A Broody Romance

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.

The Washerwoman

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.

All Excited About My New Thing

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

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

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.

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.

Don't Forget to Stop by for the "Challenge of Color" Blog Hop!

Starting December 3 at Erin Prais-Hintz' blog, see creations by numerous jewelry artists based on paint chip color palettes!

Don't forget to check it out!!

My Name is Keirsten and I'm a Tutaholic

It all started, I think, with Barb Lewis' "Painting with Fire" tutorial. The instant gratification (I wish ALL online purchases could be emailed), the new (largely theoretical) vistas opening up...After that it was Shannon LeVart's "Color Drenched Metal" and "Hand Formed Links." And that softened me up pretty good for the next email I got from Eni Oken Jewelry Lessons--by now I had an unquenchable thirst for tutorials, even if I wasn't even going to do them (indeed, I have no immediate plans to do enamel, I just wanted the tut)--and I stumbled headlong into the Jewelry Lessons site like a broke drunk who just found a fiver on the sidewalk stumbles into a liquor store and started snapping up whatever I could find that seemed remotely do-able.

Well, that's maybe an overstatement, I bought two. I bought one on making wire-wrapped briolette flowers, because I was so inspired by Melissa Meman's gorgeous flower earrings but couldn't figure out how to do it (I don't have the engineering gene), and one on how to make little calla lily-shaped beadcaps out of thin metal sheet. (And then of course I had to buy the metal sheet). And somewhere in there I also acquired a tut on making kidney earwires from Natalie Girard, a Canadian jewelry artist on AtrFire. I've wanted to do those too but didn't have the patience to figure it out on my own. Sometimes I just like to be spoon-fed. Especially about measuring things.

So this was my fourth (or fifth?) attempt at the briolette flower. (I was a little alarmed with attempt no. 3 because I seemed to be getting WORSE with practice, but I stopped and thought about where I was going wrong and kept trying). I've had these kyanite spears FOREVER, they were one of the first things I bought when I started making jewelry but they didn't fit into my initial designs and I didn't know what to do with them after that.

This one below is also using the briolette wrapping technique (mine is still kind of messy, can't figure out how Melissa gets hers so perfect! Have to keep experimenting. I got a little wild with the one below and forgot where I was at with the over and under). Little sea opal drops and rounds, with copper rollo chain, and some great tiny ladder chain in antiqued copper. I can't remember where I got either chain--it was either Ornamentea or Lima Beads.

I'm pretty excited, this means I will have a way to use all those top drilled teardrop beads I keep buying but don't know what to do with. I have PILES of such beads so you will be seeing lots and lots of flowers. I may open a second shop called "All Flowers, Every Day, All Day Long."

This last thing didn't require any new tuts at all, just knots. A casually-shaped cube of boro lampwork glass by Bebesglassbeads on Etsy in "Ocean and Sand" hangs from cold-forged copper rings and a strand of knotted matte denim glass beads, with a few amber glass beads thrown in to tie into the lampwork. Front closure toggle clasp with hand-forged toggle bar.

Well, that's all I got. I got through about half my to-do list this weekend. And oh, gee, it looks like I didn't get to the icky stuff. Golly darnit anyhow.

Four Questions

I recently received a blog comment that I had been linked to a post on another blog, Honey from the Bee, the blog of the delightful Janet Bocciardi. I clicked on the link and found I'd been tagged to answer four questions. I adore talking about myself, so I was thrilled, and it also introduced me to three blogs that she'd tagged that I wasn't familiar with. It's a way for me and you to discover something about four bloggers I admire as well, if I can come up with some clever and interesting questions of my own. If you like, if you are one of the four bloggers named below, you can answer my questions on your blog, and in turn choose four bloggers to pose your own four questions to.

