Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Hope you night is full of treats and not so many tricks.

Halloween is extra-special in our house, because we have two pumpkin birthdays to celebrate - Rob and  my kitty Neffie. Halloween is weird this year in San Francisco. I haven't seen ONE person in costume either yesterday or today. Usually theres a bunch of people who dress up to go to work, and should be alot of club stuff going on but its like everyone forgot it this year. Just not the same as growing up in a small town in the midwest I tell ya. We kids would LOVE going trick or treating then to the church for a cake walk. Also sometimes different towns would do trick or treat on different nights so you could go to one town on Friday night AND  another on Saturday night and be in a full sugar coma all of Sunday. There aren't alot of kids IN SF and definately not in our neighborhood and wonder if they bother with trick or treating.  The last time I remember someone coming to trick or treat was about 12 yrs ago. My room mate and I had all kinds of stuff ready for the 6-8:30 schedule, but no one knocked at our door. I left at 8:30 and when I got home my roommate told me he had a visitor.  He said at 9pm the "lone wolfman and his mother" knocked on the door. That kid made out because he got all the candy we had. I know he was one happy little wolf. 

Today we are having low key celebrations since I got a vicious cold I'm nursing. We've been the last couple of days watching various scary things on tv, Ghost Adventures Live,  40's and 50's scary movies and having a good time. Unfortunately my gift for Rob hasn't arrived yet, and thats a bit disappointing but he'll be so happy when it does get here its worth the wait.

The final link in the Necklace Round Robin

Isn't this gorgeous! I was the final creative stop for the necklace round robin I was in. The group consisted of myself and 3 other fabulous jewelry artists - Lorelei Eurto, Mary Dodd and Kerry Bogert.  This is my necklace.  I borrowed the pic from Mary's blog but its been on my neck since I got it!  We all started with a partially started necklace, a note about our theme, color and length preference and what inspired the start. I started with a wee bit of copper chain, the soldered pendant and the red glass jewel dangle and got this gorgeous piece back! I LOVE it, L O V E!  Thank you ladies!

Now it was my turn to add my touch to their necklaces. I got the box and oohed and ahhed over each one. This was Lorelei's necklace as  when I received it.  I love the dusky color scheme of olive, coral and purple.

And is the finished piece! I really love it!!!!

 Because of all the colors and the gorgeous floral charm, I felt like it had a "Secret Garden" feel so I went in that direction with it. I added  my own handcrafted resin charms to pull it together. A small patinaed brass house with "secret" bezel charm, a small copper bezel filled with pearls and resin and a tiny sterling bird charm.

This was is Mary's necklace, it has a earthy ephemeral feel to it. Mary had written in her note about what inspired her necklace start, and talked about breath.

And this is how I interpreted that while keeping the necklace at the length she desired. I love her coppery browns and purples in this. I created a tiny bottle reliquary with a bit of purple moss in it. I also added a large tumbled amethyst bead, and a faceted carnelian briolette.

Last but certainly not least is Kerry's necklace. I borrowed this pic from Mary's blog.

This one challenged me. It was shy at first and didn't want to give me any clues about what to add to it.  I love the aqua silk coupled with sterling and gunmetal. I pulled out all kinds of things, yet nothing seemed 'right'. I added things, took them off again a number of times. After 2 days of not doing anything of justice to this piece I set it aside to let my subconscious mind work on it for a while. That night I had a dream about it and in the morning came up with this.

I wanted to tie in the rich orange with the turquoise so I created a double sided Patera pendant with vintage bird images and resin. Keeping with the asymetrical feel, I untied the silk from one side and doubled it up along with the gunmetal chain section, added a few Hyacinth Swarovski crystals, some glass beads and a sterling toggle clasp.  I think it fits Kerry's cheery personality.

I had a great time adding my own flavor to each of these necklaces. Thank you girls for playing with me!

Bead Bloggers!

Where did the week go?? Bettie wonders the same thing.

Is Mercury still in retrograde, because it has been a week of setbacks and frustrations for me. Sigh..... I don't like losing time to things gone wrong and do overs, makes me cranky. I didn't get to do a review of Enchanted Adornments yet, or put up my Round Robin necklace photos. Fear not, I will have lots to post this coming week.

I did order resin this week. I have been OUT of both quick set and ICE Resin©, how is a resin artist supposed to work without resin?? She can't, so she finally wrote herself a note and ordered some. And I got QB Pro 2010 thru Amazon Vine program. I haven't installed it yet, but will this week. I STILL don't get it, but my goal is to figure it out and use the dang program BEFORE the end of the year. It may kill me, but I'll figure it out.

