Stuff stuffy stuff....

 So here's the Roman glass I soldered simple jump ring links to. It's actually over-the-top iridescent, super high-grade stuff.

 To it I added a locket Patroness gave me ages ago which I'd opened and faux mercury glassed on the inside.

 One of Patroness' rainbow titanium crystals and more Roman glass as the sub-focal and some utee pins around the teardrop frame.

Here you can sort of see the mercury effect. When I did that of course I lost the top swivel closure thing so I soldered one of those as well.

Which reminds me! Betsi Goutal asked, "Do you have any particular mental process for squashing the I-might-ruin-it mentality? How do you talk yourself through that roadblock, or do you just not think that way anymore?"

I was thinking about this for the last couple days because really, it never even occurs to me anymore. I guess when I started, every time I altered something with hammering and oxidizing it looked soooooo much better that -- let me rewind and say when I started and for a very long time, I only ever used the cheapest of supplies. So off the bat I never worried about ruining something precious, even though in a way they were all precious to me. But from admiring Keith Lo Bue's work and my own musings, I decided that older looking was always better. After seeing the improvement oxing and altering makes, and seeing this over a thousand times, it's impossible to think in terms of not ruining things. Even when I have ruined things, I shrug and get over it. Plus so often the fix adds another layer, like in the case of the missing clasp link swivel.... connector... what do you call that thing?

My love I give my heart to you. Here's a pair of charms that I didn't alter at all. They're plated and wouldn't ox to save a life. But you know what? I love them!

 A very mis-matched pair chock full of special bits and details. One is a tea seeper top thing from SacredCake and the other is a something from somewhere.  See I was about to say Uruguay but I just realized it's in English. Though I have found English things there... I'm not sure.

 It just appeared on my floor, basically.

Moose teeth! These were a gift from... Pam? idk, appeared on my floor also I guess. So I have actual kidney wires here which is unusual for me. But since the kidney wire is small and the leather rings sort of call for something to scoop them up, I thought they worked. Leafing, Utee pins, leather, yeah.

Speaking of wire- I went and bought a reel of full-hard sterling for ear wires. Cuz yeah. But not for other wire needs. That I cannot see myself doing. I don't know why I just can't.

Here's what I did with the 4ophelia cabs! Using steel re-enforced epoxy and wonky wire prongs I mounted them on to some lovely tin SacredCake sent (yes, Jennifer, I finally got around to cutting it up! It's the thickest tin ever and gashed my thumb open and I love it.)I lurrrv them!

So I had three of these odd babies:

Then a lovely repeat customer sent me a buncha stuff to use in pieces for her  and there was another one of those very same bits! So I did some cutting and sanding and drilling. They release the craziest soapy pine smell when you do this, it goes right to my head. Then some rhinestoneing with just superglue. Dude. If you wanna mess with microscopic rhinestones, please do yourself the favor of getting you one of those sticky pencils made for the purpose. 

Interestingly I found that smaller rhinestones work best in a space that you can go either way with. Also, Swarovskis (which I always call Bla-blauskis in my head for some reason) actually work against the antique look. As you can see, here and below I'm rocking the lovely polypods.

Here's an odd pair. They are tart tins which arrived independently from opposite ends of the earth to meet on my floor. I colored one with perfect pearls and one with gilder's and mounted them on that same thick tin I mentioned. And polypods! And Hebron glass, lucites, African sand cast heishi. The only thing with any weight is the Hebrons so this is actually light. But a bit weird. It'll take a real tribal priestess to pull these off.

Speaking of light and pull-off-able.... ok so the other day I did something I never do. I bought earrings. Like, finished earrings from fellow artist Pipnmolly because I just couldn't stand that these were being sold for only $37. So when they arrived... I actually gasped. They were so much... daintier than I expected, I don't know why.

Is it the size? The lightness?

 I don't know but they're light as anything, simple but each little bit brings such impact. I don't know how to explain how much I am in awe of them. The price she's charging is a crime against humanity.

 While I was at it I said what they hey I'll grab a pair of these and use them as parts of pendants. OK... again, I cannot express their loveliness and perfection. Just two elements, but goddamn. I have to remember to get them out of the studio so I can wear them all day every day. I can't even think of cannibalizing them. The pictures can't begin to do them justice. I tried. It's just... I don't know. But the size and lightness also means they're much more wearable than some of my over-the-top wackies.

 Aaand then I also tossed this one in my basket too. Dood. It's so perfectly substantial, sculptural and unlike anything. Ugh, it hurts my stomach its so good. I mean, sure, I'm still me and I will have to take my oxidizer to it....
She also tossed in some...

Quills and mob shanks.

An assortment of teeth and a little ... bucket? A bunch of green drop stones you can't really see.

