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

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!

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!

The general idea

Here’s the first of several pieces I’m currently working on. The piece is called “Even Gods Play”, and is the first in a series I’m doing on number and sacred geometry. This one represents the number 9, so I guess I’m starting at the end and working backwards. It’s based on the idea of the Tetraktys, an ancient numerical concept attributed to Pythagoras. Here’s a link  for more info on that.

This first shot shows the general idea and shape of the handbag. It will, of course, have a frame inside it when it’s done so it will hold its shape.

Layed out flat

This is the whole purse, layed out flat (so the bottom is in the center). This just basically shows that the whole piece is a triangle, too.

One of the three faces

With part of the beadwork

And finally…

The close-up

     Welcome to our  first post from The Tiny Room! This  is the tiny (10 x 10′) space where Gary Persello, bronze sculptor, and Bonnie Van Hall, textile artist squeeze in every day to create our art! It is at the back of our equally tiny house, with its tin roof, no insulation, and a woodstove as our only heat source. And yes, it gets cold here in the mountains of central Arizona!  But we do have a lovely view, and can watch the roadrunners, red fox, coyotes, wild pigs (javelina) and white tailed deer darting past our little window.

     The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone updated on what we’re currently working on. It will also help to insure that we keep at it even when we’re ready to quit (which is every other day, lately). I’ll be posting some new photos of each of our works-in-progress soon, but in the meantime, our finished work can be viewed at

http://www.bonnievanhall.com          and

http://www.persellostudios.artistportfolio.net

Also, check out our new artist pages on Facebook, and please become a fan!  http://www.tinyurl.com/yf2clgl (Gary) and http://www.tinyurl.com/yf6qe4m (Bonnie).

Most of the tiny room

The rest of the tiny room

See you soon!