BEFORE the day slips past me again and I neglect my beadblogger duties I better post my Bead Bloggers links right now. There are all kinds of great links, so get a cuppa, settle yourself in a cozy chair and do some jewelry reading!

A Bead A Day Does a simple design equal a "Zen" experience? Lisa would love to hear your thoughts on when simple designs are able to make an impact.

About.com Jewelry Making After posting a new jewelry book review for a very cool mixed media book, Tammy is looking a head to other reviews coming up very soon.

Art Bead Scene You've heard of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Well, this Sisterhood shares bracelets.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe gets tangled up with Chain Style book review

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi decided to finally use her bead stash from Paris.

Cindy Gimbrone aka the Lampwork Diva Cindy's got some new findings from Ornamentea. What's she going to make with them?

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles The inspiration for Melanie's Machinery of Nature necklace comes from science, steampunk, and nature.

Jean Campbell Jean struggles through the creative process while bezeling some unusual crystal shapes

Jewelry & Beading Little beaded flowers are addictive to make, and before you know it, you've got enough for a complete necklace!

Katie's Beading Blog Check out Katie's ideas on making your old beads new again- and make some affordable gifts along the way!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Better get on board, Lorelei is having the last of the Enchanted Adornments giveaways. Leave a comment to play!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean has a little Boo power going on for her in this hand made Halloween bracelet!

Strands of Beads Melissa shows off metal clay goodies from Rings & Things

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Andrew revisits a bracelet design and creates six others.

good mail days

I've had a lucky streak of fun mail days since this weekend. On Saturday, I got my order from Glass Glitter and Beads. I wanted to try some small amounts, and they have really good prices. They came within a few days and all are really pretty. She also has a "Happy Holidaze" coupon code good thru 12/31. Get 20% off by using coupon code holidaze4. I am so excited to start covering everything in glitter.

I also got my the gorgeous pendant from Miss Fickle Media's blog giveaway. I won the "Red Branches on Ivory" pendant and was tickled to death.

Isn't her packing so pretty! I made myself stop to photo it before I tore into that package with my pendant I've been lusting over. I LOVE IT!!! It is so perfect. I have tried for years and years to work with polymer clay. My friend Heather and I got into it WAY back in the early 90's. Her's looked great, mine always looked like a preschooler, so I greatly admire the skill and talent of polymer clay artists. So go, RUN and order some of her gorgeous stuff for yourself. This pendant is so sweet, I need to order some more of the Swarovski Red Coral beads to make a necklace for it. And if that pendant wasn't generours enough, she also sent me a box of mixed media goodies to play with too, thank you so much!


And speaking of pretty packaging, when was the last time you ordered beads from a "big company" packaged like this?

My answer is "ONLY from ArtBeads!" Look at how perfect this is, its almost Japanese in its presentation. I get a few orders from them and have been meaning to post about this little extra touch. I needed to get some UV resin, so ordered it thru them as well as the aforementioned Red Coral Swarovski and the Deep Indigo crystals I've been drooling over. I placed my order on Friday and got it on Monday=how's that for service! They are having a "Proudly Pink" sale this month for Breast Cancer awareness. You can can get 15% off select pink items by using coupon code SCW15P-PPS.

I also just finished working on the last necklace in my Round Robin exchange with Lorelei Eurto, Kerry Bogart, and Mary Jane Dodd! I just took photos, so I'll post them all tomorrow for you all to see.

Sunday and the living is easy...........

ok, I know that's not QUITE they way the song goes but it is the way my day has gone. I slept for over 10 hours last night. and got a VERY late start to the day. Which has kind of been par for the course all week. This stomach thing took more out of me than I thought, so I was slow moving all week. I have been at the worktable off an on, between laying down. I got a full box of stuff to photograph as evidenced above. I also made 12 pair of earrings not pictured. I also made all these lovely wearable shrine pendants. Not sure I will turn them into necklaces or just sell as pendants on Etsy. Need to figure that out ASAP.

It was a gorgeous day on Friday, and Rob and I took a quick trip over to Chinatown. I love going to my big herb store and chide myself for not doing it more often. I wanted to get some lotus seed paste mooncakes from Golden Gate Bakery but there was a HUGE line so I didn't. I can (and should) go next week and get myself some.

