Week 27 ~ Celebration

Today is the 4th of July, so all the American's are celebrating today... However Tuesday was Canada Day here... but I live on a small Canadian island right on the border so here we have a  4 day celebration... 

However at the moment we are under a hurricane/tropical storm watch as the first named hurricane fo the year  Arthur is howling up the East Coast... Usually they head out to sea before they get here... ie they don't follow the forecast path.... 

So what else is there to celebrate this week....

My peony  ... this is the first time my peony has bloomed in about 5 years normally it gets buds and they go moldy and I get no flowers!

I wired up a few pendants... A black cat (found this bead in a purse), a green flower bead made with copper slug mesh, and a tribute to the east coast sardine industry "Fresh from the Weir"

And the day I read  what this weeks prompt was going to be  I won a bracelet from Kathleen's blog Four Miles North Of Nowhere (I started reading her blog because that's where I've always thought I lived!)
http://fourmilesnorthofnowhere.blogspot.ca/2014/07/giveaway-winner-announcement_1.html

To see what other people are celebrating this week click on the inlinks link below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Week 23: Typography

Focus on life ... week 23 Typography

 

The power of the written or typed word can be more powerful then you thought!  

The style and appearance of printed matter has an effect to how we view items, websites, businesses, book titles and the list goes on and on.   Is the typography pleasing to the eye, does the font pull you in, draw you away, make you feel inspired?  

 The sign for the gallery ....Since I haven't left the Island all week I was rather limited in my Photographic opportunities this week....  (note the pretty yellow flowers growing around the base!)

 This is where the 'font' comes in.. I've signed my name using lower case letters since I was in high school,  when I used to do sandblasting the initials worked from either the back or the front of the piece.  I guess the initials are how I've branded myself.  I keep thinking that I need to blow the wad on little sterling jewellery tags... but the price just keeps going up and up and I haven't done it yet!

To see how other people have interpreted this weeks prompt check out Sally's blog!

Bead Table wednesday (BTW)

A collection of this weeks beads...  Gearing up for summer!

Week 11 Possibilities are Endless

Focus on Life week 11

One of my first post when I started this blog was about a charity in NC called Endless Possibilities... they turn 'rags' into rag rugs...and other things.... Check my 2008 posting for info on the charity!

I got this 'rug' the second time I was there... & no it wasn't $25!

 My husband thinks this is a really good use for ties!  He refuses to wear them and when he was forced to wear them at work they were always tied so poorly that they looked awful... but he was adhering to company policy!

Love the colours in this one!  If you're ever in Manteo NC make sure you check this store out.

For other peoples interpretations of this weeks prompt head over to sally's blog

ALmost wordless wednesday

I really liked the way the toggle on the bracelet in the previous post worked out... but I didn't think that the tiny holes that the jump rings went through looked finished so I inserted the world's tinniest eyelets into the holes to finish them... (nasty little things kept trying to run off!)

Anyone have a source for those tiny eyelets in black (1/16 by 3/32 long) I have rivets that size in black but not eylets! I don't mind the copper but would like black or sterling?

Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday

 

My first 'succesful' cored big holed bead...  The tubing is actually aluminium not sterling... The hardest part is actually getting the holes centered on the bead caps!  If someone out there knows the trick to this... 

PLEEZE SHARE!

The closure on the silk cord is based on this free tutorial on Jennifer Camron's blog 'Glass Addictions'

Gord launched Money Pit last Monday... and since then the trees between our house and the water have come into bloom... and for once we actually had 'blue' sky... Today the rain is coming down in buckets!

Jewelry Artisans Blog Carnival .... Mother's Day 2012

Time for the monthly Jewelery Artisans Community Blog Carnival... this months topic is mothers day but since I don't really make themed jewellery and we don't seem to celebrate mother's day......

I've spent a lot of time since we got home from our weekend at Saltscapes in Halifax setting up the gallery for the summer... I was there helping promote our local Tourism Organization CCRTA... and no it doesn't have anything to do with Credence Clearwater Revival (although CCR music playing in the background would be preferable to elevator music!)  In this case CCR stands for Charlotte Coastal Region .... Which is an area strung along the North Shore of the Beginning of the Bay of Fundy

I'm gearing up for summer in the gallery... My new pottery started coming in before we left for Edmonton in early April so by the time it was all here and unpacked I could no longer see the living room floor... I unpack in the living room because it has a carpet (tile is very unforgiving) and I can spread it out without mucking up the gallery if some unsuspecting tourist actually stops and wants something other than directions back to the ferry! I really should have taken a picture as the floor was totally covered.... Big problem... The gallery looked really good before I tried to add another 6 or 7 cubic feet of pottery...  This may be the year for the first annual I bought to much new stock sale.... Table outside July 1-4 weekend?

