Just working on jewelry

RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

Oops, sorry Alex… just snagged it from your eBay listing. I don’t know how to resize in here. The usual html codes don’t seem to take.

I’ll tell Mon what you said. :-) She was pretty tickled to hear that the Russian goalie is only 16 years old.

Hi Melanie! Chicago’s your kind of town? Next time I go, I’ll have to actually do some sight-seeing. I don’t think I had Geno’s, but I did have some kind of deep dish pizza. :-)


SRAJD

This week Alex and I spent a huge amount of time working on the SRAJD organization and website.

I’m going to do some additional marketing for the sponsor members. There’s some really cool jewelry in there and I’d love to introduce new customers to it.



THE DRAWERS

Mom wanted to see what the new organizing supply cabinets look like. Here they are:



One sticks out further than the other because I have to accommodate the light switch (on the right) and the wall socket (on the left).

That’s my dapping set on top of the cabinets. And on the ground you can see my jewelry sizers, my kitty toys (for the fosters) and my fire extinquisher.

That black board behind the cabinet on the right is a foam poster board I picked up at a drug store for like two bucks… I use it as a backdrop for a lot of my photos.



I taped labels on each drawer so I can easily find what I’m looking for.



Here’s what my work area looked like last night after I didn’t feel like cleaning up. The dog gets the couch; I get the floor.



JEWELRY CREATING

Last night, I made another quote pendant necklace. I really like these. My hope is that the people who buy them use them as daily reminders of the things they want to be reminded of.

It’s like when I did that survey of people who believe in the Law of Attraction… but don’t practice it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hectic details of everyday life and forget to take just a few minutes out of each day to work toward our own happiness.

This morning, I cut some more tubing and I have some new quotes all ready, so tonight I will make some more.

Here you can see some of the cut tubes.



You can also see how incredibly sensitive the material is… lots of chips and cracks… and those are then unusable tubes. The three on the top are okay; the three on the bottom are waste.

But I got to thinking of making smaller tubes and having them be charms on bracelets.

THAT led me to realizing I wanted some ball headpins, which led me to pulling out my fine silver and torch and making four ball headpins out of 20 gauge silver.



And that led me to realizing that while I had my torch and quenching cup out, I ought to grab the 14 gauge wire and make some ball headpins out of that so I can use a few of Alex’s lovely focal beads as pendants.



Ew… look at that thumbprint! I hope I remember to wipe the beads down before shooting.

I’m prepared for evening work now… meaning those things can wait until the late hours when I have less energy and do my work just sitting down (as opposed to getting up every five seconds).

Which means NOW I can do the work where I’m getting up every five seconds. :-)

I decide to try some metal clay. Problem is, I’m not prepared… mentally. I have no ideas. And pure silver isn’t something I can go into like I go into everything else… ‘cause it’s expensive if something doesn’t work and you have to abandon it. Ugh.

I want to make a section bracelet. I spend about an hour looking through stamps and objects I could use to make impressions… but nothing seems right. I listen to my intuition and move on to another idea.

Then I decide to try imbedding stones. Hey, I can still do a sectional bracelet… I’ll do it with imbedded stones, though, instead of impressions.

And of course I have no clue where the teeny tiny cz’s are that I bought from Hadar. After all, that was months ago. Sigh…

Okay, gonna try some real stones, I guess.

Now I have to decide if I want to work with bronze, copper, silver or a mix.

So I’m scrolling back through my blog entries, trying to find my kiln schedules (yes, it’s been THAT long). Totally got distracted looking at all the kitty photos. I love those!

Well, in the end I decided I didn’t feel like doing any metal clay. I want to be more prepared ahead of time (design idea, time, room, etc).

So I’m working on some necklace for the Alex bead pendants. Got one done so far. I’m a very slow worker. I like to savor my work with beads, not rush through it.

And… I may as well post this now. I’ll check back with you tomorrow for an update. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if I have photos and listings to show you by then too? :-)


HOCKEY

Gonna go watch Mon play with the Tech team in Oakland (yay!) tonight. Then tomorrow afternoon with her Blackhawks team in San Jose.

Maybe I can even visit with a friend or two while I’m down there.