Lion Dancer Heads

Wonderful young troupe of Lion Dancers to celebrate China Camp Heritage Days.  Lovely to see the dancers in such an intimate and "natural" setting..added bonus to see them setting up...these beautiful heads coming very much alive when the dancers stepped inside. 

Leather Bracelet

Took me a awhile to figure this out because it was hard to find the rings.  I tried cutting pipe, but  even with pipe cutter,  line kept on slipping so my cut wasn't true. Finally, after weeks...found a somewhat unlikely source. Wrapped with wire on ends, to hold the braiding in place, covered wire with thin flat leather to keep smooth against wrist. Two loops for closure, with closed metal "hook" for ease.

For a friend...who drove about 388 miles to hang out on a Sunday with me. 

Spotted Maple Leaf

On an excursion by a local creek.

Plexi Luminousity

If I could work with glass as easily plexi, I would!  Need to work through the photo taking with the reflections.  The luminosity and color is a big heart for me.

Easy enough to drill, rods holding it together...tight fit, keeps it fairly firm.  Would need to put one more sheet behind with a foot if stability was goal...but, for now want it to fold away, which it does.

Lost and Found Things

Same corner...perhaps the keys owner was looking out for the doll's person...seems like a lot of jingle to go missing.  Walk in a neighborhood with unique gardens and well taken care of homes from 1920-40's.

Happy Walker -- Fabric

Started this to be an experiment in stitching and cutting away fabric, so that the stitches are what hold things together (kind of solvy, but with fabric pieces) but then went another direction. 

Pulled colors from the fabric leftovers, and then this is about how my mind went:

yellow= the sun...rays.

rose print (from a printing experiment)...rosy cheeks. 

rosy cheeks = person type thing

person like thing = eyes

eyes = make them more interesting than just a circle to give soul

thing is so off kilter the mouth can go way off the face.

leftover yellow, in shape of ray = nose

needs to calm down up there = green hair

needs to calm down and tie together = blue body

thing is happy = heart on body, but so kiltery, heart not "heart shaped"

arm = give form to body

I put slots on the back to hold legs...the trouble was that the legs I planned on using were plexi glass rods, and not strong enough to hold him without bending (at least at the length I wanted). The plexi legs are there, but not  sturdy enough to hold the whole thing up -- hanging from the top for now. I put slots in the back for wire to thread through on the head part to help keep it flat and "upright" -- that worked fine.  So, some pre-thinking worked, some didn't ....but armed with knowledge for the next time!   

Car Ornament....Snowy Egret

Have a Blast Birthday Card

Rocket blasting off....copper contrails beneath with galaxy sparkles surrounding.

A New Way to Create Embroidery Patterns

Some quail were making quite a racket outside a window downstairs, searching for seeds or something....took picture out the window right next to the screen (which looks kind of "invisible" most of the time, but not in this picture!). Voila...a way to stitch...a bit abstract in this version, but with a bit of experimentation, piece-o-cake.  I am not much for grids, but they do have their uses for space planning/relationships -- guess painters have used this concept plenty of times...but, showed me something  new, which is part of this whole thing!