clay shapes

 Right before our Christmas break, my fellow co-worker, Deb Jones, brought in the start of her beautiful handmade clay Crèche she had begun working on. She had been experiment with a chunk of Laguna Dry Hard Clay I gave her a couple weeks prior and I was thrilled to see her adorable creations. Passing supplies, like clay, along to people who don't work in the craft department at Martha but enjoy making things, is something I implement. Deb is an artist like most of the people I work with, but one of another kind—she paints the faces of all the guests, with makeup, that appear on Martha's show. 

How sweet are her sleeping donkeys?!

And the little sheep!

 She also made her own version of my clay mushrooms and a garden snail to slug on by them! 

facebook status: married.

Almost finally getting used to calling Ashley my husband.

rounding up the herd

Did a couple of craft fairs this holiday season—one for the staff at Martha Stewart, which was also a party... hence the vino! Among the items I was selling were wool felted sheep with cinnamon stick fences and clay mushrooms.

I was felting sheep in the days leading up to the fairs. They are a good holiday craft project and make a cute gift. I gave what I had leftover to family members and everyone thought they were super sweet!

I actually developed the felted sheep for Martha's 2010 Christmas special. They were scattered all around her kitchen!

DIY Rope Bangles

Check out the photo how-to on the Crafts Dept Blog for the rope bangles that I demoed on Martha's show! They make a great DIY holiday gift!

Make: miniature crystal chandeliers

Inspired by all the amazing chandeliers dangling low from the high ceilings of ABC Carpet & Home here in New York City, I created miniature crystal light fixtures to hang over the long banquette tables sashaying the loft space where my wedding was held. They are fairly straight forward and simple to make and add a delicate sparkle to any space; I have a few in my bedroom now- makes nice mood lighting ;).

Here's how they were made:

1. Use lamp plates/bobesches as the fixture to hang the crystal strands. Drill holes along the edge with a Dremel drill to hang each strand from. I evenly spaced seven holes around the 3" round plate.

2. Spray paint the front and back of the plate white.

3. Create strands of crystals with wire using the basic wire wrapped link beading technique. I used 6 oval Swarovski crystal beads per strand finishing each off with a crystal tear drop, all connected used an oxidized silver wire.

4. You can make your own jump rings by coiling wire around a pencil, removing it and snipping into individual rings with wire cutters.

5. Use the jump rings to connect the crystal strands to the lamp plate where you drilled the holes.

6. Wiring the light fixture is fairly easy. A wire stripper tool is helpful to remove the plastic around the wire cording.

7. I used porcelain sockets for the fixture and cloth covered lamp cord. Remember to put the crystalized plate on the cord before you wire it all together!

8. Finally, add the plug to make your mini chandelier electric!

Look how pretty!