Birthday Windfall Giveaway!- (now closed)

Today is my birthday- I'm 39!

I received these two giant boxes in the mail- here's Bingo checking them out.

Soon my house was taken over with their contents.

And what contents they were!

Here's some stampings I'm trying out layere over a bakelite game chip and a giant mop thingy.

Who sent this inconceivable bounty? Kathy of FrenchSentiments. She is moving, so she just wanted to destash. Clearly, she's also lost her mind.

Crazy little dude, tin plates.

This ostrich is huge and hilarious and awesome.

Oh did I mention I didn't sleep because I was so excited so my lighting is insane so oh well. Deal with it!

LOOK AT THIS!

OK, can you see beyond the blur?

To the greatness?

Also I did manage to edit out the fluorescent yellow glow my camera so generously captured.

Even my family members had to be shown the madness.

Then I had to try and get them to understand how old and awesome everything was.

They were like "But why did she just give you all this?"

And I just sat there going 

 But you know, in a frantically happy way.

White miniscule figurines!

Teeeny cookie cutters. Seem to have been soldered though I'm thinking just a hole punch will do.

Fuzzy lambs already linked to be necklace-ified.

Ok, that non-assuming round is a retractable tape measure with etched metal tape!

This blurry mess is the packages of beads I'm making to hand out among y'all.

First 7 to convo me with their address get a priority box full. You have to pay shipping and if you're overseas that might be a lot!

But so you know, it will NOT have any of this gloriousness.

Or this. Sorry. Not that generous.

The wooden game pieces you see here that I'm layering tiny stampings on yes. The tiny stampings no.

No carved rose tourmaline.

Or flashy labradorite faceted nuggets. Sorry.

Or tin toys!

Maybe a bottle. Not the fancy one.

But mostly just beads, is what I'm saying.

Cuz among all these one-of-a-kinds she also sent strands and strands and boxes and boxes of beads.

I guess I'm just showing y'all what you won't be getting. Hm.

I just realized I won't have to go shopping for a year at least.

Oh, here's a peek at some beads!

Here's this. 

And on the inside this.

So I turn it around and.

So now look! 

And this was the only thing that hubs was like, "That could be valuable!" Cuz it looks like something they might find on American Pickers. I'm slamming my head on the table repeatedly meanwhile going, "Not any more valuable than any of this!!!!" Proly less than a lot of it.

 
 Poor hubs. He doesn't know.

Long story short, best b-day gift of my life from someone who had no idea it was by b-day.

So I'm frothing at the mouth trying to convo her while freaking out and guess what she said?

"Oh I'm so glad you weren't disappointed."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even.

Here's some of the bead trays I mentioned.

So this IS what I'm going to be sharing.

But everyone will also get a couple of special things as well.

Like free beads isn't special!

Everyone will be getting one of these medallions and one of these heavy ornate links too.

I think I have enough for 7 boxes. We'll say 7 for now. After I'm done wading through to make 7 if there's more I'll offer more. And you have to etsy convo me, it won't work if you leave a message b/c we need to do a paypal transaction for the postage.
I need a nap.
Happy birthday to me!

NOTE: The giveaway is closed. Thanks for the well wishes and comments, guys. I love you all. Also I think I'll be able to send a box to everyone who etsy convoed me. How cool is that?

Skillz ta pay da Billz

...even though no one's buying oh well.

 Just reading Sparrow's most recent post where she mentions the urge to just connect these ScrochedEarth drops to earwires and call it a day. I feel ya, girl. They need very little else.

I'm using my new sterling wire in all of these. The wire rounder worked not at all. I wonder if that's because it's full hard? Ended up still using sand paper. Feels wrong every time I say "full-hard."

Why can I not get enough asymmetrical when it comes to earrings? It's just more interesting to look at by far. How about on a head though? As long as they're not too insanely different... I have too little experience wearing earrings to be making so damn many.

I had to wind some wire around these hoops to make them less perfect and a bit more wabi-sabi.

Here's my last ScorchedEarth pair, with some crosses. I guess one being sort of African-ish and the other sort of Celtic de-Catholifies them enough for me. Oh I can't help it I just love Catholic imagery!

These ladies aren't stampings but castings. They're just awesome in design and detail. I added the titanium cubic nuggets to get some cosmic in there. Oxidizing the rhinestone connectors was a bitch, I had to sand off the entire gold plating entirely or it wouldn't take. I hate non-tarnish plating! And these really needed the ox to balance with the girly rhinestones and ladies. But in the end I think they work.

So Patroness had a necklace with lots of Roman glass and garnet. Unfortunately, the sections were wrapped with very thin and wonky wire that, being fine enough to fit through the garnet rondelles, was not a good match for the very thick and rugged glass.

My inspiration was to take the sections apart, solder the wire together and pair them off into earrings.

 I had to file down my soldering results a to make the shapes a little smoother. More work! I added very light lower dangles since the glass itself used up each earrings allotted weight allowance. Allotted by me. 

Here I chose a heavier coin dangle on the right to compensate for the lighter weight of the smaller, broken glass. That's another asymmetry challenge- equal weight of both earrings.

Only as I was photoing these did I realized the chains were not the same length. Goddamn it. Actually it was only when I laid them out lying down. What do you think, does it matter? Urg, I think it does. But I thought you loved asymmetry? Well sure but it has to serve an aesthetic purpose. If one earring looks better than the other, it doesn't work. In this case the longer strands look better. If y'all managed to convince me otherwise, that would make my day. I guess there's the possibility of adding, like, three microscopic links by hand to each of the short lengths. Ugh. I think that'll have to be the fix. Damn you all for not convincing me otherwise! (Even though I haven't posed this blog entry yet. I meant in a premonitory clairvoyant communication kind of way...)

