Unapologetic Adornments

Call It What You Will...

2010-01-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

After spending way too much time thinking about the best way to name my listings in my Etsy shop so it will win the search game I threw up my hands.
Enough!
I would rather have fun, be authentic, goofy, playful. Tell it like it is!! I had a look around to see who else might already be doing this and I found some terrific shops!
Check this one

POLIDENT PEUGEOT....Yo, Stinky Jimmy...hand me my dentures would ya, I gotta go into town...it's free sample day at the grocery store.....and I gotta look goooood...

Seriously, that's the name.....

BACK STAGE BURRO....Hurry up Stinky Jimmy....get in that cake and hide...now sit down with pee pee poodle and be quite.....and for crying out loud...Hold It In...

I sincerely do wish I could meet stinky Jimmy and pee pee poodle. Outdoors, probably, but still...and

Yep, those are really the names and I'm not exactly sure what they are but they are pretty awesome! This lady is running a rescue for miniature donkeys and proceeds from her shop go their care. Pay her a visit!! I promise you will leave with a smile: pomegranite80 and buy something if you can so she can continue to take of her donkeys!

How about this?

Batshit Crazy Bath Lady

Great name! We know exactly what we are in for! This batshit crazy lady is part of a collection of NY queens available at Urban Sherpa. Pay a visit to her shop to see all three queens and to find 'salvage inspired home decor'

Here's another one I really liked:

did you name your Roomba, then tag her proudly to prove you're crazy about her

Well, did you?

Please visit Mary Poppins Presents to see all of the amazing things there. There's even some men's fight club shirts! Go now and see 'em!

Finally, there's mine! I decided to take the plunge. What the heck right?

Stimulus Induced Madness Monkeys - Banged Earrings

Wild Cod Loins Banged Earrings

I certainly don't know how it will effect our ability to get our shops listings seen but I know one thing for sure, it's a hecka lot more fun! Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your own creative, out of the box, tell it like it is kind of name.

Love,

Janet

Someting New!!

2010-01-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

I love starting some thing new! It's so gosh darn exciting!!!

I was really surprised to find that the heart sold as I was writing this post.

I hope it makes someone very happy.

There is something so trans-formative about hammering and twisting metal. It's like a collaboration between myself and the metals I'm working with. It's more about what they want than what I want.

Happy, joyful, fun! I'm so lucky I have something I'm excited to do every day.

Wishing

2010-01-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

Wishing I had a river to skate away on.

judemcconkey

and it wouldn't matter how far I went, I could always stop...and sit for a while inside where it's warm.

theworldinamatchbox

LarryNicosiaPhoto

That could be me, years ago, when life it seems, was much simpler

amberalexander

and everything I imagined seemed like it could really happen

'She Does The Seemingly Impossible'

LisaKaser

even if it was only in my dreams.

bryancollins

A Little Piece of Home

2010-01-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been feeling a little homesick for Hawaii so I thought I would take a look around and see what's happening on my home island of Oahu.

liisa roberts photography
Liisa Roberts Website

These photographs are so great to see! It looks the same as it did when I lived there and visited this beach several times a week. These are Na Mokulua (the two islands) as seen from Lanikai beach on the windward side of Oahu. Na Mokulua is a protected bird sanctuary and one of the islets has a black sand beach.

lilikoicottage

Lilikoi is the word for passion fruit in Hawaiian. I love lilikoi cottage's soft sweet colors. Lilikoi and guavas grow in abundance in the hills and in people's gardens. Lilikoi is very tart but it makes wonderful juice!

HollyVision Art

And I love HollyVision's vibrant colors! The second image is of a dancing, 'Tutu'. Tutu in Hawaiian means Grandmother. In Hawaii, everyone might call an elder Tutu, whether she is their real grandmother or not. The sense of o'hana or family, is very strong in the islands, all of my friend's children called me 'Aunty' which is also very common.

At local luaus everyone loves it when Tutu gets up to dance. Sometimes the dance is a beautiful one and sometimes bawdy and fun, either way, it always makes the day.

