Linky Love Saturday! (Photorealism Pendants copyright 2008 Margot Potter Arc de Triomphe details)

Greetings and Salutations my little blogophiles! It's time yet again to spread the Linky Love throughout the blogiverse with this week's edition of TastyLinks^TM! Woo hoo!

Firstly please oh please, go get a set of ten full size greeting cards printed with your images and text from Homer of HHH Enterprises. The first ten folks to leave a comment on his blog can email their info to claim their prize. I mean, it's free! What on earth are you waiting for?!

(Photorealism Pendants copyright 2008 Margot Potter)

Secondly here are the offerings from the clever gals of the Crafty Bloggers:

About Family Crafts Browse through photos of home-made greeting cards and submit your own.
About.com Cross Stitch Stitchers - Start Your Stockings! It is never to early to start on holiday projects, but don't wait too late.

Aileen's Musings This week Aileen offers 2 fun tutorials: Phenomenal Paper Flowers & Wee Flower Fairies. Both are sure to inspire you and make you smile!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Kick off summer with a chance to win a copy of Making Designer Mixed-Media and Memory Jewelry, check out some beautiful handcrafted dolls, a free crochet hacky sack pattern and a how-to on making a recycled denim pillow with a bird appliqué.

Crafty Princess Diaries Get a free metal clay project over at the BeadStyle blog. This downloadable project shows how to make some super easy metal clay beads!

(Photorealism Pendants copyright 2008 Margot Potter)

Layers Upon Layers Have you ever wanted to try creating an abstract work but found it too intimidating? Come and try it anyway!

http://polymerclay.craftgossip.com/anatomy-of-a-bead/2008/06/24 Learn the anatomy of a polymer clay bead this week.

The Impatient Blogger Madge reviews a fabulous new metal clay book by jewelry making expert Tammy Powley. If you've ever been metal clay curious, this is the book for you!

(Photorealism pendants copyright 2008 Margot Potter)

Oh and while you're here do go read this fascinating interview of artist Melissa J. Lee at Snap out of it Jean, There's Beading to be Done.

Thirdly some super shout outs to the delightful Leslie of Mad Maggie Designs for another video linky love post, you're the best! And to crafty wunderkind Tammy Powley for giving my new book a little linky love on her Crafty Princess Diaries blog! And to genius Jean Yates, guest blogger at Art Bead Scene for her fabulous interview she posted this week of yours truly (which unfortunately was met by a comment today that began with "I hate to be negative but...and proceeded to suggest I'm claiming the invention of collage. I also invented cheese, did you know that?!) Sheesh. On the brighter side, thank you's to fabulous Jenny Harada and artist extraordinaire Jafabrit for sharing info about The Impatient Crafter^TM Happy Make Cute Kewpie Challenge 2008! Yay!

(Photorealism pendants copyright 2008 Margot Potter)

Scattered here and there are some more of my new "Photorealism" pendants. Did you know I invented "photorealism?" Aren't I clever? What shall I do...sell them as image sheets...make them into finished jewelry...sell them as pendants? These are all made from photos I've taken over the past few years that I've been compiling for use in my work. I think them fresh and fun. What do you, trusty readers, think I should do with them? BTW-the fabulous hinged frames sell for 8.99 a box at HHH Enterprises, and they really are the best I've seen. Also check out their sizable pewter frames for collage and resin art and the single panel Our Glass frames too. They've got really rockin' things for the mixed media crowd at outrageously reasonable prices. Woo hoo!

I'm working today on my three "Create Your Style with Crystallized Swarovski Elements" projects which have been brewing in the cauldron of my creative imagination here for the past week. Then I've got seven more gallery projects to whip up for Beyond the Bead and plans to make for my table top Designer Showcase display for CHA. That and I need to find new recycled art forms for which to take credit. Other than that it should be a nice relaxing day.

Har de har...har.

Yes, I'm over negative people, I'm no longer accepting their craptacular comments about me, I shall as the saying goes, become rubber while they shall remain glue and also wish them the peace that comes from being confident enough in yourself to no longer feel the need to say negative things about others.

Until Monday, craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge

Flower Power Pendants Copyright 2008 Margot Potter

What's this? Madge is awake? Well, actually, Madge never really went to sleep, though she does get an "A" for effort. Is it totally stoopid for me to talk in the third person? Somebody slap me now!

I just returned from my daughter's first theatrical performance as Frumpy the Frog, a sheep and a narrator in the Twin Valley Schools Summer Camp production of Aesop's Tales. These kids learned five songs in a week! I was bowled over. Avalon was terrific and a prouder set of parents you never did see.

This morning, while chewing on a very soft fiber tablet a third of one of my molars decided to depart rather unceremoniously. Now I'm very lucky to have great teeth, particularly since my dental visits are not as frequent as they should be...like let's see a twenty year span followed by a seven year span. My last visit was a couple of weeks back and we did full x-rays and I had a clean bill of health but this little tooth was apparently playing hide the fissure. So Monday I get to go have some fun in the dental chair. The truth is, my steroids that I inhale for my asthma cause me all sorts of issues. It wouldn't be so bad if they helped my asthma, but my doctor has decided I'm steroid resistant. So, I can't freaking breathe and now my teeth are breaking...fabulous. I take calcium and I'm taking the fiber to help the calcium absorb better...but unfortunately steroids play havoc on your body. I also get insanely painful muscle cramps that have made my favorite activity of buying shoes a sometimes horrid experience not to mention cause me problems during other favorite activities which I shall leave to your vivid imaginations. Stoopid steroids.

