New Beads from the Brantford Gem & Mineral Show on Saturday...

Here is a sneak peek at my loot from the Brantford Gem and Mineral Show on Saturday held at the Paris (Ontario) Fairgrounds. Unfortunately, this was all the lapis I could score. I've broken the strings up and I have half and quarter strings available for sale. I am still photographing them, but I'll post a few below. Email me first to buy (I take PayPal); it'll be first come first served as there are so few beads. Eventually everything will link directly to Etsy.

I have a request in for 4mm, 6mm, 8mm and 10mm matte rounds. This lapis is undyed with no added treatment(s), shows a range of colours and lots of pyrite and some to no calcite. It comes direct from Afghanistan (in the peaceful north, where the mines are). It's all hand cut, and so the bead sizes vary quite a bit, and the strings are sold as is. What I find really nice about these particular beads is that they have mostly 2mm holes. You may have to take a bead reamer to the odd bead to smooth out the burr in the centre, but the big holes are a bonus.

I'm still learning about the semi-precious mining industry in Afghanistan, in particular the lapis, and there are fascinating YouTube videos where you can see how it's still done by hand. The mines are virtually inaccessible except on foot and there's no way to get heavy equipment in, nor is there hydro or water.

From the centre out:
puff hearts, 2 lapis, 1 rhodochrosite(?), 1 smoky quartz
squarish faceted matte lapis
small flat-back skulls, tiger eye, amethyst, lapis and pink quartz
graduated polished lapis saucer beads
yellowy-orange resin beads with possibly silver-plated beads from Afghanistan
tiny squarish matte lapis tabular beads, slightly graduated, with faceted edges
Tibetan-style matte etched carnelian beads
assorted crystals, amethyst, citrine, clear quartz, definitely heat-treated, but nice shapes and sizes
drilled fossil pendants
polished 9 to 11mm lapis rounds
fancy coin silver beads (top)
tiny matte Afghanistan jade arrowhead beads

Polished lapis rounds, 9-11mm, 2mm holes, $13
Matte lapis squarish tabular beads, faceted edges, 1-1.5mm holes, $16
Matte lapis faceted beads, 2mm holes, $16

What you'll notice on these lapis beads is that the holes are drilled from each end so they're evenly sized, not large on one end and tiny on the other. Very occasionally you'll find a bit of a burr in the centre of the bead but a careful pass through with a bead reamer will take care of that. The holes are clean at the entry and except where noted are slightly larger than 2mm. A 2mm leather cord will go through them easily.

The colour is a bit overbright here -- I'm still working on capturing the colour -- but this shows how the colour goes all the way through the lapis beads.

These are the few handmade coin silver beads I could get this time. 10-11mm diameter & length. Sold individually, $9 each (except for that little squirt, $7).

Here are a few things I made at the market on Saturday. I was sitting there trying to come up with a new bead combination and it suddenly dawned on me (I hadn't had even one coffee yet -- an emerging theme -- it was literally dawn at that point) that I should be able to enlarge the tiny holes in the copper skulls. I was surprised at how easily the little reamer and hand drill worked, even though these are solid metal beads. I first used the diamond reamer to enlarge the hole at each end and then I drilled out the hole with the hand drill so I could use 1.5mm Greek leather cord.

And a couple more chokers, variations on a theme...

These Fair Trade African copper wire spirals are so useful and look great with all kinds of beads.

As always, if you see anything here or elsewhere on my blog that you like or would like information on, email me and I will make that a priority to photograph and price.

Thanks for looking!

Nathalie's necklace... cleaning up... & rings...

Since it has now arrived at its destination, I can show you the necklace that Nancy made back in December for her dear friend Nathalie in Mississippi. Nancy spent hours and hours contemplating beads in the current incarnation of my "studio"... aka hopelessly chaotic front room.

Tourmaline is an extremely important stone to Nathalie and Nancy picked some nice colours and shapes and echoed and complemented them beautifully with several spiral silver-plated, pewter and horn Dzi bead elements. After Nancy put the beads into pleasing order, I did the wire-stringing and crimping. At the moment, I'm teaching Nancy to wire-wrap beads.

