Get Your Credit Card Ready

What? You thought I was kidding about the pay-per-view bead porn?

Listen, people, I have a SERIOUS bead habit that needs to be supported so work with me here.

Oh, and you're also responsible for providing your own drool bibs. I'm not running a charity here ;-)

Sterling silver butterfly charm from Cathy Dailey on Etsy. She really offers a great selection of stuff: Green Girl Studios, Zoa Art, and her own metalwork in silver, bronze and even shibuichi.

She made these silver bead caps, too. And I find her prices to be quite reasonable.

Cute little silver flower link also from Cathy Dailey. I'm picturing this set asymmetrically on the side of a delicate, multi-strand necklace or maybe hanging as a center pendant with dangles coming off the bottom loop.

"Ice Cube" lampwork beads from Kool Kat Klass on Etsy in cheerful shades of pink, yellow, green and white. A friend of mine just made a necklace using a similar set of beads in lavender and aqua with some purple Swaro crystals and silver chain and it is just GORGEOUS. I practially ripped it out of her hand when I saw it LOL! The clear encasing on these beads really gives them a lot of depth and sparkle and then when you add crystals, well, kapow! is all I can say.

I bought a lampwork focal bead a while back in shades of pink, orange white and yellow. Only to realize that I had NO orange beads to go with it. So, I went back to Blue Seraphim on Etsy and grabbed this set of spacers. Don't they look like orange candy?

While I was on her site, I got sucked into buying more of her nugget-style beads. Not only is this aqua-with-iridescence color amazing, but I really like the organic shape of these beads.

More nuggets - in earth tones this time. I did a necklace with a similar set of beads a couple of weeks ago and paired it with antique brass chain and wire and I was really happy with it. And hey, I am not ashamed to take a good idea and run it into the ground ;-)

See? Plus, I thought this was an interesting color mix. It has my favorite aqua and blue colors, but also has some fall-like elements mixed in with the golden yellow and the deep red. Kinda cool.

I was looking ahead to potential Valentine's Day designs when I bought this set of etched disks from HMB Studios on Etsy. Then they arrived and I was...less excited when I saw them in person. NOTHING to do with the beads or vendor. I think my perception just changed. Well, okay, the kidlet changed it for me when he saw the beads on my work table and pronounced "Those look like a BIG owie...all bloody and bruised and stuff."

Thanks, kid.

But, of course, I'd also bought a set of spacers to coordinate with the disks so I'm going to have to get creative and figure out a way to make this work. My original idea for using them in a bracelet (like I've done with past disk beads) is not going to work. I'm going to have to separate these out. Maybe they will be less "owie-looking" if they're not all piled together?

Do you think the rest of the world realizes the terrible design dilemmas that we, as jewelry designers, are forced to contend with on a daily basis?

Makes the whole health care debate kind of pale in significance, doesn't it?

Hope you enjoyed the beads and have a great weekend!

KJ

I've got sunshiiiiine...

...on a cloudy day.

Okay, so this afternoon is not cloudy, but this morning was and so was yesterday and the day before. But now that our brief bout with actual weather has passed (thank God - the apocalypse has been averted and we can all go back to driving like we know how to operate our vehicles), I thought it was time for a really "sunny" project:

I've had these lampwork beads in my stash for like...FOREVER. I think they were one of the first sets I ever bought way back in the distant and misty past of the beginning of my jewelry-making career. I'm pretty sure they came from eBay and I'm pretty sure the artist's "handle" was Luna Beads, but over time, they managed to get separated from the label I put on them so I'm not 100% sure.

I added some Czech glass flowers in sunny yellow, some Swaro crystals in shades of blue and green to match the lampwork and lots of bright sterling silver.

I also added some pod-like Bali silver beads to kind of go with the garden theme.

A closeup on the beads - because who doesn't like to see lampwork REALLY CLOSE UP? Just don't get drool on the screen.

I got these 7" sterling silver bracelet chains several years ago from Rio Grande. I just keep a pile of 'em around and when I need a pretty quick fix, I just grab on and embellish the heck out of it with dangles. It makes for a simple design, but honestly, I've had more compliments on this style of bracelet than anything else I've ever done. I have one I wear to work all the time that has cane glass dangles and crystals in shades of orange, yellow and lime and people try to buy it right off my wrist all the time.

The only thing I've never been 100% crazy about is the clasp that comes with them. It's a pretty small and difficult to manipulate lobster clasp. So I usually change it out. For this bracelet, I used a larger, more rounded lobster with a more prominent latch and I added a larger jump ring for it to attach to. Then I save the smaller lobster claws for very delicate necklaces.

