Saturday, June 6, 2009

Where do WaterGems come from???

Many folks have asked me what exactly are these WaterGems™ and where do they come from? Well, they are simply (and I think elegantly) little pieces of art - watercolor paintings - some call them "starts" that are done by myself, my watercolor teacher and friend extraordinaire Marni Lawson (see http://www.marnilawsonwatercolors.com/ for her marvelous work), and by other friends who we do watercolor art with. The inspiration and design for these pieces can come from anything, its frequently a painting that we didn't like so much in design, but that had great colors on the paper. So why not turn it into something truly unique?

Below are some of us painting in the barn that I use as a studio,

and Marni doing a quick watercolor sketch of the back yard from the open barn doors.



And finally, here are two of the pieces that came out of that season, courtesy of Robin's wonderful blue/green starts....

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Welcome


Welcome to my new blog. I'm just getting started on a new line of jewelry, and wanted someplace to talk about it and show pictures, so here I am.


Paradux Designs specializes in hand-crafted art glass and jewelry. I love light and color and creating unique designs using lamp-worked beads and semi-precious stones. Paradux Designs has been in business for almost 12 years; I started in a small space above St. Elmo's coffee shop in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA. Now everything is made in my studio in an old barn on my property outside of Leesburg, Virginia.
To see more products, or learn more about me, visit http://www.paradux.net/