Very Short, Very Sweet

No news yet on finding the right wishlist application for the website. Rats.

I do have more jewelry made. I find I'm getting worse about keeping up with taking pictures and then posting them. Not just to the blog, but to my sales site as well! And that's just no good at all.

Finally, in this super-short blog post, I want to invite everyone to my very first booth at an art & craft fair! It's THIS Saturday (November 21, 2009 9am-4pm), so I suppose I ought to start preparing for it, eh? If you are in the Wichita/Maize, Kansas area, the fair is at the Vermillion Primary School, 501 James, Maize, KS. The fair is going to be fabulous and fun! All the pieces that are waiting for their photo shoot will be there. That means I need to catch up on photography in a hurry in case I sell those pieces! ACK!

Last time I posted, I forgot to mention one of my latest pieces. Shocked, aren't you? So now I have that one to show you, a birthday piece, two new sets and a modified older piece.

I'm still trying to figure out how to add a wish list feature to my website. I have found some that would be great if I could understand the coding process. I used to be able to build a website from scratch and now...well, now I can't. What I have found is an application similar to a gift registry. It would add buttons to my website to allow for users to select an item to put on their wish list. I have a lot of investigating to do yet. In the meantime, you may want to check out http://www.thethingsiwant.com/. It's super-simple to add things from all over the web and the people that are shopping for you simply view your list and can shop straight from it (basically).

Okay, back to the jewelry.

My mom's birthday was last week. Her birthday necklace is made of blue-dyed tree agate, Czech glass, and silver-plated aluminum nuggets. I call it "My Blue Heaven."

The previously forgotten "Distant Shores" is made up of citrine chips, hematite, porcelain, shell, and glass pearls. I made the hook and eye clasp from sterling silver wire.

The old piece that I've modified is "Tigress." I added earrings and shortened the bracelet. I mean, come on, how many people can wear a 9" bracelet?? Now, I hope it isn't too small. When measured end to end, it's about 8". Still sounds big, but the beads are so bulky that when its circumference is measured while closed, it comes out to be about 7", a much more common size.


The first of the new projects is "Tortoise Shell." I had a necklace in the early stages of construction when I decided it wasn't working. It was becoming more artsy than jewelry and not very wearable. So, "Tortoise Shell" was the result of bead cannibalism. I named it that because the slightly overlapping circles looked like scales. The glass beads were also similar to tortoiseshell. Any other allusion to a reptile would probably turn off a lot of people.

That artsy piece? Well, it did undergo the aforementioned cannibalism. It was minimized to perfection! I can't remember if I mentioned the inspiration behind my "Star-Crossed" necklace ("Twilight"). This necklace is similar in its inspiration. The book "New Moon" (second in the Twilight saga) focuses more on the werewolf characters. I think you'll be able to see some of that in the necklace. But, it stands well on its own without a book reference! This is "Instinct."

As always, there's more to come.

Tonight is the skating party for grades K-2. Both girls are bouncing off the walls from excitement. It starts in about 40 minutes and I still have to figure out what to feed them. This should be fun!

Birthday Season 2009

September is always busy around here. There are so many birthdays! Actually, my grandma starts the birthday ball rolling by the tail-end of August. Then, my uncle had a birthday a couple of days later and my dad's is this Sunday and Mom's is Monday. Fortunately for me, I don't have to make sparkly necklaces for any of the guys in my family! I made one for Grandma that was NOT pink, and she loved it. It was funny how it matched perfectly the outfit she wore that day! I call it "Lavender's Blue":

Of course, I can't post any pictures yet of anything I may be working on for my mom. That would just be silly. I still have lots of things I'm working on. I hope you check the website!

Marshmallow News

Since the last post, we experienced a miracle! Yesterday, our backyard neighbor drove over and asked if we were missing a chicken. I hopped in the van and followed her to where she saw a stray chicken. It was three blocks away and she'd been missing for nearly a week! Well, of COURSE it was our Marshmallow. I dare say that we're probably the only chicken-keepers in the area. Oh, happy day!!

Bucket was NOT happy to have Marshmallow back--it upset her promotion in the flock. Cheetah and Marshmallow are best friends and they've been inseparable since they were reunited. It's so sweet. Tonight, everything is back to normal.

Thank you, Lord, for watching out for our sweet hen and making our family happy again!

It's only August! How can summer be OVER?

I can't believe summer vacation is almost over.