Tropical Crush

These gorgeous earrings in red have a pattern that is commonly used in traditional Hawaiian quilts. These quilts carry a lot of history in them as quilting techniques were introduced to the islands in the early 1800's by the missionaries. The islanders preferred to use local flora as inspiration rather than the geometric designs commonly used at the time. To me, they reflect the natural grace and sense of beauty inherent in the Polynesian people.

GMarceenDesign

That was so much fun to take this little excursion through my childhood home and I hope you enjoy these wonderful artists bringing some 'Aloha' to Etsy.

Aloha kakou !!!

Bright Blessings

2010-01-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness!! I received the most wonderful thing in the mail today!!!!

Birdy, of Crow Tarot remembered that I said I really missed Fall, living in the desert so she sent me a whole box of beautiful Fall leaves.

I was so delighted!!! I crumpled a few to release the scent that I so dearly missed this year. Then I started to play with them a little. I thought it would be fun to introduce them to some of the native plants here.

Red leaf with Barrel Cactus

Red leaf and yellow leaf with Agave plant

I thought they got along very nicely!

Brown leaf with Saguaro

Thank you so much, Birdy and Mike for sending me a little piece of Fall from your neck of the woods!

Love,

Janet

XXXXXX OOOOOO

You can find the very talented and wonderful Bird on her blog, 'The Crows Nest' and in her shop on Etsy, 'Crow Tarot'.

Weird, Creepy, and Bloody Cute, An Interview With dancesippydance

2009-10-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Once again while cruising through the Etsy forums an unusual avi catches my eye. I had to take a peek in dancesippydance's shop as soon as I saw her unique avi. Who makes art like that? I immediately fell in love with her whimsical and slightly unsettling paintings and sculptures. I kept thinking that some of her sculptures reminded me of people I knew or have seen somewhere. I had to laugh when I discovered that I myself had been poor little Roxy on occasion. Dancesippydance has the gift of being able to reach deep into the psyche, into our dream world, that place that lives just a little ways past our peripheral vision, and bring it out into the light where we can all see it. Here the delightful dancesippydance to tell you about her work.

dialing the phone is so difficult for roxy, is it too much to ask for a live person to answer instead of a machine?

Right off the bat, I have to know who is sippy and why must he/she/it dance?

lol,i am sippy. an occasional nickname from my husband, usually used when i would punctuate a statement by taking a sip of a drink. o really it came from him making fun of me, "dance sippy dance" actually came from... well, my husband making fun of me.
The morning after a night out with friends, i was drinking a coffee and telling him about the evenings events. i was telling him (with an unnecessary amount of disgust) how i was badgered into dancing to a song which i hated. he said, "what did they do?" he pulled my coffee mug out of my hand,got on his tippy toes, held the mug high as if playing keep away and said, "DANCE SIPPY! DANCE!" that phrase just always stuck in my head because it was so funny.

underwater juggling is harder than you might think.

Your work is so unusual, please tell us how and when did you start creating these pieces.

i have always been drawn to the unusual. as long as i can remember i always tried to add some weirdness to my art.
ideas just pop into my head, usually when i should be paying attention to something else. if there was an invasion of evil aliens, the second someone started giving me directions to the escape pod i would think " i should paint a fat, bald guy in an evening gown.". i miss a lot of important information that way.

he isn't really sure what he thinks of his new chiropractor

Who or what inspires you artistically?

wow, too many things to mention. a big one is kid's art.i love kid's art! i always have. i totally dig the unintentional happenings of bang on perspective, as much as i dig unintentional happenings of outrageously out of whack perspective, accidental smudges that look like brilliant shadows, grimacey little heads peeking over big round bodies, seemingly naked, yet with three buttons down the chest, i love it all. i'm sure people think the cheese is sliding off my cracker when i get all excited and start dissecting the nuances of a

preschooler's scrawl.

Avrid is concerned about his waistline.

