Suitcase Jewelry Display......

Welcome to part one of "Suitcase Renovation" also known as "pimp my suitcase"! So I'm looking for a cool jewelry display that has to be relatively light, sturdy, portable and cute. Kind of a tall order, eh? One time of Flickr I saw where somebody turned an old suitcase into a jewelry display although not to the degree that I have cooking up in my noggin'.

Part 1: The stripping and painting of LulaMay

Enter.....the "PDU" suitcase, (that's sort for "pretty darn ugly). It's one of those hard-sided old suitcases that were typical in the 1950s-1970s. Well I suppose I should name the suitcase at this point, so I'm going to call her LulaMay. LulaMay has good hardware that works, very little wear on the trim and the sides are in good shape.

The inside of LulaMay was pristine, too bad I'm going to tear it all out! Kind of reminds me of the inside of a coffin....creepy!

The anatomomy of a suitcase......padding, wood, pleather trim and canvas. As you can see here I tore out the lining and the thin cotton batting that was underneath it. The glue that was left over on the top of the lid flaked right off with a puddy knife. I'm not worrying about any bumps because I'm going to faux finish and collage the inside of it.

I painted a coat of Gesso the the entire outside of the LulaMay being careful to go around the trim.Next I painted the inside with a base of Gesso. I worked on both the outside and inside at the same time.

Here I'm applying a coat of sandy beige to the inside of the suitcase over the Gesso.

I applied a coat of "spa blue" in the Delta acrylics line to the outside of the suitcase over the Gesso. It covered remarkably well with just one coat.

I decided to do a vintage faux finish in the inside so here it is with just a few layers applied. I have yet to put on the darker brown because I was losing light last night as I finished up around 8:45 PM.

Oh yah! Now LulaMay is starting to look "PDG"......pretty darn goooooooooood!

So hop back over tomorrow to see the inside of the suitcase. I started on it this morning and it's looking "PDA".....pretty darn awesome! Until you visit again...... SMILES!

A Bird In The.......

How does that saying go? "A bird on a necklace is worth one in a boxwood shrub?" Ok, well not exactly like that but that's the one I'm going with for this post! It is part of my breezy summertime fair as we are nearing the summer solstice (which I will have an amazing necklace give-away on June 21st so please stop by to enter) and celebrate the beginning of summertime.

This necklace is 17 inches long. It is composed of 3 strands: handmade fabric cord, glass beaded strand and cotton strand with blue shell discs. The bird is leather with a wonderful blue shimmer reminiscent of the hazy blue summertime July afternoons. You can purchase it over at Honey Girl Studio Jewelry.

Oh Sweet Pea.......

Nothing says early summer like a big bowl of fresh from the garden sweet peas. My mom always made creamed peas over mashed potatoes and it's still my favorite way of having them this time of year. My Italian husband thinks it's disgusting but if you're Irish you'll understand how we like to "cream" things! So these early summer peas inspired me and the result is this necklace I made today.......

2 Peas in a Pod Necklace

The peas are pale green glass pearls in a handcut, formed and painted leather pod. The necklace is two strands: one of tiny green seed beads and the other is a green and white print fabric cord. The necklace measures 16 inches long. This piece is available so hop on over to Honey Girl Studio Jewelry!

A Gang of Swimmin' Women!

How about these bathing beauties? Can you even imagine swimming in such cumbersome bathing suits which were most likely made of wool! Well, I won't be swimming anytime soon as I have pleurisy! I've had it for about 16 days now and I'm still having trouble breathing and pain in my upper back! Does anybody know how long it takes to get rid of it?

Meet "The Gang of Swimmin' Women"!

This is Constance, she's the serious one of the gang. She won first place in the butterfly stroke competition. She has "that" look on her face because she knew all along that she'd take first place. To her, it's no big deal and just another silver trophy to add to her collection. She can master any stroke even while wearing the fringy wide belt!


Meet Myrna, she's the fun loving, easy-going one of the gang. She won second place in the free-style swimming competition which is no easy feat in a hat, black wool knee socks and Mary-Jane shoes! Myrna lets it all hang out as you can see by her swimsuit. After the swim meet she likes to go have a few Manhattans and a big bowl of spaghetti with spicy sausage.

Meet Winifred. She's the sexy one of the gang, just look at that short bathing suit. Her swimming skills are inconsistent because she is always trying to check out the gentlemen watching the competition in the stands! Oh Winifred!!!!


Meet Clara, she's the young one of the group and very modest. She usually comes in last place because of the bathing costume she chooses to compete in. It's made of wool with many pleats and gets pretty heavy when soaked with water!

A Big Pile of?

What is she up to now? Well, I've been sewing up cord for my "Beachy Bohemian" line of jewelry. The hearts are leather which have been painted and/or stamped. I'll be launching the new line on my jewelry website, Honey Girl Studio Jewelry on June 14th! So stop by!

Curiosities of the Sea........

This little guy sails the 7 seas looking for the perfect gold fish!

