"Helloooo Ladies."

Mr. Suave charms the women folk with his electric sitar (?) grooves.
here.

I was up making til 4 in the morning last night.

Have I mentioned I worked til 4am last night? Got to bed after 6 am.... omg/wtf/bbq/ponies. Or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays.
My point being why can't I have a normal sleep cycle? I guess it would be too much to ask with all the art magic I get to play with everyday.

Here's what I think happens as I splay out more and more of my supplies and junk. My mind is just whirling away at all the different combinations and permutations of all the elements. I think that's where I'm good- imagining a million different ways to combine/order/arrange stuff. Because eventually one or two ways will be awesome. Most wont, of course.

So, I keep thinking, "Ok X and Y will go together." But then find myself not following through with X and Y- eventually I figure out it's because it wasn't that good of a design. Like I'm only excited about making the good ideas. I gotta learn to recognize that hint my own actions are giving me just a leettle faster.

Anywhosits, now I'm burnt out and tired so I'll list later. Just wanted to share previews.

There's this one that I'm only giving a sneak peek:

Because I'm not sure its done. And this one that after a whole mess of making I decided all I like about them is the very top bits, and the fact of their pairing:

So those will be coming up.
What else? I dunno. I need a nap.

Let Loose the Hounds of Hell.

The damn hath broke- a deluge of blood shall soon overtake the land.
Divinipotent.
That's right. Got my period.


But it's all good cuz I got new theeengs up.


Mumpsimus.
Here I used my glittery UTEE headpins I showed y'all last time.


 I'm noticing more and more folks on etsy using tin as their sheet metal. About time. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's so redonklessly pretty. It's easier to cut and oxidize, too.


Aarti.
I fixed these up some. Instead of a solid wire wrapped column, I included these teal babies from radiantmind. Sure do like that shop.


I was making an effort not to do my usual "Ok, I wanna use pink, so let me throw anything pink at them that I can find within a 12 mile radius." There's a lotta pink, but at least the teals break it up a bit.


Cosmogyral.
Here I go crazy girlie with the pastels!


Made palatable by the grunge.


Nubivagant.
Some bezel cheats. Or 'work-arounds' as readbetween much more elegantly calls them. There was a time when I thought this kind of thing wasn't allowed. Then I forgot to remember about that. Seems to me if a cab is flat backed, you can pretty much stick it on to anything.


Here I've stuck them on to embossing metal, which is super thin and easily cut with scissors. The one is then glued on to a piece of tin cuz I was sick of making connectors with head pins. I punch a hole with this can't-live-without-it tool:

Then thread a flat, short head pin through. Loop and you got you a link! That's what you got you.


A Trade in Souls.
So I've completely abandoned my 2-hole screw-punch for the punch pliers. They're quite a bit stronger than they look and next to them the screw-punch looks like a slide rule next to a calculator. I'm guessing, I have no idea what a slide rule even is or how it works.  Does it slide? ... Does it rule? (Sorry, had to.)

I also have this serious cuff action here. I started this ages ago- it was an escutcheon that arrived in Opulent's box of madness. I sorta left it by the wayside when my hands started hurting so bad.

 But now I see all my pictures I took today are super close-ups. I've gotten so used to the macro pictures, I didn't realize that this being much bigger, I needed to back up.

And when I went to the park today, my first thought upon seeing the brilliant green grass was, "Turn down the saturation, that's way too bright."

So I chatted with my dad and it turns out that, well according to him, I'm making an average of 2 sales a day. Which is insane, I know. One sale a day is insane. I should go check that. (But I proly won't.) Anyway, no more fretting after a couple days with no sales, I promise.

I'm back.

I have a ton of things to package up tomorrow, and right now I can barely keep my eyelids up. But I did want to say that what I used to sand the shine off the beads was sandpaper. When I got sick of that, the sanding bit on the dremel. Nothing magical or mysterious.
And, no, I have no trouble choosing between the matte/etched and the shiny/normal finishes- it's the matte every time. No shiny for me. (You must be new to this blog, it's a prevailing theme.)

OK, so here's another one I reworked. I sanded all the shine off these, too. see the before----
<<-------------------------------------------
Oh, wait. I just remembered that I cheated by taking all the shine waaaay down in Photoshop. Crap. Well, believe me it looks better. And I went with wire links instead of cord knots because of the very important reason that at the time, cord wasn't within immediate reach.
Is this just me? If you have to break out of your zone by getting up an inch and reaching for something, do you find reasons not to? It's kinda like when I'm stuck on the computer and can't snap out of the hypnotic state even though I'm not looking at anything special.

Another after shot:

I was so pleased with the bead sanding I did this before and after situation too:

That's all for now. Tomorrow packs and I guess the day after a couple new listings. And a month after that maybe I'll shave my legs.

Somethin's happening here.

