Tori Amos in Denver

Last night I saw Tori Amos in concert -- she was absolutely Magnificent. She (and her fantastic band) played so beautifully, with such incredible energy! It was liquid bliss!

Her set list was amazing; each song flowed flawlessly to the next. And the colors, the lights -- each tableaux seemed "painted" to show off her signature red hair! Absolute PERFECTION!

Tori's music is so incredibly powerful... so very inspiring! I feel honored and privileged to have been able to see her performance -- WOW!

There's nothing.... nothing in the world like Tori's glorious music...

Posting Day!

Howdy everyone! (I am still recovering from the Symposium -- BUT, I am sooooo inspired! I've been making things like crazy, using new techniques I learned!)

Anyway, back to the business... the wonderful business at hand! I've posted six more hooks on eBay today, including some brand new nosties and a needle case in my store.

My favorite hook has got to be my new Tori Amos inspired piece -- brought to life through her American Doll Posse song: "Girl Disappearing."



This song has been quite important to me over the past couple of years -- I can certainly relate to it's thematic references -- I've lived some of those things. Indeed, I'm happy to have "boycott(ed) trends" and found a different way of being over the past ten years or so.

Reading the rest of the lyrics, I found it quite a romantic notion to escape to a constellation -- a place of there or possibly not there -- is it reachable? I don't know -- maybe. I suppose that I've never tried.

What was interesting to me while making this hook was that I normally gravitate to the chorus, the bit about "riding on backs of palominos," but whenever I thought about creating the hook, all that would come to mind was the stanza:

Envy can spread
Herself so thinly
She slipped in
Before I could notice it

And I suppose it was quite apropos for creation of a crochet hook -- after all, you can't really tell the entire story in such a diminutive format -- best to focus on the most important point.

So, I took that traditional green for envy and based the hook around that idea, "slipping" a thin band of green between the (almost pure) white of Holly -- the innocence of the protagonist of the song. After carving the spiraling designs, I painted them in varying, shading greens, allowing them to almost dissipate at the top; a metaphor for letting go of that anger, the forgiveness of self for wanting what isn't possible.

I couldn't resist adding a 3 mm Peridot gemstone, which I set in Sterling Silver, which really brings the piece home for me. This piece is engraved with my signature/artist's mark.

At any rate, I very much enjoyed making this hook -- it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!

Posting Day!

I've posted SIX new hooks on eBay, including another Tori Amos inspired hook. (Hint, she's the one on the left!)

However, before I go further on that topic, I'll tell you about the lovely little gal on the right: I couldn't resist creating a hook with more of my swirling dotted designs, thusly came the ~Winds of Summer~ crochet hook. I happen to think that blue and white go very very well together, and I love to try to create different combinations. Usually, I like to add a band of turquoise gemstones, however, with this hook, I thought I'd do something different.

I was inspired by the lovely summery weather we had a couple days ago, (it's been raining for weeks now!), and so after turning this hook, I thought I'd add some feather-light decorations. I painted the swirl carvings with turquoise and blue-colored metallic acrylics, and they came out to look very jewel-like indeed. The photo doesn't really give a great idea of texture, but it's just beautiful in the hand!

That little gal on the left was inspired by Tori Amos' song "Never Seen Blue," a B-side from her From the Choirgirl Hotel album era. I took some of the lines to heart, obviously, and thought about them a great deal as I was designing this hook. "Some boy you are to wear my color red/wear it very proudly"...

I usually play "Never Seen Blue" with "Beaulah Land" as they are both blue-colored songs to me. However, when I thought about the lyrics above (and those that follow), the meaning changed for me, and I wanted to make a hook that more accurately reflected those new meanings. (It's interesting -- I've been studying her music for about 8 years now, and I STILL hear something new each time I play a song!)

Anyway, I carved some wonderful textural flame-like designs on both sides of the hook, which wrap all the way around. I added a 3mm brilliant-cut Cubic Zirconia, (a real CZ, not a crystal), set in Argentium(R) Sterling Silver. (See the June 11th post below for info about Argentium (R) Sterling.) It sparkles sooooooo beautifully! The sparkly-ness is REALLY difficult to capture in a photograph. No matter what camera angle I tried, the light reflected off the top facet, making it look white.

I guess I'm going to have to ask for help on the photographs! Actually, there are some pretty good tutorials out there on photographing jewelery, so I hope to have a better photo for the next hook.

Well, back to work... I've got to get ready for the AAW Symposium next week!!!

Posting Day!

Hooray! Hooray! It's Posting Day! Annnnnddddd, I've got some fantastic new designs for you! (Before I get ahead of myself, let me just tell you that I posted seven new hooks on eBay today. I also added the nifty little box on the right ---->, showing some items from my Etsy store, AND also a list of links to all the places you can find my work.)

Now down to business.... ("serious mode" engaged)...

I had an absolutely GLORIOUS time making this hook:




It is a wonderful thing to be inspired by a person, or their creation, so I like to try and give back some of that inspired thought with a direct link of some sort.

Inspired from Tori Amos' "Carbon" from her Scarlet's Walk album, I thought about what makes the song so very special -- the lines she sings, the meanings that come. "Carbon made only wants to be unmade" ... "crystalline irises" ... "shred in ribbons of lithium" ... "keep your eyes on her/on her eyes on her horizon"

In doing this, and figuring out how I could translate this into a piece of artwork, I discovered new meanings in the song. For example, I always, always thought of "crystalline irises" as eye irises, never even occurred to me that they might refer to the flowers. However, when I was searching for the right color to add to the hook, the images of those purple flowers in my own garden jumped to the forefront of my attention, and I knew it was right.

For this special dedication, a very special hook was in order, so I used techniques that I was inspired to learn at the Utah Woodturning Syposium: the textural design, plus a wonderful secret from world-renowned woodturner Cindy Drozda (web site / blog) -- the setting of precious gemstones and adding them to my woodworking. (She adds them under the lids of her boxes, which creates a marvelously special effect whenever you open one! You'd never mistake a Cindy Drozda original artwork with anyone else's!)

For this piece, I added a 3mm amethyst set in Argentium(R) Sterling Silver. (In case you're wondering, Argentium (R) Sterling is made with germanium, which severely inhibits tarnishing, yet is never less than 93% silver, like traditional sterling. You can read more about it here (PDF)).

Combining all of these techniques together was a delightful challenge, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I will be posting more artist-inspired (Tori) hooks in the coming weeks. Only my very favorite songs will be translated into crochet hooks, and I'm happy to say that I've got a few of them planned already.

Happy Day!

Life is better today!

I get to see the goddess in concert: Tori Amos! Hooray! Bought tickets this morning to see her in Denver. I'm always blissed for weeks afterward!

*~* Happy Dance *~*

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am conceiving of a Very Special crochet hook to be unveiled at the AAW Symposium in June. I hope to see you there!