A Peek At Some Of My Latest Designs

Here's a peek at what I've been working on in the world of design. I love making these feather illustrations. I colorized this ink drawing with watercolor paint.

Bohemian Spirit Feathers in Blue & Green

As you probably could guess, I've really been in the mood for watercolor painting. I created my own take on the talisman for evil eye protection with the painting below, and then turned it into a pattern. It's now featured on Society6! 

Once I finished the design I created it on three different backgrounds: white, light blue, and black. I can't decide which I like the most!

Beach towel, blue background

Throw pillow, white background

Biker tank, black background

I love this next design. It's a paisley that I painted in watercolor, reduced in size, and turned into a repeat pattern. I have it available in blue, rose pink, tea (shown below), green with pink, aqua, and blue with pink. 

Throw pillow in Paisley Tea 

Comforter in Paisley Tea

Check out the other colors:

This Monstera Leaf design is another one that I had a lot of fun with. Tropical leaf patterns are very popular right now. I did the original painting in green but then digitally changed the colors to suit my mood. I thought they looked very exotic in indigo, and I love them on both the blush and black backgrounds. Which do you prefer?

Clear cell phone case

Throw pillow

Floor pillow

All items shown above are available for purchase at https://society6.com/laurabethlove

I hope you like them! Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment below.
 Which design is your favorite?

What should I paint next?

Have a great week!
love,

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved

Look! Mom's Dishes! ...Connections To Our Past

I've shared this blog post before because it's one of my favorites, and I thought today would be the perfect day to share it again, this time a little bit revised. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world, getting to work with beautiful china pieces day in and day out...sometimes it actually feels more like a privilege than an actual profession. 

There are sometimes moments when I stop and think, wow, this is what I do for a living, this is what I've been doing for so many years - and for that I am so fortunate. 

After all, each of these plates and cups and saucers and other dinnerware pieces all have history behind them. They come from many different countries, from all around the world, and their beautiful patterns and colors give them a unique appeal that brings them to life unlike other ordinary household objects. 

They're used in the kitchen, which I've always felt was the heart of the home. They're filled with cooking - which is in itself an effort of love. Once filled, they are handed to you, passed along, as we sit around a family table and pass the dishes from hand to hand, sharing what they hold. 

We see them and touch them multiple times a day, every day. We use them and we take care of them, washing them carefully so that they don't break, and then putting them away in a safe place. We sometimes even have special ones that we bring out only for special occasions. 

But often we treasure the most humble ones. 

Who doesn't have a favorite coffee mug? Or one plate or bowl or other piece of dinnerwear that once belonged to someone else in their family?

We remember dishes. 

They're a part of our family in some ways, a part of each of our own personal histories. Have you not once in your life been somewhere, maybe an antique market or thrift shop, and come across an orphaned plate or cup that you instantly recognized from somewhere in your own past? 

At that moment of recognition, it isn't just "a plate" or "a cup," but "mom's plate," or "grandmother's cup." There is a connection. Often when that connection is made we find ourselves flooded with memories of family from long ago, or of our childhood, or of holidays and times past. If you're the sentimental type like I am, it can be a comforting experience. 

I've been working with dishes for so long now that I know all the patterns by name. No, I don't talk to them, but in a way, they speak to me. I see them as valuable, not monetarily valuable, but valuable in a way that fills your soul with warmth and peace just as memories of loved ones do. 

This was, after all, someone's grandmother's plate. 

Someone just like you. 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and all images copyright ©LauraBethLove 2017

Update And New Broken China Jewelry This Week

Wow I think this is the busiest my shop has been for a Mother's Day in the past few years. Lucky Moms! ;) I hope they all enjoy their goodies, and if you have purchased from me for a gift for someone else - or for yourself, (thank you!) and want to show off your jewelry please send me a photo of you wearing it and I would LOVE to feature it on my blog and/or my Dishfunctional Designs Facebook page! Feel free to send me photos through Facebook or email them to me at sales@dishfunctionaldesigns.com or even through an Etsy message. I LOVE seeing folks enjoying what I make so send me those photos! 

As always, here's what's new in my shop so far this week. I have more on the way. I just listed the antique bluebird calendar necklace featuring the month of June from the year 1916, so if you need a birthday gift for someone born in June, this just might be the piece for you...check it out! Hope you are all enjoying spring!  

All items shown above are available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Have a great week!
love,

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved

where I create, I am absolute

When I was a little girl, I remember my dad spent much of his time at home in his office, which we all called his den. My father was creative, and he had many artistic and creative pursuits. He liked to write, he wrote some short stories, he had a love for languages and I remember him teaching himself French. He loved all types of music, playing guitar, singing in the Ukrainian Millennium Choir, and he liked to draw and watercolor paint and of course build things in his workshop.

In his den were bookshelves filled with books about art and writing, ancient Egypt and the one book that would always catch my eye because it had a bright red dust jacket - his old dictionary. I used to hang out with my dad in his den all the time. I don't think a day went by from kindergarten to college that I didn't visit my dad's den, plopping myself down in the big cushy chair next to his desk, or in the small sofa behind where he sat, just hanging out and talking about this and that. But it never was small talk.

He would always be working on some type of project, and our conversations would often start with him telling me some random but interesting fact about something in history, or something about a famous artist, or how a certain hue of a certain color got its name. There was so much inside of those four small walls, it was like he was so many lives in one. That's how I think of people who do a lot, people who have great varied interests and a great quest for learning things. Those kinds of people are truly living their lives, and it's almost as if they are fitting the interests of many different lives into their one single span of time here on earth. 

I don't know how some people could not have any interests. That's what makes life, well, interesting. But maybe it was just the way I was brought up. Dad's life style of learning, and his love for the humanities sure rubbed off on me. I think tomorrow will be 16 years that he is gone. Time sure flies. After my father died, my mom cleaned out some of the things in dad's den and had some stacks of books set aside for me to look through to see if I wanted any. She had picked out his art books for me and asked if I wanted anything else. I took the dictionary with the red dust jacket. I remember how he used to say to me, "Laura reach over and hand me my red dictionary," and now looking back, it seems like we pulled it out of that bookcase 100 times to look up this or that. I treasure it.

But what use is a dictionary now? In this age of the Internet we literally have everything at our fingertips, and checking the spelling of a word is only a few keystrokes away. So when the day came that I wanted to try out creating some book page art, I knew that inside the pages of my father's dictionary would be the perfect place to create and keep my art. I can sketch and draw on the pages and then one day, I can pass it down to my own daughters. Maybe one day they will add their own mark to it too, and then pass it down to their own son or daughter. 

There is a certain magic in my red dictionary. Filled with words about everything that fills our world, it lived for years surrounded with books about all the things I love, and all the things that stir my passion to create. 

And swirled within the space of those four walls, where stories were written, music played, and languages discovered, it now offers itself to me as a canvas - but not a blank one, bare and untouched, but a lush and joyful, spirited palette that with it's smooth pages offer me the memories of each lesson taught and story told by my father. And when I smooth down a page with my hand and touch my pen to the page's surface, through me flows the confidence and joy to create, and within that, I am absolute. 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and images ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved