Got more items listed on Magpie Gemstones

This is cool -- two more of my necklaces were listed on Magpie Gemstones' site the other day. There are so many beautiful designs there and I'm proud to be included.

I also got some transcription in so I'd best get at that. The bills never stop coming in, and they sure never decrease. Funny how that works, innit? The more we're told to conserve energy/water, the more the utilities companies find ways to ding us for even more money, to pay for their own fiscal mismanagement and lunatic executive decisions. Why are these people never held accountable? I use $15 worth of electricity a month in the summer, but my bill is over $90. How is that possible, or even fair???

In absolute terms, my wages have decreased; in fact I'm earning less now than I was back in the '70s when I first started working. So much for competing with India, where North America's transcription sector has gone. It's loooooong past time to find something else to do!

I found these cool wrought iron earring racks to sell at the market. I'm forever being asked to bring in jewellery racks, and I hope people will buy them. In any event, I will be using several of them on my table for my own stuff, as well as offering them for use where my stuff is sold in stores and galleries. I think it will be easier to separate out designs/materials thematically on smaller racks. The next trick is to get them up high enough so people can see them. I haven't tried the PVC pipe riser trick yet -- they're kind of funny at the market I go to, wanting every vendor's tables to be in a line and all the same height.

Sold a bridal set -- and I have my truck back on the road... yay!

Yesterday at the market I was almost packed up when a lady came by and asked if I had anything pink. The earring carousels were still out and I showed her some pink ones, but she wanted a necklace for a gift. All I had was the set I'd made with a wedding in mind, so I dug that out. Of course it was in the last box I opened at the bottom of the bin.

The price for the set was $140. Much dickering ensued, but her budget was $100 and she was sticking to it. On the other hand, I figured it had been sitting on my table for months and $100 of something was better than $140 of nothing. Long story short, I sold it. Meant I had to eat the hours and hours it took to design the flowers and string and restring all the components until I finally found something that pleased me to. Not to mention all the silver headpins I used. Those little glass flowers are expensive suckers, too.


Seed pearls, tanzanite Swarovskis, vintage glass, sterling silver heart clasp & findings SOLD

Better yet, my truck is finally back on the road. Still some repairs to come -- if I don't sell it beforehand -- which means I'll be going nowhere without a jug of water to periodically glug into the radiator overflow. I'm mulling over buying a Ford van to camperise/workshopise with the idea of being able to travel from day market to day market through the summer (and maybe even do some travelling in the winter). Rather than drive back and forth for hours each day to get to a market, which begins to sound more and more like a full time job with concomitant horrendous gas costs and the prospect of zero sales, I could drive to the next venue and, because I'd also have a laptop with an Internet stick, be able to park somewhere and either type or work at jewellery-making while I waited for the next market to start. Bonus is Max could come with me. However, there will be mucho logistics to work out before that ever happens.

After the market, I drove to Brantford to Alexandra's Beads to buy another wire brush so I can continue cleaning fired silver leaves and flowers. I literally wore the bristles down to the wooden handle in about two weeks.

Rene's plans to host(ess) a bridal event some time in August are coming together, with more participants committed, too.

I have to get busy making more wedding jewellery samples. Luckily I bought several strings of different diameter pearls at the wholesaler's a couple of weeks ago. I find it odd how much I love pearls given my taste overall for "tribal" design, rough cut stones and turquoise.

Max update, and new turquoise jewellery

Hard to believe it's been a month since Max was attacked. He's fine now, if still a little, uh... scabby. He never needed a cone of silence, either. I think the few times he tried to reach around for a good chew he popped a stitch and that was enough to change his mind. One of the things that broke my heart was the day he was finally able to wag his tail.

I couldn't stand it and finally restrung that turquoise and lapis choker. I also made another version with citrine. The tiny turquoise beads are from Magpie Gemstones. The lush colours and variety of shapes gives the illusion of greater substance than you'd think, yet both necklaces are very lightweight and comfortable to wear. I just received more strings of this turquoise and will be making a raw ruby version... soon!



Tiny turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, amethyst, citrine, copper daisy spacers and beads, hammered copper clasp

 

Tiny turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, amethyst, copper daisy spacers and beads, hammered copper clasp

  I love Magpie Gemstones and I neeeeeed turquoooooooooooise. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed more copper. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed more pewter raven skulls... I neeeeeeeeeeeed to generate more sales!

