Weekend Eye Candy - Christmas Edition

1. Topsy-Turvy, 2. holly trio, 3. cat in hat., 4. christmas tree, 5. Green Enamel Ring, 6. red, green , white and grey, 7. Blossom Brooch, 8. ok brother, on the count of 3...., 9. Reversible - take 1, 10. Artifact of Faith Pendant, 11. Brussels sprout stalk, 12. collier corail sombre et perles 06 08
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers. This blog has so enriched my life this year and it wouldn't exist without you! Have a lovely day wherever you are in the world.

Wednesday Walks - In The Rain...

... In my neighborhood.

You'll laugh so hard, your sides will ache...

Image via FourDogDay

Barbara Becker Simon created a post on the Yahoo MetalClay forum that had me rolling on the floor for 10 minutes and I just simply had to share with y'all. You may want to vacuum the carpet and put on some mittens first though. ;-)

Tid Bits

I taught my final class of the year this past Saturday. We made hollow beads using wood clay cores. Everyone did a wonderful job.  I have such creative students.

Erosion By Design

Then Sunday I finished up two of the projects I'll be offering at San Gabriel Bead Company in the spring.  Can you believe I'm scheduling myself for spring already?  No wonder the year seems to go so fast.

PPPod PPPendant

And it's almost time for my second Level 1 PMC Connection Certification class too. That'll be on the weekend of January 10 and 11. We had such a great time at my first cert class and now that I know what I'm doing, I'm sure this second one will be just as exciting and fun filled - if not more so!

Hope y'all had a good weekend and that some of you don't have tummy aches from all the Chanukah gelt you indulged in. ;-)

Weekend Eye Candy - Chanukah Edition

1. Accidental Judaica?, 2. Sapphire ring with lovely little shiny star/asterism in it, 3. Dotted Wick Pendant (2008. IT) Pendant 56.5, 4. lis d'eau, 5. Menorah, 6. Protective Measures, 7. Blue on Blue Swingers, 8. swept away in a river of glass, 9. freeform crochet and felt necklace (no. 15), 10. candelabra-small-menorah, 11. blue ponds (2nd pair), 12. Precious Tears  Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

The eight day Festival of Lights begins this Saturday. Happy Chanukah Everyone! I wish you joy, peace, contentment, inspiration, friendship, love, warmth and endless creativity.

Flash From My Past!

I was doing a bit of cleaning and came across two pieces that were part of my very first "collection" of metal clay jewelry.

These were made of PMC Standard way back in 2000, before there was (or at least before I knew about) PMC+. I stamped many, many different charms with many different positive affirmations and strung them on Soft Flex with luscious gem beads.  Very simple, but popular. 

 

"Grace" hung from my key chain. Lovely, but not the best choice of metals for a fob. You can see how beat up she got.

I was rolling tiny snakes of clay even back then. No one showed me how, or gave me the idea. I remember being inspired by a favorite Victorian picture frame and wanted to create a decorative border for my words of wisdom.

Nice to see how far I've come. And comforting to know that my present style is firmly rooted in my nascent imagination.

Gettin' Down to Business

There's something very satisfying about doing chores that you know *have* to be done, but that you resist.

This morning I listed a new pair of earrings in my Etsy shop. These lovely Lemon Drops are part of my Kaizen series. I soldered earring posts onto the back of some little metal clay beads I had made as a sample for a water etching class, and then riveted two very yummy lemon quarts beads to sterling wire as the hanging mechanism. I bought the lemon quartz a very long time ago because when I saw the strand lying on the vendor's table - I wanted to put them in my mouth! I'm not kidding when I say they were yummy. I love the way they turned out and I never would have thought to use the metal clay beads in this way if they hadn't been hanging around so long.

I also re shot some of the photos of work that had already been listed. I'm trying to update my shop, give it a more cohesive look and brighten it up a bit. What do you think of the way it looks so far?

