Changing my mind...

No market today but guess who was bolt awake at 3:00 a.m. and drinking coffee by 3:30? My pal Lynn came by to work on a necklace using the turquoise I'd given her for a birthday present back in January. That inspired me to get stop watching Lie to Me (lovelovelove Tim Roth, whoo hoo) and do something productive. Not to mention right around when Lynn pulled up, I got one of those annoying popup messages asking if I was aware that in the past 48 hours someone using this computer scarfed up 75% of my monthly bandwidth allotment. Uh, ye-ahhh, that would be me. I just signed up for Netflix. I think this is gonna be a huge mistake.

In between lashings of homemade soup, hummus and blue corn tortilla chips and apple strudel with cheddar cheese, I messed around stringing and restringing the two necklaces I started the other day.

"Does this look okay?"

"Nnnnn... needs something here."

"What about this?"

"Nnnnn... what about changing that?"

And so it went for hours.


Raw amethyst focal, amethyst rondelles, high-cut citrine, melon-cut crystal rondelles, 100-year-old Venetian glass seed beads, pewter findings, 21" long, $79:

Kingman turquoise, amethyst rounds and rondelles, pewter and silver-plated findings, glass seed beads, 21" in length, $45:

Before

Finished necklace

For information on either of these necklaces, their availability or perhaps you require a different length, please email me for details. Shipping and handling are extra. I take PayPal.

Thanks for looking!

Five New Bracelets...

The day's production...

Five new bracelets (the plain Kingman turquoise and flying bird one in the middle I'd made several weeks ago and used it to riff on)...

Kingman turquoise nuggets, tiny pewter beads and crab fire agate -- aren't these the perfect colour!? I got 'em from Nelson Gemstones, my go-to for rounds -- all flanking a Southwestern-style pewter cross. I need to remake this using more of the crab fire agate.
8" in length; $39.00

Amethyst rounds, Peruvian amazonite rondelles, Tibetan crystal beads and pewter beads flank a faceted, high-cut amethyst bead.
7-3/4" in length; $49.00

Hand-cut Tibetan quartz crystals interspersed with pewter beads.
8-1/2" in length; $37.00

Enhanced lapis lazuli rounds and a pewter bird bead "flying" on faceted zinc spacers.
7-3/4" in length; $44.00

Kingman turquoise nuggets, hand-cut Tibetan quartz crystal and a pewter bird "flying" on zinc spacers.
8-1/8" in length; $42.00

All of these bracelets are for sale. Please feel free to email me if you're interested any of these or in a custom bracelet -- or necklace -- made especially for you. These can easily be made a bit larger by the addition of jump rings, or they can be restrung and extra beads added.

Thanks for looking!

Raw Kyanite Pendants & MOP Drops with Shell Pendants...

Do you ever have those weeks where you're busy-busy and yet feel like you have zip to show for it? That was this kind of week. A lot of typing did get done Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it wasn't until yesterday that I started to make anything with my new goodies that I got last week from Beads of Colour in Dundas where I always find something that I gotta have. Definitely not a same-old, same-old kinda store -- which have their place, don't get me wrong -- but surprises I love.

My big score was a string of raw kyanite and here are three variations on adjustable black Greek leather chokers:

I got these shells several weeks ago from Beads of Colour and just received the mother of pearl drops from Arton on Wednesday. I suppose it's a cliche, but I think it's cute.

Here's a version with a single shell...

And here's a version with a double shell...

Still playing with turquoise. I never get tired of the endless colour permutations. What I do get tired of is trying photograph it and keep all the colours of all the stones true at the same time. These iridescent purple seedbeads I'm using are a case in point and driving me nuts. They really are a blazing purple! I've tried everything I can think of to capture it, including different backgrounds and light to using the camera on my stupidPhone, and all I come up with is this dark blue. Imagine that flash of purple iridescence all over and you'll get a sense of the true colour.

Ah, well. The day is awasting and I have to get busy getting orders ready for the market.

Thank you for looking!

