Heat Vent Treasures (or, the Ductwork Adventures of an Inveterate Renter)

Tom and I live in a quaint little hut mere blocks from charming downtown Whitefish, Montana. Well, "hut" is probably somewhat of a misnomer. It's more of a shack really. It has a certain beach-side flair, with its little sailboat cutouts on the white shutters, and its powder blue siding (makes me think of that blue and white striped ticking you see in Pottery Barn catalogs). I think perhaps it might have been a lake cabin at one time, and been transported to this lot in town. I have a fondness for small spaces (I'm only going to say that the square footage is in the three digit-range. And not the upper range.), and we both live very simply and have a visceral terror of accumulating too much personal impedimenta, so it suits us. Although there is perhaps not quite enough storage for my burgeoning jewelry paraphernalia. (I should put the bed up on blocks, I could get more under there).

I've never had the urge to own a home, and frankly, it's never really been in my grasp financially anyway. Well, maybe when I first moved back here, before the real estate boom, I could have got into a house if I'd really wanted to, but I hated the idea of possibly being trapped in a soul-killing job because of a mortgage payment, or not having any emergency cash savings. Mobility, options, and emergency cash have always been top priorities in my life (freedom to change jobs, to move, cash to do stuff with), and having a mortgage seemed like it would do away with those things. I was never home anyway so I never much cared what my house was like. So I've always rented. This can lead to living in a house with a relatively...bohemian maintenance history.

When I first moved into this house ten years ago the interior was appalling (a long series of men must have lived here), but it had potential--mainly because of the location, the big picture windows (so much light!) and the gas heat/forced air (unusual to find a gas furnace in such a small house). I thought, I could peel off those three layers of dog-eared wallpaper, paint that circa 1972 faux-wood paneling, wash the nicotine stains off the ceilings, paint over those multicolor patch jobs on those old sheetrock walls, and paint over the faux-marble wallboard in the bathroom and it would be just fine. It smelled like an old bar--an old bar that was in a basement--a basement with inadequate drainage--but that got a little better with a coat of Kilz and open windows. Tom joined me here some years later.

Over the years our little shack has aged like an exotic cheese. Ripened, if you will. The last couple years a really piquant odor has crept in during cooler weather that I can only describe as distinctly organic. Or more precisely, mammalian. And not live mammalian, as in, like, wet dog, but rather...dead mammalian. Like a dead rat in the heat vent.

My impression of this odor has probably been influenced by the fact that the room in which I'm sitting as I type this, the second bedroom, has a barely functioning heat vent. All the other vents in the house are busy pumping out toasty air when the heat comes on except for this one. This room is typically freezing from October to June.

Judging by experience, I didn't think the landlord would spring for a vent guy to come and clean the vents (and it's not apparently cheap to hire someone), so I Googled "smelly heat vent". I was surprised, and somewhat relieved, to discover this exact phenomenon was extremely common in everything from brand new  to fairly old houses. I found a message board where someone was looking for feedback on this exact problem, and they must have gotten about a hundred responses, all from people describing the exact same thing. A rank, pestilential odor appearing to emanate from their heat vents when the weather turned cooler. And not even when the heat was on. A few people found dead mammals, most didn't. Many had their ventwork cleaned, the vast majority of those to no effect.

So I sort of stopped worrying and just poured some Dove body spray down the vents.

But before I did that I Googled "DIY clean heat duct". Not very helpful. One guy said, well run a ShopVac down in your vents, at least get that part clean. So before I dumped the Dove body spray down there I vacuumed them out. In the process I discovered this room where I type was apparently at one time a child's room. A very bored child. Or maybe a very bad child who spent a lot of time in her room. Probably a girl. Not because she was bad but because of the tea set.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This was the last vent I vacuumed. And as soon as I had snaked the ShopVac hose down there, there was that telltale THUNK. I had just sucked up something big. (I'm thinking of a badly decomposed Fivel). Well, it being a ShopVac, the object worked its way without a problem into the canister. I continued my probing with the vacuum hose--THUNK. THUNKITY-THUNK-THUNK. TINK. WHUMP. A series of rattles (bee-bees?). Eventually I sucked up something that got caught in the hose. I took the hose outside, detached it and shook it onto the pavement, fully expecting to find something that would make me barf. This is what came out:

Plastic knife, fork and spoon; part of the blinds that must have hung in the window (formerly a classic 80s burgundy color); part of an erector set (the yellow thing); plastic bread bag fasteners; plastic wheels off a toy car; some change (just pennies, unfortunately); an ear from a Mr. Potato Head; cheap clasp from a piece of jewelry; and some other random crap. The other half of what I sucked up is still in the vacuum bag. I'm too cheap to cut it open and see what it is because the bag's only about 20% full. The other half of the tea set maybe. A barbie head. Mr. Potato Head's lips and mustache. The car that went with the wheels...

Ah, well, something to look forward to.

I excitedly turned on the heater after it appeared there was nothing else within reach of my ShopVac hose. Nothing. No hot air. I'm guessing there might be a doll baby head down there that was resistant to the power of the ShopVac. Maybe a tennis ball. Something big and round that rolled down in there. Or I guess it could be Fivel and the tea set is just a coincidence.

The smell has abated quite a bit. Perhaps because the heater is running more regularly now. Or Dove is more powerful than I ever realized.

Oddly enough I don't really have any desire for a bigger house. I probably wouldn't even use a "studio" because it would be too lonely. I'd haul my crap into the living room so I could sit next to Tom while I make stuff. Every day I expect to get a letter from the landlord saying the house is being torn down to make room for a parking lot. Or a real estate office. They're all over the place. (Har har. Good luck with that.) But for now apparently the lot owner thinks renting to us is a better deal. Thank God for the recession.

Knot Afraid

Irish Waxed Linen

I have been collecting small quantities of Irish waxed linen in assorted colors from White Clover Kiln, in the hopes of one day having some ideas for using it, but I've been chicken to try any new techniques. I liked that I could buy small quantities of this, to experiment, before committing to yards and yards (they come in 5- and 10-yard cards). My knotted pieces in the past have been very basic, with only overhand knots between the beads--I find this difficult to do well! Getting the knots right up against the beads is a challenge and my fingers get very sore (I use a sewing needle to push the knot up against the bead). I have also been less than thrilled with the results, since the cording itself is nearly invisible in such pieces, as the knots tend to be rather small. (The bracelet below was done with brown cording, using overhand knots--but you can barely see it!) I do love how it drapes, though.

I've been a great fan of both Erin Siegel's and Lorelei Eurto's knotted pieces, especially since the cording itself plays such a prominent role in the design. I've enjoyed looking at Erin's work on Flickr, and was greatly inspired by the many pieces using cording in their book collaboration, "Bohemian Inspired Jewelry." I was tickled to see how many macrame knots were used--my Mom and and I were macrame-ing fools in the70s, and in my elementary school years I could have done macrame in my sleep! Our plants never lacked a jute hanger. After procrastinating for way too long, I thought I could probably dredge up that muscle-memory and use macrame in my designs. I thought I would give square knots a try first, with my little collection of Indonesian glass beads from Happy Mango Beads. I was thrilled to discover how easy it was!

This one features a stoneware button from Kara Nina, Indonesian glass in mauve from Happy Mango Beads, and assorted seed beads from Fusion Beads and bought locally.

Grape and Melon

I built this one around a cute wooden flower button from Shop4Craft, and paired it with crow beads in an "oil slick" finish from Fire Mountain Gems, glass seed beads in rose, textured brass "cocoon" beads (based on a tutorial by Kharisma Sommers), and one of my textured brass charms.

Briar Rose

For this one, I really wanted to use these red beads from Happy Mango. I combined them with cording in teal, and silver and gunmetal accents. I was thrilled that one of my little stoneware charms from Karen Totten worked into it so nicely! Little pewter sun beads from Happy Mango, and silver and gunmetal buttons from Lyanwood.

