Some previews on account of I feel like it.

OK- 1st: So sorry if you got hacked emails from me.... I changed my password to something actually hard to guess this time. Numbers and symbols and mystical formulas in there now.     

Second: Look at some earrings.

Beads here are encased in resin. And there's parts of a fan.

And below I was cursing myself for feeling the need to follow this exact Victorian tribal formula. Cuz I'd put together the lampworks with the pearl things and I was thinking if I should pull out a couple religious medals, then all 'but no cuz tribals...' and like I said cursing myself. Then I found the bells.

No, really- there's a point. That one thing I love about pendants is I don't feel like they have to represent all my beliefs and world view in the perfect integration of my aesthetic message.

 I can sometimes put all these demands on myself. But with pendants it's all BANG BANG BANG- done!    

And then there's blood everywhere. 

(?)

Lookit it's a big old resistor. Know what those are? Resistors? Or is it a capacitor? This one's even ceramic. Came from this lot:

Has several layers of resin over the metal wires hanging down cuz, um, they're lead. But with the resin keeping them in check you could swallow the thing whole and be none the wiser. Well, you might need surgery when it clogged up your guts.

Remember I said I was cutting down on my crazy pills? I must not be that crazy because I feel more clear-headed than I have in years. Why didn't my doc do this sooner? Hu?

What else have I to report?

(Heh-heh. It says cock.)

Last night me, hubs 'n' folks went out to dinner and after a glass of wine mom said something like "I need alcohol for my GPS."  And each time I thought we were on the cusp of getting an explanation someone would come up with another non-sensical three-letter acronym to insert ("I need alcohol for my CSI!") that would get mom once again laughing so hard she was crying all over herself and an explanation was never had. There is nothing more joyful than getting my mom to laugh at herself til she's crying and sort of choking.I know what you're thinking. That's not really an acronym. An acronym is pronounced like a word such as AIDS or gif.... whereas GPS is more correctly termed initialism. But our quotidian use of the term embraces both possibilities.  

 Wait- that's not what you were thinking? So... what were you thinking?

 This sorta kinda has the galaxy effect going on in the resin. Sorta.

 Here's a thing! I even have another slide coming up. Also, I love the word "Kodachrome".

Yup, all Urufinds. Oh fuck,  that's what I was trying to remember! All the questions y'all asked! 

YES, I'm still open to the Touruguay. <-Correct terminology. Uruhaul is what you bring back. Uru-tour is my mom's attempt to say Touruguay one time.

However, I'm not sure we have enough people to constitute a group... I don't expect payment but if I'mna go and do this thing that does make me a bit nervous because whenever I led school groups before I'd get all stressed feeling responsible for everyone's good time... so... maybe the reason I'd want a group of, say, 8 crazy ladies is so y'all could pitch in to cover my flight. And that would be my service fee. Even for the workshops and everything. That part's easy!     

Look, same exact thing from slightly different angle-->

Speaking of which, beadybaby in a comment linked to one of my husband's all favorite things ever. This is the Chivito (sorta like chee-bee-toe):

And the open-face version just to make your arteries hurt:

The scene that was cut from Anthony Bourdaine's episode in Uruguay where he and his brother gorge themselves on these is on of the things Robert has acquired to carry around in his ipad and regularly re-watches.

 As for pricing! Since I'm constantly absorbing new shit into my stash... even if I could remember exactly what cost what... it's the fact of having it ALL that allows me to find those great combinations.

Take this piece my commenters (♡) were so fond of:

No diamonds and rubies there, sure. However the reason I was able to create it is 1st because having worked long and hard, I've magically attracted great friends to me like Anvil of the metal length and SacredCake of the pearl pin. She sent that pin to me (as I forgot to mention last time) maybe as far back as 2 years ago. As amazeballs as it is, I couldn't find the right spot for it and even took down a necklace I once had it living in. One awesome thing about it is one pearl unscrews from the pin(!), so I was able to create the links on the aluminum without worrying about scratching off the pearl finish, then put the pin through a length of brass tubing (impossible w/o removable pearl) so that it would be snug in it's new home, then draw that through not just the aluminum links, but also the hand link that was not openable. I also had the bone toggle forever, which I'd made from a bone in a lot a customer sent me as a gift after seeing it in my favorites!

THEN- I saw this cuff with this awesome clasp by Richard Salley and the lighbulb slowly blinked on.

For all that to come together is more rare than the precise conditions needed to create a diamond or ruby. How do you put a price on that?

