The Weekend in Review

Well, really it's just Saturday in review because that wiped me out so much that I did NOTHING on Sunday.

I mentioned, of course, about going to the bead show, but what I didn't talk about was that Saturday was also the one year anniversary of my Dad's passing. So, I did the bead show in the morning and then we had a family trek to a couple of his favorite places and a little memorial ceremony and then dinner. The kid and I were WIPED when we got home. Kid actually ASKED to be put to bed - which, like, NEVER happens.

I'm going to talk about the day in a bit of a reverse order because the memorial part was a little sad and I want to end on a good note soooo...

We all met up at my brother's house in Irvine and caravaned down to The Wedge - Dad's favorite surfing spot. Although the water was too cold to go in and that spot is too treacherous for the kids, anyway, the weather was gorgeous. The beach there has a very steep slope - which is part of what makes it great for body surfing, but the waves can be unpredictable (we didn't even go in and we still got soaked by a "surprise" wave) and there are rip tides as well. One thing about Dad - he was pretty fearless (I know where the kid gets it from) and never paid any attention to all of that. He'd go in even when the conditions were "red flag."

Anyway, it was a great place to go to talk about and remember him, even if the wind was blowing a little too strongly to allow us to do the ceremony we wanted to do. But, right as we got ready to leave, a HUGE set of waves rolled in (even though the rest of the day had been pretty calm) and right after that, an entire pod of dolphins swam by. I knew Dad was there - lookin' for that outside wave...

Next, we drove just a bit down PCH and walked out on the Balboa Pier. Mom had brought a bag of rose petals from Dad's roses in the garden and we wanted to toss them in the water - after the conditions weren't quite right at the Wedge, the pier seemed like the next best option. Each of us, including the kids, took a handful of petals and scattered them on the water with a quick messge to Dad. The bright pinks and reds looked beautiful floating away on the waves.







Here's the kid - checkin' out the view. This picture looks north up the coast towards the Newport Pier.

Lots of fishermen out on the pier - it was a great day for mackerel. I saw several people pull up lines with 3-4 fish on each line. No wonder the sea lions and dolphins were all hanging around, too! It was "all you can eat" at the mackerel buffet.







This WAS supposed to be a cool shot of a sea lion popping up, but he was too fast for me. Faster even than the speedboat in the background.

The other thing the pier is famous for is the Ruby's Diner that's out at the ver end.

50's style burgers, fries and fountain drinks. Dad loved to order Cherry Coke. But not the can kind. Only the real deal from a fountain made with cherry syrup and a maraschino cherry floating in it. He had a special way of ordering it, too. "Easy ice, easy cherry." It was some kind of private joke (I'm guessing it was from his Navy days and that it was off-color) because he always grinned or laughed when he said it, but he'd never explain the joke. He often fell in love with certain lines from movies or strange things he'd heard people say that he thought were funny but that no one else got.

A couple of his more-frequently-repeated ones were:

"I was misinformed" from "Casablanca." My brother even got him a t-shirt with that saying on it for Christmas one year.

and

"I am a river to my people" from "Laurence of Arabia." This was usually announced loudly whenever he thought he'd really accomplished something great - like getting a particularly good parking place or a great table at dinner.

But I think my favorite one of all time was "Even though the moon is smaller, it's still farther away." Because I never knew where it came from or what it meant and he would never explain it, but he thought it was incredibly funny. I SUSPECT somebody at San Onofre said it and made themselves look particularly stupid in the process and that's why Dad kept it around all those years, but we'll never know for sure.

This is a last shot of the beach - looking south towards the jetty (which is where The Wedge is located) and beyond to Corona del Mar.

Part II of this post - including the pics from the show - coming shortly.

KJ

BP Commentary

I thought I'd try something a little different with the BP this week. Instead of just posting pics and the vendor names, I thought it might be kind of to do a running "what was the bird-brain thinking when she bought this" type of commentary.

Of course, I'm going on the HUGE assumption that anyone cares what I think about anything - including beads - but then again, y'all are reading the blog sooooo you must have at least an iota of interest, right?

Or else you're just here to grab stuff outta my Etsy favorites and then jet? In which case you'll just be annoyed by the commentary, but then again, you are taking stuff outta my cart so annoying you kinda works for me ;-)

Okay, on to the pics:

I discovered this vendor, Wondrous Strange, over at the Art Bead Scene blog one day. Frankly, I decided to click on the link just because the name was so cool. Once I got there, I found these awesome raku beads which was great because I was in the middle of trying to put both the Melusine's Treasure and Spaced Out designs together. The Melusine design already had a raku seashell as the centerpiece so adding more raku to the design was a possibility and for the other design, I was really just looking for any kind of weird, spacey-lookin' thing that might be a fun addition. I didn't end up using these beads in either design, but they'll find a home in something eventually.

