Handmade, Extraordinary Gift Boxes- Mai Sweet Shop Cakes! Faux Cakes with a Function!

Sweet Delights, Introducing Mai Sweet Shop Cakes!

My latest crafting venture has taken me into an entirely new realm thanks to yet another fantastic Japanese craft book that I found on making replicas of cupcakes, icing and candy with soft clay. Though these are a great departure from my usual work, here are some 'sweet' containers I made this past Thanksgiving weekend. Everything you see- short of the tin containers are not edible- but fortunately non-toxic if you try! (hee-hee) I think they're fantastic little storage boxes for the truly treasured jewelry in your life! I was so inspired by my trip to Paris, Baroque and Rococo time periods and Marie Antoinette,that I call these Mai Sweet Shop cakes, M-A-I stands for Marie-Antoinette-Inspired & 'Sweet Shop' for what my studio currently looks like! Each cake has their own personal name, so today meet Sophie, Natasha, Sherry and Maybelline. Enjoy!

Mai Sweet Shop Cake, Sophie -double container by marisol diazMai Sweet Shop Container Sophie, opened once by marisol diaz Mai Sweet Shop Cake, Sophie, opened twice - by marisol diazMai Sweet Shop Cake, Natasha, rectangular container by marisol diaz Mai Sweet Shop Container, Natasha - opened by marisol diaz Mai Sweet Shop Container, Sherry, rectangular container by marisol diazMai Sweet Shop Cake, Maybelline, double container by marisol diaz

I have made Mai Sweet Shop barettes, bobbi pins, rings and charms! I'm loving it! I'll be a featured seller at the craft fair at the Dwight Englewood School, in Englewood NJ during their Winter Arts Festival SUNDAY DECEMBER 14TH, from 2-5pm with a whole table of no-calorie goodies. You should stop by! I will be posting any remainder items on sale at my etsy shop immediately after! So if you're looking for that extraordinary gift box and are interested contact me or stay tuned! Let me know what you think!

Marie Antoinette Inspired Collage

I'm getting ready to write another 'Inspiring Artist' Blog, but until I have all my facts straight I thought I would share another collage with you all!!! I did this one right after I returned from the Europe trip. It is directly related to the images, Laduree treats, color and Marie Antoinette Exhibit that I saw while I was in Paris (See past posts). I cannot tell you how relaxing collaging like this is!!

Soon I'll be putting prints of my collages up for sale on Etsy...but I've also been inspired by other creative bloggers to do GIVEAWAYS once a month of collage prints - so let me know if you would be interested in me- doing that kind of thing. I was thinking I would post the small artwork as Giveaway art, then choose a 'comment' to which I send the piece to FOR FREE!!!! I believe in exchanging too, so lets see how this goes! Anybody interested in me doing this??

Embroidery & Body Image Life Question

This is one of my sewing machine drawings that I thought was appropo to todays post.

I am also miss asking questions of my readers from The Book of Questions, so I thought I would ask another question today, please leave a comment with an answer and I may feature your response in an up and coming post!

Question # 169:How many times during the day do you look at yourself in the mirror?

I'm doing a senior selective/presentation (for students who are seniors) these days on historical perspectives of body image, the definition and the pursuit of aesthetic beauty. The presentation is entitled From the Hottentot Venus to Barbie: Historical look at Beauty and Body Image and I thought that this question suited the topic. I'm interested in people's responses, so please leave a comment!

Relaxing with Collage!

Herstory exhibit is finally up and done I can relax again. As usual, I was a chump and forgot to take pictures of the opening event!!! However, one of my students did and as soon as I get those images from her I will post them here for you all to see the exhibit yourselves, as though you were there!!!

And as usual I fretted over nothing...the student support I received was phenomenal. More students than my faculty co-workers came out to support me which was sad but much more meaningful - since in the end that is who all the work was for.

I have been so busy getting ready for the Herstory exhibit that I haven't been able to do anything fun and relaxing, now I can. However, worse than that is not having anytime to collage (which is a new relaxing habit I picked up as opposed to knitting and crocheting...

I love origami and scrap-booking paper, though I'm not much of a an oragami-ist or scrapbooker. I also never truly understood the power of a one-medium-only pair of scissors, until I played with fabric and paper crafts.

So if you never considered collagen like this you should!! It's a delightful way to spend a couple of hours. Find a range of different patterned papers and play!!




If you really like one of my collage illustrations, soon I will be posting some these in my etsy shop!

Lamp Worked Glass Figures

This little shadow box of glass forms hangs on my living room wall. I combined small lampworked figures with wire wrapping. For the display I added incomplete arms, that I had lying around. I also found this antique photo printed on a piece of metal. I also chose a background fabric that I thought helped to evoke a passionate mood. I hope you like it!!

The art of melting and turning hand-held glass rods in a flame is called lampworking and/ or flameworking. Often we see Moretti glass which is brightly colored 'soft' glass used to make beads in a flame.
click pic to see my beads

I have many of those and love making beads. However, borosilicate glass is a heavier/stronger/harder glass-body with a lower COE made out of the same glass the original Pyrex was made out of. Though borosilicate can come in colors too, it is most commonly used in clear. I love borosilicate, with its lower COE it is very workable, but you have to work with it in a hotter temperature flame than the flame you need for Moretti. Hence, I can't use my little tanks of yellow Mapp gas to work it - I need real oxygen and acetylene tanks which unfortunately have not been in my budget.

So the bulk of the Europe pics are over. Though I still have a few Euro pics here and there that I will be sharing with you, I've been up to some new creative endeavors that I'll be posting - so stick around!

For the Love of Mermaids

This weeks Sunday Scribblings prompt is: Compose. I thought I would take a break from composing posts about my Europe pictures...

I have to confess another little guilty pleasure; making OOAK mermaids!!

