Field Hockey!

My sister-in-law Denise called me earlier tonight to get some ideas on some jewelry items she could sell at consessions at hockey games her daughters were involved in.

I tried to brainstorm with her on the phone, and came up with some ideas involving making a design she made using polymer clay. Then I would take her clay design and make a mold of it. The mold would then be used to fabricate the design using precious metal clay (PMC). I am not a teacher, but I was willing to try. Anything to help my adopted-by-marriage sister.

I was thinking that I would make a mold of her original, and instruct her on how to use the PMC to create silver charms out of it. This would have been a whole lot of work for an already too busy gal as her, but that is what we ended up deciding upon...well.... I brainstormed by myself later on tonight, and came up with something that she may just like even better.



So, here is what I came up with, it involved 1/2 round wire, a hammer, a screwdriver, and pliers. This took a total of 5 minutes to complete (without adding the chain). I added the chain because I plan on giving this necklace to my jr. varsity hero Leah (#2 niece) but I think Denise could sell these pendants easily at games for some profit. I will attack her tomorrow with my newly revised idea and see what she thinks of it. I think the less time she has to work on it the better. She is a busy gal as it is.

Late Saturday Night Rambling

September, I can't believe that it is already September. I can feel the fall in the air already. It is so cold this evening, I am shivering as I post. I closed a couple of windows, but this is the season of anything goes weather, so I didn't close them all.

Last night Scott and I met Jape and Suzanne for dinner, we went to Bamboo for sushi. It was really really good. Suze and I split an order of toro...mmmmmmmm, expensive, but worth it.

Before I met them at their house (Scott was already there), I made a new ring. I struggled with the filing to make the pieces fit before soldering until I decided to just smash and solder...and it worked! Anyone interested in this particular technique that I frustratedly stumbled upon can feel free to ask, I have no secrets! I will spare the gorey details for now.

Here is the ring.

After struggling for about 1 hour trying to get the sides of the shank to fit perfectly to the circle for soldering, I gave up and just smashed the ends of the shank with a planishing hammer and soldered it to the back of the circle. Okay, non-secret revealed. There ya go.

I love this ring, I wore it all night yesterday, and most of today. I don't have it on right now, or I would be staring at it on my finger and making boku typo's.


I have tomorrow off, I plan on cleaning and straitening up the house (yeah, laugh all you want Suze and Jape) and cleaning the bathroom so I can finally have some guests over. The summer seems to have been my cleaning season off. I aspire to have people over, I really do. Ughhh!

Perry is afraid of sports

Poor Perry gets frantically insecure when loud sports are on the television. I say insecure, but what I really mean is insane.

Scott is watching a UFC fight on tv, and Perry is cowering at my feet in the kitchen.

I briefly sat next to Scott to watch a little of the fight, and this poor dog circled the coffee table trying to gain purchase underneath our feet. Circling the table, getting pushed, circling more, getting yelled at... This results in Scott yelling at Perry to get "OUT" which only makes Perry's insecurities worse. It also tends to put Scott in a bad mood, which makes Perry even more irritating (P only likes happiness). When he gets yelled at in such a way, he ends up with his head down trying to find a happy, quiet, safe place.

I ultimately had to move my body to the kitchen, which forced the dog that lives by my feet to follow me. I don't understand this behaviour, but I should be used to it by now, because this is how he has been since we took him home 11 years ago.

Poor, poor sketchy dog.

Here is a picture of P thoroughly relaxing...see? He does relax sometimes...sometimes. Yeah, his insecurities are not physical ones, just mental ones. How sexy is he?

Can't Sleep

I don't know why I can't sleep tonight, but here I am awake and surfing the internet.
I checked all my usual haunts, and my etsy store...I even bought something on etsy tonight.

I bought a watercolor 4x6 card from my good friend Meilan from Vancouver. A card with a thistle painting on it, by Meilan's Mom. Thanks Mei!