But reality prevails: there is less and less transcription work every week; not to mention the Japanese tsunami is still hitting hard in southern Ontario, radically curtailing operations at the local Toyota plant, which means equally radically curtailed spending everywhere else, not to mention my truck is back in the shop yet again -- this has been going on for two months now, one thing after another after another -- and I am permaparked all week until the work is finished. In fact, I will probably have to rely on a loaner to get to the market on Saturday. Looking for a new vehicle, in fact, which will definitely be better on gas.

Gaahhhhhhh... the power just went off -- again. It's super windy here today and this is the second time in a few hours that it's gone off.... Whew. It's back on again. I don't have to retype this post again. Yesterday there was a huge power surge and our local Internet provider was down for a couple of hours. Talk about panic city, as I had a huge transcription job to finish and send to the client without fail yesterday.

This is my new favourite bracelet:


Minimally-processed Hubei turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, raw carnelian, bone & horn & copper beads, hammered copper clasp

I'm so in love with this raw-looking turquoise that I got from Happy Mango Beads. I only got one string each of three sizes, and I would really like to get more.

I am in the midst of putting together a large order for cake jewellery so I'd better get off this colossal timesucker here and get back to work.

New stuff

Max update: except for flaking debris, Max has made an unbelievable recovery. I am so amazed and relieved. My thanks go out to the wonderful vets and staff at the Paris Veterinary Clinic.

Max is doing a lot better today, but still not a happy camper

We went back to the vet this morning. I was afraid that his adenoma incision had become infected. It's almost artificially bright red, swollen and you can feel heat half an inch away. But the vet says he's okay, and certainly the dog bite gouges are healing beautifully. They're still painful enough that it prevents him from bending enough to start licking or chewing on the adenoma incisions, thus he doesn't (so far) require the doggy humiliation of all doggy humiliations: the cone of silence.

I took a picture yesterday of my clean new table to show how messy it can get in just a few days.


Took two days to get covered in stuff.


How do people manage to keep their places tidy? It's an eternal mystery to me. Have less stuff, I guess. I have all the good intentions in the world, but... blork. There it all lies, crap and corruption barfed up all over every flat surface -- including the floor.

Still waiting for my truck to get fixed. In the meantime, I have a little bit of typing that just arrived, so I'm outta here for now.

Later Tuesday morning

I find art stores, bead stores and people's studios/workspaces/places to be fascinating. They always get me jumped up and filled with ideas, ready to work, but oh, how I do run out of steam by the time I get home and contemplate the garbage dump that is my workspace. I finally found my hammer yesterday. It's been rusting away in the back seat footwell of my truck since last summer, hiding under a year's worth of accumulated trash and Max's takeout containers that he's never put into the garbage bag. In fact, they usually come from the garbage bag. He likes to eat used kleenex. But now that I've found the hammer, maybe I can get some stuff off the tables and onto the walls.

I just discovered why my truck engine light keeps coming on. Briefly, it's a $700 repair job, but it involves leaking heater hosepipes/radiator coolant, and the cheap fix is to disconnect the heater hosepipe (it's the beginning of May, don't need heat anymore, right?), and until tomorrow, top up the radiator with tap water.

Here is the current iteration of my work space. How I ever get anything done let alone found is the eternal mystery...



Computer work station aka messpile on right as you come into the room



Next is the PMC silver leaf coating station



Original work station, two doors, main door resting on bookcase shelf and other on a coffee table, levelled off with two art books, currently unusable state of uncontrolled mess



Edge of new table (took two days to become piled high with more beads)



New table in almost pristine state. That didn't last long.



Fireplace wall, couch with Max and edge of new table

Bead soup table to immediate left of entryway into room

Tuesday morning, it's sunny, and the im-patient is much better

Max is a whole lot better today, definitely much bouncier -- a world of difference even from last night. Still having problems figuring out how to sit down/lie down w/o it hurting, though.

A shred of good news -- the golden's owners showed up last night and have offered to pay part of Max's vet bill. They're genuinely concerned about Mickey's (not Nicky) part in this -- and I assured them that I didn't blame them, and that it wasn't Mickey's fault or anything they could've done/foreseen, just doggie jealousy. I didn't say anything, but I think I'm also dead on that Mickey is far too much dog for retired people, having way too much energy, I've never seen anyone out playing with her and maybe they think that just leaving her outside by herself so she can watch the world go by is sufficient. They have an electronic collar/perimeter to keep her in the yard. She is never taken for a walk that I know of. Of course not. This is the country. Nothing dumber/funnier than seeing all those city transplants walking their dogs along country roads! And picking up poop! Uhhh... that would be me and Max.

