Amarettogirl Craft Book Review- The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry by Jennifer Perkins

Since I'm big on reinventing the function of small plastic toys into jewelry (such as my Mai Sweet Shop Altered Rement line) I was beaming with intrigue when I saw the new book by Jennifer Perkins (yes the DIY network's Craft Lab host herself!) has a new book with her trademark kitschy style, entitled The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.

One day, in a hurried rush I browsed through the book in the bookstore, but I was too tired from a hard days work (teaching is not easy) and I didn't immediately purchase it. Then my fave Threadbanger podcasts had a Naughty Secretary Resin Bracelet demo on their weekly show with Jennifer Perkins and her book. The demo was so informative and thorough that the second I got on Spring Break I went back and bought the book. Boy am I glad I did, since a big chunk of my vacation was all about crafting with Jennifer!

The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins

• Paperback: 144 pages

• Publisher: North Light Books (August 11, 2008)

• Language: English

• ISBN-10: 1600611168

• ISBN-13: 978-1600611162

So here are some of the many strengths and little weaknesses of the book:

Excellent for beginners and inspiring enough for experienced folk (like me). Jennifer's overall mission is to get creatives and non, to see outside the normal confines of jewelry making and in this -recycle and reuse way- to see potential in anything, and I mean anything.

excerpt from pg. 14 of The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins

So on the negative side, if fun colorful, larger than life kitsch, garden gnomes, telephone cords, swizzle sticks, plastic toys, eyeglass necklaces, pencil earrings and watch headbands are too over the top for your traditionalist-little-beady-jewelry-makin'-mind than this book is not for you.

Ms. Perkins applies a secretary (9-5 gal) theme throughout the book with funny little side-notes, hot-tips and blurbs on the working girls history, holidays and lore. She includes what I think are hysterical, informative tidbits on the art of true, multi-tasking ability, ie., six other uses for coffee filters and a list of eight other uses for pantyhoses!

So in honor of the first day of Spring I tried my hand at an over-the top plastic, fantastic bracelet inspired by Ms. Perkin's Secretary's Bouquet Bracelet on pg. 120. excerpt from The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins I was super lucky to find a cha-cha bracelet blank (yes thats what its called) at A.C. Moore (Michael's didn't have any). However the cha-cha bracelet blank that I found had only one loop running across it, as opposed to the two loops on the blank that Jennifer uses in the book. I'm sure if I would have found the correct blank my Spring Chic bracelet would have come out a lot meatier. Instead I opted for the longer hula-skirt style.

Another great aspect of the book is that is categorizes every project in chapters of difficulty. This bracelet is a three star difficulty (highest level in book). In addition, she explains that this bracelet is great for the collector and Lord knows thats what I am truly master of.

My Spring Chic Bracelet inspired by The Naughty Secretary Club Spring Chic

So if you're interested in adorning your body with original, funky, re-cycled, joyful and often whimsical jewelry BUY this book!!

Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Complete-

all the images for the Art House Sketchbook project in a mosaic

Well here is a slightly zoomed in version of the completed sketchbook for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook volume 3 exhbit- just in time to run to the post office and have it postmarked by the deadline. The next time I do this I think I'll start well before two and half weeks (its easy to underestimate the amount of spreads -there were over thirty- in one of those little moleskines!)

If you would like to see the sketchbook in person (along with hundreds of other amazing sketchbooks) this is the list of cities the Sketchbook Volume 3 Exhibit will travel to around the US:

EVENT at Art House Gallery Feb 27th, 2009 Atlanta, GA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Atlanta Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Museum of Contemporary Art DC March 3, 2009Washington, DC The Sketchbook Project Tour - Washington, DC Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Chris' Jazz Cafe March 4, 2009Philadelphia, PA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Philadelphia Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Laconia Gallery March 6, 2009Boston, MA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Boston Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Antena Gallery March 8, 2009Chicago, IL The Sketchbook Project Tour - Chicago Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Soulard Art Market March 11, 2009St. Louis, MO The Sketchbook Project Tour - St. Louis Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at 3rd Ward March 13, 2009Brooklyn, NY The Sketchbook Project Tour - Brooklyn Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) April 2, 2009Atlanta, GA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Atlanta Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

Mai Sweet Shop Treats Debut!

The Mai Sweet Shop debut and craft fair was a great success!!!

Mai Sweet Shop Craft fair table

During the D-E craft fair I was able to compete with the 'real' food (which is generally where people tend to gravitate towards) because the sweet cakes look SO edible.

