Rings & Things November Goodies

Got my package of Rings 'N Things freebies in the mail over the weekend. In the past, they've let us pick our own stuff, but this time, they made the selections and sent out some really unusual things.

I picked the items I liked best out of the package to show:

Two different kinds of really cool chain in shades of copper and black. I'm not sure how to describe it other than to say it looks like copper chain that's been blackened in a fire? I'm excited to figure out a way to work with it. I've got one idea percolating already...

Then there's this wooden "chain" with HUGE links. If it had been a longer piece, I was kind of thinking of doing some sort of beaded belt with it, but it's too short. I have a few other ideas, though, so stay tuned.

Thanks for everyone who has been commenting here and finding me on Facebook. I'm having a lot of fun with all of the communication. It's amazing to think I started this blog in what? 2004? And pretty much wrote it in a vacuum until earlier this year LOL! I guess I like to hear myself talk or something. Anyway, thank you all so very much - you have no idea what the feedback and communication means to me! It's awesome!

By the way, if you set your blogger/comment settings to allow your e-mail address to come through when you comment (not here on the blog - it comes to my e-mail address), then I can reply back. So, if you want to conversate (yeah, I make up words, so what?), that's the best way to do it OR friend me on Facebook - I used my real name, Kelly Morgan, on there instead of Silver Parrot.

Happy Tuesday to all!

KJ

Bookin' it!

It has finally happened. I have joined the entire rest of the human race and opened up a Facebook profile. I believe I'm officially the last person on the planet to do so, but hey, better late than never.

In other news, Lorelei and I have officially started a bead diet. 1 month with no bead purchases. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Didn't she try this a few months ago and she couldn't even go 2 weeks?" And yep, you're right. But, I didn't have a support system that time.

THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT!

Okay, who just snickered? Shut up...or I'll find you and it won't be pretty.

Ahem.

The rules: no bead purchases for 30 days (starting today). Essentiall supplies like wire, findings, etc. are exempt from the rule. If we make it, at the end of 30 days, Lorelei is buying herself an Ipod touch as a reward. I don't know what that is, but I'm sure it's cool. I am going to make myself an appointment at a local day spa for a massage as my reward. It's something I keep meaning to do and with all the shoulder and neck problems I've had (and the stress!) this year, I think it's a good choice.

Oh, and don't worry. This will in no way impact the posting of the Friday Bead Porn. I have such a backlog of photos to get through that I could probably last until at least February.

And lastly, some jewelry (cuz nothing else exciting happened this weekend unless you want to hear about my nephew's 4th birthday party):

Beautiful art clay bead from Summer's Studio on Etsy.

Antiqued brass starfish charm from Patina Queen. Plus some dangles of Swarovski crystal and Czech glass in shades of aqua and purple.

I love this chain with it's round and oval links. Got it at my LBS, but they are out of it now. Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes it.

I have a whole strand of these Peruvian opal ovals and each one is a little bit different. They range in color from a dark, almost malachite, green to this pale blue with brown matrix running through it. I loved this particular one because it reminded me of an ocean shoreline - the matrix is the sand, the blue is the ocean and there are even some white inclusions that look like wispy clouds. The lavender bead is some faux sea glass from The Beadin' Path.

A closeup on the pendant because it is just so awesome!

And here's the complete necklace. Overall, I'm quite happy with it even though it's SO HARD for me to do the asymmetrical thing. This is probably my best attempt at it to date.

Okay, happy Monday, all!

KJ

XXX BEADS XXX

Okay, a few housekeeping items before we get to the bead porn:

1. Thank you to everyone who has left a comment or exchanged e-mails with me this week. I get such a kick out of all of you! It's been fun and informative. I even learned a few new words!

2. Lorelei - I couldn't find any REALLY ugly beads so...either don't read the rest of this post or else start your diet on Monday. I recommend Monday. It's really the internationally approved official diet-starting day, anyway.

Okay...on to the good stuff.

All things shell and ocean-y must be mine. Plus, these were el cheapo cheapo. Love that in a bead.

Cuz it means then you can afford to get some in EVERY color. I thought these would go well with brass, especially.

Now that I'm working more with brass, I thought it would be a good idea to have just some basic, round filler-type beads. I use a lot of things like this in my gold and silver designs as spacers or to finish off an earring dangle nicely, etc.

More random filler-type beads. These looked like they would go well with a lot of things and I like the gold patina on them.

Some cute and spring-y porcelain beads from macarroll on Etsy. No idea what I will do with these...I just thought they were pretty.

More from macarroll. I think these will go perfectly with a Chinook pendant I bought a while back. Hey, I don't ALWAYS buy at random (usually, but not always).

