Makings

So to quickly distract you from that last post...
I been spaztically making, running around like a chicken with ADD (I'm so funny).

Girls are done.

Very wrappedy hook, with a gold ring for the hoop it hooks into. Tres Victorian tribal!

In the works.

A cuff from an escutcheon sent by Opulent Oddities. 1st I had to hammer it flat for an hour. Tonight Mr. Husband will help get it smooth around. 

A rainbow of fruit flavors. With jingle bells and shoe buttons and other charms along the chain that makes it adjustable.

And I'm experimenting with de-contrasting. I was always worried that things were blurry, so I was always making them extra contrast-y to look more defined. Now I realize less contrast gives more detail. Even a not-unpleasant haziness. I'll have to think on it.

Oh I even added some saints to the tiny heart locket in the rainbow piece. Folks never add pictures in their lockets, I think. At least not the tiny ones. Or do they? What do y'all think?

Here is this crazy mess. Tart tin, crystal quartz with pyrite in a rusty tin bezel-ish thing, half submerged in utee resin. The 'cord' is smokey quartz rondelles and a fine silver flat snake chain from Op.Od. And I know it's fine because it didn't react to the Novacan when I tried to oxidize it. At all. That means something is $pecial.

Here you can sorta see the image I added beneath. 

HEre you can see the Victorian tribal elements, including an indian mirror button.

On the back is an African dude who is apparently living and walking on the earth. I need to darken that tear mark.

Here's this.

I need to smooth out the surface color. This is why I go for just total oxidation and don't buff to show highlights. These specs of lightness that appear everywhere. Not cute. Oh, also old Uruguayan lock with a bit of Chinese label.

Warm color one. Indian beads I've waxed because I like to make things difficult on myself. Also it gives an antique look.

Here you can see a cathedral.

So I figure, why put them in the shop if I'm leaving Friday morning? Middle of the night Thursday, by my inner clock. So I'll get these up when I get back around. April 20th. I can't stay away form you for very long.

Shamefully Outed

Lol, you guys! Your last batch of comments made me feel like a movie star. And anonymous, I hardly ever wear jewelry!!! I'm too butch. Girly things feel like a sign of weakness somehow. I know! I'm weird! Mostly, though, I work with folks who grew up without electricity or running water so their view of aesthetics is pretty limited. I tried wearing some of my tamer stuff to class and they all stared at me like a dog going 'baroo?' It's embarrassing.
And Sparrow? I never thought cockles meant genitalia, you perv! But yeah, it is a much better story. I need to make up stuff like that for my listing narratives.

OK. ANYWAYS.
I got a specific request from CorvidDelights to take and post pictures of the stuff I made for my cousins when I see them in Uruguay.  I think she wants to out me as a closet cheese-ball.  What can I say, these charms are cute and easy and cheap. I was too cheap to even buy settings, gluing the cabs on whatever I could find.

"Oh, wow," said Mom, "Where'd you get all these little things?"
"Well, these charms and flowers come from factories in Hong Kong."
"But what about these little things? a skate.... a fan... a camera..."

And that's how I learned my mom didn't know the word 'charms'.  

The binoculars fold in half. Now come on! That's cute.

Check out the fluorescent one:Whoever gets this one might not be thrilled. If I wasn't lazy I might add a wash of white acrylic to the pinks....

I also got a buncha woodcuts from Porkchopshow for brooches:

And you know I'd always wanted an excuse to get me some of these. 

Easy peasy! Man my little 5 year old nephew said that the other day and I almost died from cute overdose. Wait, that's the name of a website. Cute shock? Acute cuteness toxicity?

Now I wish these had been out when I was gathering supplies:

(They look way bright next to my desaturated pictures, though.)

This is what I look like

I've noticed people put pictures of themselves on their blogs. I only ever did the one time w/the tattoos and my face was behind the camera. So I thought since I can't make stuff...
I have no pictures of me, so I took some before going to work yesterday, since that's when I have on my all-important makeup.

Here's a full-length. Oh, except legs. I have no legs. No! I have legs, stumpy as they may be! I even whited out the background to save y'all from seeing tumbleweeds of dog hair rolling by behind me in the full-length mirror. Cuz I'm thoughtful.