The images above are of some pendants I whipped up this morning to show on the HHH Blog, where today the first ten people to leave comments get a fabulous prize! RUN! RUN! I explain how I made the pendants in today's Fabulous Friday Finds post.

Until tomorrow when I spread the Linky Love throughout the blogiverse...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Margot

Plexi Class-Cutting Edge Projects in Plastic
Tonia Davenport
North Light Books
June 2008

I happen to like books. In fact, I actually love them. I would far prefer a good book to a TV show any day of the week. I'm rather particular about my books. I don't review a book unless I can say without hesitation that it's worth your time to buy it. I highly recommend Plexi Class-Cutting Edge Projects in Plastic by Tonia Davenport. Ms. Davenport has created a fantastic book on how to get started using Plexiglas in your jewelry and artwork. She covers everything succinctly and with total clarity and she makes the sorts of projects that inspire you to race out and give a new material a whirl. That's no small feat. Everything about the book from the clever sheer plastic cover to the punny title to the beautiful designs to the easy to follow instructions to the gorgeous layout and photography all invites the reader in to explore freely. I felt as if I were having high tea with an artist who has a true passion for her medium and that she was kind enough to share with me all of the things she'd discovered on her creative journey.

I found all of the designs to be absolutely enchanting. Usually when you look at a craft title, perhaps you like some of the designs or you see things that spark ideas for you but maybe aren't your style, but this book was filled from start to finish with designs I not only loved but I would buy if I saw them at a retail store. I have never seen any designs quite like these, which makes them unique and exciting. I fell madly in love with the Show and Tell Purse, which reminded me of the wonderful vintage Lucite bags from the early 1950s. The Knotted Nautical Necklace which looks like a tiny tide pool was another favorite. The Heart on a String, with its rustic stitched wire center, resonated with this girl who has had her heart broken more than a time or too

This isn't just a craft book, it's an art tutorial and it is a book that won't gather dust on my book shelf. What North Light does brilliantly is to create books for the novice that aren't cheesy or lightweight. They have substance and they have style. Their books stand out because they're detailed, easy to follow and they aren't pretentious or off putting. When I read a craft book, I want to feel as if the author is sharing something they truly love with me and not as if I'm being lectured or condescended to. Ms. Davenport has created a wonderful beginner's guide to designing with plastic that is totally thorough but utterly lacking in pretense. I'm very excited to explore this book further in my studio and delighted that Ms. Davenport has so generously shared her secrets with us. I think you will be too!

Margot Potter
The Impatient Crafter^TM
Review copyright 2009

The Letter I purchased a basket of old letters at an antique shop on Saturday. I collect ephemera for use in my design work. When I picked up the basket initially I just thought it a random sampling of letters. There was no price on them so I took them to the register. I offered to buy them all and I got a fair price for the taking. As it turns out, the letters were all written to the same woman and were from the 1920s and 1930s. Her name was Carrie. Each letter is a little story and all are so endearingly touching. I sat there in the car holding the clues to this woman's life in my hands and I felt the power, the magnitude of what I held. This is why I have always loved treasure troving. It is, in essence, a form of interpersonal archeology where we find clues to someone's life that we can, if we so chose, follow. Or we can choose to make up our own stories or rewrite the stories by making these ephemeral things part of our brief moment in this place through our art or our literature or the fertile ground of our imagination.

As I rummaged through the pile I found a one page letter on simple lined paper with some tape attached. It was dated 11/6/28. Then I found a small photograph in the bottom of the bag of a man with a banjo on his knee (just like the song.) It was obvious that the photo had once been attached to the letter. This letter was so heartfelt that I cried after reading it. Around the photo he'd taped to the back of the letter he wrote "Happy then, but not now." Then across the back it says, "I love you always. Joe Brown. Keep this or send it back." Under where the photo had been taped it said, "This is for remembrance of me. I cared for you, a lot." What Carrie did in reply I don't know, but she did keep the photo and it seems that she scrawled across the top of the letter, "Good."

Now that...is a story waiting to be told.

Isn't it just the way of things? We realize what we truly wanted after it's already slipped through our fingers...it's the story that has no beginning and no end.

This letter, this image, these remnants from the life of a woman from long ago-these things have deep resonance. The detritus of our existence may end up fading away into the great cosmic dust bin or perhaps someone, somewhere in the future yet to be told may find our letters one day and wonder who we were and what they mean.

We do leave an imprint upon this world, however small it might be in the grand scheme of things. That's something to ponder, isn't it?

I will be out most of today, so please don't worry if your comment isn't there, I'll approve when I return. Until tomorrow, Create Without Filters^TM.

xoxo,
Margot

All images copyright 2008 Margot Potter







Greetings Grublets! I took these photos on Saturday evening just as the last rays of the Summer Solstice were beaming through the window in our new "Zen TV" room. I had this thought a while back about doing photos of the Buddha in close up from different angles and having that be the only art in this very small room with deliciously orangey red walls. We were getting ready to watch a movie when the sun came in and the Buddha on top of our armoire looked so stunning...it was just a perfect moment. I absolutely had to run to get my camera and try to capture it on film. Then last night as the sun was setting again, I snapped a few shots of my MIL's flowers, she has the most enchanting flowers in her yard. In order to fully appreciate these images, you have to click on them for close up, they're truly magical.

I shall let the photos speak for me today. Tomorrow I'm posting a review of Tammy Powley's new metal clay book. Don't forget to tell your friends about The Impatient Crafter Happy Cute Make Kewpie Challenge 2008! The more the merrier!

Namaste,
Margot