Final Giveaway, etc.

I've been in a zone these last few days, achieving very little and completely unmotivated. I guess that's ok, I've been such a making machine in the past. I'm actually trying to gently tweak my meds to get back a bit of drive though, no one can feel good about themselves after three days straight of just ipad fan fiction bingeing, right?


So anyways, final givaway necklace goes to my dear friend Beatnheart! No I'm not cheating, it's just that my friends were the ones that contributed, ya know?
 I also wanted to mention that when I posted my little video mini tute, beatnheart commented, "My darling girl speaks!!! And she has messed up hands and nails just like me... And it looks like she uses Ace hardware pliers with a broken spring too! So neat to see that you are a mere mortal..."
Oh my god, how can you not fall in love with her? By the way, those broken Ace hardware pliers are my all time favorites, so yeah. Also, I thought we all agreed to pretend I have perfectly manicured fingertips and never mention it again?

Here's some very random stuff on my work table:

I just thought I should share a photo cuz that's what you come here for and all.

Had fun the other day making a bunch of chain that still needs oxing. Practically broke my hands on that 14 gauge steel though. That was not as fun. Though it's also the results I liked the most, dagnabit.
Here's a bracelet I'm working on. I need to ox everything for the colors to blend and also that one double ring doo-hickey by the hook clasp, I have some glass balls I can fill those indents with, though they got covered in oil lubricant that spilled so I need to wash them but they're tiny clear glass which yeah not fun to wash but so I got a mesh strainer just for that and so but now I can't find it anywhere so but could I actually have thrown it away just as soon as I purchased it for some friggin reason?
Am I proud of that run-on sentence? Yes. Yes I am.

Look at this lovely little loveliness that one of you guys sent me a while ago. Now I forget who, damnit. She said these beads were inspired by my Starry Shards tute- the blue green iridescence, see? Though actually it's lampwork and that shit is waaaay above my paygrade so I certainly can't take any credit.
I'm also helping an etsy bud whose first language isn't English to write her very first tute! I'm really enjoying it, it's reminding me of my ol' ESL days, correcting essays back in San Francisco when I taught more advanced students.
Couple new listings:

                 36/23                                       40/41            
What else? Oh yeah, Black/Cyber Friday/Monday ridiculousness coming up. So yeah I'm getting in on that mess I guess. Starting Friday, click "Apply coupon code" under "How you'll pay" in your cart for and enter SALE20 for 20% off any item including items already on sale! (But excluding tutorials you gaiz!)
I'm gonna have to add "BLACK FRIDAY 20% SALE" to all my stupid listings, dagnabit. 
Have a good you-know-what.

Listing, my Zumba hero, xkcd, babble

So yesterday as I was taking these pictures you see here, I found myself under my new table, pushing it around because reasons.
Light travels.
I somehow managed to slam it into something and next thing I know one of the folding legs was folding in on itself and I hear this long protracted crash as all the things that have already found their way on to Table II went sliding to the floor, including an open (terrible, I know) bottle of Jax, which nevertheless landed upright.

I'm so traumatized by it, I haven't been back in the studio. Really, now I have no excuse not to do a thorough cleaning/organizing so instead I'm just staying away.

What We Try to Say.
Look at all these amber-y things! Those little czech drops sort of woven through the bottom chain was inspired by a technique from Lorelei Eurto. And the first necklace above has a gorgeous little functioning lighter from Uruguay and what was once a Pipnmolly earring.

I'm starting to use some of my real Uru-haul treasure.
Apostasy.
These here are rim pieces for gourds we use to drink yerba mate out of. They're all sterling and real gold. Yeah!

I've matched them up with geodes, the bottom of which I had to sand down the back of so it would lay without flopping over. Yay new flex shaft!

Beacon of tranquility.
You guys. I just had my head in my hand for several minutes having totally blanked out on the term "flex shaft." All I could come up with "spinny grinder."

I've also repurposed these knotted cord and brass bracelets and anklets as parts of these necklaces, after treating them to plenty oxidation. I kinda love them.

