Bono's Blog

If you don't alreay know me I'm Jen's cat(my picture is on this site somewhere). It's kind of weird to say Jen. I usually refer to her has mom or mama. My name is Bono(pronounced Bawn-no)not Bo-no as in Sonny Bono, like most people mistakingly pronounce it. If I hear another "I've got you babe" joke somebody is getting a claw across their forehead. When I was first adopted I was not big on being named after some whiny Irish rock star, but I didn't have much of a say in the matter. But it's grown on me and now I'm a big fan. Anyway, your probably wondering what the hell is a cat doing blogging. Well here is your answer. Jen is the only person in the world that I like, which means I carry around a bit of anger and angst. It has become a problem lately. I've been irritable and grouchy and having a litte trouble sleeping. I have only been getting 12-14 hours lately. I saw Jen doing this blogging thing and it occured to me, what a better way to channel this angst and anger!! So in the future I will be posting my views of the world. Nothing will be off limits. Sure I'll comment on regular feline interest, like sleeping, scratching and liking my self. However, I will venture into politcs, religion, sports, popular culture, unpopular culture(if the hit counter on this site is any indication this blog falls into the unpopular culture catagory). Who knows, I may even chime in on arts and crafts. I hope you find it interesting. If you don't I don't really care. Also, if you are ever offended by my view of the world, that is your problem. Post comments or questions if you wish, be honest I can take it. I'll be posting again soon. Laters.

For the love of minatures.......

I have always loved minature things since i was little. For some reason they fascinate me. I really loved little food things and drove my mom crazy collecting them. Since i am grown up now i seem to be completely fascinated with small houses and New York apartments. I am not really an organized girl but i guess deep down i want to be! However when it comes time for me to live in one of these small places i quickly change my tune. Maybe it is the dream of not having all this "stuff" that somehow collects in our homes and lives. Its like a chance to breath and relax and almost free to go and do whatever you want at that moment because there are no piles to look through and clean. I just moved into my new office at work and am currently going through junk that has been left by past people, fax confirmations from 2004 and the list goes on. Why do we do this? Why do we collect until we cant fit it and then get a bigger house? Why are we not content with what we have? Well my new goal is to get rid of clutter and stuff that is hanging around for no reason. And of course to organize what is left! When are you coming again Shi? As for my office it has seen it's last fax confirmation from 2004!

JUST FOR CINDY

Well a couple months have come and gone......and Christmas is here! I am very happy to say that i am completely done christmas shopping! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Unfortunatley we were supposed to go to Artnest again in Feb but now i cannot go. I am very sad over that, but hopefully things will be better when the next one comes around. Just in case I dont post again for another couple months, Merry Christmas!!!!! P.S. Cindy, i want some cool jewelry for Christmas!

We are in again....

Hello All...... Well Cindy and I are in again for first friday. We are very excited but nervous too because now we have to create! And it is this friday.....so i will be working very hard this week because of course i still have not really done anything. I have been learning to cut glass for some charms and have learned that you really need the correct tools. Sometimes i just do things the hard way!
On a sad note one of my favorite aunts in Honduras died today in a car accident. My dad has been gone for about a month and a half now too so this has been a hard past few months for my family and especially my mom. I usually dont post this kind of thing so i do apologize but i just felt that i needed to remember those that have meant so much to us.

Whats in my studio.....

This is what is in my studio for the question posted by Candice, http://www.thesparrowspost.blogspot.com/. I am so happy to see her blog up and running, she is such a wonderful person and i am very blessed to have been able to spend time with her at Art Nest. You will have to check out her blog and say hello! So here is a few things going on in my studio......

Hello All!!!!

Hello again everyone :) I know it has been a long time since i posted and i do apologize, i am really going to try to keep this updated! It has been quite a month for me, to start off exactly a month ago today my sweet daddy passed away. It has been hard on all of us but we are grateful that he is not in pain and suffering anymore. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and thoughts during this time. It has definitley helped to ease the pain knowing that we have great friends out there. I am not really sure that i have fully accepted this all yet but i have been really cranky this week and i think that it has something to do with it. I feel like i have not had anytime to just be alone to cry and process all this. To be honest, i think i really just dont want to and keep putting it off by being "busy".

I set up my new "studio" a few weeks ago too, i have used it a few times and i love it. Now that i have it and have enjoyed it i dont know what took me so long! I used to sit on the floor and work at the coffee table.

This was an unused entertainment center alcove in my living room. I would have a lot more room if i set it up in a spare bedroom but i have found that when i work on pieces i want to be in the middle of it all so this has worked out well. Most of my stuff is neatly organized in this cabinet.

Cindy and I set up at First Friday this past weekend and sold a few things each. I was actually surprised that i sold anything because i only had a few things and wasnt sure what the trend is down there. We had a lot of fun and met some other really cool artists. They were all very welcoming and made us feel right at home. There are also a lot of different people that attend and it is very fun to "people watch",

The cutest thing was a little girl that came up and told her daddy that when she had pierced ears she was coming back here. I will definitley have to create a little girls line of jewels. I remember being a little girl and just wanting something sparkly so bad that i would settle for anything even if i didnt like it that much or it was too big.

I have been starting to do more soldered pieces and have been trying to incorporate more vintage elements into my jewelry as well. It has been fun and it has definitely made me look a little harder at things to try to come up with something different. That is my challenge to myself, to use what i have and to be different. The next couple pieces were made with some old bits of things i had laying around and some new art collage pieces. The travel necklace was a gift for Cindy's birthday. Of course my sweet baby had to inspect it before it left the house,

This next one is a piece that i made for first friday and it sold right away to one of the other vendors. I was very honored that she like my jewelry enough to actually buy it. She is also a jewelry vendor there, and had some very beautiful pieces of her own. We are our own worst critics i know and i am very hard on myself sometimes so having her want to buy that and compliment it really gave me a boost of confidence that maybe my stuff really is cool and will sell. I am already starting to get a lot more ideas, i feel like my mind is a rusty old wheel and it needs a lot to get it going after these last couple years of shutting jewelry and art out of it.

This weekend i will be working on my charm swap pieces so i will post pictures of those when i am done. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend :)

NESTING

This past week i have been in a nesting mood, maybe because it was raining and cloudy all week. I just cant stop looking a decorating books and shows. I even cleaned out my closet this weekend! I have been promising my bestfriend i would finish it for about a year now (she did the main part of it while she was here on her last visit). But today it was so gorgeous outside i just had to open the windows and putter around dreaming. I tried doing my heartbook swap project friday night and i am just at a loss. It has acutally made me realize that i am a jewelry artist and that is what just what naturally comes out. I get so frustrated and think whatever collage or painting i make it just bad. Here is what i was working on, it needs tweaking but it is not to bad overall i suppose,

For a long time i basically just worked with gemstone beads etc since i was going to school to be a gemologist and worked in a diamond sorting room in CA. Then all of a sudden i just wanted to work in swarovski crystals and make simple sparking jewelry, Here are some of my pieces from earlier this year,
The gemstones are calling my name again though so i am transitioning back into doing mainly that. I am actually excited to get back to "my true love". I have to go buy some new stones though, and when i see them that is when i will really get inspired. It is weird, sometimes i just dream of something and then buy the stones to make it but most of the time it is the stones that tell me what to do. I am very grateful to have Cindy http://cindydean.blogspot.com/ to push me along, i had given up for a few years. She is my mentor :) We are doing a show at first friday and i have to busy if i am going to keep up with her!