Karla Nathan – Page 269 – Karla's Cottage

50 tiny dancers for 50 years of dancing through life

fairies, flowers, hand painted signs, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / May 4, 2008

Oh no, is Karla going to make us look at 10,000 flowers she just bought??? Is that all this blog is about anymore???

Nope, I won’t do that to you. I just wanted to show you the pretty posies on the top of the birthday present Beth brought to me today.

How perfect is this package for me? Old wallpaper and millinery flowers that are soft and floppy with age topping a hat box!

Even more fun, look inside! Amongst some other trinkets that I love, (Italian rose dish, a vintage millinery catalog, old seam binding, and other pretties) was FIFTY BALLERINAS.

Only Beth would think of something that perfect for my 50th birthday!

She came to help out and keep me company today at Art in the Park.

I can’t imagine a nicer day for it. Sunny, with a slight whispering breeze that was just enough to keep us comfy, not so much that our things blew over or we had to take turns holding onto the tent leg so it wouldn’t blow over.

My greeting cards were my biggest seller today, with Mother’s Day next week, that was to be expected. I also sold china shard jewelry and earrings.

Mostly we spent the day soaking up some springtime. And giggling. Inspired by Joy’s fortune bottles, I decided to decorate bottles as party favors for the birthday party I am throwing for myself. I will add a special fairy note to each one, assigning guests a personal guardian fairy to watch over them.

So, Beth and I spent a big part of the day coming up with helpful fairies and naming them. Here are a few:

“Pinkie Sugar Fly” will guard your windows from bugs flying in through tears in the screens
“Kitty Flitter Flower” watches over you during cat naps to bring you sweet dreams
“Tootsie Twinkle Tulip”is always ready to touch up your toe nail polish before you even know it is chipped.
“Blue Bird Buttercup” sprinkles cookie crumbs for a trail to lead the blue bird of happiness to your door
“May Belle Lina” watches out for smudged mascara under your eyes.
“Flossy Flutterby” picks the spinach out of your teeth before anyone notices it.
“Pearly Pear” keeps an eye out for an earring that is about to slip off your ear.

My pal, Pam sent me this birthday card. I love the sentiment, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be granted 3 wishes? Although, today all I would ask for is that Sugarwings would feel better. My poor fairy grandbaby has a fever and sore throat and I hate to see her sad and down.

Don’t forget, a giveaway will be drawn on the 5th and I have an extra special May giveaway with lots of gifts this month!

The crazy hat lady strikes again

antiques/junking, flowers, jewelry, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 3, 2008

You’ll never guess what I bought at the flea market yesterday.

Millinery flowers! Beth asked me how I was going to display my hats, and I told her "I don’t like hats" and that just struck our funny bones, considering I’d just bought 15 of them!

Honestly, I don’t care for the hats themselves, I only buy them for their blooms.

At first, I didn’t think it was going to be a good hat day, but then, I heard the whispers of them calling to me from a large booth of vintage clothing.

The dealer had just returned from Round Top . Her prices were sky high too, $38 for a flowery bonnet?? Yep, those are big time flea market prices, not Kansas prices!

So, I asked her nicely if she had a volume price. I bought 8 hats including the one previously marked $38 for only $64 total. And I didn’t stop there, I found pairs of hats here and there throughout the market for an average of $2.50 each. Which is why I ended up with a pile of FIFTEEN flowering beauties!

I was worse with old photos. I told Beth that she had to steer me away from any more, it wasn’t funny at that point. I didn’t think I could stop, but she was able to help me and I got through the rest of the day avoiding the photo bargains.

Most pictures were $1 each and when I’d gather an armful of ten or so, the dealer would usually name a price averaging about 50-75 cents each.

Which is how I ended up with THIRTY NINE photos.

Sparkling old jewels were priced about the same as the photos at so many tables we stopped at. Of course, if they were priced higher than that we didn’t stop.

I don’t know how many pieces of rhinestone jewelry I ended up with, but with paired earrings at under $1, I might have bought a couple…..

