Not Quite Back to Normal

I haven't blogged in ages - I'm sure you've all been crying yourselves to sleep at night about it, right? Okay, maybe not. But I have a good excuse. About a month ago I hurt my back. I wish I had a fun story about it like a battle with a Sasquatch or a unicycle-on-a-tightrope mishap, but no. It had been generally sore for awhile (bodies are not meant to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day), and one day - and you beading ladies will understand this - I was at Michael's. There was a big sale on Bead Gallery beads, plus I had a 20% off everything coupon, so I wanted to make sure I took advantage and bought all the little filler beads I wanted. You know how at Michael's, you look at the beads at eye level, then you have to stoop down and look at the bottom beads. Then stand up, take a step to the right and repeat 8-10 times 'til you've seen everything? Well that's when it happened. Every time I stooped down I thought, "OUCH! I probably shouldn't stoop down again." And then I kept doing it until it all went very very wrong. 

So I spent the following week on the couch watching The IT Crowd on Netflix and napping. I finally got an appointment with my orthopedist, and he made me wear this torture device of a brace for 2 weeks (even while sleeping). It was miserable. As you can imagine, I didn't particularly feel like making very much jewelry. Plus I was doped up on painkillers and muscle relaxers, so I wasn't very interested in doing much. During that time, I had to make my Bead Soup pieces, and managed to pull it off. I am very sad to report that this past Sunday, I was wearing the bracelet when it flew off my wrist and that gorgeous toggle shattered on the tile floor. It broke my heart -- I really loved it!

Anyway, my back's still kinda sore but at least I'm out of that dangbusted brace. Of course it hurts most when I'm sitting down at work, but I can't take a month off, so I must suffer and remember to get up every hour and walk around. I've got a kneeling chair now, but I can't sit in it all day. It's good to switch back and forth with my other chair. 

Point is, I haven't made a whole lot of jewelry in the past month! Other than my Bead Soup stuff, this is what I've done lately. 

 Focal by Lynn Davis, birdie by me, hematite nuggets, mookaite, agate, dalmatian jasper, & carnelian.

Copper poppy clasp by Daisychainextra, ceramic focal by Bo Hulley, faceted pearl, carnelian, mystery purple and tan stone, copper, waxed linen. 

 Ceramic bird focal by Kylie Parry, Czech glass, crystal, antique brass,  wood beads, waxed linen.

Ceramic focal by Round Rabbit, bone bead, and copper. 

Ceramic Shotgun House by Jessi, mookaite, new Czech glass (green), and vintage Czech glass (blue) from old Mardi Gras beads.

Sardonyx agate.

I custom ordered this mini-me bead from Soul Silver and I just LOVE it! I'm totally not vain at all, no. I'm going to make a necklace out of her eventually, but for now she just keeps me company in my computer/jewelry making area.

Mondays aren't good for clever titles

I wasn't super productive this weekend - 2 pairs of earrings that I didn't photograph, one finished necklace, and one necklace in process. Here's the finished necklace. It's a really beautiful Round Rabbit Extra pendant with garnets, vintage AB crystals, green glass rondelles and vintage teeny glass beads that seem like glass pearls that lost their pearl coating. I love finding those - they have such a lovely opaly inner glow to them. The green beads have a very strange luster - sort of like manmade cateye, but matte? They're a strange color too, but just the EXACT shade to match the pendant. What a bizarre chance that I'd just so happened to buy those beads a couple of months ago. And the X-hatched garnets were also PERFECT for the pendant. This is one of those necklaces that just made itself, you know?

Here are a million pictures of it :)

May ABS Challenge

The inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge is this painting, Italian's House at Montmartre by Maurice Utrillo. The idea is to create a piece of jewelry -- using at least one art bead -- based on the monthly painting. This is only the second time I've participated, but now that my collection of art beads is growing, I might be participating more often.

