Artist Spotlight: Part Forty-Nine

Today, I'd like you to meet the mulitalented artist, Lisianblue of Albuquerque, NM.  OK, so her name's really Kris, but her favorite flower is the lisianthus and her favorite color's blue (so's mine!).  Of course, in learning that about her, I had to look up lisianthus flowers, and I see why she likes 'em so much.  Check it out.

Beautiful!  So I see why she chose Lisianblue for her business name.  Speaking of which, although that photo didn't come from Lisianblue, she is an art photographer, who sells prints and cards of her flower photographs on Artfire!  And as one who's taken my own fair share of photos of flowers, I think I'm a fairly good judge of botanical photography.  Her's are gorgeous.

Am I right?  (That was a rhetorical question, silly.  Of course I'm right.)

Her penchant for flowers translates really well into another one of her art forms, painting on glass, like she's done on this ornament.

When it comes to her glass painting, I love this vase and this other ornament too.

Painting isn't all she does with glass, though.  She etches it too.

And shapes it into suncatchers.

And fills it with crystals and solders it into paperweights!

Her glasswork can be found, together with her crocheted and knitted items at her other Artfire shop.

Wait.  What?  Crochet and knit?  Yup.  Now a grandmother herself, Kris' own grandmother taught her to knit and crochet when she was eight.

Cozy!  And while her grandmother was teaching her to make those awesome things, her mom was teaching her the joy of making gifts for loved ones, like this bunny I found on her blog.  She made it for her granddaughter.  How sweet is that?

She's got a more up-to-date blog too, that you should really check out.  Enjoy!

Artist Spotlight: Part Forty-Eight

You've met Gina Dahl here before, and I mentioned her again when she was my Handmade Artists Forum Secret Santa.  Owner of a Dahlish Knits Etsy shop, and a Dahlish Knits Handmade Artists Shop, her work is just so cute!

An avid reader and pianist who lives in North Dakota, there's nothing she enjoys more than curling up on the couch with some good music and a knitting project in hand... like this great baby blanket.

Or these wonderful stuffed animals, available in her Etsy or HAF shops:

 Caterpillar

Mouse

My favorite, though, isn't in the store yet, though it should be coming soon.  Check out these adorable baby booties!

Gina's just a nice person in general.  When she's not playing Legos with her kids or enjoying a peaceful walk with her dog, she's often making stuff for the kiddos, like this adorable owl.

Or this great tunic.

Or her new hobby, cross stitch, which resulted in these pictures to hang in her daughter's room.

And when it's not for the kids, Gina's making some for her friends too.

And then oooooooonce in a while, you'll catch her making something that's actually for herself!

To read about Gina, her knitting and other projects, her time with her kids, her book reviews, and a ton of other stuff, be sure to follow her blog.

Artist Spotlight: Part Forty-Six and Forty Seven

Two artists for you again this week!

The first you've met here a couple times before, but she's so multitalented that she's worth discussing again.  Sandi Levy of IKnitQuiltSew does in fact knit, quilt, and sew!

Like these great items:  baby booties, receiving blanket, women's headband, and baby headband.

Or this amazing hand-done car quilt, one of many in her Etsy shop and Handmade Artists Forum shop with which I'm in love.

Or these terrific hand-sewn dolls (I love the glasses and the smirk!), sundress outfit, and bear!

To learn more about Sandi, be sure to check out her blog.

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Our second artist is also multitalented.  Fasten your seatbelts for this one, because you're about to meet Haffina!

I'll start with my favorite part.  I've got dollhouses.  I got my first one for high school graduation, and spent a lot of time and effort painting, wallpapering, carpeting, putting in wood flooring, hanging pictures, running electricity, furnishing, and decorating.  I even have a tiny little Hummel figurine.

What I do not have - and really want now - is one of these cakes, made from polymer clay and available at her Handmade Artists shop!

Looks delicious, right?  But look how tiny!

Crazy?  Not as crazy as this chainmaille necklace or this seed beaded one from her Zibbet shop!

Not nutty enough for you?  At Haffina's Minis, you can find this tiny Barbie jewelry, in seed beads or micromaille.

Or how about her tiny, hand-embroidered doll cushions?

Your Barbie needs more accessories?  She can have this handmade suede purse!

On the other hand, you can find more human-sized pieces at her Artfire shop.

To learn more about this Australian mother of five (!!!), you can check out her Wordpress blog or Blogspot blog.  Of course, if you're having trouble keeping everything she does straight, since I have no idea how even she does it, you can just get all the links at her main site.

Enjoy!

Happy Secretary's Day!

Yes, yes, I know many people are calling this Administrative Assistant's Day.  But see, I got admonished once for that, by a secretary at a prior firm.  Her take on it was that "legal secretary" is a perfectly good and respectable title, and she'd earned it.  I tend to agree, and don't particularly see the title "secretary" as anything negative.  As a lawyer, I know I could never practice nearly as well, efficiently, or effectively without a good secretary.

My firm doesn't have good secretaries, though.  It's got awesome secretaries.

So since this is my first Secretary's Day with this firm, I decided to go personal and general at the same time.  I'm giving each staff member a different floral card I myself made from photographs I took.  The tough thing about them is that they're blank inside, and I'm not so great at writing out cards like that.  Shocking, considering how verbose I am, huh?

For the gift?  I baked a cake!  Chocolate fudge cake with homemade vanilla buttercream.

I had to ice the cake and then fridge it so I could smooth it down before using... betcha guessed it... fondant!  My very first real fondant cake!

To decorate it, I made tiny flowers and leaves.  Each flower has a center of a single sugar pearl, and the large ones I brushed with silver pearl dust.  Each one is a little different, as they're hand curled, both flowers and leaves.  And I used color powders to tint the white vanilla fondant into pink, purple, and yellow flowers, and green leaves.

Since I did a square cake and really liked the idea of a gift box, I also made a yellow and green marbled bow.

Then it was time to smooth the buttercream and cover the cake.  I decided to leave the base fondant white.

Once it was covered in fondant, I added green pearl dust swirls and a green and yellow marbled (and textured) ribbon.

Then the bow, which looked pretty nifty once on the cake, if I do say so myself.

And then all those flowers and leaves I made?  The majority of them ended up on the cake.  I might've missed the mark with regard to the "less is more" school of thought, but considering the fact that this is my very first real fondant cake, I think I did a pretty good job.

Can't wait to bring it in tomorrow!

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