 Hu? How?

And someone asked about the color of the metal. Black guilder's paste. Which brought with it the issue of keeping said paste on without it smearing all over your wrist. So I tried a bunch of different things. Finally, I put a thin layer of resin on it since nothing seemed to work well enough. Then it was a shiny, shiny mess. and I tried all different kinds of things again. In fact, the only thing that seemed to really remove the shine was rubbing it with... black guilder's paste! Ugh. Then I happened to go to Ace for some wire, picked up a tube of Liquid Nails which is sorta like E6000, and it occurred to me to shmear a bit of that all over the now shiny and partially re-guild-pasted fucker. And that worked. PHEW. Oh and multiply by two because of this guy:

To be honest, explaining all that here feels like a ton more effort though.

And then I made these in a mad scramble using the manic energy I seem to be developing from my med reduction. They seemed to take no time- but look at 'em!

Looooooooook!

P.S.- If there's no link, it's not listed and we can talk. (If by talk you mean buy it without making me come up with a whole listing with tags and descriptions. That alone gives you a $5 discount. Another $5 if I don't have to measure it and you can do with the size reference photo. Except these discounts mean nothing since all prices are pulled directly out of my ass.)

Cosmic Candies

Get your eyeballses ready girlies.

Yesterday when it was too overcast to take pictures, I invented a new patina, seen here on the kuchi.

So just imagine how much more amazing stuff I could've made today if I hadn't spent all day messing with pictures and photoshop. Imagine how much stuff I'd make if I never had to take pictures!

Doesn't that totally wanna make you move to Chicago and become my photographer? It would be an unpaid internship, of course. The honor would be payment enough!

Check out molester cherub here all, "You're so tense! Here, let me rub your shoulders for you." Did I just ruined this guy for all of you? Nah, they're sweet. Erase all thoughts of molester cherubs. There's tiny particles of blue glittery eyeshadow in there, yessir.

Lela: alteredarcheology is cracking me up! "What Shat That? I shit you not." hehe. Wombats indeed.

So this was a prayer card with all kinds of gold accents. I didn't seal it because I liked the lettering on the back and wanted it to show through. Turns out, the entire image was printed over the gold. You can see it in the blue background which was just a solid blue before the resin made everything transparent. 

So I made this cuff for the wider-wristed ladies based on a piece of metal anvilartifacts sent me.

It's all kinds of sculptural. But as usual I can't figure out one good image that shows it all. Because bracelets are 360^. I couldn't find a degree symbol so I just used a '^' cuz I'm a rule breaker. I think outside the degree symbol, I'm a rebel against symbols and punctuation.

What was I saying? Oooo, looky, color.

Do you see the two different color patina? IT'S FAKE!!! I FAKED IT!!!

Are you all "Oh no she is not gonna just drop that bomb and then not follow up?!?!"

Deeeevious.

OK, OK- lemme tell you about some-a-this. The pyrite above, the pearls, stars, peal-stars and opalescent glass below all came from Fancylinda. She just sent me a huge fuckload of stuff in exchange for an liddle ol' pendant.

More of my fancy new patiiiiiinaaaaa... na-na-na..... 

Can someone please try to understand how amazing this coin is?

Fancylinda also sent this opalecent bead and the 2 faceted tubes.

And here's what I did with the strap that didn't fit the hands.

I think a buyer might just decide they prefer the back. I'd have to flip it because the rhinestone thing has a front/back unlike bracelets. The lady at the fair tossed it into the pile of things I was buying as a freebie. I know!

Finally got this one all done. Cuz if at first you don't succeed- quit, you suck. Leaving it a pendant. Love me some pendants. Win-win-- I get to make things quickly, you get to purchase it cheaply and they use your own imaginationativity for the rest.

 'Dafuq was that? ... my hard sell?

Cuff set. Again, anvil's metal. It's aluminum. Super fun to play with. And a couple rulers.

So, I had all these things without nowhere to go, made a pile of bracelets.

There's three bracelets here. One has a hook coming right out of that awesome bone oval thing that Sparrow sent me ages ago. 

Sure would be nice if I'd captured it in a, you know, photo.

Here's another set of three. And that's all I have to say about that.

So my folks had a big sing-a-long last night with their grandkids. Marcela performed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and then apparently felt required to explain this big new word 'wonder' to everyone. "Like, 'I wonder what time it is? So, I wonder where my clock is?'" Vocabulary lessons from a three year old. So cute it makes my stomach hurt.