Wow

I haven't been here in a while. To update, I had a house fire in January. Luckily, I saved almost all of my beads, sadly, not the pets that were featured in some of my last posts. Its been a roller coaster for the past couple of months. But, I do have some new work.

I'm preparing a new order for Tamarack, which the earrings are for. The pendant to the left is a cathartic exercise which is not yet complete and most likely, will never be for sale.

Check back for more, hopefully soon.

Crazy Days

If you’re here to see my Black Stone Cherry inspired jewelry, scroll down two posts. Otherwise, I’ll make this short and sweet. It is 10:00 p.m. and I haven’t done any beading today. I should have been beading but sometimes, shite happens. The mail... it needs to run. It needs to bring my stuff. I hate waiting.

I had to take off time from work today to run errands and of course it rained and many people were in car accidents, luckily none of those people were me. I’m trying to get ready to leave town. I swear, I’ve planned less for week long trips than this.

BSC T-shirt is done and yes, it turned out awesome.

BSC jewelry is as done as I can get it right now.

However, the bridal necklace I’m making is not quite finished. This has to be finished by the time I leave for Atlanta. It doesn’t need much more work... just needs to be finished so I gotta go.

Bright Blessings to all.

More Pictures and a Bit of Babbling

My absolute favorite and the easiest to make so far. Could be the eight sheets of graph paper, seven prior prototypes, three variations of hangers, and two charms that went before it. I believe I could bead this in my sleep ... or blind.

Notice, it is not quite finished. I did get clasps this evening but notice I also ran out of silver beads and had to use bronze to finish it. It’s actually not "tied in" yet. On the right hand side you’ll notice black sinew and bronze beads. When I pick up new sterling tomorrow, that will be fixed.

I originally wanted to put a guitar charm on this choker, but it was too big. I switched it out with a "Kentucky" charm instead. I think I’ll move the guitar charm to the brown/cream BSC necklace.

My friend Stacey saw the brown and cream necklace today and he asked, "So, whatcha gonna do with it? Huh?" *Salivating* He met the band in Charleston at the same time I did and we’re supposed to be road tripping to Columbus on November 1st to celebrate our birthdays. His is the 6th and mine is the 21st. I talked to his girlfriend on Monday and she mentioned it too. He made me call his cell phone in the shop today so our friend (and my boss) could hear my ring tone. "Violator Girl," which for you non-BSC fans, is one of their songs.

My boss said, "I may have to pick up that CD..." DUH! I told him I would do that while I was in Atlanta. My friend Bob also asked that I pick one up for him since our listening party on Sunday, and I think Stacey wants a t-shirt. Some peeps need to be ponying up some cash!

Oh yeah, I do work a real job, just for anyone out there wondering. I’m a paralegal by day. I work part-time at the screen printing shop in the evenings and any free weekends I have. I’m the typical Girl Friday. Answering phones, invoicing, ordering, sales, trouble shooting, designing, pulling from the press and the dryer, bashing the printers skulls together when they fuss. My boss has been a friend for almost 15 years so it’s strange to call him, "my boss." Of course, I have Nate and all these pesky felines, and then, I bead.

Beading keeps me sane. It cures all my ails, except carpal tunnel.

Speaking of my son, he got a hold of my cell phone last night and when I opened it this morning I noticed a time in red above the regular time. Yes, he figured out how to put two time zones on my phone. I didn’t even know my phone could do that. Then I made him put it to Germany time because I have family there.

Well, that’s it for BSC beading for the time being. I’m out of white and burnished hornpipe and the black buffalo horn just doesn’t do it for me. But did I mention the graphic artist sent a mock up of the t-shirt I designed? It. Is. Gorgeous. He tweaked it a bit more and it was the perfect touch.

Now, I have to finish my friend’s bridal necklace so I can deliver it while I’m in Atlanta AND my cousins offered for me to stay at their place in Chattanooga the night after the show. It will be a bit of a longer drive back but better than having to pay for a hotel room.

