ASL Hand Scupltures

MoonlightAura - a very talented artist who creates ASL (American Sign Language) hand sculptures, business card holders, greeting cards and more. A must see shop.

Enjoy,
Rocki

Can you feel the love? Alaina J Designs

Just about every day I would see these adorable, brightly colored handmade clay beads while relisting items. I became drawn to them like a magnet and decided to check them out. My goodness, this shop is soooo cute its like going to a pet store and looking at the adorable animals that are just begging you to take them home with you - and you do!

Elaine is the creator/owner of Alaina J Designs (etsy shop name is alanajay). Elaine had a desire to paint, however, as she states "I failed miserably at oil and acrylic painting, so I chose working with clay at the suggestion of my oldest daughter." Good move Elaine, your work is adorable!

Living a very quiet suburb life in the small town of Vicksburg, MS (not Mayberry, but not a big city either) Elaine creates her adorable handmade creations. She started out as an Etsy buyer long ago and eventually started selling her craft.

At first glance of the prices, you may wonder why they are so low. Well, Elaine is doing all this work for fun! She states: "I believe in giving customers the best prices possible... Because I actually don't work for profit. I craft for fun, then sell it." Not only does she sell her handmade crafts in her shop, but Elaine also sells commercial beads & findings.

The beads above are not commercial, these are her handmade FROTHEN SEA WATER Swirl Polymer Clay Beads. Oooh! I just love saying the name, sounds so earthy and fun!

I absolutely love this quote when asked if there was anything she would like people to know about her: "I am a very simple country gal, with a strong desire to run my online business with high morals, strong ethics, and a feeling so friendly, customers can just feel the love through the computer screen."

Most definitely Elaine, I feel the love! Please go and visit Elaine's shop to feel the love yourself!

Happy day!

Rocki

Firewood Furniture

We find inspiration in one form or another, such as working in a garden, a beautiful hike or snowshoeing in the woods, gazing into the waves of an ocean - the list is endless. Nestled in the rural area of Western Massachusetts, you'll find Chuck & Devon of Firewoood Furniture, who find inspiration in the natural world around them.

Firewood Furniture - no, their creative art is not used for firewood! It's all in the name and to quote Devon, here is how they came up with their business name:

"it is a combination of the materials we use. We use birch trees as our logo because we love them, but also because they are a pioneer species that is the first to spread new growth to an area after fire. It seems to fit the name Firewood well. The name also has some irony for us. We both grew up in rural areas where signs for "Firewood" were posted everywhere. And of course, we like to think that nothing we create would be used for firewood unless the apocalypse were upon us :) So our name is partly serious and partly our weird sense of humor."

Chuck is the woodworker and Devon creates ceramics. They like to combine their skills to come up with unique pieces that are both functional and beautiful. You must see their shop to see what I mean. Read their Profile as well, very informative.

Not only do Chuck and Devon sale their work on Etsy, but they also do craft shows. Most of their smaller work is on Etsy, which they heard about in Venus Zine several years ago and finally decided to open up a shop. Glad they did because I'm the proud owner of one their Rustic Serving Trio sets, similar to the one below:

Oh but alas, they have more than gorgeous furniture! Go visit their shop and you'll find beautiful cutting boards, magnets, tiles, earrings and more. I can almost smell the wood and feel the cool sensation of the ceramics just browsing their shop.

Happy shopping!

Rocki

Love Barbara's Feet!

Oh gosh, the first step is always admitting to it... I have a foot fetish!! There, I said it and I meant what I said.

The other day I came across the cutest little feet EVER (and then some!) on Barbara's new Etsy shop "Barbies Best", but she is not new to her craft at all. In fact, Barbara has done it all, sort of: sewing, candles, macrame, tole painting and pretty much whatever is popular at the time. In the 1970's, she even owned a shop in Ohio that sold local handcrafted items on consignment and taught some classes as well.

Barbara discovered polymer clay 3 years ago on a TV show. She finds the clay very soothing to play with. In the beginning she was covering everything she could find with the clay - eggs, vases, wine glasses, candle holders, bowls etc. After watching a show about beads, Barbara was hooked - "Instant gratification. I love the colors, shapes and feel of beads." The details in her creations show how much she loves her work. Like the Red Hat Charm above - love it!

Barbara sells her handmade creations in bead shops and thought she would give Etsy a try. This is how it all began, in her own words: "I was showing a friend some bracelets I had made with my beads and she suggested I take them to the local bead shop and ask if they would sell them for me. The regulars in the shop loved them so much that the owner instantly agreed to take them in on consignment. Every time I walk in the shop I am swarmed to see what's new. Since then I've showed them to other beads shops that now sell my beads. The gals who hang out at the bead shop give me most of my inspiration. I watch what they are making and they always have ideas for me. I also look at patterns on clothes, other jewelry and pictures of just about anything in magazines."

Barbara & I are practically neighbors. Well, sort of. I live near Lake Pleasant and she lives in Lake Havasu City, AZ - a "boating and tourist town where Flip Flops & sandals are the most common footwear as the summer temperatures are usually pushing 110."

I asked her how she came up with those adorable little sandal feet with the perfect little pedicures and here is a snippet of what she said: "One day last spring while I was hanging out at the bead shop I noticed one of the girls wearing a very cute pair of sandals and another one had on a T-shirt with flip flops on the front. The lite when on in my head." The rest is history. You have to see the variety of these adorable beads/charms! There are different sandal styles, colors, etc. She also has a variety of other fun handmade beads.

