Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Eye Ring


before patina


after w/ patina

Since the first jewelry class back in September of 2009 I wanted to use glass taxidermy eyes. This year I found a source, picked out a few & got to work. I had a few wishes for my eyes,green or gold & slit pupils. This eye met two of those criteria. I was finally able to make this ring because I found solder for copper, my metal of choice. I won't be keeping this ring, today is my best friend's birthday & when I sent him the picture of the raw ring he responded, "I love it, must have one". That is a true friend, wanting the raw ring w/o hesitation.I'll get it wrapped & then I'm taking him for dim sum tomorrow.  A funny story about Bryan, when I was having the experience from hell a couple of weeks ago switching cable/ internet providers I called him & said" you are going to have to talk me off this ledge because I am ready to start sniping off the tower" he didn't miss a beat, just replied " I can talk you down if you want, but you know I'm going to be by your side reloading"

eye sets

I'm going to celebrate International Charm Day by finishing a charm bracelet I've been collecting parts for a couple of years. I've been laying it out for  six months, easy.So that bracelet & maybe some work on my 'green' piece today. Have a creative day everyone!
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Friday, April 27, 2012

Messy Studio Hop

view from the door

bead table from the left

extra 6 foot table I pulled out to do a holiday show in december.



the bed table, proper

Ugh it looks even worse in  pictures, & that's saying something.I'm a 'stacker', all over the house. The bead table actually has the most flat available surface of anywhere else, (it's the trays, I can stack them on a shelf, pull out a new one & have a new clean surface to work) scary I know. I'll leave you w/ the list of hop a longs so you can get out of here, quickly!

MESSY WORKSHOP BLOG PARTICIPANTS
Brenda Sue Lansdowne
http://www.bsueboutiques.typepad.com/
Robin Delargy:
http://looloosbox.blogspot.com/
Kim at Cianci Blue
http://cianciblue.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Jazwick-Smith
http://hudathoughts-jennifer.blogspot.com/
Mary Shannon Hicks
http://www.uptwnsh-fallingintothesky.blogspot.com/
Tracy Swartz
http://tracyswartz.com/category/blog
Jacqueline Marchant
http://jaacquelinesjewels.blogspot.com/
Lynnea Perry Bennett
http://designsbylynnea.blogspot.com/
Terry Matusyk
http://pinkchapeau.wordpress.com/
Laurel Steven
http://laurelsteven.blogspot.com/
Dr. Brassy Steamington
http://drbrassysteampunk.blogspot.com/
Pamela Takeshige
http://www.crittersandthings.blogspot.com/
Kris Lanae Binsfeld
http://www.cherishdesigns.wordpress.com/
Outre Art
http://theartistspaintbox.wordpress.com/
Linzi Alford
http://www.magpieintheskyspoilheaptales.blogspot.com/
Deb Davis
http://naturaltreasuresbydeb.blogspot.com/
Tamara Jones
http://irrysistablejewels.wordpress.com/
Harry Wood
http://www.oscarcrow.blogspot.com/
Gerry Nickerson
http://gersgems1.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Owens-Dwy
http://www.thepolymergeek.blogspot.com/
Georgene Lockwood
http://sylvanavintagedesigns.wordpress.com/
Charisa Sloper
http://www.blog.obsidiansoda.com/
Jennifer Justman
http://soulsfiredesigns.blogspot.com/
Beanzie
http://the-vintage-heart.blogspot.com/
Mary Deis
http://mdeis.blogspot.com/
Cheri Reed
http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/
Sondra Kolner
http://scrappybydesign.weebly.com/index.html
Sonya Ingersoll-Stille
http://www.dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com/
Lori Anderson
http://www.prettythingsblog.com/
Sandra McGriff
http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.ca/
Shelly Joyce
http://www.aujourlejour-shelly.blogspot.com/
Joan Williams
http://www.lilrubyjewelry.wordpress.com/
Kashmira Patel
http://sadafulee.blogspot.com/
Deb Beechy
http://beetique56.blogspot.com/
Ginger Bishop
http://lilmummylikes.blogspot.com/
Kelli Jacobson
http://creativemoonjewelryandthings.com/
Natalie McKenna
http://www.grubbi.co.uk/
Andrew Thornton
http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/
Mary Govaars
http://mlhjewelrydesigns.com/
Kate Mulligan
http://mulliganstewjewelry.blogspot.com/
Lisa Lodge
http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com/
Tami Luchini
http://ssprocketsmetal.blogspot.com/
Monique Lula
http://www.moniquelula.com/blog/
Lee Koopman
http://stregajewellry.wordpress.com/
Jayne Capps
http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com/
Susan Lloyd
http://designsbysusan-dbs.blogspot.com/
Cynthia Wainscott
http://www.exoticperujewelry.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Amanti
http://www.stephaniesjewelrybox.blogspot.com/
Alicia Marinache
http://www.allprettythings.ca/
Sam Hamp
http://hampgirl59.blogspot.com/
Lennis Carrier
http://www.windbent.net/