One last look - I love the bright yellow of these beads and the flowers on them are so cute.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Friday Bead Porn.

KJ

Mmmm...Crunchy!

Today's photo-less blog entry is brought to you by the fact that yesterday's photography session was rained out! Yes, we had actual rain. Not fog...or mist...or drizzle...which we here in So Cal often mistake for rain, but actual rain. Like turn the windshield wipers on HIGH and mess up the freeways rain. It is sorely needed so I can only hope we get more and get outta this darn drought.

And now on to yet another "cute but gross thing my kid said to me."

So, my son has a couple of, um, disgusting personal hygiene issues. I mean, he is a boy, after all. And these are things that boys do (or so I have been reliably informed).

One of them is that he bites his nails - both finger AND toenails. I have tried everything I can to get him to stop with no luck. Still, I am always searching for an opportunity to motivate him to stop on his own.

One such opportunity supposedly presented itself to me this morning. We were watching "The Planet's Funniest Animals" on TV. This is sort of like "America's Funniest Home Videos" except with, you know, animals.

Amongst all the other animall antics shown this morning was a video of a dog licking the bottom of a guy's bare foot. Upon seeing this, my son yelled out "Ooooh...GROSS!!!"

Ah HAH! I thought. Here's an opportunity for him to finally make the magical connection in his brain that the whole foot/mouth combo thing is a BAD IDEA. So, I nonchalantly said, "Well, it's no different from when you stick YOUR foot in YOUR mouth and chew on your toenails. That's just as gross."

He rolled his eyes (crap! 6 years old and already with the eye rolling!) at me and said "Mom, it's TOTALLY different."

Knowing I would regret asking, I said "Why?"

He looked me straight in the eye and said, "Because toenails are crunchy."

Okay, then.

KJ

This just in...

Global cooling hits Southern California. Stores are stripped of jackets, sweaters, mufflers, mittens and boots as temperature plummets below 70.

Also...

Strange white puffy objects appear in sky and leak moisture. Mass panic ensues. Residents lose ability to operate vehicles and the Governator calls out the National Guard.

Can the apocalypse be far behind?

KJ

Fall Officially Hits So Cal

...and we are on "Storm Watch" with our Doppler 8000,000,000+x-ray9-anti-vibration-modulator-thingummy to make sure you don't miss even a single particle of drizzle. Quick! I heard one droplet of water actually reached the ground out in Norco! Send the news van with the mobile satellite radar tracker gizmo!


I've lived here for 40 years and I never get tired of how BANANAS the news crews go over even the tiniest HINT of moisture possibly falling from the sky. It's so funny.


And yes, we did have actual drizzle this morning, but it's supposed to be 90 degrees on Friday soooo I'm not sure we can actually call this Fall weather yet or not. I didn't even break out a jacket for today LOL!


In other random news:


1. Looks like I managed to kill off a blog follower - I'm down from 86 to 85. Whoever you were, if you died from being offended by my hatred of the grocery store, or from viewing my total lack of jewelry talent, or from too much bead porn, or had a heart attack from the giant spider pictures...um....oops?


2. Yesteday I saw this truck on the freeway: "Spanky's..........PORTABLE TOILETS!" I don't know who Spanky is, but he's MIGHTY PROUD of being in the portable toilet business, I tell ya. And yes, okay, I know, I have the sense of humor of a 6-year-old boy. Gee, I wonder why? Oh, and speaking of potty humor (*snicker* oh, come on, you didn't see that one coming?) guess what my son's first words were on his date with the triplets last night? "Don't order the beans at dinner because they will make you fart." A budding Romeo, that one.


3. Yesterday (which was apparently my day for observing random stuff) I also saw a woman take an orange into a bathroom stall. Now, why? I mean, I'm all for multi-tasking and stuff, but isn't that taking things a BIT too far? I think the first phase of the digestive process and the last phase of the digestive process are probably separated for a REASON!


Okay, now that I've swept all the minutia of the last few days outta my brain, lookey what I made:

Fall, schmall. I told you it's going to be 90 on Friday so I haven't bothered to get outta summer mode yet.

Cute lampwork beads from Bead Intrigue on Etsy. I added a couple of white and lime green lampwork spacers from my stash.

Sterling silver hexagon toggle clasp. Why? Because it was the only one in my stash that fit the size of the bracelet. I am nothing if not artistic in selecting all of my materials. Oh, and WHY is it that I can never seem to have enough clasps on hand? Actually, I have a whole box, but I never seem to have the "right" clasp for a given project. Thousands of beads...never the right one at the right time. Is it just me? Does that happen to anyone else?