Janet Bocciardi (Honey from the Bee) asked these Four Questions:

1. If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you want to see and/or experience?  I would like to go to Greece (although maybe not right now), and the Greek islands.  I would love to see all those cool historical sites that remain from the heyday of Ancient Greece (and before! like the Minoans)--what a phenomenal culture, and how much we owe to them for our ideas on government, mathematics, philosophy, science, etc. I would love to see the Aegean, and the whitewashed villages, and the sun. I miss the sun. We don't have that here. And I would love to experience authentic Greek cuisine. Every. Single. Day. I ADORE Greek food and Mediterranean food in general. I could eat it every day. I would eat falafel for breakfast if I knew how to make it right. And lunch and dinner. With tzatziki and pita. With a side of stuffed grape leaves. And some olives.
2. What is your favorite craft tool and why?  I would have to say my basic chasing hammer; it echos my interpersonal style. And you can turn metal wire into cool stuff with it.
3. White or dark meat?  White. Unless it's Blair Underwood.
4. What do you wish you invented? An utterly foolproof method to make absolutely convincing counterfeit money.

Now, four questions of my own:

1. Tell me one big thing in your life that you had the opportunity to do, but didn't, and always wished you had.
2. What is the most favorite outfit (clothes) you ever had? Of your whole life? Describe it to me in detail (sequins, fairy wings, go-go boots and all).
3. What is your favorite thing about yourself? It can be an ability, a learned skill, a character quality or a personality trait. Or maybe it's your hair.
4. If you had all the time in the world, every day, to devote to some completely frivolous but wickedly fun pursuit, what would it be?

And hopefully answered by:
Melissa Meman of Melissa Meman Design
Leslie Zabel of Bei Mondi Jewelry
Beryl Morago of Beryl Street Crafts
Lori Anderson of Lori Anderson Designs

MAPP Gas: the Secret to Unlocking Maker's Block

Been feeling rather uptight lately about making stuff. So I sort of stopped. Then I got a canister of MAPP gas and a new torch head because I wanted to make some copper S-clasps and toggle bars (I like the hammered ball at the end) and the propane just wasn't cutting it on the 16 gauge wire. Apparently I melted right through my inhibitions! Nothing like a little FIRE and molten metal to get you stirred up. Here's my pile of melted stuff, and some more wrapped rings:

As I had mentioned in a previous post, the incomparable Shannon LeVart of Miss Fickle Media had posted on her blog about wrapping rings as an alternative to soldering. I really like how they look! She also--God bless her--shared some VERY handy tips in her "Color Drenched Metal" tutorial about using liver of sulphur. I was dying to get that rich, reddish brown color on my copper but all I could manage was black. I learned the secret from Shannon's tutorial of how to achieve that rich dark color! YES. I also made a couple of plain bars, above, for I don't know what, wrap around something, and some oval link chain (they were just going to be jump rings but then I thought--HEY! why don't I just link them all together and make a CHAIN. I'm effing brilliant. I don't know where I get this stuff.). To make the ovals I wrapped my wire around a couple kebab sticks (wrapping your wire around two round rods produces a nice oval shape--I'm too cheap to buy an oval jump ring maker), and then sawed it at the top with my jeweler's saw (first time I ever used it--didn't break the blade! ha! next time.) I use my flush cutters when I'm making round jump rings, but since you have to keep nipping off the chiseled end of the wire for each ring to make both ends flush, you can't use it on ovals (if you always want to have the cut at the same place. It sounds complicated, but trust me. Sharilyn Miller shows you how to use flush cutters to make jump rings in her "Ethnic Style Jewelry Workshop" DVD. Among MANY other handy things. Highly recommend.)

So after I got my jollies with the torch (it's much noisier than the propane torch and the flame is a little more...exuberant) I rifled through my purse for the myriad little notes I make throughout the day of things I think I should make. There were about 7 loose sheets of paper with scribblings and incomprehensible drawings and lists. One indecipherable hieroglyphic went in the trash (not sure what I was getting at) but the pendant below made it onto the workbench and into the shop (I was trying to keep it less ornate--this one involves no ball headpins). Deerskin lace in chestnut and buckskin colors, waxed cotton cord in navy blue, wood and lapis beads, pewter tulip-shaped endcaps, and silver-plated rolo chain from Lima. Hand-forged sterling silver S-clasp.

