It's not perfect but it's a start

So, earlier I said I was wanting to get into the metal working aspect of the jewelry making. I ordered some silver sheet and bezel wire and some other needed tools that came in on Wednesday. I was needing some more wire anyway so I picked up these additional things. For a first try at the whole process it didn't turn out too bad.


Of course I NEVER do anything basic or simple the first time around. I didn't want just a plain round bezel edge so of all things I used a pair of scrap booking scissors for cutting out decorative edges...worked great. Since this is just a test piece I decided I wasn't going to make it a pendant and once I was finished thought it would make a pretty nice center piece to a bracelet so I puched 4 holes into it and put the jump rings in. I have some unakite beads in my stash which is what the stone I used is so I'm sure I'll be able to put something together. I still need to get some new polishing tools for our dremmel so I can get it shined and cleaned up a bit more.

Other than that which I did this morning I've been busy wrapping stones. I have to admit that for pendants, I still prefer the wire wrapping method to making them. I really wanted to learn the soldering and metal work for rings and I do think it's something I'll be able to do. Here are the stones I've wrapped so far this weekend.


From left to right, Malachite, Larimar, Labradorite, Larimar and Tourmaline in Quartz.

Changes

Lately I've been working on my website in Kompozer. I really didn't like what templates and such my provider had and never realized how simple it was to do in WYSIWYG type application. Plus with Kompozer, it's open source and I can get a portable version that fits on my flash drive and take it with me anywhere which is kind of cool. I had Dave upload and make it live tonight and in the process he killed all of the images that I had for my blog template. So, back to basics until I find something else. The other was neat but it really was too busy for my liking anyway.

I think the Little G is going through a teething period right now, the past two nights he's been cranky and complaining of his teeth hurting in the back where his molars are. Luckily the motrin has been working at night and he's been sleeping okay. I still wish there was something more that could be given to him to help.

I've decided to start listing more of my pendants on Artfire. I listed three new ones there today. I have a pretty good assortment on etsy and sales and views have been extremely slow compared to the last 3 months. I know Artfire is new and views there for some are low but I figure I'll give it a little love and try to build up some stock and inventory there and see where it goes.

10 years and new stones

Friday was Dave and I's 10th anniversary. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long which I guess is a good thing. I took the day off and we just spent the day together and went out for breakfast and lunch. It was pretty nice and the weather held out for most of the day.

I am starting to get in some stones I purchased recently. I still have two more sets of stones I'm waiting on, one of those most likely on Monday the other sometime next week. I'm trying to get some more colors and different stones so I can have a nice variety. Here is my latest haul.


The 3 green on the left are malachite, a pink andean opal, then an absolutely beautiful deep purple amethyst, 4 pink rhodochrosite stones, a speckled lapiz chrysoclla stone, 2 smokey quartz stones and lastly a petrified palm wood stone. The petrified palm has to be my favorite but that amethyst and the smokey quartz are close seconds. I think I have just enough gold filled wire left to wrap the palm wood and then I think either the amethyst or a malachite piece will be next. There's an idea I have in my head for the large rhodochrosite piece so I'll be saving that one for when I have some time to really sit down and just play.

Lately I've REALLY been wanting to venture into the metalworking aspect of jewelry making. I picked up a couple of books this weekend and watched a couple of tutorials on youtube just to see what I might be getting myself into. For some reason the idea of soldering kind of freaks me out. Don't ask, I have no problem at all working glass in an open flame but for some reason I doubt myself that I'll be able to solder and it turn out presentable enough. I figure it's worth a shot though and if I don't at least try I'll always wonder if I'd be able to.

New Stuff and Old Stuff Revamped

I have a spot on the Just Jewels showcase tomorrow on Etsy so I was busy trying to get two more pendants done tonight. I know alot of people say the showcase spots are a total waste but I try to do one Main showcase a month and all of them have given me quite a few hearts, views and even sales either that day or people that hearted me came back and bought something. As I said, I prefer the Main showcase spots but the Thursday that they came open (the same as the Just Jewels one) I forgot and this was the only one that had spots left when I finally remembered.

These are the latest two pendants, a larimar and a labradorite piece. The larimar is pure perfection for me. The frame turned out great, the bail is fantastic and the design even surpised me as it just fits. I don't draw out or plan out most of my designs, I just pick it up and start turning the wire. Don't get me wrong, I love my labradorite piece I just did but the larimar one was just natural. It was like I started it and I was done with it, just like that.