It's been a long, unspeakably lonely and sad six weeks since Max died. He was with me one quarter of my life. Yes, time and life tick on... but. The hardest part to get through are all the firsts -- first time to make something to eat and no one to trip over, then no one to clean the plate off later; first time to wake up to no fuzzy face beside you on his pillow; first time to do the market and no one to come home to. He died at the crap end of winter when we're all sick and tired of the snow, the dark and the cold... and the cold... and the cold.

Spring appears to finally have arrived this week: it's above freezing for at least a few hours every day even if it doesn't feel like it, but the front room is filled with light longer and longer into the evenings. Nancy and Lynn (of Fashion Your Space) are helping me turn this room into a workable and working design studio instead of a hodge-podge of tables piled high with who-knows-what-'cause-I-sure-can't-find-what-I'm-looking-for. Most Monday mornings will find the three of us working away: 2 hours x 3 people = 6 hours per week worth of endless boxes and bags of stuff hauled around for years finally opened, examined and purged. That lawn sale I was always planning to have? Phht. Ain't gonna happen. Week after week those things are off to the consignment store, the Goodwill, to a new and appreciative home or out into the garbage. Each week I feel lighter and lighter walking into the back room and seeing empty space and feeling no desire whatsoever to fill it up again. It's very true: once you start getting rid of no longer useful stuff, the catharsis -- and high -- is unbelievable.

Great inspiration for cleaning up and creating a functional working space can be found here: http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/category/jewelry-making/jewelry-studio/ and of course there's always Pinterest. The studios that some people create!

Last week at the market I made this choker and a handful of rings for a client:

Pewter side-drilled skulls, copper wire spiral tubes, 2mm black Greek leather



"Mystery stones", possibly dyed quartz(?), wrapped rings using 16 gauge tinned copper


Thanks for looking!

Max...

Mortality 1 July 1998

The first day of Max & Me, 27 September 1998

Feeeeeeed meeeeeeeee...

Feeeed meeeeeee, a recurring theme, Christmas at Jean's, 2006

 Opening Christmas presents...

The first professional grooming, Spring 2012

The ever-popular Vietnamese Potbellied Chinese Crested look, Summer 2012

Max was always into hairstyles more than I was -- the windblown look

  

Immortality, 6:30 a.m., 17 February 2013

A very special thanks to Dr. Scott Reid and Britney at the Brant-Norfolk Veterinary Clinic

Let's Eat Cake & MOI -- well, my cake jewellery, anyway -- on TEEEEVEEEEE

Check it out:

http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=237&rid=15&sid=5130&gid=108414#.UR1xv83682E.facebook

Here are some of the cake picks that Rene showed during the interview, in particular the skull cake picks:

Thanks for watching!

Mixed Pearl Necklace & Earrings

It's February 15th! Happy Half-Price Chocolate Day to you all!

A long silence. With both the weather and roads being the height of crappy the past two Saturdays I erred on the side of caution and skipped the markets. I had visions of sitting at my kitchen table, the only semi-clear space in here (I have four -- count'em -- work tables each of which is completely buried a foot deep in stuff plus the kitchen table), snow silently piling up to the eaves outside and putting jewellery together, but with another onslaught of transcription to plough through not much jewellery-making got done at all.

I finally got around to adding this pretty heart clasp to the mixed cream, pink and purple pearl and Swarovski crystal necklace I started two weeks ago. I have a feeling the clasp could be sterling, but like a lot of things there including these mixed pearls, unmarked and unpriced bags of this, that and the other surface periodically and with no idea from where or whence they came. No .925 on the clasp anywhere to be seen, but it has the sheen and weight of sterling, so mebbe. Sterling earwires for sure on the matching earrings.

Necklace is approximately 25" long

I have a million ideas of things to make but unlike so many of the prolific bloggers I follow, I'm mired deeply in the winter doldrums (and those pesky files). Fortunately the emergence of the sun the past few days is working its slow but sure magic. Now if the temperature could just get above freezing and stay there... how nice that would be!

This is what my pal Lynn (aka Lynny Claus) over at http://cattaildesigns.blogspot.com/ has been working on -- the jewellery display frame AND the earrings. Once the hangers are attached, this and its duplicate will be winging their way to her daughters (2 frames, 2 daughters) as combo V-Day/B-day gifts.

