After forever and a day...

I figured it was high time I FINALLY get back to updating my blog. And what better way but to show off my latest stone haul from the gem show today. I spent way more than I had budgeted but I found some really great stones this time around.

First, Dave and I were actually there at 10 AM when the doors opened. The previous times we have went I would work a couple of hours and we'd end up getting there at 10:30/11 AM. Of course the majority of people there are there to buy bead strands and finding type stuff. First I hit up my usual vendor for moonstone and labradorite. They had a nice selection this go around that were good sized and lots of flash. I was a bit disappointed in their labradorite but did find some nice larger pieces for pendants. I also decided to try some kyanite. It is one of my favorite stones but I'm not sure how it will do in the shop, so I'm taking a bit of a chance there.

Then we went around to some of the other vendors. I found some more nice labradorite so I bought those and then I found another vendor that had some beautiful stones. Alot of them were really big which was disappointing since they would be way bigger than I would want to wrap but very nice quality. I picked up some one off stones there that just looked interesting. Two fossilized sand dollars, a nice piece of lapiz, a green turquoise and then my favorite, 2 brecciated stones that are made up of turquoise, sugilite, and pyrite.

I usually don't go for man made type stones and stick to natural but these were too beautiful to pass up. The colors are amazing and they will make absolutely gorgeous pendants.

New Ring

So, after my first attempt last weekend at some metalwork I haven't touched it all week. Yesterday I had some time and decided to try and do a ring since that is what I REALLY wanted to learn this for. The problem recently has been deciding what stone to use. I have quite a few sitting in trays just waiting to be plucked out and something marvelous done with them. This of course ends up being the hard part. I really love doing the wire wrapping so I'll pick up a stone for possible metal work and then think it would really look good wire wrapped and put it back down. This is why I decided to make a ring next. I have a handful of stones that are smaller than I like to wrap and are a nice ring size.

I had a labradorite oval that was part of a two stone lot. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it and after some time I figured it would make a nice ring. It really is a beautiful stone as it is basically all blue flash there is no green or yellow play at all. I am quite pleased with how it turned out for a first attempt. It is not totally finished so don't mind some of the imperfections in the silver, I still need to do a few tweaks in shaping and it still needs polishing. Of course I have to keep it off my finger long enough to do these thing....

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.

New Pendant and Just Stuff

I got 2 new stones in the mail today. One of these being a labradorite stone. This one has a flash that is beautiful at the angle when it's worn but a bit tricky to photograph in my usual way. I could take a photo of it on my mannequin bust but it just wouldn't looks as nice as the wood grain/bamboo look my usual photo background does. The supplier I buy from gets this shape in quite often and I have to say that whomever is cutting these always does a beautiful job of cutting the piece so that you get the best flash at the perfect angle for a pendant. I love everything about these stones from the shape to the color and amount of flash that are in them. Each one I make I end up loving more than the last. Here's a photo because as I write this it just sold.
I also ordered a bunch of new glass rods today by a different manufacture I wanted to try out. I'm hoping they will be here by the end of the week. I have lots of really neat beads made, just haven't been in a stringing type mood when it comes to jewelry creation. Also, I want to make some beads that will fit the Pandora style bracelets for the craft show coming up in October. I'm sure there are a couple people around work that have these type bracelets so it wouldn't hurt to have some and see how/if they sell.

Quick Post - Shawl and Pendants

Last night was busy. I finished up that shawl and am going to try and get good pictures of it in natural light when I get home from work today. The pictures I took last night are horrible. I plan on making another I just don't know if it will be in black or a medium, sort of country blue.

After finishing the shawl I decided to start working on wire wrapping some stones to make pendants. There's a rumor (and it's pretty much been decided just don't know the actual date) that we will be having a craft fair where I work. It's supposed to be sometime in May and I want to have a decent stock of pendants. So for now these are getting created but probably won't be listed. I'm not sure because May is still more than a month away and I have more than enough stones waiting to be wrapped.

This first one is one of the labradorites I received the other day. It's not the huge one I was talking about but it still is a very nice stone and has a beautiful green glow.


The next one is a really long piece of charoite. It also has these really great gold colored rutiles on one of the sides that I think gives it character.

Almost Friday

I have been busy as of late. Yesterday some more pendants came in that I'm using for my flower pendants. I worked up a couple last night and they turned out pretty nice. I found an easier way to do the base background by using clay. It works really well for the oval and circle pendants plus the dried flowers embed into it better. One of the issues I've found with using the paper type backgrounds and no way to really secure the flowers is that while the resin is drying the flowers will start to try and float, which you really don't want because then there's not a smooth finished surface.

I also received some more patterned wire in this shipment. I bought some more of the flower/spiral design and also picked up some that is about the same thickness but about have the width. It will make a very nice pair of thinner hoops I think. But, I'm not even working on those until this weekend. Also in the mail were two labradorite stones. One is huge and absolutely beautiful. It has the neast blue and gold flame. Usually with labradorite when you hold it one way it will flash one color and when you shift the position of it it will flash another color. This stone will flash both blue on one area and gold in another area at the same time. It is really quite stunning.

Tonight I'm finishing up a dark red shawl I've been working on . It is a bit more intricate than the one I posted before and instead of the usual triangular shape this one is a half circle. I was a bit worried that it would take me longer than it has when I first started it but it picked up towards the end so I'm really pleased with how it turned out. As always, pictures of everything are soon to follow.

The day after always sucks

Today felt like it was in slow motion. I'm chalking most of that up to the fact that yesterday all of us we're home with some kind of cold type thing going around. My son was up coughing half the night, I was just drained and my husband is on the upward end of it and was going to be working a night shift so he just stayed home for moral support. We are all doing somewhat better today so no PTO for me. Of course I had piles of stuff and e-mails to decipher waiting for me at work.

Today also was my first day of doing the South Beach diet. I've done something similar in the past so the whole idea behind it is nothing new to me and for the first day I've done really good and stuck to the guideline of what you're supposed to have. The evening is killing me though. The only comfort is knowing that after a couple of days the cravings for the sweet or starchy type things does go away. It's just getting through the first couple of days.

I received 2 stones in the mail yesterday that I bought online to make pendants out of. So far every time I've made a pendant from labradorite it sells pretty fast on my etsy site so one of those came in yesterday along with this really awesome purple and green banded fluorite. I'm anxious to wrap both of them but sense I haven't been feeling 100% it's just not happening.