I also got my box of necklaces from the Round Robin to work on. OOOOHHH!!! they are all so beautiful! I'm still working on one but when it's finished I'll post all the photos, hopefully tomorrow!

This weeks bead bloggers:

A Bead A Day Do you have a distinctive style or do you go where the wind blows you? Lisa would love to hear about your design process.

About.com Jewelry Making Fall is in the air, at least in some areas of the world, so it is time to think about making fall jewelry.

Art Bead Scene ABS shares a motherlode of giveaways for October.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe gets a mini artpiece from Artbeads.

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi makes some resin filled embellishments quickly!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva There's a new addition to the Heartz n Skullz Family. Come check out the new Skully Bowz!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie heats things up with some fire inspired crystal and porcelain beads in her newest necklace from her Art Beads crystal week

Jean Campbell Jean reviews Wendy Ellsworth's wonderful new book, Beading--The Creative Spirit.

Jewelry & Beading Cyndi shares the instructions for a special necklace that she made for a friend, called "The Fourth Day of Creation"

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lampwork glass beads always end up in Lorelei's work, and she passes on links to one of her favorites!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean is wowed by the plethora of activities a beader can find this weekend, both online at Earthenwood Studio and also at the supergreat classic, Soft Flex Glass Art and Bead Festivals!

Strands of Beads Melissa shares her new work, "Natural Selection", that placed Second in the Necklace category of the Bead Arts Award 2009

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton See what Andrew whipped up when he sat down in the studio after a dry spell.

Book Review: Chain Style

Chain Style: 50 Contemporary Jewelry Designs
Author: Jane Dickerson
Paperback: 128 pages
Chain jewelry is HOT right now. I'm not talking one little chain with a little charm on it, I'm talking big fancy chain, or lots of chains or a tangled web of chain. Chain is the star, not the pendant or charms. "Chain Style" has its finger on this hot trend with 50 creative ideas for how to use chain as the key design feature in your jewelry project. Some projects take less then 20 minutes to complete, others are more work intensive but all are gorgeous.

10 super talented jewelry designers created the projects in this book. They include 2 of my new online friends: Lorelei Eurto and Kerry Bogert. This book covers the basics like working with jump rings, wire wraped loops, hooks, oxidizing, hammering and cutting. The projects are well written, easy to follow and have beautiful photos. Another aspect of the book I really like, is all the amazing beads used in the projects. I think this is an unintentional but wonderful extra bonus for readers.
A few of my favorites are "So Soho", "Olive Twist", "City Side" and "Bohemian Heart" but they are all wonderful.

It's a great book for the projects as well as inspiration to spice up your own work. Whether brand new to jewelry or an experienced jewelry maker,
this book is one you will enjoy and look through again and again.

A bit under the weather

I got sick yesterday and am still feeling out of it. Unmentionable stomach woes and a slight fever, and I am praying I don't get the piggy flu. I have a bunch of books I wanted to get up this weekend but didn't, including Chain Style and Enchanted Adornments. Promise they will come soon!

I didn't get to post this yesterday, so doing it now: this weeks bead blogs!

A Bead A Day Do you buy beads for their "coolness" factor? What is your definition of "cool" when it comes to beads and jewelry?

About.com Jewelry Making Tammy has taken her net and collected some butterfly crafts for you in plenty of time to participate in The Butterfly Project at the Holocaust Museum Houston. Art Bead Scene The October Art Bead Scene Challenge gets folksy.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Cindy shows off her new buckle charm necklace but what should she name it?

Earthenwood Studo Chronicles Melanie brightens up her beading palette with some spring colors for her second Art Beads crystal blog post

Jean Campbell Jean shares her delight with Cynthia Thornton's new book, "Enchanted Adornments"

Jewelry & Beading Bring home a souvenir, and figure out how to wear it!

Katie's Beading Blog Katie's mixing polymer clay with beads again - check out this new design!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Come join in on the fun of the 6th Enchanted Adornments giveaway, it's FROGS! Ribbit!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean is swooning over the newest Crystallized Innovations from Artbeads! Strands of Beads Melissa is proud to be Soft Flex Company's Spotlight On... Designer for October!

Miniature Masterpiece Beads from Artbeads.com

I got this absolutely GORGEOUS Russian hand painted Mucha bead from Artbeads.com about 2 months ago. put up a post about this gorgeous bead a few weeks ago and only last week realized it has disappeared. I don't know if it even posted or not, and it is gone from my dashboard. I pulled out the necklace to take more pics and repost. Its a blessing in disguise because I took it apart and re made it, and I am MUCH happier with this version of the necklace.