Again, Happy Half-Price Chocolate Day everyone, and thanks for looking!

Blue Hebron, Majapahit & Trade Beads, Plus Some Market Chokers...

Whoo hoooo! BLUE  HEBRON BEADS! I have been lusting after these for the longest time. An early birthday present to myself, plus these gorgeous Majapahit Javanese beads and more trade beads (pink Cheyenne and African glass trade beads). I'll tell you, I sure wish I'd bought more of the Majapahit beads. They are stunning. The pictures do not do them justice at all.

The blue Hebron beads will be available for sale in small lots. Email me if you're interested and tell me what size(s) you're interested in. To be fair I'll probably sell them by weight. Ditto the Majapahits.

The market itself was again slow this past Saturday, but I kept myself busy and made these chokers, some of which my client bought, the rest of which are now on the table available for sale.



Top to bottom: copper jump rings & copper beads, silver-plated & hematite beads; copper jump rings & copper, stainless steel-plated & hematite beads; silver-plated, copper jump rings & hematite beads; & copper jump rings, silver-plated, stainless steel and gunmetal plated beads & a copper-wrapped silver-plated skull bead



Top bracelet and choker: silver-plated base metal "rock";
Lower choker: silver-plated beads flanking a jumble of large-holed pewter spacers

And, because V-Day is coming up...



Glass beads, sterling earwires

 Thanks for looking!

Display & Storage

Like everyone, I have a problem with storage, both at home and to and from a market or show, as well as the display itself. I try to make my table displays do double duty, so that display box lids are closed and 1-inch foam slabs (from a camping foamie) cut to size are used to cushion boards loaded with earrings, necklaces and doodads and everthing gets packed firmly into shopping bags or bins -- where they reside until the next market.

The plasticated or Tyvek flat-bottomed reusable grocery bags are cheap and so handy. Most sizes and heights of earring carrousels fit perfectly into flat-bottomed Tyvek grocery bags, and your earrings won't go anywhere because the bags don't collapse or fall over: cloth bags don't work at all well for this purpose, anyway, and I stopped using them. It'll take a couple of dollars and a bit of experimentation to find which size(s) work(s) best for your personal needs: beads and jewellery and wooden boards can start to get reeeeeally heavy. Overall, though, I've found it's best to try to keep the size of your bins and bags pretty much to the same size for easy storage/loading up your vehicle.

This is my newest acquisition:


Tiny drop marks of water damage I can live with -- when it's on the table the lid will be open.



Secure lock -- this is the second item I have with this lock style.



I have scraps of foam and black stretch velour to line each compartment.
Sometimes being a packrat pays off -- I always have stuff to fix things with!

I'm thinking that if I cut those ribbons that keep the lid propped half open,
then the lid might fall back flat and I could drape necklaces in there... or I could line it with velour and very thin foam and pin things...

 I admired this box on the table of another market vendor on Saturday and Brenda, of Brenda's Magnetics, offered to sell it to me, saying she was bored with it.

"Oooh... how much?"

"Five bucks."

"Sold."

She said she didn't have space in her tiny apartment to store unused display items so she gets rid of them. Unfortunately, I have tons of room here (space I'm rapidly running out of because I have so much freaking STUFF!). I have years' worth of display items that I'm no longer using and no good home for them. Nothing wrong with these items; I simply don't use 'em anymore.

I periodically cruise the Goodwill, Value Village, Sally Ann and lawn sales keeping an eye out for interesting boxes, clamp-on lamps/spotlights and things that can be repurposed into displays. But, still, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to acquire something you admire from another vendor just by asking.

Thanks for looking!

Assorted chokers & more skull components -- and earrings!

The farmer's market was slow again today so I had plenty of time -- at least four mostly uninterrupted hours! -- to make things. Mainly, any interruptions consisted of going to Peter's Bakery for samples of apple strudel (I also bought one, my fave go-to dessert these days), and to the Butcher's Blend when the sausage samples were laid out. At one point, Uncle Dad showed up with samples of pizza and I dare anyone to say no to fresh-cut vegetables and cheese on a thin crust... phhht... not me!

