Miss Me? I also miss me.

Look at this lovely thing! Even though it's kinda minimalist- for me- every bit of it is so precious.Apanthropinization.
It centers on this swimmer's medal from Uruguay.

How to explain though, in the concise language of my listings, that Uruguayans are crazy and would take this gorgeous thing and engrave "LOSERS" on the back? Yup. What we have here is a participation medal from 1929.

I was looking back through my old pieces and realized the ones I liked most were the minimalist ones, so there you go.

Humanity's Dilemma.
The essence of humanity’s spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another.
—E. O. Wilson

I love this freaking quote so much! And look at that enamel ring- RomAntiqueSoul made it and just gave it to me for no reason!

The reason I've been blogging less and less, if it isn't already clear, is that the creative frenzy I've been in over the past six or seven years has been winding down in the last year or two.

Gaudiloquent.
I've been making on etsy since November of 2008, when I opened my shop in a flurry of inspiration. Before that I'd never made jewelry and in this medium I found my perfect artistic niche.

Inspiration came at me like a fever, like an attack. I'd go some days without eating for 8 hours a stretch just because I couldn't leave my work space. I'd furiously fiddle at the bits all around me, in such a rush that despite wanting to grab something just out of reach, I couldn't get myself to get up and grab it because I couldn't stop whatever I was doing in the spot I was in. My poor bladder, I won't even tell you.

Pregnatress.
I was stupid happy. my supplies made me squeal in joy. My learning curve was nuts, my success humbling. I devoted myself full-time to scratching that itch.

Well, it's been scratched. My listings manager page shows I've sold 948 necklaces, 1,125 pairs of earrings, 335 bracelets/bangle stacks and however many rings/brooches/pendants/beads. So it's no wonder.

Ephydriad.

Yeah, all is as it should be. Except that when artists are... lets say between inspirations, we are absolutely in mourning. The world is colorless and life has no point.
And the thoughts are all: what if it never happens again and life reverts to this endless grey tunnel? What if I'm a sham, etc. You are all probably intimately familiar with this whole rigamarole.

Isangelous.
Not to sound dramatic. I mean, I'm ok, I'm down though not depressed. If I weren't medicated I would be for sure, so thank god for that.
Pandemonism.
And its funny cuz so many times when other artists and makers on line have reached out to me with these same concerns it was so easy for me to be all, "This is a natural part of the creative cycle and the fact that you're upset about it proves that you are an artist.." Blah blah. God I'm unbearable.

So yeah, obviously when it's you going through it... not so "natural" a creative cycle...

Palingenesis.
But because I am medicated and stable and I have counseled so many artists through similar things, I know to go easy and not fight myself. I always loose, lol.

My issue is that when I'm not motivated by my muse, I'm not motivated at all. Meaning, I don't do anything other than stick my head in my ipad all day. And I read about refugees and immigrants working 3 jobs and single moms and I just can't, I can't. I have no excuse for myself, but I know if I even try to become a contributing member of society I'll just get the flu or something and be laid out for a month.

Oblivion Ends the Coil.
Which by the way, yeah. During this stretch between posts, right before my cat bite, I was laid out for two weeks with just a cold. The kind of thing Mr. Devices gets and still manages to function through, going to work and being on his feet for 8 hours, etc. Meanwhile, I'm like delusional with fever dreams.

So yeah. And don't think I haven't tried a different medium or whatever. It's like I'm tired of all of it and not interested in any really new thing enough to get me active on doing that.

(These aren't listed because I only just realized the size of the bangles is huge, while the cuff is tiny and women with two very different sized wrists aren't a huge customer base.)

I have had some minimal motivation to do a bit of cooking and go to the gym, though with recent health I've been gone for like a month and when I try to dance around the house I'm winded in 5 minutes. So yeah. I might not be around much for a while. I still love my supplies I have left and all... just not enough to get me going like I used to...

But this too shall pass.
Oh but about the cooking thing- check out what I recently got from bobsredmill.com

Cuz I was reading how though we only eat, like, wheat/rice/corn for grains, there's all these others with amazing nutritional properties. Protein, fiber, minerals, amino acids, gluten-free (if you need that), amazing. Next I'm going to try Amaranth and Teff. I just love the way they sound! And I make them all in my rice cooker. AND! I'm a huge cheapskate, and I found Bob's Red Mill crazy affordable. I also like the not-huge packages they come in, which means you can try a bit of everything.

Now look at these dumb babies being helpful:

 

And this girl playing fetch with a very excited emu:

 

Spaz.

Baby duck feeding fish had me like:

 

Giveaway.

Shipwreckdandy is giving away this lovely tea towel made by her friend Monique of the cool new shop Sailor's Mouth.
 
I'm partial to this tea towel:
 The shop also has gorgeous pillow cases that I'd never lay my greasy head on. Check it out.

Leave Shipwreck a comment, like the shop, pin an item from it, blog or Facebook for chances to win.


