmolly suggested), but it's the back porch and it's so COLD that i haven't been working out there, just grabbing supplies and coming inside 'cept for the hammering. gotta do that on the porch.
the porch does have an enclosure, but at 1 degree, not very inviting. xoxo although this week, during the day, they say 50's. woah. way far cry from the 0's and teen's. cool! but hubs is mad 'cause he wants snow and i don't blame him. in the desert southwest, all the snow-pack we can get will help crops and animals (including the ~humans~) to survive. anyway.

i recently decided on a few career moves at school. career moves. lol. i'm going to mentor a few kiddos (along with providing the morning club, after school tutoring two days a week, art one day a week and board games on another) AND be the snowboard-sponsoring-teacher. so, for 5 friday's, i will strap a board to my feet after hiking up the bunny slope, and board down with a bunch of teenagers. i figure hey, the kids need comic relief and i can provide that! so, i be busy and it's all good fun.

i hope to see some sewing happening in monster art this coming week. the kids have been drawing, making patterns, picking out fabric and starting to pin and cut. i'll do a whole post on the steps when they are complete. these are plush monsters, so the kids are psyched to make their own monster pillows! most of the class of 17 are boys from grade 3-6. they are more excited than the girls! stereotypes be damned!

cheers y'all!

worm exoskeleton from the sea. sari silk and antique shell buttons. thanks kim xoxo

paper wrapped and sealed vintage belt buckle, sari silk, antique shell buttons, scorchedearthonetsy ceramic dove, sundries

smooshed bottles caps, reclaimed chain, rhinestones, clay roses. love.

weasel and fitz gallery~

all my tin earrings and a bunch of other goodies will be delivered to the only all recycled art gallery in New Mexico.

my friend crico runs weasel & fitz and he is an amazing soul. he has gifted me many cool antique porcelain doll arms that i just love. he is giving and generous. i gifted him back of course. sweet thing that he is.

it is such a fun and funky place and i have written about w&f before

i recently relieved them of all of my work so i could have stock for the recycled art show (as did many artists~yikes!)

so i'm off to fill it up again.

imma gonna show you some of the offerings at the gallery 'cause the creativity is so cool!

but first some words of wisdom from a new beer outta utah

and an old necklace of mine going up on etsy today. now for the feast...

Kenny Chavez

Mitch Berg

Kathleen O'Neil

Goldie Garcia

Crico

Lane Patterson

fun fun fun. can't wait to see crico!

~insomnia takes over with 4 inches, so far, of fresh snow~

silver has become unaffordable, so i started using more steel wire. love the look. having used bailing wire for years, i was delighted to find other steel wire in various diameters at the hardware store. yummy! handmade serpentine chain, door knocker, tumbled crystal, assorted vintage beads.

 linen shirt. vintage lace and sundries. a revival cuff.

 chain link bangle. shell buttons. love and adventure.

no particular style. creating with what is on hand as i know no other way. antique shell buttons are a fave as are the bike chain links. where would i be without discarded bike chain! while that is the most widely used material, you can see that i really do create with whatever i can find thus my body of work is varied.