What do tattoos and mustaches have in common?

They can both be beaded on pens!



The mustache pen idea developed during a craft circle (crafts and wine have created some awesome projects). Tamara of TP Design was making necklaces from 40 year old vintage velvet Christmas bows rescued from her parents house. She even added pearls and I wanted one really bad! So we decide to trade for a custom mustache pen that I am finally sending her way. She is a beautiful person and a ridiculously talented artist. Click here to visit her shop.

The tattoo pen features the symbol of local artist Jared. He paints, he draws, he tattoos. We have some of his coffee paintings in our gallery at the Starbucks where I work. The symbol is an arc with 3 lines slashed through it. It's tattooed on his forearm and he sometimes signs his work with it. If you're in need of a killer tat, see him at Artistic Encounter on Rosemeade. Ask about the swine flu tattoo :)

Cradle to Cradle

Wow, it's been a whole month since my last post! Now that I am in the rhythm of my new job and having a puppy, it will be a lot easier to set aside time to blog and read others' blogs : ) I just finished the first chapter of this book Cradle to Cradle, and I just love it. Instead of figuring out what to do with the waste after we consume something, we should remake the way we make things in the first place. This book was not made out of paper, or even recycled paper; it's made from "plastic resins and inorganic fillers." It's a "technical nutrient" that can be made into many other things! I used my new book thong from my peace swap box to mark my place. It has a peace charm on one end and a "believe" charm on the other end. It was made by Debbie Clark of littlesomethings.etsy.com: cute creations to give and to keep. Thanks, Debbie! I'll be posting more of the things I received in the peace swap this week, too.

Greek Flag Design

This is my design for Greek Flag pen that I am making for a customer to give to his girlfriend. It was hard to make the cross look right, and the blue stripes are thicker than the white. It was the only way I could make them all fit though. I might play with it a little more later tonight, but for the most part I like the way it turned out.

My customer is one of the hosts of the incredibly informative and funny Evil Liberal Propaganda Network. They have a blog and an internet radio show that airs Mondays and Thursdays at 10-midnight eastern time on indieairplay.com. They "fight CONservative liars with Liberal fire." They make part of their shows into podcats that you can find on itunes. I listen to it all the time when I bead, and I highly recommend their show.