Finally up & running... for now

That explosion in the typing factory was my power box thing whatsit. My hard drive must be close to eight years old -- several lifetimes in computer years. Over the years, pretty much all the innards have been upgraded and replaced, but not the power whatsit. It was either its time to blow this popsicle stand we call earth, or it was a massive power surge, which we do get frequently out here in the country. But I don't think it could have been that, because everything else that was hooked up is fine. No damage at all to them. Anibal says the surge protector worked fine -- it did what it was supposed to do, blowing out the power whatsit. If the surge protector hadn't worked, the hard drive would have been fried, as well.

I was customer NUMBER ONE at 11:55 yesterday morning, Thursday, February 6th, at Anibal's new PC Farm location on Vaughan Road in Toronto, just around the corner and south of where he used to be. The sign at least will stay the same! No more steps to carry heavy desktops down.

He'd opened his first store on the mezzanine level of a dollar store across the street from this second location around the time I moved back from Italy in the fall of '98. I was wandering along St. Clair looking for a place to buy printer ink. I'd just moved into the neighbourhood and there he was -- and I've been a faithful customer ever since.

Track lights were being installed and shelving painted while I was there. Everything is in boxes, but he's still open for business. He replaced the power whatsit AND discovered I had a huge virus and several little ones. That's what took the time to get rid of, otherwise I'd have been on my way in 20 minutes.

He also told me XP is going the way of the dodo some time in the next 2 or 3 months so I MUST upgrade to Windows 7 sooner rather than later. Oh, noooooooooooo... but I can keep my 2003 for Word and Excel. He did promise me that. I will finally be able to get a backup laptop for a good price. I suppose I'll survive. Hey, what can I say? I still miss WP 5.1 for doing transcription. All this changeover has to be done in the next couple of weeks meaning another trip to Toronto. Maybe this time I'll be able to get in a little bead-shopping in the morning.

Meanwhile, in between shovelling that pesky snow that will not stop falling, I have been busy:

These are some things I've made this week. Trying to work with asymmetry. Asymmetry is pure agony for me -- in 3D. The only way I can see if it works is to turn it into 2D -- take a picture. Part of what I am trying to do here is a balancing act in another way: in designing my jewellery I try to leave room for people to add their own dangles and more chains while still being able to wear the items as they are.

First iteration:

After umpteen addings and subtractings of skulls or not, extra quartz beads or not...

Final iteration, and a pair of earrings to match.

One of the many miles of seed bead chains I made in late November while watching waaaay too much Netflix:

100-year-old vintage greasy blue Venetian glass seed beads, tinned copper wrapping, zinc/pewter(?) swallow, plated clasps, mystery blue dyed quartz(?).

Playing with colours. The multistone rice beads look fantastic wrapped like this -- and of course I only have one string of it. I want to use the other half of the string and try it with copper wire. This has been dismantled, but isn't that Nacozari turquoise beautiful with the green and blue together?

Just wanted to mention: go check out Lisa Yang's jewellery blog. She's doing a whole series on basic wire wrapping and hammering, what tools to buy and why.

Thanks for looking!

Sigh...

Another long silence from me. My computer exploded on Sunday afternoon. Yes. Big Phhhht, smelly wires, the whole deal. I thought, okay, relaxxxxxxx, you can go to Toronto and see Anibal at PC Farm tomorrow... he'll fix it, or replace it. It's got to be ten years old, albeit with upgrades and tweaks along the way. Then I thought, nah, I'd better phone first...

Luckily I have his top-secret cell phone number. But I still agonised over phoning him on a Sunday. Good thing I did, though. My timing couldn't have been worse: he's moving premises. I would have arrived to a still-emptying shop, and all his stuff in boxes at the new store, located now on Vaughan Road, just south of St. Clair.

I hope by Thursday evening to be back in business. But what a pity. I was just settling into a late winter of Nashville on Netflix. Wonderful music.

Internet access from home coming soooooooooooooon...

Yes, finally. I cannot begin to detail the headaches I have gotten dealing with the current crop of customer disservice people. Internet providers everywhere: take note. Your staff are driving potential customers AWAY with their lunatic misunderstanding of what services you offer.

SOLD!!

On a happier note, I was just at the Antique Mall adding new beads to my display and thought, hmm... it's looking a little vacant on the right hand side, and there's definitely a gap on the black necklace display. I dug out the showcase picture from another post and realised I'd sold the crystal and skull necklace:

...and also a pewter wolf's head pendant (3rd from the top on the black display board).




