Dragonfly Hour- My latest Collage Bead Work

Last week, after teaching a good friend to create a beaded collage cuff, I was inspired to try my hand at a Steam punk version of my own.  As readers of this blog you know that I favor Ocean color palettes and more recently I am working in many bright or Happy Colors. I love vintage bits and I have come to love matte finish Czech beads that have been made available lately.  The matte finish complements the metallic bits and the zipper that I have chosen for this piece.  I am continuing to push myself in new areas and I am very pleased with      the results of this little exercise!

I combined an old watch face and vintage shoe buttons with a heavy duty brass zipper and some tiny keys.  I love the little dragonfly stamping with the ornate detail in the wings!

Here is a peak at how the piece begins with the layout and stitching of the zipper and the first of many decisions necessary for the placement of the larger design elements.

The entire piece is stitched on Ultra Suede and then  mounted and stitched onto an aluminum cuff blank.  I like to use the aluminum blank because it is more mold-able to the wearers wrist and it is quite a bit lighter in weight than a brass blank.  It is also a good deal cheaper than the brass blank and since it is not seen , there is no reason to use a brass blank for this technique.

I used a very old cut metal button, I believe it is Victorian and two reproduction typewriter keys to spell BE. The repro keys are actually from the scrapbooking section of the crafts store. One never knows where one will find the perfect elements for a collage piece like this!!!

August in the Garden!

August is the time of year that the tomatoes really roll in and the flowers are at their finest, Annual varieties that is. Yes, my beloved daylilies have past but the zinnias and the phlox and the Cosmos and the Brown Eyed Susans add real zing to the garden. The roses are getting ready for a bumper fall bloom and the marigolds are looking brilliant!! The visitors are everywhere and many of them seem to be extra patient this year. I spent about 20 minutes outside the other morning trying to get my camera to cooperate with the movements of this enormous dragonfly. I spied him thru our front door sitting at the very tip of a spent Hosta Blossom stalk, his wings spread glistening in the morning sun. He was gloriously handsome!! I grabbed my camera and quietly let myself out the door. After about 5 minutes of frustration with my camera, the dragonfly took off and did several loop the loops in the air and settled back down on the exact spot where he had been.This happened several more times and I managed to take 20 or so pictures at different focus points!! It was truely miraculous! It was almost as if he had descided that I was not going to hurt him so he might as well hang around for a bit till he sensed that I didn't need him anymore. (He was enjoying his sunbathe!) If you click ont he picture you can see every detail of his beautiful wings!!!!!

Yesterday I picked this bouquet for the dinner table and ran back outside carrying three baby Praying Mantis that had come along for the ride!! As tiny as they were, they reared up on their back legs and seemed to hiss at me- too cute!!!

This is a brand new variety of Cosmos that I discovered this year! it is very frilly and almost looks like a dahlia. I think that I prefer the original simple Cosmos or the Seashell variety better than this one but it is fun to try out different varieties. The hummers and butterflies seem to like both equally!

As for the tomatoes, this is my first of three trips that I took to my 6 plants this morning!!!! I am eating pints of cherry tomatoes this year and loving every one of them!! I do so wish that my kids would get over their dislike of tomatoes!!!! The yellow toms are as sweet as candy- theya re the favorite of this years crop. As you can probably guess I have several batches of sauce ahead of me and I will probably give in the simply blanche, squeeze and freeze alot of them!!


This reminds me that I must make a date with DH to go see the Julia Child movie with Meryl Streep!! Has anyone seen it yet??? DO TELL!!!!