With such a long delay between posts, someone might suspect that I had abandoned my blog. I have not. I had a couple of setbacks at the end of 2009.   My computer crashed big time, the second time in just  a couple months.  As I was trying to recover from the first crash, my computer caught a nasty virus.  I tried to keep it going, but I finally hung it all up, reformatted and reinstalled.  This time I installed a firewall and anti-virus software before I even tried to get back up on the internet.

Just as I was getting my computer back on-line, I ended up getting very ill.  Christmas Eve and part of Christmas was spent in the emergency room.  The following week was spent in the hospital including New Year’s Eve.  I always thought of myself as having a relatively healthy lifestyle.  I found out that there are bugs that will bring down even the strongest among us.

Today is the day I am supposed to go back to work.  I’m self-employed.  Although I was temped to crawl back to bed after everyone else left this morning, I decided I needed to do something productive. 

The first thing I did was to bake a homemade peach pie that I had put together in August and froze.  I was going to bake it at Christmas.  I decided to bake it today instead.  I grabbed my pencil and paper and started sketching. 

As the wonderful smells of  homemade peach pie filled my house, I thought “How symbolic!”.  Recovering after a few end of the year disasters is not as ‘easy as pie’.  However, if I just take baby steps things will be ‘peachy’ in no time at all.

Now raise your glass of water.   Here’s to good health and working computers.  Take care and I hope 2010 is a wonderful year for both you and me. 

Since I had quite a few books that contained images from the Christian version of the Christmas story, I thought I would select some images of the Madonna and infant.  Regardless of the obvious religious slant, the story is wonderful.  Many artists and illustrators have created wonderful images of Jesus’s birth, the manger and Mary with the infant, Jesus. 

The illustration above appears on page 434 of  The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine Volume 1 1898-9, published by Harmsworth Bros., Limited, London. 

The illustration is titled The First Christmas and it is from the painting by H.J.Sinkel.  The photo was provided by the Berlin Photographic Co. 

From the public domain book A Child’s Story of the Bible, this copyright free image is on page 156. The illustration titled “The Infant Jesus” is by Henry Altemus with a copyright of 1904. 

The original copyright of the book was 1899 by Henry Altemus.

Also from the public domain book A Child’s Story of the Bible this copyright free image is on page 163. The illustration is titled “”The Wise Men Brought Costly Presents”. 

From an article that appeared in The Century Magazine Volume XXIX, April 1890. This image appears on page 802. The image is Madonna and Child By Giovanni Bellini. It is a detail of the “alterpiece in the Chapel of the Church of S. Zaccaria, Venice” 

The copyright free image is from a vintage public Domain book of “Century Magazine”, 39, Nov 1889 to April 1890.

From that same article in The Century Magazine. This image appears on page 857. The image is Madonna and Child By Giovanni Bellini. It is a detail of the “alterpiece in the Sacristy of Sta. Maria Glorios De’ Frari, Venice” 

The illustrations in this post are from a pre-1923 copyright book.  The images should be copyright-free.  All the images have been uploaded to my flickr page.  They have been attributed to Creative Commons.  If you click on the image, you will be taken to the image on my flickr page where you can chose the size of image to download for free.

]]> http://perpetualplum.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/images-from-the-christian-christmas-story/feed/ 2 perpetualplum The First Christmas The Infant Jesus The Wise Men Bellini's Madonna and Child Detail Bellini's Madonna and Child Alterpiece http://perpetualplum.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/handmade-for-the-teachers-this-holidays/ http://perpetualplum.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/handmade-for-the-teachers-this-holidays/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:23:10 +0000 perpetualplum http://perpetualplum.wordpress.com/?p=1820 ]]>

 
All 3 of my youngest’s teachers were female this year.  I love it!  Having female teachers give me an opportunity to give handmade jewelry for the holidays.  I decided to make each of her teachers plus the two women who run the office earrings for Christmas. 

The earrings above are for her home room teacher.  My daughter informed me that they must be dangly and red.

I re-purposed library card holders as little envelopes to hold each of the earrings. I just stamped on them with “Happy Holidays” and a little snowman.

The bead caps used in the rest of the earrings are recycled from a broken piece of jewelry I found at an estate sale. They have a great patina that works well with the crystal beads I used.

I think the bead caps give the earrings a Victorian feel.

I made each pair a little bit different.

I tried to use beads in colors that I thought complimented each of the women.

Sometimes I wished more male teachers wore jewelry.  Earrings are so quick and easy to make.  If you still need some last-minute gifts, you might consider handmade earrings.  Simple earrings can be made by putting beads on a head pin and doing some wire-wrapping.  I have a tutorial on how to do a beaded  head pin wire wrap on my how to page in this blog.

 
A while ago I gave my friend Melissa a wand I had made.   She must have it sitting on her desk at work.  Someone saw Melissa’s wand and wanted one for herself.  Melissa asked if she could come over and do some wand-making with me.  I knew that wands take a bit of prep, so I started the preparation without her.

I started prepping and decided to finish a few wands just in case we run out of time before Melissa finishes her wands.

