Pages 02/01/09

I just wanted to share some swaps back I received from the ZettiZoo Yahoo Group Day of the Dead swap. I was really blown away at the quality of these pieces. There was so much thought put into them right down to the tiniest detail. Left: By Catherine van der Hoeff, of the Netherlands. Incredible key chain featuring felted beads, and an array of fibers and ribbons. There's a nice little jeweled piece up the center with a tiny shrinky dink sugar skull. This is just an awesome piece. Even the back of the shrink charm is thoughtfully covered in a black lace finish. Her presentation even blew me away. The presentation cards are also hand made. Middle is by Teri Velazquez. This is an altered locket key chain. Another fab piece which has been covered with fabric and paper embellishments and highlighted with sparkles and metallic zig-zag rick-rack. Right is by Lori Nowak. Lori has taken a paper maché ornament and has decorated it with hand painted skulls and patterning. The back is finished nicely with hand colored DOD rubber stamps. She's added some brightly colored fibers to finish it off. I love the details in this piece as well. Lori even has a tiny bone paperclip hanger at the top. Awesome work ... I am very pleased with my returns. Thanks to such talented artists.

Pages 08/04/08

I made these odd charms for a swap on the Zettiology Yahoo Groups list. It was a tough challenge and I spent quite a bit of time to get these to work. I found a stash of these tiny doll arms at a funky little shop in Half Moon Bay in CA. The clerk kind of gave me the 'eyebrow' when I came up to the checkout with 20 doll arms. But I kind of shrugged and gave her the 'eyebrow' back.

I painted the arms with black and white acrylic paint, then spray sealed t with varnish to get rid of the 'sticky' feeling the pain made. I then made a neato loop hook with wire and beads and sandwiched a plain old washer between. I then super glued the washer to the top of the arm and made the loop secure.

I coiled some silver wire around the forearms and secured with a tiny dab of superglue. I thought I was done, but looking at the hand portion, it begged for something in it's palm. I took another batch of washers, sized an appropriate image and printed out label paper. I cut them out, adhered them to the washer, and sealed with a sparkle varnish. After they were dry I used another tiny dab of superglue to hold them in place.