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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Wrapped, Stacked & Layered Hop

Here are 14 bracelets I put together for this challenge. I usually wear a stack of bracelets,(minimum of three)daily so this was right up my alley! From left to right; chunky glass faceted beads [made for this challenge],red leather wrap bracelet[Wal Mart],3 bangles[made these about 15 years ago, the one w/ the Buddha face bead is a recent repair],B&W leather friendship bracelet[dollar jewelry store], red bamboo coral[made 4 years ago], cherry charm bracelet[Tiffany Gutierrez], lava beads,[made 4 years ago] silver chain[gift, thnx Mom],red trade beads on elastic[gift,mom again] leather cord/double wrap bracelet[made for me by  my oldest niece],stone skulls on elastic[made this a couple of years ago],silver skulls[re purposed from broken wallet chain]. The 8 from the right & the red leather wrap bracelet are in heavy rotation,often worn a couple of times a week.

This is a 'gimme' an extra. When I signed up for this challenge I thought about making a whole new stack,but then I reconsidered when I thought about my tried & true workhorses. It hardly seemed fair to leave them out! So this bracelet is a compromise, yes I said bracelet, as in 1.The last time I beaded w/ my best friend T she talked about "one day taking a whole coil of memory wire I had & beading the whole thing". This wasn't a new, whole coil, but in honor of T I picked up a coil & started stringing. In a strange twist of fate, I ended up w/ 14 different 'bracelets'. I think she would have loved this( it is a BEAST, heavy like you would not believe!) & probably made off w/ it for her own, ; )
Here is your hop list

















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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Green!


Can you guess what colour I'm using in the One Crayon Colour Blog Hop ?
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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!

The kids & I made eggs using silk ties for the dye. I really love the way they turned out.The kids were impressed too, I think they'll enjoy using them tomorrow @ their egg hunt.
Me. Easter 1967. Happy Easter
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Ice Resin Mishaps

This week I was disillusioned w/ a blog. Now I'm not completely naive, I know comments are deleted, especially those of the nasty variety, but I really didn't think comments that gave a different experience would be deleted. I went to the Ice Resin blog to see a project video. Part of the process involved using a torch on a tin, creating an almost crocodile like texture. As the artist was using the syringe applicator she went on & on about how great the syringe was because you could use a small amount of resin & measure so easily & accurately. I left a comment along the lines of 
                             " that is a great tip on using the torch on a tin. I can't share your love for the syringe,however, because when I used mine it was cool, & as I was later told "when it is cold, one part of the resin is heavier than the other & comes out differently". My resin never set up & now I am afraid the resin left in the syringe is also out of ratio"
That's it,nothing outright mean or awful. Just what I thought was a statement of fact that the syringe dispenser didn't work so well for me the first time & what was left probably wouldn't work either. When I was reading today's post I noticed several more comments & wondering if anyone had an answer about my remaining resin I read them. My comment was gone, as if it had never been said. Nothing left but fawning compliments on the project.now in my research about resin I discovered a hint on another brand's page that said if it was very cool put your bottles in a glass of warm water for a few minutes to make sure your resin isn't too cool to work properly. That was an easy fix that would have saved my projects/bezels.I haven't decide if it is worth it to cut the plunger on the syringe & try to dispense each side independently (thereby negating ALL of the ease of the syringe) or just chucking it & moving on to the envirotex resin I have.
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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Candy Coated Ears Challenge

Serena @ All Things Made Jewelry held a challenge involving the colours from this painting,Love Letter 2 by Jamie Best. The rules were, 1) make earrings,2) use @ least 3 of the colours,3) use wire &/or chain in your earrings. Simple enough, right?

I'd like to start off w/ , I love this palette.The three dark variations of black w/ the pop of reds was enough outside of my regular greens that I thought it would really be a challenge,(oddly enough I make a lot of black & red pieces for myself).Then the reality set in. The last colour was out of left field, is it pink/ is it peach? The answer is yes, depends on your computer,time of day,etc.I had the perfect orangey red bead, but only two of them.The darks were much easier, I had wire in gunmetal & black & some dark chain that was perfect. I put together lots of beads, moved them around & sketched many earrings.For such a simple challenge I was having trouble getting anything I liked. A lot of beads didn't make the final cut.
Lots of the earrings I sketched were lush but I couldn't get the sketches to translate to reality.These feel a little spare to me for that reason. The only colour I didn't actively use was the white(eggshell?bone?) but both the briolette beads & the coral beads have that colouration in them. That satisfied the requirements enough for me. All in all I really did enjoy this challenge, frustrations & all. I'm going to revisit this palette & see what else I can come up w/, maybe that lush pair of earrings will come to pass after all!
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