Cherries and Blueberries

This was the very first one I tried--I used brown waxed linen since I had a lot of it, because I thought there was a good chance I'd be cutting it up! I tried half knots on the loop closure between the seed beads--that took a couple tries to get it right. The striped beads are, of course, Indonesian beads from Happy Mango, and the little flower charm is too. Metal button from Lyanwood. In each of these, I covered the knot at the neck of the beaded loop with one of my rolled tube beads--I kind of have an obsession with covering the mechanics of things. ("Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!!!")

Gypsy Girl

These are a perfect project to do in the car on my lunch hour--I'm looking forward to using more of my Happy Mango stash--these Indonesian beads have just the right size holes for two strands of waxed linen--and more colors from my mini-stash of Irish waxed linen. I have tons of buttons still, and linen colors I haven't tried yet.

And, once you feel confident with your Irish waxed linen and want to really commit to a color, you can get whole spools in selected colors from Jewelry Accord, or you can try a palette of four colors for inspiration!

Long Time No Bracelets

So I've been incubating these. I churned them out over last weekend--it was so fun! I dug into my lampwork stash, and finally used the copper buttons I made several months ago. This one below has recycled glass in sea green from Happy Mango Beads (I am almost out of these and they are out of stock. Somebody heeeelp meeeeeeee), rustic olive green Indonesian glass seed beads also from Happy Mango, gorgeous lampwork I received in a bead swap from the lovely Alice Peterson (I wish I knew who made them...Alice, can you remind me where they came from?) and genuine turquoise.

Olive Grove on the Aegean

This one is all plums and coffee browns. I started with my new stash of recycled glass beads from Happy Mango--round ones in plum and these nifty little cupped flower shapes in dark amber brown--and combined them with berry and lilac moukaite, Czech crackle glass, purple aventurine, and coffee-brown porcelain discs on nut brown Irish linen cording.

Plums in my Coffee

These lampwork beads caught my eye, I have a thing for vertical stripes on lampwork, and since I had lots of red, orange and white beads I decided to just go with that. (I got this lampwork at my one and only trip to Hobby Lobby, when I was in Billings one year for the holidays--which is about 8 hours away by car. It's a good thing, if there was one nearby I'd be broke.) The little discs are carnelian, the big oval and small faceted round are red agate, the faceted orange ovals are orange aventurine, and the white lozenges are snow quartz (LOVE these beads). The red seed beads are Indonesian glass from Happy Mango.

Chili Pepper

For this one I used some of my favorite lampwork in my stash, which I don't think I have ever successfully used (I used them in a pair of earrings once which were "meh", so I took them apart)--dark olive scrollwork over a toasted marshmallow ground from My Lampwork Garden (see, it took me so long to use them the shop closed, like a year ago.) I combined them with my new recycled glass from Happy Mango in plum and green (I LOVE LOVE LOVE these little tulip beads, I'd run away with them to Sandals if I could), more Czech crackle glass, and an oval of saguaro jasper.

Forest Flowers

This bracelet is practically orgiastic (I love that word) in its autumn color. I was possessed by some kind of autumnal spirit. It all started with the speckled lampwork from Bebes Glass Beads which has some kind of power over me. I combined the lampwork with recycled glass (of course) in green, one little sliver of amber, a Czech table cut glass pear (LOVE this bead), aragonite, and green opal (which in this case are actually golden.)

Orgy in Autumn

Oddly enough, I think this is my favorite bracelet from this lot. The inspiration was from the button, which had a super dark detail and interesting rosy/peachy colors--I put it under the iron (as I did with the others) after I LOS'd it to bring up the color. I used my new lava beads from Happy Mango (I'm in love with lava), a lovely stoneware bead from JJPotteryBeads, more of Kelley Wenzel's mauve and ivory "dragon eye" beads (love these, I still have some left-YAY!), moukaite, batik pattern bone beads, a little lampwork spacer in rosy peach from the lovely Michelle at The Spacer Bead Shop, and my last wood dragonfly bead (which I got at my only trip to Michael's, which is three hours away--also a good thing.)

