Diana Frey’s Queens Ransom Class

While out in California for Vacation (previous post begins the story) I was blessed to join some gal pals for Diana’s “Queen’s Ransom Class” which just knocked my socks off!

You're  looking at the class samples in these photos. 

Stunning aren’t they?

Diana ROCKS as a teacher & is an amazing friend.  I was so blessed to spend the class time learning & to have one on one “FRIEND" TIME”.  I was with her when she chose her new puppy Olive Rose & it was so much fun watching her excitement.  Almost like a a “New Mom” when she talks about her newborn baby… So sweet!

Here is the focal points of my finished piece.  I am so proud.   I LOVE how it turned out.  It did turn out like I had hoped.  Often in a class the piece talks to you or takes a different path (design/color/components) than you had originally thought.  But, this piece was JUST WHAT I WANTED!  I love that Diana taught us to make the cross.  We cut it out of metal & then embellished it.  I used a typewriter key with my initial for fun.  We used a torch to solder all those elements onto the necklace.  WHAT A GREAT CLASS!

I used some chain that sweet Cindy had & wanted to share but, while out in California, Vickie & I went to the Pasadena Bead Show & I bought some beautiful chain that I want to switch out for.   Cindy’s piece is stunning & I wish I had some photos but, we didn’t get that done while there.  She used PINK in hers & it is so pretty.

Here’s Sandy's.  It turned out so pretty!  She used a number of really pretty vintage elements in her design.

WOW! Vickie’s placemat was really orange with that flash… sorry but, this shows some of the detail.  And Sandy is an orange girl…. (see her headband in the previous post).

Now, if you can’t get away to take one of these amazing classes in Diana’s studio then you’re in luck because she just announced her first Online Class.  Click HERE to visit the link for more information.

Stunning Pieces will be taught!    Hurry over to see her & tell her Charlene sent you. 
Off to work with the contractors… After we returned home from our RELAXING   FUN  BEAUTIFUL   COOL Vacation… We jumped into a MAJOR Master Bathroom & Master Closet REDO!  It’s been a week of MESS & UPSET!  I’m tired of living with my entire closet strewn all over the guest room & living room sofa/love seat.  And the bottles of lotions, potions & other bathroom goodies strewn on the dinning room table… Oh how I wish I was back in California looking at this…..
 
Just me…………. California Dream’n on another HOT TEXAS DAY!
HUGS! Charlene

PMC Silver Clay Hydrangea Pendant

I wanted to share with you the PMC Silver Clay hydrangea pendant I made for my friend Susan. I made this when I went to visit my sweet friend Janise in Austin last fall. This piece is sooooooooooo hard to photograph because without a flash (the photo up above) the photo is yellow.

With a flash… there is a burn or bright spot on the piece. If any of you are experts in photographing jewelry please give me some tips. But, on with the story of the pendant.

The clay is a mixture of FINE particles of silver mixed with a binding compound & water. You manipulate the clay to create the piece which is a green ware, fragile, ugly piece placed into a kiln for firing. What comes out is 99% pure silver. I used a stamp (found at Michaels) to create the flower part. I pressed the stamp into the clay & then went outside on Janise’s patio to pick the 2 leaves off her bushes. She showed me how to create the leaves for this pendant. Don’t you love the veins & how they showed up so clearly? Next came the stone…which started out as a beautiful blueish/purple color… Janise made that incredible bezel for the stone & I LOVE the way that turned out. But, this is where it took another turn. In the firing of the piece the stone turned that amber/red color (yes, the stones are CZ’s that are supposed to be fire safe). Was this the piece I thought it would be? NO! I had this more in mind…

With Art/Jewelry sometimes the piece will have a mind of it’s own & you just have to GO WITH IT~

While at the Gem Show in downtown Ft Worth (a couple of weeks ago) Cindy & I looked for just the right beads to go with the new pendant. I am very pleased with the ones I found & then made the decision that for all the jewelry classes I have taken NO ONE has covered stringing beads or the design process of putting all the pieces together with strung beads. Once in the very beginning I had asked Diana Frey & she had shown me quickly how to finish the piece I was playing with but, since then I had strung beads & had “ISSUE’S” with the crimp bead/wire slacking up & creating an ugly space. I went into Ft Worth & visited the gals at The Artful Bead (where I buy a lot of supplies) & had a class on stringing. I was so happy to learn that my biggest problem was using the cheap “base metal” crimp beads from Michaels & that the sterling silver crimps really to mold to the wire & HOLD it much better. And ya gotta LOVE the sterling crimp covers for a much better finish on a piece. So, with it all complete I gave to to my friend Susan (a belated Christmas present) when she was up here for a visit from Houston. SHE LOVED IT! And I had so much fun making it for her. THANK YOU JANISE! YOU ROCK!

And IF you are interested in learning about PMC Silver Clay my amazing friends Diana Frey & Riki Shumacher are teaching the bracelet shown above. The class will be in Riki’s studio February 18 & 19 in San Luis Obispo, CA. Girls, I can’t tell you how amazing these two teachers are. And how can you resist that bracelet???? Come JOIN US! Click HERE or HERE to go to the link for signing up. YOU WON’T BE SORRY!!!! I can’t wait as my gal pals SANDY NAVARRO & JOY CAMPBELL will be joining me & we are going to have such a great time creating this Valentine Beauty. So, tell YOUR VALENTINE this is what you want & COME PLAY WITH US!

Hugs! Charlene

PINK & Twisted!

Back in March when I went out to California for the Moulin Rouge Art Event I needed a THANK YOU gift for my precious friend Cynthia. For as I told you in the post about The Mission Inn (Click HERE to see) Cynthia was a tour guide extraordinaire! So it needed to be special!

I bought her a deep pink purse covered in roses (which you can see as the back drop for these photos) & in the purse I put all sorts of goodies. Including this necklace I created for her. Cynthia is a girly girl & loves everything feminine. I started with sterling silver wire & did a very open version of the TWISTED SISTAH Necklace taught at Adorn Me (in March 2010) by my amazing friend & mentor Diana Frey.

I had been buying some luscious Czech Glass Buttons & thought she would really love the colors & sparkle that these little gems have. Some beautiful pink & lavender crystal beads along with some wonderful soft lustrous pearls went into the “Bead Soup”. And to add some texture… vintage pink seam binding. The cherry on top of the cake… the glistening faceted crystal prism at the very bottom. That little treasure had been in my stash for a very long time just waiting for the right occasion to shine!

I hope you enjoyed seeing one of the things that I have created. And Cynthia, I hope you LOVE wearing it as much as I loved creating it for you!

HUGS! Charlene

Pocket Pillow Swap

Just a tiny little taupe vintage suitcase pocket…

Filled with an old French letter…

My AMAZINGLY TALENTED (adopted) sister Sandy Navarro is hosting a Vintage Pocket Pillow Swap for the up coming Moulin Rouge Art Event. With the help of my friend Jan Arnmtrout I have completed my pillow & now have to design my presentation so I can ship this little treasure out to Sandy ahead of the event.

In case you haven’t see one of these in the Stampington Magazines or out in Blogland here is the theory… You take the pocket out of a vintage suitcase, attach it to an embellished pillow & fill the pocket with treasures. My first plan was to use tea dyed bridal fabric but, my swap partner Robin Sanchez loves burlap. And once I found that out… the bridal fabric wasn’t going to work. So… I went in search of a more rustic fabric. I settled on a much washed/distressed painters drop cloth (there is a HUGE difference in quality/texture of these so find one you like, mine turned out soft & the perfect color after much washing). Next, I did a transfer of part of my beautiful French Themed Blog Banner onto soft linen & applied it to the pillow. I did try the CitraSolv method of transfer that many of you are using (Robin used it on the pillow she made for me & you can go HERE to see that post) but, it did NOT work for me.

Next was the ruffles… This is where sweet Jan & 4 sewing machine needles later… we got the PERFECT RUFFLES! First layer of ruffle is the drop cloth fabric itself. Second step is BURLAP… hand ruffled. Then a double layer of vintage tea dyed wedding underskirt from my sweet buddy Cindy Craine of Lilly’s Lace. And last but, not least… the vintage crocheted edge off of a pillowcase purchased from Linda of Itsy Bits & Pieces Etsy Shop.

