Last Weekend

Here are some pictures from our island camping at Flathead Lake last weekend, on Bare Belly Island (no, I do not know why it is called that, but I wish I did). We docked up with some friends in the north cove and spent a couple nights there.  There was a brilliant, nearly full moon and cloudless skies.  I didn't get a good picture of the moon because I never learned the manual settings on my camera to do a prolonged exposure.  It was like a giant spotlight.  Coulda read a book under it.

From the bow approaching Bare Belly from the north.

The north cove.

The view north.

The flotilla.

The flotilla from on high.

The view south.

Some flora.

Nighty night!

I'm a Born Slacker, Baby

Goodness, I haven't run my mouth on here in 11 days. I've been giving myself permission, daily, to do nothing terribly productive. Spent the weekend on Flathead Lake (our usual summer haunt) camping on picturesque islands with friends, rafting up with a slew of buddies on their boats, and watching large men catch fish. Forgot my camera. You'll just have to take my word for it. The water is still 58 degrees which is below my swimming threshold (by about 17 degrees), but lovely to look at. Unearthly vivid blues and greens, like chrysocolla...OK, I'll stop taunting you. Not really fair without photos. I'll take my camera next time.

I did do this the other day though. I quite like how it turned out.

I used my new pewter crimp ends from Fusion Beads--LOVE them! So easy and has a nice finished look. 

I am so into this turquoise/brown/cream thing! Fortunately I acquired a surreal amount of stuff in those colors so I should be churning out this palette for quite some time. This one features a huge roundel of turquoise (not magnesite, this is the real deal), coupla big wood wheels, coupla burnt horn rounds, and some glossy bone rounds too. Nickel beadcaps made by moi. And more of that fabulous cocoa deerskin lacing from Magpie Gemstones. Horn and wood from Beads and Pieces, bone beads from Happy Mango Beads.

I also did this, with my new strand of rainbow soochow jade and my second order of pink jasper nuggets. Love this with the dark brown brass.

I did these little earrings to go with them. I belatedly noticed, as I was uploading the photos to Etsy, that they look like little pink boobies. Hope nobody notices.

Well, that's all for now. I do have to tell you that I just now (literally, like 20 seconds ago) remembered the brass beadcaps I had steeping in ammonia fumes. I went and got them out and they are JET BLACK and glossy! Wow!! Not what I was going for but how cool is that? You're probably going to see a bunch of goth stuff on here now. Just in time for the 4th of July.

It's Not Nice to Plagiarize Mother Nature

Tom and I were sitting by Flathead Lake this weekend and I was seized with a fit of creativity and had a relapse of my childhood rock fetish. Most of the mountain lakes, and the rivers around here lie over and are surrounded by the most astounding assortments of tumbled river rock, in wonderful, smooth shapes and vivid colors. Up til recently, most of my jewelry designs have been largely monochromatic and tone-on-tone, or at least in the same color family. I LOVE that look. I haven't really been enticed into making multicolor pieces. But, once again, Lorelei Eurto (this is getting broken record-y, got to find a new minor deity artistic inspiration) has broadened my horizons. She had this nifty little bracelet on Facebook in pinks and oranges (I'd put a picture here but I think she sold it), and I thought, Eureka, it CAN be done. Of course a lot of her stuff is multicolor, I just wasn't willing to see it yet.

So as I looked at these rocks, I saw color combinations that I wouldn't have considered before. And I thought, this could be a really fun way to explore new palettes for jewelry pieces. I started collecting the best specimens and brought them home and photographed them in different combinations. Granted there's some colors missing (fuschia, lime, any shade of blue, etc.), but there was an amazing assortment of muted tones (a dearth of cool colors, alas). These are some of my favorite combinations:











And lastly my compulsive ode to tone-on-tone.


I feel inspired, although I still have a mental block about cool colors. And pink and purple. I hate pink and purple. I used those pink and purple rocks out of sheer iron will and discipline. Keep loving those fall colors...I should get a house on Mars.