Meredith's Belt Buckle

Happy Birthday, M!
I made this after she did most of the designing. The pistol on the right spins!

PAINTBALL!

Our family is now officially addicted to Paintball! Robert's already looked on craigslist for paintball guns.

Steampunk Buckle

Here's my easy squeezy steampunk belt buckle. Hopefully a new workshop available near you! TBA

Tie Dye Cupcakes

My daughter and her friend bought neon food coloring and made what they dubbed tie dye cupcakes. They used matching colored bowls for the batter.

Camping on Masonboro

We had a lovely Saturday night camping on Masonboro Island recently. It was blustery on Saturday as we paddled over, but warm, and then cooler on Sunday. We were visited by a fox and saw signs of many others as well as deer tracks. Robert found the remains of turtle eggs where something had eaten them, such a shame. He said the State reported no successful hatchings of shorebirds such as terns or oyster catchers on Masonoboro. There are just too many foxes and too many huge blow out parties over there with the ensuing drunken behavior, littering, fouling of the water and dunes, dogs unleashed, etc. Many shorebirds don't make twig nest, they just hollow out the sand a bit. Too many people don't care. Those that do are trying to do something about it. There will be a public meeting to increase awareness of the MBI Reserve and to discuss management options for use and abuse, with public comment invited. It will be 10/6 at the UNCW Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin Moss Lane, Auditorium, 6pm

Dawn on Masonboro.

















Turtle egg shells



















Wind writing with sea grass.

















Ghost crab tracks.

Steam!

Here's my bracelet! I will be taking orders on this at vendor night at Art and Soul, Portland this coming weekend.

Steampunk

Well what goes around comes around again. Now that summer is on the way out, sorry but THANK GOD! And now that I am over my annual Tiki obsession, it's on to other distractions, but first a prologue:
Many years ago I made found object jewelry. My quirky brother saw what I was doing and at the time he worked on clocks and started bringing me clock parts. I was enthralled.
So a lot of my work in the 90's had clock gears in it. I still have hundreds and I have huge plastic buckets in the yard full of grandfather clock mechanisms all rusting in rainwater, waiting for the last decade to be taken apart and the parts salvaged. I grew out of using the gears and got tired of the "oh how cute, look Madge, earrings made out of watch parts.... my uncle, cousin, sister, friends makes those" comments I was getting at craft shows. First of all I seriously doubt their friend used actual solder and not hot glue, and secondly mine were not clusters of junk all glued to matboard. So it grew old. But all this time I couldn't bear to part with my gears. I've sold a few here and there, but they still sit in drawers, boxes in the attic etc.
I got some out the other day and made a fine bracelet! I am very pleased and intend to make more. So my 14 yr old daughter comes in and says,"Oh no...now you're into steampunk TOO?!" Steampunk??? "into"? I have been seeing steampunk stuff on etsy and thought it was cool but does that qualify as "into"?
Hm, let's see.... I started looking stuff up about Steampunk. And a young girl in my metals class came to my studio open house and said that I should look into the anime conventions that have steampunk stuff. So that was it... I guess what I do appeals to the steampunk crowds too.
Then I started thinking... maybe, just maybe, I've been into steampunk my whole life!
My first favorite, adored Barbie wasn't actually Barbie at all but was instead the Truly Scrumptious Doll by Mattel. She had the whole striped costume and a pink daisy chatty ring and five different sayings. My brother and I had the LP of the soundtrack and my mother sang Hushaby Mountain to us all to get us to sleep. The first video I asked for for Christmas when videos became available for purchase was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (I think I was in college.) It is extremely difficult for me to pass up a good "dress up in saloon garb and have your picture taken" salon without partaking. I have owned two pair of vintage safety goggles with the side covers for the last 6 years. One is for soldering and they're black, the other are silver with clear perforated sides with holes, very chic. My first job in life was as a costumed tour guide of a Victorian era plantation house. Let's see...hm Oh! I ADORE 20,000 Leagues... Love all that stuff, gadgets...the old show the Wild Wild West. I mean how cool was that!? So I guess I'd better head out and buy me a candy striped corset and bustle mini skirt and heeled boots! Ooooo! a little top hat. I used to actually wear a gold glittered one in high school.... hey, it was the Rocky Horror days and I was experimenting with my theatrical side....
So who couldn't love fantasy steam gadget airship wild west pirates? well only if they were on an tropical island! wink wink....

MAKER FAIRE

Looks like a blast!

Adorn Me!

Join me in Houston at Adorn Me next March!

WAWAs

Yep, its official I'm a WAWA.
This Friday is the September WAWA First Friday Studio Crawl
Studios will be open from 6-9 in the Winter Park region of Wrightsville Ave. Just look for the blue and white signs and/or balloons. For more information about the other WAWAs click here.