Kalaya Steede

Every now and then a little elf steps into the studio while I am working and starts asking these annoying questions.    What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time working on that? PRODUCTION WORK?!!! WTH?!!! He (yep the little bugger is a "he"), I shall name him Doubt, infects my mind from time to time.   This all happened last Friday while making some of my New Orleans'  Token pendants. So I reached down deep inside me to think about the "why".  I thought about it because I was running towards something else and resisting the moment. As I sat there at my bench working on this particular token pendant here is what came to me. New Orleans Token Pendant These particular tokens were minted in 1947 and 1970.  They differ only on what is said on the back (1947 - "One Base Fare" and 1970 - "One Cash Fare") .  The ones I use for my pendants are minted in 1947.   I do not clean them up.  Instead I examine them, hold them...

My muse has abandoned me.  For me I go through these phases of being uninspired.  It happens quiet frequently to be honest. I hear a voice and he says, Follow your bliss. But DAMNIT,   Following your bliss is tre difficult and sometimes downright PAINFUL. Okay, enough of that. It has been about a two solid weeks without being in the studio.  So yesterday I cleaned up the mess and was going to organize but then said to myself,  Self, you don't have time for that.  Get busy and stop procrastinating. I managed to clear off the working bench and put back together my beloved lotus bracelet.  A good warm up exercise to start the morning.   Did you know that I did that?  It's kind of like working out.   Need to warm up them hands Baby before diving in. I sat there for awhile before finally deciding to finish up a piece that was in the making about a year ago. I made this box using copper and sa...

Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. ~The Matrix It's hard to get out of my head and out of my way.  These past two weeks I've been doing just that.  Letting things go and just doing.  Most of my new work I posted on my Facebook page but my latest work is still on the bench. It all started with this green stone known as uvarovite.  Now that stone has been with me for about 2 years, maybe 3.  It was time for it to go out into the world. The pendant was all done and ready to accept the stone. BUT...I wasn't feeling it. COME...ON!  Are you kidding me? All you have to do is add the stone and move on or is it? My hands moved over to my stone box (I have only one).   Really?   Yes, only one and pulled out this beautiful blue stone. Arizona chrysocolla Which also sat on my bench for over ...

I had the most intensive Faux Bone workshop EVER!   Robert Dancik decided to play in NOLA in the month of May teaching anyone who wanted to learn about Faux Bone at Thomas Mann's studioFlux and I was up to the challenge. What is Faux Bone you ask?   Well, it is PVC but a higher grade of PVC.  It is non-toxic, malleable, can be stained, dyed, twisted, and was founded by Robert. It comes in sheets of various thickness just like metal but sawing is like cutting through butter. I started off making one of Robert's designs so I can learn everything about the Faux Bone. After cutting out my shape and sanding to make it real smooth I used a Dremel engraver to draw my designs into the bone.  Next was to make those engraved sections pop, basically just adding some acrylic paint in the crevices and then wiping the excess off.  Last was to give it a good stain to make it look as though it had been aging for thousands of years. How do you ...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE... Last Thursday I got to spend some time with my friend Amber.  I wonder what could be in these bags?  They are so lovely I didn't even want to open them... Inside... These are the goodies that my friend Amber made for me.  Don't know if you can tell but I totally LOVE Frida.  That brass necklace is made by using resin. It's such a cool technique. And what am I going to do with those tags?  They are just too nice to put on packages.  I guess I have to meditate on letting go.  One day I am going to get there.  Amber is so talented.  Go check out the rest of her pieces either on Etsy or her blog Yellow Flower .   Gracias Amber! I made another one! This is a three wrap bracelet made with faceted carnelian stones. It is a talisman and brings good luck to the wearer. It also gets rid of anger, envy, and hatred.  I favor carnelian for it's reddish color. A good stone all around.     Finally a nec...

Bonjour!   Yes...I made yet another leather wrap bracelet.  In fact I made two this weekend.   Twelve feet of leather, thirty-six feet of thread and 3 1/2 hours later lies my first five wrap leather bracelet.   Whew!  Glad that's over.  The best thing when making one of these babies is at the end when you clip off the excess thread.   A stone to bring one back down to earth.  I personally like to daydream so it's good that this bracelet is leaving the nest.   Have a great weekend...what's left of it. Namaste Kalaya