I'm currently envying my friends who will be soon departing for the Tucson bead shows. One of these years! But closer to home, don't forget The Gem Expo coming up in Toronto, March 14-15-16. I'll be there with lots of new goodies.

Thanks for looking!

Chain Maille Earrings, Semi-Precious Pendants & Earrings, Lynn's Birthday... & A New Venture at the OOAK Antique Mall

I'm still in the country with no Internet and still coming infrequently into the library to use the computers here. But working hard -- a ton of typing showed up all of a sudden earlier this week and I'm pounding away on hours and hours of yakkety-yak. Plus making lots of jewellery:

I'd seen these chain maille earrings on Pinterest quite a while ago -- apologies to the original designer -- but I had to try making them. As with all chain maille designs, these are endlessly fascinating. It always amazes me how a tiny difference in the size of the jump rings, not to mention different metals and combinations, changes the whole feel of the earrings.

These look fabulous on just about anyone. A great and simple go-to style and very easy to make. I liked how they're all floppy when you make them because of course I started at the bottom, but once dangling, the rings all fall into place perfectly. Hint for making these: start from the top working down from the earwires --  the earwires act as a "handle" -- or am I the only one who automatically dives into the "business end" and starts with the bottom rings???

First iteration where I pretty much copied the original designer's earrings, except I didn't like that the two top jump rings were the same size as the other jump rings, so...

The second iteration, I reduced the size of the two top jump rings. Still didn't like it, so...

...I used small, medium and then large jump rings in a two-tone variation. Still didn't like it, the top part somehow looked too weak and wishy-washy and unbalanced when I tried them on, so in this final third iteration I doubled the second ring and bingo. Fixed all the earrings...

Then got a call from my pal Lynn (who does my displays) and found out that it had been her birthday the day before, on Tuesday. We had already planned to go Wednesday evening to see the new Tom Thomson biopic at the Woodstock Art Gallery (go see it, it's fascinating, not only image after image of great art and scenic beauty, but it's also a murder mystery with forensic anthropology in action -- the title? West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson) so I invited her out to dinner afterwards. I picked up a slab of cheesecake from Let's Eat Cake and packed up the all-copper earrings for her. When we met up at the art gallery I was wearing the mixed copper and silver earrings. Lynn greatly admired them, and I said, "Good thing you like 'em, 'cause that's what you're getting for your birthday."

I'd never been to the Charles Dickens Pub in Woodstock, but it came highly recommended, all homemade-from-scratch pub grub. It was really good. I ended up taking half mine home for lunch the next day.

I sent a large order of earrings and pendants off to Toronto with my sister on Monday to take around to her co-workers, so really schmancy packaging wasn't the priority, just keeping them visible, clean and still easy to access to examine more closely.

Sleeping Beauty & pewter drop earrings with sterling earwires; an all-pewter drop version; and two chandelier variations, on the left, matte crackle agate chandelier earrings, on the right, pearl chandelier earrings, both with Swarovski crystals.

Closeup of the matte crackle agate & Swarovski crystal chandelier earrings.

All the pendants that went off to Toronto (on black Greek leather adjustable cords): top row, five raw lapis lazuli pendants, two Nacozari turquoise slab pendants; raw black tourmaline along the right side; five Mexican fire opal pendants; one polished faceted lapis lazuli pendant; one Nacozari turquoise slab pendant; one pearl & quartz crystal pendant. I actually kinda liked the punky/bikerish look of the lumpy bead caps with the pearl, so I'll be making earring variations on that theme and will post the results later.

Aaaand, I started putting items into my booth at the One-of-a-Kind Antique Mall. It's looking a little sparse at the moment, but every couple of days I manage to get another two or three items in there. Forgot to take a picture today after I added a cast brass and copper seahorse bridge lamp and some other odds and ends, but this is what it looked like on Wednesday. When May comes and Nancy returns, it will be chock full of stuff... I tend to attract stuff, packrat that I am. Hooks for the peg boards are on the list, and I'll be putting up a lot of frames that I have for sale.

Hope everyone is staying warm. Can you believe the weather we've all been having across North America? Seems like no one has emerged unscathed, although it's finally a mild and melty day today.

Thanks for looking!

Still working out the no Internet-so-go-to-the-library merry-go-round...

...getting there being more than a little difficult when it's -43C with the windchill, as it was yesterday.

This is what -43C looks like around 8 a.m.

Yikes. Luckily, the wind was consistently from the west all day and basically scoured my lane clean the rest of the way to the highway, except here where it drifted around the truck... maybe I should've moved the truck... to the east end of the pullout, which means the drifts would have formed to the east of the truck and kept the pullout clean... d'ya think?

