The Golden Egg, vol. 17

Margotbianca is my golden egg this week, awarded for her elegant, vibrant, nature-inspired batik. She creates cloth napkins, towels, tablecloths, scarves, and market bags. For all you crafters with sewing machines, she also sells batik fabric by the yard! Her colors are daring and inviting, and the designs are refined and just plain lovely.

Posted new images of earrings, bracelets, and a ring that I've recently completed on my Flickr page!
Have a peek.

Many thanks to mysticwynd for including my ring in her fresh and fruity treasury!

The Golden Egg, vol. 16

This week's golden egg goes to Idletype, a wonderful photographer. He lives in New York, and thus, the city is a major inspiration for him. I find his work exceptional because it's very easy to sit comfortably on the inherent sophistication of black and white photography, and he instead works primarily in color. His vision of the city is vibrant and trembling with energy, never grey, never dull. He's still pretty new to Etsy, so stop on by his shop!

Thank you to Karuski for including my Uncaged Card in her luscious treasury! Do take a peek.

Tutorial: Monster Feet

This is a fun craft to do with an elementary age kid. The one thing only an adult can take care of is the final assemblage and cutting of the hole for the foot at the very end. I’ve shown a design done completely with paper, but you can feel free to embellish with markers or crayons as well. I highly recommend Crayola construction paper crayons- they are one of my favorite classroom art supplies. They don’t seem to be sold in conventional craft stores yet, but I found some here on Amazon. These come in the cutest colors that all look great together, and they stand out very brightly even on dark colored paper. Glitter crayons work pretty well, too. For ideas an inspiration, see Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

For one pair of these, you will need:

-4 paper grocery bags - Newspaper for stuffing

-Scissors -Pencil

-Glue- Elmer’s or school glue will do just fine -Construction paper

-Crayons or markers, if desired

1. Begin to stuff two of the bags with newspaper.

2. Fill to the top of the bag.

3. Make the toes of your monster feet. I used human toes, but you can do lizard or dinosaur toes, bird claws, webbed feet, wacky shoes, you name it. Remember that we need two matching sets of everything, so it helps to fold the paper in half, or do two sheets at once.

4. Glue the toes to the closed side of the other two bags- the bottom. If you get this backwards, it’s no biggie.

5. Now create the texture, or skin- straight hair, curly hair, reptile scales, feathers, or fish scales. Cut paper has so many possibilities! This step could easily be done with markers or crayons instead or in addition. I did the curly hair by making fringe, then curling it with my pencil.

6. Glue the texture to the bag. You may want to allow a little glue-drying time here. If your little one tends to go to town on the glue, you can tell them “Just a dot, not a lot;” my students love reporting this.

7. Here’s the grownup part- open the decorated bag, and slide the stuffed bag inside of it. This makes a closed form. Staple the back and sides together so it won’t fall out. Now, cut the hole for the foot to go in. It needs to poke through both bags. You may have to do a bit of controlled jabbing to get though both layers!

8. Once you do all this stuff to both feet you are done! They wear like giant slippers. Enjoy!

A hearty thank you to simplysuzula for including my Sky Window Necklace in her elegant treasury!

Yay! I scored a treasury of my own, representing some awesome artists in the Baltimore area:

Many thanks to Perihan who kindly featured me in her rosey treasury! Now if only the weather here reflected that springy point of view . . .

Yesterday we went fishing in the Neuse river with a light tackle charter captain. This is a red drum- too small to keep, but very pretty for a picture. They usually have two or three spots, but this one had seven. They really do make a percussive noise! It's a bit like the sound of a bullfrog.

The Golden Egg vol. 13,14,15

Here it is folks, the long awaited Triple-Decker, Super-Special, Easter/Vacation Slammin' Spectacular Golden Egg, coming right now to your very own monitor:

13. Annyandme- Creator and purveyor of fabulous fabric bags. This shop offers the best of all possible worlds- large capacity, light weight, convenient pockets, stylish structure and pleating, adjustable single strap, full lining, contrast piping, gusseted bottom (I hate bags that tip over when you put them down) and best of all, darling, daring fabrics that could only be chosen by the eyes of a real artist. You'll also find ultra-functional laptop sleeves, lunch bags, and wristlets. Bravo, Annyandme!



14. LemonGrove- An Etsy shop filled with intricate beadwoven jewelry that's at once modern, complex, and wearable. Craftshmanship is top-notch, even staggering when you contemplate the hours this artist must have spent creating a number of her pieces. So fresh and chic, even Stacey and Clinton would surely approve. I especially appreciate the delicate balance here between the organic and the geometric! You won't see jewelry like this anywhere else. Way cool!



15. Juliepersons- A textile artist specializing in felting. Her aesthetic is so welcoming and sweet, even child-like, yet appropriate for both young and old. She expertly blends brightly-colored roving wools together along with the occasional bead to make brooches, booby pins, vessels, pendants, sculptures, dolls, and tapestries. How could a person gaze upon one of her creations and not be moved to smile? Adorable!



And there you have it, friends. Bing, bang, boom!

MIA in NC