This is one of Happy Mango Beads' fabulous Celtic spiral pewter pendants. They also have some wonderful smaller spirals and triskelia (triple spirals). I posted a picture of this pendant to Happy Mango's Facebook page this evening and Rudi Taylor, Happy Mango's directrice, told me the winsome story of this pendant (I believe she is currently in Bangkok! having recently arrived from Nepal on a bead-buying trip). I post it with her permission:

"I know there are spirals everywhere, but this particular one has a story. We were in Galicia, Spain (the section of Spain that hooks over the top of Portugal), an entirely Celtic area, and we were driving forever and ever and finally came upon a village with a single bar - so we went in to get a glass of wine and some bread (that's all they had), and inside was an old guy making spirals to be used as some sort of decor for a celebration the village was having, he gave us this spiral (and permission) to have it cast in pewter. So as you can see, it's not just 'any' spiral :)"

Is that not the coolest thing ever? I might have to buy more.

I took some other pictures of this pendant on a cushion from my favorite chair my Mom gave me (she found it at a yard sale and gifted it to me when she replaced it with a posh club chair), and I just loved them because they MATCHED so perfectly and I was dying to use them as the main photo for my item on Etsy, but the pendant just seemed to disappear. I used one of them anyway for the second picture. This is my favorite one:

The Chair:

Pardon the mess. Is that not a fabulous chair? I SCORED. Men are not allowed to sit in it. Except on holidays. Major holidays. Not the minor ones.

I also made these a couple weeks ago--wrapped them at work on my lunch hour but I didn't get around to listing them until recently:

Czech "Picasso" glass in red.

Czech glass in orange with "Sunshine Dust" and Antiqued Brass.

Czech "Picasso" Glass in Turquoise with Sterling Silver.

Czech glass in Purple Luster Finish with Sterling Silver.

I was going to make a copper bracelet this weekend too but all my time got gobbled up with picture-taking/editing and posting stuff. I guess the next time I get all inhibited and angst-ridden I'll just melt more copper with my new torch. I'll probably have to open a second shop to get rid of it all.

Next post: Heat Vent Treasures (or, "The Ductwork Adventures of an Inveterate Renter").

The Fickle Muse, or, as She is Known in Clinical Circles, Cyclothymia

Every other "Etsy Success" article is about quitting your day job to make your art/craft full time, as your sole means of financial support. This is put forward as some sort of universal human goal we are all to strive for. I have been examining the feasibility of this scenario in my life, more out of intellectual curiosity than actual intent. I do think it is possible, for example, to support yourself decently by designing, making and selling jewelry. Going the one-woman-shop-handmade route might make it a stretch to actually have a retirement nest egg, or good health insurance, if you're going it alone, but you could probably keep a roof over your head if you did it right. The right target market, right mix of products/price points, right mix of selling venues, good marketing, shrewd money decisions. And I actually think that I would probably be shrewd and clever enough to figure out, on paper, how to make that work.

The kicker, however, is actually managing to do it. Day after day after day.

