Play toys

So, last Friday I broke down and ordered my kiln and I am super excited about it getting here. I already have a ton of ideas going throuhg my head and have boughten quite a few smaller cabs to try my hand at making some rings and pendants with the PMC clay. Of course the kiln hasn't arrived yet but still I'm anxiously waiting.

I also ordered a glass kit on Friday that will be here tomorrow. So by the weekend I hope to be making me some glass beads. Dave and I were talking last night about how cultural Orlando tries to make itself out to be but it's sometimes hard to find places that cater to these type works. I found lots of studios but I had a hard time finding a brick and mortar store I can walk in to and buy glass rods or some other type equipment. When I was thinking about picking up hand throwing pottery I think I only found two places I could go and get clay but only one was really near to where I live. It can be annoying sometime when I want to go out and get something and not have to wait.

Anyway, with any luck I'll be posting pictures this weekend of my new glass beads. Yay!

Old friends

Today while we were driving around town running errands Dave got a call from an old co-worker of his. He had recently moved to Tallahassee and he was in town close by so he wanted to drop in to say hi. Of course that means the evening straightening for people coming over. My dining room is basically my "studio" and the dinning room table and hutch stay cluttered with my jewelry and clay. So I spent about an hour reorganizing and cleaning all that up. I found some old "friends" that I had forgotten about.

The first thing I found was this. My first successful (if you can call it that) attempt and wire wrapping. And I thought this thing looked amazing when I first did it, compared to my work now, not so much. LOL. But still, it brought back some old memories

The second thing I found were two stones that I had bought at an estate sale. The purple one is a very nice iolite cab that reminded me that I need to find some setting for it. I've wire wrapped stones this small before but this one I think needs more of a traditional setting.
The other reminded me why I have decided to save all the money I make off etsy to buy a kiln to use for metal clay. It is a beautiful jelly opal that has some very nice blue green fire in it. It will make an absolutely stunning ring but it's size is not a normal size you would find a setting for so it will have to be hand made.The past week or so has been good to me on etsy. I figure I have about 1/3 of what I need to buy one of the small recommended kilns. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll have enough in 3 or 4 months.