This collage was created with hand cut papers and measures 3.5 by 5 inches. I got this frame at the Dollar Store. It was painted a very ugly rusty red. A few coats of acrylic paint and ta-da! I made the "beach" sign from a piece of Grungeboard painted with bronze Lumier paint (the little key was also made the with the Gurngeboard).

Here is quite a curious creature from the sea, the elusive "Buttermaid". She is a cross between a butterfly and a mermaid. She's extremely rare and I'm so lucky to have captured one!

I created her on chipboard backed with book text. I made her mermaid body and tail with strips of handcut papers cut with scalloped scissors......that took a little while!

So have you noticed I'm into putting butterfly wings on everything lately? It's sort of like my compulsion last year where I had to put pointy hats of everything. Can't help it, I still think wings and pointy hats are the best! What are your thoughts on butterfly wings?

Sailing........

I remember the first and last time I was ever on a sailboat. It was on Lake Erie and I loved it! Gliding over the water silently, effortlessly, skimming the water leaning this way and that way with the only sound being the wind. When I saw image of this little guy I knew I had to turn him into Captain Monarch The Sailboat Fairy!He stands approximately 6 inches tall on a 2 inch by 2 inch painted and collaged wooden block on glass marble legs.
This boy was one lucky little guy with such a beautiful toy sailboat. His image is from around 1922.

I've been working on several pieces and will be sharing more with you in the coming days!

Nature Is Blooming!

My perennial garden is bursting with color! Succulents........
Russian Sage..........

Sweet Williams...............

Oriental Poppy...........

Foxglove..............

Lupines...........

Poppy............

German Bearded Iris.........

Shasta Daisy just waiting to happen...........
What's blooming in your garden? Isn't nature beautiful?!?!?

On a serious note, I'm boycotting BP and I hope my friends in blogland will consider doing the same thing. Usually I reserve this blog to just art, gardening and cooking but I think what is happening in the Gulf is a real travesty. How about that butthead BP CEO saying this week that he just wishes they could get the leaking well fixed because "he just wants to get back to his life back". Are you kidding me? Just look at the lives that have been interrupted both human and animal and this joker makes such a comment. What a major league @ss0 (you can probably guess what this word is!)

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Driftin' Toward Summer........

Memorial Day is next Monday and I'm driftin' into summer with my newest Beachy Bohemian Jewelry creations.

This bracelet reminds me of the ocean with floating green sea glass and white fluffy clouds floating overhead.

Another braclet inspired by the colors of water and sky. It has glass seed beads, shell, fresh water pearls, an aqua square ceramic bead and handmade fabric cord.

This necklace has been created with 3 fiber cords, a suede cord, tiny seed beads are sewn onto one of the fabric cords. The danglies hanging above the shell are wood and bone beads along with orange sponge coral beads. This one is my favorite!

Fibers.........fibers...........fibers...........fabric..........seed beads.............

I wire wrapped this antiqued metal cross with silver wire and stone chips and nestled it into a shell.

Can't you just picture this necklace with a cute sundress? or tank and shorts?

If you're interested in any of these pieces, they are available, just give me an email shout!

A Filing Cabinet Brain.....

I've been experimenting with fiber and making my own cord out of strips of material. I don't know about you but I have a "filing cabinet" type of brain, meaning that I see something I like and I file it away deep in the inner recesses of my brain only to have it resurface at some strange time, sometimes even many years later.......Such is the idea for the fabric cording! I remember seeing a fiber art display at a modern art museum many, many years ago with a necklace made from about 50 fabric cords and last week while I was driving to work that memory resurfaced.
Suddenly I'm driving down route 82 designing a necklace in my mind!

And, this is the end result of my filing cabinet brain, resurfacing ideas, a long drive to work!
The necklace is made up of 2 plain fabric cords, one cord with tiny seed beads sewn on it, one cotton string with antiqued bone beads, one knotted cotton string with wooden beads on it, a leather hand painted heart, silver metal charm, tiny shell and orange fresh water pearl. It measures 16 inches.

Does anybody else out there have a filing cabinet brain? :-)

The Big News.......

Well here's the big news that has to do with this leather green heart pendant. I'm conducting a few mixed media/altered jewelry workshops this summer. I'm calling them Green Heart Art Retreats. If you'd like more information and a list of the July Workshops please go to the Green Heart Art Retreat blog. The retreats are set in a wooded area in a covered pavillion by a Shenango Lake. I like to think of these workshops as "where art meets nature". I welcome beginners as well as advanced artists. When you get to the blog look to the left of your screen for the July class listings. Please email me if you have any questions: Tootieu@yahoo.com

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I'm consider myself very fortunate to have a wonderful mother. I hope all the mothers in blogland have a great day!
I made these pins for my mom and my mother-in-law. The center face is paper on wood and the face stamp is from Lost Coast Designs (one of my favorite stamp companies). I call these pins my "sea flowers" because the batik fabric reminds me of the colors in the ocean and that sweet little face looks like it's looking through a port hole in a ship.

I've got some exciting news to blog about this week so please visit again to see what it is. It has something to do with this...........

Are you curious??????