JAC October blog Carnival, Hallowe'en..

Is Hallowe'en all about colour, has it taken over fall as a season or is it about images?

As you can tell from my collage I like Hallowe'en jewellery....  And I will quite happily buy it from other people (sorry the numbers are so tiny.. they looked huge when I was editing)

1 Skeleton earrings, came from Clairs 15 years ago, they used to be silver coloured, love these!
2 Sugar skulls day of the Dead, My beads, my jewellery, New this year check my etsy store.
3 Pig Pumpkin Bead NLC Beads Nikki
4 My Beads Torch fired enameled metal filagree beads in black and orange
5 My chainmaille bracelet with large holed lampwork beads
6 Beach glass earrings from Seaglassthings
7 My Scarecrow Pendant... his head is hollow, no straw!
8 My witches hat and ghost earrings, Beads occasionally show up in my etsy store www.islandgirl.etsy.com
9 A boro pendant from Boomwire
    Silk cord from jamnglass
10 A pair of earrings I bought from Rocio Bearer Last year at Halowe'en 

I have more.... But thought this was a good representation, actually the chainmaille bracelet is in the gallery, it's way too long for me!  I realized after I wrote this that I forgot my favorite Hallowe'en bead check back on Hallowe'en to see Lezlie Belanger's ( Cankeep  )Witch !

As other blogs  Jewelry Artisan Blogs come live I'll add the links!

   Catswire
Ponder The Cat

Almost wordless wednesday & BTW

What's on my 'bead table' this week... (this week 'my bead table'  would be most of the kitchen table and unfortunatly for my family it isn't food!) Sorry you can't see it it's my project for Artisan Whimsy's introducing the brits Blog Hop .  I chose to do a piece inspired by the Isle of Whyte...  I'm sure my picking the  island out of the group has nothing to do with the fact that I live on an island... You will get to see what's on my kitchen table on Monday Nov 12.

But I have more on my kitchen table than the 2 strands of 'beads' that I'm trying to figure out how to tastefully join together, I have my commissioned tree of life Cherry blossom beads....  One of these is sold, but I'm not sure which one....

Almost wordelss wednesday and BTW

This is actually the back of a bead... The front is lovely but I just love the texture and colours on this side!

If you want to see the front of this bead it's in my etsy store

Grape Pie (New Thanksgiving Tradition?)

OK I don't really like traditional Pumpkin Pie... My mother made an unbaked chiffon pie ... to me that's Pumpkin Pie... the stuff the stores sell and most people make is YUCKY!  I planted a grape vine when we moved here in 2001 (actually the spring of 2002)  4 years ago it got moved because I planted it in a really stupid place... Just outside the door to my Bead shop... Yes it was taking over the doorway.  Last year we had a fair number of grapes... This year it's covered in gorgeous purple grapes... what kind are they?  PURPLE!

I knew I had a recipe for a grape pie in a handwritten recipe book.... I looked at it, looks easy.. neglecting the fact that each and every grape had to be squeezed and separated then my sieve clogged so I moved to the colander but of course a certain percentage of the seeds went through the colander holes.....

 You can see a bowl of the grapes hiding behind the pie!

But other than the fact I don't think that it needed the lemon juice it was great!  And it even cut nicely!  Will it become a new Thanksgiving Tradition.. maybe if the grapes continue to thrive!

Bead Table Wednesday

 

What I've been seeing when I open my kilns this week!

The ones on the left are frozen frit... think I need to pack my mold harder and the ones on the left are Sugar Skulls inspired by  Debi Cogwell's  (Palm Tree Queen) tutorial in the October issue of Soda Lime Times ...  I have so many little bits of stringers... I could make these beads forever!

Wordless wednesday on Thursday

Lost in the fog somewhere in NL

The Challenge of Travel Blog Hop

The premise of this blog hop was to travel places we've never been through jewellery.  I chose New Zealand since it's a country I've never been too... when I think of New Zealand I think of  bright greens and blues surrounding Mountains  and of course Kiwi birds.... Well my kiwi bird bead has a lovely background but the little brown blob did nothing for me so it is no residing in Fred Fishes aquarium.  (One of these days he's going to run out of aquarium to swim in!)

As I was strolling through photos of New Zealand I kept running into sets for the Tolkien books... I've always loved the intro to The Hobbit... so my necklace is a tribute to Bilbo  and all the hours of pleasure people have had reading about him....  I've even include the  door into his hobbit hole as a bead in  my necklace ....

Using the flag as a jumping off point was suggested... well it's red white and blue with Stars and a union Jack... Those colours are not New Zealand in my mind! I see New  Zealand as blues, greens purples and more blues....






New Zealand's aboriginal population are the Maori's... traditionally they had elaborate tattoos... The tattoos remind me a bit of the intricately filigreed steel beads that I've been  enamelling for the last 18 months... so my trip through New Zealand is colour. 

 The necklace has a lampworked tree bead as a focal and then grades up through blue water, green trees, purple mountains and then back into blue sky;  my version of a New Zealand landscape.

I've finished the necklace with one of my enameled toggles!  All components of this necklace are made by me except for the chain which was purchased as chain.











In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel; a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors.  (From 'the Hobit' JR Tolkein)
 
And speaking of visiting I would love you to visit me on this blog hop! Don't forget to visit the other participants!  A list can be found here! http://treasures-found.blogspot.ca/