A regular customer said to me once, kind of wistfully,"Oh I envy you! It must be so relaxing to sit down and make a piece of jewelry at the end of the day." Are you shitting me? Relaxing? Not in a million years. It's effing exhausting. For me, anyway. There is a significant amount of anxiety surrounding every single project I do (never have figured out quite what I'm afraid of), and every time I start something, I have to climb over a little ball of anxiety in my gut and that requires energy. That's why so much of every weekend is frittered away in aimless pottering--I'm procrastinating, I'm psyching myself up, I'm circling. I have to spend a few hours circling the project, trying to get the anxiety under control, before I start on it. (I also find it a rather lonely thing to do, and I don't like that feeling of isolation--maybe I'm having an existential crisis every time I start a piece...) And in the end, I just have to say, ENOUGH of this, just do it, you know how, you've done it before. And I make myself sit down and get started. Once I start on it, it's better, and I can generally get it finished (unless I hate it), even if it takes a few days. But I am utterly FRIED by the time I'm done. It's physically and mentally exhausting to me. (I guess I do it more out of a need to vent a creative urge, than for actual fun; I find dammed up creativity makes me feel sick). I have constant neck and back pain, and usually a low grade headache from neck strain. My posture while I'm working on stuff is execrable and I could definitely improve on that (like trade in the coffee table for an actual Big Girl Table), but sitting in one place/one position, for hours at a time, working on some minute little thing, is the most tiring thing I've ever done. My eyes get tired. My brain gets tired. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Five hours in a day (not counting circling) actually making stuff is the most I can do (and I can't make more than two things, tops, in five hours, unless it's all earrings and then it's maybe three or four pair b/c I make so many of my own components and I agonize over every stupid element in the design), and then I have to switch to something else--photographing it or listing it or posting it on this or that site or whatever. But eight hours of jewelry related stuff in a day is all I can tolerate and then I'm a wreck. And that's on a good day.

My ability to do creative work fluctuates wildly. I have a mild but annoying mood disorder I have to work around, and unfortunately during certain portions of that mood cycle I cannot produce anything, and have difficulty even thinking about producing anything. (I'm there right now, for I'm sure the next several days at least). Fortunately, since I met Tom, the periods of anxiety/depression and/or irritability/agitation/depression (the permutations are a real joy) have become less frequent, milder, and of shorter duration, but while they last I am creatively debilitated or even incapacitated. I feel flat and unfocused at the same time, and every idea I have is utter crap. Jewelery irritates me. And I just don't have the energy to care about it. And all I can do when I'm in the middle of that is walk away from it. For as long as I need to. That would not be an option if my jewelry was paying the rent. Having to force myself to churn out new pieces when my emotional landscape is a chaotic wasteland would be a hellish existence I cannot imagine willfully choosing for myself. Happily, I can continue to do my day job with only a slight decrease in effectiveness when I'm going through a bad patch like this; low or agitated mood only seems to have a modest effect on my intellect/organizational ability, but it puts the hammer on my creativity. And of course my joy, because it's, well, depression.

This has happened numerous times over the last year and a half I've been doing this (that I've walked away for a while), and I'm accustomed enough to my mood cycles to know that they will end--both high mood (which is actually very nice and helpful and sometimes alleviates the anxiety) and low mood will run their course (in my case those cycles tend to be short), and I'll settle again soon enough into something approaching "normal" and I'll be able to work again. It is a wonderful freedom to be able to do that--to let myself off the hook for my creative goals until further notice, and not have to worry about the rent.

I have been more tired in the last several months than I have ever been in my life. I think it's partly that I'm getting older, partly that the day job was very busy and rather stressful earlier this summer, and probably that I'm not taking enough time for myself. Because I spend so much time aimlessly pottering and "circling" anyway, it doesn't seem to affect how much I accomplish if I take an hour to go to the gym, or spend an evening with a friend. I can spend an hour picking at that ball of anxiety at home, or I can leave and go do something else entirely and not even think about it and still probably create the same amount of jewelry. And maybe have a better time doing it. Sometimes I resent that my "hobby" gobbles up so much time, but if I quit I would eventually have to find some other creative outlet anyway so I might as well keep doing it since I suck at painting and sewing.

I'm sure not having a day job would free up a lot of energy for creativity--I have to keep reminding myself, in the evening when I sit down to make something and just want to vegetate in front of the tube instead and feel like a slacker because of it, that I just worked all day. And just maybe that's why I'm tired and want some down time. Being tied up 50 hours a week between work/commuting is going to limit my other pursuits, whatever they are. But those 50 hours are doable. I can't honestly imagine having to do jewelry 50 hours a week. I just don't have it in me. Let alone the 80 hours I hear many jewelry artists work. (Yes, I would love to not have to go to a job every day. But I would want it to be because I was stinking rich.)


