The Longest Week

This week has just dragged by with DH going in the hospital on Tuesday for surgery and traveling back and forth to Seattle every day just got old. Well he is doing great, home now and snoring in his chair. I think it will take a couple of weeks for him to be back to his normal self but that's okay as long as he is home.

So obviously no jewelry making for me this week but I was productive while sitting in the waiting room at the hospital. I did take my sketch book and supplies and decided to do a few Zentangles. So, here are the tangles I've done this week with a look at a couple of sketches inspired from "Sketchbook Delight" an on-line course offered by Alisa Burke.

These first two tangles are based upon traditional Zentangles in that they are created in a drawn box with strings.

These next two tangles, I tried to fill more of the sketch book page.

These are two drawings additional drawings. The one filled in with colored pens is a pattern from our carpet and the other is watercolor where I tried a repeating pattern in the shape of a flower.

I have a long way to go with my sketching and drawing skills but the more I practice, the better I feel about what I have created.

Have a great weekend.

End of Season Show

This past weekend we did our final show for the season. It was the Opal, Gem and Mineral show held in Puyallup at the Fair Grounds. It is a pretty large show in comparison to other rock shows and usually you can find some good material. I started out making jewelry on Friday then on Saturday and Sunday moved to making gem trees with hubby.

Our find of the show was some Ethiopian Opal chips that a vendor sold to us cheap since it was too small for them to sell for jewelry making. It has lovely color and flash. We purchased 200 grams and it came in assorted colors so I sat one afternoon separating it into three color piles. My favorite is the yellow/amber color but I have more of the white/clear. It's all quite beautiful even in this small size and it will make a beautiful gem tree.

One of the other demonstrators at the show was Cheryl Matson a glass artist. She teaches at the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle. Along with admiring all her beautiful works of art I did happen to purchase some of her orphan beads to use in my designs. Here are some of her beautiful pieces from a glass garden to beads.

Don't you just love this necklace. Such beautiful colors and this is all glass. If you are interested in the Pratt School and what they might offer, here is the link. http://www.pratt.org/index.html

I would just love to take some of their classes but plan to do a lot of traveling the first part of the year. Maybe I'll look at something from them this Spring or Summer but in the meantime I enrolled in Sketchbook Delight an online class by Alisa Burke. I really need to learn to capture my ideas for designs whether it is for gem trees or jewelry down on paper so that I don't forget them later. Alisa offers several on-line classes and if you would like to check them out here is a link to more information. http://www.alisaburke.com/onlineworkshops.html So, in future posts, don't be surprised if I show you glimpses of my sketchbook and how it is progressing.

I've been trying out this new blogger template for the past week and am still undecided as to whether I like it or not. I miss having my banner and all the links and buttons on the sidebar but it is a cleaner look for those visiting and wanting to read posts. Any thoughts?