Another funky entry ..

This bracelet echos the bracelet posted a few weeks ago called Gold Coast. As it often happens, someone saw the gold version and asked "do you make one in silver"? Story of my life .. if it'd been this version out there, someone would have inquired about a gold one. But they're fun to make, and it pumps up the inventory volume everytime I follow up on a remark like that .. so here we go.

I call it Sweet Summer Folly .. dunno why. It began with that very cool little round lentil lampwork bead and just moved on from there. The hand faceted purple stone is, of course, amethyst and the glowing pea green round bead is resin .. I just love those resin beads. They really do glow!

I made this one with 18 gauge rather than the 16 gauge I used for the gold version .. it's about the same length as the gold bracelet, but just a tad lighter. The "garage springs" and the eye pins running through the coiled beads use half hard wire, which is a whole lot more springy than the dead soft version I normally use .. the half hard wire makes up for having used a smaller gauge. I'm really liking the coiled wire clasp embellishment. It's been fun coming up with new ways to use those wire skills!

Like snowflakes and fingerprints ..

I got a slow start this spring with the PMC leaves .. I thought the thing to do was to catch 'em as they came out; but it seems leaves (for my purposes, anyway) are just a tad too tender at that stage. The thing that's most important to me besides size and shape is veining. There are a vast array of really interesting looking leaves out there that have absolutely no veining, (at least not protruding veining) and so are useless to me for this purpose. And new spring leaves kinda fall into that category. Just not fully developed enough for the clay. So, I had to wait. And within a very short period of time, the thing that becomes apparent is that a good chunk of your best specimens have been destroyed by critters. Then the hunt begins in earnest! As I found a lot of great samples in August in September last year, I know they're out there. But you do have to search a little harder.

With the exception of the larger birch in the center - which was sent to me via the US postal service on a damp paper towel inside a ziplock baggie as a memento gift from a tree with a sentimental connection to the gift recipient - these leaves all came from the three-acre property where we run Cara leash free. It boasts mostly maples - and in so many varieties I can't even identify the specifics with a good tree book - but has an interesting variety of oak as well. And then there are all the cool little things springing up among the honeysuckle, or popping up right in the middle of an open, grassy area. There's a nice mix and a large enough area to find some attractive little possibilities.

But even with all I have available to me there (not to mention the additional three acres on which our home sets), I now find I'm much more aware of the flora when I find myself in a place where an intriguing variety presents itself. Cara and I accompanied Ed to the Remington Museum Saturday morning while he took care of some minor chores there; and I and found myself looking at the incredible garden at Kid's Place next door with new eyes. All kinds of possibilities .. though with Cara in tow, I didn't have the chance to take a closer look at that time. Perhaps this week when I'm out running errands ..

But, back to the leaves at hand. These were just cut and dried .. nothing else. If you click on the pic, you can see the rough edges. I think I might patinate these, so I may not spend as much time cleaning them up as I normally do. And the slightly darker leaf in the upper left corner is clay .. clay clay, I mean, not metal clay. A local potter gave me a huge hunk of the stuff to play with, and we thought we might collaborate on the leaf thing in a slightly different medium (have I mentioned this before?!?) I also went out and found a LARGE oak leaf and cut out what would end up being a sort of "trinket leaf" rather than something you wear around your neck. A little something to put next to a bathroom or kitchen sink for rings or on your dresser for loose change. But after I'd draped it over a large plastic ball of Cara's to dry .. and got very excited about the possibilities .. I broke off a segment when cleaning it up with a piece of fine sandpaper. I broke off a chunk of that very funky red maple in the lower left corner, too, during the same process ... but I discovered that metal clay repairs much better than clay clay. So .. I have a large hunk of useless dried leaf with nothin' for it but to maybe pulverize it down to powder and make slip with it. Hate to waste it.