Magic always starts with a stick. I collect all kinds of sticks that have fallen from our trees. It’s important to select sticks that have had some time to dry. I used my cute pink Tomboy hacksaw to cut my sticks.

If you want your wand to be truly magical, you have to add the good stuff. I use genuine Swarovski crystal beads for the tip of my wands. I add a bead cap to beautify the tip of my wand and a spacer at the top to embellish the crystal bead at the top.

I’ve been known to use cord and other types of string or thread for the handle of my wands. My favorite material though is embroidery thread.

The wand just doesn’t seem complete unless it has a lot of sparkle. I liberally sprinkle (not literally) Swarovski crystal rhinestones on my wands.

When I was a child, Christmas was magical.   As I grew older and had children of my own, I felt rushed and pressured every Christmas.  Over the last few years, I decided that I needed to relax.   I thought if I could make other people feel happy and joyful during the holiday then I could surround myself with a lot of peace and joy.    Although I originally made these wands in the spring, I believe that maybe Christmas is the best time for wands.  With a flick of your wand you can bring back the magic and true spirit of Christmas.

Here’s to a little magic this holiday season!

Are you one of those people who saves every little bit of fabric?  I know many people must save scraps because most of my scrap fabrics came to me as scraps.  They came in bags and boxes with sewing notions and unfinished quilts.  The other day I was so fed up with having so many bits and pieces that I decided to do something about it.  I decided to make a simple crazy patchwork quilt.

I was feeling rebellious, so I decided to just lay the fabric out and sew it with the raw edges showing.  It seems simple.  I think it may be just as much work to hide the raw edges as to leave them exposed.  Luckily I really like the look of exposed raw edges.  I was sort of disappointed that I didn’t have many showing.

I had Wonder Under, some scrappy canvas and loads of fabric scraps.  I figured someone else loved them enough to save them, so mixing up all those pretty pieces had to be good.  I just grabbed a bunch of fabric scraps from my collection, ironed them and attached them to my canvas.

I did a lot sewing. I tried out most of the stitches available on my sewing machine. I made sure the pieces of fabric were very securely attached to my canvas. I put as many bits of lace and trim as I could find. On the front I put a toggle button.

On the back I attached a loop of grosgrain ribbon by zigzagging over the two ends of the ribbon.

I knew I was done when I emptied all but one of my sewing bobbins.

I had to save some thread for sewing the lining in my scrappy bag.  I used fabric from my eldest first (and only) quilt.

It’s quite a large bag.  I’m still trying to decide whether to save it or give it away.  I can always make a few more.  I still have quite the fabric stash in boxes under the bed.  I think I’ll do a bit of experiment…maybe a few smaller bags would be nice?

As a Christmas gift to all of you, I’ve been uploading Christmas images. The images in this post are a continuation from last week’s book. The images are all drawn in black, red and white. All the images in this post are from the public domain book, The Book of Knowledge, The Children’s Encyclopedia, Edited by Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, Ph. D., Vol VII, Copyright 1912, The Grolier Society of New York.  The original copyright for these books was 1899. 

The image above is from page 2154. The page is titled, Little Verses for Very Little People. It has two wonderful illustrations at the top with a poem. Words and music to the Christmas song, I Saw Three Ships are below.

Above are illustrations with a poem about Santa Claus from page 2155. Three separate images are on the page, one of children sleeping, Santa filling stockings and Santa about to enter a chimney with a reindeer in the foreground.

From page 2156 is a poem and a lovely illustration of a home with people sleeping inside. The little man ringing the bell is trying to wake the woman to make pies.

From page 2157 is a poem and elaborate illustration of singers (including dogs) in fromt of a house.  Cute little dancers (including dogs) ringing bells  line the bottom of the illustration.

On page 2160 is an illustration from A Christmas Carol.  This book contains a short version of the story with a lot of illustrations.  This is an illustration of Scrooge with the ghost of Christmas Past watching happy people at the Christmas party given by his old boss.

The words and  illustrations are from a pre-1923 copyright book.  All of  the images should be copyright-free.  The images have been uploaded to my flickr page.  They have been attributed to Creative Commons.  If you click on the image, you will be taken to the image on my flickr page where you can chose the size of image to download for free

I was cleaning out my office recently and found two sheets of Christmas images that I had printed out a couple years ago. The images were of Dover Publishing Christmas images that I had modified to look like postage stamps. A couple years ago I handmade Rummikub® Christmas postage stamp ornaments for gifts for the kid’s teachers. I also sold a few extra sets. They were surprisingly popular. I was just too busy with other things to make more.

Because they have a little wire-wrapped loop at the top, thay could be used as gift tags as well.  They can be made to be a gift on a gift.

I didn’t want to do the same thing over again. This time I decided to use some of my leftovers and give the ornaments a new spin. I painted the backs a brassy gold color. I filled in with some gold leaf to make them look a little tarnished. Some of them worked better than others. I found some jewels that we had been using for kid’s crafts. One of the sizes fit perfectly in the circular indent of the Rummikub® pieces.

