The Cerebral Dilettante

Bead Soup Booty!

2012-02-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

I got my Bead Soup package on Monday from my partner, Donna Millard. She very kindly sent me a set of lampwork I had admired in her shop (YES!!) They are the large tablets above in the wonderful patterns and colors--there were some coordinating spacers as well! I love this color combination. Donna also sent an assortment of lucite flowers, all in colors that coordinate with the lampwork, as well as an antique brass finish clasp, some of her vintage "cosmos" connectors and discs, handcut vintage beadcaps in the same retro floral pattern, and some copper finish beads. It was all very charmingly wrapped!

I have some ideas already, and I think I shall probably be making at least a few different items with my new stash!

And here is a picture of the collection I sent to Donna (which she has received so there's no spoiling the surprise):

Double flower clasp, flower connector, beadcaps, textured washer, and (although you can't really see it there at the back) a length of olive green leather lace with textured/riveted ribbon ends, all handmade by me from raw copper; rhyolite and ice flake quartz nuggets (in olive green); dark green and copper pearls; a couple of seed pod-like copper beads; Czech faceted glass in copper mirror finish; and a couple feet of rectangular rolo-type chain. Not a great picture but I had already put it all in baggies when I realized I had forgotten to photograph it and I was too tired (i.e., lazy) to take them all out again. Maybe Donna will have a better picture!

Bead Soup Teaser

2012-01-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a very vague impression of the assortment I am sending to my Bead Soup partner today, Donna Millard!

She has already mailed off her package to me and I can't wait to see what's in it! The picture on her blog is really intriguing.

For a Mermaid's Ears

2012-01-26T07:58:00.000-08:00

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen Harbor (image from Encyclopedia Britannica Kids)

Head on over to Earrings Everyday for my version of earrings for a mermaid's wedding day!

January 2012 Art Bead Scene Challenge

2012-01-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

Tuscan Spring

This is the first Art Bead Scene Challenge I have ever done. I loved the color palette, and so I talked myself past my usual obstinacy/mulishness about doing challenges and went for it. It just so happened I had pretty much loads of beads and materials in all of those colors, and some copper flower clasps I had made that were ready to be turned into something (which fulfill the "art bead" requirement, I believe).

The beads include, starting from the flower clasp, peach aventurine faceted teardrops, antique copper teardrop pearls, faceted glass in khaki, and two varieties of bronze pearls. The copper bars that hang in the front were inspired by a custom piece I did (I'll post on that later)--I spent half a day trying to find just the right metal element for the center of the necklace and stumbled across this idea when I was sorting through some textured scrap. I decided to repeat it in this piece, as the general design of this necklace was the same. I cut the scraps to size, curled the top over, and shaped and punched the bottom (plus of course antiquing, tumbling, and lacquering). Then I fashioned a textured ring connector from a copper washer, and wired some bronze pearls onto it, as well as a little headpin.

To refresh your memory, here is the color inspiration from ABS:

I omitted the leaves, birds and bugs (I think I see bugs). I didn't want to burn out my first time around. And I'm not really a bug/bird person. I'm more of a lizard person.

Here it is on:

I really enjoyed doing this. It helped that these are many of my favorite colors, and I had a flower-themed art jewelry component lying around, ready to go.

A Broody Romance

2012-01-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

All together, the elements in this Valentine's Day necklace seem a little melancholy to me, in a lush kind of way. Like a fierce, but doomed, passion, a la Wuthering Heights.

Ah, love. And neurosis.

I created it for the Happy Mango Beads Valentine's Day contest, so I thought I'd best have some sort of Valentine's Day-type colors--in this case, loosely in the red family: aubergine (or eggplant, for you Philistines), deep berry, dark wine-red, magenta and fuchsia. The lampwork is from BeingBeads (Etsy), the silk ribbon from Color Kissed Silk (Etsy), and all the copper components and focals (except for the crimp covers) are by me. I threw in a second heart--the little charm--to bump up the V-Day factor. It fastens in the front with a toggle closure.

I had originally wanted to knot this (and made like seven failed attempts before I finally gave up) but it just wasn't my day. I still wanted a little dot of color between the beads, so I placed glittery, tiny fire-engine-red seed beads between the lampwork. You can almost see them here.

I've left the spiral coil crimps untightened to allow it to be sized to fit.

A Weathered Heart

2012-01-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Head on over to Earrings Everyday to read more about these earrings featuring components by Shannon LeVart! If you have Earrings Everyday in your reading list, it may still be showing as yesterday's post--for some reason my post of today is not registering in Google Reader or on my blog list, but I assure you, there's new reading material! Head on over if you're in the mood for earrings...

The Golden Hoard

2012-01-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

As opposed to The Golden Horde, a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that was established in the 13th century and formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire.

In this case, it's a strand of pearls, in mingled antiqued copper and old gold, that I've been hoarding forever. I think I used one in a bracelet once.

I've combined them with beads from another couple strands I've largely been hoarding (I think I made a pendant with them in 2009), of azure kyanite spears. I'm in love with both these elements! The pearls are rustic in the extreme; they range in color from old gold to almost dark persimmon, in shapes reminiscent of spilled molten metal--as if they were spewed from a forge and cooled where they lay, with the sooty evidence of their origin collecting in folds and fissures. These kyanite have lovely schiller, like each is home to a tiny, cool flame that lights it from within. They're a lovely melange of viridian and cerulean--two of my favorite colors, and words!

I started out with one of my flower clasps, intent on turning it into something wearable. I originally had very different plans for it, but when I thought of these pearls I had to use them. The clasp fastens underneath the flower itself, making it largely invisible. (I photographed it on my old plank washed up on the shores of Flathead Lake--I drill and hammer on it, and generally use it as a lap-desk. I made all those little holes myself.)

I designed it to be worn with the clasp to the side. I am really stuck on this configuration right now, I think the clasp reminds me of a corsage.

Biting the Bullet

2011-12-30T20:32:00.000-08:00

Goodness, I'm spastic tonight. Disregard any indecipherable blurb you might have just seen. Not sure what I did.

Anyway, the necklace below came about because I made myself do it. More and more I find myself not wanting to make anything. I enjoy cutting out metal and pounding it and turning it into things, but the process of incorporating it into an actual piece of jewelry seems more and more tiring. I suppose it's a combination of getting older, day job burnout, and letting my physical fitness slide. And vegetating doesn't make me particularly happy so I should probably just suck it up and and put something together. It's not like I don't have a list.

This was one of the flower clasps I made a couple months ago, this one with a double flower.

I knew I wanted to do something in blue with this clasp, and started out with some cornflower blue recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads. It just wasn't working for me so I dug around in the "Blue Gemstones" bucket and re-found this denim blue sponge coral. I was originally going to use some silk ribbon from Color Kissed Silk in "Ocean Pearl" (kind of pale denim and a sandy, pale yellow) but I eventually decided I didn't like that, although I wanted to keep the denim blue and butter scheme. I dug around in my lampwork stash for beads the same size as the coral and found these large lampwork roundels in kind of a toasted marshmallow color. They're by Pat at Being Beads. They're all knotted onto light denim blue Irish waxed linen cord from White Clover Kiln. In lieu of the ribbon, I decided to use some of my new copper ball chain from Chain Gallery, with the very handy little ball chain connectors they sell. Very excited to find that the holes in the connectors are big enough for a decently sturdy gauge of wire. I think I got some 18 gauge through there.

I have a whole bag of finished charms, focals and clasps that I want to turn into finished jewelry but it seems I prefer to lie around. Working fewer hours at my day job might help, but then I'd probably just lie around more. I need a personal jewelry trainer. A Jillian Michaels to come yell at me when I start to nod off on the couch. Speaking of which, time for bed!

P.S. I made these other things too:

Antique copper cocoons (based on a design by Kharisma Ryantori of Popnicute) and clear AB finish Czech glass teardrops:

Raffle Fundraiser for Sparrow Salvage

2011-12-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

Fanciful Devices is raising some cash for Sparrow Salvage, who recently lost her mother in a terrible car crash, and is herself in hospital with serious injuries. This stunning and mysterious choker is up for grabs!

Click HERE to go to Fanciful Devices' blog, where you can donate and enter the raffle.

Artists Helping Artists Winning Bid

2011-12-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who came out to bid on the silent auction items in this fundraiser! It was a resounding success! The winning bid on the two pair of earrings came from:

Carlene

Barbara Bechtel will be sending you a PayPal invoice via email--keep a lookout!

Artists Helping Artists Update

2011-12-10T07:35:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody! We have some new artists joining the silent auction!

Kerry Bogert http://kabsconcepts.blogspot.com

Erin Seigel http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com
Courtney Breul http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Erin's and Courtney's auctions have started, and Kerry's will start later today. Swing by and check out the items for auction! Not too late for Christmas gifts, and all proceeds go toward a very worthy cause.

Additionally, Erin Prais-Hintz and Kristi Bowman-Gruel are hosting second auctions, of a lovely winter-themed bracelet created by Regina Santerre of Sundance Gems, and a fabulous pair of earrings by Janet Miller (Pink Poppy Studio) made from a pair of Kristi's bronze charms. Stop by and bid!

The Pot Sweetens! Artists Helping Artists

2011-12-08T17:57:00.001-08:00

I am adding to the silent auction pot here at The Cerebral Dilettante:

These gorgeous sterling and fine silver earrings by Susan Fincher of Libellula Jewelry are now available for bidding, together with my copper jellyfish earrings! Susan was eager to join in as a partner in this Artists Helping Artists auction, and offers her support and warmest regards.

Here are some details about these lovely earrings:

torch-balled sterling silver ear wires
hammered, fused fine silver circular links
(PMC) paisley fine silver stars
torch-balled sterling silver headpins w/Czech glass beads

Everything but the Czech glass beads were handmade by Susan. The current bid from the previous post was $40--as those of you know who make jewelry, sterling silver is very valuable right now! By bettering that bid, you could be the proud (and crazy hot) owner of both pairs of earrings. A steal by any definition! These earrings are only available together, by bettering the previous high bid.

Would you like to be the winning bidder for BOTH pairs of earrings, from this post and the previous post? New bidders will be eligible, and previous bidders can increase their bid to be eligible for both pairs! Please, no bids on individual pairs; this fire-and-ice duo stays together! Please make your bid or rebid on the previous post.

Bidding closes midnight, Sunday December 11. Thanks to Susan!

Artists Helping Artists

2011-12-07T10:08:00.001-08:00

Artists Helping Artists Silent Auction

Several artists in the blog community have decided to band together to help a fellow artist in need. The earrings below, currently featured at Earrings Everyday, are available here today by silent auction, as part of an "Artists Helping Artists" fundraiser.

These earrings feature three each of my textured copper beadcaps, in graduated sizes, antiqued and tumbled to a high shine. They're stacked atop each other, with little amber foil Czech glass cone beads peeking from the bottom, on my hand-forged copper headpins. They hang from a pair of my handmade earwires. All the copper in these earrings, including the earwires, have been sealed in a protective lacquer to preserve patina and shine and guard against sensitivity. They're my interpretation (although more polite and less gelatinous) of a graceful, golden jellyfish!

The starting bid for these earrings is $18.00 (a steal!). International participants welcome! Shipping costs will be included in the winning bid amount. Auction closes Sunday, December 11 at midnight.

Would you like to be the winning bidder?

Please leave a comment along with your bid. If you are the winning bidder, you will receive an invoice after the close of the auction. There must be a way to contact you. If you have email preferences turned off in your profile, please leave your email.

Many people are auctioning items to help out! Please visit these the other artists below and place your bid!

List of participants:

Heidi Post

Marie Cramp (together with Lori Anderson)

Barbara Bechtel (together with Staci Smith)

Erin Fickert-Rowland
Erin Prais-Hintz

Keirsten Giles

Andrew Thornton
Jennifer Justman

Amanda Cargill Austin

Janice Everett

Rebecca Anderson

Shannon Iko Chomanczuk
Patricia Chaban Gasparino

Feel free to return and bid again!

Happy bidding!

Challenge of Color Blog Hop

2011-11-29T19:14:00.001-08:00

This is the second color challenge I've done--the first one was with Erin too! I don't think I've ever done any other challenges. There's something about the way Erin structures this one that doesn't tweak my inner rebel. I'm OK with it.

I've been intrigued by purple lately, and wanted to do something in the purple family. My palette was "Mineral Brights" (I read the word "brights" and groaned inwardly, but it was all right after all):

I wanted to use brass in it, rather than silver, and I started with that and some heavy gauge leather cord that got me to the cafe au lait color.