I'm probably like most of you out there, I buy far too many beads, never use most of them, and end up forever falling back onto my own particular favourite beads and shapes. Me, I love the look of all silver and/or mixed metal compositions. In this case, I added one 4mm bright copper jump ring between the Tibetan style large beads (my absolute favourite shape) and the stainless steel plated beads.

I also love the endless possibilities using Tibetan/Tibetan carved agate beads.

And here are more of those skulls I started working with last weekend. I ordered 200 of them from Arton this week and at the rate I'm motorvating through them, they won't last very long. I'm making components for another choker, as well as to offer for sale, and I will be making more with the top loop turned, so that I can jump-ring them together into a chain.

I made a pair of "lady skull" earrings with the addition of a copper daisy spacer.

And then it was all of a sudden time to go home, from whence I will not budge for the next four days while I type my fingers further up to the next knuckle, or so it feels. I wonder how many billion keystrokes I have made when I finally hang up my keyboard and pull the plug on this infernal, timesucking device...

Thanks for looking!

Valentine's Day Cupcake Picks...

Well, amazingly enough, I did manage to get something done this week, despite a marathon of typing. I was up at 4:30 this morning to finish typing and then proofread everything. I got the job in 2 minutes before the deadline. Then I had a nap.

I put these cupcake picks together in several little 15 to 30-minute bursts this week rather than try to do it all at once tonight when I really should be trying to get some sleep. Very clever of me, no? Actually, it's amazing how much can be done in 15 minutes if everything is laid out. But then, after checking my sales book, I realised I had totally forgot I have to try to wirewrap a 4mm turquoise bead into a sterling silver ring that had lost its stone. Gahhhh...


L to R: small red glass heart picks, large red glass heart picks, pink and red dyed howlite skull picks,
pink, red and blue fairy flower picks, mini-confetti picks

 Those are little flower fairies second from the right if you couldn't tell. I'm wondering if I should make them as dangles. In any event these are available at Let's Eat Cake in Woodstock. If you wanted to order some in a particular colour or style/theme or a large quantity, let me or Rene know.

Thanks for looking!

Workaround to upload photos -- switch to HTML... Blue Sapphire Earrings & New Skull Chokers TA DA!

Success!

Blue Sapphire earrings with Bali silver daisy spacers and sterling silver earwires, $45/pr.

Amazing what you can learn when you go poking around workarounds and fixes on an FAQ page.

So, back to HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! Thank you to all my readers and I hope this year is filled to overflowing with creativity and good happenings for all of us. I will have momentous news in the next few months. Stay tuned for that. AND I will get back to the creativity as soon as I stop pinning pictures at Pinterest. Oh, my, what a timesucker that is proving to be.

In the meantime, I have made about 50 pairs of this style of earrings, something basic to wear with jeans, to work, to go out at night (although I wouldn't know anything about that. Max and I tend to hit the hay around 6:30 or 7:00 with a book and cookies). Here are the sapphire earrings. I have two lines, basic semi-precious, all priced at $25/pr, includes Ontario HST, and any two pair for $45 (email me for selection). Then I have a line utilising "high cut" stones and I have moonstone, labradorite, citrine, amethyst, emerald and sapphire earrings to date. The "high cut" earrings are priced at around $45/pr, and I'll take 10% off if you buy more than one pair (email me for selection). I printed out a list on Friday night of all the semi-precious stones associated with birth months and zodiac signs and I will be acquiring as many of those stones as I can. Any requests? Email me.

Here, too, are the skull chokers and a bracelet that I made for a client on Saturday morning at the market. I will be ordering more skulls of this type today if anyone wants to commission something similar.



These dangles started out as earrings, but I thought, no......



I'm offering these dangles ready for use if anyone is interested. $2.50 each. I would make them initially ready to string like this, i.e. w/o needing a jump ring, however if anyone wanted them with the top loop facing the front, then I can do that. Again, email me for availability and/or to order.

Large pewter skull dangle, mini silver-plated skulls & two skulls with roses
with copper jump rings as spacers on 1.5mm black Greek leather

And I made my client an adjustable bracelet...

So that's it for now, lots of plans, just have to keep nose applied firmly to grindstone.

Thanks for looking!