modern bird feeder

this is a prototype for a super cool modern bird house by industrial design student andrew lowe.

he has designed lots of other amazing and useful things as well! via contemporist.

hoops!

i love all the free tools on the web!

modern circle pendant

from my studio into my etsy shop...modern circle pendant in sterling

chesapeake bay

took oto on a long walk to the beach at hughlett's point saturday

monday

monday's are usually my admin-day...

but i have a lot of stuff to make today,

so, suddenly it's a studio day!

monarch butterfly

one of my wonderful customers asked me to make a mini monarch in honor of her mom, who had recently passed on.

the mother had returned to the daughter in a dream as a lovely monarch butterfly.

i felt a lot of pressure to enamel a piece that truly represented this vision,

so i made six renditions! only one fit the bill and the other five are in my etsy shop!

renovate!

thinking my bathroom needs an update.

here is inspiration from apartment therapy, comtemporist and weburbanist.

shobha!

new friend...awesome work!

shobha ohal fabricates sterling silver into a ring and then sets a repro of one of her

fantastic photos in a lovely bezel.

camel-icious!

burr!

now that winter is over...enter the hotness!

this pendant can be a choker or a longer necklace...

whatever: it's cool!

available thru my herban elements etsy shop.

oto

all  i can say is : "so cool"!

oh, yeah: it's a rug!

migration

the annual bird migration is in full swing!

right this second there are several hundred grackles in my back yard!

you can have one too: look in  my 'high contrast' three-dimensional enamel shop on etsy!

range of emotion

you need one of jenae's purses!

the new spring line of one-of-a-kind hand painted designs is scrumptious.

i do not go through a range of emotion when i carry mine: i feel fine.

SpY

how ironic!

SpY is a spanish artist residing in madrid. 

i found this on the contemporist blog.

crape myrtle

i love crape myrtles!

i photograped this necklace for my herban elements etsy shop over the weekend.

road trip

another amazing weekend began like this!

as seen through my i-phone...while driving.

somersaults

results of labrador performing multiple somersaults on not-so-much-of-a-lawn.

lavender lime green grape

cricketapollo created this dreamy treasury just for etsy's front page!

she has an amazing blog entitled

"just three things": check out her cool picks, one from etsy, the other two from elsewhere.

twelve hours of light

hello vernal equinox! welcome spring!

belt buckles

i realized today i have collected some mighty cool belt buckles in the last year!

i am a house head (until i die!) so, for days when im feeling like a dj, i wear my

retro turn tables. its on the ones and twos from SparkleMe.

the black embedded nail buckle, the pink embedded scrap metal buckle and the ferns frozen in blue are all bykali. i love her ever evolving style(s)!

politics are always on the minds of those of us who live here in washington, dc!

i love barack obama so i rock him on a gorgeous buckle from lucybluestudio.

my friend jon wye carved the models for the wonderful waffle and the bad ass  blueberry pie buckles. i honor our quickly disappearing honey bee population with this buckle from alaskagadgetry. the red and black "powerlines" buckle from MaxineDear is made from an old 1950's book graphic. 

wow.

front page!

i was in a lovely lime-y treasury featured on etsy's front page this afternoon designed by palepink!

this fleur de lis pendant (custom colors) from my "high contrast" 3-d enamel line sold!

now THAT is super phat!

taxidermy

all week i have been working late and therefore sleeping late. this morning i was feeling uninspired. yes, just generally uninspired! so: into cyberspace for a visual pick-me-up, and lo-and-behold found it at one of my favorite blogs, "inspiration resource" (duh!). the story is about deyrolle, a taxidermy shop in france, which has an amazingly rich history of collecting rare and endangered (dead) animals. unfortunately, there was a horrible fire there in february, but the website with photos lives on! the butterfly specimens are so beautiful: i would love to have them for myself, but i think displaying dead things in one's home is probably bad feng shui.

seedlings!

i started seeds a few weeks ago: some have emerged...some havent.

today's near 70° temps helped these varieties show signs of life:

'moon & stars' watermelons, 'sweet delight' honeydew melon,

'hearts of gold' cantaloupes, 'early crookneck' squash, and 'jack be little' pumpkins. 'purple haze', 'yellowstone' and 'chantenay' carrots are looking good!

unfortunately, the 'sunburst' squash and the jalapenos have not appeared:(

blue bird mania!

