The Tiny Room

Here’s the finished purse “Even Gods Play”. The dimensions of the purse comparment are 8×8x8″.

"Even Gods Play" handbag

"Even Gods Play" view 2

"Even Gods Play" view 3

"Even Gods Play" view 4

"Even Gods Play" view 5

"Even Gods Play" view 6

"Even Gods Play" view 7

I’m working on finishing some pieces I started a while ago. I’ll be exhibiting at the Pasadena Bead and Design Show July 28-31, 2011 (http://www.pasadenabeadanddesignshow.com), and thought I’d try to finish up some of these pieces for the show.

Remember this one? This is a tetrahedron-shaped hand-knit beaded handbag with an Egyptian pyramid theme. It’s an exploration of the sacred geometry surrounding the number 3. The first image shows the piece unfolded flat.  Worked on it quite a while ago, and got sidetracked by other things.  All it needs now is the liner sewn in and the handles put on.

"Even Gods Play" Handbag

"Even Gods Play" Handbag view 2

"Even Gods Play" Handbag view 3

Here’s a shawl I’ve just finished, called “Royal Ruffles”. It’s a departure from my other shawls, but I like it!

"Royal Ruffles" Shawl

"Royal Ruffles" Shawl view 2

And one more finished piece–a clutch-style purse called “Metamorphosis”.

"Metamorphosis" Clutch Purse

"Metamorphosis" Clutch Purse

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to update this blog.   Time flies when you’re busy moving and re-setting up household, studio, garden, etc. in a new location!  It isn’t all finished even now, but I thought I’d post a quick update for anyone who’s interested.  Gary’s been busy working on the shop and yard, so hasn’t been able to do any artwork in quite a while.  As for myself, I haven’t had a lot of time for creative work, either, but managed to produce a  dozen new jewelry designs in the past few months.  I’ve also just finished redesigning my website, which you can check out at   http://www.bonnievanhall.com.  If you look at the jewelry gallery, you’ll see more of my new jewelry designs  ( http://www.bonnievanhall.com/Jewelry/jewelrygallery.html ).

Here’s the latest colored pencil portrait from Isla, which won her a $100 award!

Jeffree Star

close-up

even closer

Here are just a couple of my new jewelry designs.  As I said, you can view all of them at the new website.

Beaded bracelet with Swarovski crystal

Beaded bracelet with Swarovski crystal

Beaded necklace, bracelet and earring set

Beaded necklace, bracelet and earring set

Hope you get to check out the rest of the website, and feel free to post any comments or feedback  here!  I’m planning on adding a guestbook and online store to the website, but haven’t finished with that yet.  Also putting the finishing touches on Gary’s website, which I’ll post a link to when it’s finished.  In the meantime, enjoy the spring weather!

We’ve been busy moving, painting, unpacking, etc., but wanted to post a quick update for now. Gary and I haven’t been able to work on much of anything besides the house for the past month! I have a few pictures to post, though, from various projects each of us started a while back.

First, here’s Gary’s finished bronze “Bubbles”.

Gary Persello bronze

Bubbles close up back

Bubbles close up front

Next is a pencil drawing Isla is hard at work on for her friend Jeremiah’s birthday present. It’s not quite finished yet, but you can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like.

And finally, my newest knit/beaded sweater combination. It only needs sleeves, but you can see I’m incorporating more beadwork into my knitwear than I did previously. Well, maybe you can’t tell because I haven’t gotten around to updating my website with my other sweaters yet! I need to finish unpacking, finish Gary’s website (it’s 3/4  done), redo my website, and then maybe finish this green man sweater. No, I’m not overworked…

Bonnie Van Hall new work "Guardian of the Green"

Guardian close up

Well, it looks like The Tiny Room will soon become either The Tinier Room, The Slightly Bigger Room, or at worst, The Non-Existent Room. We are in the process of looking for a new place to live, since the home we’ve been renting for 6 1/2 years has been foreclosed on. Whether we’ll have a room to live and work in at all is up for grabs at the moment. Needless to say, between this and designing and building Gary’s new website, we haven’t had any time to update our posts here. Gary Persello’s new fairy piece, “Bubbles”, is finally finished and in the gallery, and she is as beautiful and masterfully done as all his other bronzes. More on this in an upcoming post. For now, here are the newest of Isla’s drawings.  Some are tattoo sketches, and others are portraits she’s been working on. It’s amazing to see her rapid progress–just look at our previous post to see what I mean!