Quit my day job? Certainly not.

How about you? Do you ever feel anxiety about starting a new piece? Does making a piece of jewelry energize you? Relax you? Or tire you? Do you struggle with fatigue? How do you address that? Is your muse a constant thing, or does she sometimes desert you? What do you do when you "just aren't in the mood?" If you support yourself with your jewelry, how many hours a day do you spend actually fabricating your pieces? What do you do when you're burnt out? What's your ideal work week, in terms of hours per day? (Feel free to answer none, some or all of these questions as appropriate!)

Bored to Death...

with my own schtick. Bored, bored, bored. Here's how it happened: I was shopping on Etsy the other day and fell prey to some of Sue Kennedy's (Sue Beads) enameled skinny cones. These are what I bought:

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them, but I had to have them. And the moment I saw them, I became instantly sick of everything I'm currently making and everything that's sitting in my shop. Hate it all. I want to do Something Completely Different. But I have no idea what it is. Whatever it is I hope to God it involves all the crap I already have because I can't afford to acquire a completely new collection of crap. I don't have anywhere to put a completely new collection of crap. And I hope it isn't going to take a bunch of time because I don't have that either. Perhaps it's just a mood. I do have a sinking feeling, however, that scratching this itch will probably involve buying more tools and related paraphernalia. Or at least some resin. And maybe an enamel setup (I just feel suddenly captivated by enamel--Maire Dodd started me like on the subtle, "gateway" version and then Sue Kennedy hit me with the hard stuff and I was powerless to resist. And of course now Barb Lewis has virtually everything in her shop that you need to do your own enamel). I don't have time for this obsessive crap. Crap is such a great word, isn't it? Sounds like exactly what it is. Crap. No mistaking "crap" for anything else. And my existing crap has already taken over the kitchen and living room. I don't have any room for new crap, unless I get rid of the old crap. (Do I really need all those clothes? The closet and bedroom chest of drawers would be so handy for all my jewelry crap. Not to mention the medicine cabinet...Maybe we could keep our dishes on the porch and I could put more jewelry crap in that cupboard...)

Color, I think I need more color. Color in unexpected places. Which I think is why the enamel is appealing to me--Look! a chartreuse toggle clasp! Look! Purple bead caps! Oh look! Pumpkin headpins! (And I think I am also going to have to transfer some more of my supposed-to-be-going-to-savings funds to Shannon at Miss Fickle Media for the same reasons. I will expect you one day, Shannon, perhaps thirty years from now, to spring for a can of cat food for me to take back to my lean-to under the bridge.) I am also slowly picking up, here and there, with each order of staple items various hues of silk string and ribbon. Without any clear idea of what to do with it (tie my crap together so it doesn't get lost?). Unfortunately none of the silk string I bought turned out to be the color it was advertised as (teal and sea green are apparently the exact same color--dark ELECTRIC aqua, and "olive green" is actually BRIGHT GRASS GREEN), but oh well. So I think the next few months are going to consist of torturing myself to figure out what to do with my new crap (which I hope won't take up that much room), while having it still be wearable. Maybe all I need is enameled bead caps. And that'll do it. Or maybe I should just color my hair and get a tattoo. Maybe this is what a mid-life crisis feels like (although I'm WAY too young for that). Anybody ever had one of those?

So without further ado, here's some more tired crap (because I don't have the enameled cones and silk ribbon yet):
Lampwork, burnt horn, chrysanthemum stone, brass and greek leather:

Lampwork by Karen Hardy and porcelain by Macarroll (the two UN-crap (and absolutely fabulous) elements in this more-of-the-same-crap necklace), and some ebony wood and moss agate:

 
Unakite and copper, with bone, of course. (I don't particularly like this one).

And one of my recent custom pieces. I actually sort of like this set, especially the earrings. It's wooden jasper, a little moukaite, and copper:

Ho-hum. Not sure where my blahs are coming from. Maybe I just need a life. Like somewhere out of the house. With some people in it. Other than me.