And one last set from macarroll - they're ocean-y. I can never resist anything that reminds me of the ocean. I am just a surfer girl at heart.

Melanie at Earthenwood had an Etsy sale a few weeks ago so I grabbed up some stuff. Cute butterfly and some kind of alien pod thing.

More from the Earthenwood sale. These reminded me of a cheerful Hawaiian print and will be great for a pair of quick summer earrings.

Last sale set from Earthenwood. I loved this yellow - it's just so sunny and cheerful! Can't wait to make some fun, bright designs with these pieces.

This pair of boro beads from Daniel's Beads on Etsy is called "lava lamp" and it's pretty obvious why. Still, I will always be a sucker for gorgeous boro beads drenched in color. Always.

See? Another pair, this one called "Supernova", from Daniel. Yummmmmmmmm!

I'll just say it again: "YUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"

Whew! Okay, I don't know about y'all, but I need a cold shower.

Have a great weekend!

KJ

Humblebeads Focal Challenge #1 - Horizontal Focal

How me it is to do the #1 challenge on the last day. Bassackward as always, but this particular design has been giving me fits all week. I drove home Monday thinking I had this totally awesome idea for it...then started working on it that night only to discover that hmmm...not so much with the awesomeness as I originally thought.

Plus, in my mental imaginings, I always have the PERFECT thing to finish off a design. Then I crash down to reality when I search through my stash only to discover that I do not, yet, in fact, own every single bead on the planet.

But I will. Oh yes, one day, I will have them ALL and...

Whoops! Did I say that out loud?

Never mind.

Anyway, this is about the 4th iteration of this design and I took it apart and redid it basically each night this week (see, THIS is why I don't normally re-do things...I get obsessed with it having to be PERFECT and pretty soon I'm bent over my worktable at 2 AM with wild hair and shaking hands and red eyes and I'm cackling to myself and it's a bad scene all around), but I think I FINALLY aced it.

However, that meant taking pictures at dawn this morning so the photos are...not that great. The sun was up, but there was a touch of fog so it wasn't quite as light as I had hoped for. But, after suffering over this silly thing all week, there was no way a little fog was going to keep me from getting it posted today.

Eh, voila!

I sort of turned the challenge around (which I hope is okay) and instead of beading across a horizontal centerpiece, I used a focal that was ALREADY horizontal and beaded around it.

Initially, I thought this brass leaf component would be really easy to design around, but for some reason, it was really difficult for me. I tried lots of different ideas about wire-wrapping the center section or trying to have a bird charm dangling above the branch and oh, a whole ton of other things that didn't work out. Then, I found this beautiful dichroic glass leaf in my stash and the muse finally decided to cooperate instead of wandering around in a drunken stupor which is what she usually does.

I took several different shots of the leaf trying to really capture the light, color and sparkle of it. I desperately wish I could remember the name of the artist, but all I can remember right now is that I bought it (and several others) at Brea Beadworks about a year ago.

Okay, I may be a bit obsessed with the leaf. Moving on.

The sides of the necklace are brass chain with peridot and amethyst chips woven through the links. The purple and green pick up the colors in the dichroic leaf centerpiece.

And one last picture of the whole piece. Y'know, for something that, at one point, I wanted to throw on the ground and jump up and down on top of in frustration, I'm REALLY happy with the way it turned out. The colors are gorgeous and the gemstones and art bead both really glow.

I'm calling it "I Heard it Through the Grapevine."

KJ

Move over, Metalheads

KJ is conquering her fear of metal…oh, yes she is. With the help of my new friend, Lorelei, I am exploring more metal techniques than ever before. She and I are both blogging about our latest metal experiences and having lots of fun trading stories in the background, too.

And without further ado (because we all hate the excessive ado, no?), here’s my latest experiment:

This project is based on an article by Cindy Wimmer in the most recent issue of “Easy Wire Jewelry.”

It features copper wire spiral links hammered to create a bit of texture and then joined with lampwork beaded links and a copper wire spiral clasp. Of course, her spirals were freakin' PERFECT (how the heck does she DO that, anyway) and mine are...well...not. But I am going with the idea that the lack of perfection actually ADDS to the pure artistry of my creation.

Yeah, that's it.

The original project in the magazine used some nice, earthy lampwork beads in shades of olive and purple, but I decided to go Wham! Bam! Glam! With these really bright and glittery dichroic glass beads.

They actually looked awesome with just the bright copper, but I really wanted to follow the project all the way through and use my Liver of Sulfur again.

Unlike my previous experiment with LOS where the copper wire took FOREVER to achieve just a reddish-purple color, this time, everything went immediately black, black, black. I’m not really sure what the difference was…preparation and cleaning were the same, water temp the same and I actually used less LOS this time than the previous time.

Interesting.