The owl and flower bead are my faves. Some of these stick stones already got incorporated into the earrings with the 4ophelia cabs above.

Glorious big fat Czech buttons.

Micro beads and green wired drops and druzy. I just can't thank you enough Pip. You left me speechless.

Rocking and Money-Talking

Lookit these crazy fuckers. They're flat on top, they called for hats of some kind. I came up with a wild soldering plan. I went to wash them to make sure they were clean for some adhesive copper foil sheeting and my hands turned bright pink. Realizing the dye had just been dropped on them and left there, I scrubbed them with an old toothbrush until the suds turned white. Much later, when I went to wash off the flux and rinse the oxidizing, the pink came back. Oh well. Whoever made these also basically glued a bunch of glitter all over them too. Ah, patroness....

I found some plain domes on etsy. I pierced them and them discovered I liked the effect of banging the awl into them from beneath. A bit more work but I thought I'd regret it if I didn't. Then I remembered solder would cover everything and felt like an idiot.

I'm rough-cutting the flashing and starting to place it. It's gonna proly be a mess since you cant really burnish it onto that bumpy, grainy surface.

Over that a ring to form the brim of the "hat," then the dome.

Then some wrapping to hopefully hold everything in place.

Nothing would center, as you see here, because these brass hoops were too big inside. Why didn't I just get solid discs and just puncture the center? Cuz I'm an idiot.

Then I thought if I added a few more discs, the disc holes will be covered and everything would be more snug. Plus the brim would be more substantial.

Then I had to cut off the wires I'd already wrapped to add more discs and it was a big mess and nothing would stay in place. I even put a thick copper wire tucked under the brim to try to keep things in place. By now I', pretty convinced nothing's going to work.

 So I turn the iron way up, douse the things with flux and it works like I charm. 

I rock these out like a boss. The bumps even show!

 So these are before sanding and washing, though I wiped off the flux with a damp cloth.

 After washing and dremeling to get the big glops of solder off the brim. Here they remind me somewhat of WWI helmets. The copper foil underneath is a mess still.

Now I go in with the ox. It's camouflaging the underneath.

Also when I demeled, I filed off a lot of the wonky wrap. Now it's just an odd stick...

At least this one's lower. And the bumps! I also soldered a bunch of double-drilled Roman glass because wire-wrapping it was taking forever. It was soooo much easier! Why have I been putting off soldering for so long? I think the torch traumatized me. Now I just have to think of what the heck to do with these little aliens. At least I'm glad I rocked the soldering part.

I was also inspired to bust out my UTEE for some headpins, seeing as how I'd run out of copper and black ball ones. Seeing Taralinda's results had me itching to pick up the heat gun. 

The whites were made with embossing powder- molten utee, then roll it in a mix of white and gold embossing powder, then heat gun. The others were molten utee, then dip in perfect pearls, then heat gun. I may have spent all day on it.

So I made some dangles with no real idea what they'll be incorporated into. The swirlies are lampwork, the others are vintage lucite I just got. Ususally vintage lucite looks like poop, but I really like these doughnuts. The silver barrels were a freebie. From.

I also recently squealed in my chair when I saw my girl beatnheart was selling her handmade poly pods, so I had to get me a bunch. While I was making the above dangles I thought to used some with these oversized, big-hole lucites. And sure, there's waaaay too much happening here and I have to remove the coins and those goofy bead caps but stay focused!

I just can't say enough about these lovely bits she made! They are the perfect shape, the perfect size, the perfect balance, heft, length. They are not this-is-gonna-be-a-challenge-to-incorporate, they are more damn-did-I-use-them-up-already? 

Look at the size of that wire!

So if we look again at where I was using them, we see the whole length and all that wrapping was the one piece. And the shape of the pod was able to perfectly accommodate the oversized lucite hole and the regular size other bead holes.

Not only is it a pleasure to see a friend and blog follower expand to new things, seeing for my own eyes the care she put in and artistry she achieved... I'm just thrilled! No, seriously, I'm sticking by that exclamation point. How are all my virtual friends all so awesome?

COMPLETELY CHANGING GEARS----------------------------------------------------------------------

All the pricing posts coming from Sparrow of late have me thinking. Where did I get my attitudes from? Am I good with them or should they be re-analyzed? Why do I love the thought of living as an artist but hate pricing so much? Reminds me so of loving to be a teacher but hating to grade. It's like where you have to make this black/white quantitative decision. We artists don't like quantitative.
In her most recent post, Sparrow quoted a letter sent to her from Desert Talismans. The part that knocked me over: "Remember that money is just a form of energy, neither good nor bad, and sometimes you just have to unplug from the mass-consciousness attitudes toward it." 

