New Arrivals + Give Away Reminder

I ordered these last week, and they arrived yesterday. They're all much bigger in person than I was imagining even though the seller gave the dimensions and I got out my ruler. I have a really hard time with that. They are all between 6 - 6.5 cm. Still, I'm excited about using them, and I've got some ideas percolating. It might be ages before I get to them though.

New Stuff with My New Stuff

After I procrastinated for a really long time by sorting all my new beads and deciding it was time for some copper to be Liver-of-Sulfured, and of course I had to tidy up my work area -- I finally stopped being a coward and sat down and started on a simple necklace. It's hard when faced with so many possibilities to settle on just one.

 Chalcedony, quartz, vintage gold-plated chain & clasp, brass wire

Pleased with the result, I was ready to tackle something more complicated. A few weeks ago, I got some new pendants from Jessi of EcclecticTrinkets, and I'd been dying to use one. This and this also came from her. Realizing how great her Raku Buddha would look with my new carved jade beads, I set to work and created this.

Carved jade, carved bone, lava, Czech glass, carnelian, antique brass, Raku Buddha pendant

I'm not listing these on etsy just yet (unless anyone has to have one of them, let me know and I'll make a special listing for you). I need to have some new things to take to the hair salon. I haven't had a single thing for sale there since the beginning of June!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget about my earring give away and etsy coupon code from yesterday's blog. 

Hope you all have a good week :)

Just in Time for the Hot Hot NOLA Spring Weather...

a nice Autumny owl necklace!

What can I say, I'm a few months behind/ahead of the times. Oh well - we all still like owls don't we? My friend Jessi made the owl pendant. I got it from her last time she was in town at Christmas. Now that she's back in town for the summer, it reminded me I really needed to do something with it. I'm glad I waited though, because most of the beads I used in this necklace were fairly recent acquisitions.

I have been too busy this weekend to accomplish much in terms of jewelry. Though I did meet up with someone who just had to have the bunny earrings from last week's post. Unusual to have a local customer I don't know, so it was nice to meet her. Then Saturday, I went to my hair salon to drop off a few new items and guess what! Someone bought the yellow necklace! I was so so very happy to hear that it'd sold. I knew it would find a home, but I didn't know it would go so quickly!

And I got a Very Exciting™ package in the mail this weekend as well. I was a lucky winner of one of the beautiful toggle clasps Lori Anderson recently gave away on her blog.

I can't wait to use it! But I will wait until the right design presents itself. I hate when I use something hastily just to use it instead of waiting 'til the perfect piece comes along.

Finally Finished!

You know those projects that take you forever, right? The moment I saw the gorgeous copper connector on Lynn Davis's etsy, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. I had this old crystal necklace I've had forever, and I knew this is how it needed to be used. I just needed to do some things first: procure the chandelier crystal from my mom; get some Liver of Sulfur; learn how to properly use Liver of Sulfur; get some copper wire (which until the Bead Soup Blog Party was something I'd never used); darken the wire with the LoS; make a clasp during acceptable daylight hammering hours; etc. And of course life, houseguests, a million other projects, and the ginormous treasure box from the previous post all took up a lot of my time.

I had started it, and worked on it periodically for a few weeks, but last night, I decided I was going to finish it no matter how late I had to stay awake. So finally, here it is!!!

Click for close-up.

I just want to mention how much my thumb's about to break off from all this wire wrapping!

Aren't these colors generally associated with Miami Vice?

I fell MADLY in love with this fabulous lampwork focal bead by the talented & hilarious Julianna Julsbeads Cannon the second I saw it. It took me a while, but I eventually bought it. And then I had to promptly hoard it for months. But really, it's because I had to wait until all the right ingredients came together with the perfect inspiration. I wasn't going to waste that beautiful focal on some lame-o design just because I was in a rush to use it.

Patience is indeed a virtue. Behold the splendiferousness of this focal. I think I did it justice :D

Another Springy Necklace + Voodoo

It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans. I don't go crazy about it like so many people do, but I do enjoy seeing the creative costumes and beautiful floats. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to my favorite parade this year, as it was rained out on its normal day & route. It was rescheduled for the next night, but circumstances were such that I wasn't able to attend. Instead, I helped a friend make her Voodoo-themed costume. Naturally, I insisted upon making the jewelry. I wish I'd taken some better photos, but she snapped a couple with her phone.

She brought the black coral sticks and the skulls; the purple ribbon on her necklace was leftover from the hat she made. Then I just did an elastic bracelet with the remaining skulls and some coral sticks. I was happy that there were some unused sticks she let me keep!

Saturday afternoon while it was storming outside, I made this necklace with one of my paper clay pendants some of my loyal readers may remember from this post. (By the way, some of those items are still available if anyone's interested.)

