Kalaya Steede

The Bead Shop just posted their schedule of fall classes here in NOLA. Bohemian Style Bracelet The first leather workshop for the fall (do we even have a fall?) is scheduled for this Sunday!  Yes...I know...it is during a Saints game...Oops...but I PROMISE to keep those of you who join me updated on the score...although with the way things are going so far this season...you may not want to know.   Shop for your favorite beads and join me for some meditative stringing!  hehehehe!!! For the rest of the leather wrap workshop schedule go here . Have a wonderful Tuesday! Namaste Kalaya

What does one do with prayer flags?  We have had ours for over 15 years and did not know what to do with them! This is when Mary Jane told me about the order of color, and if possible to be hung diagonally, and where it can also catch the wind.  I believe that is so that the prayer can be released into the wind and be carried.  Mary Jane told me this months ago and still the flags sit. Today Mary Jane invited me to post on the Flags for Peace Project blog.  What better day then International Peace Day to finally hang up those prayer flags! No...I do not know how to sew but this was not going to stop me!  Lucky for me the sewing machine was locked and loaded!  All I had to do was push the pedal!  hahaha!!! First I needed something to sew the flags on.  I found my old purse from Thailand and proceeded to take it apart!  I am using the strap only. Sewed the prayer flags in the color order that I was told and voilà! Now...

A river doesn't hold all the water that passes through it. I am about to share the most wonderful day we had in San Miguel.  There are no words to describe it but to say it was magical and I would very much like to have that day back.  I do know that this is not possible and as I try to hold on to things, i.e. dried flowers...as a reminder of that day, I need not carry them.  This is why I put the quote above.  Because the river does not and cannot hold on to the water.  For the river is wise and knows that the water has already shaped it.  I like to think that the people I meet represent the water in the river and them coming into my life, if even for a brief moment, has shaped me.  I will carry those moments always...oh and those four leaf clovers Kent gave us, and a rock that Jesse found, drilled and put a tube rivet through, from our adventure!  hehehehe ♥ Enter with an open heart... Foothills of Mexico. The great m...

I am down to my last 9 rivets.  I need to draw some wire down  to make more but guess what?  I do NOT have a draw plate!  As always I take my time in ordering and when I go to order the draw plate they are out of stock.  My life story.  hahaha!!! Anyway to make a long story short...my long awaited wire draw plate arrives... Wow!  It even came in its own case! Oooooooooo.... Ahhhhhhhhh.... ohhhhhhhhh.... Now if I can only figure out which side to load the wire.  Hahahaha!!! I just had to share my excitement over this draw plate.  I am probably just excited in general.  I have some cool pieces to share with all of you but not yet!  Patience grasshopper!  hahaha!  Does anyone remember that saying? Here is to a great Tuesday! Namaste Kalaya

Over the next few days I will post about our journey south of the border to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  There is so much I would like to share but I just do not know where to begin.   I guess I should start at the beginning, eh?   We went to San Miguel for two reasons the elevation and to visit our friend and artist Jesse Bert .   Waking up in San Miguel was absolutely beautiful.  The temperature was cool, as compared to our New Orleans heat in August, and I was finally taking a much needed break from summer.  There are clouds about but it is rainy season, and there were just sprinkles every now and then, not downpours. View from the roof of our room. First thing we did was EAT!  We ate at this  scrumptious  breakfast place called Cafeteria Los Bisquets.  Yuumm...I can taste it still. Me trying to understand what they were saying! Next thing was to send Sam (my Sweets) off on his running trail.  ...

DOD (Day of the Dead) time! I have been wanting to post about Mexico but... But, but, but...that word is always sneaking around.  I want to play in the studio...BUT.  Oh, I would love to meet you for coffee...BUT...and so on.  But enough of that! I just had to get back into the studio and make something.  I really felt that I had forgotten everything I have learned over the past 6 months!  Deadlines are looming and I needed to get on the ball because NOLA's  Art for Arts' Sake , which is October 6, 2012, will be here soon and I need inventory. I had this idea to make a series of skull necklaces for DOD.  This required me to make a sample and here is what I came up with... DODS by Kalaya Steede I put a chain on it just for the picture.  I do not like shinny...at least not copper.  I will patina that and buff it up.  The skull measures about 1" in diameter and the metal is tin (I think).  I used...

First day back in NOLA and ecstatic to to be back!  A few nuisances but I really cannot complain. I have no Internet or cable but I did not have that in Mexico or France for the past 17 days!  So I guess I am used to it already. Thank the Gods for power...now that I cannot live without! The sweet hum of the air compressor...music to my ears indeed.  ~7 inches tall!!! This morning I got a good look around the neighborhood.  There are a lot of tree debris everywhere and I am glad to see that our oak tree is still standing tall and proud. Merci beaucoup to all the friends that kept in touch with me during and after the storm.  I have not been able to post from abroad and I am going to see if this post will go through. Not too many pictures today but here is the biggest labradorite I have ever seen, 7" tall!  It is located in Chamonix, France. Well this is all I can do for now. I will have to improvise from here on out, until I can get...