A Day Late

Moving right along, here are the four projects I promised. First is a strand of garnet chips playing off the darker striations in a dyed shell pendant. I gave this set to my mom.

This set is mostly Czech fire-polished glass in soft, pastel hues. There are some freshwater pearls and silver beads strung in for some texture. The three silver beads at the center-front of the necklace are embossed with little butterflies. The toggle closure has the same butterfly pattern. This went to my Aunt V--along with the one I showed you earlier, "South Pacific Postcard."

Next, is the one I mentioned a while back that had a working title of "Cosmos." Well, it didn't turn out as cosmic as I thought it might. There are a lot of images that come to mind making a name hard to pin down. "Between Earth and Sky" just now came to me, so that's what it shall be.

Finally, I played around with some copper wire having been given some fresh inspiration from a magazine. I hammered the wire to make it less flexible, but decided that I'd love to get a ball peen hammer (versus my tiny rubbery mallet) to add texture to these wire-workings.

That's all I have for now. I have a project that I can't wait to start. I found a Jack Skellington charm (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) that I want to make into a Y-necklace for my sister. I'd love to keep making stuff and more stuff, but I really need to use the time I have left for getting the business end of the business taken care of. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! If I don't get back to you beforehand, have a fantastic New Year!

HO! HO! HO!

Merry Christmas!! I have four new jewelry photos to share with you; two are Christmas presents and two are for my inventory. I won't be able to post the pictures until Friday what with Christmassy goings-on and such. I have to make sure the living room is presentable for a certain (ahem) drop-in guest tonight as well as pictures tomorrow morning! The girls are in bed but I don't know if they've got those rascally sugarplum visions bouncing about in their noggins yet.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

YAY!

New stuff to show! The blossoms and leaves are lucite. The stretchy bracelet has clusters of large flowers and leaves spaced out with itty-bitty flowers and leaves. It was the most time-consuming of the set. I originally had the image of Asiatic lilies in mind when I sat down to start the project. When I had a good chunk of the bracelet strung, it started looking more tropical--kind of like a lei. One of the colors of the flowers really started screaming "HIBISCUS!" at me. Well, it didn't actually scream at me. That would be rather startling. Anyway, I named the set "South Pacific Postcard."

This set is going to be a gift and I have some other gifts to make yet. Eventually, I WILL get back to the one I mentioned earlier, "Cosmos."

I finally get to go see my Mr. Bond movie! I'm so excited! So, I've got to run to get the girls to my parents' place and back. Woo-hoo!

She turned me into a newt...

I got better. Okay, you know this is sad when all my posts start out with some excuse for not posting earlier. Thanks for stickin' with me anyway! I actually haven't been able to work on any new stuff since I last wrote. I did a repair job on a necklace this afternoon, though. With Christmas rapidly approaching, I guess I otta start working on my jewelry gifts. I just started working on a lucite flower bracelet that is going to be beautiful. I'm thinking about making a Y-necklace to go with it and, of course, earrings. I got some garnet chips to go with a shell pendant that will make a great necklace. I hope.

I added a widget thingy to my blog for twitter.com. I haven't twittered much, but the addiction is creeping in. I was stringing the lucite blossoms and suddenly felt the need to "report in." Huh. Anyway, I did but it had nothing to do with the jewelry. My husband got the dern computer to let me listen to pandora.com and the station I had selected for one of Muse's songs (from Twilight) started playing a song from Elefant and it was wonderful! 'Course, the rest may stink, but for now they're GREAT! That's what I had to twitter to the world. I don't know exactly how it works, but you can "follow" me. I like followers! I also like henchmen. Remind me to get some of those.

Is it too obvious that it's past my bedtime?

PS--Thanks, Jannie, for boosting the ol' ego...You so totally rock!

The report of my death is an exaggeration.

Howza! It's been more than a month since I last wrote anything! Sorry about that. I thought about checking in to say that I was still alive and well, but I, uh, didn't. I had some projects that I wanted to share, but my pictures came out all crummy. :(

Today is the opening day for the vampire romance movie "Twilight." I read the book (actually the first three of four books) and it's very good. I'm still scared to read the final book because my trusted friend says that it's a terrible disappointment. I'm afraid it would be the literary equivalent to leaving a bad aftertaste. Anyway, I would love to be able to see the movie tonight, but I think it's going to be packed with its target market: 13-year-old girls. Hopefully, I'll get to see it next week. So why bother you with all this? Well, I made a "Twilight"-inspired necklace. I call it "Star-Crossed."

