New stuff...

Every time in the past three weeks I've sat down here to write and post pictures, something happens -- you know, like a pesky rush typing job comes in or I have to leave or something stoopid sings its siren song and off I go... like the doc in Stratford on Wednesday where I scored a pair of bat-winged skull earrings and a string of large genuine amber chips. Anyway, I was at the Toronto Bead Society Bead Show last Sunday, the 26th, and I brought home a few goodies...

I'd finally finished off some new designs (started by my pal Nancy) and put them into Thyme on 59 the day before, after the market...

And then today, Nancy and Joy showed up at 8:30 a.m. bearing pizza for lunch and dragged me kicking and screaming off of Pinterest to make jewellery and we got lots done for the table tomorrow. Here are just a few things.

I will come back later to write captions. Thanks for looking!

More men's chokers... & ferns...

Happy Mother's Day to all the human, canine, feline, avian, et cetera, mothers out there.

Here are more variations on men's chokers made with spikes and some new skulls I got.



Difficult to see, but these saucer-y beads are crackle matte black agate.

Ferns -- after looking at ferns for years including out in the temperate rainforest climate of coastal BC and in particular Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island and picking fiddleheads along the Nith River upstream from Paris, then this week watching them break through the earth below my window and slowly unfurl, I noticed something really interesting: how it's as if there are one, then two parent stalks, and then a number of baby stalks that come up one after the other, all facing protectively inward.


Mmmmmmmmmmmm fiddleheads. Nothing like fiddleheads, sauteed in butter and garlic,
eaten as is or baked in a quiche!



I'm still trying to sort out how a digital camera works. I took this with the zoom feature, and was able to achieve the out-of-focus background that I'm after, which doesn't seem to work that well if at all when I'm using regular a setting.  The next question is, did I have it on the portrait or closeup setting when I used the zoom?



Kind of makes me wonder, what are clumps of ferns called? A confab of ferns, perhaps?



Here is a picture of the local Leamington tomatoes, so sharply sweet, juicy and tangy that nothing needs to be added, which I bought at the market yesterday and taste almost -- almost -- as good as the ones I used to buy in Rome. There is nothing in the world like Italian tomatoes, especially when they're bought from one of the little neighbourhood street markets early in the morning. In the meantime, until I have a plane ticket to Rome, I am very happy to have found these, albeit greenhouse grown. If this is their greenhouse quality, imagine what the field tomatoes are going to be like!

Thanks for looking!

Lots of changes...

I am in limbo -- albeit a paradisical limbo -- with the main move of some of my furniture, books and art and jewellery paraphernalia still to come when the renovations are finally complete. Most of it will be sold, given away and/or tossed as I am now living in essentially one, albeit quite large, room which, given my proclivities, could fill up rather rapidly. This will be a social engineering experiment: I'm trying to psych myself up to live a more minimalist life. Okay, pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off and stop guffawing. I'm serious. Many, many thanks to Lynn of Fashion Your Space and Nancy, friend and jewellery student, who got me organised and moved.

Here are pictures I've taken through the window next to where I type and in future will make jewellery, perched on the side of a wooded, cliffy hill overlooking a river which in one week has become all but obscured by leaves.



Moving Day 3 May 2013



8 May 2013



10 May 2013 - in the morning

 

10 May 2013 - 3 p.m. View from my typing chair

 Not only have I moved, but as of a week ago I am in a new store. If you're in the area, Thyme on Fifty-Nine is just south of Woodstock on Hwy 59 below the 401, and is an intriguing nooks-&-crannies accessories and gift shop attached to the north side of Dean Michael's Griddlehouse, well off the highway with lots of parking under shady trees. There is even bus parking. Area Red Hat Ladies know this place well. The food? Nancy and I split a HUGE Monte Cristo sandwich with a super-fresh salad. It was pretty yummy and plenty large enough to split. I definitely want to try their Eggs Benny.

Meanwhile, lots of men's and ladies' chokers and necklaces have been made and sold in the past few weeks.

Lots of skulls & lethal-looking pointy things by me.

Pewter raven skull, zinc cones & beads



Pewter skull, zinc cones & beads




Assorted chokers made with copper skull & base metal beads (top), Javanese recycled glass bead &
assorted base metal beads (middle), and carved bone arrowhead with copper & base metal beads
designed by Nancy



Tibetan quartz crystal choker with moonstones, labradorite & onyx
designed by Nancy





A spectacular high cut peridot & quartz crystal necklace with pewter daisy spacers
designed by Nancy for her mother



Assorted silver-plated skull chokers,  middle with lava beads, bottom with handmade African copper spirals & copper beads & plated base metal beads.

Agate "claw" choker with Tibetan bone skulls, raw black tourmaline & red horn beads
designed by Nancy (sold)

Rice lapis lazuli focal bead, copper and pewter spacers, Kingman turquoise chip choker

Raw Chinese turquoise nugget focal with Afghani turquoise, silver & brass beads & base metal beads
designed by Nancy

Assorted chokers designed by myself & Nancy

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for new studio pix!