Sunday, October 19, 2008
Art and Soup!
I'm so excited - I was notified last week that I've been accepted into the Omaha Visiting Nurse Association's annual Art & Soup event! Sixty artists are invited to attend, with 50% of sales going to the VNA. In addition, chefs from 25 restaurants create incredible soups to taste while patrons browse the gallery. It's a very exclusive event, and I'm ecstatic to be taking part!
From the VNA's web site:
Our compassionate staff provides care to all individuals regardless of age, color, creed, neighborhood, or ability to pay. For more than 110 years, the VNA remains true to its mission to develop and maintain innovative programs that bring comfort and healing to the sick, frail, young, injured and the dying. Our overall goal is to provide peace of mind, quality of life, and independence for the client, their family, and their loved ones.
The VNA provides wonderful services for those in need - and I'm pleased that I'll be able to help them in their goal to raise over $100,000 at the event.
VNA's Art & Soup is February 22, 2009. Save the date - I hope to see you there!
Labels: Art and Soup, art show, charity, soup, VNA
Monday, May 19, 2008
Pierced and Riveted
Ever want to challenge yourself? Commit to making something and then try doing it. Oh wait, forgot to add...make sure you have to use techniques you've never tried before. And give yourself an agressive deadline while you're at it.
Last Thursday, I recieved a call from the
Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA) asking if I would donate an item for a silent auction. The auction is held during the annual Share the Table fundraising event for Meals on Wheels...an organization I actively support by delivering meals to older and disabled folks. (I love Meals on Wheels deliveries...my friend Linda and I have had the same route for about 4 years, and we've gotten to know many of the clients over that time. It's
very rewarding!!!)
I started thinking about what I had on hand to donate, and came up with the brilliant idea of making a pendant using the ENOA logo. My idea was to fashion the logo out of silver wire, solder it to a copper backing and be done with it...easy peasy! ENOA wanted the donation to be dropped off by Monday - no problem!!
Not so much. The logo
wasn't as easy to fashion out of wire as I'd imagined. Back to the drawing board...all I had to do was make a copper and silver pendant with the ENOA logo, as I'd cleverly described.
I'd never pierced and sawed out any kind of design, nor had I riveted before, but I decided those were the best methods of making my pendant. Off to do some research....
I shrunk down a picture of the ENOA logo, and using techniques from
Step By Step Jewelry Workshop, I pierced and sawed it out of a piece of 24g copper sheet. I then cut a piece of sterling silver sheet (28g) that would fit across the back of the copper, stamped my business name and the year on the back, and riveted the two pieces together. My good friend
Nancy's tutorial on riveting was, well,
riveting and served as my guide for learning that technique.
After completing the riveting and some additional filing, I soldered a bail on the back...I've done plenty of soldering, but nothing quite like that...another new technique learned!
I was very pleased with the end result - there are a couple of boo-boos on the piece, but hopefully they are apparent only to my eye. ;-) I'm dropping it off at the ENOA office this afternoon, and I hope they like it as well.
Piercing and riveting was fun...I think I'll try it again, but not with the pressure of a deadline!
Labels: charity, copper, ENOA, Meals on Wheels, new techniques, pendant, pierced, rivet, saw, solder
Monday, May 05, 2008
Crazy Busy....
Been a couple of crazy busy weeks here!
At the end of April, my son was confirmed and we had a number of out-of-town guests. It was great to visit with all the relatives, and have everyone's support for Jeremy's big event.
Last weekend, I participated in an art show in Lincoln, NE with the ARTitudes gang. Over the course of a few hours, we transformed an unused warehouse (formerly a hair salon!) into a fantastic looking art gallery. We had many compliments on the set up - and like magic, by 7:00 Sunday evening, the gallery disappeared and the warehouse returned. Each ARTitudes show benefits a local charity, this spring's show donated 20% of all proceeds to
Lighthouse in Lincoln. I had the opportunity to chat with Executive Director Bill Michener...what a fantastic guy, and a great program for youth in Lincoln.
In a few weeks, I'll be heading out to Grand Forks, ND for the Grand Cities Art Festival...lots to get ready for that show as well!
I haven't forgotten about Mother's Day, however...some of the terrific projects you still have time to make for Mom before Sunday include Beading Help Web's
Mother's Bracelet with Charm, a
Multi-Strand Mother's Bracelet, and of course, my
Hematite and Pearl's Mother's Bracelet crafted with beads from
Generation Gems. If you haven't ordered your personalized beads from Generation Gems yet, why not give Mom a "gift certificate" on Mother's Day for the bracelet and let her help design it!
Labels: art show, busy, charity, crazy, gift certificate, Mother's Day
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The Long and Short of it....
I think it was about November, 2006. For some reason my stylist, Roseanne's, words stuck with me..."You have a LOT of hair!!" and her other memorable quote "It's JUST hair!!!". I decided to work toward donating my hair to women who have experienced hair loss due to cancer and other disease. I began checking out donation sites, and found that the most common hair donations are to Locks of Love - making wigs for children who are fighting cancer.
Locks of Love has some pretty stringent guidelines, and I'd heard reports that hair that didn't meet those guidelines was thrown out. I certainly didn't want my (mumble mumble)-year old hair being thrown out, so I did more research.
I was happy to find that
Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program accepts hair that has some grey (yeah, okay, so I have "natural" highlights...) and a little shorter (8") pony tail. So I kept growing my hair out. It grows fast (about 1" a month) but with trims to keep it healthy, it was still going to take a while!!!
About 3 weeks ago, I thought to myself that this long hair wasn't so bad...it looked good, and wasn't all that much work. I was growing attached to it, and maybe I wanted to just keep it.
But there was a greater force working. A few days later, I was ready to take a chain saw to it myself. I was walking through the bank and ZING! there went my hair clip. My hair was just "too big" to stay in a clip. Pony tail holders were not even keeping the mop in place. Something was working at me to say CUT IT and let someone else enjoy it.
On Tuesday, April 9, I went to my new stylist, Tammy (Roseanne, my old stylist had retired). We measured the length, and there was enough to donate. As she cut off the first chunk (so much darn hair that she had to do two sections!!!), I felt a pang of grief. Looking at the tails of hair on her table, I almost felt like I'd had a limb amputated.
BUT. I love my new style. I went out Tuesday night with girlfriends and was told that I tossed my hair all night (I didn't realize I did it LOL!). I went to work the next day and felt more professional, and (true story!) I got a promotion.
Long story short (hahahaha), I don't consider myself to be an altruistic person. I had a commodity that I could take care of for a while, and I wanted to let someone else maybe feel pretty while they were going through one of the most horrific and courageous fights I can imagine. I sincerely hope that by donating my hair, I'm giving someone else a gift that helps them get through the day...to be able to go to the grocery store, day care, or work and appear "normal".
So that's me this week. Yes, I'm working on some jewelry projects (and will share them with you in a bit ;-) ), but this just seemed a little more important at this point. :-)
Labels: charity, donations, haircut, not jewelry, pantene
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Exciting new contest from Interweave Press!
Want to be a Bead Star? Well, you can throw your hat in the ring for a chance at over $12,000 in prizes, including a trip to Sante Fe for the 2009 Bead Expo!!!! Entries are due no later than May 6, and can be sumitted via email.
Interweave Press, publisher of
Bead Work and
Bead Style magazines, has announced a Casting Call for the Bead Star contest. Winners will also have the opportunity to donate their work to an auction benefitting the American Heart Association's women's heart health initiatives!
More on the contest on the official
Bead Star web site...good luck!!!
Labels: Bead Star, charity, contest, donations, Interweave Press
