7/28/15

Catch-up

Gotta catch y'all up on some makies.La Gaudière. Rustic blue folk choker necklace.
La Gaudière- n. the glint of goodness inside people
 -Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

I found these 70s-folk-craft-style ceramic beads on etsy. Adorable. Except they weren't beads, but pendants with only half-way holes to glue a bail in. I got a set of drill bits and immediately broke over half of them. I realized there was no way I could drill through them, but rather that I'd have to adhere bails to either end. Then the epoxy glue mess... So that was a whole to-do.

Blazing Unnatural Light. 
A man goes far to find out what he is-- 
Death of the self in a long, tearless night, 
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light 

                                --Theodore Roethke
I wrapped a chain in thin leather cord here. To keep it from unraveling the chain had to be individually spun as well in the same direction as the overall twirl.
Did you all ever twist your hair that way? When I was super little, my older sister taught me how to do it with yarn to make hair ties. We'd tie a long bunch of strands to the bed frame, take the other end and twist and twist until it was time to fold the whole thing in half. Bringing the two ends together, we could watch the yarn twirl into itself like it was alive, leaving us with a strange floofy artifact we'd proudly tie into our pony tails.
Wayward Wayfarer. Gold colored rustic assemblage Victorian tribal necklace with Mary medal.
Wayward Wayfarer.
I took all the pictures for this guy with my ipad, to see if that was possible.

So, possible but maybe not fantastic?
Petrichor. Rustic assemblage pendant with ceramic and torch enamel. 
Howzabout I don't link to the stuff that's sold already?
But check out this dimension I achieved with a stack of metal disks which I riveted to the tin, yo. It's prongs and adhesive keeping that in place though. Felt like just prongs was a bit precarious.
Petrichor. Rustic assemblage pendant with sea pottery, ceramic, agate slice.
Petrichora pleasant smell that comes with the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.
Here's another using the 70s crafty beads. Takes me back.
Deep Heart's Core.  Long dangle brooch in iridescent blue.
Deep Heart's Core.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
– W.B. Yeats
I made a long strand brooch because why not.
Mercy from Above. Rustic oxidized dark earrings with milagros and Roman glass.
Mercy from Above.
And these using teeny Roman glass connectors.
Rückkehrunruhe. Pink assemblage earrings with sterling silver sandal charms. 
Rückkehrunruhe.
The teardrops I filled in with a super thin layer of polymer. After they baked I kept slicing out more of the polymer until it was just the thinnest layer, then I sealed it with varathane, then matte medium to remove shine. Sterling sandals from old souvenir bracelet.
Reserved for Marion.
Lots of torch enamel drops from 4Ophelia cuz I can't get enough.

The Devil Will Come. Rustic assemblage earrings with rosary centers in blue. The Devil Will Come.
These are the only ones left. See the title there? From a Faust quote. It's like when I use Christian imagery I have to subvert it somehow. But yeah I had lots of requests to make Christian things so yeah.
Anemia. Green assemblage earrings with sterling silver sombrero charms. 
Here with my final pair of sombreros from the same souvenir bracelet and more torch enamel drops.
Anchorage. Coin, citrine and roman glass earrings. 
I had this slab citrine, roman glass disc, little coin from Uruguay and octagonal one from Chile and I realized they didn't really need much else.
Overcast. Bangle stack. Rustic tribal gypsy bracelet set with cuff in silver grays.
Overcast. Wacky stackies. Below are just the two non-bangles of the bunch.

A friend wanted reserve it 'til tomorrow but I'm trying to dissuade people from requesting reserves so I just took it down 'til then.
Beach Sand. Bangle stack. Rustic tribal gypsy bracelet set with cuff in white and beige.
Beach Sand.
So these stacks I already showed but I added a pearl bangle to each. First cuz I thought they needed a little extra something and also cuz I went overboard on my pearl-gathering and was glad to use a few up.
Beach Sand 2. Bangle stack. Rustic tribal gypsy bracelet set with cuff in white and beige.
Beach Sand 2.
It's not like it's hard to find places to incorporate pearls.
I could really use some cute on this steamy-hot day...




                                How can you think this creature is anything but adorable, you heartless wenches?



5 comments:

darlene said...

Wow! So sad to hear about the breakage. You would think they would've stayed intact under water. So, so sorry for your loss. They are very beautiful BTW. And, your work always is! xoxo

Louise said...

I died at the first creation, what a beautiful piece! Then died again laughing with the headstand cat. :D Gorgeous blog.

Unknown said...

If you remove one paddle thing and leave only one in the holder of an electric hand held mixer, and then wrap a long, long (I've done this along a long hallway corridor in my apartment to success), length of wool around a stationary doorknob or such well-secured and pull the wool so it's even and then tie the two loose ends of wool onto the single paddle thing and then using SLOW speed, you can do what you used to do to your pony tail. You get real cool cord. Then you can repeat with the cord you've made and make even thicker cord. Mix and match materials. Wool, string, cord, probably even thin strips of fabric. N, x p.s. you have to keep the two separate lengths of wool apart, especially as they near the beater so I held my fingers between them mid-air to keep them separate. Probably helps if two people do this. :)

Unknown said...

Responding to your comment...no no pics. I was making tassels years ago, and wanted a matching cord to hang them and came up with the twisting method with the hand held mixer. I can tell you the results were very very good. Even tension. I mixed a bunch of wool strands all together and tied them in a bunch, so had two separate bulkyish groups tied to the paddle thing. They made a nice variegated rope that went with the tassels perfectly. So, just before falling asleep last night I had these ideas: a) long strips of saari fabric treated the same way as above (multi strips together right away) which is to wind a rope and have it turn on itself and then maybe do more twisting with two of those first ropes. Experimentation needed. But I'd like it if the saari fabric had a bit of a fibre halo with all of the bits of unravelled thread that would happen in the making of the cord. It could be a disaster however, b) leather lacing might work fabulously, c) what would happen with soft wire, wound carefully and then folded at half-way point, and then slowly and carefully wound back on itself. I think wire wouldn't wind back on itself naturally, but in a separate procedure, wound back on itself. If this actually worked it would be pee the pants great I think. One could make a slight bend in the wire rope for a bracelet part, or make a straight pipe as a joining piece in a necklace, or form two horseshoe shapes for earring parts. Of course once the shape is formed one would bang it with a plastic or rubber ended jewelry hammer, gently but a zillion times. That would harden it I'd imagine. Ox it, and use it however. Then I fell asleep. But here is a p.s. to this comment. N, x P.S. I made my own jig. Use a wooden (I have a plastic travelling one as well) cribbage board and place the pegs in the holes where you decide, and form and bend wire around the pegs as required. I remove pegs that are in the way, and just replace them as required. I made a very small brooch shape with clasp to great success. I banged it into hardness when finished. The sharp end I cut sideways along using metal shears, and then sanded the heck out of it. It is so hard now. I wish I had more time to do things, or was better at time management. Okay by for now.

Anonymous said...

Marina, once again I am amazed at your skill at getting great ideas...
Now over to Etsy for some eye-candy - your shop!
Kirsten