I'll make the bails this week .. I have a really cool informal, don't-know-what's-gonna-happen Art Fest at Mare's Wares Pottery on July 1, and I'd like to have them completed by then. If you're actually in the north country and are around on Tuesday, July 1, stop by! She's right on Route 37 in Morristown (you can't possibly miss her big brown sign!!) .. and she's hired a band, a great food vendor, a brand new porta potty (she was very excited that it was not only a new unit, but that it boasts a sink!! .. it's the little things, folks) and there'll be 15 or 20 artisans on board trying to make a living and having a ball in the process. In case you're wondering, it's Canada Day. And we get a lot of Canadian traffic up here on the border with our northern neighbors. Plus, a lot of folks with homes along the St. Lawrence River take that week off for the July 4th holiday and come up early. If the weather cooperates, I think we're gonna have a major event on our hands! Come on up!!

Gold and Sapphires

While I feel I've definitely improved on the photography front, there are still occasions when I find myself stumped. Recording an image of this stunning piece seems to be one of those occasions. I thought of using the elegant black plastic hand once again, but the piece is so delicate, it just barely shows up as being part of the picture .. at least not without an extreme close-up. The other issue - once again - is sparkle .. or rather lack thereof. It's been a humbling adventure, this photography thing .. I have a lot of respect for those who do it well.

I'll try this one with the hand and see how it goes .. I probably should have just tried it while the tripod and camera were all set up, but I tend to get ... impatient. It's the Type A thing ... or maybe it's just ADD.

Anyway, I tried a couple different things here .. mostly so the piece could be seen in its entirety .. one shot on the clear support above and another on the milky white one below (I really need to get a black background before I can use the black surface successfully, otherwise everything reflects back onto the black surface. If you go back to early shots last year, I did take a few photos with it using natural light from a shop window).

I can't even begin to express my frustration at my inability to show this for the delicate but exquisite piece it is .. especially since it was so long in the making. I had purchased these lovely little 2.5mm faceted sapphire rondelles back in 2003 or 2004, just because I couldn't resist their sparkle - and because I had been slowly adding a strand or two of precious gemstones to my inventory at every wholesale show or two I was attending back then, and these were a great find. However, after purchasing them, I couldn't for the life of me think of a way to use them that would set them off. It would have been unthinkable to just string 'em up on wire and add a clasp .. just too darn boring for such beautiful little stones. So, I broke up these little segments with 14k gold chain .. and if you click on the photo, you can see tiny little 14k gold granulated spacers at either end of the stone segments. The clasp is unusual, too .. it's called a pelican clasp. This one is 18k, but I only just found a place where I can get them in 14k in three sizes (they're hard to find). If you clicked on the photo to enlarge it, you'd also see two tiny little 22k gold stardust beads on the ends of the chain where the clasp is attached.




















There's a thread going on my favorite jewelry forum on photography, and one woman eschewed all the expensive lighting, light cubes, light clouds, etc. for natural light out on her deck. She just places the piece on rice or coffee beans to set it off, and actually comes up with some pretty nice photos. I'm afraid this piece would get lost between the grains or beans .. but it has set me to thinking ... stay tuned!

Viking Knit meets Glass Blower

I've finally found a way to distinquish my fine silver Viking Knit necklaces from the sterling versions .. hand blown glass cones!

I had seen some glass cones in one of the many jewelry magazines that arrive in my mailbox occasionally and got very excited .. until I visited the web site and saw how much they wanted for them. Egads!!! A pair of them were significantly more than a pair of intricate Bali silver cones (more than three times the cost) .. the site offered a 20% wholesale discount, but the cost remained exorbitant.

Still .. even though they were a little roughly hewn, the thought stuck with me.

So I got the bright idea of contacting a local glass blower .. we finally connected in February and clicked immediately. I ended up spending much more time there that afternoon than I had planned - not only picking out some bright spring glass colors once he decided he could and would make them for me, but finding a wealth of little artistic commonalities which ended in his inviting me to come and make use of his studio any time in my enduring quest to learn how to make glass beads and pendants.