Another look at the clasp. And the crystal dangles which I feel compelled to add to everything. I never feel like a piece is completed unless I stick a dangle or three by the clasp.

Just when you were thinking "what this post needs is another blurry closeup picture of the focal bead" BAM! I am nothing if not totally responsive to reader needs.

And one more view. Other beads in the piece are Bali silver spacers and swirly rounds, Czech glass rondelles and Swarovski crystals.

But wait! There's more!

I had a couple of the swirly Bali beads left over - not really enough for another major project so I decided to throw a pair of earrings together.

Yeah, because I NEVER make anything in shades of green and blue. Color rut girl, that's me.

Okay, I am off to get back to the never-ending excitement that is my life. Cub Scout meeting tonight...that I soooo do not want to go to. I know, I know, it's wrong of me. Bad mom. Bad mom. MUST...GO...SUPPORT...KIDLET.

No matter how much I just want to go home and pull the covers over my head and go to sleep at 7:30 PM.

I swear he better remember all this stuff and when he sticks me in the home some day...I better get the gourmet baby food for my dinner and super-high-thread-count Egyptian cotton diapers.

What?

KJ

I am a wilderness wimp

Okay, I admit it. I love the outdoors...in theory...but the reality, um, not so much. I love wildlife and beautiful vistas and the scent of the ocean and the rocks and trees, etc. I don't like getting dirty or sweaty or dealing with bugs or worrying about touching poison oak or stepping on snakes/tarantulas/scorpions/fire ants, etc.


Oh, and I also LOATHE getting up early...especially on a Sunday morning.


So yesterday's Cub Scout hike was a bit of a mixed bag of experiences for me. There was a lot of the dirty/sweaty stuff and not nearly enough of the wildlife or breathtaking views part.


And after two and a half hours, I was pretty much done. Especially since we were given a choice of turning around at that point or continuing on for another hour that was going to be ALL UPHILL.


Yeah, I'll let you guess which one I chose. I was the only one who wanted to turn back - it was so humiliating.

But in my defense, I was the ONLY MOM who got up at oh-dark-thirty on a Sunday and came out to the hike at all. The rest of 'em stayed home and sent their husbands on the trek. Since I don't have one of those any more, I got stuck with the job.


And I was D-O-N-E. Once again, I do NOT win the Mom of the Year prize.

Anyway, here are a few highlights of what it's like to hike in Laguna Canyon at a ridiculous hour on a Sunday morning in the fall:

I know, you're wondering why I took a picture of this half-dead bush. It's definitely at the end of its season (and we're in a terrible drought anyway) so not many flowers left, but during the right time of year, it's supposed to be lovely. But the real reason I took a picture of it was the name of the plant. It's called the "Sticky Monkey Face" plant. And I just wanted to be able to write that in my blog because I am 12 years old and find that kind of stuff funny.

One of the most predominant plants in the area are Liveoaks. And, with oaks, you get acorns. They were a principle food source for the Native American tribes who originally lived in this area. However, since acorns are actually poisonous, they had to go through a laborious process to get the poison out of the ground nuts before they could use the flour. Or at least that's what I vaguely remember from my 4th grade social studies project.

That tree is kind of in the way, but I tried to get a picture of one of the many rock caves in the area. We stayed away from most of them as they make good daytime resting places for things like coyotes and bobcats. And possibly mountain lions although there's never been a confirmed sighting in this particular park.

No way to know for sure who's home right now, but we did see coyote tracks and scat along a trail leading up to this cave.

This particular cave was right by the trailhead and mostly open on two sides so it was deemed "safe" and all the kids had to crawl through it, of course.

I know you've all heard about California earthquakes, right? Well, this is what causes 'em: an earthquake fault. This is a bitty baby one, but I thought it was kinda cool to see one up close. It actively moves a small amount each year.

This entire area was once an underwater reef and over the years, a lot of fossils have been uncovered. When I was a kid, they found an entire skeleton of a pre-historic whale and somewhere at my parents' house is a container of fossilized shark's teeth that I collected when I was about 10 or so. This picture is of a boulder that contains fossilized clam shells.

Somewhere, a snake is a little bit bigger today than he or she was yesterday. We have a lot of snakes around here including three different species of rattlesnakes. There are also king and garter snakes. The guide thought this was probably from a garter snake.

Okay, writing about the hike was a lot more fun than actually going on it LOL!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend. Tonight, I'm taking my son on his first "dinner date." With triplet girls. What can I say, the kid is a chick magnet LOL!

