Saturday, December 19, 2009

TattooDreams Beaded Charm Spirit Necklace


You've shopped for everyone else, now it's time for YOU!

After many hours and lots of detailed beading...here it is! If you saw me at an art fair during November onward of this year, you probably saw me wearing a similar creation. The myriad of beads that waterfall from this silk and beaded one of a kind neckpiece are now available to you.

There are over 30 strings of beads hand knotted on waxed linen. Interwoven with tied and knotted silk, this necklace is right in style with todays layered trends and accentuates the nature of buying and dressing ones self in handmade spirit-infused accoutrements.
I've used peanut butter jasper, sterling, glass, trade beads, clay, pistachio shells, betel nuts, measuring tape, turquoise, bamboo, hematite, bone, sea shells, marble, horn, green turquoise, dominoes, mother of pearl, stamped chop sticks, limestone, bamboo coral and TattooDream rubber stamped beads. There are many more.

The length is adjustable and left untied so you can tie it however short or long you prefer. It's 36" long and can be tied in a bow behind your neck. This flexibility allows for various necklines to be accentuated and adds even more versatility to this artful necklace that goes with everything! (Okay, maybe not plaid, but darn close!) The beaded strands vary from 8" to 16".

This is a statement piece of wearable art, not for the faint of heart. You'll derive 'ohhs' and 'awes' and visible fondling while this piece envelopes you. This necklace and an evocative fragrance are all you need to set the party afire!

It's easy and fun to wear and not nearly as heavy as it looks. Total weight is 12 oz.

Domestic shipping is FREE!

In my etsy shop awaiting the right collector!
385.00

Altered Art Peace Box


This is my Altered Art *ACEO Trade Cards Box. Designed to hold almost anything.
This handmade cherry box measures 8" wide and 3 3/4" deep and 6 1/2" high (20.32 cm x 95.25 cm x 16.51 cm ). It could hold a huge array of ACEO (trade cards), tea bags or anything else you desire. An edgy box with metallic teal feet and black fringe. Wonderful artsy images adorning all sides and inside lid. A lift off lid reveals all your cards or treasures. Inside, the bottom is lined in black velvet. If you prefer a box without the fringe, let me know and I can remove it prior to shipping.


♥ Boxes this size beg to be handled and loved.
I hope you consider 'loving' one of these soon! ♥

*Artists Trade Cards Editions and Originals (ACEO's) are miniature works of art the size of a playing card
.

My boxes are quietly making their way into esteemed collections around the world.

••I love making special things for special people!••

More boxes can be found on my etsy site:
http://tattoodreams.etsy.com

55.00

Ships right away! FREE Domestic shipping!

Patricia
TattooDreamer

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Artists Dirty Hands


Jon stumbled upon a most interesting post on a design blog he reads daily (blog.2modern.com). The post highlighted an artists hands while making their jewelry. Apparently their hands were in a photo showing their work. Comments grew and so did the concept of sharing the working hands of others. What resulted was a compilation of hands and submissions were being shared on her blog. Jon submitted my hands and here they are.
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What came to mind when he shared this with me and while he was taking these images in our studio yesterday afternoon was a poem I read many years ago. The author escapes me, but the context of the poem was about how 'the trade enters your body'. Whatever trade you pursue, it becomes part of you.
The sentiment resonated and too the work these and millions of other hands and what they do on a daily basis. Our minds and our hands are our most basic tools. How we use them is often reflected without saying a word.

Why do we do what we do?
I can only answer for myself.
I make art because to do anything other than that feels odd and displaced.
I make art to stay sane in a world of insanity.
I make art to settle the chatter which runs like a non-stop soundtrack in my head.
I make art to find peace within myself.
I make art to expel the millions of ideas that fill my head.
I make art to share and sell and derive my livelihood.
I make art because I need to.

To quote one of my favorite musicians, Dave Matthews from the "Big Whiskey" album, Why do I make art? --- because it's "why I am"!


Patricia Hecker

To see more hand images, the blog I referenced is:
http://www.cutpasterepeat.blogspot.com/2009/11/by-our-hands-we-live.html

To see what my hands make:
http://HeckerDesign.com
http://TattooDreams.etsy.com
http://Artfulsmiles.com

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"Bob" A Little Box with A Big Story!


• Now here's the story about Bob. This box is dedicated to all the 'Bobs' out there. You know who you are.... You are the small orange goldfish who every 8 year old had to own. The one who lived with the plastic plants that never grew along with the horrible neon colored rocks interspersed with occasional goldfish turds they didn't see when they supposedly cleaned your bowl each Saturday morning after cartoons while Mom was vacuuming. Did they not once notice your need for a more muted decor? Did they not once notice you hated to constantly swim through the fake rocks with the fake holes only to later swim through the fake resin treasure chest complete with fake pearls opened up by the fake half floating mermaid with the yellow hair and big boobs you couldn't quite see atop your florescent rock carpeting with the never ending stream of bubbles surfacing ALL day and ALL night long? Did they feed you the same frickin' fish flakes day after day after day despite your kind requests for something a little higher on the food chain? Did small snot impacted nosed children with big round eyes stare at you in your thick glass bowl that they picked out amidst the barking dogs and background parakeet chatter in the store where everything smelled like cedar gerbil bedding even in the fish isle after they abruptly scooped you away from your other orange frolicking friends with the green plastic net and into a plastic bag marked 99 cents with a rubber band secured around the top for the bumpy journey home between juniors knees with the prepubescent hair follicles waiting to sprout as he repeatedly pushed his 'who knows where it had been' finger against your temporary pliable poly home for the ride to the new digs? Yes, this is for you Bob! When you died and were flushed to oblivion with little more than a few meager sheets of squeezably soft Mr. Whipple (remember him?) approved toilet paper gently laid across you as you swirled endlessly into goldfish funeral oblivion in the pastel tiled bathroom in the pastel colored toilet bowl with the matching pastel colored hand towels hung on the fake marble plastic 'guest towel' ring by the sink en-route to your final resting place---THIS BOX IS FOR YOU!! You've endured enough!