All the beads are glass with some cat's eyes, moonstone (opalite) and crystal thrown in. If you are familiar with the story, you'll probably understand my bead choices. It turned out so dramatic, I love it!

I love movies. My husband figures that Kansans love movies more than most because there's nothing else to do. He's from North Carolina. I just "ppfff" at him and roll my eyes while I secretly think that's he's probably right. At least to some extent. Last week, the latest James Bond flick opened. I've been a 007 freak for as long as I can remember. I even tolerate the lamest James Bond movies ever made (like "Thunderball"). It was hard not getting to go see "Quantum of Solace" on opening weekend, but I've got discount tickets that can't be used until this weekend. So last week, I made an homage to Bond necklace. It's pretty darn simple. I wish I could say that I made the glass pendant, but I just bought it. Here is "Shaken, Not Stirred":

Okay, moving beyond the Silver Screen, I have several other objets d'art for you. First are some earrings that I did not design. I took them out of a book, but going through the steps of making these gorgeous earrings, I became inspired to make a necklace using seed beads encircling a large glass disk (similar to the one in "Star-Crossed"). I've started working on that project, but I couldn't pass up showing you how lovely these guys turned out! I also like the way my photo turned out. :)

Second, a multi-strand necklace made up of glass beads in green, blue and light brown. The hook and eye clasp is placed to the side of the necklace. This is "Bird of Paradise" with it's matching earrings:

Next is "At Water's Edge" focusing on twin dragonfly pendants suspended by a mix of ribbon, hemp and glass beads. I don't usually bring out so much blue in my designs so this feels refreshing to me. I think the color scheme works great for autumn. Okay, maybe the brown leaves have something to do with that.

"Nebulae" is longer than most of my necklace designs and was inspired by a design in a book (as were the earrings). It's absolutely beautiful when worn with purple. It's received a lot of compliments.

I loved this pendant so I had to snag it! I added itsy bitsy Swarovski crystal cubes in purple velvet, green opal, and silk (not clear as it looks in the photo). This is "Geo Formations":

Those are all the new, completed projects I have right now. As I mentioned earlier, I have one more that is in the very early stages of creation. So far, the design looks a little outer spacey, so the working title is "Cosmos." We'll see how it goes.

It's 5PM, the kids are doing who-knows-what and my Studmuffin hasn't come home from work yet. I still have to come up with something for dinner. If I don't, Studmuffin will suggest going out to eat and how could any stay-at-home mom resist a suggestion like that?!

I Promise To...

A great big thanks goes out to a talented friend in TX for her vote! That lady is craaazy, so somehow must be related. I just got back from reading her blog/website and had to pick myself off the floor and dry my eyes from laughing so hard. Yes, you know who you are. Let me know if I can post your website to share with the bazillions of other people that follow my blog. Okay, 2 other people. And they're related. And I owe them money. Oh hey, the polls are still open for a few more days. Pay your friends to vote for #96!


I have photos! Aren't you excited?

This necklace is Night Storm and is made up of labradorite nuggets and pendant, Swarovsky crystals, and sterling silver. Taking the picture in direct sun was the only way to get the pendant to "light up." I love that blue flash in the gray stone--like lightning.



This next one is October and it's pretty obvious why. The orange stones are red aventurine, the black beads are stained wood beads (that can NOT get wet), and the pendant and rounds are picture jasper. It started out by falling in love with the pendant and then trying to find beads to coordinate. It's got a great autumnal feel to it without necessarily being just Halloween-y. I used mostly--but not all--sterling silver in this set. The earwires are sterling. I'm not too impressed with them. They're too soft and earwires take a lot of abuse, especially when used with earnuts. I think I'll stick to nickel-free and just use sterling upon request. Does anyone have any suggestions on this? Oh, all the rest of the pictures are in direct sun also because I was too lazy and cold to get up and find a new locale.


Next up is Tea Rose. The pendant is wood (its water-tolerance has not yet been tested) and the rest of the necklace is made up of copper-colored glass seed beads and faceted Czech glass. I decided to try some memory wire to make a ring, but it came out too huge for me. I bought a ring-sizer last weekend and found out that it is a size 9.5 (I wear a 5.5). I haven't played with the wire enough yet to figure out how to make smaller sizes. Something else to add to the to-do list, I guess.