This bead is Mucha's "Evening Star. I can't even to begin to describe how breathtaking beautiful it is in person. I has a luminescence the camera can not pick up. It is a miniature portrait on onyx and truly is a work of art. I must have tried 45 different design combinations but nothing seemed right the first go around of making a necklace with it. Nothing was "grand" enough. Eventually, I got something that was "ok" but it didn't really thrill me. This time though, I got the right combination of beads to really show off the pendant.

I used an assortment of different colored vintage crystals as the dangle, 2 large mink colored AB Swarovski beads, a leaf connector from Patera, 2 vintage brass beads, black rosary chain and a large lobster clasp from Rings and Things. Now it really makes a statement, and is perfect to wear this fall.

Check out more of these amazing Russian art masterpiece beads and many other gorgeous beads from Artbeads.com!

A Crafty Start to the Week

This week started with art/craft fun and is going strong. Sunday was the Alameda Flea Market, where I got some fun metal things to work with. There was a bunch of larger stuff I SHOULD have gotten for assemblage but didn't. I was focusing on jewelry stuff, next month I'll get some larger art junque. My friend Shoshanah picked me up and away we went. She is great to go shopping with, we both like the same kind of stuff but have slightly different tastes so there is no 'fighting' over stuff. We would find something and say to the other "do you want this? if not I do." We had a ball and meet up with another art friend Vivian and we three were a force to be reckoned with. Shoshanah got a bunch of seriously creepy vintage and antique doll parts, some small some large. I don't like creepy big doll parts, only little creepy ones. She found a leg that was deflated and flattened in a pile, we both shrieked in horror at the sight of it. I can't wait to see what she does with them all.


Yesterday, Moe came over to hang out and craft. I loaded her up on yarn and jewelry to take home. She also created the necklace she is wearing in the pic, I didn't take a picture of it alone (darn me), but trust me it's really cool! She has an amazing color sense and pulled together some fantastic combinations of things to work with.




Her necklace incorporates large facetted grey agate nugget beads, copper washers and gears, a small russet facetted agate bead, and copper chain. The pendant is one of my "Home" series I did a while back, this one was rusty metal house shape with a bezel on it that has a raven sillohuette on top of vintage map. The combination of grey and copper is really cool and she did a phenomenal job with it.


I also realized that an older post I wrote up about and Artbeads.com bead seems to have simply disappeared. It is just gone, and I think it never even posted. Don't know what happened with that so I dug the necklace out to take more photos and do another post. I guess it was a blessing in disguise that the original post vanished because I decided to redo the necklace and it looks 1000x better! I'll do a whole post devoted to that amazing bead next.

I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday already. I think I will be spending it going thru photos and updating the website. JOY!!!

Sunburnt

Today I went over to the Alameda FleaMarket with my friend Shoshanah. Mapquest got us a bit lost so it took a while to make it over but eventually we found it and met up with Vivian and had a grand time.

I got some fun stuff that I can't wait to use. I also got an unwanted sunburn because I apparently forgot to put on my facial sunscreen this morning. DUH! I hope it feels better tomorrow!

And now, the weekly Bead and Jewelry bloggers linky love list!

A Bead A Day Have a favorite piece of day-to-day jewelry? Lisa shares hers and reasons for leaning toward practicality.

About.com Jewelry Making Tammy offers you two simple ways to become part of the on-line jewelry making community.

Art Bead Scene Take a tour with the Art Bead Scene. We've got places to go and beads to see!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Simply Gemstones book review

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi creates a new necklace with heart shaped resin pendants she made.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Take a walk on the dark side and see what kind of jewelry Cindy comes up with.

Earthenwod Studio Chronicles Melanie begins her celebration of a week of crystal pendants with an autumn inspired fairy butterfly necklace

Jean Campbell How do you use beads to decorate your house? Check out these photos of Jean's beady household decor.

Jewelry & Beading Have you ever thought about trying glass fusing? The talented Wendy Talaro shares a fused glass primer this week!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is hosting a Necklace Round Robin, come check out the necklaces as they transform!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean recalls and reposts a recipe for some cool October earrings, now that there is a chill in the air!

Strands of Beads Melissa blogs about an intriguing new blog by lampwork artist Sarah Moran