Then I hauled out virtually every bead I own in shades of violet, periwinkle and putty. I strung and restrung and strung again. Changed my mind about a pendant twice. And this is what I finally settled on last night:

Indonesian glass beads in ivory and periwinkle (I interpreted that center color as more blue than gray, mainly because I don't really have any gray beads, so I fudged on that one just a little) from Happy Mango Beads, matte glass tile beads in violet, glass seed beads in a deeper violet, little wooden spacers, tiny lilac seed beads, and a brass-over-pewter Ethiopian Coptic cross, also from Happy Mango Beads. (I actually had some other small glass tile beads that were a closer match to that center color, but I just couldn't make them work.) Just didn't have anything in that deep indigo, so I fudged on that too.

This will eventually be for sale in my Etsy shop, probably tonight or tomorrow evening.

They Grow Up So Fast

2011-11-27T12:40:00.001-08:00

It seems like one moment they're just lying there, all inchoate and full of possibilities, and the next moment they're all dolled up and hanging off the neck of some exotically gorgeous model at a glitzy party. Sigh. You want to keep them all to yourself forever, but they have to grow up eventually.

My Baby All Grown Up

And I imagine, or at least I hope, that my coppery little bundle of joy won't be under our roof much longer. It will be winging its way across the country somewhere, destined for romance and excitement. With its white stick pearls, garnets, periwinkle glass and deerskin leather to remind it of Mama.

I'm not even going to tell you how long I was in labor. It seemed like forever. Like two whole days. But it was probably more like two half-days. Because I did other stuff yesterday too, and it's not even 2:00 yet today and I finished it a couple hours ago.

Exotically Gorgeous Model

I suppose I should get dressed. It's almost 2:00.

Hearts and Flowers

2011-11-26T10:08:00.001-08:00

I haven't made bracelets in a long time. Here are a couple I made yesterday and today. The one above features one my flower clasps, with pearls, turquoise lampwork spacers by Meital, and some kind of mystery stone I can't remember the name of. I'm guessing it's a jasper (if anybody recognizes it, let me know! It has a lot of turquoise veining in it, along with the brick red and cream.)

For the one below, I started out with my double-sided heart charm and stared at it for a long time. Slept on it (not literally). And this is what I had decided when I woke up.

A little handful of ceramic beads by Gaea Cannady (that I have of course been hoarding forever), a couple of Czech glass beads in lilac, and a smaller copper-plated pewter heart lock charm. I love the combination of matte and shiny finish beads in Gaea's bundles, I love to put them together. I used one of my hook and eye clasps (kind of experimenting there) for it, and a bunch of my tiny beadcaps.

Here's the other side of the charm:

I'm in love with rivets. Functional AND decorative!

I'm pretty excited that it's only Saturday. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be productive. Really hoping that the day job will slow down like I think it will and I can take a few days here and there to add some things to the shop. I've been so focused on trying to figure out how to make things from metal that I'm out of practice actually putting a whole piece of jewelry together.

Hearts and Rivets: They Go Together

2011-11-19T17:00:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting to do some riveted heart pendants for some time. Today I got busy. I LOVE doing these hearts because I don't have to use my saw on them! I hate sawing. I cut them out entirely with my metal shears--my straight cut and my left curve shears. I cleaned up the little tooth marks from the shears with fine grit sandpaper, they came right out. Voila! No sawing. I love the sort of blocky edges I get with the shears--the hammering with the texture sheets then softens that out a bit.

I layered these hearts using rivets (actually, copper tacks from the hardware store!), and then created a loop by attaching a wire figure-8 with the rivet. (I learned that from a Sharilyn Miller DVD, Ethnic Style Jewelry--lots of handy stuff!)

On a couple of them, I only used one rivet to attach both the second heart and the figure-8; on the big one, I used two rivets to attach them separately.

The smallest heart I will use as a bracelet charm--I'm always a little frustrated using one-sided charms on bracelets, because with the way bracelets move around, you see the wrong side of the charm as often as you see the front. I wanted to make double-sided charms, but you can't really do that with a single sheet and the texture sheet/hammering method, because hammering the second side takes the texture out of the first side. So I thought I would just use two separate hearts, attached with a rivet, with the figure-8 loop in between. (And now I like that "3-D" look so much, I wish I had put the figure-8 in the middle with the other two too. I think I may do that from now on.)

I also textured and antiqued some copper strips to turn my copper flowers into clasps or usable components. I just have to rivet the strips to the flowers now, and decide how to configure them.

Then I have to use them in something. That's the hard part! I'm thinking of opening a second shop for components--then YOU would have to figure out what to do with them. :-)

Ceramic Gear Links!

2011-11-12T07:56:00.001-08:00

I recently got these super cool ceramic "gear link" rings from Karen Totten. I got them in shiny dark pomegranate and matte celadon.

I started with the pomegranate ones for earrings. I pondered and pondered. I wanted to wrap something onto them but it took me a few days to come up with the engineering.

Just listed them all grown up:

With kyanite and antiqued copper.

From Ping Pong Paddles to Tiny Bowls

2011-11-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

One of my metal experiments recently became earrings. The little ping-pong-paddle shaped things below

became these:

Copper bowl earrings

With micro-faceted Czech AB-finish glass beads.

One of my bail experiments also finally grew up:

Aqua terra jasper and leather

It started out a lot fussier and I just wasn't happy with it. So I scaled it way down. "Sandstone" lampwork spacers by The Spacer Shop (formerly The Spacer Queen. I guess she's come down in the world).

A Difficult Delivery

2011-10-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Could I have possibly taken any longer to complete this pendant? Well, probably. I guess I could have tried it with jute twine and wild hogs' teeth after I got through the rest of my stash, but I would have likely circled back around anyway to my very first instinct which was to use these wonderful, other-worldly lavender tablets by Kelley Wenzel. In sunlight, they're very distinctly lavender, but in fluorescent light they're closer to periwinkle blue. They make me think of fluorite, which does something similar (although it tends to look more green in fluorescent light).

I'm amazed at how genteel it turned out looking, just because of the floral textures I think. Overall it's fairly rustic. I tried a gazillion different "fringes" at the bottom (and wasted a lot of headpins in the process), and finally (thanks to a post by Mary Jane Dodd where she showed some tubing she had etched), it occurred to me to cut up some of the copper tubing I had (which I had purchased thinking to make tube rivets with it but I think the walls are too thick) to make tube beads. I textured them gently with my Fretz hammer. I tried a bunch of different kinds of chain on there too, and this rollo chain seemed the best match. It sort of reminds me of a long, hippie shoulder bag, of the herb-gathering (lavender, perhaps?) variety, made out of an old quilt. But posher.

Lavender Hippie Talisman

I think I rather like it long, although it would be striking worn shorter:

Well, all this discussion has given me an idea. I have to go find my wild hogs' teeth now. I know I probably have some somewhere.

Earrings Everyday

2011-10-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Art Bead Scene's founder, Heather Powers, is starting a new blog just for earrings, called "Earrings Everyday." There will be 7 additional, regular contributors, including Lorelei Hill Eurto, Marie Noel Voyer-Cramp, Kristi Bowman-Gruel, Erin Prais-Hintz, Kristy Carroll Abner, and--SERIOUSLY? FOR REALS? WELL I'M SURE THERE'S BEEN SOME MISTAKE AND I'LL BE NOTIFIED SHORTLY -- Me!

I was cruising blogs recently and stopped by ABS on just the right day, and read the post about the new earring blog. I thought it was a great idea--I'm always scouting for earring inspiration. I read the invitation to submit yourself as a contributor and I thought what the heck, I'll throw my hat in the ring, and when it invariably comes to naught I can pat myself on the back for putting myself out there and continue enjoying my current level of obscurity.

But then--GET OUT--I got a convo from Heather letting me know I had been chosen as one of the new contributors. STFU!! I said to myself. (Someone else also said this to me when I told her about it. And I said USTFU! And she said LOL.) HOLY CRAP!! I said to Heather. She didn't seem to take offense. She's chill like that. (I tend to use all caps when I'm excited or incredulous.) So now I will be submitting posts twice a month with earring designs from my shop. And I have a sketchbook full of designs I've never implemented so now I'll see if they are feasible. Nothing like a deadline to help you get focused.

But now I obviously need to get a hyphen, or at least one more appellation. I'm feeling unsophisticated. Or at least some quotation marks. Keirsten "Pattycake" Giles. Keirsten "Cougar-licious" Giles. Keirsten Lee-Giles (that's my middle name, makes me feel like I'm in trouble). Or I could take a cue from the former United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and call myself Keirsten Keirsten-Giles. Feedback?

Interim Rivet Report

2011-10-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

My recently riveted and stamped items have had their sulfur bath and been tumbled for hours and hours. They didn't get as glossy as they usually do (WTH?) so I burnished them by hand with my new burnishing tool.

Looks wicked, doesn't it? Like a dental pick for Clydesdales.

Here is my pendant focal rivet project antiqued and ready to be tarted up:

I decided to lay a piece of 18 gauge wire in the little channel I made instead of leaving it. I wanted the back to look better so I balled the ends and hammered them before squeezing it tight on there. The wire was really soft from heating so it really clamped on there nicely. It sort of looks like a hinge to me on the front. Or some piping on a duvet cover. And now I will agonize, probably for days, over what to do with it. It will hang from three heavy gauge jump rings, and I might hang something from each one as well. Or just the middle one. Then decisions will have to be made about what to hang from the bottom. That will cause me sleepless nights. I'll have to take a pill. And then of course how to do the necklace portion. Knotting? Stringing? Wire links? Chain? Things will be assembled and disassembled. There may be weeping. It must be Triple Extra Special.

The flowers, destined for necklaces and bracelets, and the ping pong paddles for earrings:

And then my little earring bars and rings:

There will be more agonizing with these, of course. Except for the textured flower and strip above because I already know what I'm going to do with that. Of course, it might not work in which case there will be agonizing.

My boyfriend is off hunting antelope this weekend so I am a bachelorette. This means 80s music on the stereo (New Order and Simple Minds, over and over and over and over and over again), no leg shaving, probably no bathing until tomorrow (pesky day job, they expect a certain level of hygiene), unrestrained ADD-like behavior (I'm sawing a board while I'm cooking eggs except for when I take a break to look up "gulag" in the dictionary because now that I think about it I'm not really sure what it means), tools and copper tacks in the middle of the floor (which will probably later lead to cussing), and sleeping with my 27-year-old college teddy bear (yes I'm that old). You thought I was going to say college boy, didn't you? Although that would be kind of old for a college boy. Graduate student then. Doctoral candidate. In something interesting but economically useless like sociology. There's probably not that many of those around here since we have no university. I think I prefer my antelope hunter anyway. I don't think I could really be with someone who wears socks with sandals or has a beard. I hate beards.

My First Rivet

2011-10-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I set out today to anneal and texture some things. (I belatedly realized that annealing my copper items before using my brass texture sheets and hammer on them would make things a little easier on the sheets because the copper would be softer. Ah well, live and learn). As I was looking for a copper flower I had cut out, I came across a rectangle I had cut out. Not sure what I had in mind when I cut it out but I decided to try to turn it into something. You can see it here:

I was going for a two-tone texture, so I used a couple different sheets, and made a border between them. (Not sure if that is going to just stay that way or not...) Because my texture sheets are getting all curled I didn't get a good impression--they don't really work well for large items. There were some holidays here and there, especially in the lower portion. So I decided to cover them up. I had another small strip of metal lying around so I textured it with a third texture and thought, well, this would be the perfect time to attempt a rivet. So I did a trial run (with the square and rectangle in the lower right--pretty, huh?) and it worked, so I plunged in. I used copper tacks from the hardware store, so it was pretty easy. (Learned that from a Sharilyn Miller video!). I put the pretty side up and only had to hammer the back. Worked great!

I'm going to rivet the large flower to the long strip of metal just above it (with a little flattened flower beadcap added--that is in the upper right corner of the picture), and use the strip to fashion a clasp. Then I have a plan involving pearls, more copper, and Swarovski crystals. (Unusual for me to use those.) It will be a necklace.

Those things that look like ping pong paddles will hopefully be earrings--I'm going to curl over those tongues of metal sticking out and make them into a bail to hang them from. But first, the liver of sulfur and then lots of tumbling.

I Can't Stay Away From Bars

2011-10-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

I confess. Bars just suck me right in. I can't walk by a bar without stopping. When I'm working a bar I just feel so cool and sophisticated, you know? And don't tell anyone, but I have a bar in my car too. Well, actually four bars. Two matching pairs to be exact.

Wait, what?

