Asian art jewelry - Harn museum of art

Spring is in the air!  Part of what I've been working on for the past few weeks have been more than just scrabble tile jewelry.  I've been working on custom scrabble tile jewelry for the Harn Museum of Art's Asian art exhibit (with its own wing!) which will be opening this weekend.









These images were supplied to me by the curators at the Harn and I digitally enhanced them to reproduce onto scrabble tiles finished with a dome of resin.

The pendants will be available for purchase beginning this Friday (March 30, 2012), in the museum's gift store. 

See the buddha pendants in the bottom of the picture of left?  There was a neat little story about him and his recent 'medical procedures'. 

To learn more about the Harn Museum of Art and their new Asian Art Exhibit, become a fan of the Harn Museum on Facebook.

Visiting the Florida Aquarium

Warning! There are going to be LOTS of pictures in this post.

I took a day with my peeps last week to take them to the Florida Aquarium.  I had heard it was a super nice aquarium and the family was looking for a good day trip.  These are random pictures from the day.  (Disclaimer: I didn't take notes on what things were and I'm inept as a photographer.  Proceed with caution....)

A nice little 5 foot alligator.  (We're looking down on him.)

Blue crab.  He was up against the glass and was trying to get us with his pinchers.

A duck.  Not really sure what kind.  He wasn't the prettiest of the bunch, but was the only one that was cooperative in allowing me to take his picture.

One of the things I loved about the Florida Aquarium was the number of exhibits at "eye level".  My kids could get up next to glass and see the fish as you would expect to see them in nature.  (And no, these fish didn't have blazing yellow eyes, it's just how I had to capture the picture so the flash didn't reflect on the glass.)

I had super aquarium envy after seeing this salt water fish tank that was made to look like something that could easily go in your living room.  (except at my house -- we're out of room -- not kidding)

Big fish, natural habitat.  Hubby and I were tall enough to be able to look down over the top of the glass into the water.

I loved how the aquarium went to great lengths to create a natural setting inside a building in downtown Tampa.  There were lots of trees and natural light.

I love this goldfish.  He looks really smart with that orange brain thingy on his head.

Two lobsters.  Is it wrong to share that my first thought was, "Where's the butter?"

Barn owl.  I never got a good shot of him looking directly at us, but I wish I had.  He had that look on his face like he was trying to figure out which of kids to fly off with.

This little guy greeted us as soon as we got to the aquarium.

Pink bird.  (An ibis maybe??  I don't think it's a flamingo.)  Couldn't get her to look at the camera either.

Sea horse.  This one left my peeps a little disappointed.  I think they thought that sea horses were little ponies with scuba gear and lived in a pineapple under the sea.

SHARK!  (Upper left quadrant)  No visit to a body of water in Florida is ever complete without seeing a shark.

This starfish is actually prettier than the picture shows you.

This was the interactive area where you could actually touch a starfish or anenome.  (I don't think I spelled that correctly.)  This water was really cold.  Kids didn't keep their hands in there long.

This area was meant to look like a beach.  The keeper is feeding the sting rays and fish.

White bird.  An ibis I think.

One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to touch the stingrays.  I couldn't believe how social these girls were (I found out there were all girls in the tank.  Apparently they get along better than a group of guy stingrays.)  You could touch their wings, but couldn't feed them.  The peeps were a little skeptical, but I thought it was cool.  (Warning - you will smell like cheap cat food for a few hours after doing this activity.)

My little Chunky Monkey riding a fish.  (Not a real one silly.  Although he would have liked that too.)

All my peeps riding the surfboard on the playground.  (And just for the record, their father got them dressed that morning.)












So when I asked them what their favorite part of the day was, it would be this:

This was a play pirate ship that shot water out of the guns.  Too bad I didn't get a picture of them surprising their father and the subsequent midday wet jeans he had to contend with.



We've already made plans to go back sometime next summer.  Great way to spend the day with my family.

Find me in a puddle

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

Can't stand to write for long folks.  See, I'm a bit of a cheap-o.  I hate "making donations" to the utility company and don't turn on the air conditioning until I have to.  Which was yesterday.

Nothing.

I mean from the a/c unit.  No cool air, no fan, no nothing.  I am cranky and almost in a puddle. 

"I'm melting" (in my best Wicked Witch of the West voice)

An igloo sounds good right about now......