If Scott wasn't sleeping right now, I would be hammering something or other. That is what I seem to be doing on my off hours these days. I made a couple of pairs of earrings tonight, but the sun is my best light for pictures, so I will have to photo them when the sun comes up....yeah, I know I won't be seeing the sun come up. It's too late for me. I will make my second attempt at sleeping now.
Thanks for listening.

Using Scraps

I looked at my ever growing silver scrap pile today for some inspiration.
I know that is a stretch, but you never know when something will hit you.
I bought an ounce of 3/4" sterling discs about 2 months ago and haven't really even looked at them since, until I started going through the scraps. So I used the discs as bases for these two abstract pendants/charms.

This one started as a panda face, but the ears wouldn't fuse on, so I soldered a dunce hat on instead. I guess I was angry with it, so I decided it needed the dunce hat to go sit in the corner. It is about 1 3/16" from top of hat to bottom of disc.

This one is truly abstract. I don't even know what it looks like other than maybe some kind of chinese or japanese symbol. Just writing this gives me tons of ideas now...hmmmm. This one is approximately 1" from top to bottom.

Both pieces are fused silver. Both have been highly textured, hammered and oxidized.

The End

Grandma Anna died friday morning, August 17, 2007.
Aspiration pneumonia did her in.

I am an asshole, because I am so ambivalent to this news. Actually, I am not ambivalent, I am unaffected.

People keep saying "I'm so sorry" and I keep hearing myself say "don't be".
Grandma Anna was evil. Evil to her dying breath.
There is an entire ward at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center sighing releif.

Tomorrow is her wake and funeral. A short 2 hour wake, then a service, then to the graveyard. We will all go out to chinese food after.

We're Home

We have been home now for a couple of days.
The trip to Vegas was truly an experience I will not soon forget. We have already been talking about getting a group of people together for the next trip. We had a great time alone, but I think having friends/family around would be even better. The last two days my feet hurt (never go on vacation with new shoes) but that didn't stop us from walking many, many miles.

We finally did catch the Mirage volcano eruption. I think because it was cancelled the first time we tried to watch it, I ultimately found it to be less than climactic. It lasted a whole 2 minutes.

Thursday we went to the pool to kill some time, and I had a long island iced tea with nothing in my stomach, I do not recommend this. Scott had a strawberry daquiri. Then we went to lunch at Bill's Gambling Hall, it was just okay.
We had dinner that night at Isla in TI, I had salmon over a cole slaw and tomato salad (excellent!) Scott had roast pork loin (also excellent). We wasted a bit of time gambling at the video poker again, and then turned in early.

Friday we checked out as late as possible because we would be homeless all day waiting for our late night flight. Our flight was cancelled due to poor weather in New England. We flew on standby to Washington DC, and then had a 2 hour layover and flew standby home, we lucked out because we actually made it home (4 hours late). Others didn't fare so well. I am a bit peeved because I spent the money for a direct flight, but since the cancellation was weather related there really is nothing anyone can do for that.

Anyway, we are home now, and glad to be home.
I really missed Perry.
Vegas was a blast!

Full Wednesday on the Strip

Scott and I made the absolute most of today. I don't think we could have done more.
It is now about 3:30am, we just came in from the casino, and this is going to take me about a half hour to list everything we did.

1. We walked the strip from TI to the Monte Carlo and had lunch at the Brew Pub there.

2. After lunch we walked to New York, New York and rode the Coaster...Oh My God! What a rush!

3. Walked to Excaliber and took the tram to Mandalay Bay, went to Shark Reef and spent about 2 hours there.

4. Wandered the casino at Mandalay Bay, and then took the tram back to Excalibur.

5. Walked back to New York, New York and took the footbridge over to MGM Grand.

6. Shopped the stupid tourist crappy stores in that area

7. Went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon and stayed for the 'Big Elvis show' Saw four Elvi singing in turn. The headlining Elvis was about 400lbs. At one point three of them sang together...very entertaining to say the least.

