Week 42 - All in a Day

Focus on Life week 42

Mmm How to deal with this, I'm a self employed gallery owner and jewellery artist....  So some days I make beads.. 

In the summer I always start and end the day by putting out open flags... this season of the year it's by chance or appointment!

These beads were made for someone... well I needed 9  think there's 22 or 23 there (my hearts are free form no mold! other than what grows on them when I forget them in a bucket of dirty water)

Some days I make components

occasionally I even make them into pieces of jewellery!

Enamelled components for a gallery show in SK

(I cut out the cow skulls using a blanking mold and my hydraulic press!)  Enamelled pinwheels made into earrings... yes they do spin!

Most days in October I pick grapes

OK the grape vine picture is from Sept when the grapes were green... but it's pouring rain today so ... Big picture is processing grapes to make a orange cranberry pecan loaf using 'concord' grapes...I probably bake 3 times a year...

Most evenings I knit

These Socks are a triple first... First time  I've knit from the toe up, First time I've knit two socks at once, and First time I've knit socks using circular needles.... These are for my husband... they ended up a bit big!
 Two at once is fun, knitting on circular needles sucks, and I quite like the way the heel looks on these.... 

One evening this week some of the resident deers wandered past during supper

She had two fawns earlier in the summer but one seems to be gone, also she has been running around on three legs most of the summer... still is so I'm not sure how she'll do this winter!

And I read.... Most evenings in the hot tub...

This week was book bus week, the bus comes to the island once every 4 weeks, I missed the Sept stop...
The top two book are by Alan Bradley... a series about a 12 year old girl in England trying to figure out creative ways to 'kill' her two older sisters.  I usually get about 10 books and get through 7 or 8....

But I start everyday by feeding my fish, Sophie , winding my cuckoo clock, and grabbing a cup of coffee... I actually end the day by turning off Sophie's light and winding the cuckoo clock again, as it was hung two inches too low to make it twenty -four hours!

I had this post all queued to post tonight then realized I forgot to mention the hours I waste on the computer every day... no need for pictures you all know what a computer looks like!

To see how other people spend their days click on the following links!

week 29 - Routine

Focus on life... week 29

This is very much a warm summer day routine.. I wish I could do this year round!

But first things first  FEED THE CAT!...(. & the fish and wind the cuckoo clock)

This is Emmett We have 3 cats but he is the only one that jumps on the bed and licks your face to point out that his food Bowl is EMPTY!  ...

Next make the coffee

Coffee pot and grinder in their temp home  note the can of pliers behind them.... Now the fun part sitting outside and drinking it.. My favorite part about this house in summer!

(the coffee cup says "I thought normal was a dryer setting")

Coffees gone... time to quit reading and put out the gallery flags... have to do this in the rain too....

Now my day starts...  If it's not raining I'll probably water plants, then maybe work on a piece of jewellery

I finished this up this morning...

The major differences in my days are totally controlled by weather!

To see what rituals other people follow check out Sally's blog!

Jewelry Artisans Blog Carnival .... Jewellery with 'movement'

If you think about that title... most jewellery moves...  So what do I pick.... I've been playing around with enameled  pinwheels... since February, the first one I actually made properly with holes punched in all 4 'petals' as well as the center, that was amazingly difficult to do... lining  up all 5 holes and getting the headpin through them ugh... and then because the center pin was enameled in place it didn't spin..... so it was made like the toy but it didn't work.....

My eureka momment came when I realized enameled copper is not going to unfold so there is no need to pin the 'petals'... so now I have free wheeling pinwheel earrings... toys for ears!

I started making anticlastic copper bracelets last summer... these bracelets are so comfortable to wear... adding the silver spinner to them was an obvious progression... the silver wire is reclaimed silver scrap which I've melted and drawn back down to wire....

This is actually a fairly old bracelet I did a tutorial for glass line magazine on how to make the beads.... The beads are actually like an abacus in that they move back and forth on the small seed beads.. the shinny black beads act as stoppers for the big beads.

As you can tell I like to play with my jewellery!

Check out the other memebers of JAC who like jewellery with movement
Cat's Wire
Bead Sophisticate
Violet Moon
Jeanne
Nicole V

More enamels....

I decided that I needed to make pinwheels that spin not just ones that are stuck as static components in a piece of jewellery....... 

I got a set of water colour enamels last week with my enamel order...   It's not really like painting with normal water colours as you fire between layers....  the 'painting' is suppose to be of my husbands boat out in the cove .  Guess I need to PPP!