Yes, you heard me. I'm going through my BAR phase!! Don't you just love a rich, burnished copper bar? I know I do. I was thinking "Cosmopolitan" with this one:

Cosmopolitans on a Copper Bar

But then I was in a mood for something with Blue Curacao (with a side of Won Ton--I'm all about fusion cuisine):

Blue Lagoon with Won Ton

Tonight I'm in the mood for Grand Marnier. Or maybe Tequila Sunrise. Or both. Mixed together. We'll see what happens with that...

A Sea Green Addiction

2011-10-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

Whenever I work in copper, which seems to be most of the time anymore, Iseem to end up combining it with some shade of blue green--I especially loveantiqued copper with pale celadon green.

I recently got my first set of charms from Kristi Bowman-Gruel of Dreamsome on Etsy--I couldn'tresist the paisleyhearts! I wasn't sure how I would use them, but when I started goingthrough my beads, I really loved them with pale, transparent green. You suredon't need to do much with these charms--actually you want them to have centerstage!--so I kept it fairly simple:

My pictures don't show it very well, but they have a very luxurious shine tothem. Glossy!

The lady who bought them inquired whether I would be making a coordinatingpendant with the focalI also bought from Kristi. Well, I certainly can, I said! It just so happened Ihad been recently inspired by some designs in Fanciful Devices' Etsyshop--she has some dramatic, curved, kind of yoke things I guess you could callthem, such as with thispiece. My style isn't so rustic, but I thought a curved portion withlampwork and what have you on it might work nicely with Kristi's pendant. I wasonly able to use two of the remaining lampwork I had, as the rest of the lotwas irregularly sized and this needed to be symmetrical. After spending whatseemed like a half hour digging in my tub of copper beads, these curved tubebeads seemed to be the thing:

Hearts in the Grass

It feels sort of Egyptian to me. I would like to use this same techniquewith other pendants--I'm thinking maybe some of my gemstone pendants. I'm goingto try something with an aqua terra jasper (sigh. sea green.) oval pendant Ihave if I can come up with an interesting bail. I have a "thoughtexperiment" in the works for that.

The two pair of earrings below were a prelude to my sea green binge. Theearrings directly below include some of my own beadcaps, some copper platedpewter "heart lock" charms from Monsterslayer,recycled glass from Africa via HappyMango Beads, and some amazonite.

Heart of the Sea

These earrings below are stamped washers and glass tile beads (aqua, ofcourse) fastened on with a bird's nest technique.

Sea Flowers

(What's with me and this "sea" thing? I don't even like water.)

This piece below is my outlier. Around this time, when I start thinkingabout how close winter is (blech!), I do up something with silver pearls. Imade this one ALL silver.

Celtic Winter

(Those silver pearls are so hard to photograph.) Pewterpendant and pewter connector rings from HappyMango Beads; smaller silver-plated pewter Celtic knot bead from Fusion Beads; clear quartz ovals from Fire Mountain Gems; pewter dottedcubes and "deco" cubes from Monsterslayer;and the pearls are from here and there (Ebay and local stores).

In other news, I should have a new laptop arriving next week. It's my firstself-owned laptop--I had one for work once and loved it. My aged Dell desktopunit recently had a meltdown, and the replacement cheap-ass graphics card makesit painfully slow. Rather than pour more money into the old geezer I figured itwas time to get a new one. I wanted a laptop so we could make better use of thespace in our house (my computer desk is monstrous), and so I wouldn't have towork in the room with the blocked heat vent in the winter. (I sit on a heatingpad when I'm in here. Serves me right for getting a leather chair. It's likesitting on a toilet seat.) The rest of the bulky and non-functional furnitureis also going bye-bye, to be replaced with things that have accessible storage.We're going lean. If it was spring I'd probably hack all my plants back too butfor now they're safe. And if winter wasn't coming I might even cut my hairshort, but my neck would get cold. (I probably won't cut it short in the springeither, though, because I'd look like a Monchichi.)

Two Circles and a Rectangle

2011-09-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Pottered around the house on Saturday wondering what to do, what to do...Wanted to make some things but didn't feel very good and I was in a lousy mood. Took some Advil, took a long nap, and eventually produced the items below.

Lampwork donut in "Indian Blanket" colors by Outwest. (I just love these!) I was going to do a button thing but I didn't like it and ended up with this. Simpler seemed better given the boldness of the colors of the rings. A little leather cording, some more lampwork and some carnelian. (Turquoise lampwork by Meital, dark red by Pinocean, butterscotch by TheSpacerQueen.

Indian Blanket

Etched lampwork donut below by Outwest in lovely lilac and sage, sort of a modern southwestern palette. I was getting all crazy with it--I MUST have beads that match every color in it!!! But then I changed my mind. Something simpler seemed better and this is what I came up with. Deerskin lacing in chestnut with little seed beads in pale yellow.

Hypnotic Lilac

After I listed these I looked at my shop and I thought "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT ALL THE CIRCLES!!" Circles EVERYWHERE. Every blessed thing in my shop is ROUND. I imagine that has some psychological significance. It really bothered me. I should change the name of my shop to AllCirclesAllDayLong.

So I made something with a rectangle.

This fabulous bracelet bar is by CapturedMoments (I have others--I think I did a little mini bead porn post on these actually). Tried virtually all my hand-dyed silk ribbon with it (from FlameKissedArtGlass--who is currently on vacation) and I liked this "Chameleon" the best. Muted mauve and sage. Threw in some copper, garnet, Crazy Horse Stone and green pearls and called it good. It felt so good to have a pointy shape in my shop for a change. And then it sold. So now I'm back to circles. Time to make another one. I know I have some pointy beads somewhere, or at least some squares. I know I have some triangles. And some stick shape beads. I need to break up the circles with some sticks and triangles. Get ready!

Here Comes That Autumnal Feeling Again

2011-09-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Funny how that happens every year. Around this time. Although it's hardly autumnal here now, we have a week of solid sunshine and 80+ temps forecast. I love it! Going to stock up on Vitamin D for the long, gray, dreary winter months ahead. However, in honor of the glorious week and-a-half that is autumn in northwest Montana, I created these two necklaces.

This one featuring a handmade ceramic button in sage green:

Maples and Evergreens

(The green is much more olive than the pictures suggest--cloudless skies seem to put a blue cast on everything. I'm thinking I need to try diffused, direct sunlight rather than taking the pictures in the shade.)

This one is all metal, which I've been intending to do for a while. Had a nice assortment of stamped bowls done up.

Well I think I'll sign off. My new monitor is acting up just like the old one. SH!T. I guess it's the CPU.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

2011-08-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

I think I can share this with you now because I saw it on the Interweave site.

Ta-Da!!!

My turquoise disc necklace is on the cover of the Oct/Nov issue of Step by Step Wire! They even spelled my name right. I think I have finally overcome High School.

The Washerwoman

2011-08-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Sounds like something from a Nicole Kidman horror movie, doesn't it? "You'd better be good little boys and girls, or the WASHERWOMAN will get you!!!" And then she does, one by one popping the unruly little biters into a steaming vat of laundry after which they reappear, the very soul of obedience. (But are they really? Hmmm...) Vaguely sinister. Or perhaps the name of a Seinfeld episode. The whole episode takes place in Jerry's apartment and the dry cleaner's. And Jerry's convinced the Washerwoman is taking his underwear, one pair at a time because he's positive there were 12 pairs of tighty whities in there, and now there's only 11 (somehow I can't imagine Jerry Seinfeld wearing boxers. Actually I can't picture him in his underwear at all. It's upsetting. I can however, picture Mark Wahlberg in his underwear. In fact I'm doing it right now.). Or better yet, the Washerwoman is a crackerjack assassin, whose face no one has ever seen, in one of those confusing, slow-moving spy movies where you keep waiting for something to happen but nothing ever does and at the end you say, "Wait--what?". With Michael Caine and Matt Damon or something. And the Washerwoman turns out to be Helen Mirren or Tilda Swinton. The Washerwoman. Because she rubs you out. Like a stain. Ha ha. I watch too much television.

Unfortunately, I'm not nearly that lethal. (Which I guess I don't really consider a virtue. So let's say "fortunately," although there's something sort of lame and sad about being "harmless." Let's split the difference and call me dangerous. Like, I might maim you but I probably wouldn't kill you. On purpose.) And I suppose I'm more accurately The Washer Woman. Two words. As in Woman Who Uses Washers. Of the hardware variety. (As opposed to Kenmore. I have like 40 pairs of underwear so I hardly ever use a clothes washer. In fact, my boyfriend washes my underwear. Every 40 days. He's a gem.)

Copper washers, to be more specific. I've been texturing them with a brass texture plate and large hammer, as I mentioned in a previous post. I did up a bunch, antiqued and tumbled them, and then dipped them in Permalac for a high gloss and lasting good looks. That was some time ago, and I decided to use them this weekend for earrings. Which was my original intent as I had made them in matched pairs. I have one set to go that just needs earwires, so I won't show you those yet.

With cobalt blue pearls and glass:

With fuchsia pearls and glass, and some little upside-down beadcaps and daisy spacers:

And lastly, with iolite and amber glass seed beads:

Well I suppose I should go to bed so I can seem all alert and competent for my day job tomorrow. I shall probably dream about Tilda Swinton stirring a vat of Mark Wahlberg's underwear while ghostly little Stepford children swan around chanting nursery rhymes about a Soup Nazi in English accents.

A Little Southwest Something

2011-08-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

I know it must seem as if I've gone into witness protection. If motorists and law enforcement gave a jot about flagrant traffic violations (sailing through stop signs, blazing through red lights, driving the wrong way up a one way street, driving while deeply inebriated), or crimes against fashion, I would have all kinds of dirt on thousands of Americans and might indeed have to request official protection. But that is not the case so I am, in fact, at large and completely unprotected.

Well, what the hell then?, you may ask. I have indeed been productive, and I have indeed been sharing thoughts and opinions (both invited and uninvited) in other venues. Just not this one.

I did some custom work that I'm choosing not to share (that is more typical of a style I used to embrace, but no longer, so I'd just as soon nobody saw it), and I've been creating some pieces that I'm hoarding to be released in mid-September when I think there might be a publicity opportunity coming my way that I'd like to take full advantage of--I don't want to be caught with my pants down, because I haven't bought new underwear in a really, really long time.

That said, this below is the first non-custom, for-the-shop-today piece that I've created in a while. I've had it on a list to do, and hemmed and hawed about stringing vs. knotting, and finally went with my gut instinct, which was to knot it. Which was contrary to my leisure instinct, because it took forfriggingever. But I think the waxy little brown knots add just the right touch to the beads. I wanted it to feel rustic, old and kind of southwestern.

Oh, show you the damn picture already?

A Southwest Neckpiece

I was at first just going to do a bracelet, but I've been doing a lot of bracelets and haven't made a necklace in forever. But I am going to do a bracelet next, with those same buttons probably. And probably some funky earrings. Or you could wear these earrings with it.

Here's another picture:

Matte finish Indonesian glass beads in "burnt clay" (i.e., orange), cocoa brown, striped brown, and striped orange from Happy Mango Beads; silver heishi from Kenya, and little pewter sun-type bead, also from Happy Mango Beads; metal buttons from Lyanwood; turquoise lampwork glass spacers from Meital; some carnelian and etched red agate Dzi-style beads; and some other stuff. Nifty dotted cube beads in pewter from Monsterslayer. (My new favorite beads--they remind me of a Borg cube. It's a Star Trek thing.)

This picture almost looks Egyptian to me. They liked their turquoise.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to witness some, oh, probably crimes against nature, genetic travesties, and crimes against common sense. If you don't hear from me for several months, it will be because America has gone fascist, adopting some long-needed public attire legislation, and an I'm-wearing-my-8-year-old-daughter's-sweatpants-even-though-I-weigh-more-than-my-husband woman (my apologies to anyone who raids their pre-pubescent children's closets) caught me gaping at Walmart and put me in cement boots and dropped me in the Flathead River.

More Show, Less Tell

2011-08-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Goodness, it's been a month since I had anything worth showing you, or telling you. Actually, I still don't have anything worth telling you, but I do have some nice, sweaty bead pictures for you. (And I'll probably break down and put some mundane babbling in here, just for filler.)

Here is the mundane babbling part. July has been a month of artistic constipation--not so much that creative juices aren't flowing, I just don't have time to stop and let them out. Not healthy at all. I think I'm getting septic. We had a family reunion for a week, see below:

This is one afternoon after a thunderstorm on Flathead Lake. Big waves! We stayed at a friend's house there for our reunion. So that week I didn't accomplish much. But I did sell a lot of stuff to family. Made room for more stuff in the shop, that I don't have time to make. And then later in the month I socialized a few times with old high school friends and girlfriends. And then I discovered that I was low on pretty much every component I make myself so I had to make more. And then I had some custom work that I didn't show you. It's kind of in the same vein of what I've been doing and I didn't want to bore you. I was on a bead diet for a long time too, but I just broke that the other day so I'll show you that. How about we get to that right now?

