Two easy sauces

Easy tartar sauce

•1/2-3/4 cup commercial mayo
•juice of 1/2 lemon
•1tsp Dijon mustard
•1tbs (or more to taste)sweet relish

Mix all ingredients together.
Great with white fleshed fish, fish sticks, fish'n chips...

Easy shrimp cocktail sauce

•1/2-3/4 cup chili sauce
•juice of 1/2 lemon
•1tsp (or more to taste) horseradish

Mix all ingredients together.
Great with...shrimp cocktail, fried clams, fried scallops etc.

Setting up shop

I am now setting up shop on Artfire.
Since I'm already on Etsy, it's quite easy to list stuff on Artfire, I use all the same elements, photos, descriptions etc.
It's really neat, I registered yesterday night, and sold my first necklace this morning!
This is it:

More old digital art

On making and selling jewelry

When I started making beaded jewelry, a few years ago, I didn't realize what I was getting into!
Making bracelets, earrings, necklaces was so much fun! The results were so pleasing! My sisters and friends were so happy when I would give them a piece!
Well, It is still very much a pleasure buying the beads and creating the jewelry, but now I have to sell it!
That means pricing the pieces ( how much did it cost me, how long did it take to make it), keeping an inventory, taking pictures (not just any pictures, nice ones!), buying or making displays, setting up an online shop (on Etsy for instance) with all it implies...(creating a banner, writing a description of each piece etc. etc.).
Not that these things are disagreeable as such (for a genuine salesperson, which I am not), but the amount of time put in the selling often outweights the time put in creating!
That, I must say is not a joyful surprise!

More sold jewelry

A catalogue of old digital art

These are illustrations produced with Photoshop, beginning in the 90's.
There was a ten year period when I was more enclined to work on my computer than on my drawing table.
It has permitted me to understand the media; and now, I use both the brush and the computer in most of my illustrations, and that gives me a much greater control than at the time when doing art on a computer was unthinkable...

A catalogue of sold pieces

This busy set was finished at three in the afternoon and sold at nine the same night!
It is made of small garnet colored round glass beads, oval carnelian and small round turquoise beads, attached to an antique brass colored chain.


This bracelet model is very popular, I have sold many copies of it.
It is made of chatoyant opalite (also called moonstone) drop shaped beads, light blues with yellow accents, and small fluted brass beads dangling from an antique brass rolo chain.
I still have one set (with the earrings) left, but it well may be the last one, these beads seem to be unavailable for the moment.

Here are two cucumber salads recipes; the first one is from my mother's family, the second one is mine:

•Cucumber salad à la crème:
Make a vinaigrette with 2 tablespoons of any vinegar for 4
tablespoons light oil (canola, light olive etc.),
season with salt and pepper,
add 1/4 cup cream (light or heavy is your choice) and wisk!
Pour on thinly sliced cucumber right before serving, to keep the cucumber crisp, mix and enjoy!

•Cucumber salad orientale:
-1 tbs honey
-2 tbs rice or red wine vinegar
-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
-1/2 tsp curry powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp pepper
-5-6 sprigs chives or 1-2 green onions if no chives are available, finely cut
-4 tbs light oil
-1-2 cucumber(s) thinly sliced

Mix the vinegar, the honey, the salt, the pepper and the spices until the honey is dissolved (you can microwave the mixture for a few seconds to accelerate the process).
Add the oil and mix.
Sprinkle the chives on the cucumber, add the vinaigrette and mix thoroughly.
This salad should be prepared 10-15 minutes in advance.


Bon appétit!

How to begin?

I have always been attracted by jewels; had I been a woman, I surely would have spent a whole lot of money on rings, bracelets, necklaces or brooches...
Since I'm not, I haven't bought much jewelry for myself, not being much of a jewel wearer (apart from the occasional brooch). The only jewels I have ever bought were for my mother and some of my girlfriends.
A few years ago, I got stung by beadolia and began making beaded jewelry. I know this is not original, so many people do that these days!
Well, I'm still learning, but I try not to do what others do the way others do...
Do I succeed? You be the judge of that...