A big PEEE ESSSS: My pal Lynn in Arizona just sent me this link: http://www.picmonkey.com/

Let's compare this...

With this...

The purple is a bit better -- I will have to play with the colour for sure -- but that "sharpen" feature, that's simply amazing. Oooh, I do like that lots.

And now the kyanite picture, then I gotta roll...

Nnnnnnnnn... mebbe not. Back to the drawing board!

Green Vintage Button Necklace & Kingman Turquoise Bracelets & More Market Necklaces...

Well, my green vintage button necklace was a hit. My customer was extremely pleased. She certainly looks happy!

My two new -- finally! -- Kingman turquoise nugget bracelets. The beauty of the large clasps is they hold the bracelet in place, i.e. if there is a focal bead, it will remain on top of your wrist where it can be seen.

My favourite of the two -- the bird is free to move, a bonus for fidgety people who like to play with things.

And a pile of necklaces, the front bits designed by Nancy, tweaked and finished by me and ready for sale.

Thanks for looking!

Little detour, big earrings...

I got distracted when I was halfway through making something or other (happens to me ALL the time), had a blinding flash and made these earrings. Found the handmade sterling, turquoise and copper bead earwires in my market office box which I had taken off another pair of earrings to lessen the price who knows how long ago. But they work perfectly here. Nice little pure copper dangles on the headpins... or maybe these would be called dangle pins.

This second photo is pretty close in colour to the Kingman turquoise:

I've finally found a good spot to rig up my ring mandrel. I'd had it C-clamped to my big plastic folding table, but was forever impaling myself getting up or sitting down, not to mention the mandrel was always breaking free of the clamp, nor did I really have room to wrap the wire as the clamp was at a forward angle along the front of the table instead of -- drum roll, please -- along the other edge of the table. Sigh... this has only taken me six months to figure out.

I guess I could actually move the mandrel forward, too. I'll see how it goes on the first ring. The grey mark on the paper sleeve has size 10 marked on it -- the size I mainly work around when making guy rings. For those who've never tried making rings, it's wire-wrapping around the ring itself that makes the ring smaller. You don't want to try to make a ring the exact size you need right off the bat. Make it a bit smaller than you need -- because if it ends up larger than you want, you can't make it smaller. Then use a hide mallet on the steel mandrel with the ring sizes on it to gently bash the ring down the mandrel to get the exact size you need.

While poking around looking for those Kingman rondelles, I found my copper clasps and pewter birds that I've been looking for all week in the first two places I looked just now. I guess that's the secret to finding lost things if retracing your steps doesn't work: look for something entirely different.

Okay -- now to make some rings, and then... clean up? Pack up? Go to bed early for once? 3:30 a.m. will come faster than fast. Eyes crossed it's a good market tomorrow!

Thanks for looking.

10 pairs of earrings almost complete & many short beaded chains later

I've been spending waaaaay too much time on Pinterest and obsessively, mindlessly, longingly (WHY???), clicking on pictures of pristine studios with beautiful storage and display features. Who can possibly create in these zen oases of calm and emptiness, let alone find anything once it's put away? Not meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...


The worst thing is I'm running out of the things to MAKE stuff with, like earwires and whatnot,
no time to make them and less time to order any.

Along the bottom, kyanite, lapis, Kingman turquoise & quartz chains; white jadeite, melon-cut quartz, hawk's eye, kyanite, black tourmaline, garnet, high cut amethyst, high cut citrine & amethyst earrings,
all with Bali silver spacers and awaiting sterling earwires to finish them off.

Every flat or near flat surface eventually will be piled high with something...

...eventually with Max

Et voila

This must get cleaned up SOON...

Lynn, my organising genius pal, is coming on Monday... But for now, back to work to finish off the earrings and putting some necklaces together with my new beaded chains. Right now -- at 1:56 p.m., eleven days and two Saturday markets before Christmas -- I am about where I wanted to be in September.

Thanks for looking!