Bracelet bars by CapturedMoments--these are FABULOUS. They're big! Perfect for bracelets. I like the little ones too. My favorites are the brown ones (the big one is called "Treasure Chest"--it's ceramic but it looks like leather).

More groovy buttons from Lyanwood--these ones are metal! Too cool. The smallest ones are itty bitty, like about 1/4" across.

And these lampwork beads from BeadAbundant, one of my favorite lampwork sellers:

I did make these items in the last month:


Lampwork Sampler Bangle

The bracelet above includes lampwork by BebesGlassBeads (the big one in the center), BeingBeads (the two flanking that), KelleysBeads (the ivory ones with the "lily pad" design), and Meital (the teensy turquoise spacers on the ends). Trying some fancier wrapping on my underbars.

I also made this one the other day, with some hook and ring clasps I've been making. They're a little different than the typical hook clasp. I was sort of thinking of those hook and eye sets you get for sewing.

I listed these earrings last week. The "mango raku" are by Kelley Wenzel--they remind me of the most exotic, poisonous berries you've ever seen! Or a Klimt painting. The turquoise spacers are by Meital again (I got 50 of them!!) Leafy sterling silver beadcaps.

Don't touch those berries!!! Your skin will fall off or something.

I did a couple custom bangles:

I made this one below for someone I "met" on Flickr--the whole thing happened on Flickr! (Customer: "Hey can you make me one of those in colors X, Y and Z?" Me: "Sure.") Flickr is a very powerful marketing tool. If you have the time to post your work there, I would highly recommend it! The center beads are by BeingBeads, and the little ones are from TheSpacerQueen.

I think I'll stop there before Blogger tells me I can't post any more photos. I should probably make something anyway.

More Fun Than a Bag Full of Hammers

2011-07-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

And that's saying something, because hammers are F.U.N.! You know what I'm talking about. I would pay money for a chance to win a bag of hammers.

I used this hammer

with these brass texture sheets

to make these floral-patterned rings. (Shh, they're copper washers from Harbor Freight).

Peridot and Copper

These below I did with my metal stamps from SparklingShamrock (with glass tile beads in sort of a gray-violet):

Periwinkle and Copper

The key is a BIG ASS hammer (the handle on this is like three feet long--I can barely see what I'm hammering it's so far away). And some reverse engineering! I've seen umpteen photos on Flickr and Etsy of these wrapped beads, like little bird's nests. I've been intending to try something similar, and yesterday I was in the mood to try to figure it out. Took a few stabs at it, with some false starts, but I think I approximated it enough to make it work. (I'm sure there's a "right" way to do it, and that's probably not what I'm doing...but they seem to stay put.) I have piles of small gemstone beads like this that I've never really found a way to use, but these small oval shapes seem to work well for this. I get really excited when I use up part of my stash! It was such a lovely day I repaired to my Auxiliary Driveway Studio and made these outside. I love summer! I photographed them at 9:00 p.m. on the porch and there was still plenty of light.

I also made this:

Speckled Stone Lampwork with Brass

I had wanted the brass to be even mellower than this--it looked almost silvery when I took it out of the patina bath (some toxic stuff by Midas), but then when it came out of the tumbler it had regained some of its golden color. Ah well. I have four of these beads left! Going to use copper next time. From Bebesglassbeads. I bought some gun black way back that is supposed to turn copper and brass silvery, but it didn't work. Probably operator error.

A Small Explosion

2011-07-02T20:59:00.000-07:00

I had a little accident today. I just couldn't hold it. I was idly fondling my beads, wondering what to do with the day, when a sneeze caught me off guard and the next thing I knew there were EARRINGS EVERYWHERE!! Instead of cleaning up the mess, I photographed it. See below.

Denim lapis, crazy agate (I think), and amber with antiqued copper.

Blue Jeans with Whiskey AND Kahlua and Cream

Czech mirror glass with antiqued copper.

Ice Blue Earrings

Raku lampwork in mustard by Kelley Wenzel, with charoite and amethyst.

"I say, do you have any Grey Poupon? Or boysenberry jam?"

More lampwork by Kelley Wenzel--called "Lily Pad." Aren't they gorgeous? With turquoise lampwork spacers by Meital.

Lily Pads

Big microfaceted opalite roundels with tiny opalite roundels and antiqued copper. I got this long graduated strand of giant opalite from a seller in China or Hong Kong or somewhere. Very pleased! A mix of commercial beadcaps, and some I did with brass texture sheets and a hammer. Worked really nicely.

Like skim milk with the sun shining through it. (Pretty, but milk should not be transparent.)

Lastly, Czech glass again, druk this time with a "lumi" finish--I love these beads. More textured beadcaps.

Magic Icy Orbs

Well, that's all I got. I think I'm going to WalMart tomorrow. I'm going to try to get there before the scooters come. God help me.

Partially Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Only partially because I already said some stuff earlier. And I'm saying a few things below.

First poppies from the garden: (not retouched--they're naturally this color!)

Hey, I've Been Featured!

2011-06-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

And by some heavy hitters even. Erin Siegel and Lorelei Eurto! At their new blog, A Jewelry Accord. Check it out! I'm FAMOUS!!!

Custom Creation--Featuring Tesori Trovati "Simple Truths" Pendant

2011-06-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

A regular customer recently asked me to create a pendant (or bracelet) around a lovely focal she had just purchased from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati, from her new "Simple Truths" line. It seemed to work best as a pendant:

I wanted to draw the eye toward the focal, and create more of a "V" shape for the entire necklace, so I strung a short length of copper chain across the back of the focal, and hung a copper butterfly pendant and carved leaf from it. There are some really lovely, soft colors in the clay I wanted to echo in the rest of the necklace--olive green, sea green, grass green, mauve, and of course, copper--so I chose some smooth serpentine ovals in cool leafy green, fancy jasper roundels in sea green and mauve, a big moss agate carved leaf, and pearls in antique copper and muted lime. The copper wire is lightly antiqued to match the bezel on the focal. I decided to make it asymmetrical, because I wanted some of the teal and mauve accents in front, where they would show more. This would be one to wear with your hair up, so people could see the back too!

The necklace fastens with a toggle in the front.

The focal has such a nice weight to it--heavy and smooth. Superior quality! The clay artwork is set seamlessly in the bezel.

(Here's how I attached the drop portions of the pendant to the back of the focal):

The chain is just a fine rollo chain; I attached the drop portion via a heavy but smallish jump ring (I didn't want anything too bulky on the back), and then attached two more jump rings (small ones) on either side of it, through the chain links, to keep it in the center. Sort of was thinking of how you hang a picture, with the wire across the back--I hoped it would work! Seems to work fine.

I'm looking forward to working with Erin's components again!

Summer Solstice, Miami-Style

2011-06-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Psychedelic Sunset Bangle

I keep all my lampwork beads in a box together, and sometimes they call just call to each other! I've featured beads from three different designers in this bracelet, and I'm amazed how nicely they work together! The big bold roundel in tangerine is by Bebesglassbeads and was part of a larger set that actually included lots of ocean blues; the two smaller roundels flanking that one are by BeingBeads (I've hit her up for a couple dozen of these multi-sherbet-colored beads!); and lastly the two little spacer lampwork on the ends in the saturated grape and pumpkin are by StudioRent, from a large multi-colored set. Brass beadcaps, toggle bar, base pieces and the decorative and connector rings are by me, lightly antiqued to a rich gold and tumble polished. Four gold-plated brass daisy spacers add a little elegance, and a short length of solid copper rollo chain makes the toggle bar easy to fasten.

I needed some new earrings in the shop too, so I decided to use some of the charm pairs I've been hoarding (these are from FusionBeads, in pewter). These little three-petaled flowers remind me of dogwood blossoms, although I think those have four petals.

Independence Day Mutant Dogwood Earrings

I've combined them with sponge coral discs in a tomato red, little striped glass beads from Indonesia in cornflower blue, red and mustard, matte glass "fiber optic" (they have a subtle cat's eye glass shimmer in them) discs also in cornflower blue, and 6mm pewter daisy spacers, all from Happy Mango Beads. They ended up with a subtle Independence Day feel to them, which seems timely! But also a little gipsy. And Gipsy Season is all year round.

And that's what I squeezed out last week of the exceedingly slim artistic pipeline that is my life. I need some kind of Creative Roto-Rooter. Or some Discipline and Focus. And Organizational Skills. And a vacation. And a nap. But not necessarily in that order. First the nap. Then the vacation. Then the other stuff. Which would probably require a brain transplant and I don't think those have been very successful. And then what if the new brain didn't know how to make jewelry? Or it came out of a man? That would really complicate my life. It's beginning to look like I should just let go of the organizational skills-discipline dream because let's face it, that's not going to happen. What I need is a winning damn LOTTERY ticket. Then it won't matter if I'm productive or not. I can just make jewelry whenever I get tired of playing with my money. Winning the lottery seems a lot more likely than finding any focus or organizational skills.

A Dove Brought Me an Olive Branch Just Now

2011-06-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have no idea where he got it, there's no olive trees within miles of here. Like about 5,581 miles. But as far as I know this means it's going to stop raining. And I'll be darned if there isn't some blue sky outside my window.

This puts me in the mood to talk about bracelets. There's something about sunshine and bracelets. Or maybe it's sunshine and short sleeves, and short sleeves lend themselves to bracelets. Especially these bracelets:

This is a custom order, based on my other copper bracelet with the mauve-fuchsia-coral palette. The customer wanted some yellow, turquoise and aqua, and I was pretty excited to have just the thing in my stash of lampwork! The beautiful lampwork above is by Pat at BeingBeads, and the sea green glass discs are recycled glass from Africa via Happy Mango Beads. I think the copper beads are from Magpie Gemstones. The rest of the copper components I made myself (beadcaps, toggle bar, the bases, connector rings and jump rings, and the decorative wrapped rings between the beads), with the exception of a few links of rolo chain.

This bracelet below was made with some nifty German lampwork from the local bead shop--I just love those big polka dots! They feel sort of 60s to me. I've combined them with dark red lampwork spacers by Pinocean, and mostly nickel with some sterling silver.

Oh Behave!!

The upper and lower sections (both the underbar and the part with the beads on it) are made of nickel, as are the beadcaps and wrapped connector ring. The jump rings, the rings between the beads, and the toggle bar are sterling silver. There's a short section of silver plated steel rolo chain attaching the toggle bar. The nickel polishes up really nicely in either the tumbler (probably want to do at least a few hours in there) or the Dremel with some jeweler's rouge, and it really matches the color of the sterling silver nicely. It's harder to work with though. (The underbar here is 12 gauge wire, which gets pretty stiff when you hammer it. I won't probably ever try anything heavier.) I got this nickel sheet (for the beadcaps) and wire from Monsterslayer. I get all my wire and sheet there, in fact. Nickel is really affordable.

Well, it looks like the dove lied. It's raining again. Shifty bastard.

Three Bracelets

2011-06-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

I am pursuing my "hinged" bangle bracelet design. Finished these over the weekend but I was too tired to photograph them until yesterday:

"Azure Islands" (or, "What I wear at my posh Grecian villa.")

Found some matte crow beads in my stash from Happy Mango Beads that matched perfectly. (That's always thrilling.) These luxurious lampwork beads are by Kelley Wenzel. I'm calling it "Azure Islands" which is coincidentally what Kelley called her beads. Hey, why reinvent the wheel, right?

This one is all about worn jeans and beat up leather boots. Like Thelma and Louise.

Dangerous in Denim

Ceramic focal bead by Mary Ann Carroll. Burnt horn rounds, with a mixture of nickel and sterling silver wire.

This one will look familiar to you. I got some more of these swirly sunset colored beads from my friend Pat (BeingBeads on Etsy)--these have a little more fuchsia and purple in them, and I added some wrapping to the rings I use between the beads:

A Wrist Pop! Lickable.

Well that's it. I have one more half done. Hopefully I can show it to you in the next few days!

So Impressed I Have to Blog It

2011-06-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Whenever I discover a shop or site that goes above and beyond with customer service, I have to talk about it! Ambition, energy and excellence are so invigorating, and I think it should be rewarded with more business. It naturally creates word of mouth!

This Etsy seller from Singapore knocked my socks off! If you need buttons, head on over to Shop4craft!! I posted a while back about my haul of wooden buttons--I got them the other day and was so impressed with my experience with this shop I wanted to tell you about it.