Mai Sweet Shop Cake Containers and Candles

At first, I was so dissappointed that I wasn't able to make my open-skirt Marie Antoinette Doll as a table center piece, or make more of this and more of that- due to lack of time- but in the end there couldn't have been more, since the table was jammed-pack-full! I worked on products up until two hours before the fair! When I saw the table all laid out with Mai Sweet Shop stuff I was so happy and satisfied!

My student Isabella Whitney & the Mai Cupcakes I had a student who I mentor assist me and she rocked the fair! She even sold some of her own wares, you can check out her stuff on Etsy too under IsabellaWhitney!! Go Izzy girl! So people are still hunting me down and finding what I have left so my supply is practically all gone! By tomorrow I should know exactly what hasn't been staked out and claimed. What ever is left will surely be available in my Esty shop.

MAI rings!MAI Barrettes!MAI Whipped Cream & Cherry Rings!MAI Bags!MAI Hot Cocoa and Mellows Ring

Amarettogirl Designs on Cafepress! Lets Go Shopping!

Come visit my store on CafePress! Like Etsy, Cafepress is yet another way artists can sell their goods online. The difference - Etsy is for handmade products (my greatest love -all things handmade), Cafepress is a site that allows you to create preexisting (manufactured) products such as mugs, pillows, aprons, tote bags with your own imagery on it. I think both sites are wonderful and offer very distinct opportunities for artists. So since shameless, self-promotion is a wise marketing tool, a new feature of my blog will be featuring something new that I'm selling either through my Etsy shop or my Cafepress shop. Today I'm featuring the 'Let Them Eat Cupcakes!' collage I made on a pretty nifty canvas tote for only $17.99! (I think thats a pretty good deal considering thats MY original art and I won't be selling them forwever! In addition, you shouldn't pay that nasty carbon-foot-print-tax on using plastic bags anymore!) Let Them Eat Cupcakes! Tote Bag $17.99

Custom Fabric Printing!!! Crafter Alert!

Oh My gosh I am in love! I was reading this months Craft zine and I came across an article on printing custom fabric - with a company called Spoonflower which offers online custom fabric printing! Compared to pre-existing fabric printing companies, Spoonflower offers low fees, fast production, easy-peasy digital accessiblility and best of all low minimum yardage requirements!

The great things is that most companies that would allow artist to do such a thing in the past had large minimum orders, making it nearly impossible for artists to order small swatches or batches.

So I just couldn't wait to try my hand at it! If you have a photo-editing program (I use photoshop), either scan your artwork into the computer or take a high quality photo of your art. Then using your photo-editing program start to think about what I like to call a quadrant (a square that can be repeated to develop a pattern.) Spoonflower offers clear and easy instructions on how to prepare your art for uploading. I used some old collages, most of which my readers may recognize. Here is one of the many images I uploaded. However before you start I must warn you - it is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! I'm going to place an order and update you all with the results!!! You can follow when I place the order - how long it takes to get to me, and what it looks like as fabric!

Marie Antoinette Fabric Design by marisol diaz

More Sandblasted Glass from my time in Corning

Here are some sneak peeks at some more of my earlier sandblasted glass pieces from my time at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Since I am really interested in graphic design and illustration I really tried to combine these varied interests. Often glass surface treatment is not narrative, but more decorative in nature. However, the images that I developed for the surface manipulation was more personal with a definitive narrative, so my interest in illustration and graphic line really started to show up.

Popped Balloon by marisol diaz

With this particular image - the assignment was to blast a hole entirely through the glass...I couldn't see how I would do that in manner that made sense me, unless it was through a heart. This piece is actually slightly smaller (than the on screen size) in real life and that adds to its charm - at this scale and with the flatness of the photograph - it loses some of its graphic pop.

Paz by marisol diaz

This particular image is actually much larger than this image (8 1/2' x 11') and the assignment was to create variations in the blasting tones, such as gradations. Since I was coming up with my design ideas on the fly (with no preset plan) I was even surprised to see the imagery I formed, all of which had to be cut out with an exacto knife of a protective sheet (buttercut) in stages to blast (see the last post to understand buttercut).

Think With Your Head Not With Your Heart Fool by marisol diaz

This piece is done on 1/2inch thick glass which is lost with the photogragh...and was most time consuming since the size is around 10 by 10 inches. I also 'royally messed up' by packing the glass in my backpack one evening to work after 11pm and after riding my bike, hence the side of the glass with no protection got scratched (good lesson to learn) and so I had to lightly blast the front edges of the piece to compensate...some say you would never notice if I didn't tell (another lesson to learn).

Still, these pieces are from the first few days of class...after which my work began to evolve in quite a different direction which I will share with you all next...so stay tuned.