I picked up eleven pretty and colorful pairs of them in April and have only just gotten around to attaching them to a fine silver weave I initially brought along with me back in February to show him what the larger end diameter needed to be. I'm really pleased with the end results (so to speak) .. not only are they superior to the versions I'd seen in the magazine, but (while still more than a pair of sterling silver cones) they were also a lot closer to wholesale in price.

Here are the rest of them .. patiently awaiting their own fine silver weave to embellish. I have some ideas for necklaces that use only a partial segment of Viking knit .. the rest being chain or beads. In that way, the cone colors may be used to complement another segment of the necklace .. like rose quartz, lapis, amethest, opal, or any number of other shades. And I'm already thinking about the possibilities of warm, Autumn glass colors and 14k gold-filled wire for
the fall!!

Redux

This is a repeat of a piece I made about seven or eight years ago .. except this time I made the clasp, too. The piece from which it is derived is just a tad darker with shades of garnet and jet included -but basically they both shimmer in shades of blue and lavender crystals. And, per usual, the picture doesn't do it justice. Even my little "sparkler" light couldn't make the thing pop the way it does live and in person. Trust me .. it sparkles!

What prompted me to make it were the inquiries whenever I wore mine. I had made multiple versions five or six years ago in different shade families (once when I found some 5mm vermeil granulated spacer beads, I even made a stunning version in Autumn shades with a gold-filled clasp), and they all sold very well. But .. well, we move on, don't we. Being the curious Type A, over achieving, anal-retentive, perfectionist that I am, it's difficult not to be lured into learning new skills and processes .. and then working hard at making them my own. And with so many wonderful artisans out there willing to teach them to you, how can you resist?!?!

Though, having said that, returning to a comfy design or skill set is kinda like finding a favorite pair of old jeans at the bottom of your drawer or closet .. you'd forgotten they were even there and how good they feel when worn.

And sometimes when revisiting an old, comfortable skill set, you may find yourself so relaxed in the steps and motions you find your mind is able to let go of the task at hand and feel around at the outer edges .. and it often happens that this is when the lightbulb comes on over your head.

Due to the whole thyroid thing this winter, I was feeling a big "squished" creatively, and so reverted to some old skill sets and designs to allow some relaxed creativity to emerge. As it happens, it seems to have worked! Yay!! This little creative rush I've been experiencing, combined with a recent increase in Synthyroid, has helped tremendously. Having fun again .. ideas are beginning to flow .. now I just gotta keep up with 'em!

















This bracelet, called Pizzazz, is another old friend. A gallery owner in Lowville (one of my Adirondack Artisans Guild homies) had requested a couple of these when she saw one I had left in inventory. I made a couple for my display there, then dug through my Bali bead collection and made a couple more. The intricacy of these beads never fails to astound me .. and they make for a really unusual piece.

If you're reading this on my blog rather than in an email "post update", click on the pic and check 'em out up close .. all those little dots and wires are added one at a time. The process of adding all those little dots is called granulation, and I've tried it .. it ain't easy. One .. dot .. at .. a .. time!! I'd have to shoot myself after a few hours of doing that .. and the silver artisans in Bali, Turkey and Thailand who do this kind of work do it all day, every day. Well .. practice really does make perfect! With silver at inflated levels, these aren't the cheap thrill they once were, so I haven't yet tried a necklace .. though it's been in the back of my mind, so watch out.

Redux Deja Vu

I first fell in love with glass beads when I saw pounds of colorful David Christiansen cane glass at a wholesale bead show years ago. From there it progressed to ancient glass trade beads to more recent handcrafted lampwork glass beads and pendants made by artisans with skills I cannot even begin to comprehend. The cane glass craze came and went .. though I still have several pounds left over from major wholesale purchases. Occasionally I'll use them to make a piece for a friend, or a friend's daughter, or to donate to some local cause; but I'd all but forgotten about them until I came across them by accident while looking for something or other in the shop (sometimes a frustrating hunt turns into a delight of lost treasures). Almost all of the past designs I created with them included sterling beads and clasps; but when I found the black cylindrical cane glass beads above laced with dichroic gold, they screamed for a black and gold version. I could only find six of them, so I used two for matching earrings. The round, faceted beads are onyx (though the smaller black beads on either side of the cane beads nearest the clasp are tourmaline); the two donut-shaped items are simple dichroic lampwork glass with a clear casing; the crystals are Dorado (a pretty taupe with a gold coating); gold-filled and vermeil beads make up the balance. I call it Caravan ... as in Middle Ages, Crusades, gold, incense, Damascus swords, assassins, camels, tents and precious jewels. Evocative.
















