wood burning

I just bought some new wood pendents and I was thinking of some ideas to make these little pieces my own. So I pulled out the handy wood burning tool I have, and walla some depth and color to my little pendents. I can not wait to turn these into a light weight pair of earrings. I am busy working on some new pieces for a Boutique I am selling at on April 05 in Huntington Beach, CA. I have been crazy busy since I leave for China in about 11 days and will be gone for some time.

This is the front:

This is the Back side:

Random Blog

I named this blog random for a reason, (it is so random)...

I was serching through different blogs and found a very funny one How About Orange, that gave me a push to write today. I have been very busy planning a trip to China in March; getting ready for a boutique in April and trying to jugle life. Monday was the only day I did not have something planned after work so I worked on my website Oswanny Designs.

See the picture below, this was taken in Glamis CA, over the past weekend. It was taken from a moving car so the picture is not A++, but I really like the contrast of the blue and tan colors.

Flower Inspiration Series

While I was driving home from work last night I decided to make small series of jewelry in my line. The first thing I saw was a birds of Paradise tropical flower, and the light went on. A Flower series, since spring is coming, and with the flowers in bloom, this would be my inspiration. So today at lunch I went around taking pictures of flowers. I can't wait to start on this new project. I will keep you posted on the outcome. I have many more ideas but I think I will start here.

Goddess of Craft

Feburary Goddess Meeting It was my month to host the Goddess of Craft. A time to work on our projects, drink some wine, have some pizza, and share what’s been going on in our lives.

Pat made the cutest Valentines Pot holders. Thank you for the Valentines day gift.

Kathryn worked on her new Men's beanie line (picture below). You can find her beautiful purses, and hats on etsy http://www.camelliadesigns.etsy.com/

Katie sketched some very cute buttons and tea cups. She was just recently published in 2 Magazines. Congratulations, the articles are a good read. Check out Katies work at http://www.katydid-designs.com/

I worked on Paper Mache (I had no luck); I also made my co-worker a pair of earring. I will be putting some of my new creations on http://www.oswannydesigns.etsy.com/ by the end of the weekend.

Happy Lunar New Year - Long Life for all

Here is my tribute to the New Lunar Year.

The painting below was done with Acrylic and done over the weekend. The New Year is on February 7th, I decided to post this now because in a few hours is will be the 7th in some parts of the world.

I work with many people located in China and they all told me that my Chinese Character has the meaning of happiness and good life. This is a common symbol that hangs on the door in some homes in China. This is my version of a lotus flower at the top in red.

I also designed the pair of earrings for this great holiday. The meaning of the sterling silver charm is “long life”. You can find this pair of earring for sale at
http://www.oswannydesigns.etsy.com/







Picture of my painting

CYN

The Lunar New Year challenge... Show off your best work for the Chinese New Year on Feb. 7th. I will participate if you will.

Route 66

I went today to visit my girlfriend and we took our own tour of Route 66, what an adventure it was.

When there was a beautiful rainbow I knew it was going to be a great day.

Then the light was shining thru the clouds with the mountains as the back drop

Ate at Molly Brown's Country Cafe... Yummy

Ran into a cross street with the same name as my middle name "Swan"

Saw alot of glass bottles - I found some art in this

Day of inspiration; I had the urge to start painting again; I have not used this media is some time.

Old Town Orange

On Saturday I went antique shopping in hopes to find something to put on the mantel, no such luck. However I did come across some hidden treasures, there was a case that had silver dollars for sale $8.95 years 1918-1942. Wow I said to myself, it seems that the person selling this had not updated there case in quite some time. The price of silver has gone up to $16 and some change so you can imagine my excitement. As I waited in line there were bins of old postcards, some written on, some blank… this is where the true treasures were found. It was so exciting to see what people were writing about in 1914 and 1955, such nostalgia for the time.


Take a look at some of the postcards I got below.

Art Of Entertainment

One thing that I love most is entertaining, so you can imagine how exciting it was to learn that OCB was going to be at my house this month. OCB (orange county bastards) is where my Mother and Father in-laws drive all the way from Claremont to visit there two children.

When entertaining, all you need is some good food and good company, we got it last night. James dressed up like a horse to play with our niece, gave his father a scare by picking him up. Watched a very scary move Stuart Little, and got to catch up with the family.

Here are some pictures:

Moon Cakes

Moonc Cakes???

What in the world it that you may ask. It is a very special cake from China with egg custard inside, you can only get these moon cakes at certain times of the year (around October). I personally do not like the taste of them, but others tell me there heavenly. This is a very big thing in some parts of China; they typically sell the cakes in pretty tins or boxes. The last time I was there in October I picked up a few knowing I would use the tins at a later time.

This project below did not come with out frustration, the crystals did not want to stick on. The biggest mistake was buying Preciosa over Swarovski, I did buy some Swarovski and there is such a difference in the application. This is probably why I choose Swarovski when making Jewelry. They are just a step ahead of the rest.

The two pictures below show different prespectives and angle technology. My new camera will be arriving in the mail soon, I look forward to learning photo art a bit more.