Around two years ago, I started making these little mermaids and for a while, I became obsessed. The passion has died down since then, but I'm still smitten. I composed a story and a personality for each doll. I gave them a name and developed what I called a character card. If you know anything about me and my 'Fine Art' you'll know that these are quite a departure for me. The part of me that creates these dolls often feels silly. Unfortunately, I have even felt embarrassed about showing them to anyone, since they fall into that horribly divisive conflict of art vs. craft. Unlike the majority of the art world, I do not prescribe to the idea that fine artists shouldn't craft and crafters aren't fine artists. There is something about having an MFA that induces some intellectual snobbery about art in people, obviously not me. I have my MFA and still love to create functional crafts and obviously play with dolls! I find the mermaids artistically fascinating. I get a joy and peace when I’m constructing art dolls, unlike any other activity. Perhaps it’s the combination of tactile materials and fibers, along with the human form and the ability to compose a little world of tangible bits and pieces. maybe its about bringing a 2d illustration into a 3D piece of matter infused with spirit. What ever it is, I'm no longer going to be ashamed for it! Each is hand-sculpted out of polymer clay, with absolutely no use of molds. Therefore, every doll is unique (OOAK=one of a kind).

Meet La Chismosa or Chatty Patty

This Mermaid is a talker. She is all about catching up on the latest and being right on the doorstep of any blue world breaking news. Her most precious treasure: her state of the art seashell cell. You will never catch her without it. La Chismosa is also very stylish and witty. When the gossip of the day implies peril, La Chismosa knows who to call to set things right. She's proud of her keen perception and dynamic social skills. La Chismosa is everybody's friend, its the best way to get the low-down.

Sits around 3” tall with a 5 ½”long tail and is 2 ½” wide.

Quite a few family members own one of my mermaids. In addition many of the mermaids have sold through consignment at Midnight Owl in Chester, NJ. If you are interested in any of the mermaids available now, you can get them through my Etsy shop!

http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

My Handmade Laptop Bag and Life Questions

This was my back-to-school-craft that I made at the end of summer. Like the students its hard to get excited about returning to the school year. I am in love with Japanese craft books and I found book like this one:

The books are not in English but the imagery, layout design and quality transcends translation and is exceptional. Click on the book to get order information!

As you may be able to tell I miss living in NYC; my birthplace and families home outside of Puerto Rico. I can't say that I regret moving out of NYC, because I don't. I simply miss it.

Most of us tend to learn early on that we should never live life with regret. Fortunately, I usually don't cater to regret at all. Still, I find the following questions intriguing, because we still often catch ourselves saying "I wish I hadn't done that." What I do regret, was not being more mindful of the importance of a community before my husband and I purchased our first home out here in the dune docks of hunting country (we're not hunters).

So here are the questions:

• If you learned you would die in a few days, what regrets would you have?

• If you were given five extra years of life, could you avoid those same regrets five years hence?

I realize the answers to these questions may be too personal and complex to share here with me, so I added another question from the Book of Questions for you to ponder and share with me!!!


• If you had the choice of one intimate soulmate and NO other close friends, or of no such soulmate and many friends and acquaintances which would you choose?

Since marrying and moving out of NYC this is more or less where I have found myself...with a soulmate and not many local friends - but I didn't really have a choice. If I had a choice (as this question implies...) I'm not sure I would change anything.

Love Story With No Words

Well, here we are one day away...

I have received some awesome feedback to my blog questions and I'm going to post those responses as tomorrows special VDAY BLOG! So its not too late to add your responses to those last two blogs.

Also here's an awesome tip- if you're running out of time and need to do some serious lovenote gifting go to this awesome PHOTOJOJO site designed with us creatives and photographers in mind. You are going to love these easy peasy ideas. Just click on this little arrow:

pRECIOUS mETAL loVE

Today's love note goes out to all my students for all the love I get from them on a daily basis...enough to keep me at my job!

This piece of jewelry is made out of precious metal clay (pmc) and what an awesome material this is! Invented by the Mitsubishi corp. PMC is fine silver that has been ground down into a powder and mixed with starch to make it pliable - like clay. When you are done sculpting it- you fire it and VOILA your left with 99% silver - not sterling silver but pure silver! Sweet huh?

I made a few of these word necklaces for holiday gifts a couple of years ago.

So here is today's request, you favorite 'love' word is...click on post a comment and let me know!!

Its not to late to leave me a funny VDAY story in the last post comment slot - I want to post them on VDAY!

Love is in the Air

This is the week with one of the most reviled and adored reasons for being romantic that there is- VD...oh no, I mean Valentine's day.

In honor of this week, and all the crazy things I have done in the name of love. I've decided to do a-blog-a-day in the name of that dirty little word 'love'. But don't worry thats just four days!!

So for today, Monday Feb. 11th, I have posted 'Falling For You' and embroidery piece that I made, on red satin. I made a series of 'drawings' on the sewing machine with the dog-feed down so I could move the fabric around at will. I ended up really liking the bobbin side (the wrong side of the fabric) as opposed to the top-stitch side. For this particular piece I placed the satin as the bottom fabric- hence, you're looking at the back of the piece.

Here's a funny vday story: I anonymously sent 14 rhyming and paper-engineered valentines beginning on Feb.1st to my now husband when we were barely dating and just co-workers. He had absolutely no idea at the time who these 'secret-admirer' valentines were from and he started visiting the school psychiatrist and principal in fear they were from a student (we work @ a school). I revealed who I was in the last valentine (on the 14th) via a scavenger hunt card, complete with landscape arrows that led him to a basket of gifts and a pop-up card revealing my pic! Boy was he relieved!

It may be difficult to see (the post button below here) but write me a comment and share one of your NON-DEPRESSING vday stories!!!