The Best Glitter!

The Perfect inspiration for Sparkle Studio! Because I am in the midst of creating greeting cards for our site, I must briefly mention the Ultra Fine glitter from Stampendous. I discovered it once at our nearby art store several years back, and I have to say that I have not found anything else that even comes close to this brand. I cannot, at least for the projects that I have worked on, make use of glitter where you can make out the small square shapes of the glitter itself. I once tried the type of glitter made for soaps and candles, but this type is way too fine, almost to the consistency of eye shadow. The Stampendous brand has been perfect for embellishing the types of cards I have created over the years such as these holiday cards for 2009. They also carry many pastel colors and different types of iridescent glitter. I have been such a happy customer for quite some time, I had to just spread the word!

19th c. Shell Frame

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is celebrating its 100th year in 2009. To commemorate this, the museum's curators have chosen 100 pieces from its collections, which serve to highlight the different areas of the Museum.

As a huge fan of vintage shellwork pieces, I love to study the tedious placement of smaller shells as shown in this beautiful frame. Made in the second half of the 1800s at the same time that sailors to the West Indies were bringing back shellwork souvenirs for their loved ones, what impresses me most about this piece is its dramatic effect achieved by a miniature photo in the center of a much larger shield frame, allowing a proportionately large amount of open space to create a beautifully intricate design with so many tiny shells.

Thanks to Steven, who blogs for the Museum, for his ongoing coverage of each selection throughout the rest of the year.

Handmade Nation

I was just rewatching the preview of Handmade Nation and decided to investigate when it will be screening in Los Angeles. I went to the official website for the film and discovered that it will be showing at a Felt Club event August 15th and 16th, but no further information was given so I'll have to keep up to date and hopefully see the film, which looks very entertaining. It will be great to see how people connect with each other across the country, across the world in fact, all because of things made by hand. It should offer an illuminating insight how creative people everywhere turn their passions and talents into a business, how they might have to reinvent themselves as a result of financial hardship, and how they might find the creative voice to fully express themselves. Please follow their blog too, and see you at the movie!

Connect with me...

Here's a quick announcement just to put the word out to please connect with me on Twitter @dkahauolopua, full website coming soon, more info as we get closer to launch date. I definitely would love to connect and network with other likeminded creative types of people that love to put their hands to use! One of my mottos is "...Making Something Out Of Nothing." If you agree with this perspective, let me know!