This photo? A drop in the bucket.

And look at the "Princess" jewel box! It was only $4 and I have plans to foof and jazz it up on the exterior. The inside is lovely just as it is! (the pretty as a picture alarm clock is a birthday gift from Beth- lucky me!)

I bought $1 dolls to fix up too. The bust (Marie?) was only $1 and I might paint it white.

The pink skirted tiny dancer is actually a music box that plays "Always" (the song my parents played at the their wedding). Consider this a "before" photo of her, I have big plans for a transformation to come.

French, German, and other old books were only $1 each

Clear Lucite containers were how much? $1 a piece (wish I’d bought more)

26 Vintage ballerina cake toppers were how much? $1 each

Keys? 2 for $1

Vintage scalloped edge stationery? $1 a box

But of all the things I bought, what is the best? This $4 dotted Swiss dress for Sugarwings.

In the same booth, I found a close match for her baby doll.

I think I’ll ask her to wear them for my birthday party on Monday. (which is my actual birthday, even though I have been celebrating for weeks.)

I’ll draw a name on May 6th for a winner of a birthday gift from me. All comments count towards that and toward my May giveaway, which I think will have to be extra special this month.

In one $5 bag of jewels from the flea market, there was a dainty gold band. I think I will include it with my May prize. Along with the gold band is a white leather Brighton coin purse.

I’ll be adding to the May Prize Pack throughout the month, so stay tuned and keep entering! Any comment, any post.

April’s winner, Clarice had a choice of prizes. She chose a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper. She has two daughters that she makes great craft projects with, so I included some extras for them all to have fun with.

Some indulgent reminiscing at a half century milestone and the April giveaway winner

family, give away

By Karla Nathan / May 1, 2008

My Silver Bella friend, Jessi, is asking us to remember our child hood toys today. There is a lack of photos of myold toys, but that didn’t slow down my reminiscing. Her topic brought up lots of happy memories for me.

One of the best toys I had was this teeter totter. I’m sure that in today’s age it wouldn’t get past safety codes. We were always smashing and pinching our fingers under the rails of this thing.

(I’m the one on the left)

When neighbors weren’t around to balance it, I’d tip the thing on its side and pretend it was a pirate ship or a castle.

Another love was bags full of little plastic horsies. I could play with those for hours. I’d paint them too, because I loved to change them all to have white manes and tails.

When I came across a photo of my husband with a toy horse from his child hood, I had to frame it to display with a picture of me with my toy horses.

On the same shelf, I set out a photo of our "real" horses, Scooty and Fairybelle.

When I was little, I had severe asthma and couldn’t own the pets I desperately wanted. I made up for it with piles of stuffed animals and a vivid imagination.

After "outgrowing" my allergies, I made the most of having lots of pets, and loved filling up this big old falling down barn on our property. (it has since fallen down)

You can see Faiybelle to the right of the barn in this painting I did.

Remember saying this?

"Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight"

My wish, every single time I looked up at the stars was to have a pony. I loved to crane my neck and look out of the back window of the car (pre-car seat days!) waiting for that first star of the night to show itself so I could wish for my horse.

Finally, as an adult, my wish came true. I had Scooty, the Shetland. He was a baby when I got him, and followed me around the yard like a puppy. (of course, the horse I wished for had wings, but Scooty didn’t)

As much as I loved my Barbies and dolls, when I look back at my childhood, the strongest memories are of wishing for a pet, and pretending my toys were alive and could love me back as much as I loved them.

I’ve collected some of these thoughts and memories about my childhood and made a little scrapbook about myself to read with Sugarwings.

I put in lots of pop ups with pictures underneath, and little snippets of stories about my wishes and hopes as a little girl so I can share them with my own little girl as she grows.

And now here I am, turning 50. I can remember making those wishes on a star, and the feelings that went with it, as if those longings and dreams are as real today as they were nearly a half a century ago.

