What I've been working on for the next round of shows

last week my table started out like this

 I have 3 shows in a row, Farmer's Market This Sat, 9/3/16, then ARTapalooza 9/10, and then Farmer's Market again on 9/17.  So I've tried to get as much jewelry done as possible so I have enough for them.

And the weather sounds like it's gonna be perfect this Sat!!

So come by the booth, we are on 4th street again, South across from the construction and see the new goodies before they are gone

and ended up like this!

more flowers!

Earring Musings

I guess that's my goal for this week, restock earrings.  I've made a pretty good stab at it so far this weekend, right now in fact I'm working on more time in a bottle and rainbow bottle earrings.  I'm making more watch part earrings ( the above pic are some of my past hits) and cat gear and retaining ring and and and...


as always, never enough time.


What earrings do you like?  Do you wear different ones everyday or do you have the Steady Freddy pair that you wear almost everyday?

Earrings can say alot about a person.  I tend to cycle amongst favorite pairs, and if I'm not wearing them it's probably because I'm sick or ran late in the morning.

Right now my favorite pair I can't wear, because I lost one of them.  I'm about ready to remake them because I want to wear them again!  And then I will find the missing brat!

My other favorite pair is hoops with pearl drops.   Then the retaining ring ones, and the blue with vintage watch face, and oh, the pair with pocket watch regulators, and.....

So what does your favorite pair of earrings say about you?   Maybe you haven't found them yet?

One of the kewlest things about making jewelry is knowing, bone-deep, that somewhere, someone(s) is wearing earrings, and they are their favorite pair.

And I made them.

I hate being sick.....

A bracelet made when I wasn't sick!  I do love how the pearls look on this.

but I do it soooo well, as my hubby points out.   Last weekend started out pretty good, a quick visit to my Sister in IL, antiquing on the way to and back, what could be better?  

I started to feel.... off.... around 2pm at the last antique shop we hit Sunday.  It didn't have air-conditioning, and it was stuffed to the rafters with interesting bits-- but sometimes I have problems with that.  Kind of claustrophobic actually.  So I just thought the heat and the closing in was situational.   We stopped and ate and during the meal I just suddenly felt overly full, but I hadn't eaten all that much.

the trip home was 6-1/2 hours total, and the last 70 miles I white knuckled it.  By then I knew I was sick, I was having chills and then too hot and rolling waves of nausea and my mental mantra was "oh god, let me get home before the pucking starts"  

I did, fortunately, but that was my last bit of luck for about 36 hours.   I completely lost Monday, it's all a blurry haze, as I got sick, cleaned it up, went back to bed for a few hours, and started the cycle again.   Tues was better, still spent a chunk in bed because everything hurt, and I managed to eat and keep down about 15 crackers and 2 bites of stew.  I did get up in the studio, because well, that's my zen space.  I always feel better in my studio.

So Today, where am I?   Better, but I still body hurt somewhat and I can't shake this headache from hell that I got on Sunday.  It's less intense at least.  I haven't dared to take pain medication for it, as on my best of days Ibuprofen can make me sick.  I think I've covered my vomiting quota for this century already.  I'm not allowed to take Tylenol due to my already wacky health problems.

The best I can say is my asthma didn't decide to jun the fun as well, which is what usually happens when I get sick.

The real question-  is this food poisoning or is it the stomach flu?  You would be surprise how many attacks of the flu are actually food poisoning.  Course when you are worshiping the Porcelain Goddess, you really don't care until after the fact.  Jerry and Jesscera aren't sick, so maybe it was food poisoning.  Then again, my immune system sucks, and thankfully theirs do not, so who knows.

Stay well my friends.  

I'm off for a couple of weeks...

Have a great weekend everyone.... I don't have a show til September!  So trying to get stuff done the next couple of weeks.  If you need a fix before then, just email me or .... Go down to Five Monkeys and check out my jewelry and art from 50+ other artists!!  

fairy dust isn't just for kids

Need alittle magic in your life? I can help you with that........ top pic has copper colored sparkles  (I'm thinking pixie dust) and the bottom has pearl AB dust.

Never enough time for earrings!

Another batch of vintage watch part earrings.  The top pair is "how time flies"

This pair uses vintage pocket watch regulators ... pre-1940's.

And that classic, Time in a bottle.  I believe all of these are sold, cause well, they are wonderful earrings!! I've got a 3 week break before my next Downtown Farmer's Market, and my earrings are really depleted.. so this week is earring week.

Repair Jobs Are Us

Wing clean off!

I try to make my jewelry sturdy within the limits of the materials I work with, but things happen.  In this case, the dragonfly wing got caught and bent up a couple of times... and eventually the metal broke.  

I'm just holding it in place, trying to decide what to do to fix it

It happens, but when it happens to a piece of jewelry you buy from me, let me know.   I won't get mad, I'll get it fixed.  I'll fix / resize / change out earwires and I'll usually do it for free because I like to make people happy.  Now if you run over something with your car or feed it to lions, we might have to talk about it, but generally I want customers to be happy with their purchases.  

I think the screws actually add alittle something-something to this mechanical romance design!  So happy accident right?  The repair is almost invisible and it just looks like embellishment... the customer was very happy.

I don't make wal-mart jewelry you throw away after it breaks in 2 days... I make jewelry that will hopefully stay around in your jewelry case because you love to wear it for years to come.  So let me know, and let me make it right.

Vintage Bling meets Vintage Gears part IV - last entry for now!

The top one is my favorite, or maybe it's the bottom one.  I love them both for such different reasons.  The top one has the most bling, and in amethyst - it's also got layered gears making it have great depth.

The bottom one is using part of the brass framework you find in clocks with a gear added back to the middle.  It's hard to see the color of the bottom crystals but it's the incredible vintage beige color crystal... I'm not a brown girl unless it's' this vintage shade!  It's very close to the modern color of Colorado Topaz but it's got an edge on that, as so many of the vintage colors do!

So I've shown you the first batch, what do you think? Does it work? I hope it does I want to make more !!!

Vintage Bling meets Vintage Gears part III

OK not so much bling on these two, but I really love this big flower broach on the gear with the old rosary cross under it.    the bottom piece is actually a broach.  The bow was missing whatever it used to hold, so I added the cog with a old american legion pin on it.  

Vintage bling meets Vintage Gears part II

These three necklaces show clock parts with vintage broaches / pins.  This top one is really special, it's actually 10K goldfilled, but I love the scroll work on it!  The charm hanging off the clock key is fake coin charm from a old charm bracelet.

I love this green crystal heart broach, and I think it looks fab on top of a old clock gear.  I even used a old jewelry necklace for the chain.

This owl pin was in a lot of mixed old and new junk jewelry, I would guess it's not really that old.. so I used some magic in the form of paints and patinas to make it look even older.  I added the bling from a broken necklace on the bottom.

Vintage Bling meets Vintage Cogs Part I : the earrings

I've been in serious bling mode.  Some of it is I bought a bunch of vintage jewelry last summer -- big lots from ebay.  Then this winter I bought some more.  The sad part? I didn't really start going through them until this past month.  I realized I needed some bling in my life... but I couldn't let my cogs and gears go either.

So I'm working on a line pairing vintage bling with vintage gears and I'm having a blast.  I'm also haunting ebay again, looking for more big boxes of vintage goodies.  This week my posts will be showing my first run.
Let me know what you think!