Fun little stuff....

Sterling Silver & coral, turquoise & pearls.

Blowing in the wind....

Just another day in paradise. There is a nice breeze blowing and it is loaded with volcano ash!

There was a partial collapse of the dome on the west side of the Soufriere Volcano last night and the ash has gotten here! Everything inside and out is covered with a thin coating of gray ash. It's grainy and makes nasty gray mud when you try to mop it up. With the wind blowing it's just a losing battle. Might as well forget it until the breeze dies down.

Know what volcano ash does to silver??? All the jewelry, findings, wire...anything silver will tarnish like crazy! Grrrr!

But I won't complain too loudly, at least the ash is all that we have to deal with. Life changed forever when the volcano came to life in 1995 for the people that lived on Montserrate. Here's a link so you can see what's going on http://www.mvo.ms/

Maybe I'll just open all the doors and let the breeze blow straight through the house, maybe it'll blow the ash right on out. LOL!

Think I'll get out there and start a rain dance. Until it rains the wind will just keep blowing the ash around and into the house.

If it stands still.....

If it stands still around here it could get painted on.

From old beach chair to Wild Beach Chair! (And not a single hot pink zebra lost it's life in the making of this piece.)

Christmas N July

Yesterday it was Christmas in the Caribbean!

Well at least it was Christmas up on North Shore of St Croix. Off the Wall, the world's best beach bar, had the Christmas music going and the place was full of artist, vendors & shoppers. Where else can you get a bottle of Coquito, an original painting, a crazy sign, a beautiful piece of jewelry and a pizza all at the same place? Nowhere but North Shore!

The most popular sign for the day was "Act Old Later". It does really sum up how people think on STX and North Shore in particular. If you don't know a lot about North Shore, you should check it out. It's a laid back area that seems to attract artist, musicians and self-proclaimed crazies.

If you are a tourist that has to be entertained every minute, one of those people that love planned tours and contrived shows and need to be given a schedule of what you will do next, when and where you must eat......well you're out of luck on STX. But if your a traveler and love to see what life is really like in a place that you visit, you enjoy talking to the locals and just kicking back and enjoying the atmosphere, then STX is the perfect destination for you. This is not to say that there are lots of things to do and see here, you just get to do them on your own time and how you want to do them. You can grab a chair at the bar and slip right into life in the left lane. Chatting with the locals is how you find all the great out of the way places, the must do stuff that you would miss if you were just doing the things that are advertised.

Off the Wall is one of the best places to do just that. Grab a chair, order a cool drink and strike up a conversation with some of the crazies that hang out there. Hot pizza, cold beer, crazy people.....Life Is Good!

Catching a few rays.....

Well, I hauled her out to the pool so that she could catch a few rays, she's definitely looking a little pale and pasty! And we won't even talk about that lumpiness going on in those legs.

As you can see, she is still headless. Seems that the only place that carries the styro heads here on the island, is out of them. If I had known how funny the ladies in the shop were going to think the little project was, I'd have unstuck her butt from that chair and taken her with me. Everybody in the place was laughing by the time I finished explaining what I needed and why.

Oh well, maybe the heads will come in next week, I can take her with me then.

Hibiscus Heart

Still 85...

Crap!!!! Where has this year gone???

I've been melting glass like a wild woman, but my latest creation (and I use the term loosely) is a life size papier mache model of a woman to use to photograph jewelry on. She's stuck to a chain at the moment with only one arm and no head, but she has some nice pink flip-flops on.

It's rather creepy to have a headless-one-armed figure sitting in a chair in you home. The reason that she has only one arm is that I can't wrap and tape my right arm and then cut myself out of it without help. I talked someone into helping me do my body, but I was sweating so much and on the verge of having a panic attack from being trapped in plastic wrap and duct tape by the time he cut me out that I blew off doing the right arm until another time.

Now I just have to get one of those styro heads that they store wigs on. That seems like an easy way to get the size and shape without much trouble because the plastic wrap & tape route is not an option! Think I'll build up some nice full lips on her, those styro forms have creepy thin lips. And I'm thinking big cross-dresser/cheap hooker eyelashes.

I'll have to photograph her today....was thinking of sitting her out in the driveway in her chair, if it doesn't look like rain. Got to keep up the crazy image in the neighborhood.

In between working on the headless chair woman, I've actually gotten some pretty cool beads made. Been on a hibiscus kick. Hibiscus on beads, hibiscus on hearts. Maybe I'll paint a hibiscus on the headless chair woman.

Off to search for a head for her today.