The green ceramic house bead is by Elukka. I've also included copper leaf chain, coppery coral tube beads, faceted jade, and some vintage crackly off white flower beads and vintage green cotton-pearl beads that obviously weren't given the pearl finish, but are interesting nonetheless. It's strung on salmon colored Irish waxed linen cording, and is finished with a bit of antique copper chain & clasp.

New Old Stuff and Name that Thing!

I haven't blogged in ages - I'm sorry for being such a slacker! But you know, sometimes life just happens... Anyway, you might have noticed I've played around a bit with the design of my blog. My favorite colors - teal and purple.

So my friend Heather (famous for giving me tons of vintage jewelry to play with) is in town and she brought me a big bag of stuff. Yay! I haven't picked it all apart yet - just a cursory examination. But I did find one thing right away that I LOVED and had to use immediately. It's an old Australian coin that's been punched and sliced and entirely smoothed out on the backside. I just thought it was so interesting. People with lots of foreign coins (I'm looking at you Keirsten) might find some inspiration in this.

Also, does anyone recognize this stone? It's one of two things I got at the bead show last time that I didn't ask the name.

I finished this one last night too. But the focal came from someone on etsy who found a bunch of new old stock award medals that were unengraved. She patinas them beautifully. I've been hoarding this one for a year, and recently ordered a few more. So I finally gave myself permission to use it. I combined it with a Czech glass flower with a pearl and a vintage rhinestone, and it's on pale yellow knotted sari silk.

I made these earrings this past week. Mixed metals and to gorgeous blue lapis beads I got at that last gem show.

The ovals twist around a lot - I could not get them perfectly forward facing for the photo, but we all know movement in earrings is great!

Now, for a bit of the other stuff from Heather's package. There are some interesting things I have no idea about. For instance:

Anyone know what this is? Never been to Brooklyn.

I know there are a few Wisconsinites out there who read my blog (Erin for one). Does this mean anything to you?

I love this beautiful Cloisonne lentil pendant. It was her grandmother's. I definitely intend to make something very special out of it.

This Asian symbol (anyone?) in real -vintage- ivory. Speaking of ivory, did you all read this amazing elephant story that's been going around the interwebs lately? Get your hankies ready before you read it! And on the subject of animal tearjerkers - make sure to read about the world's loneliest whale.

Now, more gratuitous pictures of the stuff from Heather's package:

There's a rhinestone buckle in that little bag on the left. And lots of good glass pearls, etc.

This bear peeking out from behind a tree - burned into wood - totally cracks me up! And how about those awesome etched brass teardrops! A matching set! I can't wait to make earrings with those. That drilled thing above the gold heart is a double sided quarter. Don't know what I'll do with that tank charm...

These little black buttons are wooden with metal shanks. I have a feeling I'll come up with something for them. The green beads are wooden as well. Plus, there are natural wooden rounds in the bag beneath.

Here's the Australia necklace again. I wore it out to lunch today and it just feels so good on! You know how some jewelry just feels like it's supposed to be there? I hate to sell it, but I just can't keep everything I like! Maybe it won't sell after a few months and then I can keep it.

Finally Used the Flower Focal

Remember how two entries ago, I was trying to work with a Round Rabbit flower focal and instead I wound up with this fairy necklace?

Over the weekend, I decided come hell or high water that I was going to use that focal. I don't know why I was so dead set on it, but I was. I'd gotten some fab cherry quartz at the AKS Gem show 2 weeks ago, and I couldn't stop picturing it with the flower. Probably because it reminded me of this necklace I made a couple of years ago. Since I eventually removed it from etsy because I couldn't stop wearing it (I'm wearing it right now!), I didn't want to make something so similar. But I couldn't help myself from using the cherry quartz. I paired it with some Czech glass and strung it on turquoise waxed Irish linen. It's fun and colorful and springy, though I'm still not sure it was the best use of that flower. I think it's just my matchy matchy neurons twitching because the matchiness of the blues/turquoises don't seem to be close enough to draw it together. Like the focal's just the wrong shade of blues. Or am I being ridiculous?

