A Little More of a Good Thing

I started to put away all the beads from The Lamp, but they looked so pretty sitting there together, I decided to do one more project with them first. And remember I had that one piece that didn't fit on the lamp?  That was an excellent starting point.

So here it is, a free-form sculptural peyote bracelet. It doesn't have a name yet, but I'll come up with something. Meanwhile, it's good to know that if I ever need to have a matching lamp-and-bracelet ensemble, I'm good to go!

While I'm at it, I have to give a shout-out to Jeannette Cook, who taught me to go Free-form.  It has brought a whole new dimension to my work. Thanks, Teach!

Grab a Chair

Here's a partial view of the chair I decorated for this year's Chair Affair. It's called "Love Seat."  It's about 6 or 7 inches high, and very pink. Not my usual color playground, but everyone needs to get out sometimes, right?

There are about 100 pieces for sale at this year's auction, which raises a LOT of money for Portland's Community Warehouse.  Most are full-size chairs, but some are other furniture pieces, and some are paintings of chairs.  I'm not sure if mine is the only mini.

Five members of ORA have contributed pieces this year: Robin Esterkin, Laurie Fendel, myself, Gary Pearlman, and Eddy Shuldman. Cool, huh?

The auction takes place on April 8th... it's a gala auction dinner. Tickets are $50 per person, or $400 for a table of 10.  There will be a live auction for things like beach trips and cooking class, with the Chairs etc being sold by silent auction.  If you want to see the Chairs ahead of time, there is a preview reception on Thursday evening March 25th at the Galleria downtown.  Admission is free.  I'll be at both events, and hope to see you there!

The Chair Affair +   
Dinner & Auction
Date:   Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time:   5:30 - 9 pm
Location:  The Showroom at1625 NE Sandy, Portland 97232

Click here for information and to buy tickets.

Stone and Glass

At last, my beaded lamp can be revealed.  It seemed like i should wait till our "Light" exhibit opened at Elements Glass Gallery before I post the photo.  So now, it's time.  Everyone was really kind to come out and support us last night, and I got a lot of good feedback on the lamp, which was a great feeling!

I hope to have more photos soon, from different angles. But for now, here's a picture taken last night by Sharon Segal.  Thanks so much, Sharon!

The base is made of alabaster, which my darling husband drilled through to insert a light fixture holding a light bulb. The globe is a cool-looking crackly white-on-clear glass, glued to the stone base.  And the beadwork is free-form sculptural peyote, using many sizes of glass seed beads and crystals.  The beadwork is sewn to a cloth strip which is glued to the glass globe at the top. That is the only place where it's actually attached to the globe, but the rest of the work is stitched to fit pretty snugly. I call it "Dawn's Early Light."

Please let me know what you think.  If you feel you simply MUST own this lamp, it is for sale at Elements Gallery in NW Portland!

Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha'olam, shehechiyanu v'kihimanu, v'higiyanu lazman hazeh.

Humanity Redeemed

Yesterday and today were fairly lousy days.  Everywhere I turned, people were being mean, or stupid, or both. By this afternoon, I was starting to understand those old ladies who just want to live with 27 dogs.

But then came our big opening-night reception at the art gallery this evening.  It was beautiful.  And i couldn't believe how many people showed up!  It was wonderful to see people come out to support us. I got a little teary-eyed, and decided I don't really need 27 dogs.  Humanity redeemed itself, at least for one more day.