I ended up polishing quite a bit of the black back off again, but I think the metal is now toned just right for the beads. Somewhat aged looking, but not too dark.

Oh, and also, those "genuine copper" daisy spacers that I used...turns out...not so genuine. I don't know what they are actually made of, but it ain't copper. They didn't take the patina AT ALL and stayed just as bright and well, BRIGHT as they were before I used the LOS.

Now, of course, it would have been awesome if I’d remembered to take pictures during each stage of the process so that this post would actually be informative.

I didn’t do that. You will have to deal with the resulting lack of awesomeness.

Which means I’ll probably kill off another follower or two

Go, me.

But hey, Bead Porn tomorrow!

C’mon…you know you want it!

KJ

P.S. Lorelei is up next and will post something "metal-related" some time in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

Waterloo

Oooh...looky...I killed off another follower.

Awesome.

(pauses to take deep bow)

Okay, on to the real news. You knew it had to happen sooner or later, right? That the deli counter at Ralphs would ultimately defeat me?

I have fought the good fight for the better part of 10 years. I give up. I am done. Just exile me to the island of Elba already and get it over with.

(by the way, this blog entry will work much better for you if you are humming "Waterloo" by ABBA while reading it, trust me.)

So, last week, I had to leave work due to illness (that stupid cold I was fighting), but on the way home, it occurred to me that we were kinda outta some stuff at home....like, y'know, cold medicine. Oh, and food. Food would be good.

Since I was feeling lousy, I didn't REALLY want to go to the grocery store. Heck, I don't want to go even when I'm feeling fantastic, but a girl's gotta eat. More importantly, the kidlet's gotta be fed because apparently the state sorta frowns on things like not feeding your offspring and stuff.

And hey, I was already in the car, right? I knew I'd probably be sicker the next day and feel even less like hitting the store, so a quick run-through on my way home ought to do the trick.

Sadly, one of the things we were out of was sandwich meat for the kidlet's lunches. Which meant a trip to the deli counter...my personal nemesis.

However, I thought gleefully, it's 10 AM on a Thursday, how bad can the line at the counter really be? And I was right! NO ONE was at the counter when I walked in.

Oh, how I was cruelly deceived!

Deceived, I tell you!

After I noticed the lack of line, I realized there's only the one employee behind the counter. Uh oh, this could be bad...but still, no one else in line. SURELY the one employee can handle my simple "half pound of brown sugar ham and half pound of maple turkey" order, right?

Yeah, um...no.

Before I can finish opening my mouth to tell her my order she tells me "you'll have to wait, I have to make a sandwich."

Now, I know they do sandwiches to order at this counter so I figure someone has placed an order and is off getting the rest of the groceries while it's being made.

Reasonable assumption, right?

I decide to do the same thing. Go get the rest of my stuff and come back (remember, I'm sick and all I want to do is go home and dive face-first into a bottle of Nyquil and then pass out).

So, off I go to get milk and cold medicine and soup and some other survival items for the next few days (i.e. Diet Coke).

I circle back to the deli counter and what do I see?

Wait for it.....

That same employee standing there.........................................................................................

EATING THE $)@&$*(#&!!!! SANDWICH!!!

Yes, that's right folks, she made ME, a customer, WAIT, WHILE SHE MADE HER OWN SANDWICH!!!

It was at this point that I had a brilliant revelation (much like the one I had this week about mixing metals)...y'know, they make PACKAGED SANDWICH MEAT. I don't actually HAVE to go to the deli counter.

And you know what? They even have packaged brown sugar ham.

I surrender.

Happily.

KJ

Humblebeads Challenge #5 - Findings

This part of the challenge is to use findings in an unusual way. Since Heather was nice enough to say that "clasps in the front count," I present:

This gorgeous lampwork toggle clasp came from Everafter Artistry on eBay.

Sometimes, I just haveta get my girly-girl on, ya know? And what could be more girly than pearls with pink crystals and a butterfly?

Still working on challenge #1. I flaked out last night - just too tired to look at it. I had hopes of working on it at lunch today, but that's starting to look less and less realistic. Maybe tonight?

Sigh.

KJ

Plan X

As per my previous entry, I’m trying to participate in the Humblebeads focal challenge, but my oh-so-mahvelous idea for Challenge #1 that I had in the car while driving home last night (yes, I mentally bead in traffic – don’t tell the CHP) turned out to be less-than-mahvelous when I tried to bring it forth into this dimension (i.e. reality).

Y’know, all it needed was one little brass bird charm. Do you think I had one in my vast, mountainous, ridiculously large bead stash?

OF COURSE NOT.

Silver birds – check.

Copper birds – check

Brass bird’s nest – check

Brass butterflies – check

Brass dragonflies – two colors – CHECK

No brass bird charms.