The next little piece of “goody” is two velvet petals off of an old hat. I took the hat apart. I kept all the little pieces & two of them seemed to work for the pocket corner. A BIG dark colored Mother of Pearl button is topped with a beautiful taupe colored carved MOP button for a beautiful finish to this. Also, peaking out of the pocket is a tiny vintage perfume bottle with a blue lid (Robin’s bedroom has just been redone in blue so I wanted just a touch… the blue bottle top & stamp on the envelope seemed just right). The bottle is filled with a mix of gold & silver German Glass Glitter. I am really loving the whole look.

This shows the back of the pillow with vintage images all printed on linen. The images are of the Moulin Rouge button from the event, a vintage image of Moulin Rouge/Windmill & two Can Can girls. Along the gathering line I ruffled a beautiful brown vintage seam binding LOVING the look it gives. Another cream colored velvet flower & a few vintage buttons & she’s done(well OK I do have to come up with presentation but… basically she’s done). Sorry the photos are a bit sepia toned but, they are taken in my guestroom on the duvet in there & the light is less than perfect. Flash seems to make the colors glare, someday I will take some photography classes & learn how to deal with this better. I didn’t want to wait for “just right conditions” outside. I WANTED TO SHARE! Hope you like my creation. And I hope Robin LOVES it. It’s girlie like me with a burlap twist like her. It’s so much fun to make new friends & learn to work outside of YOUR BOX.

HUGS! Charlene

Moulin Rouge Art Event Bijoux Box Swap

I don’t know if you have noticed this button on my sidebar. But, I have signed up to attend another Art Event hosted by the amazing Kim Caldwell. I went to my first “Kim Event” in July of 2010 & fell head over in heels for Manhattan Beach, CA & Kim’s MAGIC. The theme was Mermaids for the last event (Go HERE) to see more(there are actually like 4 different posts but, this will get you in the right time frame). Over The Top is the only words to describe these events for they will blow your socks off! This years event is Moulin Rouge! Although not one of my favorite movies… I LOVE Paris & MANY THINGS FRENCH!

In honor of this upcoming event I changed my blog design back to my much loved Paris Theme & Banner (created by the amazing Tiffany). Hope you are enjoying it as much as I do.

One of the things that often occurs for these events is SWAPS. I usually get excited & sign up for them. Then the next phase is the WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS? And then the buckle down & get’er done phase happens. This time I signed up for two swaps. I have completed the first of them with the HELP of my precious friend Cindy Craine of Lilly’s Lace! Last week I went to Cindy’s house & she had bags of lace, trim & other stuff out as she thought we were going to make Magnolia Pearl Bloomers. But, after looking at the fabric she had chosen we decided it was too stiff & we would work on my Bijoux Box Swap instead. THANK GOODNESS because it is less than a month & the clock is ticking! Here is the result…

Top... Beautiful cotton lace on a padded top. The Eiffel Tower image under a sparkling frame. Under that frame is tea stained bridal netting from under one of the MANY different bridal gowns that Cindy has tea stained (she has a great tutorial for that HERE). Also, in two corners are large pieces of tea stained bridal lace. And then I used vintage jewelry pieces. The bracelet, an earring, & a little stick pin.

For this swap you were supposed to find an old jewelry box & decorate it. Then fill it with whatever you wanted to. A little treasure box. I didn’t have one of these little jewelry boxes so the search started on EBay & Etsy… $15 (& with $12 shipping do the math…) later this one was mine & in pretty rough shape. COVER the whole BOX!

The side view… Pretty pearl colored paper with tiny polka dots & some wonderful vintage Paris/French images. Gel Matte Medium was my messy friend.

A back view.