What’s the story behind the pinheads and will there be more? (I wish you had a huge series of pinheads, I love them so!)

aw, thank you. the pinheads lead right back to kid's art. when my son was in grade 1 they had a "100th day celebration" one of the projects they had to do for homework was to take a big poster board and glue 100 of any item onto it(cheerios,popsicle sticks, etc.). i cut 100 pieces of 1 inch cardstock (in the same colors that the pinhead paintings are in now) and we drew 100 monsters. the finished piece looked so cool, i knew instantly that i would do some paintings of the same flavor. the original style of the pinheads was shamelessly thieved from the first monster my son drew on the project.

yes! there will always be more pinheads! i do need to take a break from them every once in awhile otherwise the paintings look stale to me, nothing worse than a stale pinhead.

pinheads dig miasma.

Is there anyone special, who you feel has been very supportive of your artistic endeavors?

all my friends are great supporters but i have to say the feedback i have received from the etsy community has been invaluable to me. somewhere in the back of my head when a friend comments/compliments my work i think to myself "well, what else are they gonna say? "i hate your work"". etsy has gained me some fans and collectors of my work, and a handful of self professed shop stalkers, it's been very validating and motivating.
of course, i should also mention mr.sippy, who not only supports my artistic endevours but my shopping,eating, and having a roof over my head endevours.

basil doesn't know who is managing your career, but he thinks they are doing you a great disservice.

Do you have any words you would like to share with readers? A favorite quote, piece of advice, or a cause that is particularly meaningful to you?

yikes! that feels like it requires a profound statement... don't text and drive? stay in school? buy low, sell high?

"I've had a rough year, dad."

"I know you have, Chassie."

it was really one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments, but you should have seen it, it was quite a trick.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, dancesippydance, you have inspired me and made me laugh right out loud and that's an incredible gift. I'm coming to find you, should we be invaded by evil aliens, to make sure you find your way to the escape pod. You're a keeper and we're gonna need you on whatever planet we end up on.

Please visit dancesippydance in her shop. And remember, "pretending you didn't see homeless artwork doesn't make the problem go away"

Trudy's Big Beautiful Heart

2009-10-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Trudy...Where to begin?
I met Trudy in May in the Etsy forums, her colorful avi caught my eye right away and I had to see her shop and find out more about her. Trudy creates vibrant, beautiful paintings as a means to survive and persevere after the loss of her twin sister, Jude. It looks to me like she has found a way to open the door and invite us all in to the celebration of life. Please enjoy Trudy's wonderful paintings and her inspired words.

"The minute I spotted this gorgeous sunlit sunflower, I knew that I had to paint it. I had never seen one this color before! It was so vibrant, so beautiful...so orange!
The sunflower represents warmth, happiness, adoration and longevity. The orange and red colors also represent passion."

"We have all experienced pain in our lives. Knock you on your bottom sadness...crying tears that had no end. When I was in the depths of the abyss I called it my , "Humpty Dumpty Years." "All the King's Horses and all the King's Men Couldn't Put Humpty Back Together Again."
Time DOESN'T heal all wounds. It is what you do with that time! May this beautiful painting be hanging in full view of those who need it! The author is anonymous. It was an honor to paint this piece to match these profound words. "

"I sold this print at a Farmer's Market and everyone who saw her had a good laugh...I knew exactly which one they were looking at! Gotta love ZZA ZZA!
I love people on the edge and she certainly fills the bill on that one. She is an icon. Love her or hate her you'll still laugh!
She also looks so fabulous with her fancy hairdo and her sexy come hither eyes!
The disgruntled gentleman at the bottom of the page is my husband! I see that look often! (JUST KIDDING!)No I"m not!"

"I want my art to make you think..to make you laugh..tug at your heart..to make you feel an emotion! I want my art to wake you up as it has me!"

Trudy certainly has painted a vibrant world for us to wake up to! Much mahalos (thanks) to Trudy for cheerfully agreeing to let me use her paintings to decorate my blog!

Please visit Trudy's shop to see all of her paintings and read more about her.

Fantasticly Sparkly Jewelry From Diadem Jewels

2009-10-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

I was so delighted to find Diadem Jewel's shop during a recent 'sparkly' search. Her fine jewelry is a real treat for the eye and has an elegant fantasy feel to it that I really loved. I asked Lauren, the creator of these amazing pieces, what inspires her work. Here's what she had to say;

My pieces are inspired by music, nature, and fantasy (fairy tales and such). All my jewels are sterling silver or gold filled and I am very open to mixing colors that most people wouldn't.