As for my "revamped" part of my title, that's probably a bit over stated. Close to when I first started my blog I posted some pictures of my first attempts at making glass beads. Well I've FINALLY gotten around to doing something with a few of the firsts ones I made. I've started making a bracelet with them. I love how it's turning out so far and the only thing I really have left to do is add some chain to make it adjustable and to figure out what I'm going to do about a clasp. I really want to make my own hook type clasp out of wire but clasps are far from my specialty. For now I'm happy with how it looks and will be looking for some ideas on what to do to finish this piece off.

3 day weekends and birthdays

I took yesterday off to spend the day with Dave whose birthday is tomorrow. It was nice and relaxing. We dropped the little one off at daycare and went out for breakfast and took a nice drive and just talked. It was nice because we used to do this all the time but with Little G around, most of the time he has something to interject or say and you don't really get to talk about anything to serious. Then, we went out to lunch before the rains came.

Knowing that my craft show is coming up in October I'm trying to keep a decent stock of pendants so I've set a goal of 4 pendants a weekend. This weekend I'm doing good as I have made 3 labradorite ones. I listed two on etsy but the third I need to get some better photos of. Here they are.
The second one is my favorite and if there has ever been a pendant that I have had a half a mind to keep for myself it is this one. I just love how the design turned out on it.

Here lately I have been on a labradorite kick. I have 3 more stones that I ordered this past week, 2 are more of the gold/green color the other is a green/blue one. I also have 4 larimar stones coming any day. One of them I am anxiously awaiting to get and wrap. If it looks half as good as it did online it will make an absolutely gorgeous piece. Next to search for will be some quartz stones.

Just Vanilla

Yesterday after finishing up dinner Little G got to have some ice cream since he ate really good. We buy these 12 packs of single serving ice cream by Bluebell that has 6 chocolate and 6 vanilla cups in it and usually Dave or I will split it with the little one. You would think that the chocolate would be his favorite but he's all about the vanilla ones.

Yesterday I was the one sharing the ice cream and I let the first bit kind of slowly melt in my mouth and the taste and idea of it being "vanilla" made me think back to a time back in high school. I was of course one of the band kids and usually about 2 weeks before school started band practice started from 8-12 Monday thru Friday. Of course, once I could drive, my two best friends and I would always go to this little shed like looking house on the other side of town and get shaved ice. I say shaved ice because if I say snowcone people invision those pointed cups with hard little ice nodules that crunched when you ate them and had generic flavors. No, shaved ice was served in a styrafoam cup and you actually watched them shave this huge ice cube into the cup and then shape the ice slivers into a ball, just like you would with snow. Then there were the flavors, at least 50 to choose from.

One of my friends and I would usually try a different flavor each time we went, him the sweeter ones like cotton candy, bubble gum or blue rasberry and me the tarter or just different flavors like mai tai and cinnamon. Our other friend would ALWAYS pick vanilla, and we would always give him a hard time because of course back then when someone would say vanilla the first thing that would always come to my mind was boring and bland. There was nothing exciting about vanilla, and when we would tease him he would just smile and humor us and our antics.

I thought about him yesterday and his vanilla and how it really isn't that bland of a flavor at all. It's a staple to almost any baking recipe, if there is something lacking flavor wise some measurement of a teaspon will usually so the trick. It's like vanilla is the perfect balance of sweet. It has this sugary sweet taste but at the same time it's smooth and not harsh.

So yesterday, when I was half teasing my son asking if he wanted chocolate ice cream or vanilla , exagerating the word chocolate and he kept tell me, "No momma, 'nilla" I just sort of smiled to myself and thought about my friend who always had that smile as if he held some secret, some knowledge that only he could understand. Thinking back on it yesterday I think he did.

New Glass

This past weekend I got a chance to really play with my new glass. I am now in love with CiM glass rods. I bought several different colors to try that included, Bordello, Celadon, Glacier, Simple Berry, Evil Queen, Poi, Ginger, Canyon de Chelly, Hades, Desert Pink, Comando and some clear. I've tried out all the colors to some extent and here is a photo of my creations
I am extremely proud of the two flower ones as they were my first attempt at doing flowers.