Mary Tafoya's Seriousbeadin'

Free ATC Clip Art

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Click on the image above for a slightly larger, ATC-sized image

A nice lass for this time of year, I thought. She's holding . . . an evergreen bough? A sprig of rosemary? She's perfect for coloring with pencils, markers, transferring, etc. Have fun!

Bead Fest Santa Fe 2010 Classes

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:23:00 +0000

Pardon my absence of late. It's that time of year when school, family, work and life all collide and squeeze the blogging right out of my day. ;-)

Today I got the email that Bead Fest Santa Fe classes are open for registration. I was a little disappointed that Susan Kazmer wasn't on the roster cause I'll sign up for just about anything from her. But there were lots of other mixed media type metal classes. Didn't know the teachers though, so I signed up for these:

Micro macrame jewelry 101 with Joan Babcock! Joan lives in Santa Fe and produced a marvelous book that Suzanne Cooper showed me recently. I want! I've loved Joan's work for years, especially her color schemes. And even though there are tutorials on the web, I'm one of those "show me" gals. So a-micro-macrame-ing we go!

And this one is a copper etching class. And again, I even have a book that briefly describes the process but I look forward to getting some face time with a real live instructor. Her name is Gina Crow.

It feels so odd to be registering (and paying for) classes way off in March 2010 but I've learned the hard way it's pretty tough to get what I want if I wait until I make the hotel reservations.

Only one problem -- both of these classes are in the evenings, which is going to severely cutting into my ~~margarita~~, er, fine dining time with friends.

In other bead news, I just realized (thank you Nikia of the rhinestone embellished vintage Coach bag!) that the bead show in Albuquerque is weekend after next. I get to see Betcey and Mark! Buying beads doesn't have quite as much thrill as seeing them because cause after all we have great bead shopping here all year 'round.

Trouble in Taos

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:46:00 +0000

This story made the national news. A new hotel owner new to Taos forbade employees from speaking Spanish in front of him because he was paranoid they'd be talking about them, and he wanted them to Anglicize their names.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_trouble_in_taos

Classic line in this story is when an employee tried to tell the owner they've been speaking Spanish in Taos since long before they were speaking English there.

So yeah, instead of trying to learn a little Spanish himself or market the cultural pride of the place, he tries to browbeat Taos out of the Taosenos. Go home dude, find another place to build your fiefdom.

Printable Rhinestone Sizing Chart

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Here's a handy little chart shared by my new pal Jennifer from Etsy:

http://www.dreamtimecreations.com/chart/rhinestone_sizes.cfm

Giant Robber Banker Paper Dolls

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:35:00 +0000

I saw this photo at the Huffington Post today and thought "Why didnt' I think of that?" Course, they're not paper dolls exactly, they're giant signs. Taken at a protest outside the American Bankers Association annual convention, in Chicago.

Locust Tree at Night

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:36:00 +0000

We came across this tree while walking back from The Shed in Santa Fe and it looked so Halloween-ish we all tried to get a shot. The seed pods were rather spookey and by the way that's a street lamp, not the moon.

Bead It and Weep

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Well, the last several days have been pretty bumpy. First, I got the flu. Next, I got some kind of tooth infection. Haven't been to the dentist yet, because next, we got word that a dear relative had passed on.

I went up to Santa Fe anyway, where we have a small, annual bead retreat -- a bead, eat, shop, play, bead, laugh, catch up, bead, and sleep weekend -- every year. I figure it was the best place to be considering I could at least rest if I needed to, unlike what I'd be doing at home. This was our 15th year gathering together! (My 13th I believe.)

I have to say I was very well taken care of! A bit of therapeutic massage, many hugs, a few tears, some Rescue Remedy, and even antibiotics for my tooth. Not to mention my nurse-in-residence, Sarah.

On Saturday a couple of these friends decided to take me up to Chimayo. I bought my BIL (it was his mother who passed away) a pretty little silver cross made in Mexico. The neat thing about it is the top unscrews and you can fill it with healing Chimayo earth.

Here are a few photos from our jaunt:

Rita and Judy make me so jealous because they are old ladies like me
but their hair is still soft and silky and down past their waists.

A swallow's nest under the eaves outside a little shop.

Don't ask. LOL!

Collage Earrings

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:57:00 +0000

What fun. I have been collecting old medicinal labels forever. Usually I use them in everything but jewelry. Here I decoupaged them onto some vintage brass stampings. The "pearls" are vintage glass cabs, and the round sage beads are vintage Lucite.

