Kalaya Steede

Usually I post on Fridays but I did not know that Friday already passed.  It is great not knowing what day it is.  What a blissful life. Ha! I just finished taking a workshop with visiting artist,  Jesse Bert , last week at Thomas Mann studioFLUX here in NOLA.  It was pretty amazing! I do not think I have the words to describe my experience.  There is so much I want to share but I will try and keep it simple.  So...let me introduce you to El Maestro. Jesse Jesse is originally from the U.S.  Although you would not have guessed it. Anyway one day he followed his heart to San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato in Mexico and decided to stay and to never return.  Just kidding, he does come back to visit the states every now then.  What a romantic notion to runaway to Mexico, hmmm. I digress.    Jesse likes to incorporate recycled and found objects into his sculptural pieces.  I particularly like the details you see on ever...

New Orleans is filled with many fantastic artists.  So why not interview some of them once in a blue moon?  Lucky for me that my good friend and artist Amber of Amber Leilani Designs allowed me to interview her. Amber Amber is originally from Plains, GA and had visited New Orleans several times before deciding to make it her home in 1997.  Currently she sculpts paper clay into these fabulous dolls but before we get into that let us see how she got there. Witches, dolls, and monsters oh my! I met Amber at a gallery here in NOLA many, many, moons ago.  Back then she was designing and creating some incredible beaded jewelry.  My favorite are her beaded bracelets but she has also made some beautiful pendants. Work in progress. Picture by Amber Leilani Amber had attend art school back in the day but decided it was not for her.  She is mainly self-taught and works part-time here in the city. How d...

Ooo...how exciting to receive a package from Mary Jane Dodd .   Look at the delicious packaging.   I just could not wait to unwrap it.  It was like opening a flower.   One petal at a time. I was sooo lucky to win this beautiful petal by Mary Jane.   And it could not of come at a better time.  I can remember that day clearly.  I came home after a REALLY difficult day.  At the end of it all I went to Mary Jane's blog and there I was, #22, the recipient of this petal, and a picture of a petal stamped "Lightly" and a passage from  Aldous Huxley's book The Island 'lightly, child, lightly. you've got to learn to do everything lightly. think lightly, act lightly, feel lightly. yes, feel lightly, even though you're feeling deeply.' And with that my day just became better even though there was only 4 hours left until that day was over. In gratitude... Namaste Kalaya

Happy Monday everyone!  Cindy Wimmer of   Sweet Bead Studio  is hosting a button swap, So...yesterday I spent all day making buttons for my bead partner  Kylie Dickman .  Kylie and I spoke about many things and she taught me what a button was.  I actually thought anything with a hole could be used as a button but not so.  Hehe!  Here is a sneak peak... Shhh. It is a secret!   They are in the midst of transformation. There is a funny story about these babies.  After soldering all the backs I realized that two of the buttons went MIA but then I thought that maybe I really did not make them and just thought that I did (this has been happening a lot lately).  Then I remembered that I took a picture and sure enough the two pieces that went MIA were there! It took a good 30 minutes to find them and that was my adventure for yesterday.  Namaste Kalaya