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Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - Week 12
Tick . . . tick . . . tick. According to the Christmas clock, there are now only 13 (!!!) days until Christmas! It’s hard to believe that December is already here and, with it, the last week of the Countdown to Christmas 2018. The Countdown has been graciously hosted by Julie and Blue of Blue Morning Expressions on their The Blu Print blog. Yes, week 12 has come and gone and 45 artisan handmade and vintage items from 15 artists were left in its wake, any of which will be perfect for a Christmas gift that was individually handmade from the heart. Help Santa make it a HANDMADE Christmas this year!
Colors to Love! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
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Most artists absolutely love a wide range of colors - that’s part of being an artist, right? Vibrant colors and subdued colors, they all have their places in designs. As Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter who is credited with painting the first purely abstract works, once said:
"Color is a power that directly influences the soul."
I totally agree!
Terrific Turquoise - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Since I live in the Desert Southwest, turquoise is a definite favorite of people, both the gemstone itself and the color. Turquoise is a shade of blue that lies on the color scale between blue and green. It has psychological characteristics associated with both of those colors: the calmness of blue and the growth that is represented in green. Turquoise is said to be a color that balances blue, green and yellow, linking it to emotional balance. It is a color promotes a feeling of serenity and stability. I don’t know about you, but whenever I work with turquoise, I do feel a great sense of peace and calmness.
Terrific Turquoise is the theme of today’s Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade blog. Each artisan handmade item selected uses the color turquoise (or even the gemstone itself) as a major part of the design or as a beautiful accent. Most of these beauties are one of a kind designs and all are made from the heart. I hope you enjoy these handmade creations using the color turquoise.
Bohemian Rhapsody - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
It’s amazing how often my blogs are inspired by music. As you have probably noticed, music is, and always has been, a huge part of my life. For some reason, I have been listening quite a bit to the complete soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies. Heroic music for an awesome trilogy! It ended (for the umpteenth time) and I switched to my Pandora station. And . . . Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen started the mix of music. The song, which was released in 1975, instantly took me back to a time at university when several friends and I developed a Bohemian Rhapsody skit . . . and performed it at a university talent show! Am sure the skit was absolutely, undeniably horrible. But whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to all the hard work and laughter as we pulled the antics of the skit together. Am sure there is a photo or two around, but I have no idea where they are.
Caribbean Blue - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Usually when I’m working on a blog post or listing an item in my Indiemade shop, my Pandora station is palying on my computer. My stream has a great blend (at least to me) of classic rock, some more modern rock, some folk music and a big dose of Celtic inspired music - that's the Scots-Irish coming out in me. Yesterday, as I was finishing up another blog, the song “Caribbean Blue” by Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (better known as Enya) came on. Even though Enya sings many Celtic folk songs, some in Gaelic, with her usually heavily synthesized backdrops and multiple layers of her own voice, she is more of a New Age musician, in my humble opinion. "Caribbean Blue" was a mega-hit for her, and rightly so. I find her music very relaxing and always pause and enjoy the minutes when songs of hers show up in the Pandora rotation. Sometimes I'll even plug in one of her CDs and totally bliss out. To see the amazingly beautiful video of the song click here: CARIBBEAN BLUE
The Sky is Already Purple - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
"The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world."
I have always loved this quote from Alice Hoffman’s novel, Here on Earth. It is so very evocative of watching the sky turn dark here in the Desert Southwest during this glorious time of the year. When the sky is transformed for a few minutes into a magical velvety bluish-purple color, a multitude of stars come out to to play, twinkling away. Then the sky will finally slip into a depthless black and even more stars will appear . . . and, hopefully, a shooting star will streak across the sky. Another reason autumn is my favorite time of the year.
Autumn Browns - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
With autumn definitely in the air (at least here in the Borderlands - finally), Mother Nature's natural cycle of life is beginning to slow. There is a feeling of drawing inward, of self-reflection and, perhaps, as bit of melancholy, as we begin to prepare for the coming colder months of winter. The colors of fall are everywhere, which reminds me of this a quote from Helen Hunt Jackson, as American author: "The goldenrod is yellow, The corn is turning brown, The trees in apple orchards With fruit are bending down." So evocative of my favorite season of the year.
Eclipse Blues - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday
Yesterday, I was flying back home from Dallas right as the eclipse was happening in far West Texas. Unfortunately, the sun was right above the plane, so I couldn’t see any of it. But I was able to see the ground (something like 40,000 feet below) slowly growing darker. Although since the eclipse was only about 65% in my area of the world, it didn’t get anywhere as dark as a full eclipse. But what was interesting was watching the sky as the sun dimmed and then grew brighter - what beautiful shades of deep, rich blues showed up and then slowly dissolved into the more normal paler sky blues. The colors looked almost velvety if you could just reach out and touch them!
The photo above is the one and only photo I took yesterday towards the end of the eclipse. I just pointed my old iPhone at the sun and clicked, hoping the sun wouldn't fry the lense. Not a great photo by any means - the sun doesn't even look like it is eclipsing with all the "light leakage." It wasn't until I downoaded the photo on the computer that I noticed the lense flare with a clear eclipse shape in it, which is what the sun actually looked like at that time. Yay! But look at the sky . . . what an amazing color!
The Charismatic Color of Copper - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
The first recorded use of copper as a color name in English was in 1594. It is a charismatic reddish brown color that resembles the color of polished copper. According to Wikipedia, however, there are about 25 different shades of “copper,” from a verdigris green (copper green) to a dark brown (dark copper). It is a trendy color, found in everything from jewelry to clothing to household decoration and accents. Beautiful with shades of green and blue (mint, teals, turquoise, navy), it actually works well with almost any color as this article in Lushome shows: 30 Modern Interior Designs.
Beautiful Firsts - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Looking for a handmade gift for a special someone, an item that was made from the heart? Each of the Beautiful Firsts creations featured below are artisan handcrafted; many are one of a kind designs. The unique items chosen are the first listing in each shop (as of this post) but there are many more beauties to be discovered if you stay awhile and browse. Support handmade . . . support handmade artists!
