Agence eureka

A most a mazing site of antique French images.

My favorite are the foreign-y ones.  Basically, the more difficult to place the better.

There are tons of cut and make crafts- paper theaters, moving dolls, cars, masks, etc.

There are children's readers and workbooks, collections of every kind of image from sci-fi to nature survival, anatomy to sports, geography to fairytales that apparently came in chocolate wrappers a long, long time ago.  There are comics and photos, scrapbooks, ephemera from the mail, magazines and books.  It's infinite. I'm just starting to wade through all the gloriousness.

The Holy Bodies

These are not paintings, but photos.

Each year, in the Bavarian town of Waldsassen, several martyrs, whose skeletons are encrusted in jewels, are celebrated in the Holy Bodies Fest.

Here.  Via.

Before I Go

Apparently, I simply can't stop. Not even 2 days before I leave the continent.

My new realization is that I'd been having a knee jerk reaction against pretty-ness.  And recently, I had some pretty items sell.  So I decided, what's so wrong about pearls, rhinestones and lace, anyways?

Since I'm such a grungy grunger, these pieces still have an interesting dark edge, though, no?

I could make a ton more earrings.  They're easy and can be very rewarding. But I get all wrapped up w/my bigger inspirations, mostly necklaces.

I've had these soldered together crystals forever.  From an old chandelier a work friend gave me in a big duffle bag out of the blue.  Score. I finally added some text behind the glass and connected then to the hooks w/tiny rhinestone pins.  

And some scans.

Here's another "pretty"- a flower, millinery, rhinestone girl-a-thon.  And yet, I don't mind it. I also have my latest glovette.  Whites! Dirty whites, my latest mini obsession.  Layers of paper-thin linens, cottons embroideries and appliques.

These little dangles are from some ancient millinery Sparrow sent me- so simple and pretty!  Also a big ol' honkin' cuff.  Sparrow sent me the mini bulb, the strip of snakeskin, the doilies and gold embroidered trim.  The scan makes no sense.  In real life it's really rich, w/lots of depth.  Soon enough, real pictures.

Other side of glove.
OK, I see very white and very dark items lose lots of detail in the scan.
But I have no time to take real pictures.  I'm running around like a madlady.
I'm trying to prepare lesson plans for my 2 weeks in Uruguay.  I've managed to get a flat tire (mom's car) and not notice until the tire was in bits. I almost poisoned myself using a very toxic cleaner in the tub only meant for the toiled bowl.  The melting sponge and burning flesh should've tipped me off.  The searing lung pain and dizziness, too.  Ended up sleeping at mom's, all my windows open to the snow to try to air out the fumes.  And I keep getting collection agency letters for something I paid.  I feel like I don't know where the next blow is coming from.  And folks will be angry at me for my carelessness, but I have no way of knowing what I'm being careless about til after whatever it is happens.
Oh, I also told my class there's no school tomorrow, Wednesday.  Um, guess what?  There is.  I thought, since there was a big field trip planned....  Then my boss... and I'm all like...  and but then it's all...
Shitballs.

Art Hand Wounds

Instead of reaching for a band-aid, I reach for a camera.

The chunk of (dirty) finger I cut off while cutting wire.

My wedding ring on the wrong finger.  It no longer fits on my ring finger because of all the weight I've lost forgetting to eat while wrapped up in a project.  I should market it as the etsy diet!

7-8 written on my hand to keep track of the amount of oval bezels of 18x13mm size while trolling the net for goodies.

And now, I'm going to go wash my hand, since as I type, I still have blood dripping down my hand.  You know when you get scars from doing stuff you're crazy about, you always wear them with pride.

Dry Spell So Over

This always happens.  I go through a dry spell in my shop during which no one buys anything and I become convinced the items I have in my shop are all crap.  During this time, I re-list a ton and nothing.  THEN, I post up a bunch of new things, and suddenly my shop is buzzing with activity.  And not just folks buying those newly posted items, not at all.  Half or more of those sales are of older items no one looked twice at before those new posts.
So weird.

So among my sudden buys is Deep Hymns of Necromancies:

Which must be one of my favorite pieces ever, and the most expensive thing I've listed!  

I know it's crude to speak of it that way... but for me it's significant.  It's significant mostly in the amount of new supplies that'll get me, as well as rent and all that boring stuff.

ANYWAYS, 

I'm preparing for a trip to Uruguay, the country where I'm from.  I'm so psyched for all the treasures I'm gonna stockpile!!!  I go into a panic just thinking about it.

 

Feria de Tristan Narvaja, the once weekly market where anything you can imagine is sold.  And in a country where people throw NOTHING away, not even bottles and cans, this means glorious grungy old bits!

here

here

here

D'aaawwww!

Another just listed just sold.  

This one I forgot to include in the last post.

Now I do a happy jig.

Does my mannequin have weird collar bones?  Big ol' V.

Finally- Real Pictures.

Ok, here are the real pictures of the new things.

And I received my new mannequin torso, as the other one was frighteningly boobalicious:

This piece uses a tobacco tag in the shape of a mule I traded, along w/some other stuff, w/Hummingbirdeyes.

I havent done dried rose bottles in a while, but kept getting requests.  So as I made a couple of custom pieces, I made these, too:

So many things, so little desire to photograph them...

They say you should never, never include sub-par images on your blog.  That is, if you want followers and all.  You know when I start like that it's because I'm about to ignore that advice.

I made a bunch of stuff and wanted to post them at least here, but haven't yet had time to take good pictures.  So I tried scanning.  All I can say is scanning sucks ass.  It really makes this stuff look unappealing.  So check out these crappy images.

And I keep getting requests for these vials and pencil earrings.

And also, I've realized that I never wear jewelry myself.  Considering I make so much, I didn't think that was right.  But I need something I can wear to work without distracting or confusing my poor students.  So I picked my favorite color combo for a necklace that will wind around a million times.  So easy and cute.