8. Hit every casino on the walk back to our section of the Strip. We didn't gamble in any of them, but just wandered around.

9. Stopped at The Venetian to stand on the balcony to watch the Volcano erupt from the Mirage which was ultimately cancelled due to inclement weather. Inclement weather didn't last long at all.

10. Back at our hotel, we gambled a bit on video poker and then went to the Social House for sushi. Yummmmm.

11. Walked back down the strip to Bill's to see a lounge act. The band was called Symmetry. The best part about this act was the back up dancers.

12. Walked back to TI and stopped in several casino's on the way just for kicks.

13. Settled down at the bar in TI to play some more video poker and have some drinks.

Now we are so tired, our legs are jello from all the walking. When we were asking someone directions to somewhere they said we couldn't walk there, but we did! Pooh to them!
I need sleep!
I am so tired!

There are lots more things that I can't think of at the moment that we did today, and Scott is asleep so I can't ask him to remember right now.

Tommorrow we plan on spending some time by the pool and relaxing with a huge margarita.

I took so many pictures today but I am too tired to post them. I will post them later.

Sleep...sleep...sleep.

Lions, Dolphins and Prosciutto

Today was a full day.
We went for breakfast at the coffee shop in the hotel, it totally could have been Bickford's or Denny's, nothing special. Then walked around for a while, took the walkway over Las Vegas boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall, wondered why we were there and headed back immediately. We wandered around until we decided to visit the Segfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. This was a great way to waste some time. I loved this place. I want a dolphin.

Oh! I also want a tiger!

They also had a very rare "push me pull me" I always thought these were fictional until I saw one up close.

After being in the sun for too long once again, we headed back to the hotel to do a bit of gambling and have a couple of drinks, I am down $15 total so far, Scott is down a bit more. We sat at the bar and played video poker and lasted for about an hour until we got bored and decided to go wandering again. We headed over to the Venetian again because that place is just unbelieveable.

We had dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant Enoteca San Marco. Fabulous meal. I highly recommend eating here if you can afford it. It's a $$$$ restaurant, but worth it.
The menu is made so you can have tastes of different antipasti and small meals. We had a cheese plate (fontina, gorgonzola and parmigiano reggiano)accompanied by three condiments (honey with black truffle, brandy soaked black cherries, and dried apricots with mustard/red pepper), prosciutto de parma, spinach and pancetta salad with mushrooms, and bread. Then Scott had Crispy duck & house raisins, and I had Reginette with sausage, broccoli rabe & chili. So good!

After dinner, we walked the Strip. In and out of different Casino's and shopping malls. I bought a pair of shoes. Cute Dansko sandals (Suzanne raved about them) on sale at the Walking store in the Forum Mall.

Later, we caught the pirate show outside of our hotel and then walked to Bellagio to catch the fountain show (Marsha suggested this). We HAVE to go watch this again! We didn't get the best vantage point, but it was just amazing!

This water show is really a sight to see. This picture is when it is just getting started, my camera died so I couldn't get a picture of it when it was full on excitement. I am sad for that, but I have the memory. Incredible.
We must have walked about 10 miles today in total, Scott is now snoring once again next to me and I will be snoring soon, too.
Did I say what a fabulous time we are having here?


More tomorrow!

Road Trip

Ok, now it actually is August 14th. It is 1:50am. My computer time is incorrect.
So, I will tell you about my day...

We checked out of the hotel and met Julie and Nick this morning at Dad's house for breakfast...really just toast and coffee, and then went to the cowboy store. I bought a pair of cowboy boots. I hope to get some use out of them, but I do live on the east coast, so I don't want to look like a freak, well, yes I do actually.
Nick bought a pair, too. He also bought a shirt. Scott bought nothing.

