Tulip as Role Model by Connie Akers

I photographed this fiber art piece for my mom after she finished it the other day. It is called Tulip as Role Model and is inspired by a poem of the same title. I love the textures and all the details. My favorite parts of the roots and the three dimensional tulip.

My sweets

I tend to take a lot of pictures of my dogs, especially Lucy. Malta gets short changed only because she hates the camera and normally turns away from it. I was thrilled to capture this clear and perfect image of my 14 year old baby the other day!

Lucy on the other hand is a natural born model! I capture great shots of her all the time, which usually tend to just sit in iphoto taking up space on my computer. I thought I would share some with you. Her cute looks are a cover for what a little stinker she really is. A friend once called Malta the Patron Saint of All Dogs, that same friend is Lucy's arch nemesis. No matter, we love her!

Spring is sneaking up on us

Mom needed a head shot so we ventured outside this morning after the rain had cleared away and the sun was out.

The daffodils are starting to bloom, this one is my favorite. I don't know why I haven't ever planted them at my house.

The sky is bright and the temperature is perfect, one beautiful day after another. Yesterday I trimmed back roses and perennials here in my parent's gardens.

Mom just got these hot pink rain boots with polka dots. The yard was still wet and soggy so I broke them in for her.

I really want to get a pair for rainy art shows.

Profile in rain boots.

It is a beautiful day here in Argyle.

Progress

I'm making some progress on the Circles Blanket and am now up to eight squares. I just love this pattern! Each square is about 11" wide and I think I am going to do five rows of four squares. This is a belated Christmas present for my friend Sarah Schermerhorn. I hope she likes it as much as I do. I better hurry up and finish before next Christmas rolls around.

In the going through stuff process at my parents' house I found these crocheted baby blankets made by my Granny. There are four or five in this stack and those are just the ones we kept, she made a blanket for every baby she knew. Now you can see why I remind myself of Granny every time I crochet, especially when making a baby blanket!

My early enamel work

I made all of these enameled pieces in college. I really, really enjoyed enameling and am not sure why it has taken me almost eleven years to get back to it. Sorry these pictures aren't the greatest. I made a series of four of these enameled bead pendants. I kept this one, mom has one, and two other family friends have the others. I have old slides of the whole set somewhere. I should probably try to get new and better pictures of all of them. The set was in the Voertman's art show when I was in school, and they are one of my most accomplished things I made in college.

This is another favorite piece. The enameled part was made with the hydraulic press (another thing I am trying to get back to) and set in a bezel. I wore this for my Senior show and still often wear it for special occasions.

This little vessel is very special to me. It is not perfect, but pretty advanced for my skill set back then. The little handle on top is bolted together and the whole thing fits in the palm of my hand.
This big funky piece belongs to my mom. We had to learn how to make a spiculum, and that definitely wasn't my forte.
I'm not sure what type of work will come out of this foray into enameling, but I sure am excited to find out!

Green New Growth Pendant

This pendant was intended to be for Etsy Metal's monthly challenge topic "green and new growth". I missed the deadline, but was still eager to finish this one as it is a new design that I am excited about. The green part is obvious, and the new growth part would probably be about me trying something new. It is made with copper, silver, turquoise and chrysoprase. For some reason turquoise has been really hard for me to photograph lately, picking up lots of reflections. This is a really pretty piece of turquoise, mostly olive green with lots of veining and bits of turquoise color.

What I'm working on

This pendant was inspired by Etsy Metal's monthly theme "green and new growth". I didn't finish in time for the deadline, unfortunately. I will get it finished next weekend and take a proper picture. It will be a spinning necklace and there will be a small chrysoprase cabochon on top of the turquoise. I was originally going to make a polymer clay component to put around the turquoise, but decided I like it just the way it is. I didn't have enough silver to make it so I used all copper. I like a mix of silver and copper, so I sort of see this one as a sample piece, though I still think it will be really cool. I was thinking that a silver version with keum-boo on the flat part around the turquoise would be really nice. Though I have never done keum-boo and not sure if it would work with all the holes.

We had a lovely weekend and got to spend time with some great friends. We celebrated a birthday with a great friend who had a delicious birthday brunch (first time to eat bagels with lox, yum!) and it was awesome! We also got a chance to visit with friends who we rarely see, the Plavidals. We arrived right as Penny was pulling these beautiful blueberry breads out of the oven. Good timing, huh? Penny was generous enough to send some home with us, and it is delicious. The recipe is from Cooking Light, but I couldn't find it on their website, so I suspect it if from the newest issue. The icing is lemony-cream cheesy-yummyness. Thanks Penny!

I finished my cardigan!

And I love it! It was really hard to imagine how this was going to fit when I was working on it. Then all of the sudden last night it all came together. I love the fit, the drape, the yarn, everything! This is my first real piece of clothing to crochet and I am super happy with how it came out. I thought it would be a bit longer, not sure if my gauge was off, but I still think it is flattering. The yarn is an organic cotton, wool blend and is super soft, and I have a feeling it will only get softer with time. The pattern can be found here. I like how this cardigan is made, you crochet it flat in one piece and then seam the arms and sides together. I'm thinking that it could be made in any yarn and maybe even in other stitch patterns as long as you follow the dimensions. I will have to measure this one and put it to the test. For now though it is back to work on jewelry. I have an order of enameling supplies coming soon that I am really, really excited about. More on that soon....