Now that I've heard the whole story, what I think Mickey was really jealous of with the granddaughter patting Max is that it turns out that the granddaughter doesn't like Mickey and never has. She's probably scared to death of her size and strength, goldens being huge on the body slams. The granddaughter looks to be late teens/early college age, but quite tiny. They probably weigh about the same and the golden is all muscle.

Max has discovered the nasty-tasting-pill-in-the-banana trick. He ate one, but spat out the other. Toast and jam? Ran outside and spat it out. Tried the remaining pill in his liver-flavoured-but-carob-smelling arthritis chewie chunk and he ate that right away. This morning. Dunno what I'm going to do tonight. He's suspicious of everything I offer him now.

Sunny this morning, so my own mood is a lot lighter. Today I have to deal with the truck as the engine light came on yesterday on the way back from the vet, and I have to have it sorted by Friday so I can go get gas to get to the market on Saturday, and we're almost out of dog food, too. I have to get back to making jewellery. The Oxford Country Spinners and Weavers craft show is coming up on the 14th, and I still have to get stuff up to The Bead Boutique in Kitchener.

Given the circumstances, I gave myself yesterday off, spending all day -- a singularly cold, gloomy and rainy day -- in a depressed state, watching old Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp and Bulging Brides shows on Slice.ca and thinking long and hard about all the exercises Tommy Europe was forcing his bootcampers to do. My favourite part of Bulging Brides is the table shot of all the junk food that that episode's bootcamper has eaten in the previous week/month. I try to do that here -- I have a corner of the counter where I put all my groceries that I buy for the week, boxed/packaged goods, apples, most root vegetables -- it's cold enough that the food stays fairly fresh. Any treats from Saturday's market that sneak in are usually gone by Monday, and then that's it. If only Tommy Europe would do a show called Last 80 Pounds Trashed Knees & Lower Back Bootcamp, I'd happily humiliate myself on it. In the meantime, cue the laugh track: Max and I are off on our poop-bag-carrying walk along the highway.

Other shoe dropping department

In the interest of fitness and weight loss for both of us, Max and I went out for our daily long walk late yesterday afternoon. Also as usual, we stopped by a neighbour's house so Max could hang with his buddy Nicky, a female golden who is twice his size and weight. They've been playing together almost every day for over two years. Unfortunately, the dog got jealous when the visiting teenage granddaughter of the owners patted Max, and before anyone could react Nicky leapt on Max and pretty much tore him a new a... -- literally -- and just missing his spine. Max is coming up to 13, with arthritis, so isn't moving very fast these days, and he couldn't get away. You could have stuck a couple of fingers into one of the gouges in him. I rushed him to the vet, getting there just before 5 pm, afraid they would be closed, but found out they're open until 6:30. They took him into surgery right away, and I picked him up an hour or so later.

After a really rough night, his pain seems to have dropped to a tolerable level -- I know this, given his interest in food today -- which is good. In fact, he's waiting in the kitchen for lunch as I write and it's only 11:15. Last night just about broke my heart. Despite the painkillers and antibiotics, he trembled and whimpered until 4 or 5 a.m. and I could only hold his paw and stroke his head. In all the hubbub, they forgot to take out the catheter in his arm, so we went in this morning to have that done. They said he was doing fine, all the stitches are holding.

FYI, if you ever have to give a dog pills, stuff them into chunks of banana (which Max loves). Down the hatch without a problem.

While waiting to pick up Max yesterday, I got an email telling me that the new art gallery shop applications are being shelved (possibly permanently) because, after a year and a half of renovations to a turn of the century heritage building on the downtown main street, the city council announced at their meeting last Tuesday night, with zero notice or consultation, that they have decided they are now giving the building to a local community college for a satellite campus. However, the gallery director did tell me she really likes my silver leaves. That was shoe number two.

Shoe number three is my truck engine light came on again on the way back from the vet this morning. It appears I now have serious radiator/coolant problems. I'm getting really, reeeeally sick and tired of all of this. Minus Max, last week was equally fraught what with a computer virus on Wednesday, a day and a half without power all day Thursday and Friday morning, with work coming in, and ditto with the engine coolant which I had topped up figuring that was going to resolve the problem.