As long as I was there anyway, what about some nifty raku angel wings and red glazed wings. And okay, I'm not really sure now why the red ones appealed to me other than that they were different from anything I had in my stash and sometimes I just like to get something kinda oddball. You never know when it might come in handy...

And then there were these raku leaves. I loved that they were all different designs, sizes and colors - just like leaves in real life. These are definitely going on some kinda bracelet with flowers and probably some brass.

ABS was really good to me that day as they also introduced me to Lynn Davis - WHY the heck I had not yet experienced the awesomeness that is her pewter work, I don't know, but once I got to her site, I kinda went nuts. I LOVE anything that has a sort of antique, European feel. I also love sterling silver flatware and the link on the right reminds me of some lovely ornate sterling flatware design.

I come by this love of flatware honestly - my mother and my grandmothers on both sides have incredible sets of china, crystal and flatware. In fact, my grandmother was the main silver consultant at the Robinson's department store in Newport Beach for many, many years.

Now, there isn't even a Robinson's any more and I don't think department stores even HAVE silver departments. Kind of a shame, I think.

I told you I kinda went nuts on Lynn's site LOL! I thought this key would be great for dangling charms from.

Then I found this gorgeous French medallion replica and her BIRDS! Oh my! I've been on a major bird kick for the last year. I keep having to collect anything with birds. I'm sure the muse will explain that to me one day, but for now, they are going into the hoard.

I keep wanting to put all of her pieces with ropes and ropes of white pearls - I dunno why - that's just the picture I get in my head when I look at them.

These are wooden butterflies from Porkchop Show. I feel almost as strongly about butterflies as I do about birds, but really, I just had to have these because Lorelei had some AND she makes fabulousness with them. So far, all I've done with mine has been to drip resin on two of them, but something will come to me eventually!

These wonderful carved coral beads are from Uncommon Beads. Mostly I was interested in them because I don't have a lot of beads in this color, it was Spring and I've had some good luck in designs lately with using beads that have more texture to them vs. just simple rounds or rondelles.

These green impression jasper beads are from Gemme Tresor - a serious favorite vendor of mine. I love that I can just buy 10 beads for $2-3 and have enough for one design. Sometimes, that's all you really need. Especially with something this bright which may only be good for a season or two. Plus, if you really DO need more beads than that, she will quite readily bump up the quantity for you - it just takes a quick convo.

As for why these beads - can you really look at that color and ask me that? They're like sour apple candy or something. Yumm!

These carved mother-of-pearl flowers were just pretty. I thought they'd look great with anything to do with a vintage vibe. They are also from Gemme Tresor.

Faceted coral rondelles also from Gemme Tresor. This was a "I don't have anything that color/size/shape in the stash and you never know when I might NEED something like this" purchase. Plus, excellent price!

These giant white keshi pearls are from Fabulous Rocks and they are, indeed, fabulous. Her prices can be a little high IMO but she certainly has quality stuff. It's always worth nosing around there because you can occasionally get a good deal and she usually has a 10% off deal going on something nearly all the time.

Oh, and as for why I bought them...well, 'cuz they're fabulous LOL! Also...I never say "no" to pearls.

These gorgeous blue glass lampwork disks are from Flame Crazy. I am on a mission to own lampwork glass disks in every color. Okay, well, not every color...just the GOOD colors. I was kind of into them before, but I got really serious about them when this bracelet sold on Etsy. I really never thought such a high ticket item would go, but customers always surprise me.




Of course, have I had time to make another one using all my great lampwork disks? Ummm...nope. But I will. Eventually. 2011 is looking pretty open so far.

These pretty cherry lampwork spacers are from Joycelo. I like to have a wide variety of lampwork spacers in different colors on hand to use for accent beads - this fights with my brain's auto-response to mostly buy blue/green/purple type beads. So, whenever I see something pretty in the pink/red/yellow/orange spectrum, I try to snap it up. Plus, she's got great prices on her spacers. I mean $10 - kinda can't beat that and they are good quality.

Ahhh...Blue Seraphim...how I do love your beads. You help me take chances with colors that I wouldn't ordinarily go for. I came across this set right at the same time I was going through my whole "bright beads" craze and it goes perfectly with a lot of the stones I bought.

This set is a little deeper in color, but again, not a combo I'd put together on my own so it forces me to play outside my comfort zone. Sometimes, I bitch about that, but I think I secretly like it.

Whew! Okay, that was a frightening glimpse into the craziness that passes for my internal thought processes. Those of you who survived might want to go get checked out.

Or have a drink.

Or lie down.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone. Here's hopin' for some good finds at the Bead Show tomorrow (which I will of course post about next week)!

KJ

Jewelry - Oui; Drilling - Non!

