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.

Christmas in August & Work in Progress...

Remember that last post where I was doing my little happy dance? No, no, no, I didn't have to go to the bathroom! At least not quite then. Sigh........ old age ain't pretty. But who's old? Not me. I forgot to grow up. No, not throw up... clean out your hearing aid. GROW UP! Who? Me? 

But I digress... talking to all my imaginary friends here...

Anyway... Am I done? Yes? Thank you. Finally! Okay, here we go. Goodies from Utah and Arizon-i-aaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!

Mmmmmmmm...

...TWO bags..........

Purty rocks from the Free Store, Utah...

Moany groany time -- the plumpest and juiciest and bluest Kingman turquoise chips... (the blue in the picture below is a little more accurate)

Clockwise from top left, 6mm phosposiderite rounds, Kingman chips, Kingman boulder "bamboo", phosphosiderite "bamboo", phosphosiderite heishi, apple coral heishi, that amazing pretty pale apple green Kingman turquoise heishi, and 6mm Kingman boulder turquoise...

Meanwhile, just for funzies here are a few things I've been working on in between typing like a mad fiend, which I'm supposed to be doing right now, but shhhh... puhleeeease don't rat me out. My work tables are piled high with notes to myself written in wire and beads. Paper just gets lost. Actually, to be truthful, it gets buried under more paper.

Regardless, and unfortunately, most of my notes, paper or otherwise, never get past this stage -- or acted upon -- because I've forgotten the great idea I had, or whatever I started doen't look so hot once I've got this far. Who knows if anything will ever get done with these bits and pieces, but at least I've been doing something.

The eternal question, lost in variations on a theme, did I totally overwork the feather motif in the partial necklace? The plan was that there may be another much larger silver-plated feather dangling from the centre ring, along with the wrapped dangles and maybe a wrapped crystal. This was made using tinned copper wire and of course, I didn't attach each little bit together with jump rings, meaning if I change my mind about the feathers then everything has to be cut apart.

The pearls were wrapped with Argentium sterling (fyi, +/- 1 metre of 22 gauge for each 10" string). Note my fluent bilinguality in inches and millimetres.

Trying again the bead soup technique on a 10" string, wrapped with 20 gauge tinned copper, ditto tinned copper wrapping the base metal/silvertone/Tibetan style beads.

Closeup of the silver and pearl string...

Closeup of the silvertone/silver-plated/base metal/Tibetan style bead dangle with tinned copper wrapping... Oh, yeah, and the cool roundish bead in the middle? I very, very cleverly bought only ONE PACKAGE of the suckers. Eight beads. What was I thinking? I love them.

Silver-plated base metal shield beads & feathers with tinned copper wrapping waiting for me to get around to making more heavy beaded (or not) Argentium sterling earwires. I find a lot of people prefer the plain-silver-skip-the-colour look.

As always, everything has a price and I can often remake a piece to your specifications if it's the wrong length or it's already been sold. Please email me for information, cost. Note that shipping prices will vary, but figure around $8 to $9 to almost anywhere in North America with insurance, $4 for flat items, no insurance.

Thanks for looking!

SOLD! Pewter Moon Necklace!

Whoo hoo, just found out. Cue happy dance.

Pewter moon pendant, turquoise, African recycled & sand cast glass beads,
shell, glass, metal & copper beads, on long adjustable Greek leather cord

Does any of this involve a walk?

Sigh... I didn't think so...

First She Who Feeds Me takes me shopping... bo-ring. Now I'm supposed to admire her jewellery. What a snore.

Gotta make me another one! But first, back to typing my brains out. Tomorrow, Toronto, take the computer in, hit the wholesalers and bead stores. That's the life for me. Sorry, Max, you'll be stuck at home gnawing on chewies and baggin' some much-needed zeds.

Thanks for looking.

Choker to bracelet

Playing with beads again... gack. Made a choker and pulled on it to tighten a knot and the whole thing went flying all over the room. Remade it, tried it on, took photos. Ick. Don't like all the knots and frayed bits of cord. Remade it again as a bracelet, and I think it works a little bit better.


Dzi-style carnelian bead, facetted Hubei turquoise, copper beads& spacers,
base metal beads, waxed cotton cord.



Dzi-style carnelian bead, facetted Hubei turquoise, copper beads & spacers,
base metal beads, hammered copper clasp

 Now, this is interesting. I checked to make sure that I'd spelled dzi correctly and found a page of what each dzi bead means. Check them all out at one of my neighbours, so to speak:

http://mydzi.blogspot.com/2008/02/dzi-bead-meanings.html

หินทิเบต(ดี ซี ไอ) TIBET DZI BEADS -9 eye : Builds up a lenient and caring heart for you, helps you gain fame and benefits. Increases the owner’s wealth. 9 Eye is one of the most sought after, believed to represent the 9 planetary systems and its essence. This Dzi is touted as a window to wisdom. The 9-Eyed Dzi bead endows the wearer to expand his intelligence and wisdom. This type of Dzi bead is also well documented in modern Asian circles for its "mysticism" and "power" by several people who wore them and survived near death experiences. This bead is often considered the unofficial wealth bead. The 9 eye Dzi bead may assist the owner of this bead to become rolling in wealth. The wealth will be gained through one’s own work. This bead attracts attention and assists in causing fame to increase. The nine eyed Dzi assists the entrepreneur in finding their ideas and strengths.

The nine eyed Dzi bead assists its owner to Gather Wealth, Achieve Good Health, Success, Gain Power, Compassion, Glory, and Expelling Evil & Acts as a Protector. It is believed that the 9 eye Dzi bead is able assist its owner in achieving the Nine-fold Merits. The Nine-fold merits are compassion, glory, everlasting brightness, fame, dignity, authority, control, reputation and the removal of obstacles. Accumulation of meritorious virtue, increases compassionate, separates from suffering and gains advantage. Gathering the Nine-fold Merits, ensuring the growth in compassion, power and glory thus bringing about immense benefits.

I need to work on refining the cording I use. I priced a dark brown leather cord at Bamiyan the other week -- I think I will get a roll of that to play with. 1.5mm seems to be a good weight, as well, which of course I don't have in the waxed cotton.

Back to the drawing board. But not tonight. It's 9:40 and I have to pack up the last bin for the market and get to sleep. 4:30 comes awfully early.