Today, after glaring at the snow with my laser vision -- which doesn't work on snow at all, btw -- I shovelled through 18 inches of nasty hard-packed, finely-drifted snow to get out. Still no room to turn around later though, when I drive back in. This is all gonna be even more fun because... it's supposed to go up to PLUS-10C by Saturday AND rain... and rain... and rain. And then get cold again and the world will become a giant skating rink.

In the meantime, I've been working on filling and arranging my showcase at the One-of-a-Kind Antique Mall. It's looking kinda pretty these days.

These pictures were taken January 5th...

January 6th, I decided to create some interest by getting the Roman glass bead strings off the floor of the case. This enabled me to be able to put more examples in:

Thanks for looking!

Radio Silence...

I just moved and I am having difficulty getting high speed Internet service out in the country. It may take upwards of three weeks to be posting again, but I'll try from the library occasionally.  

ttyl

B

Roman Glass Beads from Afghanistan...

Oops. I forgot I was supposed to post these. Many thanks to Vienna for reminding me. I -- the Queen of Procrastination -- will be moving tomorrow and Wednesday so I just had to dig these out from under the snow -- joking -- they're safe and dry, but were buried in a box. I will do anything to avoid packing early as I love to leave everything until the last moment. I mean, you never know -- I might need whatever "everything" is, right? (I'm not a total loss, I do label boxes now...)

I got a really good deal on these Roman glass beads from Afghanistan. My wholesaler has a wall where they hang ends of lines and super deals and in November I scored these beads. I'm passing the savings along to my customers.

Each string is one of a kind. I chose strings with no broken beads, and the beads (drilled through) all have 1.5 to 2mm cleanly-drilled holes, so they're perfect for knotting onto leather, for example. The strings of flat pieces, which are drilled at each end, look to have about 1 mm holes. Email me if you'd like more closeup photos -- and for availability! As they sell, I will mark it on the photos.

Here is the photo I first posted, and I'll post the strings in the same order below from left to right.

Comparison of the large chunky Roman glass beads, and the smaller chunky string; 1.5-2.0 mm cleanly-drilled holes; as you can see, there's nice iridescence on many of the beads.

Large chunky Roman glass beads, about 20" in length, $65:

String 1, flat pieces of Roman glass shards, drilled at each end, hole size approximately 1 mm, about 18" in length, $32:

String 3, flat pieces of Roman glass shards, drilled at each end, hole size approximately 1 mm, about18" in length, $32:

String 2, flat pieces of Roman glass shards, drilled at each end, hole size approximately 1 mm, about18" in length, $32:

String 3, Roman glass shards with the light shining through:

Small chunky Roman glass beads, about 18-19" in length, $60:

Medium to deep green graduated Roman glass coin beads, slightly matte or frosted effect on some of the beads, about 18" in length, $16:

Light pink, brown and green Roman glass coin beads, slightly frosted/sugary surface on many of the beads, about 17-18" in length, $16:

Shipping and handling is extra; the final amount will depend on weight, where you live, your need for speed and if insurance is required. I take Visa and MasterCard via Square, as well as PayPal. Please email me for availability. 

Thanks for looking!

Experimenting with "vine-wrapping"...

I was busy at the market yesterday. I mentioned back in late September about taking a "vine-wrapped pendant" course from Judy Feskun through the Grand River Bead Society at our meeting in Guelph. I finally got Jan's undrilled lump of malachite wrapped and she flipped. The difficulty came because I had to hide a glob of glue that I was never able to completely sand off the top and while I'm not 100% sure I like what I came up with, Jan walked by my table at the market every hour or so muttering, "I love my pendant, I love my necklace." Always nice to get positive feedback!

Note the snowman earrings -- from last year.
White jadeite & red Swarovski crystal spacers with a matte black jet heishi hat.

What I really like is that Jan can wear the necklace with either side showing. She also likes that the necklace is longer so she can put the necklace on over her head without having to undo/do up the clasp (which is oversize anyway). I notice people have been commenting on the larger clasps I've been using -- some think they're overkill -- but then they become converts when they realise how easily the necklace or bracelet go on.

Because there was an extra bead from the original necklace, I started playing with vine-wrapping that in order to bulk it up a bit to use as a pendant for a second necklace I'm making to use up the rest of the 4mm malachite rounds I'd bought to lengthen the original necklace.

Every angle is different, and the wrapping hides the chewed-up bit on one side of the bead:

Note that this is the true colour of the malachite but while the wire looks like brass, it's actually bright copper. I'm still working on overcoming the weird light at the market.