The wires came from a dollar store purchase last year. I ended up with a huge number of wire ornament hangers.  Instead of using them “as-is”, I reshaped them into something that was more pleasing to the eye.

I still have quite a few leftover jewels, wires, and Rummikub® game pieces.  If you would like to make your own handmade ornaments or gift tags, you can find instructions for making altered dominoes in my how-to section of this blog.  Making Rummikub® game piece ornaments and/or gift tags is very similar. 

Note that I do sand the front of my game pieces regardless of whether I’m using wood or plastic ornaments.  I think it helps the image on paper stick better to the surface.

I recently acquired a couple of vintage book sets from estate sales.  In the spirit of the Christmas holiday I decided to upload some Christmas images.  All the images in this post are from the public domain book, The Book of Knowledge, The Children’s Encyclopedia, Edited by Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, Ph. D., Vol VII, Copyright 1912, The Grolier Society of New York.  The original copyright for these books was 1899.  

I had an incomplete set of The Book of Knowledge, I was thrilled to acquire a complete set of these wonderful old books. 

I thought I would start out with a 3 page story in the book titled “Santa Claus, The True Story of Christmas”.  Above is the first page of the story.  I thought the images of the snowman and snow-woman were adorable.

Above is Page 2 of Santa Claus, The True Story of Father Christmas.  The red, grey and white border around this part of the story is filled with illustrations of toys and ornaments.

Above is Page 3 of “Santa Claus, The True Story of Father Christmas.  This page contains a great image of Santa with toys on his back.  If you look closely you can see elves, children and stockings..

On this page is an image of Angels singing.  The song is God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen!.  The border illustrations are bells, holly, and various swirls and flowers. 

  The words and  illustrations are from a pre-1923 copyright book.  All of  the images should be copyright-free.  The images have been uploaded to my flickr page.  They have been attributed to Creative Commons.  If you click on the image, you will be taken to the image on my flickr page where you can chose the size of image to download for free.

Above is 4 of the final 8 soldered recycled bottle ornaments I made for Christmas gifts. I reused 2 sets of 4 glass bottle salt shakers. The ornaments above have a pentagonal pattern on them. After filling them with reused plastic beads and faux pearls, I sealed them with copper tape, then soldered the tape. Each of the ornaments had a head pin soldered to the top. I reused brass beads from a beaded belt as toppers for my ornaments. I attached a simple brass wire hook to the wire-wrapped loop at the top of each ornament.

I decorated these little guys with a little six point star hanging from a chain.

The other 4 salt shakers were square. I decided to use some images as a “label” for the bottles. I used 2 images, a vintage image from a book in my collection and a digitally altered photo I took last year. I thought the house in snow and the Stellar Jay on a snowy branch were seasonal.

Above you can see the images a little better.  For some reason birds in snow reminds me of the winter holiday.

The bottles were filled with reused/re-purposed beads and little balls from a Christmas garland.

The idea was to make the ornaments look like little perfume bottles.  I think they look pretty good.

My intention for quite a few years has been to re-purpose some of my glass containers into glass Christmas ornaments. I finally decided that this was the year. With the help of some recycled beads, a reused beaded (brass) belt, some copper tape, solder and brass wire, I’ve made some very nice ornaments using bits and pieces from my collection of second-hand stuff.

All of the ornaments are sealed with copper tape and soldered.  They each have a head pin soldered to the top so that beads could be added to the top.

Here is a selection of the first 6 glass bottle ornaments. Maybe you can guess the original purpose of these glass containers.

I should start with the ornament above because this is the piece of glass that began my obsession. This is a bottle top. I don’t know what happened to the bottle bottom. I just like the top and it was inexpensive at the time. I thought it looked like an ornament from the beginning. It took me a few years to put the pieces together and make it into an ornament.

When I found some wonderful brass ornament caps at an estate sale, I knew I had the perfect topper for my soldered glass ornaments. 

The Christmas ornament above is filled with a variety of new and reused purple beads.  I topped it with a reused purple bead from an earring.

Above is another glass bottle top.  I filled this one with reused red plastic beads and old silver Christmas balls. 

Above is another re-purposed glass bottle top.  I filled this one with shells from a recycled necklace and a few gold metal sea-themed charms.

Above is a reused cut glass salt shaker. I guess people buy them in quantity to use at tables for wedding receptions. They can commonly be found in thrift stores and estate sales.  I filled this one with faux pearl beads and little gold seed beads.

I loved this little bumpy perfume bottle from the moment I saw it.  I have filled it with all sorts of gold things.  Since it is bumpy I put in scraps of wire as well as beads.  The bumps on the glass make it impossible to see the details of the contents inside.  The color is nice and it’s great to find a use (reuse)  for some of my scraps.

Every year around this time I try to create at least one holiday recycled project.  I like to give something handmade at Christmas.  I feel like I’m giving a little bit of love and appreciation.  When I am creating I can escape the barrage of sales pitches we get this time of year.  

No one in our family is  immune to the commercial part of Christmas.  My kids want “stuff”.   They also are begging me to take them Christmas shopping.  I feel very lucky to find Joy, Happiness, and the true meaning of Christmas in my studio this time of year.