Thanks, Amy Wald for the sparkling card!

And thanks, Jessi, for this subject. It was a timely one for me. Birthday milestones are a good time to look back and remember the child that is still inside.

I hope to never lose the imagination that I had back then, when I’d paint a plastic horse and see myself riding it across the skies with its beautiful white tail flying behind us. And when I’d tip over a teeter totter and it would become a castle where I was the princess.

Happy May Day everyone! My birthday (which I am sure you are so tired of hearing about) is May 5th and I will have a special gift to go out then. All comments count toward that as well as toward my regular monthly drawing.

And who wins for the April Drawing?

Clarice

And what is the prize?

she gets a choice of one of these prizes:

1- a pair of earrings made by me, with vintage pieces

2- a May Day tussie mussie

3- a Birds and Bonnets Vintage Workshop images tag

4- a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper and millinery flowers

I have added more millinery flowers to my etsy shop, since I had such a good response for the ones I listed yesterday (5 bundles sold in an hour or so!)

Thanks so much for supporting my Etsy shop and for taking the time to visit me here in blogworld.

Plucking some blooms

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / April 30, 2008

Thanks for all of your kind birthday wishes!

I am soaking up all the birthday goodness I can get and enjoying every minute of it.

This cute card is from Robin, as if the clock/frame she made wasn’t enough?!

The picture is so cute. It reminds me of Sugarwings, I am teaching her how to cook, and of course, the beaters are her favorite part of the process!

My suitcase is still sitting in my studio, filled with vintagey purchases from my trip. I am trying to focus on getting ready for Art in the Park on Sunday and ignoring the other stuff piling up around me.

But I just HAD to pull some of it out to play with.

All the photos and birds are from the Cottage and were only $1 each. The cute bird collage is from an artist there too, look at how she has used the snap for an eye!

The hymn book was $2 from Lucketts and the old toy mirrors were $1 each at the thrift store Robin took me to.

The first three hats on the back left are from my trip to Virginia, but the rest are from a day out with Sugarwings yesterday. She and I did a bit of junking and I bought these four floral beauties for $30!

Look at the load of red velvet roses on the middle one in the bottom row- jackpot!

And even though I know I need to get ready for the art show this weekend, I spent the hour I watched American Idol last night sorting flowers.

(Our local Kansas City boy, and my favorite, David Cook is still blowing them all away on Idol, and I think he has a good shot at winning)

The blooms are sorted into boxes by color then I put them into my big storage box that is covered with old wallpaper.

I even made a separate box of an assortment of posies to keep by my worktable, ready to grab when needed.

Getting ALL the flowers pulled off of hats and sorted felt like a major accomplishment, till I turned around and realized I still had a table top full of flowers I was using as a center piece.

I’m starting to think I might have a few too many. Maybe.

Lori and I had been talking about a mini- swap like I did with Lili last week.

But since she sent me that sweet collage of my fairy grand baby, I told her that was already way too much.

So, I bundled up a few pretties and have them ready to send to her.

Still had more than I could use. What to do with all these hats and flowers???

I put Twinkle in one, but she is a little too big. Unless I get some smaller dogs, this isn’t going to be a good use for my hats.

So, I made 5 packets of pink and white to sell on Etsy. It isn’t even a drop in the bucket. I think that once I get past this art show, and the rest of my upcoming 50th birthday parties, I will wrap up some more to list and sell. edit: only two left, these are selling fast

edit: oops, those sold too! I added more to the shop, thank you all so much for stopping by and snapping those flowers up so quickly!

Twinkle was relieved that I decided to sell some.

Today is the last day to enter my April Giveaway, but you still have 5 more days to enter my birthday giveaway.

Any comment, on any post gets entered.

Sugarwing Themed gifts (the best kind of sweetness!)

antiques/junking, Books, Moving to DC, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 28, 2008

I just got home from our East coast apartment, and look what was waiting for me in the giant, overflowing basket of mail that came while I was away!

