Author Archives: artandtea

A freeform peyote bracelet – the color palette

I’m going to create another freeform peyote bracelet and have picked out my color palette. Some of these beads were used in my faux jade fringy bracelet. I have been very drawn to this muted red/green palette for awhile now.

I thought it would be fun to document my creative process here, step by step. I’ve had this idea in my head for months now and am excited that my life has now slowed down enough to be able to finally do this. Of course, I am still working on my beaded journal page and beaded cabochons, too. Having several projects going at once keeps me motivated and fresh in my process. With each project, I always get to a certain point where it needs to be put down for awhile so the next step can be worked out internally. That’s when I turn to one of my other projects.

Stay tuned for “The Birth of a Freeform Peyote Bracelet”.

Saturday Morning Tea

The last few days have been filled with tons of lightning, rumbling thunder and more torrential downpours. This certainly has been the summer of storms here in New England. I’m hoping that all of this tumultuous weather will herald in a crisp, clear fall season with plenty of sunshine.The plants are just loving this weather, especially the tropical hibiscus and plumeria on our back deck. They feel like they’re home in the rainforest, I think. One of the hibiscus plants is almost 6 feet tall!

On this cool, misty morning, I felt like something dark and smoky. This morning’s cup is a China black Lapsang Souchong named Gao Ji. To be perfectly frank, I’m not a lover of a very smoky tea like a Lapsang but I want to expand my tastes and give it another try. This particular tea is a lot milder than the characteristic smokiness. I searched for the meaning of Gao Ji and found it in a Pinyin dictionary. The translation to English is “high ranking” or “high grade”.

Lapsang Souchong tea, grown in the Wuyi region of the Fujian province of China, is known for its distinctly very smoky aroma and taste. During its processing, the leaves are dried over wood fires which impart that smoky quality to the leaf. In essence, the leaves are “smoked’ in their drying. The story goes that many years ago the tea processing had to be sped up as armies marched through that region so the villagers dried the tea leaves over open pinewood fires.

A new type of tea was born.

Chinese black or “congou” tea is also referred to as red tea. The liquor on this tea really supports that terminology. The aroma is lightly smoky with a hint of chocolate. The liquor is mild, sweet and lightly winey/smoky, reminding me of a very high quality Keemun. It is smooth with only a passing tang in the finish.

The tea appears much darker in my pottery cup. Whenever it rained, a friend of mine always said that it was a great day for a Keemun. In that spirit, I think that this is a great tea for cooler weather. As we enter the second half of August, we are still over a month away from the official first day of fall but I can feel its whisper in the air already.

Fabulous Batik Fabric

I love the yummy fall colors of the batik fabric I recently purchased at Joann Fabric’s. Originally, I purchased it for my 2008 beaded journal pages but now I’m thinking of creating journal bracelets instead so I won’t need it for that. The one above on the right reminds me of Brian Froud’s fairy world.

Hmmmm, now what can I use all of this fabric for? Cloth art dolls?

Aren’t those seed pods in the fabric on the right just great?

When I was at the cutting station, I had the most interesting conversation with the sales clerk about the colors and patterns in these fabrics. I told her that I loved how your mind and imagination could play with the dots and swirls and see all sorts of interesting things in those patterns. It’s always changing everytime you look at it. She agreed and said that they all reminded her of dreams. That thought positively captivated me. Fabric dreams…

Studio Wednesday

I had to go in to my day job for 3 hours right in the middle of the day so, unfortunately, I didn’t get too much work done in my studio today. I was able to get a little beadwork done around this cabochon though. It’s one of my mokume gane polymer clay pieces. The background is one of 6 different fabulous fall color batiked fabrics I purchased on sale at Joann Fabric’s last week. I wanted to get a start with my 2008 beaded journal pages by purchasing some fabric for them. However, after giving some thought about the shape and size of the pages, I’ve decided to do something entirely different from this past year’s format and make either bead embroidered cuff bracelets or some small dolls. If I decide to go ahead with the bracelets, I won’t need the fabric but I’m sure I’ll find something fun to do with them. Right now I’m getting really inspired by just looking at them!

I’ve decided to keep the beading very simple for this cabochon pendant. For the necklace, I’m thinking of multiple strands of seed beads. I love the color of the framing row of seed beads. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s an opaque pale green. There’s something about a very pale green that I find so beautiful and yummy.

On the way home from work, I stopped at Staples to get new printer cartridges. When I did a test print of Buddy’s picture the other day, I discovered that I was almost out of ink. Boy, ink cartridges are super expensive! It’s been awhile since I purchased some. Now that I have them, I’m trying to think of what else I can print and create. When I got home, I printed Buddy’s picture on a sheet of Jacquard Inkjet cotton fabric. I’m thrilled at how clear the photo printed and am so excited to finally get started on my final page for the 2007 BJP.

Saturday Morning Tea

I’m up very early for a Saturday morning because I’m preparing to go down the Cape to Hyannis to visit a very dear friend. We’ve known each other since freshman year in high school (many moons ago!) and have experienced many significant life events together – weddings, births, deaths, divorces, moves. As our kids have gotten older, our visits have become more and more infrequent, I’m sad to say. It has now been a whole year since we’ve last seen each other so I’m really looking forward to our visit. And Hyannis has a wonderful bead shop, too.

After the stormy weather of the past few days, today has dawned clear and bright. And quiet. No rumble of thunder in the distance. The birds are even quiet this morning. Speaking of birds, this morning’s tea is a China green called Phoenix Eyebrow. Harvested very early in the spring, the leaves are processed and shaped into tight points on either side and curved to resemble eyebrows.

I found some intact leaf sets. Gorgeous!

With a fresh vegetal aroma, the liquor is very light in color and taste. It tastes smooth and full with a slight sweetness in the finish. As the tea cooled, more sweetness was revealed in its flavor. I think this would make a very nice iced tea. Mmmm…