I originally made this as a three-piece set in sterling .. the necklace included a lot more soft and subtle colors (gray pearl, rose quartz, blue quartz and more creamy pearls), there were two or three different matching bracelets and about four or five different earrings. I sold the last several pieces to a jewelry store up here last November and just decided to try it in gold. The granulated star spacers are vermeil (which is 24K gold over sterling .. at least these are), the wire and jump rings are 14K gold-filled as is the clasp. These are fun to make and .. as I'd made a few wrist-wrenching wire wrapped designs lately .. they also give my wrists a break

I seem to have a gold theme going on here .. so let's continue. The bracelet below was also originally a sterling design called Sparkle. I made them in Tahitian, light green, bronze, chocolate and peach (with matching tones of Swarovski pearls and crystals).

THIS version came about because my husband and I were both going to be gone on May 10 - he was actually away from the 8th through the 11th on a Museum-related trip, and I was doing an Artisan Home Studio Tour (as a guest) with my Adirondack Artisans Guild about 90 minutes south of here. As a result, the dog was going to be alone for about 15 hours - the longest she'd ever been without us before. Fortunately, we have some friends who adore her, and she them .. so they picked her up that morning at 5 AM and I left at 6 AM .. not to see her again until they dropped her very happy self off again at 8 PM that evening. It was a long day .. for both of us. She'd already been missing my husband for two days; and our friends said she just shook and shivered for the first several hours they had her .. poor girl. But she had her favorite fleece bed, some toys, a few treats and a large marrow bone (i.e. all day sucker) .. which helped. The next day (May 11) I made this bracelet as a thank you for the Mrs. and some Chocolate Raspberry Nut bars for the Mr. and delivered them both on Monday. She loved the bracelet, and I was so taken by how good it had turned out, I made a second one that afternoon, and then a third with bronze pearls in place of the cream rose pearls used in the first and second versions. The first name that came to mind was Opulence.

By the way, I was at a little artisan gathering just outside of Canton on the 17th along with seven other women, two of whom had brought along their own glass bead making paraphernalia so that the rest of us could learn how to make them. We all brought food and spent the day firing up some little MAPP gas tanks and suspending colorful glass rods in front of the flames, rolling, tamping, adding color, and basically having a helluva time.

But the reason I bring up the day is because I met a young woman there who teaches ... elementary math practices (or something like that) at SUNY Potsdam .. but who also makes and sells jewelry on the side. She's totally lost in the magic that is Swarovski and her mention of it triggered a Swarovski conversation in which one of the two women who brought some of her glass making goodies along for the day mentioned to us how she first learned the proper pronunciation of Swarovski. I have to say, I've never had a problem with it, but I've encountered plenty of people who just stumble over their tongues trying to get it out; so I was delighted with this little anecdote I could pass on .. which came from a Swarovski dealer/shop this woman came upon in her travels .. when pronounced correctly, it sounds like "Swore off Ski". Sparklin' crystal snow, ski .. Swarovski! Great little mnemonic device, don't cha think? I can't wait for the first opportunity to pass it on!! Can't help it, sometimes it's the silly little things that tickle me.

A tangled web

If anyone has actually popped out here regularly, you will have noticed the little blue "Welcome" note off to the right .. slowly evolving as I began and then became embroiled in the process of developing a website. I actually started in earnest last year around this time by talking to the graphic designer who helped me design my logo, stationery, note cards, etc. For the purpose of design consistency, it made sense that she'd be the best choice to incorporate into my web the same look used for my business cards and other printed materials. I was right .. she did a great job. With only a few changes, this is the look my home page will have.