It made me realize that I am seriously lacking in red beads, and I could use more pink beads in lighter cotton candy shades like this. It's not that I'd want to use them constantly, but I need them to be there when I need them, you know? I think there's a bead show coming up next month, so I'll try to remember to stock up on those things instead of getting the same things I always get!

By the way, thanks for stopping by my blog. I don't think I thank my readers & commenters enough. It fascinates me when I check my stats and see how global my readership is. I really appreciate that you take the time to come by and read, or even just look at the pictures. And if you're a frequent reader, but have never commented, please don't be afraid to say hi :)

The Paper Clay Birds are Finished

I've been working on these all week, with all the time required for drying between steps. There are a couple more I haven't finished - but this is quite a good start. If anyone would like one, just let me know in the comments or email me. Since I don't have an etsy shop set up, I figured it would be easy enough to just do it like this. Each item is $7. Shipping is $2 (any additional items are free). I will send you a PayPal invoice. And I guess it's first come first serve. Rebecca gets first dibs, however, as she was the first person to say she wanted a bird or two!

If I am going about this in a totally horrible or tactless way, please let me know. I just wanted to get these out here and see if anyone was even interested. If things go well, I will definitely start listing things on etsy or somewhere similar. The only bird totally not for sale is the pink one, which was a custom order for a necklace for a very good customer & friend.

I hope everyone likes them! I'm having a blast making them. I'm sure Steve is getting sick of me showing him each new bird I paint like it's a newly discovered Picasso or something ;)

 

This is everything, below are various close-ups. 

Click any image to see it Super Size!

In other news: My dog's looking and feeling a whole lot better, even though she still has a week to go before she has her stitches out. AND!!! I finished my Bead Soup Blog Party necklace tonight. I never get things done ahead of time either. Go me!

BTW, Buddha, & a Big Bruised Belly

It's time for:

Today on my table, I have paper clay beads in various stages. Most are little birds, a butterfly, a couple of big owl faces, a couple of monster heads and one random nothing bead that I was using to test a glaze. Hey, and the butterfly was done from a mold I made of this black butterfly that everyone loved so much.

Also included for your viewing pleasure is a necklace I finished last night. I've been working on it in pieces for days, but I buckled down and finished it last night. I'm so A.D.D. about my projects these days! Plus, I've been spending a lot of quality time with my dog after her surgery this past Friday.

It's difficult to capture the magic shimmeriness of Labradorite in photos, but I think I've done it in the photo above! Click for super close-ups!

As for my dog, she didn't actually have to have a mastectomy after all. They were able to remove the tumors individually. Poor baby - she's got 7 stitches, and a bruise on her belly as big as my hand, but we're finally done with all her surgeries. Hooray! As long as I don't poke and prod too much, she's in good spirits. She started sitting up again yesterday, so that definitely means she's feeling better. Sitting up is her favorite thing to do (besides eating). Here she is looking all woe is me.

Woe is her :(

Birds! Birds! Biiiiiiiiirds!!!

We all have Bird Fever, don't we? I've always loved them. Some day, I will have to post all the pictures of me with the various birds that have for whatever reason decided they wanted me to hold them and pose for pictures. But for now, I'll just show you my latest project.

I've been wanting to experiment with making silicone molds, and I finally got the stuff this past weekend. Here are the results of my first attempt. I think I'll try re-molding the same piece and seeing if I can't get better detail, but even if I can't, I'm happy with what I've got. I want to make a million! But in typical Heidi fashion, I will get totally distracted by another project and forget about molding for months. I used paper clay for these, though I might upgrade to polymer clay some time.

The top is the pill case from which I made the mold, and below are the results. I have other painting ideas, which I will get to, hopefully, this weekend. They measure 4.5 cm in width.

Steve's favorite is the one below the gold one. He wouldn't wear it, but I think I'll make myself a necklace out of it so he can at least see it often enough. By the way, I took this with my phone, so the colors don't look quite like they do in reality. Still, I was so excited and I was eager to show off my new bird pendants!!!

If anyone would like one, or would like a necklace made with one - just message me! One day I'll get around to having an etsy shop, but I just can't keep enough stuff in stock to make it worth my while.

Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)

It's my first Bead Table Wednesday contribution! This week, I've been experimenting with making silicone molds, and then using them with paper clay. So far, it's turned out better than I anticipated - especially because I found this wonderful little silver pill case that had belonged to one of my grandmothers. It's got 5 birds perched on a branch. I have a feeling I'm going to make 100 more because I'm having many ideas about how to paint them. Click on the photo to see everything close up.

Some of the other things here include a few stamped paper clay pendants still not finished being painted, as well as some of my Lorelei style hand made decorative tin bead caps & connectors. They are in various stages of being hole-punched & domed.