Remember back in the day? My scanner atrocities?

Hey Ladycakes. I have a necklace in the upcoming Jewelry Affaire. I got an advanced copy and was kinda impressed with some of the projects. For sure a lot of girly rhinestone stuff, but not at all simplistic like you get with some jewelry magazines and like I expected with this one, seeing as it is considered Belle Armoire Jewelry's easier...  mentally underdeveloped sibling. OK, I guess that was just me then! But yeah, my page ended up rather wordy since I thought I was describing how to make three necklaces but they chose just one. Plus this was my 1st attempt at describing how to make anything. Now when on earth will I be getting the pieces back? Ugh I have such a problem with long-term projects! And patience and anything that requires delayed gratification. Thus my lack of new tutes, which is certainly not for lack of ideas or supplies...
Above right is a page from the issue I liked. I got a thing for salt shakers. And this is my page:



Anywho- it's surprising how inspiring simple can be. When pieces are over-tho-top professional-looking where you know you'd have to take a class on gold smithing to even come close, my eyes often just glaze over. Often it's the simplest things- things that make me go "I could do better than that!" that prove most fruitful. Sure I also like to see how I can 'cheat' the fancy folk with simple materials- thus my use of tin and UTEE, etc, but... If any of you are stuck in a rut, I recommend simplicity for inspiration. And  always try to find specifically what it is about any given piece that appeals to you, so that you can focus on that for your work.
Any anywho- amember I mentioned making pendants? Here's some as conveyed by my uglification machine, ie, the scanner:
This one's particularly wonky since it can't lay straight.

 There're also several, like this one, that are awesomely reversible and also some treatments you can't really see well...

But now, everyone's favorite part, pricing. Any ideas? Anyone? Suggestions? Comments? Rumors and innuendo? Dirty jokes?

Here you really can't see what's going on since this pyrite is a perfect cube. Not perfect, just I mean, it stands tall off the chestage. It has a high level of pokey-outage. To bezel it I used tin and Mighty Putty, one of these 'as seen on TV' products. Soon I'll be working a ShamWow and PedEgg into the mix.









Here's another in my sear-your-eyes-off-with-the-neon series:

I know I coulda been patient and taken pictures before showing you this scanner nonsense but I won't have the opportunity for a bit. I'm leaving town for a couple days as my brother-in-law's lovely, kind and always-smiling mother has passed due to cancer. Now is the time to be grateful for all I have and to see my amazing niece/nephew/sister/brotherinlaw/etc, who I never give enough time to.

Apparently my niece was talking with her cousins about who has a grandma, who has a great-grandma and who has a great-great grandma. Later, my mom overheard her mentioning the fact that she also has a very good grandma! See, these are moments you gotta store up for later...

Mini batch and randoms.

Yes, Alice, 'fittingly' is a word and thank you so much for saying I have a knack for naming. Sometimes I don't know if others get it...
Oh, and I forgot to say, laura, I love you right back! Congrats to you for your son graduating kindergarten. Yeah, you deserve jewelry for managing to keep him alive and functioning for that long.
Beatnheart, the way I deal with tutorial or craft vids is just by fast-forwarding through most of it. They key will always be, like, nine tenths of the way through.

A Happy Song.
When searching for a title or quote to go with this bracelet, I stumbled upon this one, which while not appropriate for the listing, made me laugh out loud:
"Like, What is the least often heard sentence in the English language? That would be: Say, isn't that the banjo player's Porsche parked outside?"
-Jackson Browne

I couldn't resist the color and repetitive shape of these tablet Czech babies. Man, every time I write Czech, it's an effort.

And as usual, bracelets are maddening to photograph, what with having no back side and all. And as I get older, I seem to be loosing my own back side as well.


So these have embezzling but then I fucked it up with smudgy alcohol inks I couldn't get rid of, so I went over that with gold rub-n-buff... Oy vey. Suffice it to say when I started this was a pristine tin given to me by SacredCake. Who OMG re-did her blog all over again and it looks so profesh and fancy and high-tech!


Did I tell you all I was accepted to teach in Art n Soul at Virginia beach next year? Yay! But no, not yay cuz now I'm just nervous.


Here's another hoopy one. Lots of embezzling.



Check out these from 13Alternatives latest blog post.

"I've applied Fancifuldevices wonderful technique to earrings. I've got loads of odd, tiny beads at the bottom of my bead boxes, so I set about playing."

Which is exactly what the tute's all about! Use up those odds and ends.

My folks are back from an amazing time in Romania and the cats are all content. Had to share my two favorite pictures. The 1st is the cows walking home by themselves after a day of grazing.

Apparently if you get stuck behind them, you're screwed because they won't be hurried! Too redonk.

Now check out this black church. Is that not the prettiest most Satanic thing ever?

While I'm sharing randoms.... Tumblr is a great way to loose 5 or 6 hours at a time.

Oh, math. You cray cray.

(Gif and accompanying quote that I've been paraphrasing for my own ends from, via The Whole Blinking Cosmos, a tublr of pure awesomesauce, from whence I've stolen many a quote.)

(Segue way.)