Yeah, so, the whole "learn to love power tools" experiment over the weekend was an expensive and dismal failure. I ruined about 10 pieces trying to drill holes in them. I should've known better, though, really. I mean, I'm an ex-sorority girl who wears pearls with everything, loves high heels and gets mani-pedis on a regular basis. Power tools are not my destiny.

The vise works well, though. I can now hold anything I want in place for however long I want.

Go, me.

I think I'll go back to regular jewelry-making where the worst injury I can suffer is arm-strain from holding my pliers too tightly.







I originally made these without the pink jade rounds, but they seemed kind of blah. I felt a jolt of color was in order.

Now, though, I'm afraid the pretty vermeil beads are too covered up. I tried moving the pink beads down to the bottom link but then the line of the earrings looked unbalanced. So, these are probably going to languish in the "to be revised" pile until I get this figured out. I like the color combo, though.

Then, it was time to use one of the many resin pendants I've created over the last couple of weeks. I just love this bird and fruit image and fortunately, it has the exact colors in it that a work friend is looking at using in her wedding - chocolate brown and tangerine. She wants me to design the bridesmaid jewelry so this was a chance to show her those colors in action.

Here's a closeup of the pendant. I want to do some research and find out what kind of bird this is. Yes, I know, I am a total dork, but whatever.

I found these Swaro crystals in a color called "Sun" and it worked just PERFECTLY with the chocolate brown pearls. Obviously, the wedding design would be a lot simpler and not have a pendant or chains, but I think it really helped the bride-to-be get an idea of how the colors would look together and she was able to get out her fabric swatches and everything matches like a dream - which is a miracle because that NEVER happens!

I am in love with this clasp. I wish I'd bought more of them when I was at the Pasadena bead show and of course, I can't remember the name of the vendor!

All in all...pretty happy with this one. Came together very easily and it was one of those "flash" ideas that just came into my head basically done.

Quite refreshing after the whole drilling disaster.

KJ

I Am A Collaborator!

So, if you follow Miss Lorelei's blog at all, then you already know that she very kindly picked me to collaborate on a couple of necklace projects with her. If you haven't read about what she sent me, you can go here and see the pics on her blog.

I am working hard on coming up with something to complete her awesome design. It's a good stretch goal for me because our styles are so very different - she's all asymmetrical and unusual color combos and button-using and I'm into symmetry, matchy-matchiness, glitter and sparkle and nary a button in sight.

These pieces could come out really fantastic, or really...um...not. LOL! I do think both of them are off to a good start, though, so I have high hopes.

While I'm pondering what to do with the piece she sent me, I went ahead and made up the first half of a necklace to send to her to complete and here is what I came up with:

I actually had something else in mind until this key pendant from The Classic Bead arrived in the mail and I just knew it was destined to go to Lorelei.








Pendant closeup - the yellowy-gold on it is not actually as bright as in the picture.







Of course, since it was for Miss L, I knew it had to be asymmetrical and have a cool, funky mixture of different stuff in it. I added some large link chain from AD Adornments (and nearly ripped my arm out of the socket trying to open the links on it). Good luck changing out that chain if you hate it, Lorelei. It ain't goin' nowhere LOL!



Then, I wire-wrapped some stone nuggets that pick up the colors in the pendant to the last link in the chain.









I've been wanting to use some of my hand-dyed silk ribbon in a design for a long time and I liked the idea of balancing out the toughness of the chain and the earthiness of the pendant with a more delicate side to the necklace. One strand of ribbon seemed too wimpy, though, so I tied it in a lark's head knot and ran a double strand up one side of the necklace. I thought it would offer a lot of design opportunity - braid it with a third strand of something different, tie it in knots, wire wrap stuff to it, etc.








I liked the earthy green color, too, as a balance for the golds and reds of the other items. Trust me to come up with something fall-ish in the middle of spring, but that's just how I roll.

This baby is going in the mail (along with a few extra stone nuggets and some coordinating seed beads and other stuff) just as soon as I Get Around To It.

Now, back to figuring out how to finish what Lorelei sent me.

Stay tuned here and on her blog for the results!

KJ

I'm Floored!

Okay, I got lots of requests to see the flooring so here it is:






Oh wait...to truly appreciate it, I think you need to see the crap that it replaced first:

Yeah, this is what my landing and the kid's bathroom have looked like for the last YEAR. The old flooring had been removed and the walls had been opened up, dried out, closed back up with fresh drywall and re-painted (hence the "wet paint" sticker on the floor). That doorway to the right leads into my bedroom. Stay outta there. It's a mess.





Here's what the old carpeting looked like on the stairs and in the living room. Actually, this is not the worst of it - you can't see the spot where the kid smeared green play-do into it that I could never get out or the place where I spilled "Mango Freeze" nailpolish on it or the burned spot that I covered up with an area rug. Lots of dirt and miscellaneous stains showing here, though. So, it's obvious this crap needed to go even BEFORE the flood happened.

