She's Crafty :: Nest Necklaces & Rolled Magazine Art

This year for Christmas I decided to do as many handmade gifts as I could.  I've got so many projects on Pinterest that I want to try, and this was a way to have an excuse and some motivation to try some of them.  My siblings and I had decided not to exchange gifts this year, so this was also a way to get around that--these weren't technically gifts... just the results of a couple crafty days for me :)  Here are some pictures.

 I made these nest necklaces for all the girls-- my mom's is on the right with four eggs representing my siblings and I.  I've been making jewelry since high school, but have only recently tried working with metal.  These were startlingly easy, which is probably why I made so many.  I had them all wrapped and ready to go, but had forgotten to take a picture, so I carefully unwrapped them to set up a shot, and then wrapped them again.

 This was a project on Pinterest that had absolutely no directions--just a picture.  It involved cutting pages of a several magazines into strips and rolling them up.  I stuck them to the cardboard backing with a thick layer of paint.  Here's the blue center.

 Then a yellowish green ring...

 And finally a goldish yellow outer ring.

I still have to frame this and give it to its intended recipient, so it's ending up as more of a new year's gift, but that's ok.  It was fun and ended up making for a cool art piece and cool pictures of the work in progress.

Lake Baldwin Ecological Preserve

Instagram Fall 2012

1. Bug collecting
2. Sunset @ HHS football game
3. Cheerios by the beach
4. Purple shells in Malibu
5. Orphaned under my classroom
6. Dream Bigger-- love this!
7. Grass of some sort
8. Infinite (I love patterns!)
9. Bolt

1. Apples @ Oak Glen
2. Mojave Narrows
3. Cheese!
4. Standing tall
5. H2O
6. Plants near Big Bear
7. Little ecologist
8. Grasses near Big Bear
9. Garage sale score!  My new old camera--Pentax K1000--the one I used in my high school photography class :)

1. Perfect pumpkin stem
2. Wonder
3. Still Standing
4. Gum on pavement-- only cool when it's not stuck to my shoe
5. Framed
6. Book lover
7. Getting crafty-- baloon yarn balls... post balloon pop
8. Sundance Lane
9. Pink flower in Sun City

1. Creepy emu face
2. Tree decorating
3. Introducing Rick James (RJ for short)... our Elf on the Shelf
4. Treasures
5. Reading corner
6. Fall colors in abstract motion
7. Self portrait
8. PS project--face of faces
9. Grey day

1. Bloomingdales in Santa Monica (again with the patterns)
2. Converse Patriotism
3. My first nest necklace
4. Ansel in alley
5. Mini me
6. Disturbing the peace?  I disagreed
7. Wrightwood
8. For Sara for Christmas
9. My little photographer

I do portraits too...

I'm currently teaching my portraits units in both beginning and advanced photo.  The other day we were critiquing student photographs in class and a student asked me to see some of my portraits.  So, here are a few from just a couple weeks ago.  Please critique... I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Photography in an instant :: August

I've been really happy with how much more photography I've been doing since I downloaded Instagram.  I feel bad that I've been a bit judgemental of cell phone photography for quite a while now.  I'm surrounded by cameras day in and day out, but how many times have I gone for long stretches without taking a single picture?  How many times have I opted to leave my DSLR at home, when I should really be bringing it with me?  But my cell phone is with me all the time.  And now I've started seeing my everyday world differently.  I'm seeing photo opportunities where I had overlooked them before.  Here are my first 9 photos which were shot over eight days in August.  More to come later... 

1. Emerson by ring light
2. Emerson's cool shades
3. Ansel by window light
4. Live simply... that others may simply live
5. Crepe myrtle branch on glass
6. Fallen log in Wrightwood
7. Wine cork litter
8. Sara and I in Hollywood (ok, obviously I didn't take this one)
9. Bug hunting

No Remote? No Problem.

A quick cell phone pic of the setup from my Night Lights photo.  The whole photo outing was planned with the intention of doing long exposures, and I forgot my remote... meaning I'd be limited to 30 seconds exposures max.  Not good.  Luckily Ruben had encountered this same problem before and had a solution-- a rubber band and a wadded up piece of paper.  Wrapped tight enough the rubber band will pull the paper down onto the shutter release button and hold it for however long you want.  Definitely cumbersome, especially when working in the dark, but it worked! 

From the Vault : Salvage Yard

Woo hoo!  My 100th post!  Yay me!

 

While going through old pics and trying to clean out the junk I found these and figured I'd see what I could do with them.  They were taken in a salvage yard near Rialto.  I went in search of rust.  I think the guys at the gate thought I was crazy when I explained that I wasn't in need of any car parts... just some pics of old cars.