New Work

Considering how much time I've had off lately, I sure haven't brought much to completion. It seems I am always preparing...snipping, sanding, sawing, etching, coloring...It takes forever to get to the end product!

I did however finish a few things over the long holiday weekend. I finished this necklace yesterday--I sort of stumbled on a nifty way to make interesting caps for pendants (I just can't bear to stick a plain jump ring on a pendant, I have a compulsion to cover up that hole), and in my usual fashion I put these caps on every stone pendant in my stash. So now I have to start turning them into necklaces! This was the first:

Sold

The pendant is aqua terra jasper (also known as impression jasper), as are the big roundels on the middle strand (absolutely stunning roundel beads from Beads and Honey--fabulous shop and service). The sweet little cream colored beads in the top strand are encased khaki lampwork spacers by Kelley Wenzel (sadly for me currently on a bead hiatus--good thing I've been hoarding a bunch--SEE??? this is why we must hoard, because sometimes the beadmakers start taking pictures instead and THEN what will you do?), and the stick beads near the bottom of the photo are new jade from a local shop. Also featured are Indonesian glass beads from Happy Mango Beads in celadon (such a perfect match!) and oatmeal. The little copper heishi spacers are also from Happy Mango (they are a real staple of mine, I love how they add a little flash of metal, but are plain so don't interfere with the feel of the piece).

I've also been slowly working my way through my stash of enamel from Anne Gardanne. Over the holiday weekend, it was beadcaps! I really love the pointy little tulip caps. This is my favorite pair:

Regular Garden Party

I love the colors on these caps--lemon yellow, strawberry and grass green. So inspiring! I combined them with pink quartz briolettes (from FineGems--got some GREAT stones from them), Czech glass in antique rose (on the earwires), and little pale peach seed beads on creamy Irish waxed linen. Now I want to make about a hundred things in pink and yellow. I love these colors with copper.

These are almost an identical design, but with violet blue quartz briolettes instead, and denim blue caps. The berry sprinkles on the caps told me PINK!!! I obeyed.

My Little Pony  Garden Party

I love the blue violet with the azure in the beadcaps and the pink tones. I never would have thought that I would fall in love with a My Little Pony color scheme.

I wanted to use cording with this pair below too, but I just didn't have the right color so I went with little copper headpins. These caps are an electric violet blue (so hard to photograph purples, they are more purple in person than they appear here.)

Psychedelic Garden Party

The little turquoise saucers sitting atop the green leaves are itty bitty handmade lampwork spacers by Meital, and the matte turquoise Indonesian glass seed beads from Happy Mango were a perfect match (I have two long strands of these beads, they are AWESOME, they are more like little stones than glass beads).

This last pair got its color inspiration from the wonderful fuchsia color left on my headpins after I torched them. I couldn't bear to pickle it off so I left them as is, and when I set them aside with these orange caps, I thought PLUM!! I had these wonderful Czech glass rounds in a "lumi" finish, and I loved the contrast with the opaque enamel. I added little fuchsia button pearls to the earwires to pick up the fuchsia on the headpins.

Pee Wee's Garden Party

I just love these darling little flowers.

There's something Seussian, or Willy Wonkian, or Pee-Weeian about them. Can't put my finger on it...They make me think of all my favorite childhood books and movies. I sort of went with a Willy Wonka color scheme.

That's all for now!

Giving In to Temptation (Again)

GardanneBeads Booty

Look at this fabulous haul from Gardanne Beads! I've always loved enamel but have never really taken the plunge and bought some. So glad I did! I'm blown away by the colors, patterns and shapes of Anne's work. Look at the sand dollars!!

Beadcaps!! I love colored beadcaps, and these are divine. I love the glassy depth of enamel, it's unlike anything else.

Fabulous focal elements! I couldn't resist that azure and lime butterfly. I am thinking peridot and lapis...

Glorious lampwork too! I especially love the organic-looking encased ones. Like northern lights captured in ice!

Be on the lookout for lots of earrings with enamel elements, and a few necklaces with this fabulous lampwork!

The Two Faces of Eve

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

Must be The Change.

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

See, look at this:

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

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

Completely unsentimental and not particularly romantic. My style exactly.

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

These Things Just Make Themselves

Today was the day for my enamel cones from SueBeads to grow up! I didn't really have any beads to go with them when I got them, so I had to go shopping again. I ordered a slug of Czech glass teardrops from Fusion Beads, just two each in each color I wanted, in two different sizes. The larger size, 20x9mm, fit perfectly. I had an idea for how I could use the smaller teardrops, but didn't have the patience today. Next time! First time around I wanted to do something more basic.

I've paired the raspberry cones with teardrops in "carnelian"--it's a nice translucent but milky glass, it really does remind me of carnelian. Some of my purple glass tile beads matched the cones exactly (three colors seemed a little bit too busy). I did these with antiqued brass.

I thought the lemon lime (it makes me think of tree lichen) cones looked nice with the capri blue, and I had some matte finish seed beads in lime as well, so that got all put together with sterling silver.

Lastly, I had to pair the denim blue cones with amber teardrops--I seem to be into that combination. Whiskey and faded jeans by the fire? With sterling silver again. I have these ultra cool Delica seed beads in a matte metallic blue-green finish--they remind me of faded denim. (I want to make an entire necklace with them).

Any of these cones would have been fabulous with any of the beads I got--the enamel colors are so rich and vibrant you can do virtually anything with them. The only thing I found was that I needed to put some kind of smaller spacer bead over the opening at the top of the cone--the holes are fairly large and I was paranoid about mangling them as I finished my wrap. A little round bead would work well too.

I have lots of big teardrops left over so I guess that means I need more cones.

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.

Just When I Was Enjoying My New Lampwork Addiction

Along comes Barbara Lewis with a new kind of crack for me to try. Enamel Crack. She and Kelley Wenzel went to the same Crack Dealer School. Send the kiddies free crack, get 'em hooked, and then they'll pay you whatever you want for it. For the rest of their miserable lives. This is the fiendishly sly ploy behind Ms. Lewis' giveaway.

Well, fine, Ms. Lewis. I'll take your free crack. And I'll be back for more.

Here's a photo of the free sample of "Mandarin Orange" up for grabs:



Soooo pretty. Something so pretty must be harmless, surely? But it's not. No. It's. Not. You'll cash in your 401K to get this stuff; run right over the top of your own grandma on the way to the Enamel Crack Store; hock your diamond wedding ring to get more. It's dangerous.

But I don't care. I don't care I tell you!! I want it!!! I WANT IT!!!! I WANT THE ENAMEL CRACK!!!!

Please, pick me. Please? Pretty pretty please? I mean, I need something to tide me over between the boro beads. You know, man? I'm in bad shape. Bad shape. I haven't bought any lampwork in like four hours.

And apparently my readers need to become followers of Ms. Lewis' blog so I can get the enamel. So, hey, buddies of mine! Hey, do a girl a favor--follow Barbara's blog! I'll share the Enamel Crack with you, I swear.