My favorite Fairy Tales are Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. None of my pieces are exactly inspired by a single story, just tales in general. Something a fairy princess or a magical being would wear. A lot of it comes from what I think elves, faeries, pixies would wear. I mix those ideas

with contemporary/modern looks.

My favorite beads are gems but I also like to use swarovski crystals occasionally. Sometimes a piece is inspired solely on a bead. I feel that one of a kind beads have a story of their own to tell.

I put a lot of time and feelings into every piece that I create which is why I don't make many at a given time- this is why they're extra special, because they're one of a kind. I usually don't remake a piece and my hands do the work, none of my designs are ever sketched out, they come to me on a whim.

Thank you so much, Lauren, for helping to make my unapologetic blog look amazing! To see more of Lauren's magical, elegant jewelry please visit her lovely shop at Diadem Jewels.

Seriously Sparkly From Pookie and Pierre

2009-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to discover this gem of an artist and I couldn't look at all of her beautiful creations fast enough! Each piece was making me hungry for the next. That's really how it feels to visit the shop at Pookie and Pierre.
I was so delighted to find that the proprietor, Emily, is just as sweet and sparkly as her gorgeous, hand woven, colorful and (need I say it?) sparkly jewelry. She kindly offered to share a little bit about herself here. By the way...Emily tells me that Pookie and Pierre are her two fat French kitties who sit with her while she beads.

Hi, my name is Emily, and yes, I can be a little sarcastic, but I am also a creative, loving and at times even funny woman with a lot to give and share.

I've always been a bit of the creative type. I love to write, dabble in painting, basically... create. The ability to turn nothing into something beautiful impresses me every day and motivates me to continue.

My mother lost her battle with breast cancer in September 2007. For anyone who has gone through this or been impacted personally by the disease, you understand what this means. My mother was my best friend and biggest supporter. Losing her was devastating. In the grieving process, I lost my desire to create. I stopped making jewelry. Life truly lost its color and sparkle.

Over time, I kept coming back to a message that my mother often left me with that I never quite listened to or understood. She always told me, very clearly, to "do what makes you happy". I of course, being brilliant in my old age, pursued what made me money. But those words continued to haunt me and ultimately drove me back into creating and making jewelry. Color started to come back and life began to sparkle again.

I wholeheartedly support the message behind this blog. "Bringing forth art without apology or qualification." What a truly empowering message that really applies to a whole lot in life. We are who we are. We like what we like. We love who we love. Embrace that fully and share it with the world.

Thanks for the opportunity to share a little of my story. In closing, do what makes you happy, embrace your inner child/creative chaos, love those around you and take advantage of every opportunity. You never know where life will take you. I hope your paths are filled with a little color and sparkle and a whole lot of joy.

Thank you Emily for sharing your story and fantastic jewelry with us. You are a lovely, inspiring person and I'm truly happy I found you! Please go visit Emily in her Etsy shop at Pookie and Pierre to see more of her sparkling jewelry and photography.

Sunshine in Sopron: by Emily.

Inspired Gorgeousness! Handspun Artyarns From Coolclimates

2009-10-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

I came across this amazing artist while searching for my fellow sparkly Etsians. I was just blown away by her sense of color and texture so I had to have her gorgeous yarns to share here. She kindly took the time to answer my questions and agreed to be featured. I am so excited to present Rachel from Coolclimates.

Tidal Pool Handspun Artyarn

my heart be still...it has beads AND sparkle in it!

How do you choose what you will add to a piece?
I know what I'm trying to capture before I spin the yarn so I pick items that I think will further enrich that idea. For example, with "Tropical Rainforest" I knew I wanted some tropical flowers thrown in.

Do you ever get stuck? How do you move through that?
Yes, sometimes. I go to Ravelry and go to several of my groups who post amazing pictures and ideas for inspiration. There are lots of "challenges" (games and such) for people to spin certain kinds of yarn. I also just look through books of scenery, my travel photos, etc.