Weekend Eye Candy - LB*s Edition

1. Dark Ages Ring, 2. Danielle Ayala 2, 3. Shawl pins from Peru, 4. paper wings, 5. collagebracelet, 6. faith, 7. Feelringsmulti, 8. damascus with agate, 9. New handmade jewelry, 10. Gradation Brooch- New Shot, 11. Silver shawl pin from Peru, 12. Artist Richard Hoff  Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Sometimes I love to wander through other people's Flickr photostream's. All of these images were in my cyber friend Laurie Brown's favorites folder. I hadn't been familiar with any of these artists, so they're a nice bit of eye candy for me too.

Have a great weekend. I'm off to a concert of Brahms at the Disney Concert Hall with my cousin tonight. Never been there before. Wheee!

Santa Baby...

Slip a prezzie under the tree, for me...

I just had to share. I made this cute ornament out of Faux Bone for a swap with a cyber friend. I love drawing illuminated manuscript inspired tendrils (they're really the only thing I do well) and they look perfect climbing up the walls of this little cottage.  I used a Dremmel Engraver to scratch the design into the surface of the PVC and schmeared on some printer's ink and metal dye to add some much needed color.

I had so much fun, I may just have to make one for myself. I can have one on a Hanukah Bush can't I?  ;-)

Surprise, Surprise!

Woke up to a sale this morning!  Lovely way to start the day.  Rena Klingenberg is the creator of the Home Jewelry Business Success Tips blog and the (hopefully) proud new owner of a Lora Hart Jewels original.  :-) 

My shop is off to a slow start, so every sale is precious and every collector is a treasure.  Hope you have a lovely surprise today too!

A New Discovery!

While perusing KnitSteel's blog this morning, my eyes fell upon an Etsy logo that I didn't recognize which looked like a mini, but credited "The Mini Blog" as the shop name.  "What was it" I mused to myself. My finger was itching to click and I allowed it to tap the mouse.

The link led me to a Blogger blog called "All Things Handmade" which turns out to be dedicated to promoting individual Etsy shops through the use of Mini's! There are categories and sub categories just like the "real" Etsy site.

In addition to being another great promotional tool for sellers, it's also a wonderful search engine for buyers and creators of Treasuries. The mini's show the artist's style as well as the goods available and clicking on it of course takes you right to their shop.

I've already made the request to be added to the list, which was really simple. Just go to "Jewelry" and the sub category that best fits, "Metal" in my case and enter your shop id and name. Easy peasy. Go take a look! It's a good thing.

Work and Wonders

Went to San Gabriel Bead Company yesterday to teach an Intro to PMC class and lo and behold there was a store wide sale going on!  Yay!!!  25% off everything. I picked up these lovely beads as a little treat.  

I would have liked the chunkier Roman Glass beads, but couldn't really justify spending the money.  These are so delicate and light, I think I may use them in earrings.

I forgot to ask about the origin of the brass ones.  I think they may be from Afghanistan or Turkey or somewhere in that broad general area. 

Just Yummy!

Weekend Eye Candy - Fiber Edition

1. Animales (67), 2. Colgante bellotero, 3. Felt and recycled metal necklace, 4. OCHER SHELLY BANGLE, 5. cocoon necklace, 6. river wood, 7. "Solitary One" Brooch, 8. detail of petals in shades of red, 9. Barnacle Necklace, 10. Bound By Color, 11. Viking Necklace, 12. falling Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Sorry I've been so absent this week. Stuff to do and all that. I'll be back with more posts next week for sure.

I'm really loving fiber and metal these days. The work of these artists is so inspiring.

Have a lovely weekend of imagination and exploration!

Happy Days...

Last week I finished a pair of earrings I had been working on and loved them so much that I had to wear them!  Today I took pictures and listed them in my shop.  Mentioned them in a meeting in the Virtual Labs and DanielleXO snapped them right up!  Huzzah! Serendipity is so fun sometimes. What a lovely way to start the week.