Caliope (kuh-LIE-oh-pee) is a wear-with-anything set. The short necklace uses very brightly-colored Czech glass beads, but remains surprisingly capable of going with most outfits. The long necklace works well with just about any short necklace.



And we finally get to my recent favorite, Davy Jones's Locker. I made this in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I didn't want it to be super-obvious that it was all about pirates. I chose stormy-colored glass pearls interspersed with gold dagger pearls and aventurine. The three large gold "coins" are foiled, frosted glass. I chose an interesting array of charms to complete the Davy Jones feel: fish and fish bones, an octopus, coins, a lock and key, and skulls. I love it!




I have to mention that my aunt and I went on a bead hajj (as my aunt put it) last weekend. That's when I got that ring sizer/mandrel. Anyway, I found a lovely pendant of carved bone and some carved bone beads to go with it. I also got the most beautiful, yet small, piece of ocean jasper. It was a loner in its beauty, so now I need to work out a way to make it really stand out on its own as a focal piece. I also bought some really cool yarn--oh, excuse me--FIBERS to add to some jewelry pieces down the road.

I'm hoping that the economy (gasp! I said the E-word) doesn't get much worse by the time I plan to open my internet store. I guess that January and February are notoriously bad months to start a business in any economic setting, but I still plan to be up and running in February (it's my birthday).

No Pics, Just News

FIRST, I have to thank everyone that has voted for my design submission to Stringing magazine! If you haven't yet (ahem), go here and vote for #96: http://www.stringingmagazine.com/gallery/black-white-challenge/ !

SECOND, happy birthday to my favorite sister in the whole world!

Sorry I don't have any new photographs to post just yet. I do have some new pieces that I can't wait to share, though! One is called Davy Jones's Locker that I'm super-thrilled with. I made that one for Talk Like a Pirate Day back on September 19th. I was busy making iron-on designs for T-shirts just for that fabulous holiday. Buck up, me hearties! More treasures be on their way, so keep yer eyeballs keen. Arrrgh!

So, um, yes. T-shirt embellishments kept me a little busy, and now Halloween preparations have begun. I'm currently putting together a fancy, new, pirate coat for my costume. I loved my existing pirate outfit, but Halloween is always so cold here that I needed something that provided a little more coverage. Besides, I will not wear high-heeled boots again. Well, not as high as the boots that I used to wear with my costume! My 4-year-old wants to be an owl, so that's going to be an interesting project. I've got a men's brown sweatshirt, some felt, boas, and furry fabric. Maybe I'll have some non-jewelry pictures to post soon too!

Besides making oodles of stuff, I've started taking Mandarin Chinese classes with my IRL BFF. It's hard, but it's an enjoyable hard. Kind of like a puzzle or something. Anyway, it's a couple of hours a week to be surrounded by adults.

I'm sleepy. I promised my little one we'd work on her owl tomorrow, but I will definitely try to get some jewelry pictures taken and post them ASAP. Zai jian!

Forget Pedro!

Vote for Summer!

I couldn't help making the Napoleon Dynamite reference there. If you haven't seen that movie, vote for Summer anyway! This coming Monday, Stringing magazine opens up the online polls for the winter design challenge: Black and White. In July, I told you my design had a lot to say. Well, I call it "Word Monger" and this is the photo I used for my submission.

Please visit http://stringingmagazine.com on Monday (or anytime before October 15th) and vote. You can only vote once, so tell everyone to vote for Summer! Hmm, I should make a T-shirt. Anyway, the necklace is made of poetry beads, clear glass, and velvet beads in two strands with a lobster clasp. I tried hard to keep the words random--sorry, no secret messages. The only secret-by-design is in the prop in the photo. I'd like to explain why I took the picture this way. The pages you see are of Shakespeare's Hamlet where Polonius is asking Hamlet what he is reading. Hamlet replies with "Words. Words. Words." Oh, and Hamlet also says that Polonius is a fish monger. Mix it up a bit and voila! you get "Word Monger." That scene was probably my most favorite from the Mel Gibson Hamlet movie. Sigh.

What will I get if I win? I get the picture of the necklace published in Stringing magazine along with my name. Woo-hoo! I guess if it was a cruise or something I could take all my beloved supporters along with me. Sorry about that. I hope you're not too disappointed.

In other news, we had a couple more birthdays (both my folks) fly by. I made Mom some jewelry, but I didn't get a chance to photograph it yet. Don't worry, I know where she lives. ;) Besides that, it's been so dark and rainy for so long that there just hasn't been any good light to use for a photo shoot. You ought to check out this web address and see just how flooded it got around here in Wichita yesterday. http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/091208readerspics/ We didn't get it bad like any of the people in hurricane country. It makes you stop and pray for the safety of those folks.