We said our goodbyes, and headed to return the car. Got to the airport, rented another car with a slight delay, they had cars but not enough people to move them. Strange. We ended up waiting about 1/2 hour for a car that we had reserved. I was getting so peeved, I almost went to the next car rental place and asked them if they had a one way rental available, but I bit my tounge and stayed as patient as I could. We finally got a car, a very comfortable Impala and started our journey south.

The ride south was beautiful, especially the southern most part of Utah into Arizona.
Really incredible parts of the country. I am so glad we decided to drive instead of fly.


Driving through these rocks was just spectacular!

Driving through the Moapa Indian Reservation at sundown we could see the sunset over the Sheep Range mountains.

And just as the sun went down, we came around a bend, and there she was. We were running out of gas and determined not to stop for any since we pre-bought the tank. SLC to LAS on one tank of gas. We returned the car, that had been beeping at us telling us that we were low on fuel, completely empty. Ahhh the poetry of it.


We actually made great time, it only took us about 5 hours. We left at 3:30pm and got here at 8:30pm. We took a cab to the hotel, checked in, and walked around.
Here is a photo of TI from the over street walkway to the Venetian.

A very tired couple in Venice. So, so very tired and weary.

Scott has been snoring next to me for a couple of minutes already. I walked down to the casino about a half hour ago and bought a beer in the gift shop. That beer is long gone now, only the second one since we got here, we seem to be off our game. We will try to do better tomorrow. Yay for tomorrow!!

The weekend in a nutshell

August 12, 2007 10:30pm

Park City.

This weekend has been one big party for Dad.
Friday night we went to a Cowboy cookout at friends of Dad and ChaCha’s. A very eccentric rich horse breeder/construction worker who lives only a few minutes from the Weller compound. The couple built the enormous house themselves with overkill of cowboy motif including furniture and chandeliers made from recycled wood and antlers. There was one man cooking steaks on a large grill outside, and all the fixins were inside, we were too late for most of it. All we got was salad and steak. Was delicious though.

Saturday we all got pedicures, and then went to Dad’s house for the big party. Scott and I were on parking duty to make sure that no car was blocked.
Here we are playing valets...

We had fun even tho we were put to work. After about an hour of that, we went inside and mingled and had a great time. I met a lot of my Dad’s friends who I hadn’t met before, including some Mohab cowboy type people who were true cowboys. Especially Vince and his girlfriend Deb. Vince was at the Cowboy Cookout the night before. He was quite a character and an excellent guitarist. He brought his steel guitar and played slide all night.

Nick played a bunch of songs and then Vince plopped down and accompanied him, and even later, Sand (another true cowboy) pulled out his guitar and joined in.

Later, Dad's present from ChaCha arrived. We all went to his big cutting circle to watch a firedancer. This picture really isn't very good, but you get the idea. She was dancing with fire! Ha!


Sunday, Scott and I went to Park City Ski Resort and took the PayDay chairlift up to the top of the mountain. It was spectacular! Windy and sunny. The ride took ½ hour to get up to the top and another ½ hour to come down. We both got sunburns, especially on our knees and faces.
We then went back to the hotel room and changed for the nights festivities.
Julie and Nick prepared an Indian feast. About 20 of the 50 people from last night were there for the feast. Delicious but dangerous Indian food. Scott and I have been burping and farting all night (in the privacy of our hotel room).

So tomorrow we are on our way to Las Vegas. We go back to Dad’s house for breakfast, and then Julie and Nick will take Scott and I to a cowboy clothing store. They went there yesterday, and Julie got a cool pair of cowboy boots, and Nick got a shirt. I may get some cowboy boots. Scott wants to get some cowboy shirts and possibly some boots, too. Then we return our car at the Salt Lake City airport, only to rent another car for the 5 ½ hour or so trek to Las Vegas. This should be an adventure.

Plane ride 8/10/07

August 10,2007

Day one: at the moment we are traveling at 487 miles per hour and an altitude of 38265 ft.

We departed logan at just after 7am and now I think it is about 10:30 or so with the time change.