When I got back from dropping Max off yesterday for his surgery, I told the landlord I wouldn't be able to pay the rent for longer than I'd expected this month (I'm still waiting to be paid for work done in early March and there's not a thing I can do about it) and he laughed. Told me his girlfriend had just phoned to tell him that their basement tenant had just given his notice, so there wasn't going to be a May rent cheque from him, either.

I'm at the point now where I'm just shaking my head, although I guess bin Laden had a worse day than I did. That's pretty wild that they nailed the guy, eh? Even more wild is the book I'm currently reading -- Dead Zero by Stephen Hunter. Around the same time the raid was going down, I was reading about exactly that: taking out bin Laden.

That's my news for this week and it's only Tuesday morning.

Spot the mistake




Easy to see the mistake. Very comfortable to wear, though. 17.5" long.
Hubei turquoise, matte lapis lazuli, amethyst, with copper findings.



Ack... without checking, I hurriedly crimped both ends, et voila. Dumb-de-dumb-dumb. I have enough beads to remake this, or I could take this one apart... or I could keep it to wear myself -- people are always nagging me about wearing my own jewellery but I never remember to, and find most jewellery to be irritating, which is why I don't. On the other hand, this is very comfortable even if I do say so myself.

I'm pursuing my goal of eventually moving to a smaller place, if not an RV, by -- ta da! -- getting rid of stuff. I burned a great many papers yesterday that were stuffed and stacked everywhere and swept puppy fluff off the floors. I even found some more receipts from last year. But too late -- taxes are done and gone. It's still cold here, snow this morning of all things, and damp in the house from the rains so I had to have another fire anyway yesterday and this morning, but it's supposed to get quite warm over the weekend, albeit with accompanying monsoons. Good for the trees and farmers.

I've had no transcription work to speak of for two months now. It's heart-feeling-like-a-bag-of-broken-glass scary, but it always is: every year it's like this, slow from mid-February until mid-August. Every day these past two weeks in particular has been feeling like a lazy Sunday, with an emphasis on lazy. I need to get out of this mindset. Hence picking up papers. I also dusted off and set up two grid panels to help in sorting the stones that I have and want to sell.

I had a 50 gram package of PMC3 left from last fall and made up new slip. These two weeks I've been hard at work coating new bacopa leaves, for which I have an order to make earrings, sage leaves which I've run out of, and carrying on coating lily leaves and maple keys left over from last year, all of which will be fired on Tuesday after spending the next two or three days cleaning off blobs of clay and drilling the jump ring holes.

Talk about sticker shock, though. I just priced a 50 gram package of PMC3: it's now $129 plus tax. Last spring it was under $90. The last package I bought in the fall was about $96. This is madness.


Clockwise from lower left, maple keys, sage leaves, chinese lily leaves, house plant(?), bleeding heart(?), more Chinese lily and bacopa. Interestingly, everything except the bacopa were started last summer.



Closeup of sage leaves, Chinese lily, bacopa and a few maple keys



I guess I'd better leave this alone. I appear to have turned this whole post into a giant caption, and cannot turn off the background colour and text colour effects. 



Good taste -- and tastes good

Under usual circumstances, most art is appreciated through just a few of the senses: vision, perhaps touch when you're talking sculpture, memories invoking place and time. But it's almost never, ever edible.  Except...

On display and available at the Woodstock Farmers Market on Nellis Street every Saturday morning and for pickup through the week, Rene Hoelscher's Let's Eat Cake cakes and cookies are funny, whimsical, not to mention incredibly beautiful, hand-sculpted stand-alone works of art. And they taste sooooooooooooo good, made as they are with pure, fresh ingredients.


Cake piggy that I am (I've been cut off from the free samples), I'm not the only one who thinks so: check out what the Ontario Wedding Blog has to say.

I've begun providing cake jewellery at Rene's behest, so if you're planning a wedding or require dazzle-your-guests'-socks-off cakes or cookies with bonus off-the-charts "Oh, wow! Is that ever cool!" you can contact either of us at the market or via the usual virtual multitude of means.

Stay tuned: for those firmly grounded in physical reality who believe cake in hand is worth 478 gazillion hits online, Rene's bricks and mortar bakery will be opening later this spring in downtown Woodstock.