Honeybees and Spiders

I don't know what it is with me and insects the last couple of years, but I just love them and they are the only things I want to art.  It is working out though because I think I am making some cool stuff!

Up on my Etsy as of this morning is a beehive stash jar.  It took me literally all day, but I couldn't stop until it was done.  I was driven!

I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make drippy honey and beehive and of course the buzzy bees which I realize look more like bumble bees than honey bees, but screw it, it's my art =P

I also finally got around to taking pictures of my spider web inspired beaded and embroidered necklace:

This is recycled sari ribbon wrapped around 3/4 inch cotton cord.  I then sewed each little bead and pearl on it reminiscent of dew settling on a web.  Next I needled-felted some cocoons and sewed them in place.  Finally I spent ages embroidering about 2 dozen little spiders and I only ended up included 3 of them on the web.  I thought subtle might be better in the end, plus, they weren't looking as hot as I hoped so, yeah.  Voila!

I'm currently working on a cicada necklace that is a polymer and embroidery hybrid (see the wings from the last post) and I have my mind set on figuring out a dung beetle project.  Onwards!

It's been so long since I made a new octopus stash jar, but YAY snuck one in before the craft fair next week :)

A post shared by brandee blank (@brandeeblank) on May 4, 2018 at 4:48pm PDT

Rick & Morty Fan Art

I was commissioned last month to make  two Rick & Morty jars.  The task was left open ended at first and after talking to my client we came up with a Mister Meeseeks jar, and an Ants-in-my-Eyes Johnson jar.

I tackled Meeseeks first.  I knew I wanted to do the Meeseeks box and then a variety of Mr. Meeseeks around the bottom.  For reference for the non-fans out there:

The fist version of the jar came out thusly:

Doing the 'box' graphic as a round lid proved to be difficult and the final version here is the product of 3 trials that ended up in the garbage.  I also wasn't 100% satisfied with the characters around the body once it was done, so went ahead and produced what my second idea had been from the get-go:

The box top is amazingly easy once you are working on the 5th one, heh.

The one I love the best and really wanted to keep (seeing as I am also a  Rick & Morty fan) was the one based on this unfortunate soul:

My original thought was to have the bottom section appear as if he was on fire too (something that happens later in the episode) but I learned that I suck at making fire so left it alone.  Et voila!

Super love this guy!

Busy End'o' Feb Weekend

I had an eclectic weekend!

Made this fuzzy stash jar monster man!

And this weird little snail jar.

And I tried to make some pendants.  I did a couple of florals I didn't take snaps of, and this strange little thing.  I think they are all destined to be decorative badge holders rather than necklaces to appeal to folk at the business office craft fair in May.

And now to start work on what I have in mind for this weekend!

New Nautilus Design and more jars in general!

I am really loving my jars!  Every one I make I feel like I am on the verge of keeping. I am trying to branch out from the octopus design while  avoiding doing dragons.  I know dragons are all the rage, but I learned how to do these eyes from a tutorial on "dragon eyes" and I don't want to impinge on the tutorial artist's territory.  The weirdest (and disappointing) thing is that she started doing dragon eye jars  literally days before I posted my first one unbeknownst to me. Imagine my chagrin when I proudly thought I had a totally original idea and I see that I was "beat".  She is a lovely artist and has talents that I am terribly jealous of.  The least I can do is defer to her in this and not sell dragon eyes!

So now I am working on other creatures.  I have a crow version which I am not happy enough with to post pictures.  But I am quite happy with this Nautilus!:

There will be more to come with these guys.  I am excited to see where the design ends up from this one, which is my first attempt.


I did actually make a dragon version which went to family member:

And a sea dragon version that went to another family member:

I do have two ready-made jars already up on my etsy site, too!:

I love that I get to play around with different techniques and ideas on the body of the jars.  I really never had room to do that when making jewelry, mostly because I don't like the way polymer jewelry that is just a cabochon look, so I just never really bothered to branch out.