New Hampshire Handspun Artyarn

Why do you choose the colors you do?
Again, I have a certain theme or topic in mind with the yarn before I start out. Sometimes I try to match colors in the ones through a photograph. Other times, I just pick out colors that I think will best express the idea I have in mind.

Do you have one piece that is your favorite? The one you can't part with or wish you didn't?
I have several. I guess "Garden of Earthly Delights" (Heironoymous Bosch) is one example. It's just so unique and I don't think I could easily make another one. Also, there are yarns that I spin that have great personal meaning to me that I'd like to hold on to.

Beach Party Handspun Artyarn

Do you listen to music when you work? If so what do you listen to?
Yes, all the time! I listen to all kinds of music: world music, rock, etc. Some of my favorite musicians are David Bowie, Sigur Ros, the Beatles, Bjork, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Tori Amos and so many more.

Is there someone who has had an influence on you?
I would say that Lexi Boeger and her book have had an influence on my yarn. I have been trying to spin most of the yarns in the book and have been continuing to use those techniques in my future yarn.

Nordic Light Twist Handspun Yarn

What did you dream of doing when you were a kid? If we knew you then could we guess that you would be spinning art yarn?
I wanted to be a rock star. I never would have thought that I'd be spinning artyarn.

I read in your profile that you have traveled a lot and are influenced by your travels. Tell me how these places have influenced your work.
A combination of factors. Usually, it is a particular place that I visit that makes a real impression on me. Such as the Blue Lagoon in Iceland or the Puna district in the Big Island of Hawaii. Iceland, especially, has so many odd and striking color combinations. It's hard to say why I'm drawn to particular places more than others.

Chinese Lanterns Handspun Artyarn

*I really love that Rachel offers a knitted sample of some of her yarns. Here is a sample of the Chinese lanterns Yarn (above) knitted.

Please go visit Coolclimates shops here:

Coolclimates on Artfire

Coolclimates on Etsy

Favorite Things

2009-09-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about my favorite things and why they are my favorites. Some of these things are meaningful because they make me smile or remind me to be playful. I treasure these things. Like this picture I bought at Pop-cycle.

The women who own the store use recycled materials, old frames, and used cabinet doors that they apply images to and embellish with a little glitter and paint. There was a small group of customers admiring this picture with me and commenting when I said, "That's mine!"

I love her RED GLITTERY pants! Trailer trash indeed.

Another favorite is this little guy. He has seen a few parties.

and he's a little cracked.......

and he's keeping that fancy English bone china from taking itself too seriously.

Then there is a chandelier that I made from a discarded bird cage, plastic flowers, and red Christmas lights. I found the idea in a book called, 'Pad'. Such a great book! It has directions for making your own Barbarella furry T.V. cabinet. So swanky!

My best friend Jean told me , "It's just like you Janet, colorful on the outside and light on the inside". How sweet is that?

Here is one of her pieces, it doesn't have a title but I know that this is 'Bettina', one of Jean's alter egos.

I love the scratchy lines, pursy mouth, the tiny waist, and the bits and pieces around the edges. Jean dresses up like Bettina for holidays and important presentations where she is going to school to become an art therapist.

These things are all important to me because they hold on to the feeling of fun, irreverence, playfulness and pushing boundaries. That's a dose of medicine I could use right now.

Permission To Be Very Sparkly

2009-09-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

For a long time I was embarrassed about how I make everything so darn sparkly. I have tried a number of times to 'tone it down' and to be a little more somber. It didn't make me very happy. It wasn't until I put on even more sparkle that it felt right. Complete.

I remember once I was in charge of decorations for a fundraiser event and the woman who was blowing up balloons asked me how many more would I like for her to inflate? My answer, without hesitating, was, "about a million". She looked at me hard trying to determine if I really meant that. I sort of did, I know that it wasn't realistic, still there is a big part of me that really did want a million balloons.

A part of me that likes things to be a bit too much. I still hadn't told her how many tiny lights I wanted strung up. Poor girl.

This blog is dedicated to 'a little over the top', I hope to find other artists who have taken a chance, who really would like a million balloons, please. Thank you.