Here we are on the flight to Long Beach just to get on another plane to fly to SLC.
We are above New Mexico right now, the northwest corner. I really love Jet Blue.
I've been staring at the tiny tv screen in front of me on the channel that has the google map.

Scott watched 28 weeks later while I tried to sleep while listening to my ipod.
Unfortunately there was a screaming baby for a while pounding on the back of my seat.
A couple of times there I really wanted to turn around and give them the evil eye, but I know how babies get
With the ear popping and noise. I think I managed to get a few winks in.
Nick just got us a coffee (they have Dunkin Donut's coffee on the flight, my favorite) Thanks Nick!

2 More Sleeps!

It is right down to the wire.

I have one day left to get things done before we leave. Thursday is it. If it doesn't happen thursday, it's not going to happen until I get back. Too bad for me, because I had big plans. 'Had'. I think I have given up. That is horrible, I shouldn't say that. Oh well.

So the plans for tomorrow are to clean the bathroom (there's nothing worse than coming home to a dirty bathroom), pick up a little, pack a lot, take Perry over to Raven's house (his home for the next 9 nights), and possibly somewhere in between those things go to work and finish up odds and ends (we will be closed for the next week). This last task may be the first task if I get a call in the morning from Julie.

Don't get me wrong, I am not sad to go, I just wish I managed my time a bit better in these final days until departure. I actually can't wait to get to Park City, get settled in the hotel room and go out and explore.

My Dad's birthday party (70th) is on Saturday, and then on Sunday Julie and Nick are cooking an Indian feast. Monday, we return the rental car and immediatley rent another to make the drive down to Las Vegas. Oh! That reminds me of another thing I have to do...check out the little dusty towns we will be traveling through on the internet, so we can find places to stop.
Mmmmm...dusty little towns...mmmmm

Norwood Cable Access

We taped the show about Custom Art Framing and Gallery today for the show on Norwood Cable called "Let's Talk Business".

It was a stressful morning awaiting the inevitable, but once it got going it was just fine. The producers arrived just before noon. Two nice young men, Rob and Ryan. Very friendly and down to earth. They made us feel like this was going to be easy peasy, and it actually was a lot less stressful once the whole thing got started.

Well, I didn't actually have to do anything but work in the background while Julie was being interviewed by Jeanne Babel.
Julie was a bit nervous at first, but after the initial segments were filmed she really got comfortable and ultimately did a great job.
During these segments, I was diligently sewing buttons onto a piece of matboard in the background. The (very loose) plan was to attach the buttons while the shoot was going on, but not finish. Then after, they would come over and do a close up of the last button being sewn, and voila! Thing is, I was so nervous for Julie that I worked so fast and had to dilly dally the last few minutes so I wouldn't finish too early. I think it all pulled together nicely in the end tho.

After the interview, Jeanne Babel left, and one of the producers/cameraman had Julie go around the shop to different walls of artwork and talk briefly about the art. This is when she really got into it and started to feel comfortable. I was extremely proud of her.

I am sure that this won't be the only show Julie will do. I know there are subjects that she would have liked to address that didn't come up or she couldn't find the words at the time. Heck, after the whole thing was done, she wished she could do it all over again. She did a great job!

I can't wait to see the finished edit of the show. I will supposedly get a copy of it. Then I can see what glorious eye candy I was in the background.

Oh, and I did remember to wear some make-up.

7 More Sleeps

Till Utah!

Next friday at this time I should be situated in my hotel room at the Yarrow with a King sized bed and spacious room. Mmmmmmmm.

Las Vegas!

I am so excited that we finally made reservations, and everything is a done deal now!

After much procrastination, I finally booked the car, and hotel.
I had the flights booked since June 23.
As you can imagine, I feel like a weight has been lifted. For over a month, we have had plans to fly into SLC airport on Friday, August 10th and fly out of LAS on Friday August 17th. We didn't even know how we were getting from SLC to Las Vegas, or where we were staying once we got there.

