Work-in-Progress

This is a particularly cool work-in-progress, and it’s going to take a little bit of back-story to explain just why it’s so cool. Bear with me while I give you the details! One of my blogging friends is Danielle Krysa, an amazing artist who also writes a fabulous blog called The Jealous Curator.  She even published a book this year! I’ve written about her on this blog before, when she was kind enough to feature my work on her site. You can probably tell there’s a little hero-worship going on here.  So when Danielle announced that she would be the creative director of an interesting new online marketplace called Great.ly (her description of it is here, and the marketplace itself is here)  I jumped at the opportunity for a collaboration. Danielle sent me a box of favorite things she’s collected that haven’t yet fit into any of her own works, and I’ve just unpacked it. Don’t you love getting presents in the mail? Here, I’ll share the excitement with you – I took photos as I unpacked:

 Layers of tiny, carefully packed trinkets…

Over-sized letters, Scrabble tiles, milagros, and vintage thread…

There, I think that’s everything…

Hmm, let’s sort things out and see what we have … some silver, some gold, some wood, two pink stones … a color palette is beginning to take shape. Love the antique wooden type and the animals! The rabbit is staying, for sure (if you’ve seen my Facebook or Instagram pages, you know I have two bunnies of my own, so I’m biased that way.)

I’m drawn to the pink-and-gold-and-wood colors, but we might need a couple more bits to fill it out. Not too many, just two or three things to bring out those colors.

Fortunately my studio is lined with shelves full of boxes. And the boxes are full of wonders! (They used to have neatly printed labels, but I couldn’t keep up – now I scribble the latest contents on Post-It notes.)  I’ll see if I can find a rose-quartz crystal to add, or maybe a pink or gold button from my grandmother’s button box. There might be something gold-ish in the drawer of antique keys… Or should I try a vintage spool of pale pink thread? I love an excuse to rummage through my boxes!

P.S. All the photos except the one of my studio were taken on my new iPhone. I’m completely addicted to it, and amazed at the quality of photos I can get! Also, ridiculously excited to finally have one of my own. I keep posting photos on Facebook while walking around town just because I can. I’m always like this when I learn a new trick – you should’ve seen me when I finally learned to hula hoop.