Another place to see Dale Wayne...
I'm tickled to have a selection of my jewelry available at Etoile Boutique in Orlando's Milk District. I spent a fun afternoon helping Falon, (whose vintage specs I'm obsessed with beyond covetting), rearrange the front cabinet where we draped necklaces on big white H-o-l-ly-w-o-o-d style letters that spell 'Etoile.' You can see the Heirloom Rose and Flaming Red necklace, and the Natural History Museum earrings there, as well as some beautiful pieces that aren't on my website. Falon says she fills the place with items she is passionate about and I am honored my work is among them.
Etoile feels like stepping into my Natural History Museum necklace. I lost all sense of time being immersed in vintage groovy dresses, scented handmade soy candles, beautiful terrarium jars, and a Lassie lunchbox. So stop by, step back in time, and tell them I sent you!
Like Etoile on Facebook!
Etoile's 2 goals: 1 is to promote local, handmade and under-the radar designers and artists and 2 is to encourage the recycled, re-purposed and vintage goods over mainstream mass production.
Men in ships...
There is a wonderful passage from the Psalms that is inscribed on the Fisherman's Memorial Statue in Gloucester Massachusetts. Susan Meyer did this gorgeous hand-painted version on her penworked porcelain.
"They that go down to the sea in ships,
That do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
And his wonders in the deep."
Party at Dale's all day Thursday, May 9th 10am-9pm
My friend artist Susan Meyer is bringing her whimsical wares to show at my Mother's Day jewelry party. Trinket dishes, bowls, platters, trays and cakes stands will be available for purchase or to special order. She personalizes!
As for me, oooo-la-la! Lots of new summery designs! Watery crystal clear colors combined with my oh-so-fun seahorse pendants. (Too-many-hyphens.)
Hope-you-can-come!
Here is a link to the invite.
(Lavender martinis happy hour)
Free derby day gift with purchase and 15 % off site-wide!
Get my 'run for the roses' pink coin pearl earrings free and 15% off of your order by entering the code word DERBY at checkout. Shipping is always free.
I'm betting on this horse!
$57 Add to Basket
Pour me a mint julep, it's Kentucky derby time!
I'm loving fascinators as a medium for expression! Hat making party the horizon...
Jingle jangle morning down by the sea...
I was humming Down by the Boardwalk and Mr. Bojangles while I put together these samples for a seaside gift shop. I hope the jewelry carries a happy tune all the way to its eventual wearer. Maybe it will inspire an unexpected spring in her step. If you are on the boardwalk and notice someone dancing for no apparent reason, check out her jewelry! 
Someday my prince will come...
A rainy night on my front porch. I am sure there are a dozen good tag lines for this picture I snapped of a tree frog who happened into a little mirrored metal cabinet. He was undaunted by the flash.
Approaching facinating...
Playing around with my new hat book. Made these ribbons and 'feathers' out of 2 liter bottles.
Tuning into channel Van gogh running for the roses...
All of this plastic work motivated me to finally finish what began looking like a Lorax. The more I worked on it, the more it began to look like a landscape on its side. Above is an image of a Van gogh study I did years ago. It was in the next room and helped me finish my panel which tucks tidily into a niche on our back porch. I imagining my friend Vincent working in recycled plastic and finished up the piece, which is about 10 feet long, singing Starry Starry Night and then the subsequent Killing Me Softly, the song about Vincent hearing Don McLean sing his Starry Starry Night.
I could hardly wait to cut up some bottles I sprayed lightly with the new striped method. The blooms are blowing me away! I'll be greeting the postman (we have a man) every day until my haberdashery supplies arrive. What a great word, haberdasher.
Getting ready for the run for the roses...
Earth Day, Arbor Day, Peace Trees, Happy Trees...
I love the yellow tababuia behind our tree. It was in it's prime on Earth Day/ Arbor Day. For those of you who aren't familiar with the tababuia, the yellow blossoms don't last long and when they fall, they rain down, making bright yellow petal puddles on the ground beneath. Our realtor's daughter named them 'happy trees' so that's what we call them too.
We had quite a show of helping hands from the Multi-faith Education Project and ArtReach Orlando. The bottom tree blessed Winter Park City Hall with it's presence until it joined the other three trees at the Winter Park Chamber of 
Commerce. Go visit them there!
The trees will bring some festive color to Winter Park's Kentucky Derby event next weekend. I've been commissioned to make another fascinator for one of the hosts. Now I have the fascinator bug and ordered a book, fabrics, and lots of feathers.
I have been making plastic bottle forms since 2004 and I thought I had seen every idea. I should have known better since every group I work with brings new ideas. On Earth Day, a volunteer brought Sharpies so that participants could write messages of peace on the blossoms and I love the Chinese dragon that one gentleman created, more interested in the engineering than the final product. It is pictured next to a blossom a woman made that I think looks just like a bleeding heart bloom. My former student, Hugh, discovered a striped painting technique I am using for the derby project.