Dragonfly

And I just got started on my brass button stash with this one and then I ran out of steam. More old lampwork (from another shop that has closed, like a year ago) in delicious pale strawberry/apricot and toasted vanilla, combined with more moukaite, another of these fabulous stoneware beads, a couple more of Michelle's rosy peach spacers, and my own brass beadcaps and headpins.

Sherbet

So there you have it. I will undoubtedly be using up the rest of my brass buttons so there will be more of these. Now I have to go start working on some roman shades for the living room. And I'm totally making it up as I go along. I couldn't figure out a way to make them with duct tape so I have to sew. Sewing makes me cry.

My Photography Secrets

A few people have asked me now how I take my photos. Because sometimes they turn out really good. I never really know when that's going to happen but it's pretty invigorating when it does. Not as invigorating as getting a mango tree on Farm Town, but we all live on a continuum of invigoration and have to take it where we find it.

MY CAMERA
So. My photo taking is pretty low tech. First, my camera: I have an inexpensive but trusty and amazingly feature-packed Kodak EasyShare (digital, of course). I think they run about $150 these days. The important features on this camera: macro lens, white balance, and timer. There are all kinds of other features under the manual settings but I haven't gone there yet (not to mention for taking pictures of things other than jewelry! Like things that move.) You totally don't have to break the bank to get a camera that will do the job for you. I LOVE this little camera (thanks Mom!) I've even dropped it three times (don't do that), but no harm done. I generally have the white balance set on "daylight", even if I'm using artificial light.

LIGHTING
I usually try to photograph using indirect natural daylight. In the summer, early afternoon seems best--too early in the AM, or too late in the PM and the light is distinctly blue-green. Too blue to even correct it in Photoshop. Inside, outside, doesn't seem to matter. In the car on my lunch hour (but not generally while driving) works good too. I don't usually use a light box if I'm using indirect light. Partly this is because I don't have a light box. The photo above was taken on my front porch yesterday around noon with a tripod only, with slightly overcast skies.

In Montana in the winter, photos are a challenge because the days are fairly short, and the light can be kind of blue when it's really overcast (um, most of the time). Weekends are the only time I can really photograph in the winter. Direct sunlight doesn't work really well, although I have been able to use that with a homemade diffuser box, i.e., a translucent storage tub. (I cut a hole in the bottom to poke my camera lens through and I upend it over whatever I'm photographing--it serves as both tripod and light diffuser. Of course that's just for straight-down pictures--you could turn it on its side for other angles, in which case you would need a regular tripod.) I have found, though, that the translucent tubs are TOO translucent--the grooves and such in the plastic act like a prism and can scatter weird light on your subject (sometimes cool, though). (I've read that some people use white Styrofoam coolers.) I block some of the light with a thin white cloth and this seems to do the trick. You could throw a cheap white sheet (with a hole in it for your camera lens) over the whole thing to even out the light too--I'm going to try this next. I have used my storage tub with artificial light too, with multiple lamps shining on the subject from different directions to prevent shadows--with cloth over it to diffuse the light. I don't like daylight bulbs. Regular bulbs work fine. I haven't taken any pictures with artificial light in a long time though. You just have to experiment. There are sites on the Internet too for making your own light box with paper. I'm just lazy so I like the tub. You could look in the Etsy forums--search for "homemade light box".



TRIPOD
I have a mini tripod. I bought it refurbished on Amazon for $4.99 plus shipping. Just search Amazon for "mini tripod" and read the customer reviews. Five dollar tripod, works great. Telescopes to about 18" high. That's all I need. I use the timer on my camera so I'm not touching it at all when the shutter opens. That's important, you don't want any transferred motion to produce camera shake in your photo. I use the tripod for mostly angled pictures when I want to vary from the straight-on type picture, or for photographing hanging earrings.



I often use a wire plant stand as a tripod as well for straight-down pictures when I have indirect daylight. I mostly prefer this to the tub because it's less unwieldy. My camera lens fits just so between the bars.