YAAAAAYYY!! Oh, don't get me wrong, I love my little girls. But, boy, do they have a way of rubbing their momma the wrong way. Sigh. School starts on August 17th for us. Even my little-bitty girl is going to school this year: Kindergarten. She is very, very excited.

We were lucky enough to be able to take a family vacation this summer. We drove to Florida, to North Carolina, to Tennessee and back home again. The drive was dreadful. The girls had always been pro road-trippers, but this year, well, things were different.

We started getting eggs from one of our chickens this summer too! Three eggs so far. We also lost a hen. Marshmallow, our Rhode Island Red, jumped the fence and didn't return. The remaining four birds are all okay. It was the chicken that the older daughter had picked out at the farm supply store. We'd like to replace it, but an existing flock isn't very receptive to newcomers. What to do...

I made a few jewelry pieces before we left on vacation and two more just the other day. These latter two are projects I found in "Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry" magazine. I used the wire I had on hand which wasn't was called for, but hey, ya gotta make it your own, right? I don't have names for these:

Copper and Glass Bracelet

Copper and Glass Pendant

This one is PERFECT for summertime. It's so beachy! It's a two-strand necklace with glass art beads, pearls, mother of pearl, and other shell bits. The toggle clasp I used is a mermaid. I call this "Neptune's Daughter."

This necklace is very simple, elegant, and versatile. I guess it doesn't need much more explaining. I don't have a name for it yet.

I'm struggling for a name for this one too! I must have title block. It needs something sunny. It's made up of red aventurine and dyed orange jade (which makes me think that it's not really jade...). Maybe "Tangelo" for a name??

This final set has just a tad of goth worked into it. Maybe that's just because it's dark with a big cross. I love it anyway. Everything but the crosses are black nickel.

Can't Believe I Forgot This!

I posted new stuff last time and I can't believe I forgot to add this one! I call it "Tatting Underground". It's blue (probably dyed) crazy lace agate with sterling silver, Swarovsky crystals, and the necklace cord is brown leather. I did all the curves and loops myself on the necklace. I fell in love with the stones and had to buy them no matter the cost. So, uh, yeah, they were a bit pricey.


I have to share this photograph I took this evening. It's a gorgeous, single, crepuscular ray. I used the "sunset" mode on the camera, but that's all the messing I did to this image. I wonder if the "Hallelujah" chorus was playing where that beam of light was directed...


Happy Father's Day to all those fabulous daddies out there! I know of a few fantastic ones myself!

NEW STUFF---YAY!!!

Moving right along and forgoing my usual apologies for not writing any sooner or more frequently, here are some pictures of my latest stuff!

The first one I want to show you is the one I just finished last night. It has a little story behind it. Some time ago, my mom brought back a pair of earrings from Costa Rica. They were made out of purple heart wood. They were pretty big and eventually put aside. Just recently, she pulled them out asking me if there was someway to incorporate the pieces of the earrings into something more wearable. When I showed her some possiblities, she mentioned that she'd rather avoid adding more brown to it, but add maybe some rosy/purply stones to it? So, here is the "Corazon de Costa Rica" that she picked up this afternoon:

By the way, the necklace doesn't stick out on top of the shoulders like it does on this display. I had to pull it up like that to keep the leaf pendant from resting on the table. The pink stone chips I used are rhodonite. The large stone pendant on the first row of chain is probably some sort of jasper, I'm not certain. I used every wooden piece from the earrings. I was thrilled at how it turned out!

The next two sets are going onto my website (http://www.summersunjewelry.com/) just as soon as I resize them to fit.
This is "Anne Bonny Modern" and uses some fantastic, milky glass skull beads. They almost resemble moonstone. Almost. I set them with green cat's eye beads and other glass beads. It's really fun to wear! You've probably noticed that I've peppered my collection with pirate-themed pieces. That's just me being me!


The last one I have (for now) is called "The Happy Earth." I got the title from a poem by Joyce Kilmer that goes:


The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.



The next three projects I have lined up are going to be fun too. One is going to be pretty light and beachy with tan and white shells and pearls, one is very sunny with red agate and red aventurine, and the other a little dark and heavy on the chain side in black nickel (not exactly goth, but great with a little black dress for a night out--at least I hope it turns out that way).

Happy Mother's Day (late)

I have to do this super quickly because Blogger is going to shut down in about 10 minutes for some scheduled something-er-other. So here it is: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! I think it counts too if you don't have children but you have pets.