Thank you Jana!

Jana of Be-Jeweled by Jana just awarded me with the "Kreativ Blogger" award! Thank you Jana! (Stop by and visit her! She makes lovely wire crochet jewelry.) I think I got another award once before but I didn't know what to do with it. Jana has thoughtfully posted the instructions on her blog.

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Post the award on my blog

2. Thank the person who gave me the award

3. Link the person who gave me this award

4. Share 7 things that you probably don't know about me

5. Choose 7 great bloggers to give the award to

6. Share a link to their blogs

7. Leave a comment on their blog

Seven things you probably don't know about me:

1. I loathe mornings. I find that as I get older I can't stay up very late anymore either so my days are rapidly shrinking. Definitely an evening owl.
2. I love the smell of fingernail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, varnish, paint thinner and gasoline. And rubber cement, probably because it smells like gasoline.
3. I've been to South Africa 8 or 9 times (Gorgeous and charming place and people). Couple times to Zimbabwe. Once or twice to Swaziland. Had killer vacations in Egypt and Ireland. Spent part of a summer in Japan. Had a few vacations in Holland (LOVE Holland).
4. I used to speak French, Spanish and German. Not so much now. It's all mostly gone.
5. I can convincingly mimic pretty much any accent.
6. I was in a play once, I played the Shelby character in Steel Magnolias.
7. At one time I had the International Code of Signal Flags memorized, thanks to flashcards I made myself. I found it was not a system of communications I used very much (primarily because I had no actual flags and lived deeply inland) so I eventually forgot about it.

I would like to bequeath this award to the following bloggers:

1. Kelley's Bead Studio -- Kelley is a very talented lampwork bead artist (I own many of her beads and LOVE them), and I love all the videos she posts of her process, and her frequent asides about animals (both pets and the uninvited), and kids.
2. Miss Fickle Media -- Shannon does phenomenal things with metal patinas! I love her humor, her passion for her art, and her posts about the joy she finds in her family.
3. Silver Parrot -- what can I say? Laugh-out-loud funny (do not read while imbibing a beverage), adventures in resin, the perils and joys of motherhood, and lots of bead porn. KJ rocks!
4. Hint -- Love the Zen-like simplicity of Beth's blog, her pithy musings on being human, and her periodic tutorials--super helpful for both the mind and the artist!
5. Maire Dodd -- Mary Jane's jewelry designs are exquisite and wonderfully unique, always infused with heart, soul and spirituality, with a gem to ponder in every post.
6. Put a Little Magic in Your Life -- I really enjoy Renate's posts about her flea market finds (the anvil! the hammers!), photos of the gorgeous work she is doing with metal and resin, and pictures of her home and travels.
7. Diva Designs -- Lynda does things with polymer clay I have never seen anyone do before (maybe I'm just sheltered). She is, as far as I am concerned, the "Queen of Fauxtiquities". Her beads and focals are both convincing facsimiles of everything she puts her hand to (leather, metal, amber, jade, jet, ivory...), as well as deliciously exotic and absolutely gorgeous. I love visiting her blog to see her new creations.

Stop by and check all these ladies out! You'll be glad you did!

An Aegean Adventure

In your mind. Without even leaving home. Or getting dressed. Except for this one thing.

Fathomless, glassy teal blue quartz like the sea; Soochow jade in translucent terra cotta, soft olive green, creamy celadon and caramel apple; golden jade in a dusty apricot; two lonely serpentine roundels in variegated moss green and black; and burnished copper.

Focal made in Ghana, West Africa--a stylized leaf medallion in a rustic melding of copper and brass; hand-formed copper chain and beadcaps; and Delica glass seed beads in captivating finishes--matte denim blue, and opalescent palest peach. Focal from Happy Mango Beads; seed beads from Fusion Beads.

Oh man, now I want some spanikopita. Really really bad.