First, I ordered my buttons on a Friday afternoon. Shortly after that (like a few hours), I got a cheerful and friendly convo from Shop4craft letting me know it was currently the weekend in Singapore, so my buttons would ship on Monday. (Wow!) I then got a shipping notification (cheerful and friendly!) on Monday. My buttons came earlier this week. I was utterly charmed!

First, each set was carefully packaged in darling little individual padded envelopes (9 of them!), each tied with jute string and carefully wrapped in bubble wrap:

Not only that, there was a little thank you note inside with my name on the envelope!

The ninth envelope contained a set of thank-you-gift buttons (the butterfly ones below), and the buttons were all absolutely lovely!

The shop itself is very professional--great photos, perfect English, careful descriptions. My items were just as pictured (better even!). They also have metal, acrylic/plastic and coconut shell buttons, along with some mixed sets, and a small assortment of printed ribbons. The coconut shell buttons are especially lovely--look at this!:

I think I'll have to order from them again soon....(It's also a great reminder of how that extra effort in customer service creates loyalty and word of mouth business.)

On top of all that, the prices are amazingly affordable--but it was the customer service that really knocked me out. Of course shipping takes a bit longer because of the distance and customs, but it was worth the short wait! If you need some unusual buttons for your jewelry or other projects, check them out!!!

Who Put a Quarter in Me?

2011-05-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

Because I was weirdly productive this weekend. I made two pendants, finished a fish necklace, made an experimental bracelet (see below) and a pair of earrings to go with a pendant from last week. That's got to be some kind of record for me. (It's a good thing I'm not trying to pay the bills with this or I'd be in a refrigerator box with a McDonald's gift certificate from the Methodist church clutched in my grubby hand. And when I wasn't in my refrigerator box I'd be at the library talking to myself. And thinking, "What's that smell?")

I wanted to show you my experimental bracelet. The last couple weeks I've been itching to try a bangle bracelet, or a least a modified one, in two parts. I thought it would be a fun way to use up my awesome lampwork stash. (At first I did it up with these really rustic looking ceramic beads from Michael's, but after I got it partway together I thought the beads were just not durable enough for a bracelet and I took it apart and started over. They seemed about as durable as malted milk balls. You get what you pay for, right? Damn. Now I want malted milk balls.) At first I though I might be defeated by my lack of a steel bracelet mandrel to hammer it on, but then I spied the neighbor's steel fence pole and I was in business. I ran out with my hammer and shaped the underside piece of my bracelet on the pole. It was very clangy. They're hollow and they make a terrific racket. I think I might need my own piece of steel pipe. Time to go shopping at the hardware store!! (Or sneaking around at night at a Department of Transportation construction site.)

I decided to start with some wonderful sunset-colored (like an LSD sunset) beads from BeingBeads, by my friend Pat (who lives like 15 miles away!! how lucky am I?).

Into the LSD Sunset

Of course it cried out for copper.

At first I attached the underbar (that's my word that I just right now made up) directly to the top piece with large jump rings, but it didn't really fit right. Part of the problem was that the underbar wasn't long enough. I thought I would have to start over with a longer underbar. But then I thought, maybe what it really needed was to be sort of hinged on the sides, to make it easier to put on. So then I put a connector ring in between on the one side, which ended up balancing out the short bit of chain on the other side. Et voila! I think it would work the other way too, with a longer underbar.

They look like CANDIES, don't they? Strawberry, boysenberry, watermelon, grape...

I totally did not measure, I just started making stuff. Thinking about math makes my mind hurt. (Although I impressed the heck out of myself by actually WRITING DOWN the dimensions when I was done. So unlike me.) That's the beauty of copper: Doesn't fit? Ugly? Doesn't work? Eh. Toss it in the "to-be-taken-to-the-recycling-center-in-10-years-when-I-have-enough-scrap-to make-it-worth-the-gas-to-drive-it-over-there-Box." (Of course someday soon some asshole speculators will start buying up all the copper in the world and it will be $100 an ounce (but that would probably only be because the dollar had fallen to a value of 12 cents...) and we'll have to switch to string made out of recycled grocery bags. It will make annoying crinkling sounds when you wear it. Your cat will steal it and play with it under the bed while you are trying to sleep. ALL NIGHT. (And then promptly retire to the basement to sleep all day once you are off to work.)).

I'm so excited by this new thing I am already losing interest in my button thing. But I have all these new buttons coming from Hong Kong, Israel, Canada and Singapore so I have to just soldier on and do both. What I think is totally cool is that I can make UNDERBARS in the car. Well, if I can find some steel pipe. (I'm still feeling too cheap to buy a mandrel.)

Mad for Toggles

2011-05-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm rediscovering my lentil and tablet beads with this front-closure toggle design. It's sort of an easy bail to make! My bail making skills are very rudimentary, and the toggle bar adds interest to the focal.

Toast and Sagebrush Pendant

I made this one with one of my toasty textured tablets by Mary Ann Carroll--it's a very warm looking bead, with its warm toast colors, and its pebbled texture makes me feel warm (makes me think of ostrich hide, and ostriches come from Africa, and Africa is warm...) It also has some sage green mixed in--green like sagebrush, and sagebrush grows in desert climates, which are warm...(Yes, there is a theme here; we got new snow today on the ski hill, so I am thinking of warm places. I do that a lot. All year round in fact.)

Then I did another similar pendant. I really like to squeeze all I can out of a design.

After I finished the pendant below, I thought I should name it, and by golly if it didn't remind me a lot of Monet's "Water Lilies." It was the dollops of sky blue on the dark green background that made me think of lily pads. I went to look at the painting online, and the name seemed apt. I had even gotten some lilac in there too (there's a little spot of violet at the top of the focal).

Water Lilies

The large lentil focal and the bigger roundel are by Karen Hardy. Unfortunately her Etsy shop is empty. :-( The smaller roundel is by BeingBeads (I was thrilled how well they all went together!) The round beads include moss agate, teal-dyed quartz, and Czech glass in lilac. Copper plated pewter charm and freshwater pearls hang from the focal. Monet wasn't Irish, but it works for me. It's all "wet" colors, and Ireland is wet. So one dry pendant and one wet pendant. I try to be inclusive because I'm all about diversity.

Well, I suppose I should go to bed. There's nothing else to do.

Little Fishies

2011-05-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

Water, water, water, everywhere water! That must be why I'm thinking of fish. And bright fish in tropical colors at that! It's a bit dreary here in the mountains right now, so this must be a spot of self-help therapy. I'm dreaming of warm tropical waters and sunny colors...

Here I've entertained myself with a cheerful little tableau of three whimsical glazed ceramic fish buttons (by MuddyMuse on Etsy), navigating their way through a sea of glass and gemstone "bubbles" in fresh, summery (I'm guessing here, "summer" exists for me on a purely theoretical plane) greens and blues. I've attached them all to a solid copper base via hand-forged headpins in a random pattern, and used short lengths of silk ribbon in "faded denim" by Flamekissedartglass to attach the focal to copper rollo chain.

Happy Little Fishies

The wonderful little sage green lampwork spacers are by Pinocean, and the larger spacer in periwinkle blue is by Studiorent. (I also recently found another lampwork spacer shop on Etsy, TheSpacerQueen --loads of colors, both opaque and transparent, all about 5x8mm each, perfectly freakishly uniform. Quick shipping and great prices. Check her out!). Other beads here include denim lapis, some seed beads in matte powder blue and lime green, little matte blue glass discs from Happy Mango, fancy jasper and one lonely moss agate.

OK, time for me to go take some Vitamin D and sit under a light bulb. I'm starting to look like Gollum.

Talisman

2011-05-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

I just love tablet beads. I'm particularly fond of these big glazed ceramic tablets by Mary Ann Carroll. These are in a dusky sand color, with a center of vivid crimson and tangerine, ringed with a rich greenish blue. The pendant below started out as a bracelet, which I decided was way too busy, so I took it apart and started over. I thought simpler was better, and I thought it might work better, with its built-in toggle ring, as a pendant:

The Fiery Eye

(I added the toggle ring myself). I love how the porcelain warms against the skin when you wear it. It's like a worry stone, and something about that fiery center is comforting. I added some carnelian, poppy jasper, dyed quartz, and a little rice pearl to echo the colors:

On Sunday I finished the piece below. It's sort a talisman too--the kind of talisman that makes you think of chocolate chip mint ice cream. Now every time I look in my shop I want chocolate chip mint ice cream. In fact I'm wanting it right now.

Chocolate Chip Mint

My model, Alfre, is telling me to go to the store after work and buy some chocolate chip mint ice cream. You don't argue with Alfre.

Button Fever

2011-05-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

And I am Patient Zero. It is spread visually, so look at the following pictures at your own risk.

The fever was at its peak on Friday afternoon, and I was delirious. In an idle moment I did a search for "wooden buttons" on Etsy and the following things ended up in my cart:


Owl Eye Buttons


Round "hump" button

Small wood button

Flower buttons

(Yes there's more.)

Square in circle buttons

Monkey eye buttons (a propos, no?)

Double curve buttons

Funny eye buttons (I didn't name these).

All of the above from Shop4Craft on Etsy.

Shall we continue?

Rosewood Color Flowers

Stacked squares

Wavy Japanese style buttons

Plain buttons

The last four are from Lyanwood on Etsy.

As far as I can tell, more of all of these buttons are available in these shops. I tried to put links on all the captions for you but halfway through that process Blogger decided that the URL for the photo was the caption link and I could not, in fact, have any other link. POS.

I think I've hit my picture limit so I won't show you the mother of pearl buttons I got (later). These buttons above were all fantastically affordable so I bought LOTS. (You want to spread around the shipping costs you know.) (But now I'm seeing I should have got more lighter color buttons--good thing they have those). Unfortunately one of the sellers is from Hong Kong and the other is from Singapore, so I have to WAIT to get them. Shop4craft even convoed me to let me know that when I ordered them on Friday it was currently the weekend there so they wouldn't ship until the following Monday. How's THAT for on-top-of-it customer service? Most excellent.

Twilight

2011-05-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

No, not sappy teen vampire love, ACTUAL twilight. You know, crepuscule. Eventide. Gloaming. Dusk. (Sorry, been hitting thesaurus.com a little too hard). That's what this bracelet makes me think of--those very last moments of a summer day, when only a molten thread of crimson sunlight remains, and the sky above goes smoky violet and plum. Only lasts a moment. I could live in that moment for a long, long time.

Deep Twilight

These little earrings sort of go with it:

Deep Twilight Earrings

On another note, I added these to the shop the other day:

The Land of the Rising Sun Meets the Emerald Isle

And these, a variation on my "Mexican Food Earrings":

South of the Border

And a slightly different pair of "lantern" earrings:

Garden Lanterns

My right leg has fallen asleep so I think I'll call it good. Good night!

My Favorite Things

2011-05-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

I love this stoneware button by Beadfreaky--I have three more and can't wait to use them! LOVE the colors--cinnamon and oatmeal! I went crazy and combined it with beads in my other favorite colors--cayenne, cafe au lait, nutmeg, pumpkin pie, saffron, mustard, persimmon...And a little bit of cinnamon silk ribbon.

Tree of Life

Makes me want to be a readhead.

Recycled Glass and Sophia the Hand Model

2011-05-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

A new novel by Tom Robbins.

Ha ha. Not really.

It's what I did this weekend. I turned this (the white one)

into this

I call her "Sophia." My inspiration was Sophia Loren. I mixed up craft paint in raw sienna, avacado, and white. And then I gave her a french manicure.

And then the rest of the time I was trying to finish this set below--I wanted to list them together, in case somebody wanted a whole set. I started it middle of last week actually, but then I ran out of copper bowls and beadcaps, and Sophia wasn't ready yet for her debut. Finally it all came together today. Phew. And I even got my magazine submission out the door yesterday. Now I actually feel like resting!

Here is the necklace:

Modeled by the lovely Alfre:

And the bracelet:

Modeled by the lovely Sophia:

And the earrings:

Sophia will definitely come in handy when I start making rings. I bought a tute on making dangle rings, and a steel ring mandrel. I have so many little roundels and pearls and tiny gemstones, I thought it would be a fun way to use them up. I could even make them in the car!!!

Recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads; coffee-colored howlite (luuuurrrve that) from Eightjewelry on Etsy; Red creek jasper from Soulfireartisan on Etsy; Green turquoise from Fire Mountain Gems (and some locally).

Here Goes...

2011-05-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

Shipped off my first magazine submission today! Ahead of schedule even! I am the Queen of Timeliness.

(That would be the chick on the right. The other one is Lisa).

Selected Items at Lune Marked Down

2011-04-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you know, a number of the items in my shop have been marked down 20% (who did that?). You may wish to come take advantage of my momentary, uncharacteristic generosity.

