Saturday, December 1, 2012

2012 Art Bead Scene Ornament Hop

Good day to you! Is it though, I'm not sure - think I should have stayed in bed this morning. I had a lovely update written to replace my ABS Ornament Blog Hop sneak peek with my reveal at 7:00 this morning. Just as I was uploading my last picture so I could click "Update" my internet went down. I franticly tried to copy and paste into Word so I could repost, but that was to no avail. Thank you Road Runner.....Anyhoo, I'll try it again.....

Thanks for stopping by to see the ornaments I created for this wonderful hop hosted by the lovely Heather Powers of Humblebeads, Art Bead Scene and Earrings Everyday. Handcrafted Christmas ornaments are near and dear to my heart. Our tree is covered with them each year. I love looking at our tree and remembering either where and the artisan I purchased an ornament from, creating them myself, or with the kids. We have some lovely ornaments our beautiful TJ's Godmother created for him when he was a little boy.
Back at the beginning of October I attended Art is You...Stamford and took a mini-class with Laurie Mika. It was wonderful and introduced me to a new obsession - polymer clay. The class was wonderful, Laurie is a fabulous teacher, and the techniques were stunning yet quite simple. These ornaments, though nothing like those from the class, are very simple yet oh, so sweet!
I created these gingerbread folk using a special ingredient. My girlfriend Roxanne's grandfather, Wilfred, died a number of years ago. Wilfred and Arlene, her grandmother, raised her. They were l ovely people. We watched South Portland's annual Memorial Day parade every year from their front lawn. Some of my favorite memories from childhood right through to this past Memorial Day - we still watch from there even though Walter and Arlene have passed. Roxanne moved far away years ago as well. When Wilfred was at the end of a battle with cancer, Roxanne came and stayed with my family in order to spend time with him, and then make his funeral arrangements and everything associated with the home she grew up in. It was a whirlwind of activity and a bit overwhelming. We helped her some, my husband and boys moving the things she wanted to keep, but she handled the bulk of the Herculean effort. I say Herculean because Wilfred had owned a vacuum cleaner repair business since leaving the miliatry. Man, was there stuff!
Rox sorted through the things she watned to keep, sell and trash. There were a few things she didn't want but the hoarder collector in me, couldn't let them go - so I saved them waiting for the right time to make something with them. These ornaments are the first. The "icing" on my gingerbread folk are freshwater pearls from a multi-strand necklace Arlene wore. The pearls still smell of her perfume. Other ingredients I used are Swarovski flat-back crystal pearls and crystals (in Light Siam for the Mr. and Indian Pink for the Mrs.) as additional decoration. Believe it or not, the hangers took longer and were more difficult to make. I used pearlized lampwork beads by Adriana Sauceda of San Antonio, Texas to decorate the hangers. I truly hope that was German silver wire I was using instead of my sterling - there was a lot of scrap!

22 comments:

  1. I'm squinting and cleaning my glasses, but still can't see it, Lori!

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  2. They are darling! What a great way to remember Roxanne's parents, and I'm sure she will love these special ornaments!

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  3. What sweet ornaments and reminders of two special people! I too took a polymer clay class a few months ago and was smitten with the medium!

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  4. Ah, today my glasses are clean LOL. Lori, these are so special and your story really touched my heart. We used to make real gingerbread ornaments when I was a child, but these are the enhanced, new and improved version!

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  5. Wow those are going to mean so much to your friend. What a sweet story and sweet ornaments!

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  6. They are so cute! Love them... I'm sure any tree would love to have the happy gingerbread couple living on it! I know mine would!

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  7. What a sweet way to give new life to an old necklace. I love that your ornament has such special memories with it. These two are as cute as can be!

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  8. Oh, how sweet your little gingerpeople are. :)

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  9. Always love gingerbread men! My tree is full of them this year! :)

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  10. First let me say that I am jealous that you got to take a class with Laurie Mika! I have her mosaics book which was the inspiration for the line of mini-mosaics that I make. Second, what a great story! To be able to put such sweet memories into these ornaments makes them even more special. Not to mention, just plain cute!!!

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  11. What a lovely tribute to Wilfred and Arlene! I know your friend will be deeply touched by this gesture this year and for every year to come. I think this is a wonderful way to pass something on to the next generation as well. Beautiful and so nostalgic. Thank you for joining us on this hop! Enjoy the day. Erin

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  12. Love them! its great that they have such meaning and they sparkle! Really beautiful!

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  13. Beautiful sentiment - in the true spirit of Christmas.

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  14. Very kool that you could incorporate pieces of your life in your ornaments. I'm sure that you will cherish them forever.

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  15. Very cute, and such a wonderful story!

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  16. These are so cool! I love them!

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  17. They are very cute and I love the story that goes with them!

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  18. Love that polymer clay, understand the obsession! A lot. Love the gingerbread people.

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  19. These are darling. I have polymer addiction also. I see things floating above my head when I sleep. Not candy, polymer. lol Im in the hop but not added on the list yet. Please stop by and comment. Happy Holidays and Hopping, Kim at http://kimisjewelryandgifts.blogspot.com/2012/12/abs-ornament-blog-hop.html#comment-form

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  20. Sweet little ornaments, and lovely to have a memory and story to go with them!

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Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! I certainly appreciate your kind words!