Silver Clay Beaded Necklace

Today I completed this necklace, gave it to my mom and felt wonderful to see how delighted she was with it. I had formed the pendant earlier from silver art clay, embossed the design and had it fired. Then I added it to a necklace I had beaded in some of her favorite colors.

This is a new addiction of mine - silver clay, that is. I've taken a couple of classes and intend to take more. My friend Andrea is a gem for exposing me to this and other new crafts. She's a great influence and a wonderful artisan. I have several talented friends whose work I am hoping to show on my blog in the near future.

Right now I am working on a paper quilt square which I'll soon have ready to post!

Cat Tale #2

Our Kristy is a good little cat. She weighs around 8 lbs. and looks like a young cat, although she is actually nearly 14 years old. Part of her tail had to be amputated, due to an infection, when she was a 'teenager', so that only adds to her petite image! When our family moved from Long Island, NY to Massachusetts, she traveled like a good little sailor on the ferry to Connecticut. This fabric picture shows her looking suspiciously like she just pulled a flower from the vase. (It could happen!)
She is a real 'talker', and always greets me with a little chirp when I come into the room. She's our 3rd cat. We've had a Frisky, another gray tabby, a Whisky (Whiskers), a calico, and now Kristy. The fact that all the names sound similar has definitely been confusing!

Landscape with Handpainted Fabric

I finally finished this picture! I added stitching and a bit of shading with Prismacolor pencils, and also deepened the colors of the front piece of grass. I used some freeform machine embroidery and added a few beads. Also decided not to add trees - just go with the fluid flow of the different levels of ground. It was a fun exercise and I'm happy with the result.