New Kingman Turquoise... almost

Here, to whet your appetite, are just some of the stunning Kingman turquoise strings I've been pricing and splitting up into more palatably-priced half, third or quarter strings. Those rounds you see are 8mm bronzed turquoise. Just gorgeous. In some lights the bronze looks gold, in other lights copper. I'll post detailed pix of all the strings tomorrow with pricing.

Part of my shipment of colourful skulls from Joanne at Nelson Gemstones -- turned into a haul of dyed howlite skull bracelets and chokers for tomorrow's market...

And dyed howlite earrings...


In one short week from now I will be at the venue setting up for the Grand River Bead Society show in Guelph (October 27th & 28th, 10:00-5:00). See you there! But now to bed -- 3:30 a.m. will come far too early as always, then off to the Woodstock Farmer's Market -- yes! we have a Facebook page! I sure hope it's stopped raining by then.

Thanks for looking!

A heavenly parking lot in Kingman, AZ...

I've read about this, but from the '70s, and of course I never bookmarked it. My pal Lynn in Arizona sent me this picture yesterday and gave me permission to publish it. Can you imagine a turquoise parking lot? It's true.

Here's a bug's eye view to reeeeally get the full effect that, yes, this is turquoise...

Just wow...

Okay, back to my typing. Thanks for looking.

A simply great Saturday at the market and how my garden grows on Sunday...

Just saw this... http://theflyingtortoise.blogspot.ca/2012/06/beautiful-bohemian-interiors-of.html This is how I want the interior of my (as yet unbought, let alone found) RV to look. Sigh......... 

I had a great day at the market yesterday. I sold my first Kingman turquoise heishi necklace.

As well as an adjustable pipestone choker and bracelet.

These beads were from Titan Beads and yet again I only bought the one string, and a half-string at that. Ditto the pewter saucer beads. I'm almost or completely out of all of the metal beads I bought there in the spring and they don't appear on their website. I have to remember to email them, see if they have any lurking or will be able to get more in. I believe I got the round beads from Arton, my go-to people for so many things. I cannot get over how useful all these metal beads are mixed in with semi-precious beads and the rough-looking beads in particular. The character changes constantly as they're combined and recombined, hence the riffs on just one bead of the previous few weeks. I would have done more variations of this set, but I have no more of the pipestone.

I'm finally remembering to bring my camera every week to the market as a lot of things I make while I'm sitting waiting for customers for some reason will sell on the spot before even hitting the table. I'll show what I'm working on to anybody that stops, "Hey, check this out. What do you think?" and very often they tell me they'll take it. I still find that totally amazing.

I was so pleased with my sales yesterday that I bought three more baskets of flowers from Boris. I now have ten and so far they've managed to survive being drowned in monsoons, sauteed in the humidity and baked every day in the sun, although there is a lot of shadow cast by the building throughout the morning and end up in direct sun for only a few hours until the big maple tree to the west casts its long shadow over all, which helps as well to keep the living room fairly cool if there's no humidity. Humidity is the killer but with the tree blocking the sun I still rarely have my fan on at more than low speed. I am scrupulous about keeping the plants watered multiple times per day this year. I tried to have plants outside the porch door but it's far too hot there with direct sun all day after 10 a.m. or so.

I just went out to take pictures of the deck, got one photo and of course the camera batteries are now out of juice.

...half an hour later...

Max shaking his head over the folly of having so many plants.

Oh, well, I guess She Who Feeds Me could have ten cats instead...

One of the first planters I bought. The wave petunias are really taking off...

The new and super lushly planted wave petunia basket...

Time to get to work and finish another long 7-strand seed bead necklace, this time in turquoise blue with yellowy-oranges and red splotches. I've just discovered that I can't get any more opaque yellow-orange seed beads, or at least no store I've been to in this region carries them. This particular yellow-orange colour was from a 25-plus-year-old stash of seed beads. Ain't it always the case, the most useful item in your arsenal is always guaranteed to be out of stock, if not permanently out of production.

Thanks for looking, and if you want to commission similar items to what I've shown here or elsewhere, please email me.