And is it just me or does anyone else get a particular idea in their head SO STRONGLY that when you can’t make it work and you try to come up with a Plan B or Plan C as a replacement idea…it just sucks? Or else you PERCEIVE that it sucks because you’re so in love with your original idea?

Or am I all alone on the Isle de Crazy on this one?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Once I fall into this trap of the first idea not working out, I rarely have the patience to push past crappy ideas deux and trois and come out the other side to something I’m happy with.

Rarely.

But not never, I’m happy to report.

No – I haven’t solved the Humblebeads Challenge problem yet, but I DID make progress on the “post mortem” piece from last week.

Go, me.





I knew I wanted to keep the warmth of the brass with these daisy designs because it looks so good with the clay daisy pieces, but I still wanted to have something with silver for the customers since all the other designs are brass or copper. Finally, the “stop being an idiot” lightbulb went off in my brain and I realized “well, der, KJ, there’s no rule stopping you from MIXING the metals.”

What? Like the metal police are going to come and arrest me or something?

I don’t know why I get so “locked in” to certain ideas like sticking with a particular color scheme or not wanting to mix metals or needing my designs to be symmetrical, but I’m sure if I dug deeply enough, I would find that it is the REAL reason why I failed 7th grade art class.

Yep, I’m a jr. high art class drop out (actually, my parents made me quit taking it because the low grade was ruining my GPA but you get the idea).

So, anyway, off I went to mix some aged brass chain from Vintaj with some bright sterling silver chain and some oxidized silver chain from Patina Queen.

I added silver flower and butterfly charms and a couple of little chain dangles made from leftover chain (from when I brilliantly miscalculated the length of the front section and had to clip some extra bits off and I HATED wasting them so dangles they became).

Clasp is a Vintaj brass hook.

I added some swirly teal, blue and green Czech rondelles for the back along with some more sections of the oxidized chain.

I don't know about you all, but I'm sooo much happier with it this way than the way it was before. Maybe I'm finally learning to break some rules...in a totally perfectionistic, law-abiding, rigid way, of course.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next episode in my continuing adventures at the deli counter!

KJ

Humblebeads - Fun with Focals #2

Heather at Humblebeads is having an awesome focal bead challenge on her blog. There are 5 different challenges and while it would have made sense for me to put up my entry for Challenge #1 first, that particular design is giving me a bit of a problem right now (don't you hate when you think you have the PERFECT idea...and then you find you can't execute it in real life? yeah, me too.)


Soooo...being that I was afraid I might run out of time, here's my entry for Challenge #2 - Use ribbon, string or leather as a bail for a focal bead:

I used a lark's head knot to attach the focal bead to the ribbon and then I placed a jump ring on the back side of the knot to attach the chain.

The focal is a beautiful clay piece from Summers Studio.

I'm hoping my entry for Challenge #1 will follow in the next day or two if I can work out the problems I'm having with it.

KJ

I survived!

The cold AND Halloween. But my brain seems to be on vacation today...or maybe Dr. von F borrowed it for an experiment, I don't know, but I'm drawing a blank on the whole writing thing sooooo...

BEAD PICS! YAY! (hey, it could be worse - I could be making you look at pics of my kid!)

Mykonos greek ceramic beads in a cool organic shape and bronze color. I thought these would make great spacers or even dangles for when I work with brass and copper.

More Mykonos spacers - a more traditional washer shape this time.

Same thing - only in a bright copper color. I think these might go well with my stash of Patricia Healy copper components. Her things are already patinated in an unusual reddish color that seems to go best with the bright copper rather than dark.

Hey, if they look good in bronze, I must need them in silver, too, right? Plus, they are in keeping with my goal of being less uniform and symmetrical this year. (I know - cool rationalization, right?)

I can't get over the fact that these are ceramic and yet have this bright mirror finish on them. It's so cool!

And bigger is always better, of course ;-)

Beautiful bronze clay lotus flower pendant from Summers Studio on Etsy.

She also made this great bronze clay koi fish pendant. I'm not usually into the Asian motif, but something about this just spoke to me. It looks like it could have been plucked from the ruins of an ancient Japanese city or something.

In fact, I liked it so much, I bought a teal porcelain version, too.

And the piece de resistance - these amazing starfish pendants from Sea Urchin on Etsy! They are clay with glass melted over them and gold accents. All I can say is the picture does not do them justice - they are truly stunning in real life.

Okay, hopefully my brain will be back tomorrow with some actual project stuff to talk about, but if not, you know you can always get the latest and greatest bead porn here ;-)

Happy November, all!

KJ

P.S. Lorelei did indeed blog about her metal experiments so head over and check out her blog entries!