Exercises in [Relative] Simplicity

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, did I mention it's reversible?

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

Mexican food earrings

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

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

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

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

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

 

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