Burst of Creativity

The holiday downtime afforded me a few hours here and there to busy my hands with creative projects I've had earmarked for quite some time. I'm just not any good at laying on the couch. This is rest for me. Why fight it?

Accomplishment is energizing in and of itself isn't it?

Check out the fruits of my labor.

So I considered good ol' house paint,  à la Franz (though I don't even think they make the stuff he used to use anymore). But in the end, I brushed on some safe bet artist's acrylic. I don't think I'm entirely done. I think I got the texture right, but I want to add a bit more of the white over black. It's there- not entirely noticeable in the photo, but I'm thinking it could use more. A little Chet Baker on the iPod and I was in the groove.

This was an exercise in dexterity. Braiding while threading and tightly holding hex nuts in place at first had me a little frustrated. That is until I figured out that I needed to tether my starting end to something (a little helpful hint that I didn't find in the tutorial). Then it came together in a snap. I've worn it out twice over the last two weeks and I think it's fast becoming a favorite adornment.

I had seen these totem-esque little diddies floating around the blogosphere and almost hit up Etsy before I decided to make my own. While at the local flea in November, I found a booth selling these antlers and after much assurance that they only sold those that were naturally shed, I brought one home to paint. It sat naked on my coffee table until this past week when I could no longer resist and prettied it up. The blue actually came out looking a little more cerulean than turquoise here, but you get the gist. It makes me giddy.