So, now we know we will be driving there. The car long distance is going to cost about half of what 2 flights would have cost. I didn't want to take a bus. I think driving there will be fun, and it is only about a 6 hour drive, to me that is nothing, I am used to the 13 hour drive up to PEI. We will ditch the car as soon as we get there, at the airport, and take a shuttle service to the hotel.

We stuggled with where to stay, what was most affordable but still nice, and settled on Treasure Island. Initially we were thinking of staying in Old Vegas (downtown) at the Golden Nugget for two nights and then moving to the strip for another two nights, but realistic thinking prevailed. Who wants to change hotels every 2 days? As it is, we are staying 3 nights in Park City, too much packing and unpacking can put a damper on a trip. So, 4 nights at Treasure Island it is.

I am bringing my computer. I hope to document this trip as best I can with pictures and stories of our adventures. At the very least, it will be fun for me to read later on. Now I need to research what yokel towns we will be passing through on the road trip there.

YAY! 13 days till the start of our trip!

Bettie Page

This is just a quick post to show two pictures we framed today. I need to add framing posts more often.

These prints are signed by the artist Olivia, AND Bettie Page herself.
How cool is that?

The customer is so happy with them, she picked them up today.

Heart On My Sleeve Cuff Bracelet

I made this bracelet on and off all day.
I had a piece of sterling rod (2mmx4mm) that I had been looking at for months, and then I started sawing.
I sawed the rod down the middle on one side about 4" and down the other side about 2". I left 3.5" in the center uncut.

The cuff is hammered, and the heart center is soldered closed.
It still needs a bit of filing, sanding, and shaping, but it is almost there.
Here is the heart part.


Here is the coil part. This is they way it should be worn. Heart on the outside. It's also the most comfortable way to wear it.



Some more photos, so you can see all the nooks and crannies.
It is not finished yet. Keep that in mind.





Thanks for looking :)

Make your own Headpins

Headpins are a necessary supply for jewelry designers of all skill levels. With the rising cost of silver, they have become quite expensive. So why not make your own? It is easy, doesn't require too much equipment and they are a fraction of the cost of buying them. All you need is wire cutters, a small torch such as a butane creme brulee torch, a heat resistant surface, a glass jar or crockpot with a mild acid (warmed vinegar mixed with salt works well), and a pair of tweezers. Always wear eye protection and work in a nicely ventilated area.

Try them, you may never buy headpins again.

I am using 24 gauge sterling silver wire, but this method will work with any smaller gauge wire you want to use.
First, get yourself some wire and cut a bunch of lengths.






Hold the small piece of wire in a pair of tweezers just outside the blue cone and slightly above the flame until it balls up. You can adjust the size of the ball by how long you let the silver melt. Be careful though, the ball can easily fall off creating a splash which is dangerous. So hold the wire very close to the heat resistant surface.



The wire is so thin, that it is unnecessary to quench, they cool off very quickly, I just lay them out until I have a whole bunch.


Now scoop them all up and toss them in the mild acid bath. I use a crock pot so I don't have to keep warming the solution when I am working for a long time. A plastic container submerged in the pot with holes drilled in makes for easier removal.
Keep them in until they are all cleaned. Usually just a few minutes.



Rinse them off and voila! Headpins!

You can now sand them and polish them, or just leave them like this.
I tend to like the more organic look so I just tumble them for a little bit for strength.
They look like tiny little silver pearls at the end of the wire.

Martini Anyone?

I just had a cartoon moment.

I must preface this by saying that everytime I want like 5 ice cubes, there are none in the freezer.

I do not use ice too often, really only with a select few rarely made drinks...ohh and Ice Coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Tonight I wanted to have a Pomegranate Martini. Ice is a key ingredient! I actually stopped at the liquor store to get the Stirrings Pomegranate Martini stuff.

So, I get home, place the martini mix in the fridge, and go about my other nonsence for the day. I could have been chilling ice cubes for hours!