Kyanite, Pearls & Silver Chain

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:56:00 +0000

Came home from work a little earlier than usual today, so I had time to do some late afternoon photography. These earrings are now up in my shop. :-)

Little India Recycled Envelope Set

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:55:00 +0000

I made three gift card envelopes from a single page out of a thrift store book about East Indian textiles. I found a pretty peachy handmade paper in my stash, and was able to make the enclosures out of just 1/4 sheet. Then I stamped and embossed them in gold! Couldn't resist stamping some seals to match. (Now if only I could find a very tiny paisley stamp I'd really be in business...)

Collage Clip Art for You

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:16:00 +0000

Click the image above for a larger version.
Have fun using this as a background, cutout elements,
transfer, transparency etc. in your artwork.

The Kraftho has arrived!

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Kraftho is finally on Etsy! I saw her work (and she ain't no ho btw) at the Folk Art Festival and it's very cozy and amazingly sturdy. Click the picture to go directly to the listing.

Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Oooh, now here's a book I want to read: Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box by Madeline Albright. The cover shows her wearing a Statue of Liberty pin with eyes made of two clocks -- one is upside down and other is rightside up. Click the Browse & Buy button on the publisher's website for a nice peek (though slow-loading!) at some of the jewelry in the book.

The Museum of Arts & Design show by the same name opens Sept. 30.

And here's a delightful interview from Forbes

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Rather extravagant use of antique steel cut beads

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:41:00 +0000

I'm making paper ornaments. I used Terrifically Tacky Tape
(thank you Dustin) along the bottoms and started out sprinkling
on colored mica flakes and other oddities I had in my
"bought it at China Phoenix II, still don't know what it's for"
drawer. Then I went poking through my tiny vintage beads
and couldn't resist using some steel cuts straight off the hank
(thank you again Dustin).

Here's a sampling. They are not quite finished... Need dangles.
Must prepare angelic dangles.

Personal Strengths Test for Women

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:54:00 +0000

My sis just sent me this link:
http://stronglifetest.com/

I have taken a find your strengths test before but I like this one a lot. It's a scenarios-based survey, with results, by Marcus Buckingham, author of other work-from-your-strengths type books. His new book is called "Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently."

I don't want to share my results right away but apparently the results range along these "types":

Advisor, Caretaker, Creator, Equalizer, Influencer, Motivator, Pioneer, Teacher, and Weaver

If you want to share your results by commenting on my blog, feel free!

More Jimson Weed

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:09:00 +0000

Did you know?

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Jimson weed leaves smell just like peanut butter? I don't recommend touching them though. Seriously. Highly toxic. I have heard that jimson weed can draw radioactive materials out of the soil. Which makes jimson weed even scarier, in my humble opinion. So why is it growing at the end of my driveway?

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Why I love Etsy

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:36:00 +0000

Of course, I do make a bit of money over there. And I can maintain my shops in my spare time, season to season, as I have the time. Sure, you'll hear advice about listing something every day in order to get noticed and relisting to show up higher in the search results, and posting to the forums a lot to become "known" -- all things I never do. I don't even check to see if I ever make the home page anymore. People seem to find me. And the people who do are SO nice.

That's why I love Etsy. This week I returned home from a crazy weekend trip to Cruces, arriving very late on Saturday night (aka Sunday morning), then got up a few hours later and worked at the Folk Art Festival all day. Then Monday night I had class at UNM.

For most of the week my internet and phone were on and off, mostly off, thanks to the heavy rains and my late 1940s house. Every time I'd go to get online, the internet would be down. Then it would come on long enough for me to see that something had sold, but not long enough to actually print out the receipt.

Finally today I shipped 10 packages. Then I emailed the customers to let them know I was not so quick on the draw this week, and so far everyone who's emailed me back has been not just cool with it, but extraordinarily NICE. So far, I've heard back not to worry, that a thing called life happens, and not only that but peace and light and all kinds of other just nice things. That's why I love Etsy. It's a people thing. 8-)

Giant Puppet Samba Parade!

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Today I shot about half a gig of photos and video of OFFCenter's 7th Annual "We Art the People" Folk Art Festival and Giant Puppet Samba Parade. One of the samba guys said he thought it was the best one ever. The guys stayed all day and played for a really long time after the parade. They even left their drums set up around the music tent and played with the other bands too! I've just started going through the pictures and hope to be able to edit the video down to short snippets pretty soon.