What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a gal with a heat gun over there
Saying, Bingo, you better beware.

Yeah, it's not clear what I'm up to but it does involve some makings. Like these mini muffin tin bezels using these rough hammershlerkin' diamonds that Opulent Oddities sent me in that giant box.

 And some rusty-crusty pink things. A new obsession of mine and Sparrow's.

Wire wrap much? Yeah, I wasn't thinking clearly here.

Both focal pieces were sent to me in magical, unexpected boxes. The top from the awesome readbetween, the bottom....I think from the last one I blogged. It's a blur.

And more gemstone rondelle strands with artisan pieces- like here, chains from missficklemedia and beads from Gaea.
Speaking of which- guess what I spent all of yesterday doing?
Sanding beads! Took forever but it had to be done. Here's the before:
See how some, though glorious, have quite a shine? Of the 3 strands I got, shinies appeared here and there.
So, after:
OK, the lighting's awful so you cant tell but they look etched. Here's a clearer example, though not my own.
From radiantmind, who offers the same bead set regular:
and etched:

OK?

I also made more utee glitteries.

I know, I like glitter but not shine, I'm nuts. I guess I find one glows from within, drawing the eye inward, and the other creates a glare on the surface which blocks the inner prettiness.

What else?

Changing this guy up a bit. (Seeing as there was a scrap of cloth under the cab- this was an hours-long mess.) Again, the looking-to-the-mysterious-inward-depths effect. Aka, the LTTMIDE. Yup, I coined that.
But what I really came to say is that Imna be in Cali for 3 days so I'll be incommunicado. OMG I can't believe I spelled incommunicado right. I wasn't even sure it was a word.

Ggghhhhaaaaa....

That's the sound of my exhaustion. I'm so whipped from finishing /photographing /editing /listing these all day I can't think of anything interesting to say...
Let Go My Soul.
My sister came to visit this weekend with husband, dog, 5 year old and 2 year old. So that should tell you something about my weekend.


As usual as I list these 1/2 of me thinks they rock and the other 1/2 thinks they suck and no one's gonna buy them. Last few days have been a bit slow in the ol' shop.

Habroneme.

Not that it should matter but I feel like any second now my dad's gonna burst into my house and demand I go back to dayjob. Which he can't and that shouldn't even be an issue and we all have slow days and one must sacrifice to do what one loves, and you can't rush it and I know I'm never gonna be rich from this. So why am I letting my Dad's subconscious stress vibes get to me? Hu?

It's like I'm all preemptively anxious and defensive. So dumb. Am I just looking for something to be stressed about?


Also, if I am ever to get somewhat more well-known and therefore, you know, make a potentially more robust living or whatever, I will need to stop and write something or get published somewhere. And that takes an investment of time. It's not instant gratification. So, father in my subconscious, you're going to have to chill and be patient...


Sorrow Bones.
Goddamn you father in my subconscious, you're always ragging on me!


Blood Beggars.
My hands and forearms are flippin' sore as hell from all this work and even from all the convo typing. I'm way too tense. And that's considering I didn't have my afternoon java.


I have never in my life needed to get myself to relax before! I came pre-relaxed. I only ever needed energizing. What do you do? Chamomile tea? Bubble bath? In my disgusting tub?


A Crown of Sorrows.
Anywho- check it. Almost all of these have gemstone strands and a cord of wire-wrapped rags. They have little chains draping and tangling about here and there. And they all have some glorious ceramic elements from either Gaea or ChelleV2- a new-to-me gal I'm so glad I invested in. Glorious! Damn I like these art beads! And you just plop 'em in and you got art. I mean, they're beautiful and interesting already, you don't need to, say, oxidize sand, paint, carve them and just one or 2 makes a big impact.


I guess with these the idea is less necklace, more impact. I had this image of minimalist chokers. And then I made them and this all happened. As I dangled and chained and wrapped the minimal escaped me. Doesn't it always? But it's still less necklace in regards to length.


Apanthropinization.
I feel like the photographs were rushed and pretty sucky... I could re-take some tomorrow. Sigh.


OK, I would kill for a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a hot brownie right now.


Musketeer.
Oh, check out the ring. I was amazed I could make it work. It looks like a little hand is holding him!


Believe it or not, I have another necklace I didn't even get to. This making stuff in batches just got out of control this time.
And check out the wider blog layout. So's I can put in the bigass pictures without them getting cut off. Can y'all see it OK in your monitors or is it too wide?
Also, hi new people commenting!In the Light of the Moon (Weren't you 'Cat' just a minute ago?)
Jackie (I think you're new)
amth13 (with the mysterious avatar)
Gabri (bienvenida- pense que eras mi prima Gabi en Uruguay!)
La Fileuse (for some reason your name isn't blue...)

And all my regular homegirls- I love you guys! You keep me going. You and the coffee.