I am so grateful to The City of Winter Park, ArtReach Orlando, and the Muti-faith Education Project for doing so much prep work and making this installation such a success.
a touch of panache...
I found another model that works for free. She's green because she doesn't get to keep the fascinator. Found some plumes and veil netting to add panache!
Birthday Caking and my Fascinating fascinator!
My friend Harriet Lake asked me to make a fascinator for her Harriet's Favorite Things event on Thursday. Here's what I have so far... thinking of adding some netting.
When Danielle turned 8 or 9 we had a big garden birthday party. I made a crazy 3 tiered cake and kept adding decorations to it. Danielle pronounced it finished but I couldn't resist adding some candied violas I had made and I overworked it. So Danielle recently coined the expression: "Don't birthday cake it..."
Thankfully Harriet loves my crazy over the top birthday caking!
Earth Day this Saturday in Winter Park...10am-2pm
When did this five-year-old art student turn into a young man? I am working with ArtReach Orlando, the city of Winter Park, and the Multifaith Education Project to create an Earth Day installation on Park Avenue in Winter Park on Saturday, April 20th from 10-2.
On Tuesday and again today I joined Jewish, Christian, and Moslem students and their families to do some prep work for the big event and ran into former students who had miraculously grown-up. Before I even arrived they had collected and prepared 1400 bottles! We painted them in advance for Saturday's celebration and students learned the process so they can help teach the public how to cut and glitter the blossoms.
In my tradition, the Tree of Life has leaves for the healing of the nations. I am so honored to get to take part in this interfaith collaborative project which adds a layer of meaning to my tree project. There will be four trees, one for each school that participated and one from ArtReach Orlando, that will bloom on Saturday and then be on display in various places in the city. Stop by and see me and make a blossom!
Thank you Sargent Art and M Jacobs and Sons for again donating supplies. (Please 'like' them on facebook to thank them for me!)
Ready, set, go...
I'm working on some fun sets for Mother's Day, or any day for that matter. This one features two of spring's hottest colors: coral and mint. The liquid look of the little quartz spheres and the palladium foil embellishment mixes well with the fun mix of chain finishes.
The earrings feature a wrap of clear with a copper sparkle core and are topped with vintage brass caps. The clear quartz centers give them a floral flare. Special price for set $48.
Bigger shoulders...
Yesterday, I paused with a twinge of guilt as I scribbled down prayers on my yellow legal pad. I faltered, worrying that I should pepper my letter to God with enough praises to offset my requests. Whenever the word 'should' hangs over me like a cloud, I know I need to stop and consider. So I asked myself, 'What does God say about your needs?' and recalled the verse 'cast your cares upon him for he cares for you.'
There are points in life when burdens are so heavy and so many, it seems like too much effort to take a breath, let alone carry something. In the past I have pictured myself being held by Jesus, arms about his neck only because of the strength he gives me to hold them there. Yesterday, while contemplating laying my burdens down, I imagined being lifted up like a little child, my entire weight supported by bigger shoulders. From great height I looked out at the view and had a perspective I had never seen, a distant horizon I didn't know existed.
Today we grieve the loss of John's coworker and her 9-year-old son, both killed in a car accident, leaving behind her thirteen-year-old daughter. I am looking hard at a distant blurry skyline where the earth and the clouds meet in a confusion my eyes cannot differentiate, but I am on shoulders.
trompe l'oeil...
I awakened in the middle of the night thinking about pebble candy and why we love things that look like other things. Years ago, I watched a cake competition on TV in which a contestant made a Japanese doll out of spun sugar. I was delighted and so was the studio audience and I began to wonder why. What is it about sugar that looks like porcelain, marzipan that looks like fruit, and mushrooms made of meringue that captures our imagination? I love making glass that looks like rocks. If I knew how, I'm sure I would enjoy making rocks look like glass.
My mother used to tease the grandchildren by putting peas and carrot candies on their dinner plates and insisting they eat their vegetables. We love for our 'l'oeil' to be tromped and human hearts skip a beat when something 'looks so real.' It occurred to me that one message that resonates with us is: "things are not as they seem."
Last night I with awakened with a thought, I grabbed a Sharpie on my night stand and scrawled on a yellow legal pad: "Things are not as they seem, they are better, and they are deeply good."
Pebble candy jewelry...
When my dad was a little boy, his mother went on a trip and brought him a souvenir bag of pebble candy. She told him she had gathered the pebbles from a magical candy beach. Here are glass rocks and shells from my magic beach and I can't wait to work them into designs. The chunky tablet shapes make great focal pieces for fashion forward statement necklaces.