Talented Miss Lori Karla sent this along with her Card for Caroline as a random act of kindness.

Isn’t it the cutest? Such a perfect collage for this picture of my fairy grand baby.

And lucky me, how scrumptious is this???

My Centreville, VA blog pal, Robin made this frame from an old clock for my birthday.

We met up for coffee, the she offered to take me to own of her thrift store faves. (well, maybe I coerced her a bit)

I bought a cart load of goods for $13.90, between that trip and my Leesburg shopping adventure, I completely filled an extra suitcase for the trip home.

These two ladies’ creations sure are special to me. Not only do they involve pictures of my sweet little Sugarwings, they are such thoughtful and talent filled works of art.

I just love ’em to pieces!

Not everything is unpacked yet from my trip. Instead of putting away suitcases, I went through the cards for Caroline that came in the mail, and I have to tell you, there are some beauties there!

I’ll get organized and photograph them soon, and have a whole post devoted to just that, along with the list of updated names.

For now, I’ll show you a couple of pictures of the book I made in Debbie Shue’s class on Saturday.

The flowers on the cover are from some of my souvenir hats I purchased on my shopping day with Debbie.

She furnished rub ons and stickers, but I ended up doing doodles and added glitter instead of using them.

Debbie had a great kit with all the papers cut and ready to go. The whole book was assembled in the 2 hour class (that is impressive, that she can time it so perfectly and know just what to show everyone)

I changed mine a bit, and tried to make it part art journal/part scrapbook. I also purchased some Glimmer Mist and tried that for the first time.

I have to tell you, that stuff is FUN! I bought Robin’s Egg and Pineapple and plan on getting a lot more colors.

Don’t forget you can still enter my giveaway for this month.

EVERY COMMENT IS ENTERED for the entire month.

And all comments until May 5th are entered into my special 50th birthday celebration giveaway.

Is it a SMALL world? Or a GIANT blogosphere!?

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC, parties, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / April 26, 2008

How weird is this???

While I am here in Virginia, I spent a free afternoon in Leesburg to shop and check out The Cottage, a store I’d heard about but never been to, its about 30 minutes from our apartment.

While I was chatting with the co-owner, Ann, Pam walked in and she recognized me. Behind her was Debbie Shue who was in town from NY to teach classes at the scrapbook store where Pam works.

Now, what are the odds that we would run into each other? Pam and Debbie both went to Silver Bella last year, and I know them through that and through blogs. (sorry about the blurry picture, but also, what are the odds that we take dozens of photos and none of the ones with all of us are any good?)

I am from Kansas, Debbie is from New York, none of us were staying in Leesburg, we just all decided to go to a store there at the same time.

If I had stopped for lunch first, or if they had gone to Lucketts before The Cottage, we’d never have met up.

Lucky that we did! Not only was this a cute and cottagey shop that I fell in love with and had a great time browsing through (I’ll post my beautiful bargain finds later), Pam, Debbie, and their pal, Kitty, invited me to hang out with them for the day.

We spent quite a while in The Cottage, and all found fun things to purchase. We visited with Ann, who was nice as could be and seemed to enjoy the coincidence of our meeting as much as we did.

Istn’t this store so pretty? I could have just moved into any of these cozy displays she has set up.

After the Cottage, the three gals asked me to go to lunch with them, and on to some other antiquing.

While out shopping, I came across some of the prettiest hats I’d ever seen, with tons of dainty flowers on each. But- they were a LOT more expensive than what I usually buy. ($15- $28, but LOADED with blossoms)

I decided that the rule about not spending more than $7 on a hat doesn’t apply on vacation or during my birthday week.

Not only did I find a new store I absolutely love and 3 flowery hats that I couldn’t resist, I had a fun day full of laughs, shopping, and lunch, PLUS, Debbie was able to squeeze me into the class she was teaching the next day.

And my new pal, Kitty offered to lend me supplies, since I didn’t have any with me.

I thought I was borrowing scissors and glue, but she showed up with the fullest, most professional scrapbboking kit I’d ever seen. It was a joy just to poke through it all.

Shopping, crafting, great food, fun people, romantic dinners with my husband, I may never go back to Kansas! I love it here!!

My husband surprised me with one of the fanciest schmanciest dinners ever at a private dining club. The Tower Club at Tyson’s Corner.

The service there is so outstanding and detailed, they even had our name on the mints at our place settings!

We were greeted with complimentary champagne for my birthday. I had the Maryland crab appetizer (you just have to order that when you are in this part of the country) and as gourmet-licious as the whole dinner was, my favorite part of the meal was the white chocolate and lemon surprise birthday cake.

"Happy Birthday" was written in dark chocolate on a sheet of white chocolate and the whole cake was covered in curled bits of the white.

A tray of tiny desserts came out with the coffee along with a goodie assortment of coffee mix-ins. Orange peels, cinnamon sticks, real whipped cream and shaved cocoa.

I was so impressed, I almost couldn’t eat it, it was just too lovely. But I did.

I have the BEST husband.

Last night, dinner on the 17th floor with a view over looking the capitol, tonight dinner at Piedmont Country Club with this view out the window. Yep, not a bad kickoff to my birthday week.

I don’t think turning 50 years old is looking too bad at all. I have a pretty lucky life! I am looking forward to the next 50, I plan on living as long and as well as my Great Aunt Caroline that you are all making cards for!

The Hat Whisperer (or the crazy lady, you decide)

collections, Moving to DC

By Karla Nathan / April 24, 2008

Do you ever come to my blog and think to yourself, "oh no, more flowers" Or, "That Karla must be crazy. Why does she keep buying old smashed flowers, almost daily, and then showing them to us?" "What is wrong with that woman?"

I do tend to fixate on things and make or buy TONS when I am on a roll.

Right now, I can’t seem to stop buying hats (and the flowers that bloom on them). I am developing some sort of millinery ESP, where I am going about my business, and out of the blue, I hear them call out to me. I stop everything, and drive myself, in a dazed state to the store I feel the bonnets beckoning to me from. Then, I walk right up to the hiding place of a floral bargain bonanza.

Of course, if I happen to come across a pile of rhinestone buttons for $1, cabinet cards for 50 cents each, or rose postcards for 75 cents each, I am not too deep into my millinery stupor to scoop those up too.

After a day of running errands and playing with Sugarwings, I sat down to make another bracelet and get some work done for my much neglected inventory for the upcoming art show.

One bracelet was finished before I started to hear the silk and velvet’s siren song, calling me from Scranton and 4 Corners, (great little antiquing towns about an hour from here). I knew I shouldn’t go, I had a lot of reasons not to go: the stores would be closing soon, I had work to do, and it was raining so hard I could barely see to drive.

But I also knew that it wouldn’t take long. I didn’t need an all day shopping trip, I could go right to those tempting trinkets, buy them and leave. They were calling out to me, I had no choice, I knew they were there waiting for me.

I was right!! I bought $3 and $5 hats, plus a BAGFUL of flowers, for only $10.

Do I look crazy? Or simply psychic? As a matter of fact, I think I hear one now…… yes, there is a $4 hat in Leesburg calling me now. I think I will have to go to visit my husband in Virginia.

I am looking into plane tickets for tomorrow night, so if you don’t hear from me, I am on my way there.

Please continue to leave comments, each one is entered into BOTH giveaways (details in my previous post). I’ll catch up as soon as I hunt down the source of that mesmerizing sound. The one whispering to me "I’m here… I’m waiting… I’m waiting for you here, with my lovely scrunched petals… you know you want to find me…. "

Oh, and please continue to send your cards for Caroline’s 100th birthday, Ryan will bring in the mail while I am gone and they will be safe.

