Off to NCY!

I am on VACATION for a week! I made it to New York last night and am already having a fabulous time! On Tuesday, I am heading to North Carolina to spend some time with my man's family.

I will be back next week hopefully with some great photos to share!

xoxo 

Daily drawing

Do you know your alphabet??? 

Project Tote Bag- Start to Finish

Raw Materials - fabric, leather, beads....
The finished "main attraction"...the part that took me the most time.
Detail of the finished tote bag...note the embroidery and vintage rhinestones 
This is the tote bag that I made for the Craft Swap Beta that my friend Van organized. Five talented ladies had one month to make a tote bag to swap. The girl who I was making the tote for has a similar color aesthetic as me. Her style is very Anthropologie-esque -which inspired me to use beautiful colors and fabrics, vintage accents and hand sewn elements for the bag.

I used a sturdy thick woven fabric with a nice sheen as a base in a light aqua and cream and lined it with a really cute dark green tiny polka dot fabric. For the detail work, I spent most of my time beading the center embellishment. I love to cover surfaces with seed beads- you end up with a really beautiful piece that has this amazing weight to it.  It is layered on a piece of dark green leather that matches the lining.  Other embellishments around the border include the "cretin" embroidery stitch on the top and bottom and a vintage rhinestone necklace that I stitched on for a little extra sparkle.    

Pottery Pictures!

Here is some of the finished glorious pottery from the class that I took over the summer. Mostly we threw on the wheel which is really great if you are in the zone and totally frustrating if you are not. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and the time that I spent in the studio.  I never really valued the time that I spent working in the studios in college...I guess because it was considered "homework". Now, after spending the majority of my time in a (artistically designed /mood board-esque and completely messy) cubicle, it seems so fantastic to spend some time in a studio. Especially when I am wearing jeans and a tee instead of "business casual" and heels.

Ahhhh...to know then what I know now. I think that I would have treasured my studio time all the more.

I did improve my pottery skills, although most of my pots collapsed if they got bigger than 6 inches tall. They are all considerably lighter in weight than my 20 lb bowls that I made in high school art class- a definite improvement! Please note the cute little birds hiding amongst the pots. I made about a zillion of them when I was not in the throwing mood. Is it weird that I got an urge to make a kindergarten "pinch pot" too?

Sorry about the lack of posts lately...I am entering the busy time at work again, which mean that my daily drawings suffer- Pictures of the tote bag that I made for the craft swap to come.

xoxo-