I have so much psychological baggage relating to money, I don't even know where to start. I was brought up by ex-socialist immigrants who were hugely critical of this country for all the stuff people had, saying "consumerism" and "materialistic" like curse words. (And I was ridiculously literal-minded. If they said, "Appearance doesn't matter," I took it to mean I could wander outside in my underwear because everyone knows appearance doesn't matter.) Later, I realized everyone in our country of origin was just as materialistic as anyone here, there's just a lot less

stuff available in poor countries, duh. Also, I realized that when it came to stuff my parents liked and could see the value of, like a vacation home on a lake, they had no problem treating themselves lavishly. While I agree in the case of items that serve purely as status-symbols, I realize a lot of their disdain for, say, clothes or jewelry, was that they simply weren't visually oriented and couldn't comprehend aesthetics. Anything to do with appearance was SHALLOW and absolutely unquestionably WRONG. Basically, it was a misunderstanding on their part. Ignorance that they sort of righteously embraced and that I didn't recognize because before medication, my logic was slow as hell or non-existent. God knows there are far worse crimes, and they aren't like that any more. However the inculcation is still in effect every time I blush telling people that I make jewelry for a living, and every time I feel a little superior for dressing like a tomboy or not having, say, a fashion board on pinterest. 

This is one reason I was so confused when my dad started following my shop obsessively, checking my items, descriptions, sales, and blog posts on a daily basis. My dad who I'd never even talked to about my makies (and see the belittling way I call it "makies" instead of "art?") because I'd assumed he'd say something scathing and consider it a waste of space. Now I hear from Mom that he tells his scientist colleges about my shop and shows it to them and it's like I can't wrap my brain around that. 

My mom's another interesting case. Suffice it to say that she enters a store as if she's going into battle. Anything priced reasonably is an affront, an attempt by the shop owners to maliciously steal from her. If she accidentally walks out with an un-scanned item she gives a whoop of victory. And let me tell you my parents are annoyingly ethical, bash-you-over-the-head-with-their-morals types. So how shocked was I when I'd go. "Oh I listed these earrings for $X(much higher than you'll ever see in Target) and they sold!" and Mom would instantly go, "Well, you didn't charge enough!" The 1st time it left me slack-jawed. Another time she might say, "With all that work, you should charge twice as much!" But... aren't hundred dollar necklaces immoral? While children are starving in Africa? 

Grow up baby!

In any case, these things don't matter. I'm turning 39 this month for crying out loud. Mom and Dad are super supportive of me and have over the years developed much more nuanced views. I have fantastic relationships with both of them. But it's not about them, it's about all the values that were so deeply instilled in me throughout my childhood and adolescence. For example, I have at times considered switching to sterling as my go-to, especially when it comes to ear wires and smaller items. However, the thought of being one of those people, one of the it's-better-because-its-facy people... I guess I still think that person would be an immoral wank. The thought of spending that money and living in that price bracket... Every instinct screams out against it. 

What do you guys think of sterling? Would it make me a wanker? 

Another wise lady that knocked me sideways is shipwreckdandy. In her comments on this post, she writes in part: "I went through the pangs of pricing/value when I started doing bodywork independently full time in 1999. I can't even begin to describe what a huge issue money/value is within that field. It's tied to big issues like healing, self, spirit, energy, etc., so it is very loaded, and very personal. On the industrial and practitioner side, there's a generally positive idea about charging 'more' and 'high value.' It comes with a backlash, though. Because the root of it is business and marketing, literally engineered by the massage schools drilling this love and light notion in. People align with it and extend it into the work because it makes sense and leads to more money--and because it is generally correct. But there is an attachment that comes along with it because it's largely unquestioned or deconstructed. It forms an equation based in good vs. bad and right vs. wrong. If you charge more, you are right. If you charge less, you are wrong. There's not a lot in between. " 

So much to process in that paragraph. The fact is, people value things more if they pay more for them. This goes directly against my knee-jerk sense that high price = bad, low price = good. But in a way I can't stop seeing myself as the girl with no money pining after a beautiful item she can't or shouldn't afford. At those times, it always felt like the seller was being purposefully cruel and ... I don't want to be that cruel seller. When someone I've grown fond of over etsy mentions struggling to save up for their next piece from me, I always want to say, "Don't do that! It's just a necklace, you need to save for retirement." Or just give it to them. And while I've been told I'm generous by sharing ideas and techniques, that costs me nothing. And as a result of my making and blogging style, people I don't even know mail me all kinds of amazing supplies! My form of "generous" benefits me more than anyone, it feels like. And no, I don't think about price when I make stuff. It's when I have to list it that shit gets painful. 

But I'm getting there, day by day. One positive step has been some recent more expensive items I've listed. Come to find that there's no better way to sell stuff that's been sitting around the shop for a long time than to list new items at much higher prices! Yay.