If I have time, I’ll post from our apartment there. But I could be pretty busy, hunting down that hat that is calling me plus I am going to insist that my husband whisk me away to romantic dinners and nights out to celebrate my 50th birthday. It is only 12 days away, I seriously need to start celebrating. I might start by finding the perfect hat and treating myself to it!

Girls Day Out and a birthday giveaway

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, jewelry, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 22, 2008

The sun was shining and today was about as springy as a day can be.

Sugarwings and I decided to have a girly day together. We started with a little shopping spree. She picked out glittery pink shoes at Target ( I wish they had them in my size!)

And a stop at the antique mall turned up the perfect grandma hat for me. (only $6!!! And it has FIVE large pink roses on it) Of course, I wore it the rest of the day.

When we saw these matching dresses for toddlers and their dolls on sale for only $10 at TJMaxx, , we had to snap them up and find a dolly to fit the dress.

Those dresses simply couldn’t stay in the bag, not when they went so perfectly with the new shoes! We changed "the girl’s" clothes in the car before going downtown to stroll in the springtime sunlight and show off our new finery.

Since it was Girls Day Out, the three of us treated ourselves to a ladies luncheon. Over our BBQ (hey, we are Midwesterners, not dainty girls- we like MEAT) we tried to come up with a name for the new baby.

"Baby" and "Good Girl" were the names Sugarwings suggested. Scraps_417

I voted for "Miss Daisy" because after our trip, we decided to go for a ride in the little pink car. I drove Miss Sugarwings and Miss Daisy all over the neighborhood.

These two best friends wanted to make a stop in the park for a bit.

Twinkle was jealous of Sugarwing’s new friend and reminded her who her true best friend really was.

How can a day be more perfect than this???? Well it gets even better!

Ryan surprised us and had dinner cooked and ready when we came home from our spring fling! Chicken, rice and ice cream cones topped off our spring fling! And I didn’t have to cook.

Then, once the fairy grand baby went to bed for the night, I was able to make a little more jewelry.

This bracelet and matching earrings are assembled from vintage religious medallions.

The necklace is a variety of chain sizes, beads and aqua rhinestones, with a pendant of old keys.

And is my day over yet? Nope, now I get to go watch a tivo-ed American Idol featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Don’t even ask me how many times I have been to see Phantom, you don’t want to hear me sing the whole thing either).

And not only that, Cloverfield is out on video, so Ryan and I are having a horror movie night. What a perfect way to end a perfect Girls Day Out!

You know, my birthday is just around the corner. I can’t imagine any party I plan being more fun than today!

I’d like to share my special day with you guys and give away a piece of the jewelry I have been making on my 50th birthday, May 5th.

Any comment between now and Monday May 5th goes into the drawing.

And don’t forget that ALL comments this month are entered into my monthly giveaway.

Hmmm, what will I be sending as a present for April??? hmmm, let me think. I have been on an endless tag marathon lately, maybe a tag?

Or a tussie mussie! In time for May Day flowers?!

I know, I will give the winner a choice!

On Wed. April 30th, I’ll draw a winner for a choice of one of these prizes:

1- a pair of earrings

2- a May Day tussie mussie

3- a Birds and Bonnets Vintage Workshop images tag

4- a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper and millinery flowers

Vintage Bling- Day Two and the pliers are flying through the pile of scrap

jewelry, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 21, 2008

Spring might actually be here! It hit 70 today and I worked with the studio doors open. I love this time of year before the flies come, when there is a slight breeze to open the house up to have all the winter blahs blown out the doors.

While enjoying the fresh air and listening to Twinkle run in and out of the house to chase bunnies, I worked my way through a desktop of jewels and made quite a bit for "Art in the Park" on May 4th.

Lots of charm bracelets and earrings today, and a one necklace (the cameo one pictured).

Then, the mail lady knocked on my door with an arm load of bundled mail and I was done being productive, it was time to play!

Lili sent a package filled with delight from The Netherlands, for our mini swap. All I sent to her was millinery flowers and a few post cards. She went wild and filled a bag with wonderful European goodies for me!