CORRECTION/ENHANCING
I correct or enhance ALL of my photos with Adobe Photoshop. It was pretty hard trying to figure out how to use it--it's not intuitive AT ALL--but I learned the basics: color correction, exposure correction, brightness/contrast, color saturation, and now lately I've attempted to use the Unsharpen Mask, which perversely enough is for SHARPENING your photos (that's what I mean with the counter-intuitive thing--WTF? That's just mean)--but I'm not sure it's working. They don't look any different to me. Back to Photoshop help...Actually, you could probably produce the same effects with Picnik (an application available through Flickr) or Picasa, which is available for free download from the Internet. Just Google "Picasa". Those programs make WAY more sense than Photoshop, and they have the same basic features (esp. Picasa--I think Picasa has a sharpen feature). Picasa even has a cool "glow" feature. (Photoshop probably does too but I bet it's called "UNglow Mask".) You really should use a tool like one of these on ALL your photos--not as a form of false advertising, but to really make sure the photo does your item justice, and really draws the eye. If your experience is like mine, I'm sure you've found that photos rarely capture an item's luminosity or clarity--photo editing programs can really bring that out.

BACKGROUNDS
This is just trial and error. Different types of stones, pearls, metals, finishes, etc., look better on different kinds of backgrounds. I myself don't like a white background on everything, although some items just don't work on anything else. I like a little variety, but I think a shop should have a uniform FEEL to it. Some inexpensive backgrounds I have found really effective: ceramic and stone floor tiles from Home Depot, art papers, old weathered wood, painted or stained scrap wood, cardboard (yes really), my own cool clothing, rocks, driftwood. I don't use a lot of props--rocks, driftwood, and sometimes a cup or bowl for posing earrings. Here are some different things I've used as backgrounds that I think turned out nicely:

In order clockwise from top left: Faux slate ceramic tile; Weathered wood; Art paper; Plain white paper; Ceramic floor tile in a sandstone finish; A rock; A dark wood TV tray; Corrugated cardboard; Cheap backer board from unwanted photo frame, painted gray (see photo above); More faux stone ceramic tile; and (center) Mediterranean-style floor tile.



I've been trying to find cool linoleum squares too, but I just can't find any! How can Home Depot have so little linoleum? Have to visit a flooring specialty store sometime. I would like to try homemade paper sometime too. I have found though, that super texture-y backgrounds don't work well. I used sand once, but it scratched the silver.

I take, and retake and retake and retake my photos. Some days the natural light just isn't very good, or I just don't have the right background for an item and I have to scour the house and find something else. And some items are just plain hard to photograph. I've had better luck with pearls lately, but light aqua-colored stones are hard to do. They either look too pale, or they look fluorescent. Any light-colored stone is hard to photograph well, actually. A matte dark gray background seems to work pretty well for that, like the ones Lorelei Eurto typically uses (Lorelei, what IS that?)

OK, off to the Dollar Store to look for stuff. And maybe I'll find the energy to pimp another pair of earrings later...

Circling

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.

Who Put a Quarter in Me?

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.)

A Trickle of Creativity

Well, I am slowly trickling out new pieces. They are from the 24-item list I made a couple weeks ago in my efforts to increase my focus. As I write this, at this very moment I am realizing that "24-item list" and "focus" may be conceptually incompatible. Perhaps that is why I have only completed three items on the list in two weeks. Of course part of the reason for that is because of my 25-year high school reunion that took place over the weekend--I would have made at least one more thing over the weekend if I hadn't been out goofing off with people I haven't seen in 20+ years. Then it would have been a ratio of 4 items completed:24 items contemplated. (Still not real good). I did do prep work--oxidized a bunch of brass wire with ammonia fumes to a lovely brown color, and antiqued a bunch of sterling wire to a nice gunmetal color. I am all about the ammonia fumes method for brass--it happens slow so it's easy to control the degree of oxidation, you can get anything from a nicely mellowed brass to a sable to a deep brown to black (depending on how long you forget to take the items out of the container), and the finish doesn't come off!! You can brighten it up again some with steel wool, but unlike using some of the Midas solutions, the finish doesn't just wash off in water. It's really durable. If you want a slightly greener oxidation on your brass, Liver of Sulphur works better.