I made this necklace for my Grandma called "Dawning" (the necklace, not Gramma). It uses pink and gold lampwork beads with a pink, sheer ribbon running through the chain:

This set is called "You Are Loved" and the necklace even says so. The focal bead is mosaic jasper:

Got It

The bracelet I promised to get a picture of is here! I call it "Parlez-en a la Main" (literal French translation for "Talk to the Hand"). I made it using a rubber stamp on shrinky plastic and coloring and cutting it into tiles before baking.

I doubt that it's time to vote already, but I have my latest piece for submission to the Stringing magazine's design contest. The theme is "Magical Forest." I used all kinds of elements including rainforest jasper, fruit pits (trust me, I bought these as beads at the bead store), peridot, ceramic (teeny gnome beads that are just too cute!), sterling silver, pewter, Czech fire polished glass and jade. The leaves are more rubber stamped shrink plastic that I colored using alcohol inks. The clasp isn't pictured, but it is a lobster clasp that is in the form of a little bird! I call this "I Do Believe."

Many Goings-on Going On

Okay, I just typed out a whole paragraph detailing my newly developed addiction to Facebook and then deleted it. The basic point was that I am addicted to Facebook. Aaack!

We had a very overcast day today which I hope made for great photography. I've been a bit behind in getting shots of my latest work (but you knew that). I'll start with a project that I made a long time ago. The length of the necklace was a problem and it just wasn't a high priority piece. But, I love this necklace! So, I gave it some much needed length. You may remember "Ahoy":


For Easter, I mentioned that I was making a jewelry set that would go with a new dress. "Celtic Glow" is almost completely hand worked (the jumprings and clasp were already made). Have I told you this before? It's all copper with rose and padparadsche Swarovski crystals and fire-polished Czech glass. I absolutely love how it came out. I just learned these techniques in a great wire-working book. Ta da:


April 24th was our 10th wedding anniversary. Probably as a result from wishing we were on a tropical beach, I put together some shell and wood beads for a set called "Coastal Tokens". The long necklace doesn't have a clasp and I made the clasp (the bar anyway) for the bracelet:




I finished the bracelet for Coastal Tokens and went right on into the next project. The focal bead is a mosaic abalone piece. I used a complimenting array of Swarovski crystals to bubble up from the center. It was tricky giving this piece a name. My head was filled with dazzling images from the ocean as well as from deep space, but a name would not come. Suddenly, I pictured mountains. Great, purple mountains with treacherous crags softened by distance and a valley where a clear, cold lake resided. At this point, I have to say that I am not smoking, inhaling, drinking, snorting or in any other way consuming drugs. Hey, I'm good at daydreaming. Although, I should be night dreaming right now. Sorry, I got distracted again. Here is "Mountain Pool":


OOPS! I just realized that I forgot to get a picture of a bracelet. Rats. Tomorrow, er, later today, is supposed to be pretty rainy, so no promises. I will try though. It's off to bed for me. NOW! Um, right after I check Facebook...

Change of Venue

Okay, I know you all love hearing about my chickens and seeing their photos, but I think I'm going to start keeping them on my FaceBook page instead of here. You are more than welcome to come see me there! Search for Summer Eaton in Wichita, KS. I am surprised at how many Summer Eatons there are on FaceBook!!

So, back to some jewelry stuff. I made an Eastery necklace with Swarovski crystals. It is a bit late now, but there you have it. Here is "Hyacinth."


I think everyone is waiting on me, so I'd better skedaddle!

Bird-Day

Happy Birthday, Auntie M! Hope you had a great day!

Now I can post pictures of the birthday jewelry I gave my Auntie M this afternoon. First is a necklace and earring combo using red and amethyst glass called "Holland Spring."

This set is called "Portrait" and uses glass and acrylic beads.

Chicken update: I brought our final chick home yesterday and I'm certain she hatched the day before. She's a silkie and I'm pretty sure she's going to be a white one. Silkies are crazy looking! Marco Polo wrote about chickens with hair and it's believed that he was referring to silkies. If you don't know what I'm talking about (pbth--I don't know what I'm talking about most of the time!), check out this site for a picture http://www.mypetchicken.com/Chickens-Silkie_Bantam_White-P250.aspx. Her name is Cotton. Here's a current picture of the big girls (Cheetah decided that she needed to be more prominent in the photo, so she crowded out the two black stars, Hen and Bucket). Marshmallow is on the right.