When she took her little feet to the bead shop, they sold like sunblock on a hot sunny day at the lake! A best seller. Her second most popular beads are the skulls with red rhinestone eyes. She plans on listing more of those soon. I cracked up when she told me what her hubby said: he "wants to know what I do with the rest of the body once I shrink the people and use their heads and feet." Guess only time will tell Barabara ;)

My name is Rocki. I'm a feetaholic and I don't want a cure. I love Barbara's feet!

Now run to her shop and pick up a pair for yourself.

Rocki

On Grizzly Mountain

I have met some of the most amazing talented people while blogging that it truly excites me.

If you would have asked me a year ago what a "tatting shuttle" was, I would have looked at you with a blank look on my face and say "a what?" Now I may not be a scholar on the subject, but I do know what it is now, and let me just say that Dave, of Grizzly Mountain Arts, creates the most BEAUtiful shuttles I've come across!

Dave creates more than gorgeous shuttles, he makes Niddy Noddies and a vast variety of other tools and carvings. Each time I visit Grizzly Mountain Arts blog, I'm like a little kid waiting to see what Santa brought because both Dave & Jo are talented beyond belief. I don't think there is anything Dave CAN'T do.Who is Dave? He is part of the talent on Grizzly Mountain - here is a quote from their profile: "Dave took up the whaler's art of scrimshaw while aboard ship during the Viet Nam War. He has a degree in wildlife ecology and worked over 25 years in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a wildlife law enforcement officer and wildlife refuge manager. He retired in 2002 and now lives on Grizzly Mountain in central Oregon where he still pursues his art. Whales have been protected since 1972 and Dave continues this historic maritime art by scrimshawing on ancient ivory from walrus and mammoth tusks, bone or imitation ivory."

Who's Jo? Another quote, "she is a classically trained flutist who pretends to be an artist at times. She enjoys working with clay, wood and the computer." Jo pretty much, from what I gather, is the backbone for their websites (correct me if I'm wrong Jo!). Plus she is a very fine artist, pretend or not.

These are some of Jo's handmade earthenware clay pendants.
You can find both of their finished work at Grizzly Mountain Arts and their organic and primitive supplies at Grizzly Mountain Cache, but check out their blog for all locations where you can find their work.

I enjoy chatting with Jo, plus they live in Oregon. My oldest son Jeremy lives in Oregon. Maybe next time I'm up that way I can stop by and we can chat in person!

Oh and I do believe Dave does dishes & windows, but Jo can correct me if I'm wrong ;)

Happy day!

Rocki

Calm Mind, Peaceful Life

This is one of my all time favorite photos of Sasha - one of my 'kids' who has me very well trained. I couldn't resist putting her on the coffee table (you should see all the photos I have from this day!)

Oh the Sunflower - my FAVorite flower of all time! It makes me happy. I actually love wild flowers over store bought flowers. Every once in a while Mark brings me home sunflowers from a local flower farm. Natural beauty - I love how they brighten up the room. I have sunflowers in many forms around the house actually - not too many where it's gaudy, just sprinkled about here and there. Oh and Mark says that he lucked out in the flower giving department because I'm allergic to roses, well, just about all heavy pollinated smelly flowers that is.

The reason for this blog? Not meaning to sound cliche', but we truly need to 'stop and smell the flowers' - just like Sasha. No, it's more than that actually.

I do my best to live my life day by day, moment by moment as we truly do not know what is in store for us tomorrow. But here lately there are so many things going on that I need to practice more of what I preach.

Don't get me wrong, my life is fine. I'll admit though that there is some hard hitting reality going on that is a bit difficult to digest, but I'm dealing with that. With that said, I'm going to take in some fun activities that I've put off for way too long, step away from my studio and get out of the house more, not worry about slow sells (which I'm not actually) and simply enjoy my life as it is. I love my life!

Thought I would share my "Calm Mind, Peaceful Life" creation that came about while reflecting this week. Feel free to visit my shop to read more about it.

Happy Friday everyone!

☼ Rocki

How To Tame A Dragon

Seem a little strange to you? A smiling dragon, sitting atop a river rock? Naw! He's harmless!

I came across Strange Child's unique creatures one day and kept going back to peak at them. It was as if I was being drawn to them by some unseen force. Since I read that they were easy to tame I just could not hold back any longer - I finally bought one today!

Jenn, the creator of Strange Child, lives in the top floor of an old farm house with her husband, their dog, and 2 bearded dragons. She has been creating her Bright Eyed Creatures for 3 years now. She creates her Sun Dragons, which are her favorites, Moon Dragons and Imps primarily with river rocks, glass marbles and polymer clay. Oh, what's an Imp?:

Imps are unpredictable little creatures with hornes that often live near Sun and Moon Dragons.

Jenn is helping out a friend of hers, Lady Greenfeet, who is working on setting up her own Etsy shop. So in the meantime, you can see her creations in Strange Child's Etsy shop.

The cutie below is on his way to me. This is a Sun Dragon and their favorite thing to do is to bask on a rock in a brightly lit spot. Hmmm, I think he'll feel right at home with me here in my Arizona Rocki's Rock 'n Beads studio!

You can find more of Strange Child's creatures in her Etsy shop, DeviantArt Gallery, Strange Child Production and Flickr.

I can hardly wait for my new arrival! Oh, I picked up some flame retardant clothing just in case the taming goes awry ;)

Happy day everyone!

☼ Rocki