Here is the first item on my list, that I started at the lake at our camp spot, and then finished in the car last week. I'm calling it Sea Bubbles.



The large smooth slightly irregular sea green stones are aqua agate--just love the stuff. (Golden agate is lovely too, a mellow golden yellow like the inside of a peach). The teardrops and rounds are new jade, and the three mint green discs on either side are matte, opalescent glass discs from Happy Mango. The chain is handforged and all the sterling wire is lightly antiqued with Liver of Sulphur. Oh, and there are soft green freshwater pearls. I'm just surrounded by water all summer, being down at the lake, and as it's glacier-fed, it tends to be green--I keep making these aqua green things and I have more in the pipeline. (Just got some tiny, deep green aventurine rectangles that I'm dying to use).

I completed this piece two weeks ago at the lake--I'd been carting this cherry quartz around for months, trying to decide what to do with it. The watermelon association is obvious, and I had to maintain iron discipline not to fold up and do something literal and cheesy with blackstone roundels or little black coins. So I used garnets instead. I took the photo under our awning at the camp spot in my lap with the item in the lid of a copy paper box. No tripod. Like I said, steady as a friggin' rock. And that was even after a night of heavy drinking. Should have been a neurosurgeon.



I did this the other night--I cheated and just riffed off one of the necklaces I already did. I have had a devil of a time photographing this, and the necklace and earrings that are made from the same stuff. The silver coin pearls and sterling silver are pretty remarkable in person, but they just don't look very impressive in photographs (so unimpressive in fact that it only got one measly view on Etsy overnight). Pearls are weirdly hard to photograph. They almost look blurry to me sometimes (like after said night of heavy drinking). Going to try photographing this item again later but for the moment this is all I got.

Barbarian Princess Royal Neckpiece

I was busy over the weekend (with dang little to show for it except a fistful of cold hard cash) creating items to replace some things in my shops that I sold. (Don't underestimate the power of a trunk sale--I sold, like, eight things out of my trunk right there on the street and one of them wasn't even MADE yet). I have a new list of things I want to make--one of them involves RIBBON. I'm getting WILD. (Good Lord, what's next? CATGUT? Which ironically is not made from cat guts, but sheep guts.) I've crossed off three of them (and did one of them twice, with a slight variation, it was so fun), and am halfway through two more. Look at me!! Getting on the Focus Train. We're riding the Focus Train. Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a! Choo choo! (OMG, I thought those mushrooms tasted funny). Thank God for my mobile studio and hour lunches or I'd never get anything done except daydream about Laurence Fishburne. (Oh, did I write that out loud? Oops. "CSI" has taken on a whole new meaning--Criminally Sexy Investigator. Is it just me or is the man wicked hot?) I was disturbing picnickers at the park with my hammering. ("What in the hell is she doing in there?" It's my Car Band. It's like a Garage Band but it's in your car. It's called Acoustic Squalor. We're doing a CD.) But at least my hammering has a purpose, other than venting incoherent pre-pubescent rage. I'm making crap for people to buy. (Did you know there is actually an Esty shop called "Buy My Crap"? Check it out, pretty cool stuff). And I'm going to stay on the Focus Train (except for right now obviously) until the PMS fires up again in three weeks. I have discovered I am useless during the last week of my cycle, so I'm not even going to try doing anything productive then. I'm just going to lay around and bitch and watch HGTV. (I saw an episode of Color Splash yesterday where a woman confessed her crush on David Bromstad and suggested he work sans shirt. My sentiments exactly. Gay men are so hot. It's a cruel irony. Maybe I will become a gay man...) It's like Really Bad Mojo (PMS I mean). And then...the Good Mojo arrives on a tide of (my male readers may wish to take this opportunity to tune out for a moment) red blood cells and endometrium (sorry, getting all earth-mother) and Less Evil Keirsten comes back full of creativity. Apart from the surreally horrendous cramps it's a magical time.