I know it’s crazy, but I haven’t decided yet. There’s something about waking up in a rest area to the sound of diesel engines in the night... did you know that a cat’s low purr velocity of 26 Hertz is almost the same as an idling diesel engine? See, you learned something new today. I’m babbling. I need sleep. Three days...

Pictures...

First, I have to say "thank you" to the person in my life who has to put up with me the most. My son, Nate. He's posing here with a bronze manatee at the Columbus Zoo, taken a few weeks ago. Afterwards, I took him bead shopping, which is something like taking a manatee to a china shop.

As my Mama used to say, "I love him so much, I could just beat him to death!" I never quite understood that but anyway...

These pictures are bit out of order, so forgive me.





Forgive my model... she’s tired and cranky because she had to find a particular top, really a bathing suit top, and then put her hair up. It’s really me, incognito.

I have one more design to work on... it will be black and red. In the meatime, maybe I'll figure out how to put some kind of closure/clasp on these.

Rollin' On! Four days... and I'll on the road again! I hope I don't get lost in all the peaches...

I Changed My Mind

I spent most of today beading, washing clothes, and hanging with friends, listening to Hinder and Black Stone Cherry while my clothes dried. I had expressed irritation with my jewelry this morning until... I was on the phone with the Jolly Chainsaw - Mike. Mike makes wood carvings with a chainsaw and he was asking about business cards and possibly me making some "chainsaw" inspired jewelry. Suddenly, it just came to me that I was being far too complicated with my jewelry and sometimes, less is more.

As I visualized "chainsaw" jewelry, I just realized... *bloop* I had found the solution to my problem. I went to my friend’s house and started stringing and playing, finished the "S" of "BSC" and then strung them with the hornpipe I had picked out. It was a bit more complicated than the other piece but I have to say... you will have to pry this necklace from my cold dead neck when it is finished. It is gorgeous. My friends even said that it was the best and had a particular look about it.

Trouble is... yeah, that was the only pipe of that kind I had. Don’t get me wrong, I can still see how it needs to be tweaked... colors especially, but... I’m much, much happier with it. Pictures as soon as I get the "C" finished and figure out the clasp.

I’m Rollin’ On!

Finally!

I finished the centerpiece on one of the Black Stone Cherry chokers, then I put it together... and *sigh* It’s okay. The centerpiece looks great because I’m a beading goddess. The rest looks good too, just NOT what I’m used to. I’m not used to bulky jewelry. Not used to Native American hornpipe and tailpipes and half pipes. I’ve tried it with natural bone and buffalo horn and I’m not even sure how to finish it.

I keep reminding myself these are prototypes and prototypes are for working out problems and kinks and things of that nature. Part of it is just, I want it to look good. I also need smaller beads. I’m using 15's but I’d rather be using 20's or something like that. The smaller the better. I also need more beads, more bone, more of everything but I’ll use what I have for the prototypes and then order more if I have to.

To say I’m satisfied, I’m not. Of course, part of me never is. I always wonder if I could have done better. I’ll be posting pictures by the middle of the week and hopefully I’ll have another design finished by then. Coffee is my friend.

Here is what is going on in my beading world:

I paid for some jewelry that a friend of mine was selling. I eagerly await its arrival. I may get to attempt some things I’ve never attempted before. Because I don’t do metal work, I was excited that she had some very nice sterling pieces that I can dismantle and re-design with beads.
I still have to finish my friend’s bridal necklace. It’s just the strap for the neck, so no one panic. I have to photograph it and send her the picture.

I have another choker due by the time I leave for Atlanta. It is not a difficult piece but the centerpiece may not arrive for another week! I may have to send the choker without it and then send the centerpiece later. That would suck but ... I can’t help it.

Tamarack has contacted me for more product - bracelets and earrings. Lucky for me I picked up beads to make bracelets while in Columbus.

Christmas order has already come in. Lucky for me, I have time to complete that. I also have another order for a bracelet.