Yesterday I spent adding new jewellery to the gallery... yes I sell jewellery that I don't make... there are people out there that don't like glass beads! I don't understand that but there is no accounting for taste!

Two days ago I was in the hot tub and a hummingbird buzzed me and tried to grab some of my hair on the way by!..... nest building....? I've never seen a hummingbird nest  Wonder if she though my hair was a replacement for spiders webs or if it was funny coloured lichen?


I won't be doing anything for mother's day... my mother is 4000 km away and although my son is only 90 minutes away he was here once this week already fixing the hot tub controller.... So to all you mothers out there who celebrate this Hallmark Holiday...  

Happy Mother's Day! 

To me it's just another day in the life of a self employed artsit!

I leave you with the closest thing to a bouquet of flowers that I have! A new set of tiny enameled Poppy headpins!

Other members of JA participating:
Bead up a storm
Bead Sophisticate
cat's wire

Flap Your Wings... an Artists Tribute to Judy Glende

I didn't know Judy Glende, but  she was a jewellery designer & fellow blogger who was  diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in December 2011, her second battle with cancer.  Judy lost her battle the middle of March. Flap Your Wings was the name of  Judy's  Etsy shop...Tania of Moobie Grace Designs  has organized this tribute and fundraiser in honor of Judy and her family and other families who have lost friends and relatives to cancer.

When I read about this challenge I had just heard that my sisters first husband had  died of cancer  last fall.  I was in high school when they got married and if there ever was a fifth wheel in a relationship it was me.  I was always underfoot, I'm not sure how much influence he had on my career choice but my first degree was in Geology, his chosen profession... and I worked for him at the Alberta Research Council on two different occasions.  I have a pilots licence because he flew... I drive a standard car because one of the summers I worked for him I was handed the keys to a standard truck and had to figure out how to drive it... I however do not wear long underwear and hiking boots every time I fly on a commercial jet liner, I have great faith that we are not going to crash on the top of a mountain... BUT, my carry-on does contain lots of clothes  in case the airline misplaces my luggage!  I hadn't seen Andre for over 20 years when he died, but I will always remember the kindness he and his family showed to me.

I really like the concept of 'flapping wings'... there is something eternal and everlasting about those two words... My Bird  focal was part of a bead exchange... I might have used the bird in my necklace for that exchange but I held it back as I felt it was so appropriate for this necklace!

I don't work with a bead board (I don't own a bead board ... so length tends to be whatever I end up with... I like the length this turned out although I am thinking that I need to make a short chain to hook the back together to make it double) I haven't decided yet if I will donate this necklace to a charity auction or just donate money to the local Cancer society ...Cancer doesn't care who you are or what you do, so go out and  flap your wings now, we don't know how many tomorrows we have.

A link to other participants in this bloghop

Jewelry Artisans Network... Spring Plans & Dancing with Tangerine Tango

I try not to have any plans.. that said I signed up for a tangerine tango jewellery blog hop quite awhile ago... reveal day is today (this is actually being typed on March 10... I have two weeks to figure out what I'm doing or I can dust off my first bead soup project which I think fits both spring and tangerine tango perfectly!
(silver leaves came from Jo of Daisychain Designs in England)

My  plans for spring this year where to stay home... start a bunch of seeds...  but my mother decided that I should come/go to Edmonton for two weeks just after Easter... so there goes my poor little seeds I've left them under the care of my husbands crispy brown thumb before.....

Other spring plans that I might keep  spend less time on the computer and more time doing things that will expand my jewellery business and gallery.... well if I spent my time on the computer promoting myself and listing things on etsy instead of playing scrabble and freecell (someone suggested that you could play all the free cell games ... I believe there are 100000... I started at 1 at the beginning of the year I'm now at 371... I have won all of those... some have taken awhile; at 5 per day it will take another  56 years to finish!)  But at least both those games require my little brain cells to be engaged!

I am having fun doing the torch fired enamels... need to design a line of jewellery around my headpins... or get a potter to make me some miniature vases and just sell them as bouquets!  This boquet has sold and is now living in Texas.

Yes I did actually  make a Tangerine Tango necklace  It looked closer to the colour before I took pictures....

The 'focal' is green  afterall this is suppose to be a spring themed blog not an autumn blog...  The orange really is much closer to the 'Pantone' colour in real life!

Actually this necklace doesn't thrill me ... I think it needs a second strand.... Or it might just  be added to the pile of necklaces that I have done for various challenges over the years.. I think I may have to find a larger drawer!

And just to prove it's spring Look what I found in the garden!

Links to both blog hops will be added!
Tangerine Tango Reveal
Jewelry Artisan Net carnvial blog participants (JAC)
Bead Sophisticate
Catswire 
J3 Jewelry 
Jewelry By Dawn 
Bead up a Storm

ALmost wordless wednesday

What could be better on an 80 degree day which also happens to be the first day of spring.... A new felted hat with matching mitts!

Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)

 My new enameled Poppy Headpins...  they might be on etsy they might not...  These ones are sold and I haven't listed a new set YET....

And this is for anyone who missed Eli-Mae's cute tummy on my face book... Gord says that the tiny black heart in the middle of the white one is the true indication of her personality!

Join the Colour Challenge

Bonnie of Jasper's Gems a fellow Canadian is

" throwing out a challenge to all the jewelry designers out there. Using Pantone's colour of the year, Tangerine Tango, create a piece of jewelry in whatever style you prefer. Use some of the co-ordinating colours they have suggested, or try something totally different."

http://jaspersgems.blogspot.com/2012/02/creative-colour-challenge.html

'Send Bonnie a photo of your piece, along with your Etsy shop, Facebook page and/or website. She will post them all to her  blog on March 24th.

Please pass this along to any other jewelry making friends you have. The more, the merrier.



Get your creative juices flowing! Do the Tangerine Tango with us!

I essentially copied this post directly from Jaspers Gems... I love the colour I've been wearing it for years... I'll finally be in style!

ABS Monthly Challenge Feb 2012

The Conference of the Birds by Habiballah

This is a page from a 15th century manuscript....  I just loved the colours... so I felt the need to recreate the painting as a glass bead.. or at least the landscape part....

 This is the front of the focal....

 This is actually the back of the focal....  I worked on the focal  for three days.... I'd pull it out of the kiln in the morning ...look at it and decide it was missing something... so back it went....

The chain was an 18" inch piece of chain that said I paid $9.00 for it... Sigh I wonder how long I've had it!  The blue 'thread' is stringth... I thought it would be easy to twist thread through chain and knot the beads into it... Wrong  I think by the last couple of knots I had it figured out????

Anyway by the time I cut the chain apart so that I could add the beads... I no longer  had enough chain... so I had to solder all the cut links back together and add them to the chain... Then I found one of the links that I had soldered on the floor .. so I made a link.... so that I didn't waste the one I'd dropped....

The 'chain' can be worn with or without the focal....

Click here to go to the Art Bead Scenes Blog hop and links to other peoples interpretations of this wonderful painting!

Almost wordless wednesday

Georgie is happily living in California now, where there is no snow..... although there is no snow here this year either at the moment... but I'm sure that will change :(

Today the forecast high is -8 C, the forecast low is -6C and the current temp is -14C... someone is rather confused!

Birthdayblowout

Yes it's my birthday next week... I was going to have a BOGOAO sale but etsy doesn't understand the Buy one get one ??? concept so I had to go with a straight discount ... and the number I chose was 30% and no I am not 60 or anywhere close to it... But I am turning an odd number so I rounded UP... WAY UP!!!! Code is Birthdayblowout.

...and for all of you that wanted me to put my Ghost jellybead up for sale ... it is now on etsy and it is 30% off.... http://www.etsy.com/listing/80517387/ghost-jelly-flameworked-and-polished since I can't put up a blog without an image here's one of my favorite beads in my etsy store!

Bead Soups here!

 My Soup ingrediants have arrived... I have ideas, now all I have to do is implement them!  Gorgeous boro focal, will have to find out who made it!  This is who made the focal..... go check out his etsy shop! (Formerly goofball beads?)

This is what I sent my partner Ann, similar colour scheme! 
Head over  to her blog and check out her makeover!

Fly Me To The Moon... Starving Artist July Jewellery Challenge

When I first read about this months Starving Artist Jewellery Challenge...  I just noticed that it was a lunar challenge... It wasn't until I had the focal bead made that I noticed the title on the thread was 'Fly Me To The Moon'  So I made a bunch of liitle copper rockets... but no matter how hard I tried to incorporate them into the necklace... my little copper rockets screamed TACKY...  so they were removed and turned into a pair of rocket and moonstone earrings...

The pendant is my attempt/version of wire wrapping, the chain is copper sheet copper wire and 5  flame enamelled beads... big yellow full moon beads!

New electroformed Tree Bead

I thought it would be kind of fun to put a copper tree on the back of one of my tree beads! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out!

It's currently listed on etsy here http://www.etsy.com/listing/77519610/fireballbeeds-electroformed-tree-bead

Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)

These beads haven't quite made it to my bead table....  This months jewellery challenge from the Starving Artists Jewelery Forum is to make something with a lunar theme....  I have the beads... nice full moon beads with lots of sparkly little stars... Now all I have to do is make a piece of jewellery with one of them!

All sugestions welcome!

New earrings!

My new earrings!  First jewellery from my torch fired enameled beads.  The soldered silver 'Bubble earrings' were based on a free tutorial from the  DaisyChainJewellery web site! (sorry the purple earring isn't quite in focus!... & they are actually the same size... the out of focus purple earring is further from the camera!