I'll close for now, but don't forget:

VOTE FOR SUMMER!

Happy Labor Day

Everyone can relax now; black shoes are officially permissable! Not that I care. My favorite summertime shoes are a pair of black Mary-Jane Crocs. Who makes up these fashion "rules" anyway??
I've got a few new pictures to share today. And sometime between tomorrow and September 15th, I'll post my contest submission photo. So, beginning on the 15th, you can vote for me! Yeah! Did I tell you how much I love you guys?

Confetti (glass beads and pendant, necklace is 16")


Go Green (long--28"--and short--16"--necklaces with acrylic and glass including millefiori)


GiGi (long necklace--about 28"--with acrylic and glass)


February Rocks (pearl, glass and amethyst clustered on a 16" necklace)

Night Owl

This set is called "New Moon" and may eventually include a bracelet. But right now, it's a pair of earrings, a short necklace and a long necklace that can be layered or worn separately. I'd add more anecdotal things here, but I think we're getting ready to leave for somewhere and everyone is waiting on me!

More Show, Less Tell

These are pieces made from more of those neglected pendants. The first one is from a dream of a snowflake preserved by magic for a beautiful maiden made from snow. I guess it would be kind of like that "Snow Maiden" fairy tale--just without the heartache. Oh, let's go ahead and call it "Snow Maiden." The second necklace is asymmetrical, with the lock resting just below the left collarbone. I call that set "Guarded Secrets."

Snow Maiden


Guarded Secrets

No More Shopping

That's it. I can't allow myself to buy anymore beads! I just payed the bills and wondered, "What in the heck have I been doing?" I only hope that I can recoupe what I've spent when my e-store (yay!!) opens in five months. Really, I have enough of a bead stash that I should still be able to put some great things together without running out to every sale in town or online. But, it's just so tempting! **whine**

Well, now that I'm finished pouting for the time being, I'll move on to the latest pictures. You've probably already seen my ring that I posted in "Loners." Turns out that it coordinates perfectly with my latest necklace. The bracelet I put together goes well too, but it's lovely enough to go alone or with almost anything. I think it's very elegant. The pendant was another one of those components that just needed time before the inspiration came. This is the "Orbit" set.

In the Park

I took the little one to the park today to take advantage of our unseasonably cool weather. While she ran around with other playground kids, I hunkered down over a pendant that I've had for a while. It's been stumping me for a long time, but inspiration had finally come! The pattern on the pendant reminds me of satellite images of beach sands being pulled out to sea. There's probably a technical term for it, but I'm clueless. Anyway, while I am pondering a perfect title for this set, you can take a gander at the pictures.

Loners

These next three projects are on their own. I wanted to add them to yesterday's post, but the program wouldn't let me for some reason.

The necklace uses silver beads and two green, freshwater pearls as an off-center focal point.

The earrings feature small, glass starfish. I haven't yet come across a pendant that coordinates, but I really hope I do. I love these rainbow splashes!

The ring was an experiment. I've made some lousy attempts at trying to make a ring from wire, but this technique worked for me and it looks great!

Change of Scenery

I can't seem to settle on a background for my jewelry pictures. I started compiling pictures to put into my catalog, when I realized that I have too many different backdrops. I've used the woodpile, the rocks in the garden, the fence, a brick wall, grass, stair steps, scrap lumber, etc., etc., etc.. Anyway, it started to look too jumbled and crazy for a semi-polished looking document. I like my latest scenery--for now. You'll see it on the photos below.

I've put together some pieces using the beads from the photos I posted last. The first palette was called "Jungle Love." Here's the double-strand necklace, the earrings, and bracelet:




The second was, and still is, titled "Baby's Breath." This necklace is a little unusual in that each strand is removable. So one, two, or all three strands can be worn at a time. There are three separate bracelets, each with its own pattern of beads. One is all moonstone, one is crystal and pearl, and the other is a mix of everything.





Here's "Time Traveler", the last of the three bead bunches:





The next pieces are my most recent of all. The girls and I were at a new playground and while they played, I beaded. The first is a bracelet called "Bubble Gum" that makes me think of birthday parties:


The next set was inspired by the pendant which seemed so "end-of-summer" to me. Although the fact that school started today probably influenced that mood more than anything. I call the set "Zinnia".