My partner wanted neutral colors with a little bit of pink or aqua… ?????…. Neutral/Pink/Aqua OK! That didn’t quiet compute but, I aim to please… Soft pink lining in the box. And some Aqua beads, German Glass Glitter… A few pages out of a vintage French Book. French to English Flash Cards…(thank you Linda) Some pretty vintage crocheted lace(Linda’s Etsy Shop again), a brass filigree heart, a vintage earring, Pink wrapped dark chocolate raspberry filled Ghuradelli squares…

The words Moulin Rouge spelled out on a Scrabble Tray(found at Bloom & Bee Swanky an adorable shop in downtown Waco & the owner Amy is such a cutie) , a pearl bracelet from another Art Event I went to (I didn’t need this or amazingly I hadn’t taken it apart)

I bought this adorable little box from Leaping Frog Designs. She made a jewelry box that pulls out to reveal THREE domino’s that have been repurposed with wonderful French Images. Notice the aqua color? Was that a lucky find or what?

And above is a Gallette hand made by my friend Jan Armntrout. She is an excellent needlework artist & loves doing ribbon work & lace making. When I told her about this swap she was working on a class sample for another event & she said “Let me make a Gallette for your box”. What is a Gallette? A French ribbon work created by MANY folds. She did it in the most beautiful sheer cream colored ribbon. And backed it with a German Glass Glittered back. She also made a Cacard (kind of a ribbon rosette) for the back to be glued on to the glittered part. But, I couldn’t glue it on the back for it would be smashed in the box. And I’m not sure I can part with this treasure although… she promises to teach me or make me another for myself… Let’s take a closer look at this amazing work of art. Beautiful isn’t it?

The box isn’t full yet but, I’m working on it. When do you stop? How do you know that it’s done?

How can I thank my generous friends for sharing their time, talent, & supplies? What wonderful fun times we had sharing & laughing as we created these gifts to give to a total stranger. Jan & I played one day last week on my second swap (A Pocket Pillow) but, it is not finished which is an excuse for another play date this week! I can’t wait! And Cindy… we still need to make those bloomers. THANK YOU SWEET FRIENDS!

Hugs from a busy crafter! Moulin Rouge I’m workin my way to you as fast as I can!

Charlene

White Wednesday & Lisa’s September Class

I wanted to share my finished piece of Art from a class I took from my precious friend Lisa or Tarnished & Tattered back in September. This was my first venture out after hubby’s surgery/recovery & it was so great to be with my friends & to laugh, talk & create. So, I’m sharing (sorry it’s a bit late but, better late than never) this special day with you today at Kathleen’s WHITE WEDNESDAY Since Lisa gave us mostly wonderful whites & creams to work with it seemed perfect for this.

Lisa’s class sample above.

It all began with our class kit but, Lisa brought lots of extra goodies for us to dig in & use. She is such a generous talented sweet soul. You can see Lisa & Maureen (who owns Cottage Panache where the class was held) getting ready for us to start.

But, first let me introduce you to my precious friend Charlotte Perez. Charlotte & I were so surprised to see each other at this class because we usually see each other at Gilded Life Events. But, this one was held in Fort Worth instead of Dallas so it was a huge shock. So… we squealed in delight when we found out we got to spend the day together. Let me show you one of this Dynamo’s AMAZING creations that she was wearing that day.

She made this after she learned the technique in the first class at Gilded Life when we met back in February. GOSH that seems like forever but, it hasn’t been! Wow girl… how far we’ve come & what we’ve learned. Go HERE to see a post about that event & some of the other amazing things created there. But, I’m getting off course. Let’s get back to what she made at this class.

A tiny vintage shoe that she brought & added that amazing BLING to. The tiny little perfume bottle (thanks to Lisa) & a photo of Charlotte as a child.

AMAZING as always girlfriend!!!!! Now, let’s look at some of the others.

Sorry for the glare of the convex mirror. There is no way to take a photo without that.

I love this close up that shows the old letter from Lisa’s Grandfather to her Grandmother (printed onto linen) which starts out “Little Darling”. And you can see the letterhead of the Imperial Hotel in Atlanta Georgia in the background. And the beautiful lace is from a piece of a wedding gown that Charlotte shared with everyone in class.

A saying I stamped at the bottom of my piece says it all…

“What you do today is IMPORTANT because you are exchanging a day of your life for it”

Not the best photo of all us girls… but, we’re happy souls for we created a beautiful piece of art. THANK YOU LISA! And thank you Kathleen for hosting another White Wednesday. Be sure & go HERE to see others who participated today.

Hugs! Charlene