Circling

2011-04-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm working myself up for a couple of projects. Unfortunately I couldn't just dive in because I was out of everything--beadcaps, headpins, connector rings, etc.

So while all that stuff went round and round in the tumbler, I toyed with the random stuff on my bead table. And some of the components destined for other projects seemed to work nicely with some of the other stuff on my table. (Most of the "other stuff" on my table were things I really wanted to use in something, but just didn't have the right "thing" for them yet).

This piece below came about because I got a bug up my ass to find out RIGHT NOW if those donut bails I started in the car (and finished at home) would fit any of the stone donut pendants I had. Turned out one of the bails fit this "golden horse" jasper donut perfectly. I put the bail on there and left in on the table and it was so big I couldn't help but look at it day after day. When the germ of an idea came into my head I had to jump on it. Repeatedly for a couple days. (Tired now). This is what eventually came out of the hopper:

I like the main portion with the leather, but I can't decide if I like the shorter section with it. I just seemed sort of bare with all that length so I put that in there. What do you think? Leave it or take it out? (Beach stones from Stonestudiostoo on Etsy).

Of course I had to make earrings to go with it.

Earrings To Go With It

(Gray lampwork spacers by Beingbeads; earwires, headpins and beadcaps by moi; also with faceted moukaite and brecciated jasper).

These earrings below happened when I took some of the big beadcaps I was doing for my button pieces (stamped on the inside to be used upside down) and popped them on top of a smaller bead. They looked more like a big floppy hat then than a little watch cap. I put a little bead up inside there to make them sit up a little higher. I like the Japanese straw hat effect. Like you're digging weeds in your garden in Kyoto on a hot sunny day and you don't want to get brown spots. Or like a fuchsia blossom. Vaguely. So I did some more but stamped them on the outside, like a traditional beadcap.

Japanese Garden earrings

I was trying to think of a more interesting way to fasten a decorative seed bead to earwires, and I thought these itty bitty beadcaps I've been making might work. They're like a little nest for the bead to sit in. I wrapped some wire right above them to keep them in place.

I had these nifty cylinder beads with the cutouts sitting on my table because I thought I might use them in the jasper pendant, but that didn't look right and I was too lazy to put them away. But then I put a big beadcap on top of those and I liked that too! So this is what eventually became of them:

Japanese Lantern Earrings

With tiny turquoise heishi, moukaite again wearing tiny beadcaps, and ivory bone spacers.

Now I can't decide whether I should start on that other project now or take a nap. I'm leaning towards the nap. Like literally leaning in my chair. I'm really tired.

Fooling Around

2011-04-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

With metal wire and sheet.

These are some things I was hammering in the car recently--Some 12 and 14 gauge gauge copper wire, and some copper sheet. I decided to decorate them a little with stamping and antiquing and try them out as earrings. This first pair I left simple, with some faceted glass in a sort of lavender-periwinkle that changes color depending on the light source (lavender in sunlight, almost aqua in fluorescent light).

With lavender glass

I've been thinking of tourmalines lately (but not wanting to spend the $$, so instead I got some berry and pine green seed beads to sort of get in the tourmaline mood), and wanting to try wiring seed beads onto things so these are a real experiment! They ended up looking really Christmasy (I didn't expect that! Maybe it's the way the top curls over, makes me think of elf shoes)--probably need some black in there to really pull off the tourmaline thing. But I like them anyway. So they'll just have to sit in the shop until December. Ha.

Pink and Green Extravaganza

These last ones I'm not so in love with, although I like the beads in them.

Tulips

I think I've had enough of the bar earrings for awhile now, but I'm glad I discovered that wiring seed beads isn't very hard. They were very cooperative! Think I might do that again elsewhere.

The Necklace

2011-04-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

OK, I made a necklace today with my remaining Alisha White copper green discs. Here it is:

The Necklace

Alas, I had to use them all so no pendant in the offing. Large iceberg blue lampwork spacers by StudioRent.

I Think I Broke a Tooth

2011-04-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

Nibbling on these DELICIOUS beads!!!

I went to the bead store looking for moukaite and fancy jasper roundels and came home with this instead:

Face-Melting-Blue agate slabs

Poppy jasper and rugged green turquoise

Everlasting shell roundels, picture jasper square tubes, and fuschia-colored Aqua Terra Jasper pendant

Not quite sure what possessed me with that fuschia pendant. It was bright and my Reptilian Brain saw it and said ME BUY PRETTY ROCK!!!!

Alisha White is a Genius

2011-04-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

I snapped up these lampwork discs a few weeks ago from Alisha White's shop--couldn't resist that verdigris/copper combo! I've been contemplating this bracelet ever since. Finished it up this evening.

Copper and Verdigris Bracelet

With amazonite, moukaite, fancy jasper, opalite, copper and leather. (Can't believe how that cord from LeathercordUSA in "Splash" exactly matched the lampwork! That leather is like crack.) Had some great, murky light through the heavy cloud cover when I got home from work--love these longer days already! This is my favorite light to photograph in. Wan and gray, because it doesn't distort colors and there's just enough crispness without it being harsh.

I'm feeling more comfortable with my metal stamps. The BF gave me a really, really big hammer. Now I need more stamps.

I still have four of these discs left. I'm not quite done nibbling on them (I just want to gobble them up!) but when I am I think they will go into a necklace. I might end up with one left over and that might end up in a pendant. Or lodged in my throat.

Exercises in [Relative] Simplicity

2011-04-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

I was ultra tired of looking at the same old crap in my shop (every time I put something new and cool in there someone buys it--HMPH!!!), so I thought this weekend I would just do a bunch of old fashioned "quick" stringing projects that would go together "fast." The first one took me all day. (What in the hell was I doing? Oh yeah, the crimp wouldn't cooperate and that goofed up the wire and I had to start over. And oh yeah, I didn't have the right size coil ends to I had to make those. And then I guess I had to make some chain because I didn't have that either...Then the photos wouldn't turn out. And then I guess I was fooling around with a few other projects at the same time and got sidetracked...)

Anyway, here are my "simple[er]" pieces from the weekend, just so there would be something new to look at in my shop. I used my first Artisan Clay charm for this one. With some leather and some nifty matte seed beads in a semi-metallic, subtly variegated denim blue from Fusion Beads.


Blue Jean Baby (there, now you'll be hearing Tiny Dancer all night! LOVE Elton).

I started wiring up the ceramic focal on this one below last night, from Macarroll. I am proud to say I had the whole thing finished this morning before the clock went to double digits (that is meaningful for me--if it's single digits it's still "early"). But then I wanted Mexican food all day. Bad. I couldn't stop thinking about guacamole, tortillas, queso dip and enchilada sauce.

South of the Border ("Yo quiero Taco Bell!!!")--See what I mean?

With poppy jasper, faceted moukaite, handmade olive green glass beads from Indonesia (via Happy Mango Beads), and fabulous wide leather lace from LeatherCordUSA. Cute little gingko charm from Fusion Beads (or was it ArtBeads?)

Oh, did I mention it's reversible?

I was too lazy to go the store for tortillas so I made earrings to go with it instead:

Mexican food earrings

Then I sort of cheated and photographed and listed earrings I made the other day. So that didn't really count.

Mr. Blue Sky Jasper Earrings (HA! Now you have ELO in your head. LOVE ELO. Almost as much as Elton.)

But then someone bought them a few minutes after I listed them and I had to make them again. That DID count.

(In the midst of all this I was making another custom "Button Magic" (that's what I'm calling it) necklace from the remaining turquoise discs it turns out I DID have enough of after making the last one (but now I don't), so I was multi-tasking. Or at least bi-tasking.) I just happened to be thinking about lime and teal while I was working on this custom piece (which just happens to be olive green and turquoise--not so much of a stretch), and reflecting on the giant tub of Indonesian lime green and teal beads I had from Happy Mango Beads when I suddenly wondered what the little lime green spacers in the tub would look like on a jump ring. I had to find out RIGHT AWAY. So I took a little detour and ended up making these:

Lime and Blue Raspberry Beret Margaritas (HA!! Now you've got past-his-prime Prince in your head. It all went downhill after Purple Rain. )

I had other BIG plans for other "simple" and less "simple" pieces but I ran out of time. I didn't even waste any time bathing or going to the gym or eating (one must obey the Mojo) and I STILL ran out of time. DANG.

The Two Faces of Eve

2011-04-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm quicksilver. My moods change in an instant. I'm unpredictable.

Must be The Change.

One minute I'm all shabby chic and romantic, and the next minute I'm all modern industrial. Literally, from like one minute to the next.

See, look at this:

You didn't know I could do this, did you? They're all soft and cuddly.

Those weathered copper hearts are by (you guessed it) Shannon at MissFickleMedia. Czech glass lentils in peridot AB finish with little copper pearls. But then you blink and I've gone all Blade-Runner-meets-Mondrian on you:

Completely unsentimental and not particularly romantic. My style exactly.

It was nice for a change to have already-made components. I get so tired of having to make all the parts before I can put them together. I need to train the BF to do that.

I Can't Get the Eggs and Bacon Done at the Same Time, Either

2011-04-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've been intending to make earrings with these raku lampwork discs from BlueSeraphim, but just didn't get it done until last night. About a week after I finished the bracelet that would have gone with them (see previous post.) It would make far more sense to have done these earrings a week ago and listed them with the bracelet. Or better yet, listed them both with the necklace I did several months ago. (However, my inspiration was just not ripe for all these things at the same time.) I have the same problem with cooking. I have eaten many self-cooked meals in stages. First the toast, then the eggs, then the bacon, because I couldn't seem to get it all done at the same time. Ah well, this is my cross to bear.

So here they are, I've been meaning to try fastening disc beads to small strap-like pieces of metal. I like bending the top of the metal over to form the loop. I stamped a little design on these. I'm still totally spastic with the metal stamp, just can't get the design in there very deep (wimp?) and it moves around. Going to have to practice. Maybe I need a small sledgehammer.

Do you raku? I do.

With iolite and little purple glass beads


I cleaned my fingernails for this picture so I wouldn't look like a carny.

That's all for now, I have to go get ready because we're having bar food tonight.

The Buttonator (that's Button-ator, not Butt-O-Nator)

2011-03-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

That's me. Or perhaps, the Disc-o-nator. (I missed disco by about 5 years, but I did see "Thank God It's Friday" about 12 times. I had a Donna Summer album. And Saturday Night Fever. I still occasionally listen to the BeeGees but "Nights on Broadway" makes me cry too much and I have to turn it off. I know, I'm not right.)

You might recall I used these BlueSeraphim raku lampwork discs on my protoype necklace for my Button-ator technique.

Well, I have now used them in a bracelet. (That was always my plan--and then earrings. Not there yet).

Aren't the colors amazing? I'm so inspired by these beads.

The other beads here are: navy blue Mykonos ceramic washers (from LindenAvenueDesigns), purple aventurine, green turquoise, ivory and brown bone spacers, and one little cobalt blue glass bead I got from my "junk" container. Antique gold plated pewter daisies and modified beadcaps. I used a rising sun stamp on the bigger one. Four strands of super soft cocoa leather cord from LeatherCordUSA.

Tada. That's it, that's all I got. OK time for PIZZA!!!!

Spring Is in the Air...Somewhere! (Not Here.)

2011-03-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

And that idea inspired me to dig into my new Happy Mango Beads stash! Plus feeling lots better after being laid low by a mystery bug. Getting back to the gym has helped with muscle pain and fatigue--gotta love endorphins!

I put this bracelet together with my new technique, using Indonesian lampwork discs from Happy Mango in olive-lime, lilac and vanilla. I accented those with little charoite roundels from Lima Beads, glass seed beads in lime, and a bunch of little copper bowls (a/k/a upside down copper beadcaps). White greek leather from Magpie Gemstones completes the bracelet, fastening to a hand-forged toggle bar.

I was totally beside myself with dopey glee when I created a flat headpin the other day--It was a spontaneous thought, figured it wouldn't work. "Gee, I wonder if I could make my own flat headpins from my ball headpins?" So I put a ball headpin tail down in the vice, tightened it up, and tap-tap-tapped on it until it was flat. They look like chubby little nails. Love them!!!

I just love the swirls in the ivory and lilac beads:

"Spring Around the Corner and Then Way Down the Road" Bracelet

I'm getting foolish collecting more lampwork discs from various Etsy sellers. I can't stay away from Outwest and Alisha White's shops! I also loaded up on some spacers from TheSpacerQueen that I thought would coordinate with my discs. I think those spacers will be perfect little buttons for pieces like this. She has oodles of colors!!!