This was a mother and daughter, hanging out and dancing after the
parade. The mom had the face mask and the daughter had a great
fish-topped costume thing going on! They were really short
compared to all the ginormous tall puppets.

This is, I assume, sister and bother.
The boy was really cute about posing for me.

The band was really great -- they rehearsed, along with a group of
samba dancers, before the parade so they looked really awesome
coming down the street. This photo was taken in the park after the parade.

Rainy Road to Las Cruces

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:40:00 +0000

I do not like that stretch of road around Soccorro-Elephant Butte because we always seem to run into awful weather and bad memories of pile ups and freak hailstorms. Yesterday, thankfully, it was just a heavy rain, which brought out the wonderful smells of sage and chapparal.

Then beyond the storm the sun was setting and the clouds were so varied and awesome. I got lots of subtle sky shots that will make nice backgrounds.

Paper Potpourri Boxes

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Dabbling in making potpourris with organic herbs & essential oils,
and decorating the containers to hold them.

This colorway holds "Summer in the City"

Paper is a bit fragile perhaps, but nice because the scent
permeates the whole container.

The paper is easy to paint, stamp, draw, and embellish,
as long as you don't get things too wet.

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Happy Meal Toy for my Inner Child

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:05:00 +0000

I love children's board books, clever little art kits marketed to children, and all their pockets, nooks, places to tuck things in and other interactive features. Well, this weekend I have been down with a cold so I asked the DH to pick me up some junk food ("Junk feed a cold, starve a fever"?). He brought me a McDonald's Happy Meal (yes, with fries and boy did they taste wickedly good). Inside the Happy Meal was my girly prize -- an American Girl book/toy.

I just love this kind of packaging and wish I could make, or at least, in some parallel lifetime, design this stuff (the foldover spork wasn't book-related but it was truly brilliant). And this package so appeals to my inner girlie-girl child. If you're not familiar with American Girl dolls, they are really big with the not-so-Barbie set right now, and each doll has a story behind it that tells a chapter in U.S. History.

Now, back to this awfully cute book (click the pictures for slightly larger images) --

It came tied in a cute silky ribbon bow, which unfortunately I couldn't retie. It opens up into a short, glossy text weight accordion book that tells the story of the girl.

Inside the front cover are some activities -- a little drawing lesson and a trivia quiz.

Inside the back flat is a pocket. Oh my gosh! There are three versions of a small cardstock paper doll, a sheet of stickers, a few accessories, and a couple of tags which I presume you're supposed to put the stickers onto.

And now if you'll exscuse me, I need to call the DH to see if McDonald's has more styles this week or if I have to wait! If you see me waddling down the street, it's because my inner child went back for too many Happy Meals!

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Grabbed by nomadcraftsetc for a Treasury

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Hey! A local artisan grabbed a bunch of Albuquerque-area work for her Etsy Treasury. She's nomadcraftsetc and she's from Tijeras.

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More about Johanna and the Beetle Wings

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Johanna Seppa really brightened my Sunday morning with an email follow-up about herself and her finished necklace she'd promised to show me. I had asked her to tell me a bit about herself and her inspiration for using the elytra beetle wings she purchased from my Etsy shop. The necklace pictured here matches the earrings I posted earlier.

Johanna says . . .

I am Johanna Seppa from Finland. I was asked to tell something about myself and my jewellery. Well, it is just a hobby. I am an archaeologist and I have made replicas of stone age tools for museums. I like to use very primitive materials also for my jewellery, something weird, wonderful and exotic. I was very happy to find these insect wings, they were just perfect! I use modern materials too. I like to find new purpose for old things and make recycled and found objects jewellery from all the “trash” I collect.
It’s so much fun to play with lots of colours and shapes. Some of my other hobbies are felting, freeform crochet, basketry and quilting. I especially like to combine different techniques. I’m sorry I don’t yet have a blog of my own, but I am glad I had this opportunity to
introduce myself to you all!

I made the earrings and necklace using organic materials only, nettle string, parrot feathers, different jungle seeds, bone beads and beetle elytra.

I wanted to have something that reminds me of the Amazon jungle.

Thank you Johanna for the inspiration -- and for sharing how your jewelry designs are connected to your life's work.

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I Love Ocotillo

mary_tafoya@yahoo.com (Mary Tafoya) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:55:00 +0000

and I think everyone should have their picture taken next to a plant that's bigger than they are.

P.S. See what kind of week I've had? I have to steal my bro's picture to make a blogpost. ;-)