Here's me in the downstairs bathroom. I thought I looked awful dour considering how goofy and smiley I am so I tried a smile:

And it turned out totally fake! So there you go. There's my fake smile. Still, not bad for 36. Sure was cuter at 26, though. But still. That sweater is frumpy. Maybe next time I'll do a sexy one ... in my PVC dominatrix outfit? With my husband tied up with the ropes and pulleys? Yeah.

Oh, also: this coming week I'm off to the magical land of Uruguay. So my shop will close down around the 29th to be opened again I think the 17th. And while everyone in Uruguay is constantly claiming that there are cyber cafes everywhere, I saw nary a one last time. So, I will be out of touch except for when I can steal a cousin's computer. I love you guys! 

Thanks again for all the lovely well-wishes, they warm the cockles of my heart. Which has cockles, doncha know.

Hello Boys and Girls!

Do ya wanna see something grody? Of course ya do!

There's my bruised up but very happy palm. I have no strength but great stretching and healing powers. Except for when it comes to colds.

Here on my wrist they left tape so I won't chew off my stitches, I think.

But I have things that are itching to be made.

 Like this one I'm thinking of naming 'Angel of Spheres' with a little description of this mathematician who got the closest thing to the Nobel Prize for math for describing spheres in 7 dimensions, among other things.

And whatever the hell this is.

And I'm wondering if I can mount these on something other than soldered book board, so as to save my hands from the trouble of soldering and stuff.

Also, I got some awesomeness from Sparrow. Like this paper sealed against pale green silk.

Crystals!

These oval beads that have the most glorious texture which I totally failed to capture.

This mystery here.

Earring bits! And the purple-ish stuff the bird fetishes are on is insanium in the cranium. Gorgeous.

Red velvet and strips of hippiness.

I've already incorporated a little blue scrap into this thing I'm sort of working on. Don't tell Mr. Husband, I'd get such a scolding! And it's ridiculous trying to work with wire and absolutely zero hand strength, so I stopped.

Oh, another thing. Why is it that when I list new things, I sell not only the new things, but also things that have been sitting around, unwanted, forever? Things that don't sell even when I re-list them? Does the new stuff make the old stuff somehow look shiny and new? Not that it's essential I understand these things.

I gotta eat something.

OK, They're Up.

With narratives and everything!
Hashishin. The Cult of Assassins.
A Parliament of Owls. 
Nome Tabu.
Corporeal Undead.
The Spinning Hand of Fate.
Dream of Existing. 
The Meaning of Technology.
Ocean of Naught.
My worker elf helped me by coming up with "Nome Tabu" and "Corporeal Undead." Thanks girl!
Now that the clock is ticking toward my big procedure I'm starting to get nervous! Not about the surgery, about getting there by six!

I was bad

Hey guess what? Yesterday I went nuts and made seven pairs of earrings and a necklace. It started with me having to go into my studio to wrap packages, and next thing I know its 3:30 am and I'm sitting on a pile of projects.

 Strangely my hands don't feel so bad, since I had been resting them and I heated them well overnight.

 More than anything it was my atrophied lower arm muscled that ached a bit.

Oh, I can't wait for tomorrow!

I haven't listed any of these yet, but hopefully by the end of the day...

 The day will never end, though. My surgery is at 6 am so I'll be getting up before 5, and last night I got to bed at 4.... You do the math.

I've been enjoying some asymmetrical earring-making. Don't these look like little owls? The piece on the left is a hinge!

This was a lid of a tin I've had forever. Really, it belonged to an ex but got tossed in with my stuff during the tumultuous move that led me back to Chicago, which in turn led to medical treatment, which in turn led to me being able to make jewelry in the 1st place! Yay tumultuous break-up!

Here you can better see how they were a lid of an old tobacco tin. I broke one of my own cardinal rules in choosing this odd rectangular shape.... See, I always encourage any jewelry-maker or artist that will listen to mess it up and not be scared of ruining a piece. You'll ruin it by not messing with it. Don't get attached to elements in their original, pristine condition. Sacrifice your original idea for the good of the piece! But, the shape of the above earrings is what it is just because it keeps the most amount of the lid possible. I feel like my sentences aren't making sense. That is, the earrings use as much of the lid as possible without cutting out any negative space as would have been the case had I used, say, this shape:

 

 Ok, but the lid was so awesome I couldn't bring myself to do what I always preach! Damn!
Wow, am I ever tired of talking about that.

Also, I've been getting such sweet notes and comments and convos- thanks you guys. Of course Mr. Husband had to say, "They just wanna see new things!" Man, he's been spending way too much time with my family.