An Experiment

2011-03-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished a necklace for a customer who previously bought a pendant--she wanted a shorter necklace in the same materials she could wear layered with the longer pendant. She asked if there could perhaps be a detachable pendant on it so she could also wear it alone. Here is the original pendant she bought:

I looked through my stash of stuff and just didn't have a commercial pendant that was going to work. I really wanted to do another flower, because the original pendant had a flower. I thought the flower should be in copper though. So I fished out my jeweler's saw and cut out my first flower shape. This had been on my to-do list--in fact, I had already drawn some flowers on my copper sheet, intending to (one day) cut them out and do something with them. I wanted to pin a bunch of them in different sizes to one of my metal bases like I've been doing. But instead my first one became a little pendant.

Here's what I eventually came up with:

I hung a little copper flower charm along with the pendant, just for fun. I LOVE these little flower charms (got them from Magpie Gemstones) but they were too small to use alone. I antiqued it a little and tumbled it to make it match the rest of the copper. For the pendant portion, after I cut out my flower shape and cleaned up the edges with my Dremel and some fine sandpaper, I marked the striations with a sharp wood chisel. After antiquing and tumbling it, I domed it a little and then bent the petals back a little. I had previously flattened out some commercial beadcaps (in a previous spontaneous experiment--"Hmm, I wonder if..."), so I pinned one to the center of my pendant. I attached the whole thing with a ball headpin to a snake-shaped copper base that had a loop at the top. The flower spins freely. I attached the pendant and the charm via a couple little jump rings to one of my toggle bars, so it could be attached to the center of the three connector rings and removed at will. I added some copper chain to the pearl portions so it would be weighted evenly. Et voila!

I think I'm over my trepidation about cutting out flowers. I cut circles around them first as close as I could with a pair of left curve metal shears and that saved a lot of work. (If you're left-handed you can do it with right curve metal shears--they come both ways). I also prefer the shears for plain circles, rather than sawing. I have to clean up the edges with a Dremel, but I'd rather Dremel than saw. It's a power tool thing. But I've not used the shears on anything heavier than 20 gauge sheet--probably wouldn't work very well on 18 gauge.

So that's what I did this weekend. I've been dragging myself around for the past month, sick as a dog, and finally got some antibiotics. I think I'm getting better, so back to the grindstone.

I've Been Featured!

2011-03-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

The wonderfully inspired and talented Libby Leuchtman at LibbyLeu glass has featured me on her blog! She is going to be doing regular blog posts about other artists whose work she connects with. I stopped by her blog when I was doing the Bead Soup blog hop and was knocked out by her new "onion dome" focal beads (I visited Moscow once, and Red Square, and was really wowed by the cathedral architecture in the Kremlin complex--her photo of St. Basil's really took me back!), and then I was totally floored by her podlettes when I visited her Etsy shop.

Copper Green Podlette Pair

Are those not the sweetest little things? Mysterious and graceful! Lori Anderson did a gorgeous bracelet with them by the way, check out the podlettes in action!!

And these gorgeous amber ones:

"Red Roof Tile Podlettes"

From Libby's Etsy profile and shop announcement:

"My name is Libby Leuchtman and I have been making glass beads for 13 yrs and designing jewelry for 20 years. All my beads are handmade by me and kiln annealed.

"I have always loved art and started out as a muralist. About 13 years ago I saw an artist at a show that had handmade glass beads. I signed up for a class two weeks later, and the rest is history. I founded the St. Louis Lampworkers Society, St. Louis Bead Society and I am a member of ISGB and the Torchworking Director at Third Degree Glass Factory www.stlglass.com. My beads have been collected for the Kobe Glass Art Museum, and appeared in several books. I have been teaching glass beadmaking for 8 years."

She also makes larger pod focals, also breathtaking and utterly unique!

Kalypso Frit Pod

Stop by and visit Libby at one of the links above!

A Turquoise Overdose!

2011-02-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

I finally finished a whole set of turquoise button-type stuff. Here it is:


The Bracelet (sold--but I'm making another one)

(Little verdigris copper heart by Missficklemedia)

The necklace:

The Necklace (I just said that, didn't I?)

And the earrings:

Earrings

I've just started another similar bracelet (custom order) that will be BIGGER and BETTER!! Because bigger is always better. And my collection of button/disc/ruffled disc beads is burgeoning. Like muffin tops at an IHOP. So look out!!!

Tree of Life

2011-02-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

I put this little bracelet together yesterday with one of my new ceramic buttons from Beadfreaky. I just love the rich colors in the button! It's a great size for a focal, about 1 and 1/8". Copper seemed to be the thing, and I did my new technique with a repeating S-shape in copper wire underneath. I attached a few beige glass spacers and a couple roundels of brecciated jasper too. Silk string in cinnamon and deerskin lacing in buckskin finish up the bracelet, along with one of my toggle clasps.

Not having a lot of luck finding nice flat, disc beads so I think I'm going to have to go the button route a lot more. Woo hoo! I love me some buttons.

Oh wow, somebody just bought this. But you can see it in my sold items section in my Etsy shop!

These Buttons Are Really Pushing My Buttons

2011-02-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

My "Buy Now" button!! I must have these.

Cindy Lougee has opened a new Etsy shop---CalDESIGNNaturals "Bits 'n Pieces", and is stocking it with the most fabulous bronze and silver buttons. They are scrumptious! I'm all about buttons these days, and when she told me she was planning to start making some buttons in bronze I thought HURRY!!!! Because I just realized I need them. Just now when you told me you were going to make them. I need them.

Check out the rich patina on these tasty little morsels!!

Round buttons--look at the color!!

Leaf buttons

Triangle buttons

And check out this already-sold (DANG) sweetness:

Flower buttons!--I'm loving these

Fine silver leaf buttons

Fine silver square buttons--are those not cool?

Aren't they gorgeous? Think of the design possibilities...Go to her Facebook fan page and beg her to make more!! I am.

Aegea

2011-02-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

The globe-trotting, visionary directrice at Happy Mango Beads, Rudi Taylor, turned me onto their ancient Roman glass beads, and challenged me to dream up a design incorporating them. These glass disc beads are both beautiful and fascinating:

"This ancient Roman glass was found in the Nimroz province of Afghanistan and dates between 900 & 1200 years old, it was excavated 4-5 years ago. Glass has not been produced in this area for 900 years. The iridescence is caused by the centuries of decomposing and weathering of the hydrated silica (sand used in making the glass)."

Every one of the little pieces of artistic history in this piece is completely different--the hues vary from ephemeral celery to sea green to palest aqua; some are glassy clear like shallow coastal waters, and some are milky like frosted glass; some bear creamy accretions like sea spume and barnacles; some are chunky and rustic; some are delicate and wafer thin. Most are about the size of a penny or a nickel.

I wanted to make the most of the colors, textures and shapes of these glass wafers, and so decided to use them as you would a button, so that most of their surface would be showing. I fastened them onto a hand-forged base of sterling silver wire with ball headpins, reinforcing and embellishing them with other disc beads made of turquoise, bone, glass, and sterling silver. (You'll recall the necklace I did with brass, lampwork and wood discs recently--that was a bit of a prototype for this one):

Roughly tumbled, watery aquamarines and bone beads in ivory seemed a natural compliment to these beads, as did deerskin lacing in a soft palomino color. Hammered, hand-formed beadcaps in nickel, and a pewter toggle clasp mirror the sterling silver wire.

"Aegea"

If you're curious how this necklace was created, check out the tutorial, and see more of Happy Mango Beads ancient Roman treasures.

Toast and Taffy, Right Where You Need It

2011-01-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'm totally into ceramic beads right now, and Mary Ann Carroll's are some of my favorites! I've combined two of her beads in this toasty little bracelet--the big textured focal (like a waffle!), and the little button-shaped bead with the dollop of turquoise in the middle. My Mom said it reminded her of saltwater taffy--what do you know, it DOES look like a piece of taffy! That makes me like it even more. And here it is on your wrist, so easy to nibble on if you have the urge. It's so tempting.

Toast and Turquoise

I've combined the ceramic beads with bone beads, turquoise magnesite half domes, and a little disc of turquoise sitting atop a wood disc (I used the same technique as for the necklace I posted about earlier--I did a mini "snake" and fastened the discs to it with a headpin). The bracelet fastens with a brass toggle clasp I made myself. All metal is solid brass, lightly antiqued and hand-polished.

I made one other bracelet. SLAVED over it. And I hate it. Not sure what to do with it. Tried some ribbon on it and it just doesn't look good. Hate it when that happens.

Pinocchio Becomes a Real Girl

2011-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

And he didn't even have to go to Switzerland.

Yesterday I painted one of my mannequins, Ebony. She was jet black when I got her, and I have wished many times that she were people-colored. So yesterday I took the plunge. I sanded her down with fine grit sandpaper to give the surface some tooth, and mixed up a nice nut brown skin color. Now she looks exactly like one of those chocolate truffles with the powdered cocoa on the outside. She looks like a real, headless, brown girl.

I am renaming her Alfre.

New Shops, New Stuff!

2011-01-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

Wanted to share some things with you I recently purchased from some Etsy shops I haven't bought from before. Pretty excited about them!! Check this out:

From JodyPoesy (hand-dyed 1/2" rayon ribbon--they're more substantial than they look in the pictures):

"River Rock"


"Woodlands"

Totally excited about this one below, saw a treasury on Etsy yesterday in these colors and now I want to do something with it:

"Rhubarb"


"Adagio"

These are from Beadfreaky:

And these are from WhiteCloverKiln:

LOVE this one

I also found a new silk ribbon vendor that I'm dying to try, but I need to use up what I have first! Check out Flame Kissed Art Glass (the links will take you to their website, as opposed to their Etsy shop). Look at these cool colors (IN LOVE with the one below):

"Burnt Ember" (bought it)

"Margarita"

"Painted Desert"

Thrilled to find such gorgeous silk ribbons which may not, one hopes, entail the same kinds of shipping and "communication" issues as other silk ribbons, whose maker shall remain unnamed. They are also very affordable. The pics above are just a small sampling of the silk fabulousness. Gawd, just writing about them makes me want to buy them RIGHT NOW. Maybe I will.

OK I just did. Anyway, I hope you will visit these awesome shops and find something you love!!

A Backside to Write Home About

2011-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

This is what I've always wanted, but it's just not going to happen. No matter how many hours I spend on the glute machine. Both sides of my family tree are replete with people who could, and perhaps did, wear their pants backwards without any discomfort at all. If my pants didn't have a zipper on them, no one would know whether I was coming or going.

The backside below is perhaps more interesting:

I told you it wasn't pretty. I'm sure I will do better with practice. You can see my base piece in this case is just a snake shape length of heavy gauge brass wire.

I added one more little bead last night to fill that empty spot. It was kind of hard to do--I wanted to use a smallish bead, but it's hard to fasten something small to this without it spinning around to the wrong side. So I created a little mesh framework first with wire, and then fastened a wood roundel to that instead of just to one of the main pieces. You can sort of see that in the middle, where there's some wire going back and forth.

Here's the finished piece, on a more interesting background than yesterday:

I also added a little wire to another bare spot.

I made these too:

Big prehnite rounds, with pewter Bali-style beadcaps from Happy Mango Beads. Hand-formed sterling silver kidney earwires embellished with Czech glass from BeadandRibbon on Etsy. Beadcaps on the bottom are my little nickel beadcaps. Hand-forged sterling ball headpins.

At some point I'll probably post a little tutorial on those coil crimp ends I used on the necklace.

OK, time to bathe. I'm going out in public today.

All Excited About My New Thing

2011-01-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

I never know what to do with disc beads, especially the ones that are cooler on the flat side than on the edge. Just sort of hanging them hasn't appealed to me, and often the holes don't afford much room for the heavier gauge wire which I prefer. I was recently asked to do a tutorial (haven't done it yet, I'll let you know when and where once it's up) using some glass disc beads, and had to puzzle over that for a long time before I thought of a way I could make the most of them. I went over and over the "engineering" in my head for a while, and decided it might work. I thought I would do a prototype with base metal, and some disc beads that have been sitting on my work bench FOREVER (see, keeping them where you can see them is important--if you keep looking at them every day, you'll eventually get an idea) first, just to make sure I could make it work. It worked! Here's my prototype below:

I'm a little underwhelmed with the photo, it makes more of an impression in person. I'll need to retake the photos with a different background--I was in a hurry this morning and didn't have time to paw through my backgrounds like I usually do. I also forgot to take a picture of the backside, which I wanted to show you. It looks like the backside of everything I've ever tried to embroider. Let's say the backside is very "abstract" and "organic" looking. I can't decide whether to put another little doodad inside that sort of empty space in the middle, I can't find anything that doesn't make it look too busy. Maybe just a spray of ball headpins in there. I might change out the chain as well for something with bigger links that would be adjustable. I don't have anything like that so I'll have to make it.