EDIT: I am not being ridiculous! Kashmira's comment below is convincing me it should be paired with all white. Next question. White beads, but what color cord? Turquoise like it's already on, white for the sake of matching, or red in case someone who digs red, white & blue wants it?

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win the next stop on the Art Bead Love Tour!!!

With a little help from my friends...

Ever have one of those pieces about which you just CANNOT make up your mind? I'm a huge fan of Lynn Davis's gorgeous connectors (btw, she's currently having a 10% off sale). They always beg me for pearls, wire wrapping, and sparkly beads. Two of my favorite pieces I've ever made are with her connectors. This and this. So in this latest piece, I was going for more of the same, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. I was relatively happy with the main part, but I was fairly certain that the dangle was all wrong.

It's hard to tell, but that's a teeny faceted ruby above the rhinestone. I often wish those rubies were redder than pink. And I didn't have any garnet cut the right way. I was hearing various fellow bloggers' voices in my head, "don't be a perfectionist! don't be too precious! don't stress over every little detail!" and it was late and I was tired, so I just let it go. But every time I looked at it, it disappointed me more than it thrilled me. But then I didn't know if it was just me or I was being too picky.

So I snapped this photo with my iPhone and emailed it to Rebecca and Malin, who have become good friends whose styles I love and opinions I trust. They both agreed that they liked the idea of a group email confab to help when someone's stuck. I'm so glad, as I didn't want to seem a pest ;)

They both offered completely differing ideas, but they also both agreed it could be improved. Obviously, my inner voice was correct - and I was so glad to have their input. Rebecca suggested dangles (which she liked from another recent necklace I'd made) in either moonstone or ruby or both, as well as adding more to the dangle at the bottom. Malin suggested getting rid of the ruby altogether, and stacking some pearls and moonstones as a new dangle.

I thought about it and combined both of their ideas - but not necessarily exactly how they were describing them. Of course I can't picture what was in their minds and they don't know my stash, but I had a plan and I got busy. I stayed up a little later than I wanted to to finish it (who here hasn't done that a million times?), et Voila! I think it looks a lot better!

Thank you so much, ladies, for your input!

(Click to enlarge!)

Necklace Crazy

I'm usually more prolific with earrings. Maybe it's because I know I need to bring a new batch of springy stock to the salon, but I seem to be interested only in making necklaces. Here are 3 I've made in the last couple of days.


Focal from Nancy Schindler - Round Rabbit Extra, faceted jade, coral, carved bone, antiqued copper.

 

Hand painted shell pendant (retrieved from a Heather Box 'o Vintage Goodies), jade, kukui seeds, shell spacers, gold plated metal spacers, antique brass chain.

  

Raku Green Man pendant from Jessi,  glass, jade, agate, gunmetal strung on waxed Irish linen.

Raku Key Necklace

So here's the necklace I referred to last blog. It's nice, and I'm going to leave it as is for now. It's not *The Best Thing I've Ever Made!!!* -- which is something I aspire to feel after everything I make! Of course none of us actually do, but I had higher hopes for this for some reason. Nonetheless, it's not too bad.

The pendant was made by my friend Jessi, the crystals are from my mom's chandelier (destroyed by Katrina, salvaged by me and my nieces), and the other bits are labradorite chips, freshwater pearl chips, and hematite nuggets (that look deceivingly like pearls).

500 Coats of Paint Later...

The knobs for my display arrived Thursday, and after many failed attempts at geometry, I just gave up and eyeballed their placement. I decided it would probably be a smart move to prime the thing first. The cheapo 2/$1 craft paint I got at Michael's (mainly because it was called Robin's Egg Blue) was never going to cover all that stained brown wood. I got some primer at Lowe's, and gave it 3-4 coats before most of the brown was covered. Then it got at least the same number of coats of the blue. It was flat and hideous but yee haw, I remembered I had almost a full thing of Mod Podge somewhere in my art supply closet. A few coats of that, and at last! I'm pleased enough. I still have to clean up the edges where the primer/blue/Mod Podge accidentally landed. Here's a photo of the nearly end result.

