10/6/13

Keepin' It Gangsta. Oh Wait, No I'm Not.

Here's what I made from that carved bone fan in Kathyhaul. I separated out the individual... fold flapamajigies, cut off the bit that extended into the silk... They're super light since the back leafed bits are the thin tintype.
From LuciTales medal haul, my UTEE pins and Kathy's rhinestone connectors on some wacky findings.
An extremely stormy Chicago day meant I had to re-do my lighting set up and still fiddle with Photoshop for ever.
 
Oh, Lucy keys, Patroness little gems and Roman glass and Kathy big chunky gems of some sort. What are those, anybody? I know, I need to stop mentioning where I got each and every bit. Not like it helps y'all any. Here I stacked the elements from small to big- does that do anything for anyone? Then dangled stuff underneath and added the chain dangles to add to the dangle feeling. That can't be helpful. 
Sometimes when I spot a weird finding on etsy I snatch it up just to see where it'll take me. These stick charms are 4ophelia.

Oh I like these. The crowns and wooden game bits from Kathyhaul, the rounds are industrial metal found in the desert and the bottom are African prayer beads. Very light.
 
What I'm excited and trepidatious to share are these rings I made. They're something new for me, they each center on a big, juicy Hebron bead.

I'm excited because they were such fun, I'm trepidating because if no one else does, I made a big batch of EIGHT. I should have tested the waters with one or two but that's not how the muse attacks me.
She prefers to hold me hostage until I do her bidding. Even though I had to finish a bunch of other stuff, like this custom set of bangle stacks for bridesmades gifts:
 Her wedding colors are white, red, turquoise and like 12 others...
My dim-witted thinking was "One stack is easy, how hard can five half-sized stacks be?" The whole point of stacks for me is to throw things together without thinking. Turns out when they have to be five equal stacks, they're quite hard.

Well, live and learn.
 
I was also contacted by a buyer bemoaning the loss of one earring of a pair she got from me three years ago. In my art-time that's three lifetimes ago. But she said she looked everywhere and they were her absolute favorite pair. How can I say no to that kind of flattery. Originals:Solutio. Milagro and Antique Chain with Hammered Brass.Replacement:
Nailed it! How? There just happened to be one of those exact same dagger hearts in Kathyhaul! Even the chain (which here looks shorter but isn't) was from her. It's like the Universe came together for this chick's earrings. Not for our fucking government or anything of significance, though...

Back to the rings. They're all adjustable, they're all quite sturdy.

That's because the big ass bead holes are filled with epoxy putty then the wire through the middle goes through a hole in the ring shank and is soldered on to the back. 
Like so:
This is the best view of the back I could get but you dont see it because I sanded and oxidized the solder. All the headpins used are NuminosityBeads. I also used other things.

Like this is a faceted pyrite drop. Threaded with wire, turned it ahpsidan, put a hole in the ring base to poke the wire through... did the hokey pokey and turned myself around. Scratched my ass, climbed over mountains of supplies all screaming for my attention, walked the dog... ... forgot to leave my house for a week, found myself at 4am on youtube watching a girl meticulously adhere individual false eyelashes to the underside of her actual upper eyelashes. Like, the inner ew gross lid...

... remembered I never leave the house much less make myself attractive anymore. Found myself in Taget buying mascara. Have since lost it....
Ah the fascinating life of an artist. Living on the edge and what-not. On the edge of hygiene.

I'm so boring. Sometimes I decide to multi task and brush my teeth while computering? So I find myself half hour later still brushing, slobbering toothpaste foam down my chin with like half my dental enamel gone. Other hand still clicking away.
Oops, almost forgot. Ages ago (2-3 weeks) someone commented asking how I got my wire so round and interesting instead of flat and boring. I didn't mean to ignore you dear reader! I love questions, they're super flattering. As much as I tried to be flattered come up with an answer, I finally realized I just had no idea what you were talking about.
 
I meant to ask for a link to an example of my 'round' wire and someone else's 'flat' wire but then as usual I spaced out. This is especially egregious because it seems new readers think only certain people are allowed to leave comments. Namely, some kind of pre-established friends. But if that is so it's only because those people decide they are my friends (which of course makes me instantly agree with them) and that they're gonna leave comments.
*pant pant* 
So well but yeah, I love all my comments, they're like a big hug from the vast world. And I love questions especially. I would like constructive criticism especially but no one ever leaves any. I think it's because we're all wimpy women and are just scared to. But if you phrase it like. "Oh it would look awesome if you..." or "Hey, I bet if you... that would also be awesome!" then who can be worried about offending with that?


Elephant cleans his forehead with a broom animated gifThis gif made me squeal for an hour.
Das all.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Those rings are fabulous and funky and they make me smile. Glad you let your muse rule!

beadybaby said...

the earring stones, chrysocolla maybe?

CraftyHope said...

I gots no good questions or suggestions for you, but you totally made me smile with the mascara and tooth-brushing incidents. Oh, and that self-cleaning elephant is great. And, we're totally friends, totally. . .see I'm leaving comments (and now I have lines from The Fox and The Hound running through my head.) Anyways, those new rings are pretty sweet. I love that they're adjustable. How smart!

RaggedRobyn said...

That is crazy lucky about the earrings you re-made. They are sooo scrumptious! I can see why she was so upset about loosing one.
Great colour combo's on the rings. Every time you write about not leaving the house or washing it makes me feel like Im not the only one! When I occasionally meet with friends it's like I have nothing to say cos all I have done is sit by myself and make beads. My boyfriend is very good at cooking for me and reminding me to eat something other than Nutella or cereal. I love it all so much but I think it does make me a bit odd...OBSESSIVE ;)

Anonymous said...

Stones- chysocolla.
Love the long earrings. Any tips on making our headpin UTEE drops so big? (They look bigger than tut examples...) All scrumptious!

Juliette said...

Haha! I'm having my morning coffee catching up on blog posts. Yes, it's noon here. The life of an artist means morning coffee can be had at noon, 3pm, etc.

I LOVE the first pair of earrings. So Eastern European looking! Beautiful. And the rings - the colors you use are really wonderful, Fanci.

So I'm not the only one who can just zone out watching Youtube videos either? I like them because you can get sucked into a vacuum of some topic and there are no commercials. Good times.

SO, the elephant gif at the end made me very happy. I love how the guy hands her the broom and just walks away.

willowstudio said...

The green stones with dots might be zoisite, the matrix which often contains ruby. Its difficult from photos on a screen--but they don't look like chrysacolla to me.

Love the "weird finding" earrings--
j

martinisfor2 said...

geez my knees, those rings are fabulousimundo... searching for words through foggy brain... aarrgghh...

the earrings... still... can't.. control... breathing... elephant video doesn't help any...

so wicked cool you could help someone out from three ions ago. I would have been devastated too...

Marcie Abney Carroll said...

Elephant: "If you want something done right..."

alek said...

Those rings are brilliant