Bob The Itty Bitty TattooDream Box is on my etsy site
28.00

Patricia
TattooDreamer

Small TattooDream Boxes


Diminutive boxes are often my favorite! These fit that bill!
Will be posted soon to my etsy site along with several others. If you need a quantity of them, feel free to leave me a message and we can talk!

28.00
http://tattoodreams.etsy.com


Patricia

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Create ACEO Trade Cards Box


~This is my Create ACEO Trade Cards Box. Artists Trade Cards Editions and Originals (ACEO's) are miniature works of art the size of a playing card. Where to store your collection? Why not in a box like this! This artful box can be kept out for people to admire and for you to share your collection!
Think of it as a 'coffee table box'!!

This handmade cherry box measures 8" wide and 3 3/4" deep and 7 1/4" high (203.2 cm x 95.25 cm x 18.41 cm ). It could hold a huge array of ACEO (trade cards), tea bags or anything else you desire. A cute box with purple and black feet, purple trim and black fringe. Wonderful artsy images adorning all sides and inside lid. A lift off lid reveals all your cards or treasures. Inside, the bottom is lined in black velvet. It could hold tea tea bags, artists trade cards or almost anything!

♥ Boxes this size beg to be handled and loved.
I hope you consider 'loving' one of these soon! ♥

My boxes are quietly making their way into esteemed collections around the world.

••I love making special things for special people!••

More boxes can be found on my etsy site:
http://tattoodreams.etsy.com

$55.00

FREE Domestic shipping! I ship by Priority Mail, so this can arrive in time for Christmas!!!

Friday, December 11, 2009

What's Orange on Top?


What's orange on top, fun inside and can fly your direction instantly?
This TattooDreams Box........
$79.00
Purchases on etsy can be shipped directly to the recipient and shipping is free!

Thanks in advance for purchasing handmade!

Patricia

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Magic is This You Say?



A simply charming magical box awaiting the right person to hit the 'Add it to my cart' button and make it theirs!

On etsy
$79.00----includes shipping


Patricia
TattooDreamer

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Twenty Nine Winters Ago Today.....


Twenty nine winters ago John Lennon was doing what most of us do daily - he was on his way home from work. Home from working in his recording studio. Earlier in the day he signed an autograph for the man who hours later would end his life.
IMAGINE if things happened differently that cold night.

Twenty nine years ago I was unmarried, living in my first apartment in Florida. I was 20 years old. It was a warm night and I had the windows open. I recall the searing message that came over the tv, then the radio, then everywhere. I remember newscasters crying. Howard Kosell in tears. A hole was drilled right through me and pain entered. An unsettling silence.
The world mourned the loss of this amazing iconic individual. A visionary of peace who was far more than a musician or rockstar. He wrote of the world 'being one' and perhaps it took his bloody death for that to happen.
How sad.

I recall the days afterward laying on my living room floor listening and crying to every Beatle song played on the stereo and radio. So many possibilities ended with his murder at the Dakota. For a pacifist to die by way of a weapon of steel seems a fate worse than cruel.
Across from his home lay Strawberry Fields. Another irony is the sign posted there. "No playing of musical instruments allowed". Where better than there?

As a society, we allow guns to become available to people who have no business having them. Freedom to own a firearm........to protect yourself. A right of the constitution.
As a society we allow instruments of creativity to be purchased, but ban where and when they can be played. Why? To protect others peace?
This is just more madness in a world overcome by rules that 'allow' people to not have to think or take responsibility for themselves or others.

Some things make little sense to me.
Some things never will.
The legendary lyrics and music from the Beatles are dogma.
Time honored art that collectively became a prayer for peace,
a mantra to end war
and birthed hope for generations to follow.

Here we are twenty nine years later.
The music still resonates but now with a new generation.
To those who grew up with them, they are forever with us.

We need to give peace a chance.
We need to IMAGINE.
We need to Imagine Peace

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

✯ Christmas Card Box ✯


What childhood Christmas memories do you cherish? Was it a particular way something was made or done? A favorite cookie or carol? A particular tradition you still hold onto? Mine was our holiday cards. We strung them on twine that we covered in paper drinking straws. They hung around our living room and each day with the delivery of more mail, the string got longer and longer.
For some, the memory is an object that only came out at Christmas. A decoration or item passed through families that made the holidays all the more magical just by it's annual appearance. I hope I made one of these today.
My husband Jon built this wonderful box from cherry and I rubber stamped it with selected holiday stamps from my vast collection. I chose somewhat 'retro-feel good' stamps that reminded me of my childhood and simpler times. A warm fuzzy for certain!

This box is ideal for safely keeping your holiday cards or treasured ornaments. A usable nostalgic box that can be lovingly passed along to your children as they go out on their own.


••Buy several and begin new traditions this year!••

This box measures 10" x 7" x 7 " ( 25.4 cmx 17.78 cmx 17.78cm). Adorned with green feet and a red ball knob. Both are trimmed with fringe, one red and the other a sparkly cream. Inside trim is gold. Inside the lid is stamped for more magical goodness! This box is not lined so your cards can be easily removed for sharing with others.


69.00

For more of my Tattoodreams:
http://tattoodreams.etsy.com

Ho Ho Ho!! I ship for FREE so load your sleigh and let TattooDreams make Santa's work easier this year!!!


Thank you for buying handmade!