BlogOfParadox

Archive for the ‘adornment’ Category

The coolest thing just happened.

Erica text messaged me to say that a friend of hers had come into the tattoo shop, and was wearing a bird’s nest necklace. E. asked if it was one of mine, and the girl said she didn’t know who this Deirdra person was, but EVERYONE asks her that. She tells me what it looks like (goldy-bronze with weirdish pearls), but Oh! Her friend got it in North Carolina.

I check my records, and realize I’ve actually made a nest of that description and sent it to North Carolina.

I fire back, asking if she knows a woman named H. I made two nests for her, each going to women she loved wholeheartedly.

Bingo! The nest on the left went to the woman who is now H’s roommate.

So I once made a nest and sent it winging away to North Carolina, and now, it’s come back to roost.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say that this is a rare instance, and purchasing a nest will not force you to move to Mississippi or anything like that.

Here’s a peek at some of my more recent work.

I need to get more pictures of it, but here’s the latest works.

Last night, I made a variation of Habeas Brulee’s  Tea Cookies.  Instead of the oolong she used, I went with jasmine green tea.  I also used orange flower-scented sugar to coat the cookies, because I love flowers in food.  My miniature citrus plants are blooming for the very first time (they’re about four years old now!) and the smell is lovely.  The resulting cookies were well-balanced, not too sweet, and fragrant without any cloying overtones.  I’d love to make these with my Margo-inspired Madge Shelton tea (black tea spiked with rose, spearmint and pink peppercorn).

I’ll be taking a baker’s dozen to the Ink Spot this evening.  We’ll be working on the rose and the poppy this time, which will round out the largest components of the design.  The rose is a Handel, one of my mother’s favorite flowers.  She grew one next to our front door, untrellised, and the carnivorous beast used to demand blood toll from nearly every visitor.  I can’t tell you how many times that damned rose stabbed me in the left arm growing up, so this seems like fitting tribute.  I planted poppies in our garden when we were still considering a backyard wedding, hoping for a sea of orange and red.  They were a prominent motif on our wedblog (along with ginkgo), and I used them in my bouquet for our cheesy awesome Vegas wedding.

All of these pieces of my life are beautiful, especially together.

I have two more jewelry slots available before Mother’s Day.  If you’d like to commission some wearable art for your mom, hit me at inquiries@birdofparadox.com

Moms love nests filled with as many eggs as they have children!

I went in last night for two hours so Erica could start the color on the flowers. The iris was first, and it’s stunning. It looks like it could rustle with the slightest breeze. The iris is for my grandmother, and I can’t wait to send the photos to her. The lotus was much less time-intensive, but it is no less lovely. I love the pinks and the lovely veining.

Dudes, I am all YARDCORE and stuff.

I’m so very excited. There’s still signficant work to be done, but I’m hoping to get as much done as possible in the spaces between the long weekends of teacher training.

Birthday is May 2nd!

ETA: The Toasterstrumpet informs me the Paypal button has been broken since my Wordpress migration. Here’s a link instead.

Last night, Matthew and I went over to the Ink Spot to see what Erica Flannes had worked up for me. I’d given her concept art, but I am not so much of an artist, so I made sure to include photos, lest I end up with a gigantic vulva instead of an Iris. What she’d worked up made me teary-eyed. I knew she’d come up with something beautiful, but once it’d been realized, I was so emotional and overwrought.

About an hour later, I walked out with the beginnings of my birthday present!!

(if you click the image, you’ll see a tagged version, which explains the flowers)

It’s done in a medium grey, so it won’t have garish outlines. I think we’re heading somewhere semi-realistic, which should just be AMAZING.

I’m going back next Friday, where we’ll be layin’ down some color!

I got a little crazy with the hair dye last night.

First, I took Fire Engine Red FOR DARK HAIR ONLY highlight kit, and coated the underlayer of my haircut. Then I threw in a couple of streaks.

Then, I filled in the rest with Torrids’ Audacious Red. That’s when I started getting nervous and wondering if I missed any spots, so I brushed it.

Then, I was really worried; because I had absolutely NO IDEA what this was going to do.

This is what it did.

I actually color-corrected these cameraphone pixx3n (Variations, 1 click of Green) because my shirt is forest green and looked teal. I am still somewhat startled by the conflagratory results. In reality, it’s very pinky-red. You can catch the freaking GLOWING NIMBUS around my head against the back of our ivory house.