So, on to the actual point of this post (you've been waiting for the "barbarian princess" to appear, haven't you?). I'm still cranking out the metal wire spirals because it's all I know how to make with metal right now. I have no torch, no kiln, no furnace...just a girl and her hammer. A customer inspired me to continue on my earth tone path (in the hopes of seducing her into buying another pendant), so I created something along the lines of the items she bought (my silver and copper spiral pendants), but in brass. I had been intending to do this anyway, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to make it while she was still in the buying mood. Turned out pretty good. If I were a Bronze Age Barbarian Princess I would wear it. With my pelts and stuff.

(Pictured with included extender chain for more barbarian versatility)

NEXT TIME: Triple Hypnotic Copper Pendant. If the first spiral doesn't put him under, the second one will. And if for some reason the second one doesn't work, then for sure the third one (which is nestled nicely in your tastefully exposed cleavage) will make him putty in your hands. Stay tuned!

A Little New Work

I've been looking forward to using this trapezoid cylinder by Duane Collins. It took me awhile to come up with a design. I ended up sticking to largely the same materials and color palette as with the raku button necklace. The plummy glaze on this cylinder and the button seems so perfect with peacock pearls and garnets. Here I added some hand-dyed silk strings by Color Kissed Singles in "hickory"--I LOVE the variegated colors, it really does remind me of hickory sticks, with a little bit of charcoal color here and there as if they were snatched out of the fire just in time. I fashioned a kind of yoke for it, and created a bail to hang from that from copper sheet.

The raku is really iridescent--the orange flash you see in the pictures was only visible as I was photographing it with my bright white fluorescent bulbs at an angle. In plain daylight this is a really subtle effect, and it has more of a glassy, plum glow. I added little copper accents  here and there to the silk.

I was also eager to use this white porcelain focal bead I got at a local shop. 

The pattern in the glaze somehow reminds me of something Asian, so I stuck with that theme. I added a fabulous, carved stone bead from Nepal, hand-carved by men and women at the Swayambhunath Temple, near Kathmandu courtesy of Happy Mango Beads. (I LOVE this bead, I must have more...) Little drilled beach stone by Stone Studios Too.

This one came about almost by accident. I had cut out and textured a bunch of these copper flowers in a fit of floral obsession several months ago. These were lying on the table next to some textured copper washers I had wired some garnets onto for another project that didn't work out, and I thought, "Well, there it is." I made a focal section out of the three flowers, and attached them to the garnet rings.

I used a fifty-cent piece from Hong Kong, an old British halfpenny, an old half crown coin, a Danish 10 ore coin, and a little heart-shaped metal stamp to texture the flowers. I love these flat oval garnets, they're perfect for this kind of application. This is choker length.

This one came about solely because of a stubborn determination to use this chubby little ceramic focal. I had gotten it years ago at a bead show and had squirreled it away with the rest of my stash. The top-drilled holes were a challenge. I didn't want to just string it on some leather or something, I wanted to create a special frame for it. I was turning it over and over in my mind in my car as I sat at the park on my lunch hour one day, and sketched this out.

South China Sea

I created the curved pieces of copper when I got home. As I was trying to wrap them together I realized they really needed to be soldered together to keep them from moving. Sigh. My soldering results had been really mixed. So I gave it a try. It worked! It wasn't pretty, but I was going to cover the solder with a wrap anyway. The little dangling sea green donut is a recycled glass bead from Happy Mango Beads; the two little turquoise discs hanging from the clasp are lampwork spacers by Meital. The silk string is "fern green mist" hand-dyed and hand-sewn from Jamn Glass.

Lastly, this is a custom piece for my European friend (see my last post), designed around some fluorite we found at AAA Gems. The shape and color of the stones made me think immediately of leaves, and we both agreed copper would really bring out the greens the best. This was the second set of leaves I did (I didn't like the first set). They feature British coin textures and tube rivets at the ends. They are double sided (I tube-riveted two textured leaves together for each element--copper tube rivets, or eyelet rivets, from B'Sue Boutiques. Super easy to use!). My friend suggested combining the fluorite with green turquoise and I think it was a brilliant idea!

