El Diablo necklace

Originally uploaded by illusionary_one

This is an example of the shrunken plastic pendant necklaces I have been working on. And yes, there is a good chance those are rosary beads.

(also testing out posting here from my mobile phone – if it works, rejoice, as it will mean more frequent updates. This time I am using Flickr as an intermediary.)

Homemade Apple Pie

Originally uploaded by illusionary_one

My friend Kris let me borrow her combo apple peeler / corer / slicer. The intent was to do only dehydrated apples, but since Diana taught me a stupid simple tasty crust recipe, making a pie as well was definitely in order.

I think the apples are Fuji (definitely locally grown in Hood River), and the crust is slightly savory with rosemary and basil.

We wound up having apple pie for dinner, as well as breakfast the next day. I even saved a slice for Kris.

Running far behind on keeping this blog updated, but I’m not going to make any apologies for it since it has left me more time for crafting.  Anyway, the Hallowe’en Bazaar was terrific.  Aaron got a lot of responses to his comic book preview, and I had an excuse to work day and night to prep jewelry inventory for the show.

I’ve been collecting vintage and estate costume jewelry, breaking it down into components, then re-assembling as I see fit.  I have also been making shrunken plastic pendants to accompany the necklaces and bracelets.  Nope, not “Shrinky Dinks”, although the same premise.  I use recycled plastic pieces instead of buying the kits.

Muchas gracias to Frykitty for inspiration on the plastics.  She has been hand-carving stamps to use on the plastics – the end result is pretty freaking amazing!  I’ve been going a different route and using Prismacolors and Sharpies with (mostly) my own sketches.  Hey, it gave me an excuse to buy a very pretty set of the pencils!  I haven’t had a full set since high school, and I’ve been wondering what took me so long.

I also made custom skull beads from Sculpey, then hand painted them with acrylics.  I am very pleased with the results, and you should be able to see more of these in the near future.