Kalaya Steede

So what does that mean? Here in NOLA it means you best be sporting your Black and Gold Baby!!! I certainly am... This is a dual purpose shirt.   Half Saints (football) and half Hornets (basketball) but they are not the Hornets no longer.  I will not discuss that right now but anyway I am showing my love! I should go venture outside to see how much love our city is showing today but it is just too HOT for that! Anyhoo... what have you all been doing? It is my good friends birthday today.  She is flirting with thirty!  Hahaha...Flirty Thirty...who came up with that?   I found this cute diy tutorial on sisterstuff blog which had me asking, now why didn't I think of that? .  It is a bouquet of Blow Pops!!! Finding a box that would fit 30 Blow Pops was kind of a challenge.  At first it was becoming a bit overwhelming and then I said... self, just get on with it.  Stop over thinking this!!!  Once I did that everyt...

Do you see that?  That is right.   It is 98 outside with 52% humidity!  Which makes it a whopping heat index of 102 degrees!   I must of been out of my mind when I decided to take a bus to downtown this afternoon?  Lucky for me I got picked up because I missed the bus.  Oooops!!! Anyway I went to see my Stepies in action at the Contemporary Arts Center here in NOLA.  I went because Stepie #1 told me he had something for me to see.  In his words "It's badass and I need to show it to you!".  Hahahaha!!! He called it 'Zombeh'. I LOVE it! You see, I do not stay in the studio 24/7.  In fact it is kind of hard to with life happening all around you.  How else am I going to get inspiration? This past week I had to remake a ring because I made it a size 9.5 when it should of been a 9!  Gotta hate when that happens.   I am really diggin' these anticlastic rings.  What kind of rings are your favs? ...

I think these are the most fun things I have made this month or was that last month? Have you guessed what they are yet?  Yes, they are money clips made from brass and copper and found objects.   I think the hardest part of the whole process was cutting out the blanks.  Talk about arm fatigue and these were only 20 gauge! At the market someone asked if I made the one on the right out of a ruler.  Hmm...what an interesting thought but no.   I took a bullet casing and sawed off the top which is not for light weights.  I have to use the force to decide where I place my saw blade because being too far up means sawing more and who wants to do that?!  The reason being is as you move up the casing the metal gets thicker somehow.  Also, while I am sawing I often wonder if the casing is going to blow up or something which is totally ridic!   After sawing the blank I file, anneal, clean, and patina.  Riveting is alway...

Namaste Kalaya

Why...oh why do I not start early in the year to get ready for the end of the year?   Back in January of 2012 I said to myself..."self you best start making pieces for the holidays."  Then it was summer, vacations, then all of a sudden dia de los muertos, and the next thing I knew it was Thanksgiving.  After Thanksgiving time was moving at light speed!   And then it was December when my old skin started to shed.  It was time for change and it is something when you have help to transform.   I was given the opportunity to truly follow my bliss and it was something scary!  "The old skin has to shed before the new one can come." ~Joseph Campbell But first things first... After Thanksgiving was my first trunk show ever!   I had no clue what I was doing but one thing was clear...I had to have inventory 2 weeks from Thanksgiving.  This is when anxiety sets in, and the entire studio is in utter chaos, and everything else in...

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...

I'm so stoked about this upcoming class that I'm teaching in June.  So when I walked into the Bead Shop on Magazine last weekend and saw my examples being displayed I was beside myself.  I asked that they unlock the glass so that I could take a picture!  That's how excited I was. Bead Shop on Magazine Leather Wrap Workshop Display Call (504) 895-6161 to register. T he examples shown is a one wrap and a three wrap bracelet but the class will focus on making the one wrap in order to learn the whole process. Everyone knows I've been making a lot of leather wrap bracelets these days.  I can't have enough and lucky for me I know how to make them.  Otherwise they would cost a fortune.  They are so much fun to make and I would like to teach everyone how to do it!    I'm teaching the workshop at  The Bead Shop  on Magazine St. on Thursday June 2, 2011 at 6:00 pm.   Call the Bead Shop at (504) 895-6161 and sign up for the cl...

Oh how fun to receive ephemera from random people.  Well...not that random.  He knew that I did art and gave my husband this to give to me...   He found a bunch of old paper while fixing up an old house here in New Orleans. He said it was trash to him but maybe I could use it for something.  I say, "Hell Yeah"!  Oh...excuse me.  Sometimes I get carried away.   Check out that ticket from 1876 and that picture of NOLA.  I wonder if the store front still looks the same.  I will have to investigate but I know that statue isn't there anymore.  I also have a Louisiana lottery ticket from the 1800's!  How exciting to receive such a treat.  I kinda have some ideas on how to use this treasure but  you will have to stay tuned to find out.  The creativity has to flow on its own terms.  Mixed Media here I come.   I'm thinking a collaboration is in order.  Hint, hint... So for now I bid you adieu....