The "smell" in my house

I am not in any way a green thumb.  In fact, if there was a plants' rights group, I'm sure I would be on the most wanted list.  Perhaps this is why this jasmine vine and I get along so well.  I LOVE the smell of jasmine.  It's blooming now (at least in Florida) and is just heaven.  I decided a couple of years ago to get a plant and put it on the corner of my screened-in porch so that the scent would make its way through my house.  Thank goodness it can take care of itself.

There are hundreds of these little scented blooms all over the vine.  Open up the windows and the porch doors and I have instant scented candle without the fear of my kids starting a fire.  (Don't ask...)

My visit to McIntyre Stained Glass Studio and Art Gallery.

One of the art galleries that sells my jewelry locally is McIntyre Stained Glass Studio and Art Gallery.  I have known artists and owners Mike and Mary McIntyre for several years.  They are very talented in of themselves and are great to work with from an artist's standpoint.  I dropped off some new jewelry the other day and thought I would take a few pictures while I was there to share with blog readers.

Their space is divided into two areas.  The back half of the store is their studio space.  This is where they cut and assemble their stained glass pieces.

I am always impressed with how organized and clean their studio space is.  Their glass pieces are always organized and they have everything within easy reach.

I have never taken a stained glass making class, but can appreciate the work that goes into creating a piece.  This is one of their commissions in progress.

The front half of the store is the gallery space.  They pride themselves with only displaying and selling art from local artists.










My youngest son happened to be with me as I was making my jewelry delivery.  Much to my amazement, he was not interested at all in touching anything.  Phew!

While it's a small store space, everything is displayed very tastefully.  Shoppers should not have the feeling of being overwhelmed with all the art.

These are some of my new scrabble tile resin pendants in their display case. 

I try to have a varied jewelry assortment there so patrons looking for a unique jewelry gift can have a variety to pick from.











Of course they have their own finished stained glass pieces as well.  They also have an assortment of sizes and styles of stained glass available.











Their shop is open six days a week and other times by appointment.  They are also a regular participant of the Uptown Art Hop.

For anyone interested in stained glass making classes, they do teach from their studio.  I don't know the specifics, but Mike and Mary will be happy to help you get registered.

Jewelry making class pictures

Last night, I taught my forged metal bracelet class for the first time at Gifts of Avalon.  This was a brand new class, which is tough for me sometimes because I never know if people are going to want to come and learn a new technique or not.  (The woman at the far left in this picture, Claudia is actually responsible for pushing me to come up with new classes!  Her partner in crime, Judy, couldn't make last night's class).

This was a large class of seven students.  Sometimes they can get a little crazy for me as I try to make sure everyone is being tended to, but this class had some great chemistry and they were really focused!  I wish I could play a sound track for this class.  They all had to hammer bracelets and it sounded just like what I'm guessing it does in Santa's workshop during the month of December.  Lots of dinging and hammering!

I wanted to share the finished projects everyone got done.  Most of the class had no metalsmithing or jewelry making experience, but everyone had a new bracelet in under three hours (some even a little faster)!  This bracelet is made from sterling silver.  Chris, one of my class regulars, gave a shiny, mirror, polish.

These bracelets were done by Rebeccah (below) and Christine (right).  They made both of their bracelets from copper.  I showed them how to finish their bracelets by applying heat with a torch.  They got some beautiful pinks, blues, and touch of gold color on their bracelets.

Chuck was my only guy in the class.  He was kind enough to come and make his wife a bracelet.  (Is that dreamy or what??).  Chuck finished his bracelet with a matte finish using steel wool and liver of sulfur to highlight the details.

Remember Claudia from earlier in the post?  This is her bracelet.  She said was HOOKED on making these and wanted to make one for her daughter.  We also talked about what she wants to me to teach next.  *wink*

JoAnn also took the class but managed to sneak away before I could get her bracelet photographed.  (Probably was so good she didn't want to put me to shame.)

 The last two bracelets are from Trude  (copper one on the left) and Susan (sterling silver one on the right).  Both turned out great and Trude completely amazed me by putting her own flair to her bracelet.  (By the way, Trude is one of the shop owners and is always happy to help customers.)

Wow!  It was a great night!!  There were several people on the waiting list for this class, so I will be running it again in early July.  You can contact Gifts of Avalon now to get on the waiting list.

Azaleas in bloom

I love blooming azaleas. They're in full swing in my front yard right now and I wanted to share some pictures. I put fertilizer on them twice year and prune them back, but that's it. I have actually decided that I do less harm to plants in general if I just leave them alone.

Now if I could only capture this color pink in some resin!