 

I also priced all the jewelry that wasn't priced yet, and put 20 or more pairs of earrings on their cards and labeled & bagged them. And in the meantime, I tried to make more necklaces. Only one bracelet (after my vow last blog to make more, but I discovered I had more than I realized). 

The white beads are vintage, everything else is new - I've only got one more of these flowers left. I bought 4 a few years ago. I'm glad I didn't use them all up at once. I originally made this necklace with a different pendant, but decided it was a bad match. The necklace has been hanging around for a month until I finally made the connection that this flower would work. A friend of mine pointed out that the other black beads on the necklace sort of looked like they may be closed buds of more flowers. Never would have seen that, but I like it!

Another beautiful Lynn Davis connector, various pearls, rhinestone, glass beads, wire & sari ribbon. I started it, got frustrated, slept on it. Kept going, got frustrated again, slept on it once more and finally finished it on the third try. Guess the 3rd time really is a charm!

Another gorgeous raku pendant by Jessi of Ecclectic Trinkets, some knotted sari, sparkly crystals which perfectly complement the pendant, and annealed steel wire. That wire is SO hard to bend, and my right thumb/hand joint is crying today.

I usually try not to make things like this: pearls all around and a silver pendant. It's so common around here, though the pendant is usually some New Orleans themed item, but I had the (Hill Tribe) pendant and I had the pearls, and I can guarantee that it will go over well with my sister and her friends next week. They may be weirded out by all my sari and copper, but they'll at least like this.

I've had these black rhinestone balls for awhile, but haven't been able to figure out what to do with them until last night. They're pretty heavy, so I have 3 strands of stretch cord through them. And it is for someone with a very thin wrist. I made this one a few times over before I found the right combo to make it wearable for someone!

Bats in My Belfry

Being the time of the season and all that, I decided to finally make my bat necklace! But instead of going Halloweeny with the color scheme, I just made it Autumny. African Opal, Carnelian, Czech crystal and copper wire -- plus the translucent resin bat. Another one I want to steal from myself, but it'll be going to the salon tomorrow; I had to give it a test run today though, right?

Tea with Her Majesty

Well my first attempt at having a birthday weekend got Tropical Stormed out, but this past weekend I was able to make up for some of it. Sunday, I had my family party. My mom made my favorite --Veal Piccata and a delicious carrot cake. My 5 year old nephew helped me blow out the candles and there are photos, but they are as of yet not in my possession.

I do have plenty of photos from the English Tea Room, where some friends and I enjoyed High Tea. They brought out the Queen for a photo op. (And before anyone corrects me that pinkies out are uncouth, we were just being goofy and I am fully aware!) We had a really fun time and I left with 3 bags of tea -- Paris Black, Maple Cream, and Baroness Grey. Mmm...

The Queen and I.

 Teas and knees.

 Charlotte the Infrequent Beader and Ashley.

I don't think the Doctor is in here.

Also, on the day after my birthday, I received a very unexpected and wonderfully generous present in the mail! Rebecca Anderson sent me the lovely Moogin Poppy necklace of hers I'd been eyeing for months! I nearly fainted with joy when I opened the package. Thank you again Rebecca! I love it :)

I also went shopping and bought some fabulous shoes and I got my new drivers license (with a fairly decent picture, which is always a plus). And my mom introduced me to a young coworker who had seen my etsy and really liked my jewelry. She bought a few things, including some of the most favorited pieces I had on etsy: this necklace and this bracelet.

I will leave you with a necklace I made with one of the Golem Studio pendants I treated myself to for my birthday, and another necklace made with some beautiful deco bits from Heather's Big Box o' Vintage Treasures.