Look at these book pages, won’t they be fantastic collage backgrounds? and these teeny little aqua bows are so dainty and sweet, they remind me of baby butterflies.

Did I mention Rose Wallpaper?????

Everything, every single thing, was delicious and fun and I can’t wait to dig in and create lots of somethings with it all!

Thanks, Lili!

Cards for Caroline’s 100th birthday arrived in the giant bundle of mail too. Cindy sent this cute as a bug one. I like the way she layers and embellishes, don’t you?

Jessica created this iris card, and I wish you could see the detail in person, this little purple flower should be framed. My mom always called iris "flags." I don’t hear that any more. Its a nice, old fashioned term.

Soon, the swap screens will be coming in too. Of course, they are going to Beth’s house, but I will run over to visit and check them all out. I can’t wait!

You can still join if you hurry. Lots of free download images to use, door prizes (well kind of, I guess that is what you’d call them) and great artists in the swap already!

I’m off to flickr to post photos of the cards. Come by and look if you get a chance. http://www.flickr.com/groups/679216@N25/

Artists have been loading their cards there as they make them too, so I always get a surprise when I go to check out the site, new things are added daily.

We have Extended the Deadline for the Swap, I wish I could extend the Deadline for my upcoming art show so I could have more time to goof off, since I can’t, I’ll just whine about it.

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), jewelry, show and tell, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2008

Its show and tell time again, and the subject is a timely one for me. Vintage jewels!

Twinkle has agreed to model this pink jeweled bracelet, and doesn’t seem to be too embarrassed by her choppy haircut, although she isn’t looking at the camera like she usually does.

I have an art show to get ready for and one of the things I take to shows is my redesigned old jewelry.

Thing is, it has been a while since I organized my sparklies and made anything from them, so I had an hour or so of prep work to do to even get started.

Just because I hadn’t been making jewelry, doesn’t mean I wasn’t buying stuff to use as supplies for the last year!

The pieces needed sorted out so I could find what I wanted to put together. I sort by era, style, color and lots of different criteria that mostly boils down to a made up system that doesn’t work anyway. I end up looking through each of the 8 or 9 plastic containers sitting on the desk for that perfect bead that I knew was just there a minute ago…..

So, what did I make today?

A charm bracelet first.

A few necklaces next.

A couple more necklaces, then moved on to earrings. I prefer making earrings, they just fly through my pliers and almost make themselves. Necklaces and bracelets take a lot of time and trying on, measuring the weight of the charms to be sure they hang straight.

Balance is so important when making jewelry. Both visually and weight wise.

I only use sterling or 14kt gf French hooks for the earrings and buy them wholesale through Fire Mountain, for the best prices.

The rest of the pieces are all vintage, including the beads. Sometimes I do use some new semi-precious beads, but I prefer older things.

To tell the truth, it was not a fun transition from my tag marathon to jewels today.

I know I have to make the jewelry for the art show I am going to on May 4th, that is what my clientele expects there (along with hand painted things) and luckily I always sell it well there.

But I am still feeling like making more tags! I did a few this morning and was zipping along, humming to myself and having a great time.

When I got the jewelry out to work on in the afternoon, that is what it felt like- WORK!

Probably, I should shut up and not complain. Poor Karla, had to stop gluing her endless parade of tags and put aside her Vintage Workshop papers to play with sparkly jewels instead.

That isn’t going to get me much sympathy!

So, the papers are on hold, while I put together old jewelry for a few days, then make price tags for it. If you think I am complaining now, wait till you hear me whine about pricing items!

But in the meantime, I will play hooky from all of it and go blog surfing and see what everyone else has for Show and Tell.

Its always a treat to visit other bloggers and see their collections. Hopefully, I won’t run into anyone else who complains and whines about it like I did today.

Before I go, I wanted to announce that "due to popular demand" Beth and I extended the deadline for our swap. So, if you haven’t joined yet, hurry up and come play with paper with us!!

Author name: Karla Nathan