And now for the portraits (Bambi, get ready for your jaw to drop).

Gary is close to finishing up the final sculpting stage on “Bubbles”, but since we’re still not quite ready to post those photos, I thought this would be a good time to show a few of my 14 year old daughter Isla’s recent works. As an aspiring tattoo artist, Isla is currently working on honing her drawing skills. She has done several designs already, which I don’t have access to at this moment. But I did find several drawings she did a short while back, which I’ll post here.

And here are a couple of the beaded bracelets Isla recently both designed and beaded for some of her friends.

This next one is Isla’s version of “Cold Fire”.

This one was the first version Isla did of the four elements in Chinese characters.

And then she did a different version with an opaque background and silver-lined color highlights.

I’ll see if I can get Isla to give us a look at some of her tattoo designs soon!

Has anyone else noticed how difficult it is to get anything done lately? Gary and I work constantly at our art, but everything seems to drag on and take much longer than it should. Maybe it has a little something to do with having to work other jobs in order to make money. I KNOW a lot of you out there can relate to this!  There seems to be no shortage of forces at work in the world trying to keep us all from connecting with our creativity and the inner reality of truth. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Anyway, here’s another beaded and handknit clothing combo, a sassy and eye-catching women’s top that would be great for a night out dancing. It’s shown first being worn, but without any of the beadwork attached yet.

Handknit women's top without beadwork added yet

To show the beaded fringe on the sleeves, I’ve shot the piece flat for now. When it’s finished, it will be shown worn on the body, which will highlight the way the beaded fringe hangs on the upper arm. For now, you’ll have to use your imagination, but I can tell you, these beads will feel GREAT hanging on your arm! Slinky and sexy…

Top with part of the beaded fringe sleeve

Beaded fringe close-up

As soon as I can, I’ll be posting the finished shots here on the blog, both of  Gary Persello’s new finished work and also Bonnie Van Hall’s new finished pieces. For my own work, it will probably be March before I can stand to wear tiny tops outdoors for the photo shoot!

Also, please check out the new additions to our growing list of awesome artists and bloggers below (under “Visit our Friends”).  There are so many amazingly creative people out there, and we appreciate every one of you!

Here are the first batch of Gary Persello’s bronze ocarinas.  More astrology signs will be represented in the next set.

Bronze ocarinas: "Leo"

Bronze ocarina by Gary Persello

Top of ocarina

Close-up of Gary Persello's "Leo" bronze ocarina

Please see Gary’s bronze ocarinas gallery on his website: http://www.bonnievanhall.com/garypersello/Ocarinas/ocarinasgallery.html

To purchase, go to http://www.bonnievanhall.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=20&products_id=84

So now it’s back to the finishing touches on “Bubbles” for Gary (see earlier post below). Almost finished with this newest piece in his series of fairies, the next step will involve cutting the piece up and making molds. Check back soon for a glimpse into that fascinating process in the making of a bronze!

I can’t seem to work on only one piece at a time anymore!  This actually works well for me, though, because I can choose what to do depending on my mood. Today I’m thinking how nice it would be to be soaking up sun on a white sand beach in Hawaii. (Even us Arizonans crave such things from time to time).  But the next best thing to being there is to look at the soothing blue of this shawl….

Here’s a preview of the knit part of the shawl.

"Hokusai" handknit shawl

A closer shot of the knitting detail.

Knitting detail

This is a preview of the beadwork that will run all along the front edge of the shawl on both sides.

Front edge beadwork

And of course, a close-up of the beadwork detail…

"Hokusai" beadwork close-up

Tune in again early next week for a look at Gary Persello’s new ocarinas finished in bronze!

Gary’s taking a short break from his figurative sculpture to work on these new bronze ocarinas. Inspired by his 16 year old son Bly, who made him one out of ceramic clay while visiting this past summer, Gary decided to try some in bronze.

Handcarved wax original

Bottom (built-in foot to stand on)

Top view

Two halves for molding purposes

Here’s the close-up. This one is the first in the Astrological series, obviously representing Leo, in honor of Bly.  All other signs will follow (any requests?!).

"Leo" close-up