The Favors of the Moon.
Look, here's the chain I showed y'all in my mini video tute. Jiorji of nearlylost has been making some of this chain on a series of gorgeous, free-form necklaces she's been making I highly recommend you check out.

Weird finial from Uruguay, hebron bead and archeological section from Patroness, big hook from Kathy haul. I've just been wanting to use up some big honking stuff, I have so much of it.

Revolving Galaxies.
And of course, I'm just not over larats at all.

Even though this bell is ancient and this key antique, I've used these very inexpensive glass beads with them in a rosary chain I made. Idk, I just like them. And I sodered all the jump ring on those brass discs there to make sure they stayed in place. I've also been sealing my oxidized metals much more than usual- and doing so with Varathane, the polymer-worker's favorite. It does lend an un-antique gleam to everything but damn the stuff is brilliant.

Praise Emptiness.
Check out this huge bead! It's by etsian gabriel and needed very little else to make a drama piece.


But OMG look at all this other stuff I listed:

          
                  Pūjā.                                                   Redivivus.                                           Shards of Stars.
         
             Behind the Veil.                          The Million-Crested Sun.                               Aubade.

    
                      Aureate.                                            Acosmist.                                          Sabaism.
        
                 Sylph.                                  The Old Ones and the New.                             Many Moons.
    
                 Djenné.                                 Djenné 2.
   
Couple other items from last post already sold, yay.
You guys I have a Zumba teacher on Monday night who is like my hero. She could be as old as 60- she's black and in insanely good shape so it's hard to tell. She just teaches class after class, boot camp, ultimate abs, Zumba, like, how does she not die? She has crazy arm muscles and I want to be her when I grow up. Also she talks the entire time and even if she's wearing those headphone microphone thingies, you can only catch like 20% of it. She keeps it up as people come and go for other classes. I just hope she stops when she's walking down the street. She's like, "We used to go like this but the guys could go like this but we were in heels so we could only do this..." and I'm wondering, was she a professional salsa dancer at some point? Even though she doesn't speak a word of Spanish? If I ask her will she talk my ear off til the rest of forever? Is it rude to ask her age? Am I shy to ask or was I just too distracted because I think last class I dislocated a boob from jumping around without adequate support? She sambas like no Brazilian I've ever seen- it's physically impossible to go that fast. So she's cast a spell of some sort? (Santeria?) I'm from Uruguay, we're right under those samba-ing bastards, we have our own sort of samba, I know samba! I'm telling you, it's not possible to go that fast. All the girls just flail around doing like one step to each of her three. She's like, "This is how they samba in Bahia, this is how they do it in Rio. This is cumbia from Columbia, this step is slicing the sugar cane with the sickle, this is were you'd be ruffling your skirt, you know the big skirts they wear? Now mambo!" It's like a vaguely confusing and extremely rushed cultural trip through all of Latin America.

Random gif intermission:




My recent obsession is Bigelow vanilla chai tea. It's the yummiest thing I've ever tasted and I usually hate tea.


Have you guys seen xkcd yet? Here's just two from the most recent ones that I loved.

"Not to go all sentence fragment on you."


"Anyway, that's a common misconception. Geese live for a long time; all the ones we can see will probably keep flying around for billions of years before they explode."

(Then there's explain xkcd for all the ones that are too science-y or softwareprogrammer-y to understand. )
I know I still have a necklace to give away. I'm gonna do that later though. If you wanna win it, just donate to my fundraiser.

Because of the $ we raised, Kim has been able to go to a doctor's appointment she wouldn't have otherwise. She's still in a lot of pain and unable to work freely though so please send your healing vibes.

Now I must spread my wings and fly away:

I have a midwestern accent!

My favorite comment of late is taralinda's on the last post letting me know I have a midwestern accent. Who knew? Almost all American sounds the same to me, except for Southern and, like, Boston which I can barely distinguish from New York Marfia.

Hey lets look at some stuff I made, shall we? For a change?

I'm psyched about the chain I made here cuz I hammered it then coated it all in solder for a softer rounder look to the links. Idk, I think it's neato.