Here's two different sun coins from Uruguay. We are all about the sun down South. Which is why I must huddle indoors with my pasty white self. These fat tubes are odd. Never been much for tubes but oh well.

These are a semi-repeat design because I had these bits still left.

I may have been using triangles from this tin too much (well, 2 other pairs listed), but I can't help it they just combined so perfectly with these quills. The wire connectors of the quills are ringed together at the base of the loops to keep them in a V form so they'll fall to either side of these vintage glass drops. And the teardrop hoops are hammered and I just like them so there.

 Do you guys remember those ribbon barrettes we used to wear in elementary school? In the tackiest decade of human history, the 80s? They inspired my next project: hair pins with cascading bead strands. They're certainly unlike anything I've done before. What do you think? Too weird?

A friend had these orange citrines and three beautiful Ethiopian glass whatsits, so I made her a couple of layering necklaces, trying to make it wearable and not too nutty, since she's not, you know, a futuristic tribal priestess. 

 Here's a pair for a cousin who's going through a real tough time. Wildthorn Kim gave me the idea to make her a gift, I would never have thought of anything so nice.

Again, I'm going for not too weird here. Wearable. I guess without thinking about it I was trying to use not-too-precious bits. I know, I'm awful. Why would I even admit that?

 More for secondary patroness. She sent this giant angel with huge brads In back that I used to mount it on her feather stamping I hammered flat then curled.

Trying to get the angel to lie curved I broke off its foot. This is good cuz now I can pont it along the feather. Then when I was drilling a hole for a (fake headpin) rivet, I broke the foot in two. Now its held together with steel re-enforced epoxy. The fixes are fun too, you know.

A kuchi section hooks on to the stamping as a closure. Since I know her exact wrist size, no need for an extender chain. This works because the crucifix serves as a dangle unrelated to the closure.

I took apart a couple of the box clasps I mentioned to use just the rhinestone bit and soldered these rings with my iron. I'm all about soldering rings now- everything's so secure and no overlapping the ring ends or anything.

Here's me burning my hand on the solder. But why are you all soaked? It was a hot day and I needed to cool off. But why are you a cat? Oh did I not mention that? I'm a cat.

Making and Forsaking-

-all other activities. See, Lela, I don't have a clone. You'd be amazed how much you get done if you stop cleaning, cooking, leaving your house or showering. All those things waste a lot of making time. Doing hair/makeup. Getting mani-pedis. People waste hella time on dumb crap like that. Exercising. Socializing. Working or raising offspring. Having a life, in other words.

The lovely customer who sent me stuff I mentioned earlier, I made these using all her stuff except for the seed beads:

 I'd certainly never used a box clasp before but she sent tons. As you can see, I went from one to four to three to two strands all in one piece.  You have to know the exact size wrist/necklace when you use them as there's no adding an extender chain. 

Friendliness! 

Y'all know I'm all about extender chains. Like in this piece I also made for her:

Among what she sent were the ring of cobalt rhinestones, the sacred heart charm I placed within it and the dagger stamping below, along with the brass oval above. I chose to mount the focal on two layers of the ruined tintype my photo friend sent to keep the sacred heart from flipping around. Then I whatchacallit. Riveted the dagger piece- which of course I oxidzed along with the brass oval and everything else. Interestingly the chevron trade beads and the big dangle bead were just given to me by a friend last week. And I needed some tribal to balance the Victorian. 

I don't know but I love how unexpected gifts present design challenges that you wouldn't have otherwise chosen for yourself. I used to buy findings that I had no idea the use of just to see what I'd end up doing with them.

Soldered some more Roman glass to finish this pendant Patroness got from me ages ago:

I made it so that the chain hooks right into the pendant, also not allowing for extender chain. But I like the simple silhouette. Note: Lela, my process is nowhere near that complicated. I put in 10mm raw brass jump rings I bought and solder with an iron- no need to worry about overheating. 

 Can we just stop and look at some Scorched Earth awesomesauce I recently indulged in?

 These crackle luster glazes have me swooning. And for me to be pro-shine you know it has to be special.

But also just because she rocks she added some things not available in the shop (but which SO SHOULD BE) like these teeny hearts. Squeee!

And these stripies that I'v already started forming into mis-matched pairs.

Which leaves me with a long dark one and a pink one that don't really go but that dark one is amazeballs- it looks like some kind of horn! I'm thinking of waxing them just to give them that final touch of done-ness. I like the unglazed but... maybe it's just cuz I've been looking at her uberglazes.

I've been sharing lots of supply porn lately, hu? When did all my virtual friends become so brilliant? Y'all were cool to begin with but recently it's been getting ... next-level shit. Which makes the idea of us all raising our prices very timely. I think of it as an experiment. Been listing earrings for $89 and just going, "lol. I'm crazy!" and just forgetting about it. I see more and more underpriced things and I realize that we all have to stop thinking of ourselves as amateurs and hobbyists. That hurts us as artists and as people who aren't yet homeless. Also when I read comments on Sparrow's recent series of posts where someone mentions keeping their prices down because they couldn't possibly charge as much as me, well, that was a wake-up call.
Here's what I'm still working on:

 Still gotta get it to hang right.

My fave recent comment is Jiorji saying, "I knew you'd make some mind barfing explosive awesomeness with those cabs." I ran downstairs to tell Mr. Devices, "A commenter said a pair of my earrings were mind-barfingly awesome!" and he thought that was pretty great too.
Also Patroness told me that she has to force herself not to look at my shop because, "your jewelry is like a tumor in my brain. In the best sense." That's up there with the time shipwreck called a pair of my danglies "anti-earrings."
Now Imma drag my ass over to the TV:
  
I'm hooked on the show "The Bridge."