The next part is where it gets kinda tricky. The design segment was emailed to the folks who will be doing all the coding to make it work .. a couple months ago (though I've already been using since August the credit card merchant that will be incorporated into my online shopping cart). Haven't heard a peep outta them since the graphic designer alerted me that she'd sent it. 'Course, I could step up and give 'em a shout, which I may do soon, but then that means I'm on the radar. A good thing, until I have to come up with the funds for the work to begin .. and there's the rub. So I'm taking it slow and biding my time .. hoping the state of the economy doesn't preclude good attendance at shows this season or from people reaching deep down into their wallets for the more time-consuming, high-end pieces.

And then there are those things for which I will be held responsible, and without which the web will be unable to go live .. little things like photographs and text. No small feat. So .. I've once again changed the blue text over on the right to reflect my personal reality. There is little chance I'll be able to (1) decide which pieces get to go up (2) photograph them all if I haven't already (3) create the descriptions and all the extra boxes if alternatives within a piece are available (4) create the text for the About Me, Customer Service, and other necessary pages just off the cuff - even if the completed web were presented to me tomorrow. For your typical Type A personality, this stuff takes time! It needs to percolate. I should be working on it now, but then who would make all the jewelry?!? It's times like this that some really cool Star Trek type cloning machine would come in handy. I've mentioned this need before, haven't I?

Alas, there is no such machine and only so many hours in the day. I know from watching the process when my husband went through it for the new Frederic Remington Art Museum web site over a year and a half ago .. there's a lotta back n forth communication - is this right, can we do it this way instead, please change this and, oh, is it possible to ...... etc, etc, etc. And since it's your livelihood, you want it to be right. I'm thinkin' the time for all that has passed this year, and it won't come around again until after the show season has ended around Christmas time. I'm hoping my thyroid hormone levels will have been under control for a while by then and I won't feel an overwhelming need to sleep the winter months away as I did this winter. Funny how a single little body part can have such a stunning affect on one's life .. then again, I guess there are other more troublesome body parts than one's thyroid. And I guess that's 'nuff said!

Catchin' Up, Part II

These are two remaining leaves of the four I posted November 24 before I'd fired them .. I'll almost be sorry to sell them (almost) as I've been wearing them all winter. But soon (very soon, I hope!!) it'll be time to harvest some new leaves!! My friend Mary Ann Evans and I are going to collaborate on some ceramic leaves this year, too (at least that's the plan). Mare is a potter, and I'd point you to her website if she had one, but she's too busy makin' stuff to bother; and as she's got an awesome studio/living quarters right on the highway up here, she's got maximum visibility, so is probably doin' just fine without one. She'll supply the clay, I'll make the leaves, she'll apply glaze(s) and fire them, I'll finish them with leather cord or rattail .. or sterling. Who knows. Sometimes you just have to wait to see where the piece leads ya. Can't wait!















This was made by request for a customer who had originally provided her own beads from a bracelet that had belonged to her mother. She'd seen one of my herringbone weave bracelets and wondered if I could make one with her beads .. she thought they were lapis. Turns out they were a pretty cool glass imitation. So I gave her a couple choices, as her beads were only about 7mm or 7.5mm - kinda small for this weave: I could make a very delicate version with her beads - there were 15 of them, so plenty for the task, or I could find some lapis in an 8mm bead and make the bracelet out of those. She chose the latter, and I found some "denim lapis" (a lighter version) and whipped it up in time to deliver it to her at a March 29 pearl knotting class of mine she was attending. Though there was some sentimental value to her beads, she really just wanted something to wear with blue jeans .. and she's still got the beads if she decides to do something else with them.




