Plus how I just love a graduated stack of special beads as a pendant. Tho from last batch the one that caught everyone's eye was the lariat with the birdie you buncha pansies.

I haven't been at all productive lately, not like my usual whirlwind-of-makies self. 

However I did manage to drag my ass to Home Depot (Depott as my mom says) and get another big table for my cluttered studio. So maybe if I do video a "studio tour" as requested in comments, it won't include the floor! Tho really it'll just be "Here's this table full of junk, and now here's this table full of junk.... over here is where I keep this junk..."

This medal is so precious (raved about it in my last Uru-haul post) that I had to keep the necklace that featured it really simple.

But duuuuuude! Look at it!!! It's for some kind of girl's school and I paid $25 for it which in Uruguay is a small fortune. And I'm gonna stick it in my shop and no one's gonna buy it as usual and I'm just gonna feel grumpy and pointless. Then I'll decide not to be such a putz and realize that in this neckpiece a chunk of history has found a lovely home and I should just get over my self....

I know I should be doing craft fairs and shit but it's soooo much work, so much more than my little brain can handle. If I had a buddy to do it with me and hold my hand through the process... le sigh...

This lariat looks like two necklaces layered together. I worked my stupid ass off to achieve this stupid balance.

I love this triple wrist wrap bracelet/necklace so much I can't pick just one picture.

 

So you're just gonna have to suffer through five pictures. Click for bigs.

 Fact is, I really love all the crap I make til it sits and festers in the shop.

I sell a lot, I just only see the things I don't sell, and I see those daily. What do you guys do with stuff that doesn't sell? I know, I should take it down and re-make it. But also, lots of times things that are good as art aren't necessarily wearable as jewelry. So then what? Just keep it in your own personal collection? I guess it's just my urge to get rid of things, unburden myself of possessions that gets me all worked up.

New topic- I'm trying out different poly techniques for a short tute I'm mulling over, so I ended up making all these little disco balls and thought I'd make simple earrings- hopefully less expensive, etc. 

Though my attempts to make simple, less expensive, more sellable stuff always ends up being still way too expensive, etc.

And I still do have all these little special but homeless bits that I inevitably end up adding which will raise the price.

And then I think of the time I put in...

And etc.

We all know the pricing dance, a.k.a. "The adventures of my yo-yoing self esteem."

But on the other hand, I recently got a white noise machine and I sleep like a newborn.

And my other new obsession is The Moth Radio Hour where strangers get up and tell the most amazing true stories of their lives. I listen to it while making or what not and end up afterwards narrating my life as if I were telling it in front of an audience. And I end up all impressed with myself like, "I should put that in my blog!" Then immediately forget it all.

Til all I can think to say is, "Duh.... Here's some more caged earrings for you to look at if you would like to look at it. Or don't, I'm good."

It's fine cuz I'm gonna take my spinning class tonight in like a half hour and get wuper high off endorphins. And then I'll be bouncing off the walls with giddy joy and bugging Mr. Devices while he's trying to chill like, "Oh and then she was all, 'you're gonna race your neighbor!' and I was all sweaty and the front row started hooting and woooing which they do I don't know why but I wish we did it in Zumba it's fun and then she played this song and it was so good though I know you hate that kind of music but I love it but where he says 'They gon take me for ransom/Cuz I'm young and I'm rich and I'm handsome,' cuz of his accent I thought he was saying 'awesome' instead of 'handsome' isntthatfunny?andthenIdidplanks! Andthisbigmuscleguywassayinghelovedmyhair! AndIwasallthanksIdoitmyself! AndIwaslookingatthemirrormyassissoflat!" etc. And he'll be like, "Ok, sweetie, let me watch this." Or worse he'll try to share what he's watching- some Uruguay soccer game on his phone lord have mercy.

What am I babbling about? This necklace has been won by: Rebecca Silberman! Convo me.

Now look at this amazing image I found on Tumblr. Now look at these goats.

Now look down, now look at me, Old Spice for Men.