I’ve actually been working on this yoyo zipper clutch in bits and pieces, here and there, over the last several weeks. Most of the work went into piecing the yoyos, as you can probably see. The zipper pouch is complete, I just need to anchor the yoyos to the pouch itself.
When working on yoyo’s I love picking fabrics that have super tiny patterns, and I found this excellent retro reproduction fabric at a local quilt shop. I love that I was able to find a zipper in just the exact color I wanted, which replicated the color in the fabric. I wanted more of a pale orange, sherbet color, for the background, in the pouch itself, but I just can’t find a good selection and variety of solid fabrics locally. It’s either patterned or the 10 standard colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, gray and white) and that’s it. Forget about finding anything as fancy as chartreuse or teal, as if they were some extraordinary, hard to come by, colors. I could probably find the colors I want online, but when I buy, I usually only buy half a yard here and half a yard there. It’s not really worth it to buy online if I’ll have to pay for shipping, And there’s always the fear that the color on the screen is not the same color as what arrives in the mail.
I’m thrilled at the way this pouch looks and I’ve already cut out fabric and started working on my second pouch. I’ll post better pictures once it’s completely finished. With any luck, I’ll be posting some of these to my etsy store soon.
Immediately I was inspired and filled with energy to create. The original and unfinished box is pictured above. Actually it probably had been stained, but I painted it white, cut a piece of felt for the inside and created the collage/mixed media piece to go on the lid. I plan on giving it a glossy resin coat over the image when I have enough pieces to make mixing the resin worth it. I bought a bunch of these small boxes so you will probably be seeing more.
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Completely unrelated, check out this tutorial on Design Sponge for making a beautiful chandelier. I think I’ve admired similar ones in stores before, but now I think I must create one for myself.
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Have a good weekend!
In the wee hours of this morning, Rosa updated her twitter to invite others to create something every day for the month of August. In an email she reminded me of my challenge from last year where I also invited others to create something everyday. Last year during August I created a new piece of mixed media artwork on a 9×9″ piece of watercolor paper everyday (M-F) and had quite a bit of fun in the process. Talking to my best friend on the phone earlier today, she inquired if I was up to the task, and reminded me that I did some nice work last year. I decided, yes, I would try to create something each day in August (M-F). But, this year I think I will do a variety of things. I have a list going of all sorts of things I want to do.
Last month (July) I barely stepped foot into my studio. If you look above at the before you probably can sympathize as to why I couldn’t cross any of my things off my list last month. So, to start the month fresh, with a nice new work space, I’ve cleaned up my drawing table, so I could actually work at it, imagine that! Hopefully with the challenge and the more organized work space I can get the ball rolling again.
Once again, I encourage everyone else to try to create something new every day for the month and share it on your blogs/flickr/twitter/facebook/etc. It need not be a large daily commitment. I’m sure there will be some days in there when I make a pin-back button and call it a day. You might just jot down a quick sketch everyday, or perhaps you have a larger project going and you can share your progress daily. If you decide to participate, please comment and let me know and I’ll share your link.
Thanks for the challenge, Rosa! Here we go!
The Golden Circle is another piece inspired by my Circle Series. I worked it in reverse from what I usually do, moving from the outside in. All those tiny golden circles were hand painted in watercolors by yours truly and there are touches of gold shimmer here and there.
Change of topic, but more important, could I ask a huge favor of you? You might recall me mentioning my friend Nikki on here in the past. She has been struggling with cancer for over two years and because of recent events she is in desperate need of your prayers and/or any positive thoughts you can send her way. She is one of my nearest and dearest friends. Some wonderful things about Nikki:
She LOVES movies and would probably love to see every single movie ever made.
She loves photography and takes excellent pictures.
She was just married this summer to one of my other near and dear friends Tom.
She also is the kind of individual who always puts others before herself.
She will save any stray animal that comes her way.
And her birthday is one day before mine, but several years younger.
My sister in law is also organizing a novena to St. Peregrine, the patron St. of cancer patients. Starting on Wednesday she asks people to please say this prayer for 9 days in a row. I would be grateful if you could spread the word. You can read more about Nikki’s journey here on her Caring Bridge’s page.
Thank you!