everyone seems to be feeling the bluebirds right now! (see post below on loriola).

these adorable bluebird earrings from my high contrast line sold via

my etsy shop are very popular!

heroes...continued

from ramsgate, england comes this handcrafted wireworked chair.

fabricated by a father and son duo at RaymentWire,

this "hero" chair obviously gives you super powers! 

loriola

moms are superheroes and lori at loriola is wonder woman for sure!

she used to be my neighbor, but now resides with isabel and the mister down in raleigh.

lori makes pretty things, plays with children and keeps secrets.

apparently, she also teaches glass to perform magic!

loco about LoCo

modeled after candied apples, these glass bottles from LoCo glass are delicious!

objectified!

Objectified - A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit from Selectism on Vimeo.

how are things designed?

st. patrick's day

well, it is 2:35am and i just completed st. patrick's themed cufflinks and stud set for my brother-in law to wear to some a black tie event in downtown dc tonight. i sandwiched green recycled/upcycled anodized aluminum between layers of brushed sterling silver to form the traditional lucky clover. yes, the photo is horrible at this late hour without natural light, but in real life, they turned out pretty tight!

vegetable garden?

one of today's projects is starting seeds:

i am determined to have a viable vegetable garden in 2009!

peace now!

the peace symbol is 50 year's old!

wouldn't it be great if we could say that about peace?

oh well! wear this one anyway.

rainy day

it rained and rained and rained today...i spent a lot of time surfing and found these amazing architectural delights: enjoy!

barbara giles

barbara giles is one of my baltimore friends.

that means she's real cool.

i love her work.

good luck!

dont get pinched! wear something pretty on st. patrick's day!

modern leaf pendant

very cool...from herban elements

bears, oh my!

my google reader sends me the coolest content! this was from weburbanist posting on public art projects.

snowball in the gutter

after a false spring start, winter has returned. snow was forecast for today, but all i could find was this snowball in the gutter. sweet!

looking for rabbits

i was searching the internet for rabbit images to inspire some pieces i am working on for easter, when i stumbled upon these awsome glass and pewter shot glasses. cheers!

amazing abyssinian

i just got back from disturbia where i took oto to his vet for a recheck on his lungs. apparently, he aspirated something. he is fine now.

one of the resident cat's at negola's ark is an abyssinian named puma.

he is completely blind, gets along with everyone and has the run of the place.

poppies galore!

dawn is an amazing person and incredible jeweler!

her poppishop rings make everybody happy, just like her infectious laugh!

chinese lanterns!

i sold this custom piece twice in three days!

a day in the life...

so yesterday was such a stellar  day in dc, cherie and i decided to get out. it started with the premise of pancakes and martinis at open city in woodley park, followed by a metro ride to the portrait gallery and smithsonian museum of american art.

we HAD to cap that off with lavender margaritas at hotel monaco.

maybe the hirshorn next week?

kristin perkins

i can do a lot of things, but making beautiful stuff from glass is not one of them! i leave that to kristin perkins, an amazing artists and jeweler i met on etsy.

carry the word!

carrytheword rocks the treasury with a pure vision.

don't try this at home!

i just listed this pendant in my etsy shop. the flower shape is a re-occurring theme in my work: i use it as a pendant in this case. i wanted to experiment with some acid etching (see the engraved ditsy flower pattern?), but i didn't realize getting nitric acid would be so difficult. i called a few local suppliers, who asked me multiple questions about my intended use of the corrosive chemical. they seemed skeptical of my explanation, and insisted on passing on my vitals to the authorities. oh, 9/11: i almost forgot! eventually, a friend was able to obtain some from a local university professor. whew! anyway, the results are fantastic despite the fact that the stuff is super dangerous!

weburbanist car search

i've been thinking about getting a new car: something sporty! what do you think?

butterfly

everyone must be thinking of spring!

just sold this one-of -a kind butterfly brooch in my etsy shop!

loon-ey!

i loved her jewelry first, then i met stephney wallace at the downtown holiday market, and now i love her too! stephney lives in the artistic mecca known as baltimore, one of my favorite cities in the world and home to the maryland institute, college of art (one of my alma maters). i was watching loons fly and dive on the potomac river last week, so this pendant caught my eye this cool morning while dreaming of spring migration.

sweet jewel!

yuki found my turquoise bird on a wire earrings in my etsy shop and blogged about them