This is another version of "Pearls with Attitude", which have become very popular. All the charm, charisma and class of pearls ... with a little Ooooomph! (And you can always wear the clasp in the back if you want). These were freshly knotted just before I took the photo, which explains why they're a little hinky on the left side. I don't use a jig for those clasps, so every one is a little different. This one is attached to a strand of Oceanic Blue Pearls .. if you're reading this on the blog and not in an email, you can click the pic to see them up close. They're a gorgeous color .. and I think this is the last strand of them I have (I'd buy another dozen if they were still available).

This little gem is yet another type of bangle, this one uses Swarovski cream rose pearls for an incredibly elegant look! I was amazed when it was completed. I immediately went hunting for other beads that size to see if I could make one with stones ... it took about 120 of the little buggers, so it would tend to be a bit more pricey if made with peridot, smokey quartz, turquoise or some other spectacularly colored bead. But I may have to try one or two, just to see. In the interim, I may make another one with pearls .. this one fits me perfectly, which means it won't fit about half the population of jewelry buyers. It looks so good on gold, I may even do gold again!

I'm still waiting for the return of my The Wild Inside stamp, which I sent back to the company who made it for a replacement. For some reason the bottoms of the letters T H and E were deteriorating, and the W in Wild was beginning to disappear as well, so that all my tags were starting to look like I wasn't hitting the stamp hard enough to make an impression. They couldn't figure it out, so I've got a new one on its way. I've got a pile of new stuff waiting for jewelry tags, including this piece.

We interrupt this program ..

Yes, I have a few more jewelry images to post, but I wanted to point you to a relatively new site .. not a whole lot going on there, but the concept is one dear to my heart:



Click on the "Why Buy Handmade" link on the right of their home page for more information and a ton of great links.

OK, I'm done here.

Catchin' Up

It's been awhile, I know. Sorry for the extraordinary gap, but between thyroidal madness and some bugs that snuck into my laptop, it's been difficult to get out here. Got a few new posts for you though, so here we go ..

First and foremost, I must tell you that at the end of February, the woman for whom I'd repaired a bracelet (see The Dark Side of a Sole-Proprietorship) came through with a check! On one hand ya could've blown me over with a whisper when it arrived, I was so surprised; on the other hand, it confirmed my belief that she just finally got around to sittin' down, writing the check and dropping it in the mail. It made me feel a whole lot better .. especially since I've had a couple of additional opportunities since then to send a package prior to receiving payment for it. I'm still inclined to believe Bruce Baker may be right to trust in people that way.

OK .. new jewelry .. sorta. This is a turquoise version of the olive caged and coiled bracelet I included here a few posts down. They're real eye-catchers. I still plan on making some additional colors, but it's creatively refreshing to break away to something else ... in between.

And here's a little bit of the "in between" .. three more fibulas. I apologize for the slightly out of focus images, but I took about 15 shots of each of the three and still couldn't get a clear, crisp photograph. I think I may have just been away from the camera a bit too long!

This one, which I call Gold Coast (the name just bubbled up from inside my cranium .. no idea where it came from), is downright opulent!! I got a little wild with the clasp this time and added that fancy wire wrap to spice it up a bit. The lentil and donut shaped beads are handmade lampwork glass, the pale brown nugget is smokey quartz. I call those three large connectors "garage door springs" . This picture doesn't give you a straight on perspective so you can see the "spring" aspect, but trust me, they look just like industrial springs. And they're pretty darn sturdy. I've previously used them as a base for bulky (i.e. heavy) charm bracelets, where they can't really be seen very well because they're smothered in beads. This is the first time I've used 'em right out there in the open. This version is a little bit too big for me and would probably fit a 6.25" to 6.75" wrist. I'm thinking of doing another with a lighter gauge wire. Oh, and there are earrings to match the lentil bead (which is about 15mm round) .. they're very light weight.














I've got more, but as my internet connection is dial-up, I'm sensitive to others in the same situation .. and for those who have subscribed to receive new posts via email, I know how long it takes for all those images to load. So I'll include the rest in another post.