Then I strung some pewter skulls with some extra beads left over from a restringing project to make a bracelet for one of my male customers:

And finally, here is the finished version of Winter's raven skull necklace (originally two separate projects) that we worked on over the course of a couple of Saturdays. I'm a big believer in sending people away to test-drive their jewellery for a few weeks and then come back for adjustments. Turns out she decided she wanted both necklaces to be combined into one (because she found she wears them both at the same time), plus she wanted a way to be able to add more stuff in the future (hence the large jump rings).

The necklace is adjustable for length in three ways: first, overall; then the shorter centre piece with the raku skull and body parts can be loosened off or tightened up; finally, the height of the raku skull cord relative to the overall necklace and raven skull can be changed by loosening off and moving a knot on either side of the main piece of leather cord.

For all you procrastinators, there's still time to order something for Christmas (I adhere to the Italian gift-giving date of January 6th on the Feast of the Epiphany so there's plenty of wiggle room) so contact me either by email or come and see me at the market on Saturday and we'll see what we can come up with.

Yo to procrastinating sig/others: I can't tell you how many ladies have told me what they hope their sig/other will get them for Christmas. A gift certificate or a promissory note for something from my table tucked into a card will make a great and perfect and stress-free gift. Just a suggestion/reminder/kick in the pants.

Thanks for looking!

Early Christmas Present...

My favourite kind -- early, cheap, on sale, fits me perfectly, love the colour -- and I got to play with the box it came in.

Give up?

I bought myself an office-chair-in-a-box from Liquidation World here in Paris (not the real one), which is itself liquidating, so everything is 20% off including Yum Yum Chips, which I loooove (and who looooove me), and all kinds of Christmas goodies. Too bad LW is closing. It's a nifty place to spend 15 or 20 minutes in while you wait for your pizza or Chinese food to be ready down the strip mall, not to mention a lot quieter and cleaner and brighter than the Waaaaal-Marts of the world, I don't have to drive all over the countryside to get to it, aaaaand great prices.

It has never failed to amaze me what one can build with a simple little Allen key.

Unfortunately, I got no jewellery made this week. I've been typing my brains out while trying to recuperate my knees and back. My back is doing okay, but my knees are pretty much toast. However, I will be putting some things together tomorrow at the market and I will endeavour to remember to photograph them this time. Last week I fixed Winter's raven skull and raku human skull, hands and feet necklace... you gotta see it. It came out pretty cool. She's bringing me more skulls to play with and fix.

Because it's been so bloody cold the past few days and we're bracing for our first dump of the fluffy stuff this weekend, a memory of a warmer, kinder, fuzzier time and place...

G'night and thanks for looking.

Old Hand-Cut Malachite to Restring...

I was given a string of old hand-cut malachite to restring that my customer has had for decades. Here is the before picture. I've finished it off with a copper clasp and added six inches of length with 4mm rounds in a dark malachite. Once I've finished the pendant, I'll post the finished item.

The largest beads in the centre are about 10mm but most are in the 4mm to 6 or 7mm range, and, as you can see, rondellishly shaped. All are hand cut and drilled, very chewed up. The range of colours and the banding is truly beautiful. The chunk is really something, just over an inch tall. That's a lump of glue from a botched repair job that I couldn't quite finish sanding off. Tiny blue-green glass seed beads in between, smaller than 11/0, but not as small as 15/0. I've been questioned about not doing anything more with these beads but this is what the customer wanted -- i.e. for the beads to simply be restrung.  

Due to an aching back and knees from hauling heavy boxes, bins and metal grids up and down steep stairs to do the loading up and unloading for the show last weekend, I had to do a market lite version of my market table yesterday. I've been in bed pretty much for the past four days otherwise (and, yes, realised too late that I should NOT have attempted the market -- thanks to Jim and Jan for loading up my truck for me!), and as soon as I get back with a few groceries this morning and empty the truck of bins (into the garage only) I will be back in horizontal mode. Off to the doc on Wednesday. While living alone has its peace and warm, fuzzy pleasures -- I can eat cereal for dinner and go to bed with my book at 6 p.m. when and if I feel like it -- there are also the terrifying perils and pitfalls when the things we take for granted, like mobility, go bump in the night.

Interestingly, I sold a wrapped kyanite pendant yesterday. I only had 4mm kyanite rounds with me at the Gem Expo last weekend. Several people came looking for it but no one had any. Has anyone else been getting more requests than usual for anything kyanite? For what it's worth, I do have more sizes and shapes here for sale and will photograph and post pix this week.

Thanks for looking!