Later tonight I went to make a martini, and I have 2 ice cubes. TWO! There are 2 whole ice cube trays, but there were 2 cubes in one, and none in the other. WTF? If you use the ice, REPLACE THE WATER!! Ugghhh, but I am getting off track here...

I grab the empty ice tray and take it to the sink. I fill it up with water, making sure that no water spashes up to the spout and then drops into the tray. I have issues, I know. I also rinse the thing out in between fillings, concerned with possible back splash. I am sick.

I carefully return the filled tray to the freezer and unload the tray containing the two cubes. I pause at the stove where my glass is sitting. I contemplate for a moment that I should move to the table, but I remain at the stove .

My glass is precariously positioned in the triange of room between the burner closest to the fridge and the corner of the stove. I twist the plastic cube maker to loosen the two cubes and they pop with such a force that I almost lost one. I had visions of it falling in the space between the fridge and stove, a place that no item worthy of ingestion would ever live to talk about. A place where you can't just "kiss it up to god", rinse it off, and use it. A very stressful moment, thankfully the ice cube and I prevailed....for the moment...

I delicately grab the ice cube that almost escaped, only to loose the other. This is were it got cartoony. In my totally awesome success at saving the ice cube, the other one got out of my grips... I failed it miserably. It took a dive and landed between the fridge and stove. I saw it happen in slow motion. The ice cube jumped from its nest, teetered on the edge of the tray, fell onto the fleshy part of my palm near my thumb, and slid down my palm and into the depths of no-mans land. I had precious little time to react, but react I did, just not successfully. I still remember the choreography. Totally one of those 'beside yourself' moments that you have to laugh at later.

So after all that, and having a moderately cold martini, I am here to recommend Stirrings Pomegranate Martini mixer, because it was so tasty with even just one ice cube. I just imagined that I was halfway finished with it from the get go, and I was okay with the chill level. Now, an hour later and drink finished, I could have a pomegranate slushie (ice is not ice yet), but I think I will just go to bed.

Two Unfinished Pendants

I have been in a sort of creative funk recently. I suppose it could be the fact that all I have been selling is headpins and noserings. I am up to my ears in headpins right now, and the noserings keep selling even tho I upped the price.

I am happy to sell these items, don't get me wrong, but I am not a headpin machine. I have other talents, or so I thought.

Anyway, I plan to finish these pendants tomorrow, and get good pics of them on chains in the sunlight.
I photographed these in my extremely dark home with a couple of lights, I think they came out okay, but I can do better. They are not completely sanded, filed and polished yet.


A carnelian cab and a turquoise cab.

The carnelian is approximately 15mm and has an oval hammered ring for the bail, the turquoise is approximately 12mm and has a round hammered ring for the bail. They both have a very organic feel to them, as I am still new to bezel settings, but I think they look okay. I need to smooth them out a bit and polish them still.



Here is a shot of the backs.
I have delusions of signing the backs, but I know that they are just delusions. I wish I had a stamp.


I also made 10 noserings today. I got a special order from a girl that already bought one from me. She wanted two more in graduated ball sizes.
I am the nosering/headpin queen!
Ghaaaa!

Small Dangle Earrings

I made two pairs of earrings tonight.
Both are sterling silver.

The first pair is garnet.

The second pair is carnelian.


They are pretty much the same, just different beads.

On a different note, I got an order today for 100 headpins. Yay!

I cut my bangs today

So, all of you who know me and know what I look like will probably be saying... 'It's about time'.

I have been growing out my bangs, trying to settle on a new look unsuccessfully.
I keep doing this, I don't know why, because I look best with the short Betty Page bangs and long hair.

Today before I went to work, I cut the bangs. It took me a full hour to get it right, I am very particular in how it looks. I am the only one who can cut them to my specifications. This saves hundreds on haircuts, thousands even!

