treasures

My friend Mister Jalopy reached into his metaphorical shoebox of treasures and donated two special finds to my creative whims: a 1961 L.A. City brass dog license with the most fabulous patina and an especially nice vintage miniature diatonic Hohner harmonica with curlicue-embellished reed plates of brass over a wood comb, the ends still holding on to some of their original bright red paint. Look at that awesome weensy brass bail. 

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

Renegade Craft Fair

I'll be there next year! We're going Sunday.

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

doves resting on the waves

A late Victorian cut steel belt buckle is halved into yin and yang or paisley swirls and integrated into the steel and brushed-silver-plate chain of this necklace. A large antique sterling spring clip from a watch chain holds an antique steel key and a token made from an 1886 Seated Liberty dime, sporting the initials CM or MC.

Poem, by Frank O'Hara

The little roses, the black majestic sails
of their promise! or is it a dove paralyzing the air?
Where vessels fled across the water, there
a railroad was constructed by the few remaining birds
and it was called "Heliotrope, Aldebaran, Cous-cous."
For the time, for the afternoon of their accomplishment,
the roses rested--and that they were doves resting on the waves
became known to them, as the sail knows the air it fills.

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

dog blog - great Etsy pooches

"nothing is better than a dog" 

"copper dog"

"vintage rare steiff bulldog 1960s"

"googly eyed dog"

"old folk art figural dog"

"foo dog pair"

"dachshund (matchbox holder)"

website achieved

millenniumgeneralassembly.com is up and running!

You can buy my stuff on Etsy!

Step Right Up! Get Your Amazing Original Jokes Right Here!

This has nothing to do with jewelry. Or maybe it does but I just don't know how right now. I'm really sleepy. Right before I drifted off, this joke popped into my head. I don't know why. I haven't thought about Annette Funicello for years. Mickey Mouse I've thought of as recently as 2008, when I worked for Disney.

I shook Mike awake.

"Wake up! I have to tell you this joke so I don't forget it! It's really good!"

"Mummblemmmblemurrrrrr."

"Okay, get ready. It's really good..."

"mblemurr..."

"What did Mickey Mouse do when Annette Funicello died?"

"..."

"He shed a Mouseke-tear!"

(Well, it's better when told verbally, because then it works on two levels: Mouseke...teer...tear.)

You can purchase Annette Funicello items at Etsy, as well as my stuff.

Step right up! Get your one-of-a-kind Millennium General Assembly bits right here!

Hey, Toots!

"There are no original ideas, only original people." --Barbara Grizutti Harrison

I was inspired by a necklace I saw in an Etsy store. It incorporated a tiny metal toy airplane with the paint half worn off. I went, Want...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KariBeth

I marked it as one of my favorites in 2007. It's long gone, but since I started making necklaces, I've kept my eye out for a tiny metal airplane (red) with the paint half worn off.


I finally found one--a little Tootsietoy Spirit of Saint Louis model--and made this necklace. It's very similar to the one I favorited on Etsy three years ago.

Toots - necklace - antique vintage assemblage

Still, it's different enough to be mine...no? It has a tailwind of crystal and steel. 


Let's say it's an homage, which, really, it is.


And I could easily have come to the idea independently. I'm always looking for non-jewelry items to put in my work. Also, turnabout, there are pieces I see in other people's shops that incorporate the ideas and materials I've used or even intend to use, like the sword-belt chain I thought would be fantastic for a man's wallet/belt chain. I bought an old sword belt in an antique store in Texas; a couple of weeks later (before I had even made my piece), I saw that another Etsy seller had made a chain very much like the one I had in mind. Murr.


I mean, there are only so many ways to hang something around your neck...

http://www.oddee.com/item_97030.aspx

8/19/2010: I came across this great presentation about copyright and creativity.

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY