Let there be light

We're coming up on the Winter Solstice, which is my cold months celebration of choice. It makes extra sense to me, a pale girl of Scandinavian descent, to be happy about getting more sunlight. Seasonal Affective Disorder isn't fun for anyone. But the Solstice is fun even if you also celebrate Christmas. It's about light returning to our lives, however you want to define that. So in prep for Solstice, here are some creative ways to bring your own light.

















Soda can lanterns. Saw this link on Cut Out and Keep and thought it was rockin'! Except all my cans would be beer cans from my husband. This would be fun with some foreign cans-- the asian food store near my house often has papaya juice or similar. Or how about red, white and green cans for Christmas/Solstice? To state the obvious, don't put these on your tree, okay? Tutorial is at The Star online.





















This one requires that you already have a round paper lantern, and alas, the season for easily finding these has passed along with the patio furniture. (Check the clearance section- maybe you'll get lucky!) You can pick them up online, though. You can pick ANYTHING up online. I could see doing these with stars instead of circles, or using multiple colors of tissue paper. And glitter! Glittery glue! Or not, if you're not into the awesome that is glitter. Tutorial at The Swell Life.

















If you've got more time (and patience) than I do, check out this folded lantern at ah-yi. It requires long paper, because that's all one piece. Possibly this could be altered to be done on a smaller scale?















Table lanterns from Design*Sponge Online. Very modern-y. Maybe use heavyweight Christmas wrapping paper in place of the colored cardstock? They're lovely as-is.

This year our light of choice was simple christmas tree lights strung on our fancy new white artifical tree. Last year we used LEDs on a real tree-- the white lights were so cold feeling! We picked out the fake tree this year and I realized I really quite like the white trees. I think it's because they don't even pretend to be real. I'm half tempted to leave it up year-round, switching the decorations (eggs and birds in the spring, flowers and suns in the summer, wee ghosties and skellingtons in the fall) but I doubt I could pull it off as a decorating feature and not just laziness with bells on.

Happy Holidays, however you chose to celebrate them!

Woven Wire Bangle Bracelet

I have all these bangle bracelets that I bought for my dance costume but, alas, my wrists and hands are tiny and one quick arm thrust means the floor is now wearing my bracelets. So I've been trying out different methods of dressing them up to sell or give away, and so far this is my favorite. I wrote this after I'd made it, so forgive the vagueness in some areas.

You'll need:

-2 metal bangle bracelets (mine came from Target and were about $8 for a big ol' pack)
-wire (I used 24g silver-toned cheap stuff)
-a large focal bead that has a hole running top to bottom
-wire cutters and jeweler's pliers

1. Cut two pieces of wire of equal length. I don't know how long mine were, so I'd guess 1.5'? Don't make them longer than you can easily handle.

2. Bend both pieces at the centers, just to mark that point. Slide the bead over both wires, to the center point.

3. Take the wires coming from the top of the bead and wrap them five times, each in opposite directions (left and right) around one bangle. Keep the wraps tight, and end with the wire sticking straight up to keep it outta your way.

4. Repeat step 3, but with the wires coming from the bottom of the bead and the other bangle. Keep the bead pressed tightly against the top bangle-- the work you're doing now is securing it in place. The rest is mostly artsy.

5. While weaving, you'll want to keep the opposite sides of the bangles-- opposite the bead, that is-- pinched together. If needed, wrap a twist-tie around them to keep them cinched together tightly.

6. The weaving goes as so:

• Bring the top wire behind the top bangle and in front of the bottom bangle.
  
• The bottom wire goes behind the bottom bangle and in front of the top bangle.
  
• Repeat over and over, until you have about 3" of each wire piece remaining.

I find it helps to do one set of weavings per side, alternating between left and right, to keep the spacing even. Here's another photo to see what I'm talking about:



7. Tightly wrap each piece of wire around the bangle it's closest to, ending the wire with small curlyques.

8. Assuming you didn't entirely cover both the bangles in wire during steps 1-7, you'll finish the bracelet by cutting another 1' or so of wire. Remove anything you had cinching the bangles together. Starting with the midpoint of the wire placed at the point exactly opposite the bead, wrap both bangles tightly in wire, working in both directions. End in curlyques.

You could also add beads to the weaving, or during the wrapping steps. This could also be adapted to allow more than one focal bead.

Faux Mosaic (Painted)

Our kitchen is Mexican themed. Not original, no, but given my love of bright colors, glitter ala Kathy Murillo and tin artwork, well, we had to devote a room to it. Our basement door is in the kitchen, and was pretty banged up when we moved in-- cracks in the nine layers of paint, etc. Eventually it'll be either stripped and stained or stripped and repainted, but for now, I decided to dress it up with a faux mosaic. It's almost like pointilism, I suppose.

Pluses to this sort of piece:

-It's cheap, especially if, like me, you already have ninety thousand bottles of cheap craft paint. All I had to buy was some poly sealant.

-It's easy to fix mistakes, unlike real mosaics.

-You can paint over it if you have to move or don't like the end result.

-You can do pretty much any design, and are not limited by the availablity of certain tile colors. You also can do very small details because you don't have to try and find a teeny little piece of tile-- you just use a very small brush.

Minuses to this:

-It's not mosaic. It looks like one, especially from, oh, twelve feet away, but it's not for real, which can leave you feeling a bit fakey. Me, I don't care.

-It takes a really long time. Even simple designs take quite a while, because you have to fill in everything with dots instead of just slapping the paint on with a wide brush. My design was simple, but it still took me two days of solid, every-spare-moment-spent work.

-It can be hard to make your work look imperfect on purpose. In real mosaic, the tile pieces aren't perfectly shaped; they're sometimes off-kilter, leaving more or less grout showing. The temptation to make a "perfect" faux mosaic is there, especially if you're used to painting things nice and neatly. But hell, if that's what you're after, you might as well use the Rasterbator.

Supplies:

-a paintable surface

-an idea and a pencil

-craft acrylics in desired shades

-baby food jars or similar for mixing colors, if you so choose

-small paint brushes

-clear polyurethane sealant

-Q-tips and water (to fix boo-boos. Not that you'll make any. Just in case)

First, paint your surface the color of your "grout." The grout is the stuff that's normally inbetween the tiles on a real mosaic. My door was already white, so I skipped this step. Let the paint dry completely before going to the next step.

When you're ready, sketch your design out on your surface. It doesn't have to be perfect; you can always erase errant lines if you don't like them. You can label each section with color codes-- "B" for blue, "A" for aqua-- or you can make a mini-sketch on a piece of paper and label the colors there.

Mix any custom colors you need. Make sure to mix more than you think you'll need, especially if your paint is thin (some colors need several coats to be opaque- the orange on my design did). Using baby food jars is great for this because if you need to stop your work for a while, you can close them up and not have to match a secret paint formula the next day.

Start painting. I started with the sun, but you can really start anywhere. I'd suggest starting with the side opposite your "strong" hand-- i.e., I'm right handed, so it makes sense for me to start on the left side of the design. That way I can paint freely without dragging my hand or sleeve through the wet design.

The tiles can be random blobs, geometric shapes, whatever. I think squared-off random blobs look nice, but that's me. The important thing is to be random about it. To "force" randomness, you can also paint a tile or two in a big open space, and then fill in around it. If you keep doing this, it'll change the pattern you're unconsciously making with the tiles. It can also help to work on one area for a while, and then work on a different area.

On my piece, I used several layers of paint on the sun, to make sure it was vibrant, and to create blended-color tiles. On the sky area, I went over random tiles at the end, making them a bit darker than the surrounding tiles. I thought it made it look more realistic. Varying the color of the tiles just a smidge, I think, makes the tiles look more like, well, tile and less like paint.

When you're done, let the whole thing really dry. Then seal it with a coat of polyurethane. I haven't done this on my door yet, but it seems like a good idea. You can skip it if you like; my door has held up just fine in the year since I did it. But again, that's me.

Other ideas:

-What about using glossy paint for the tiles, and matte paint for the "grout" background? It may give a more realistic texture to the piece.

-Obviously, you don't have to paint one of your doors-- you could use this on anything: a canvas, your old combat boots (use leather paint, hey?), a coffee table, the hood of your car...

-I used plain paint, but who's to say you can't mix in some metallic or glitter paints?

If you try this out yourself, let me know how it goes! Send pictures! I'll hopefully add more faux mosaics to the door as I get more free time (but given it's December and I have two young kids, who knows when that'll be?).