Grubby Fingers

War Madrigals.
I don't really have anything new to say for myself since last post. My hand hasn't let me make anything and it's driving me nuts. On the plus side- my one-handed typing is getting awesome! But really, the actual good news is I'm having my next operation March 13. Next and final I should say.

Joy Transcending Trance.

I also think I know why my camera has been taking these blurry pics. I know- you're gonna say they're not that blurry. But I just spent my blood, sweat and tears to photoshop them back to acceptable. And they're barely, barely acceptable at that. Where was I?

The Fraudulent Twin.

So I think either my hubs or I (but, come on, it was him) put one of our grubby fingers on the lens. Cuz it totally looks like the whole 'vaseline lens' thing they used to do in the olden days. Of yore. Doesn't it look like that?  Aren't I a smart smarty pants for figuring that out? 

Synesthesia.

And though I'd much rather just retake the pictures, turns out it's a pain in the  ass to do with just one hand. Along with everything else under the sun.

Rudimentary Aesthetics.

I'm wondering if it's possible to sell anything with these crap pictures. I guess we'll see.

Fly W.I.P.s

I took down one of my new listings yesterday because it was bothering me. It was this one: 

I'm still struggling with it, something about it is off. I should put it away. Can't force it, you know. The blue and red thing seems really forced. And it was.

Anywhatsits, here's an itty-bitty pair of earrings. I shot it with the penny so you'd see how tiny they are.

Here's something coming along.

Something's off with my camera. I think it's on the wrong setting. My camera's embarrassed to have taken such sucky pictures.

Got the bone thing going on. On my 'fly WIPs'. 

[If you're not from the good ol' US of A, do you know what I'm referring to? How the rappers are always talking about their fly whips? I dunno when folks started calling cars whips- for a while, I thought they'd all gotten into S&M big time....]

This one is maybe done-ish? One of those that just came together, totally unforced. 

By the way, struggling, taking down a post, reworking things- that's all thanks to my inner critic. I hear lots of dissing of inner critics. People saying you have to shut it/him/her down. That you have to create freely and joyfully like a child does. But notice a child soon looses interest in making, as s/he grows. Maybe the child is not so delighted with what it makes? Also notice few young children making a living off their art.  And I have to say, my inner critic makes me work harder to raise my standards and make better things. In the end, having those higher standards makes me go 'eeeeeeeeee' with joy when I see what I've made.

 So there.

 My inner critic doesn't know if it likes these. Here's a tidbit: I flipped one of those 'eye' findings backwards to add a little variety. Well, that was before I had the netting over it.

Oh I'm 'eeeee'ing over these. Know what? I bought these copper ear wires on line and hammered and oxidized them myself, to complete the 'artisan finding' look. 

Did I mention these pictures suck ass?

Oh here's a spicy little number (hu?). I had that door knob backplate with the faceted ab bead under resin for forever, wanting to put it on a leather belt piece as a cuff. When I finally jerry-rigged up a connection, the damn piece obviously needed to have been hammered into an arc, it was stiff and didn't fall on the wrist naturally at all. So there goes that. But suddenly this little guy came together just like that. Well, it helps to have heaps of interesting supplies.

Since my double-wrap necklaces worked out pretty well, I made a double-wrap bracelet with some thin and pretty chain... Ok, you can't see it., just the extender chain. But there's a chain made of double-ended ball head pins made by missficklemedia. I'll take decent pics tomorrow... or the next day.... or the next. Promise.

I still need to oxidize these ear wires. They're steel. Is there any rule against steel? Cuz I never hear about people using steel ear wires. But steel is strong and, you know, cheap. So. I used it. These were made out of a little plate I cut, filed and hammered.

I continued to use glue to put this one together. E6000. It's staying set beautifully, and without any stiff glue areas on the reverse. Did I mention the base is an old award ribbon? In fact it was a long-ago abandoned bracelet project that I recently re-found.

I'm trying to work on a balance between masculine/rustic and feminine/vintage.
My most recent merging of opposing elements was my development of victorian tribal. But I realized that before that, I was working on merging 'jewelry' supplies with functional things not intended for jewelry. Like so:

I focused on that the way I recently had to consciously focus on victorian tribal. After a while it becomes second nature-ish. Next dichotomy is masculine vs. pretty. Cuz everyone's going crazy for the pieces mixing scruffy old leather and rhinestones. So. I gotta figure out a way to do that without, you know, going the way of the this kind of thing:

Ouch.

Here is something I found on youtube last night:

Left hand hurts too much to type, so eye candy it is:

Through the Dawn Colossal.



Land of the Lords of Brightness.




The Elder Blood.




Rose Petal Vision.



And in the works:

Since I can't use Mr. Lefty, I sorta just glued all these elements in place. Is that cheating? Nope. It's thinking outside the box.

Don't blink!

What, MORE?

Blindsight.

I realized us gals just want sparkly. Never had an item with rhinestones take long to sell. Plus the contrast with the rustic leather.
Not that it's all about selling, of course. I don't know what it's all about. Though it is jewelry, it does have to be appealing after all.

I've been getting some grief lately about my prices being too low, so I'm raising them again. Which makes me think only rich people can buy the stuff and that they should be giving the $$ to charity.
That makes no sense. Happens where you're raised by ex-socialists. Expensive things seem innately bad.

The Alien Brain.

That and I'm a natural cheapy cheapskate, so I only shop at Target. So I never see jewelry for more than 15 bucks.

What do y'all think of the big-ass pictures?

It's all a psychological mess. But it's not the worst of my messes. Why do I avoid the phone at all costs? What is wrong with me?

Mirror Neurons and the Growth of Culture.

What I'm talking about is my left hand kills and I have to call my hand surgeon and I haven't.  What the ef is my problem? Imna go do it now.

What are you up to?

Me? Oh just checking the carburetor.  

That's what I tell Mr. Hubs when he asks what I'm up to. I'm all, What do you think? I've suddenly taken up home auto repair? I'm making jewelry of course! That's all I ever do. 

 
I don't even know what a carburetor is, fer crissakes.
 Oh these 2 are soon-to-be cuffs made from an old leather bookmark, a souvenir from Chile.

Here a little embossed eye on some found filigree...

I'm thinking of leaving the leather as-is because of the wonderfully primitive flowers painted on. Gosh I love these kinds of things! A scuffed-up old leather bookmark! Where else but in Uruguay could you find such an odd treasure?

Here's what I wasted all of Friday with- this unnecessarily complicated hammered and riveted chain length. Curse you missficklemedia! It was her gorgeous black chain that got me wanting cool round artisan linkage.

Animal Sacrifice.

And I just listed these...

Occam's Razor and the Multiverse.

And this mamba-jamba. 

Oh yeah, you're getting the big ol' pictures for this.

I worry there might be just a tad too much going on here- what with the already quite involved focal AND secondary focal...

But what the hell, lately I've been getting such fan mail as has me oh so overly confident with myself and my every instinct. Though you know how after big successes artists sort of repeat their own formulas? I'm thinking pop stars here. Anybody? Know what I'm talking about? Anyways.... Yeah, can't get too pleased.



You know, it's been a while since I thanked you all for the comments. I really love to get them, they're extremely validating. And the funniest one so far, from steufel: "Aluminium beware! she is coming after you:-)" Had me giggling my tush off. It's funny because it's true. No, really- the fancy chain I made? Aluminum links!