In other news, I had to spend 24 hours in the emergency room because of an infected cat bite. Turns out cats mouths are made of poison. Here's a comparison of both hands so you can see what I mean.

And it got way more inflated before it got better. This is just the picture I texted my mom (who's a doctor) before she called me to yell, "GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM RIGHT NOW". And see that tiny dot in the middle of my hand, below the ring finger? That was the entire bite! I was messing with Blanquito and he wasn't having it. He had this huge eye booger though that I just had to get. Cuz I'm gross.
Anyways, tomorrow or so I'm coming back with a new batch of ten items so heads up.

And here's some squirrels.

Bracelet Bonanza B*tches!

Ah, bracelets. So easy to design, so fun to make, so freaking impossible to photograph.

If I lay it like this, you can't see the back section, like thus and the whole thing looks awkward, like so and you can barely see any of it.
Uranomancy- divination by studying the heavens

And what unholy mess is this?

You're basically hoping the viewer can re-construct it in their minds.

That Dark Thread of Sadness.
The glittering dance of brilliants must be strung on that dark thread of sadness which is time.

-Vernon Scannell
Utter Your Meaning.
Hark, below, the many-voiced earth,
The chanting of the old religious trees,
Rustle of far-off waters, woven sounds
Of small and multitudinous lives awake,
Peopling the grasses and the pools with joy,
Uttering their meaning to the mystic night!

--William Vaughn Moody
Check out how I connected this mini rhinestone buckle to two strips of leather. And with this I've used up my experiments with Chinese ink painting decals. I haven't made polys in a while, I have a bunch of ideas. Though now that I have the new 'puter, I should be thinking on the next tute... *groans*

Hybrid Zone.
Added some soldering to several of these babies. I'm lazy about soldering which I shouldn't be cuz it's not hard and it always looks so good. Here the clasp and the link holding it to the rhinestone piece are both soldered. Both piece and the crown in the first image were from Kathyhaul. Yup, still.

Mask of Divinity.
Whenever you have stash you don't know what to do with- make bracelets. They are so much more forgiving than necklaces. Like the huge tigereye above, I feel like it would be just a little bit boring on a necklace, but it looks awesome on the wrist.
I just used my flex shaft to file out a concavity on the reverse side so it would lay snugly against the wrist and voi-la.
And it further illustrates my current obsession with mixing religions.

Old brooches are perfect for this too (i.e., the rhinestone crown above). Can't count the number of pieces I've clipped the brooch findings from, curved and gotten myself the perfect bracelet link. And who wears brooches nowadays anyway? Well, someone or I'da never sold all them brooches, but still.

Abyssal zone-The deepest depths of the ocean that never receives light.

Finally finished this one I first showed you how long ago? Back in March. Using the glass sent to me by darliciousrejuvenations.

Underwater Tribute. See those torch enamel beads? They were made and gifted to me by RomAntiqueSoul who sent me a whole bunch of things including the amber chips I used in the rings below. I know!! Notice that one of those beads was made from scratch using just wiggly wire. I know!

Oceanic. Again, bracelet stacks. For fun makie times without any of the strictness necklaces and earrings demand. Why aren't these the only things I make?

In fact, all the non-stack bracelets above were originally meant to go in stacks, As they developed, I was surprised to realize they were nice enough to stand alone.

No Greater Agony. 
I haven't forgotten you, earlobes! Torch enamel by 4Ophelia, real rubies.
Asteroids.
OMG, this super rough Indonesian glass is giving me a gray-gasm. Why do I love gray so much? I adore gray and asymmetrical and rough and iridescent and this pair has everything I love in such an unassuming little package.

That Look of Otherness.
She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander off the edge of the world.
-Joanne Harris

Not only does this ring feature the aforementioned amber but also a bunch of broken apatite beads were salvaged here as well. Nothing need be wasted. 

Where You Fear to Live.
Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

― Rumi

Here I fitted chips and chunks together like a jigsaw puzzle into an oversized vintage bezel which I riveted to a salvaged tin band. I made a lot of crumbs when cutting the larger pieces into shape so I used them to fill the edges and gaps by melting them together with a polymer resin. It was all very experimental and I'm amazed it worked.

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So recently an acquaintance of mine said something to the effect of "why don't you leave the spiritual stuff to the spiritual people," after I'd made an offhand remark about not necessarily believing in anything per se. Now, aside from that being just a terrible idea, it made me feel like I had to explain a bit about my relationship to belief systems and about my spirituality. You can go over on my instagram to read some of my thoughts on all that jazz in these three posts. Really, it's quite brief considering the infinite enormity of the subject.

While you're at it, go over to everydayfemenism and read this exceptional article about cultural appropriation. We who use "ethnic" or "tribal" elements in our work have to be especially mindful of this aspect of our racist society. I briefly address this myself in the second of the instagram posts I linked to.

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Now where were we? Oh yeah.