Beer Bread - a recipe

I just feel so excited about this recipe. It is one of Jacquie's secret recipe that she was nice enough to share with me during my vacation at her place. It is so easy to make and so delicious it is insane.

Ingredients:

3 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 can of beer

• Stir ingredients till lightly mixed
• bake in muffin molds at 375º till almost golden
• melt 1/4 cup butter and pour equal amounts on top of each
• return to oven an extra 10 minutes till golden

Fused plastic Lariat - A new design

Part of my Fused Plastic Jewelry Collection. Made with fused plastic grocery bags and sterling silver.

I love lariats. They are such beautiful necklaces. I designed one a while back using my fused plastic flowers, but was not completely satisfied with the results because necklaces, and especially lariats need to have a certain weight to them in order to feel right. Since fused plastic is very light, I was not getting the results I was looking for. I finally decided to add a few quartz beads, and I am quite pleased with the results. They not only give a little extra weight to the lariat, but also add sparkle and interest to the gaps in between the fused plastic flowers, and since they are transparent, they don't take attention away from the piece itself, but enhance it instead. You can find this lariat along with many other of my handmade jewelry pieces available for purchasing here.

Foldformed Leaves

I am still pretty much playing around and experimenting on foldforming, and I am having a blast. I worked on quite a few leaves last night, and today I decided to make them into a lariat, and a pair of earrings. They are available at my shop as part of my Botanica handmade jewelry collection.

Foldformed Pin

Brand new, and just listed foldformed pin.

Available at my shop.

Vacation

I just got back from a wonderful vacation with my husband. This is what happens when you get married and have your children when you are very young. They are all grown up by now, and had other activities/plans to come along with us, so this was a little like a honeymoon, which was also nice.

We drove for 10 hours to a province in the middle of Argentina called Cordoba. There are small mountains and hills and rivers everywhere. The weather was wonderful even though it rained a few times. We stayed at a friend's country home (actually I had never met Jacquie before, but became friends quickly) www.lapuerta-casadecampo.blogspot.com

We gathered wild blackberries, rosas mosqueta (rosa rubiginosa, or rosehip), peaches, and all kinds of herbs. Jacquie makes the most delicious preserves from these and from her organic garden crops. We ate delicious food she cooked for us, swam in rivers, collected rocks, shared conversations, food, and mate with great company. We went for long rides on her horses and pleasant walks around the area.

We brought many preserves and a few pine trees and ferns back home. I also collected some wildflower seeds to try my luck at growing back here in the spring.

Nicotiana Earrings

Some more foldforming.

These are tiny flower earrings. They come with a miniature glass vase for you to display after you're done wearing them. They're too cute to store away inside a jewelry box. ;)

Available for purchase at my Etsy shop.

New Foldformed Jewelry Pieces

A few foldformed pieces I have been working these couple of days.

I have to say, I'm very, very happy with these. I love this technique.

I will be adding more pieces next few days. In the meantime you can find these little sculptures for the ears here.

Foldforming

I ordered this book "Foldforming" by Charles Lewton-Brain through Amazon.com. It arrived pretty quickly, considering the distance. And just as quickly, I read it halfway, and immediately tried my hand at it.

I didn't have a suitable hammer in my jewelry toolbox, so I had to search my husband's shop. I found a hammer which was too big for this technique and tiny pieces I was experimenting, but since it was the only one I had at hand I went ahead and tried it. After I folded and hammered with much difficulty, I annealed and stared at the pieces of copper with a little disappointment at my lack of visible results. After the pieces were cool enough to handle, I started opening them, and to my amazement, revealed very unpredictable and beautiful shapes.

Here are my first attempts at foldforming. I think I am in love...



I didn't know this, but foldforming is a revolutionary and groundbreaking technique just recently "invented" by the author of this book. It is a "conceptual, physical, and intuitive approach to metalsmithing that is informed by the natural characteristics of metals." He acknowledges many people for its development, including his German teacher: Klaus Ullrich. I like how he describes this teacher taught him that "the marks of process are compositional design choices. Every Hammer or file mark is a design decision as well as part of a process." "In the case of fusing, for instance, this turns the mistake, "I melted it" into the discovery, "What a lovely surface.""

This approach to working with metals, or any medium for that matter, is what attracts me to this technique. I value unpredictability (I like surprises), and am not a perfectionist (far from it). This means I like to play with chance. I also value marks of time, wear, patinas of time, etc.

I've already incorporated these pieces into wearable jewelry. I'll post some photos this week.

I'm "IT"!

I've been tagged by Danielle Embry, who is a fellow Artist, metalsmith, jewelry designer and educator residing in Tucson, Arizona.

This game consists on each person tagged writing seven random facts about themselves.

Here I go:

1. The only thing I press/iron are plastic bags.

2. I have been with the same boy/man since the age of 13 (he was 14).

3. As a child I wanted to be a horse.

4. I used to believe I could fly if I tried hard enough.

5. I love collections, but find it hard to collect myself because I'm not a very consistent person. I do have a lot of stuff I attempted to collect at some point. I guess 5 keys does not count as a collection?

6. I tend to loose stuff and then find it in the most unusual places. for example: my coffee mug (not quite finished drinking) inside a closet, a cell phone inside the clothes dryer (after going through the wash cycle), a ring inside a pot of soup, and a shoe inside the sleeve of a sweater.

7. I believe there are 1 footed aliens out there who steal 1 sock out of each pair of socks. Otherwise I can't explain where those socks are going. I think this is a sign I should start an unmatched sock collection.

And these are my "Tagees"

Coleen Baran
Catherine Chandler
Alisa Miller
Amy Tavern
Jimena Rios
Danielle Miller
Lunaticart



THE RULES AND REGS:
*Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog.
* Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Verdigris Patinas

I am attracted to all kinds of patinas and old, worn and torn objects in general. I love the effects time and erosion have on things: textures and crusty surfaces. Lately I've been experimenting with verdigris patinas. This turquoise patina has a color that I especially like. The issue about patinas is that they are unpredictable (which I believe is part of the charm). I guess weather, temperature, and humidity play a part on the end result, which may vary, but is always beautiful.

More Fused Plastic

I found this really cool place in Buenos Aires that sold vintage and antique ribbons and buttons and bought some velvet ribbon. I love the color and texture. I think it is made out of rayon and not polyester as it is nowadays. I was stuck for some time on the kind of closure I should make for it. I wanted something adjustable and easy to put on and take off. I finally designed a simple closure that works really well and does not have the two ends hanging to the side as you can see on the first photo. I've just uploaded it to my Etsy shop.



I sold these earrings almost immediately. I will be making more soon.

Long organic necklace

I made this sterling silver necklace after a customer saw a similar copper necklace. I made this one a little longer and lighter. I really like how it turned out because you can wrap it in different styles depending what your mood is and what you're wearing. I will be definitely be making more of these.

Armadillo

There are many things that inspire me, but mostly my environment. I live in the country in the Argentine Pampas, which is flat grasslands, with wildlife and non wildlife animals. I came across this armadillo near an abandoned farmhouse. It turned out to be a pretty friendly creature. It let me get close enough to photograph, and even came close to smell my boots at one point. The next time I saw it I got a chance to touch it too. I love the little nose, hairs, and texture of this little creature.

Eco Necklace

More fused plastic! I really like how this necklace turned out. It is the same fused plastic method I was experimenting before, but with a different design idea. This one is now available for sale at my Etsy shop. I will soon be making matching earrings.

Fused plastic, vintage velvet, cultured pearl and sterling silver.