Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Where The Work Gets Done

This week I will show you a glimpse of where I do a lot of my work. I just have one pic, the others didn't turn out so great. Maybe another week I will show you some supplies that's stashed all over the place.

I do a lot of work at my computer and also my drafting table which is where I also take my pics for the store. I was actually working on some beads while I took the pic. My space is typically cluttered with paper, glue and scissors. They are never out of arms reach.

Under my drafting table I have many items boxed up that are listed in my store, all my quilling paper is under there as well as some other papers.

So this is pretty much it besides supplies stashed in various drawers and boxes and a closet or two. Oh and ps my desktop is a pic I took in Florida. I love that picture....and Florida.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

After It Sold

I hope you guys aren't sick of my paper beads yet. Today I wanted to show you what people have made with my beads. It's so exciting for me to see what a magazine page looks like in the magazine, once I make beads out of it and then what customers make with them.

First crochetedbycharlene made this necklace with them. It's a little rustic mixed with a little bit of whimsy. I love it!










Next is this necklace by tantancharms. I didn't realize my paper beads can look this sophisticated.










For a wide variety of my beads check out my store.
Once you're done creating something convo me a link to your item or send me pics. I would love to do more posts like this of all the wonderful things people create with my beads.

Thanks for checking out these items!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Paper Beads

I'm sure many of you have seen lots of my paper beads in my shop. For today's blog post I want to give you a peek at the ones you haven't seen. ...I have lots!

My little drawer full of beads. You can't really tell but they're piled about 4 inches high.

A little bit of overflow from drawer one.

Close up of the premiere bead collection.

And a cup of focal bead!

Help me, help your bead stash. Spring is approaching and I have lots of new things to list and I'm sure your busy whipping up some new spring designs. Plus I'm trying to hit 150 sales, lol. So from Tuesday 3/8 at llpm (etsy time) until Thursday 3/10 at 11 am if you buy two or more batches of beads you will get one free.

***Make sure to put BLOG in the notes to seller so that I know you are a buyer who saw this post.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Vitruvius

I'm not much of a reader, I would rather watch a movie. That way I can make things and watch at the same time rather than using my hands to hold a book. BUT there is one book that I will never forget and love. It's Vitruvius' "The Ten Books of Architecture". I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves architecture or design.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect and engineer who was very ahead of his time in my opinion. His career began long before any of us existed or our ancestors for that matter...way back in the first century B.C. Vitruvius served in the Roman Army under Julius Caesar.

In this book Virtuvius talks about so many things that architects and engineers still take into consideration. He speaks about how the site for a building is important and how you need to start with a firm ground and a good foundation. He also talks about the positioning of buildings in regards to the sun rising and setting as well as the wind.

He also describes how to layout theaters to have the best acoustic quality and how to align the seating so it will sound best to those attending. He wrote about columns and the proportions for them. In a time before large industrial kilns were used to dehydrate wood fro building he talks about when is the best time of the year to harvest trees so there is not excess sap. And to even cut partially through the trunk to let the sap dry because damp lumber isn't good to build with.

He was a wealth of knowledge. But many of you probably know of Vitruvius in more of an indirect way. By the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. In the book Vitruvius discusses how the human body is composed of geometrical principles. If you have ever taken a drawing class where you drew people, you have used these principles without knowing.

Below is an excerpt of the book describing the human body, followed by da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

"For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless renown. Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to be the greatest harmony in the symmetrical relations of the different parts to the general magnitude of the whole. Then again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square."