The swirling discs are raku lampwork discs from Blue Seraphim on Etsy--I love the navy blue with the latte color. There's a little purple, lighter blue and green in there too. There are large wood discs underneath them from Beads and Pieces. They are attached to the base (an abstract shape in brass wire) by hand-forged 20 gauge yellow brass ball headpins that have been antiqued in ammonia fumes and then hand polished. The focal section is attached to the rest of the necklace by 8mm Czech glass rounds in Montana Blue, with my brass beadcaps, also antiqued in ammonia fumes and then polished with steel wool and my Dremel. Four strands of brown Greek leather on each side are attached via handmade brass coil ends, and these attach to short lengths of chain.

I have some other disc beads I'm dying to do this with now--some gorgeous turquoise discs I've had forever but not used because just stringing them seemed such a waste (the flat side is gorgeous), and I couldn't figure out how to use them flat because the holes are so small. I think I'll make another piece like this with them. I have some other slightly different turquoise discs that would mix well with them. I've also gone on a ceramic button-buying spree, with the same idea. I think maybe I'll just make a whole collection of this kind of stuff. It'll be My Thing.

I Think I'm Going to Keep the Wild Hare

2011-01-16T16:12:00.000-08:00

I am again having a more-productive-than-usual weekend. I've made two bracelets and two pair of earrings and it isn't even midnight yet on Sunday. And I even fit in a visit with Mom, some errands, and vacuuming on top of it yesterday. I used my first bugbog seed. Very proud of that. They have the most perfect, smooth finish, but they still look like the natural element they are. They are a lovely, pale shade of dove gray. And whaddayaknow, they matched (matchingness!! KJ, there's something so satisfying about it, isn't there?) my lampwork spacers from Beingbeads perfectly! So of course I had to put them together in a bracelet, with matching deerskin lacing in chestnut. Here it is:

"Riding My Chestnut Horse Under a Cloudy Sky with My Heart on My Sleeve."

Then I was putting together another bracelet (the one below), when I accidentally gazed upon the lovely pair of copper kidney earwires I had gotten from Missficklemedia with the little sky blue bead on them, and then my eyes moved from there and accidentally ended up on one of these blown glass beads below, and I thought--"THAT would look really cool with THAT! And THAT! So I changed gears and quickly put THAT, THAT and THAT together and there they are below:

Blown Glass in Azure and Sea Green with Copper

I then resumed work on the bracelet (way) below, which meant making some more components, antiquing them and tumbling them. So while I waited for the tumbler to do its thing, I made these earrings too, which had been waiting on my work bench:

Lampwork glass by Beingbeads (again) on Etsy, in mauve, grape and fuchsia, with that fascinating snakeskin pattern. The "scales" are outlined in little filaments of vivid goldenrod, which sort of pick up the "Picasso" treatment on the little blush beads on the earwires. More accidental matchingness!! The Matching Fairy is with me today.

Totally Girly Snakeskin Earrings

And then finally I was able to finish the bracelet below.

Tough Girl Copper and Brass Bracelet

I had made these rings in the car last summer, and had been wanting to use them in something composed entirely of metal. I got crazy and wrapped some of the copper rings with brass wire. I left the brass rings as is. I look tough with it on. Probably throw it in the tumbler one more time for high shine.

Phew. Time for dinner.

I Was Going to Just Show You Porn

2011-01-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

But then I up and made this stuff so I'm showing you that instead. (The porn just made me feel dirty anyway and I don't always enjoy that). I also thought of showing you pictures of some beads I bought but I didn't have time to take pictures.

My little "mostly functional" window (which occurs between the malaise/fatigue/pain/debilitatingly low blood pressure of the perimenstrual period and the irritability/depression of the premenstrual period) just happened to fall on a weekend this month, and I seized the opportunity to make four pendants and four pairs of earrings. I am, frankly, shocked at myself. This is unusually productive for me. I've had these items on a to-do list from anywhere between six months to three weeks. I was tied up with custom work for a while, and with watching reruns of CSI that I've already seen at least twice, so they were on a back burner.

I did up this little green flower a few months ago, when I was doing my wired briolette flower thing, and it sat on my glass-topped Japanese-style work bench with a copper toggle clasp ever since. I had a vague idea what I would do with it, which did not include most of the elements in the photo below. The coppery brown pearls were a spur-of-the moment addition, and then I decided to use this wonderful copper-colored silk string (which was billed as some sort of brown, but it's really more of a copper), instead of only chain, but then it just looked too flimsy so I added a strand of green pearls to make it feel more substantial. And then the green pearls echoed the copper pearls, which was unbearably exciting, and there you have it. Copper beadcaps, connector rings and toggle clasp by MOI. Copper rolo chain from Lima Beads, I think. The flower is made from Czech "dagger" beads in green "lumi" finish. The two glass rounds are the same color and finish.

Pond Blossom Pendant

I've had these little earrings in mind for the last couple weeks. I pulled out some of my pewter charms from Happy Mango Beads that I had bought in pairs, intending to make earrings from them, and put them on my work bench. And there they sat. And one day when I was idly perusing my junk pile (also on my work bench) I saw some spare coral dangles I had done for a bracelet but not used, and some blue glass beads lying around, and EUREKA!!!! Genius struck. Unfortunately, when Motivation struck some time later, I ducked. Which is why it took me a couple weeks to get to these. I needed to make the ball headpins first, and I was low on wire, and then they had to be pickled, and then antiqued, and then wrapped, and then cleaned up by hand, and then tumbled. That whole thing did not appeal to me. But then this weekend, I acquired from some unknown source the proverbial "wild hare" (something I sat on apparently) and I became a dynamo. This was the eventual result of that long, tedious process and my fit of dynamism.

Happy Little Handbag Earrings

I rather like them. I love red with light blue. They're like little handbags. The boyfriend applauded my initiative, getting ready for Valentine's Day sales (hearts). I looked at him blankly. I then discovered much to my astonishment that I had made not one but THREE pair of heart earrings. Well, I'll be. I'm such a born marketer I even do it by accident.

Klimt in Black Pendant

The pendant above was designed around Kelley Wenzel's fabulous etched black raku beads, the bebe version (I was determined to stop hoarding these beads, so to compensate I blew them all in one piece. And now I need more). I love the matte black finish--it's almost charcoal, I'm a big charcoal fan--and the Klimt-like spots of rich color. I've combined them with butterscotch-stained wood beads, some little dyed donuts in olive green (not sure what they're made of, I'm guessing bone or wood, I cannibalized them from a store-bought piece of jewelry), more of Kelley's bebe beads in translucent grape, little seed beads in matte black, and pewter and sterling silver accents. The longer portion of the pendant is on knotted silk string, the shorter is on fine-gauge black Greek leather (although you can't see it). I finished it off with black silk ribbon (first time I ever used ribbon in a piece of jewelry). Oh, duh, the pendant is a "Tuareg ring" pendant in pewter from Happy Mango Beads. Isn't it cool? You could do some serious damage with that on your finger. Most likely to yourself. ("Hey, you like my cool ring and my eye patch?")

I've had these cool Czech glass beads from Happy Mango forever, bought them back when I was into squares and rectangles (and then shortly thereafter inexplicably lost my taste for squares and rectangles and never got it back), and have always wanted to use them. I pulled them out and put them on my workbench, as I am wont to do, where they sat and sat. Then one day I happened to glance from them to the heart charms that were also sitting on my bench, and EUREKA!!! Genius struck again. But not the Motivation so then blah blah, etc. And then this weekend I finally stuck them together. With some earwires that were also sitting there on the bench with their little olive green accent beads.

I Heart Paul Klee

These beads remind me of a Klee painting.

Signes-en-jaune, Paul Klee, 1937

The wild hare continued its frenetic romp in my nether regions so I kept going. This pendant had been on my to-do list for some time as well, and these delicious carnelian wheels had been in my stash since a bead show late last summer. The turquoise (a LONG and gorgeous strand of graduated discs I got for a great price from Fire Mountain Gems) had been in my stash since summer as well. This was more of a traditional design (silver, carnelian and turquoise, ho hum) so it didn't take as long to put together. I have been perversely using these pewter sun totems in pieces that evoke anything but sunshine, so I restrained my natural contrariness and forced myself to be literal. Just this once. I'm not knocked out by the design, it's fairly run-of-the-mill, but I just love the focal and the carnelian. I have more of that carnelian, and some green aventurine in the same size/cut.

Tangelo Sunset

Well, these earrings were already half done--they were just waiting for earwires to get tumbled--so I went ahead and threw them together. Ceramic rings (make me think of moldy Cheerios, or even better, snake bagels), little matte aqua glass tile beads, and copper accents. NEXT!!

I was coasting on adrenaline now, and it was still daylight, so I made this:

Winter Seashore

I had been visiting this fossil coral drop in my stash fairly regularly (I'm obsessed with barely detectable colors, which unfortunately do not photograph well), stopping to caress it wistfully in its plastic bin labeled "pendants", when it seemed time to move it from the bin to the work bench. There they await their turn. Or they go back in the bin. I really wanted to do something with this stone--I had gotten all in the mood for neutrals after doing Christine's bracelet (see my December 26 post)--and I knew what beads I wanted to use already--but I couldn't come up with a clever enough bail for it. Tried this and that, and didn't want to just do a ho-hum wrap job on it, but I couldn't think of anything revolutionary so I just did a ho-hum wrap job on it with some little hammered ball accents. It would just have to do. Here it's combined with both smooth and carved bone beads, labradorite, a little bit of Greek leather in a wheat color, hand-formed sterling silver S-clasp and connector rings and this really cool silver plated box rolo chain from ArtBeads. I just got a little of it because I didn't know how big it would be and now I wish I'd gotten a lot more. It's so cool! It's like a square silver snake. And the links are open which is nice.

Lastly, I wired up these ceramic hearts a couple weeks ago but didn't have any regular French earwires to put them on. I finally got some more done up so I patched these together. I don't know why these big blobby hearts are appealing to me. Something so homely about them, and I couldn't resist these green ones. So Wicked. They're like really bad livers.

Really Really Wicked

After that, I only had enough steam left to take pictures, but not enough steam for mannequin pictures, pricing or writing descriptions. Dressing my mannequin takes a lot of energy, especially if she's wearing anything with buttons. I've switched her to tube tops. And of course pricing (which includes costing out all the materials in each piece) is unbearably tedious and exhausting. That had to wait for Tuesday. And then I had to redo part of the Klimt piece because I wasn't happy with it and I didn't get to that until last night...

So now that all this is out of my system, I am taking yet another vow to create simpler items. That I will probably break. It's probably because I have too many beads. Someone should take away all but three of my beads and then I could maybe do it. I would probably put them all in one earring and then beat the living crap out of the person who took my beads until they gave them back. So that wouldn't work. Anyone have any ideas for achieving self-restraint? Maybe I should do yoga. Tie one hand behind my back? Only use my feet? If I made jewelry with my feet it would have to be simple because I don't have much dexterity with my feet. Or any. Or at least I don't think I do. I've never actually tried. I don't think I would want to wear jewelry that had been made by feet. I don't like feet. At least not other people's feet. But I digress.

The Eagle Has Landed

2011-01-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

The handmade bun is out of the oven.

Houston, we have lift-off.

The payload is delivered.

Now that my metaphors are thoroughly mixed, I will show you pictures of the large custom bridal order I just finished and shipped off to a secret location. The order included pendants for five bridesmaids with four pairs of earrings (one has virgin lobes), pendant and earrings for a best lady (instead of a best man--the groom must be a charming metrosexual), a mother's pendant (with earrings) and a mother-in-law's pendant (more virgin lobes so no earrings), bride's pendant (yet more pristine lobes--what gives? they got something against holes? holes are good, just look around. if there were no holes how could the beer get out? where would you put the pie? where would you bury the bodies?), a gift pendant for the wedding planner, and two flower girl pendants. Whew. They turned out rather nice I thought.

The bride's colors were pewter and dark apple red, so we went with larvikite (black labradorite), garnet Czech glass, Swarovski Black Diamond crystals for sparkle, and antiqued silver. A couple of the pieces had black in them (best lady is wearing black). I'll show them to you.

The bridesmaids' pendants:

The Best Lady's Pendant:

The wedding planner's pendant:

The earrings (including mom's earrings):

The mother-in-law's and mother's pendants:

The flower girl pendants:

The bride's pendant (went with bright silver on that one to compliment her dress):

Whew!! I had no idea my attention span was that long. Thank God the bride is not a procrastinator--she gave me lots of time to get this done. Hope she sends me pictures of everybody!

Now back to my own devices.