Tomorrow, back to the beads (and any funny kid stories that I get out of dinner tonight).

KJ

Bead PORN!!

And no, it's not pay-per-view ;-)

Although, it should be. Maybe that way I could at least recoup some of my costs LOL!

Here we go:

These lovely lampwork disks are called "Mermaid Coins" which I thought was such a cool name. They have a really amazing iridescence to them and shade from turquoise to green to even some darker blues and purples in spots, but what really makes them outstanding is the "braided" detail on the edges of each disk. These beauties are from Blue Heeler Glass on Etsy.

Some aqua chalcedony briolettes.

Brass chain from Patina Queen.

More brass from Patina Queen.

Brass spiral charm from Patina Queen. I just loved the shape and the lovely aged patina on this piece.

Cherry aventurine rounds.

Green faux sea glass nuggets.

"Indian Sky" lampwork barrel beads from Crazy Cat Glass on Etsy. There are actually 5 beads in the set and they are all gorgeous.

Oh, and before I forget, thanks to everyone who inquired about my shoulder. It seems to be mostly cleared up. I'm still getting twinges in the late afternoon after a day of sitting at my desk and being on the computer, but nothing compared to what it was over the last couple of weeks. And no more incidents of the weird numbness in my hands that scared me to death, thank goodness.

This weekend contain the following activities:

Tae Kwon Do class, shopping for a Halloween costume for the kid, and (heaven help me) an 8 AM on Sunday morning (WHY?) cub scout hike. Blech. But, I'm doing it for the kid.

Have a good weekend!

KJ

Rings 'N Things Project Playtime

This month’s Rings ‘N Things blog partner project was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale “The Snow Queen.”

In the story, “An evil "troll,"…makes a magic mirror that has the power to distort the appearance of things reflected in it. It fails to reflect all the good and beautiful aspects of people and things while it magnifies all the bad and ugly aspects so that they look even worse than they really are.”*

The troll and his buddies “…then want to carry the mirror into heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels and God, but the higher they lift it, the more the mirror grins and shakes with delight. It shakes so much that it slips from their grasp and falls back to earth where it shatters into billions of pieces — some no larger than a grain of sand. These splinters are blown around and get into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things.”*

Eventually, a little boy named Kai is infected with some of the splinters of the mirror and this causes him to run away and become entrapped by the Snow Queen. His best friend, Gerda, goes in search of him.

After many adventures, “Gerda finds Kai engaged in the task that the Snow Queen gave him: he must use pieces of ice as components of a Chinese puzzle to form characters and words."*

When I was a child, I had a beautifully illustrated version of this story. As I looked through the Rings ‘N Things catalog to choose my materials, I came across the pages of Swarovski crystal pendants and some of the new and wonderful shapes. In looking at them, I had a sudden flash in my mind of one of the illustrations from the book. It was a picture of Kai sitting at the Snow Queen’s feet and holding large, jagged shards of ice.

I ordered a bunch of the Swarovski pendants that reminded me of those ice shapes and tried to put them together in what I thought might be a necklace for the Snow Queen. Or, maybe, these are some of the pieces of the evil mirror?

Originally, I had planned to use pendants in a Crystal AB shade, but they were a little too clear and bright. The Snow Queen is not Glinda the Good Witch. So, I switched to Crystal Silver Shadow and used some oxidized silver chain. I wanted it to have a bit of a “punk” edge to it. Sort of like the Snow Queen joins the new millenium.

And here are the results:





I promise you, though, that the Silver Shadow crystals do NOT look yellowy-brown like this in real life. I think it’s a combination of the background I chose and my poor photography skills.

They’re more of a dark silver shade in reality.






I mixed in some Montana Blue crystals to get that icy feeling – the way ice gets bluish looking, only darker.







I also used a bunch of prong bails from Rings ‘N Things to attach the crystal pendants to the chain. They are really awesome to work with and I love the look they give.

I like the result so much that I just ordered a bunch more of these in autumn/flame colors. After all, if there’s a Snow Queen, there has to be a Fire Queen, right?

KJ

*All quotes are from Wikipedia

Fall Color Musings

I love Margie Deeb's color books for beaders and I think the monthly color updates from her site are really fun, too, so I thought I'd provide a link to the October version.

Go forth and bead autumnally :-)

KJ

Closet Skeletons

I’ve been debating about whether I should tell this story or not. Parts of it are funny, which makes it somewhat blog-worthy, but parts of it are kinda sad, too, and I don’t wish to bum anyone out. I’m going to do the best I can to present the funny part without getting into the negative stuff too much.