So, pictures very, very soon... Now, have to finish my laundry and do more beading. I hope to have more product - bracelets, earrings, necklaces - ready for the Christmas season. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by.

ow

Carpal tunnel. It's catching up to me. Small wonder considering I started abusing my hands and wrists early in life. Around fifth grade I started writing and those were the days before I knew even how to type. In 7th or 8th grade I spent most of my summer visiting with my grandparents and writing fan-fiction. Then in Germany and college, before Internet, writing letters. Long letters. 25-30 page letters, longhand.

Then the typewriter, then data entry, then my computer and the computer at work and over 700 blog posts, 20 short stories, two novellas, countless poems and more letters and e-mails, cross-stitch, painting, drawing, 9 years as a paralegal, pregnancy, a car accident, working in the shop, and now beading, yeah, I'm feelin' it.

Change of seasons always gets me anyway. I'm still coughing, I have a bad left knee, bad right ankle, and my shoulders have never been the same since my car accident. Right now, my body is saying, stop- stop - stop - stop... no more! My neck cracks when I roll it. But my mind keeps clicking along and when it clicks my hands move.

It is the way things are. Hot shower, nap, I'll be right as rain. (Oh, the rain, it makes my injuries ache.) LOL!

Why DO I Have Felines?

The Culprits!



Lola - Don't be charmed by her cute face.
















Smokey... big man of the house

And these cuties - Napoleon and Ireland...brats, all of 'em!

I love cats. They’re beautiful, sleek, they purr, and they’re independent, like me. I love all animals but cats fit my busy lifestyle much better than a dog, although I’ve had a few.

Having cats as a beader though, is pure insanity. IN-sanity.

When I first started beading my oldest cat, Smokey, would jump on my lap and lay down while I beaded. Only problem is, he weighs 15 lbs. It was like beading around a boulder. To make matters worse, my big Siamese Napoleon, LOVES Smokey, more than he loves me even. If Smokey was laying on my lap, yes, Napoleon also wanted to lay on my lap. With Smokey. Two for the price of one.

Beading means you bend forward a lot or you bend back and forth a lot. 20+ pounds of cat makes this impossible to do. Why did I LET them get on my lap? Because I love cats. Pay attention please. One is okay. But if Napoleon tried to get on my lap I was too busy trying to keep my beads from being swept away and the thread from getting tangled to stop him. I actually beaded around those two for a while until I lost all feeling in my legs. Plus, I bead beside of a window and it can get cold in the winter. Nothing like real fur and fat to keep you warm.

Then Ireland stepped in. Ireland is Napoleon’s little sister. She only weighs five or six pounds and she chased the men off for the prime spot. Makes it easier right? WRONG! Ireland likes to a) knead my legs with her sharp little claws for 30 minutes before she lays down which results in her being placed on the floor every 15 seconds of those 30 minutes; b) Once she lays down she immediately begins cleaning herself for 30 minutes. Every 15 seconds of those 30 minutes I have to de-tangle my thread from her ears, her mouth, and her claws.

I had one good beading cat... Jack-Jack. He didn’t weigh 15 lbs., closer to five. The other cats didn’t try to chase him off. He didn’t care how many beads I dropped in his fur or how often my thread brushed his nose, mainly because he was very ill. He had a chronic condition for which there isn’t a cure and passed away on Sunday very peacefully. RIP Jack-Jack.

Ireland is laying in the cabinet on my desk, perhaps out of respect, perhaps out of fear because she dumped my beads yesterday. She and her sister, Lola, (Yes I have a lot of cats, be glad I don’t have as many kids!) started fussing yesterday evening for the 2.5 seconds I stepped away from my desk. Normally, I place my beads in a cubbyhole but since I was just stepping away for a moment, I didn’t. The howling, hissing, and caterwauling brought me running. I let out a string of cuss words that would have made my Mama faint. The other cats scattered, Nate (my son) hid under the bed, the neighbors drew their shades, and there sat Ireland in the cabinet, calmly cleaning herself.

Size 15s, everywhere. Thread missing. Needle dangling from the chair. When I huffed and puffed about the mess and the loss of beads and where is my new *&^*(&$# thread, I swear she raised a feline eyebrow.

It’s a wonder I get anything done.