I'm back!

Back from lovely Front Royal Virginia where the temperatures reached a sunny 104 degrees.  (that's 40 Celsius to you frners.  Though 40 doesn't sound that impressive.)So I brought a bunch of rags and some findings to work on sewing things so I wouldn't have to lug any pliers or heavy things. I thought I brought plenty of supplies- I was wrong.  While there, I made the 3 pairs of earrings you are seeing now.  All three have gifts from the lovely Fancylinda as their focals. And ribbon, rags, chainmail and beads from Sparrow! The grey shreds w/red flowers is mine, the same used in the bracelet in the previous post. The ear-wires I bought pre-made.  But I wasn't 100% pleased.  They were too big at the loop end, causing the earring proper to start too low. No prob, re-shaped them w/my fingers. I'm still going to have to oxidize them since I don't like the gun metal shine.   Still was much, much easier than starting from scratch.  Measuring, shaping, hammering, dealing w/the sharp tip that always develops from snipping wire.  And they're still sterling silver.  We'll see how the oxidizing then waxing goes.  Silver's hard to oxidize.So I also made 3 cuffs.  Or 2 and 4/5ths.  Or 95% of 2 and 4/5ths of a third, b/c there's no closures yet.  All 3 focals here are ALSO Fancylinda, by the way.  I know, I totally scored on that one.  Center strip of metal whats-its used to be an indian sort-of betty dancing mesh thing.  Either a belt or bra thing.  Sparrow sent it.  Lots of the rags are from Sparrow, too.Lots of stitching late into the night while everyone slept. Just can't seem to sleep normal.  But so nice to stitch in bed in a quiet house without a care in the world.This last one has broken rhinestone chain bits from jans jewels.  I sewed them on to make a starburst and they look pretty fab.  Totally one of those moments you surprise yourself.  All of these kinda surprised me.This was supposed to be a pair of gloves.  It really mutated.  Once you have to fit a body part more complicated than the wrist, sewing becomes hard.  I ended up having to use the 2nd glove bit to complete the first in a way that resembled a human hand. Plus the original gloves were tiny.  I have tiny hands and they were super tight. So now this one fits my husband, whose hands are small-ish for a guy.  Which means this can fit one of my big and beautiful sisters of the curvy persuasion who want to dress up for their next tribal fusion belly-dance post-apocalyptic steampunk event.I also went to the flea-market of course.  Lots of glorious buttons to be had.  You really never know what you might get there.  Last time it was all military medals.But it might have to do with what you're into at the time. Like you literally only have eyes for fill-in-the-blank.  One woman had a circle of tables covered in large boards.  On these boards were pasted little squares with the tiniest glass buttons stitched on along with a very humble price.  The prep that went into the boards surely much more valuable than the prices she was charging.Can you see the tiny pearl shank-buds, about 8 of them on a card next to the penny?  My heart leapt!  Out there in the oven-like heat.  Under my umbrella, behind my sunglasses, squirting water all over myself from a spray bottle thinking I was going to vomit from the heat.  Have you ever been so hot it made you nauseous? Meanwhile all these Southerners wandered around sunglasses-free without even sweating.  I was too hot to care what I must have looked like.There were also tons of toy sellers out. Never seen so many.  Here I've taken pictures of pairs destined for someone's earlobe.  These are all the size of a thumbnail.  So precious.Oh, below is a super-antique tin whistle! I'm proud to say I really loosened the purse-strings this time.Purse-straps? Apron-strings?  I don't know but I'm cheap.  I was raised by Socialist 3rd world immigrants that were so anti-materialistic, it was like a fundamental cornerstone of morality in our house.  But they were just cheap, too, I think.Check out the WWI soldier.  Plastic Indian warriors, too.  I'm going to remove their bases and incorporate them into necklaces.  A bit too big for earrings.  In contrast, these figures are tiny.  Again, the size of someone's nail.Earring wires, here we come!  Though how I'll connect them without destroying them... I might have some tiny watch-part vials left....  Has that been done and over-done?  I may have seen it, but not w/antiques.  Hmm...I also scored some actual jewelry bits.  I may use these 3 unmatched cuff links for closures in a new kind of cuff.  Pretties! Forgive the unfocused photos.  I took all these in Mother-in-law's kitchen and the imperfect light leads to blurriness. This coin is a counterfeit, a several little signs announced.Here's a lovely pillbox that was so hot when I picked it up, it left burn-marks on my hands.A part of a (Mary?) pin with a ribbon slider on top.

I'm so tired and so glad to be home!  No more fridge full of snacks, though.  No more living on coke, donuts, hot dogs, chips and ice cream.  Baked mac-n-cheese, cole slaw, potato salad. ... Man, I'm hungry.

Thanks for all the comments to my last post, everybody.  Made me so happy.  I got a lot of pictures to take for shop listings tomorrow!