But first, a little background (this is the not-so-funny part).

If you’ve been reading the blog since the beginning or have gone back to check the archives, you’ll know that I was once married. To a guy who was mostly decent – with a few notable exceptions. We lived a pretty boring, normal, suburban life. Had college degrees and good jobs. Went to church and basically were productive members of society.

After 12 years, he decided to go a different direction with his life and we got a divorce.

Since then, he’s made some really poor decisions and chosen to hang out with some crazy people and do some crazy stuff. The consequences of those choices have led to him having several encounters with law enforcement and getting arrested.

Sadly, one of those arrests took place in front of our son. So, while I would have preferred to keep him ignorant of stuff he was too young to understand, once that happened, I really had no choice but to try to explain, on a kid-friendly level, what was happening.

Of course, all this stuff has meant that my ex has not been able to see our son for most of this year. He is trying to re-build his life and make some better decisions and I have hopes that this situation will turn itself around, but for the moment, that’s where things stand.

I’ve tried to explain to the kidlet that Daddy is in “time out” until he fixes some things in his life, but I’ve also had to define words like “jail” and “judge.”

Okay, that’s one part of the background.

The other part is that about a month ago, my next door neighbors decided to move to a new house and rent out their current one. So I have brand new neighbors. Once they moved in, I kept looking for a good moment to introduce myself, but we kept missing each other (i.e. they weren’t home or I was just leaving, etc.)

And now we get to the funny part.

The other night, I went out to attend a school function and my mother stayed at the house with my son to babysit and give him dinner. I guess after dinner, they decided to go out for a walk and they met the new neighbors in the process.

I got home to find my mom on the sidewalk in front of the house talking to the woman from next door. I finally got to introduce myself and learned that her husband is a pastor and they are starting a new church in the local area. My son was inside playing video games with her kids.

After chatting for a few moments, I collected him and took him home because it was a school night and we still had to do shower and bedtime routine.

I got him off to bed and helped my mom pack up her stuff and load it into the car and just as she was leaving, she turned to me and said, “I need to tell you something.”

I thought, “Okay, this sounds ominous.”

She said, “After I introduced myself and the grandkid to the new neighbor lady, the kid said ‘Hi, I’m ________. My dad is in jail. Can I go play with your video games?’”

I’m not exactly sure what happened next because I may have blacked out for a few minutes from sheer horror.

One thing’s for sure – I am now afraid to show my face outside.

Oh, and I don’t think we’re going to be invited over to dinner any time soon LOL!

And if you’re wondering how I can laugh at this situation…well, it’s either that or end up in a padded cell. And the kid needs at least one normal, stable and law-abiding parent so I don't really have the luxury of "losing it."

Fortunately, I’m so boringly normal and clean that I practically squeak. Seriously – I’m the kid who got left in charge of the class when the teacher had to leave the room. My idea of risk-taking is using base metals with expensive lampwork beads in the same jewelry design.

Yep, I live on the edge.

Okay, enough of the wild and crazy life. How about some jewelry?

This design started with some great Czech glass rondelles in a color called "Strawberry Jam" which I wire-wrapped together using some Vintaj bronze 22 guage wire.

I added some patina'd brass chain, some blueberry Swarovski pearls, Czech glass flowers, some cool brass beads from Michael's and this pretty rose charm.

Ignore my lame-o attempt at a hook clasp. I never wire-wrapped my own clasp before and thought I'd give it a try. Yeah, 22 gauge? NOT strong enough for a clasp. And SHAME on all of you who just said "DUH!" But, it was enough to hold it together so I could take a picture. I have some ACTUAL hook clasps on order and will use one of those when they arrive.

Another close-up look.

I'm still on the fence about the rose charm, actually. I like it and I did intend for it to be a focal point, but I'm wondering if it sticks out TOO much?

For this bracelet, I started with these really cool double-drilled beach stones from Stone Studios Too.

I started linking them together with patina'd brass jump rings and then adding some great Czech glass squares I got at the Pasadena bead show. With the addition of the bird's nest charms, I started picturing birds nesting on a cliff overlooking the stones on the beach below.

I added some stone dangles and some Swaro crystals for sparkle. The clasp is a patina'd brass lobster clasp from Patina Queen.

The only thing I think it's still missing is a brass bird charm, but I don't have any in my stash (how is THAT possible?) Guess I'll have to order one.

I also finished my Rings 'N Things blog partner piece last night, but didn't have time to photograph it so stay tuned to see it tomorrow.

KJ