"On April 25, somewhere in the ocean off Great Britain, a remotely operated video camera near a deep sea oil rig caught a glimpse — at first it was just a glimpse — of an astonishing looking sea creature. It was a green-gray blob of gelatinous muscle, covered with a finely mesh-like textured skin, no eyes, no tentacles, no front, no back. It moved constantly, floating up to the camera, then it backed off and disappeared. The camera operator tried to find it, and then, suddenly, out of the darkness, back it came."

NPR, via MissMaryQuiteContrary.

And you know I'm fully obsessed with the idea of eyes as symbols:

Here somewhere.

Batterfly Variation, Choleric

Batterfly Variation, Phlegmatic

The Dolphin Variation

Four humors madness by Thomas Woodruff.

Finally, check out the scale of the universe and tremble.

Sun Through the Clouds.
You already seen this baby.
I also put up this new baby:

Ceremonial Magic. 
Which was totally inspired by Kathy Van Kleeck
You know when you feel like you're out-and-out stealing from someone and then you go back and look and their stuff looks nothing like what you made? Yeah. That.
(Here worn w/clasp in front.)

A for Aberash.
Finally made this baby. From my German haul. It will take a special someone to sport this baby... The tin that holds the rubber loops to the cord has some of my embezzling speckles.

And my bodacious mannequin is glowing.


B is for Badr.
This bronze drawer pull has a seed I found in a park in U as a sorta bead cap. Cuz I so cray cray.


Do you know how much of my time on earth has been swallowed up by Photoshop, and making sure all those little specks of teeny black or white lint or whatever it is are erased from my picture? Anyone else?


The Mistress.
Here's a thing. With things. And a thing....


I been kinda on an alternative closures kick.
I get easily bored, you see.

Night Rainbow.
Cuz its, like, an array. Like a rainbow is an array of colors all spread out in an arc. But it's all black, so... and it's arrayed in an upside down arc... so.... It's like the reverse of a rainbow... This guy drove me a little crazy actually. Getting all the sizes and 'weights' right. Ugh.


Buncha stuff that's been hanging around. The limbs of the black baby from last batch. Actually, I had to sand it all down b/c it had these big ol' plastic 'seams' that were just yuck- very distracting.  Remembering all the work that went into this made me just go back and up the price. Then no one will buy it and I'll once again forget the effort and lower it way down. Circle of life.


The Aperature.
Oh, oh! This one! The leather was a broken dog collar I found two blocks from my house! And I loved how worn out it was. Before repeated washings, it smelled like distilled dog. Which made me chuckle to no end, since we live in doggie central here. More dogs than people, which I love. I'm always flopping on the sidewalk to cuddle some awesome dog or another. Sigh.


And yeah, I flipped the inside out. And added a fancy little crystal point.


The Nurturer.
See this one it's cuz pink is a girly color, and girls are natural nurturers, well, usually, and there's a spoon! Symbolizing nurturing nutrients! Get it? Get it? And the one above is the aperture since how the key hole is an aperture but it also opens a door which is an aperture... And I just like the work aperture.
Aperture.


And it's a triple wrap! Cuz I cray cray.
So that's it for today. The end.

Embezzling Metal

Lemme finally explain how I got

<--this effect.

So, I've mentioned a couple times that paper scrapbooky things are my guilty pleasure, right? Something about a kit being a great big cheating shortcut... Thing is, the materials are always cuter than anything people ever make with them. But, every so often I'll indulge in a trip around the web, checking out new products and papers and such. Last time, I stumbled upon:

Which while kinda silly, led me to a mini obsession about these crusty embossing powders. Like, look at a regular white:
 compared to this lady's white:

Anyways, I liked the splattered enamel look. So then they started selling these variety packs, and it was on.

I even got this swirlytwirly:
And some ink pads.






I should also mention that I got the idea of embossing on metal from this book.




The rest was trial and lots of error. I learned, for example, that rubbing the finished product with alcohol will remove a lot of it, as in this:
Which was originally stamped with the twirly stamp design. I like the random blobs, though.
 I was worried it might chip off but I  learned that not only doesn't it chip off, it's almost impossible to fully get off, even with alcohol and heat and burning all the skin on your fingertips ...
And that different colors behave differently. Or at least, the colors behave differently than the metallics.
I haven't listed this necklace but here you can actually see some stamping and not just random globs-

Although in the back the stamp pattern gets a bit lost:

Here's a cheap aluminum blank that I had fun hammering, shaping then adding a touch of the ol' embez:

The bottom piece shows what it originally looked like.

And there you have it. Easy and addictive. Look for more to come.

One more note.
 Most of the ephemera featured in these photos was not my old stash, but rather a recent gift collection from Waterhand, an avid paper collector for the past 35 years. She want y'all to know she welcomes a convo from anyone interested in custom ephemera orders.









So, yeah, I was surprised to hear Transylvania had seasons, too. Like, there should just be one: foggy. My mom had nothing to do with the iron, Tribalis! The hotel lady gave it to him. Though one time she was ironing and talking on the phone at the same time and stupidly put the phone down next to the iron to get something then came back and picked up the iron instead of the phone. She ended up with a red gash going down her face. People thought it was a knife scar and would be like "OHMYGOD! Did you get attacked?" And she'd have to be all, "No I answered an iron..." Then there was the time she tried to wash the dishes with Italian salad dressing and couldn't figure out why they weren't getting clean.... And it may be hot but you still have to dry your clothes, Sparrow. Not like they have a hotel clothes line.