It Lives

Labradorite, Indonesian Glass and Other Stuff (sold)

Well, you were all probably wondering if I was in jail or something, or on an extended spiritual retreat in a remote Himalayan monastery. Or maybe dead. Alas, it is none of the above. Just some burnout and a creative side trip into high fashion (spectating only). I'm mostly over the high fashion now, and feel a little bit more like making jewelry. I've mostly been making it behind your backs (sorry). Actually at the moment I am doing this blog post to avoid making jewelry.

This bracelet is one of my more recent creations. (Items in this post will appear in more or less reverse chronological order.) I did it when it was all murky outside--Hey, GRAY!! I thought. So out came the uber-cool striped Indonesian glass in gray-straw-slate tones (from Happy Mango Beads) and the labradorite. The wan, winter sun did peek through a bit so I drew out the gold flash in the labs with some soft yellows--tiny glass seed beads in chardonnay tones and larger seed beads in a spectrum of sand hues, a drilled beach stone with a tawny she-lion-fur vibe, a citrine with a barely-there hint of lemon, and a big Botswana agate heishi in (I'm getting to the end of my yellow synonym collection here) pale butterscotch. (Mykonos cast heart charm in copper finish from Stinky Dog Beads.) I wanted to warm it up a bit with copper (instead of cold, cold silver) so I did that, including a strand of my rustic oval chain links. (My house looks like a gypsy caravan, a Bollywood wedding and Mardi Gras all exploded inside it and nobody ever cleaned it up, but heaven help me I'm perversely addicted to neutrals.)

I Can't Help It I Love Those Almost-But-Not-Quite Colors--What Does That Mean?

I already had the beach stones out so I threw this together (I love those soft colors):

(sold)

Before that, away back in March, I was determined to use some of these agate slabs I got from Happy Mango Beads forever ago. I noodled with some wire and this came forth:

(sold)

Interesting.

Earlier in March, I was thinking that I was sitting on an awful lot of metal components that I had made but never used. I decided to use one of them that's been haunting me ("Uuuuuuuse meeeee...uuuuuuse meeeeeee..." EERIE.) The lid on my bin of turquoise beads hasn't wanted to close so I thought I should use some of those. Went a little crazy (lid still won't close):

With moonstone and leather, and a pair of my tulip caps (sold)

Now hopping in my time machine and turning the clock back to February, I made this:

Southwest State of Mind (Not Sold! For Ages and Ages)

I'm so disappointed I can't find these little pewter flower charms ANYWHERE anymore. I'm guessing sterling silver is cheaper than pewter now, so they threw in the towel on it and now we can all buy Hill Tribes without going broke. Good thing I hoarded so many.

This little number is made from a wire heart charm I made like almost two years ago. Didn't know what to do with it. Then I thought, "When in doubt, ADD MORE STUFF." I put on a couple more charms in pewter from Happy Mango Beads and Presto. Close enough for gummint work.

(sold)

Bird's eye view:

Before that I went through a minor seed bead obsession, wherein I was determined to use glazed ceramic heart charms from my stash as pendants. This one is my favorite (sand dollar charm from Happy Mango Beads, as well as a bunch of pewter spacers; also some pewter spacers from Monsterslayer):

(sold)

This is my second favorite:

Whiskey and Denim (Not Sold! Been Sitting Around in My Shop Like Forever)

Third favorite (actually, just this moment, I decided to probably take it apart--so if you want it you better hurry):

Probably Getting Re-Assimilated

And then, a big black creative hole until December. This was my last creative triumph in 2015, thanks to Jana Bližňáková of Happy Fish with Heart and Happy Fish Things on Etsy and her stellar little poppy pendants. I have two more left! (You can see a hint of my future seed bead obsession here. These Czech glass seed beads are like a Gateway Drug into the larger world of Japanese Seed Beads--although I think I actually like the Czech ones best.)

(sold)

Aaaaand now we're caught up. And that means I have to make something. Dammit. I mean, Yay!