Jack the Needle Felt Raccoon

I had a request to make a needle felt raccoon for Amanda at AWBAR, A Wild Baby Animal Rescue, http://www.awbar.com/. AWBAR lost 14 of it's baby raccoons to the deadly Parvo virus before getting the virus controlled. I was making some commemorative polymer clay picture pendants and pins of the babies who succumbed from the virus. One of my favorite pictures was of Jack and Sophia. I used the picture of Jack when I made this needle felt raccoon.

I am a member of Team AWBAR and donate a portion of my Etsy sales to help the wild babies.

Any items that I have listed that have EFA - AWBAR in the title, have donations to help animals.

http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com/

You can also buy items from the AWBAR store. 100% of these purchases goes to help buy food, medications, toys, blankets and cages for the wild babies that are brought to the wild baby animal rescue. http://awbar.etsy.com/

Hatchling Dragon

I had so much fun making Steve's dragon, that I just had to make a wee-one! This little dragon is just hatching out of the egg. This one will be hard to part with as I have gotten pretty attached. It is hanging out by my computer and keeps me company while I am computing.

Green Eyed Monster

This is the green eyed monster, Steven's Dragon. Steven has always loved Dragon's ever since he was small. At the age of 17, one day he asked, "Mom, can you tattoo a dragon on my arm? He now has 3 dragons and is going for full sleeves. He also has one on his back. He loved his dragons so much he showed them off to all of his friends. Before long I was doing tats and dragons on everyone he knew.

He grew up (has a Son of his own) and he eventually outgrew Mom's tattoo's, .... but evenso, one thing he has never outgrown is Mom's magical dragons.

To my loving Son, this bud's for you! XOXO'S

Now we're talking beads... lots of beads

If you ever want to test your patience, try making a project out of seed beads. Although beautiful, little, teeny, tiny beads, they are not easy to work with. Even so, many beading enthusiasts just love working with seed beads. Why you ask? The completed creations are just beautiful and like no other.

Here is a beaded amulet bag that I recently finished. This bag took me over 25 hours to make (including the matching earrings.) I used almost an entire hank of the dark colored rainbow beads. By the time I added the contrasting beads I probably did use that amount. You do have to admit, now that IS a LOT of beads!

Penguin Power - Polymer Clay Sculptures

I thank God that I am diverse in my creations. I never tire of crafting this way. Each form of craft is relaxing and rewarding to me. All of it an art form. My latest niche has been polymer clay sculptures. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE all animals, large and smalll, winged, finned, hoofed, furred, scaled.... lol. I think you get the picture.

One of my all time favorites is penguins! I have loved penguins since the first time that I saw them at the zoo. There are right up there with otters. Both are playful and fun little creatures that I could sit and watch for hours.

When I woke up this morning to rain my first thought was today is a good day to create. Here is my completed rainy day project.

The Lavender Festival is coming to town

The annual Lavender Festival is coming to town.... well, almost. It is being held in Newport, WA. this year, which is only 5 miles from here. I am going to set up a booth there so I am busy making lots of new things. I am making clay sculptures, jewelry, felted animals, cat and doggie toys and treats..... well, like I said, lots of things.

Needle Felt Hummingbirds

I just love hummingbirds and soon they will be coming to the feeder that I have put out for them. I enjoy creating needle felt animals and Twisted Whiskers "Critters." It is so amazing to watch a creation come together simply by poking wool roving here and there with a special felting needle. It does take a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears. I still can not complete one without managing to wound myself in action... and poke myself!

To see some of my other felt creations please click on the link to go to my Twisted Whiskers store at Etsy.com

http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com/

Spring has Sprung in Idaho

I believe spring has finally arrived here in No. Idaho. It hasn't snowed in almost 3 weeks now. Of course it still gets down to freezing at night but the days are getting warmer. Soon it will be time for the Lavender Festival and I am looking forward to that.

I have been busy creating lots of new things for the Twisted Whiskers store. My latest creations are needle felt hummingbirds and polymer clay sculptures. If you are interesting in buying any of these you can click on the link on the right.

As always, thanks for your interest in my LV's Twisted Whiskers Creations.

Hand Painted Wolf Soap

Well I am still snowed in here in No. Idaho, but I keep reminding myself that spring is just around the corner and soon flowers will be in full bloom. Thank God for my Etsy stores and the craft projects! It helped keep me sane for the 3 months that I have been socked in.

The Twisted Whiskers site has really taken off since I introduced the soy candles, melts, tart warmers, and Puppy Poppers. Ready to take on a new project, I bought a melt and pour soap kit from Ebay with the original idea that I would make some soap on a rope and got some wolf and husky soap molds. Once I got the molds, although gorgeous, they were really too small for that plan, but I decided to go ahead and make some soaps out of them anyway just to see what they looked like. When I removed them from the molds I was amazed at the incredible detail.

I decided I wanted to try to paint them. I was pleased with the way they turned out and for my first attempt, they looked pretty good. I decided to list them at my Etsy store and sell them as a gift set. What a unique gift they would make and certainly a great conversation piece!

To purchase the soaps you can click on the following link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5278310

If you have any questions or would like more information please email me. Thanks for taking a look.

Ciao,

LV

Nick the dragon

Now, I did say that I am hooked on lampwork glass art, right? Well..... Michael Dean steered me in the direction of a glass artists blog, and "we love Etsy site. While I was cruisin' around on these sites I ran across a glass artist that makes cute little lampwork critters. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love animals and there was one little guy who cried out, "buy me, BUY ME!" His name was Nick the dragon. After I had completed the transaction and Nick was officially mine, I got to thinking..... I know, look out, lol. I wondered if she could make me a husky, and I decided to contact her and ask. She was happy to take on the new project and seemed to look forward to the challenge. She is working on making me Yukon as I type this post. I can't wait to see her finished project and I will post a picture once he is done. Luanne's Etsy store is Sheltie's Lampworks. Yes, the name did give her away. To see more of her work click on the link below.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5278310

Egads!

Gawd I HATE Vista! Who at microsoft designed this ungodly software? I have been using windows since version 3.1 (now that is dating myself.) Never have I been unhappy with a windows version.... until now that is. I am going back to XP until they impriove on this OS. Talk about an unstable, sluggish, program.... and it tries to take over everything. As far as I am concerned? JUNK!

Ok, now that I have fumed, as I wrote a blog entry and had it just disappear before my eyes. I so hate typing twice, especially when I am tired and have had a long day....

But, enough of the bitching and on with the latest in the jewelry and beads n' things updates.

What's new? Lampwork glass art. While I was looking around some of the other jewelry sites at Etsy (and God, I love that site,) I stumbled upon some unique and very beautiful beads. As I checked into them further, I found out they were called lampwork beads. They are made of molten glass and let me tell you, this is really an art all of it's own.

I am not even going to try to attempt this craft, as I leave it to the glass artists, I knew I just had to have some of these beads. I hunted high and low for something that got my attention.

I feel so fortunate and blessed to have found Michael Dean (Protege at Etsy,) and marveled over his beautiful work. I originally ordered three and my finished creations using these beads are all listed at my lvsbeadsnthings Etsy store. My favorite, Prairie Winds, was the hardest one to bring together, because I had a specific design in mind. As I worked and worked, then reworked, and worked some more, the design in my head did not come out quite like I had visioned. It is almost laughable now that its' done, and I am finally happy with the final revision.

Here is a picture of the finished project.

To see more of Michael Dean's lampwork click on the link to go to his Etsy store.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5229300

He is Protege.etsy.com