These little turquoise heishi discs are from Fire Mountain Gems. The ladder chain is from Chain Gallery.

I just love how this turned out. Sometimes you get lucky with some really nice colors on your copper after the liver of sulfur bath. I find I get the most colorful results when I use a weak, very hot solution, just dipping quickly in and out, between the hot solution and cold water, dipping, dipping, dipping until I like the color. Then neutralize and get it in the tumbler before it gets any darker.

I'm currently working on a project for my European friend using sterling silver sheet for the first time (oy! I have to pretend it's worthless or I choke.) I think it's going to be very cool.

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.

Crop Circles, Camels and Blood Oranges

I have a thing for round disc pendants like this tantalizing "new jade" lozenge I got at Brought to Life Beads in Whitefish, Montana (where I live) a few months ago. I've been obsessed with this pale celadon color for a while now and keep buying more and more of it (I hope there are people out there with PayPal who share this obsession). Every week or so I would paw through my little box of pendants and wait for them to speak to me. Not a damn word. I really wanted to do something special with this one jade lozenge (is this why I have a thing for these discs? Because they look like giant candy? I don't even like candy). I carried it around with me for a while with an assortment of other stuff that I thought might make the most of it, but it just wasn't right. Finally, in a mad rush to pack to go to the lake for a few days, I was freed from my usual artistic paralysis and just threw some things in a container. One of them was a strand of these opalescent pale yellow green mini lozenges (or coins). I didn't want to take my whole stash so I just picked out a few pieces to work on. I did the majority of this pendant at the lake, even taking my Liver of Sulphur to do some oxidizing at our camp spot (we didn't get a lot visitors that weekend...) I really really like how it turned out--the circles and the wire remind me of a crop circle. I'm not usually that roundly pleased with my stuff (always something I don't like about it), but this really hit the spot for me. Simple.



Before that I was cruising around on some of the Flickr craft and jewelry groups, and visited the "Accessory Trends: Red, Peach, Orange, Gold" group. I was inspired. I hauled out my carnelian (lots of that), red agate, brecciated jasper and red aventurine and stared at it for a while. I was thinking bracelet. I didn't want it all Mardi Gras though (not that there's anything wrong with that). I don't really do the festive happy colors thing (irritates me for some reason)--I thought I could take all that luscious tangerine, apricot and poppy vermilion and make it something smoldering and moody with some deeply oxidized brass wire. So I linked them together with some heavy gauge brass wire, and added a length of chain I had made the other day, and popped the whole thing into the ammonia fumes (overnight, as it turned out--oops). Voila:



I love it. Kind of old-worldy. With a flash of fire.



And lastly, my ode to the camel and his habitat.



I ADORE camel. The color, not the animal. Wheat. A lion's mane. Sand. I was going to call it, "Behind my Camel", after a quirky Police song, and then thought better of it. Maybe not the best place to be. I don't usually give my pieces pretentious cheesy names, but it seemed OK in this case b/c I figured camel would be a search term. Camel and pendant and I had it covered. Especially since I don't have a clue what that little stone pendant is. Forgot to ask. Looks like something from the driveway. The little ivory spacers are bone, and the pale round beads are wood, and the light caramel colored disc beads are actually matte glass discs from Happy Mango Beads. (They are ever so slightly opalescent and come in a few different charming colors).



(Believe it or not, these photos were taken in my car on my lunch hour, literally IN MY LAP. I put the lid to a cardboard copy paper box upside down in my lap (this is also my work table in my "mobile studio"), arranged my stuff, and took a picture. No tripod. Steady as a friggin rock.)

Lastly, I sold some of my favorite pieces to family this last weekend, and am thrilled that they will be loved and worn, and given as gifts to special friends! The hardware bracelet, the house pendant with bronze pearls, the copper charm bracelet with amazonite and aventurine, and a labradorite and sterling necklace and earring combo are winging their way to Billings, Montana, and then on to North Carolina.



Thanks MaryLu and Marcia!