I am a drip dry girl, and even tho the bangs require blowdrying, I am already happy I did it. Bangs rule! For me anyway.



So there ya go. Bangs cut, instant style...or not. For me it is.

Damn! I should have worn lipstick!

Something Stinky This Way Comes

Perry got sprayed by a skunk tonight.

It has been a few years, so I guess Scott and I were caught off guard.
Usually when we start smelling them around, we will take precautions, however, we have not smelled any skunk this season so far. So we were naive and stupid and are paying for it now. He still stinks of skunk, even after a skunk bath.

Perry is normally free to roam the yard (fenced in) at any time of year. When we start smelling skunk around, he is confined at night by a chain on the back porch when he wants to go out.

We heard something out the window tonight, and then knew right away when Perry started jumping on the back door to get in. I walked into the kitchen to get the screen open for him, and was almost knocked down by the smell. Needless to say, I didn't let him in.
I called to Scott to get the shampoo, and a towel, and quick.

We washed him, we need to do it again when Scott gets home (he went out tonight, I think he will be home early if his friends smell skunk). We took showers after we bathed him, so we are doing fine, but the clothes we were wearing may not fair so well.

If someone knows some trick to keeping skunks out of your yard, please let me know. Our yard is fenced in with a six foot cedar picket, and we routinely make sure that areas around the bottom of the fence are free from gaps.
I need a pet friendly deterrant for skunks!

Oh! It's friday the 13th! That explains it.

One ring Two ring Three ring

I spent the better part of tonight making sterling silver rings. I actually had a hard time soldering with hard solder (medium and easy solder are no big deal with the propane torch). The hard solder is tough with just a propane torch, but I got it to flow after many failed attempts. Especially on this first ring, and the last one. The middle ring was easy because it is so thin and heats up quickly.

So this first ring is made from 4mm sterling dome rod which is 2mm high. Really thick if you ask me. I had to anneal this piece about 10 times to get it to even have any sort of give to shape it. I started out with just the rod and cut a piece the size I wanted and I couldn't even bend it at all before annealing (even during annealing for that matter...I had to keep annealing to get some give). Size 8 1/2 and scored with a saw 8 times around it to add some design. I don't think it is done. I will add more design to it when I get home from work tomorrow, and then list it on etsy.

This ring is 14gauge 1/2 round wire just soldered into a circle and then filed and sanded. I may do some sort of design on it, but it is really small, so I may just leave it as a plain band. This ring is size 7 1/2.

This is a manly band, a stout size 12 and 8mm wide. It is 1mm thick. I used sterling silver sheet for this one. 18 gauge. Sawed out the shank and soldered it closed. I will definately do some sort of design on this, I may even solder something to it.

Ok, so maybe none of these rings are 'done', but at least they are started. I will work more on them tomorrow, make more designs on them, and polish, polish, polish!
Check back to see the finished rings!

Keff

I just found out that an old friend that works at a bar I used to frequent (and Scott still does) has Multiple Sclerosis.

Keff.

Keff has made me smile just by looking at him, he is the kindest most friendly guy and doesn't deserve to have this. I am extremely sad, I cried, and writing this makes me weepy even now after I have had time to digest this information.

Keff is a voice artist and bartender. He works at J.J. Foley's in Boston, and J.J. Foley's in the South End, and has a website to promote his voice talent, he is a walking talking cartoon, a real talent! His website is www.keffdolan.com, for some reason I can't make a link tonight, I have tried about 10 times with no luck.

I don't know anything about multiple sclerosis, perhaps I should do some research. He never appeared to have a problem, I don't suppose you can just 'get' MS, maybe you can. I have not been right all night.

I really love this guy, I am not a religious gal, but I am going to pray for him everyday.

ATC Swap

I made these cards for an artist trading card swap with some jewelry friends.
They are watercolors on old book pages pasted to matboard.
Some are encrusted with jewels. Some are made for specific people, others will be sent randomly. I hope they like them! :)