And now....

Here's the new vinyl I picked out for the kid's bathroom. I went with a darker, stone-like pattern (the previous vinyl was very pale and probably too feminine for a guy's bathroom). You also get a sneak peak of the new carpet.

Newly carpeted stairs. The color is called "Nutshell" and it has flecks of darker colors in it - again I hope it won't show stains as badly.

Here's a closeup - it's actually darker than it appears in this picture.

And here's the bottom of the stairs where you get a sneak peak at the living room (which used to be all carpeted with that old, pale, stained blechy carpet).

And here's my new living room floor. It's now "kid-proof" laminate that is an extension of the laminate I had in the kitchen. The flooring guy managed to get me the EXACT SAME laminate by some miracle. The rug on the left is an experiment that is probably going to go away...I haven't decided yet.

Now, as soon as I get everything put back away that the original construction crew dragged out and as soon as I replace my incredibly disgusting, falling apart, attacked with scissors by the kid couch...I may actually be able to have people over.

Go, me.

KJ

Blogger Drive By

Sooo...as I look at the new round of resin pendants I made using some rather unorthodox materials, one fact becomes painfully clear. I have no way to hang these babies. They don't have loops or holes.

I tried using a hole punch to punch holes and ruined 4 pendants in the process (in addition to hurting my arm).

Obviously, I must break down and buy a drill. I've tried to avoid this over the years because I'm sure the first thing I will manage to drill a hole in is...me. I am NOT the most graceful of crafters on a good day.

In lampworking class, I was the only one who managed to burn herself RIGHT AFTER the teacher explained how a piece of murrini can look like it's cooled off, but still be hot enough to burn you.

I spilled an entire cup of resin across my work surface yesterday.

I've resined my hair AND managed to drag my sleeve through some resin just this morning.

But, as one of my favorite characters from the Liaden Universe novels would say "necessity exists."

Therefore, I have a date with drilling destiny.

Also, I need some kind of vise-like thingamabob (technical term) for holding my pieces still while I drill them. This is in hopes of avoiding the aforementioned probably drilling of body parts.

Here are my requirements:

The drill needs to be small and lightweight and non-scary looking. It needs to have "jewelry-sized" drill bits (i.e. something small enough to drill a hole just big enough for a jump ring or piece of wire).

The vise can't be one of those things that clamps onto the edge of a work surface - because I don't have any edges like that to clamp it on to. It needs to be free-standing and it also needs to not mar the surface of whatever I'm working on.

Okay...any recommendations (please include links if it's an on-line item)? Local stores around here are Lowe's and Home Depot...

KJ

P.S. If you are the one whose recommendation works out for me - I'll send you one of my first drilled pendants. :-)

KJ

BP in Absentia

I'm on VACAAAAAAAAAATION!!!!! (to quote Billy Crystal)

Well, really, I'm at home supervising the installation of my new flooring. To replace the old flooring that got ruined in the Great Flood of 2009 when my kid (bless his heart) made a toilet overflow in the middle of the night one night and didn't know what to do so he closed the door on it and went back to bed and I didn't find it until 10 AM the next morning by which time it had soaked through the floor and the walls and the ceiling of the garge and...well...you get the idea.

Anyway, this happened shortly before my dad passed away so that kind of derailed me as far as getting all the re-construction resolved and then some of my flooring selections turned out to be out of stock so I had to make new selections and this has just been dragging on FOREVER.

But it's about to be over.

So, I'm off to move all my breakables out of the living room so the guys can move the heavy stuff and in the meantime, I leave you with some lovely bead porn to peruse:

Blue green ceramic connector tube beads and cute bird nest beads are from Summer's Studio on Etsy.

Polymer clay navy connector links from Floridity on Etsy. I'm collecting some great nautical type stuff to put with these and hope to have a cool design coming up with featuring them Real Soon Now.

When I bought this really cool turquoise ceramic button from Lisa Peters, I wasn't expecting to be quite so big as it really is. Am I the only one who hits "buy" without bothering to read the descriptions and sizes on things because I'm too caught up in the "high" of purchasing new stuff?

Etsy is the new crack. I swear.

Pewter floral charm and diary key from Mamacita Beadworks on Etsy.

Spiral lampwork disks from Alisha White on Etsy.

Blue Seraphim knows how to do purple right, yo!

Czech glass from Arte Bella Surplus on Etsy.





Aqua and strawberry quartz marquis-cut beads are from Gemme Tresor. I already used the strawberry quartz ones in my Postale Rouge earrings and I hereby award myself points for actually using beads right after they arrived instead of just hoarding them.

Green Chrysoprase coins and blue lapis coins are from Uncommon Beads on Etsy.

And now...I'm off to admire my new floors. Wheeeeeee!

KJ