My Newest Passion... part V

Vintaj and Pearls!! what more can I say????

My Newest Passion... part IV

This lovely set features a large painted and inked butterfly which I didn't actually do, it was in a goodie bag from one of my orders from Vintaj. However I was so inspired by this butterfly, that I attached it to this filigree, colored flowers and 1 leaf to match and used vintage rhinestone headpins to attach them. And I made matching earrings, and I did the coloring on these butterflies! I sold the Necklace last weekend, but I still have the earrings. I still have a few butterflies, so my brain is entertaining making something to to with the earrings....

My Newest Passion.... Part III

OK, and this is true probably of all metals, but I discovered this with Vintaj natural brass, and it looks FAB on the brass and boy, I"m rambling!!

Here's the deal, you can paint the stampings, with acrylics and with alcohol inks! I love the inks!! They come in 20 + colors, and they work so funky.. because they are alcohol based, they don't blend, they sort of "chase" each other as you add another color, so you can get incredible effects. It makes me think of tie-dye really. To intensify the color and seal it, you can use resin or resin like products. Here are three of the color projects I've worked on in the last month.
These earrings are one of the first projects I did, to test out the inks. ( I bought a 3 pack of inks to try out... now I have 21 colors!!) It's hard to see in the pics, but I used a stamp and ink pad to add black swirls in the background, let them dry, and then dabbed acrylic paint on 3 corners for texture. Then I started adding the inks. Finally I sealed it with glossy accents, which is a very fast drying resin like product. (not sure I would recommend for projects you need a good dome on, but for fast and dirty, it works great!) Now the colors I used didn't exactly turn out to be the colors I ended up with, but it looked really Autumn-ly to me, so I used black, orange and tourmaline colored crystals to accent them.
This pendant started out as a blank . This was pure color experimentation. I used a combination of acrylics and alcohol inks. I let it dry, then I added a pearl ink on top.. very fun! it bubbled up and mixed everything up! Then I sealed it in, again, it looks very little like it started out as. I topped it with another Vintaj piece, and added crystals in matching colors with Sterling wire. I think it turned out stunningly!
This pendant is "U are are the key to your dreams" . I used metal stamps to make the words on a blank, and another Vintaj piece shaped like a key instead of the word. I used again a combination of paint and inks, and sealed it. Now this took longer to dry, as I layered the sealant much heavier as I was "gluing" the key to it. Added a large, heavy ring as the bail. There is a really delicate color effect on this one.

More tomorrow!!

My Newest Passion.... Part II

Earrings made with Vintaj products!
I Love the scarabs, I want to make me a pair!! Now here is the thing, Vintaj carries scarabs just like these, but I actually bought them elsewhere. They have a lovely delicate color and go great with the vintage glass opal like cabs. The brass ear wires are Vintaj.


The keys are in the darker "arte metal" collection at Vintaj, and I wanted them opposite for earrings. So I flipped one over, and then hammered both of them to give them more of a rough look with consistent texture on the front. Red velvet Chinese crystals.
More tomorrow!

My Newest Passion..... part I

There is a company call Vintaj Natural Brass. Now the funny thing is I've known about this company for years. Back in 2003 when I had a booth at Bead & Button they were handing out samples to vendors. (I still have that sample pack!) At the time I wasn't really interested. At the time I mostly sold beads and did just a few jewelry shows. Most of the jewelry I made was stringing or seed beads. Brass stampings just really didn't trip my trigger. The only metal I dealt with back then were clasps & spacer beads! I was all about glass, crystals and seed beads.

Seven years later things are different in my life. I still love glass, crystals and seed beads, (who doesn't?) but I love other stuff too! I do 20-25 art shows a year, and only sell beads and findings as destash. I love to make jewelry, and I seem to be picking up more and more skills in different branches of the jewelry making family tree.

When people ask me what style of jewelry I make, it's sort of a hard question to answer. I usually settle on wire wrapping as that's my main love. But I have many passions... glass, crystals, seed beads, gemstones, metalsmithing, hammering ( I love love love hammering!!), glass fusing, and now --- playing with brass components.

I've been thinking about it for 5 or so months now. I think maybe it was all the research I did for the resin class for the Girls weekend. Part of the fun with resin is putting stuff in it, like stampings and such. I have a couple of Plano boxes full of vintage/ old stock stampings and metal bits that I've not touched in years, probably since I bought them. I dug them out looking for bezel settings and decorations for the resin, and as any beader/jewelry maker knows, just digging through a box you've ignore for a while can get the creative juices flowing!

So I finally broke down ordered a small mixed lot of Vintaj stuff off one of the etsy sellers. She had shipping problems (no fault of her own) and in my impatience to finally have some to play with, I opened a wholesale account directly with them and placed my first order. The first 2 necklaces I made sold at the next show. I didn't get pictures taken, hate that!

So last month I placed my 2ND order, and I'm seriously considering a 3rd this month. Of the jewelry pieces I've made since, I've probably sold half of them. Not only do I like making jewelry with these components, people like buying them!

One of the things that is so exciting about the brass is you can paint it!! more on that in future entries, but I think it was the added color element that finally tipped me over. The Vintaj website is very generous with ideas and suggestions on what to make with their products.


This is my bird necklace. The ring says "hope" on it. The Vintaj pieces are the bird, the hope ring, the leaf and the clasp. The gun metal chain I think balances nicely with the coffee colored fresh water pearls and black matte seed beads. I added a few black crystals for just a touch of sparkle.. (see, still love crystals and seed beads !!)

Matching earrings, I really love these little birds from Vintaj! I only had 2 from a sample pack. I really want more of them!
Matching bracelet

While you can buy brass stampings at many companies, Vintaj's quality is fantastic, and the lovely brown shades are part of their own own process that you won't get anywhere else.

All this week I will be blogging about Vintaj and brass stampings in general. If you aren't ready to dive in a wholesale account with them, I am selling a few Vintaj components on my artfire site. If you want to buy from me you better hurry.. I might end up using them myself!

The Weather was perfect!!

for Market Day! this small indie arts market continues to grow this year, and this show was so much fun! Since it was on Halloween, vendors were encouraged to dress. Several did, including us! Jerry did a gentleman from 1880's London, and I was a pirate. Yes, I know I've been a pirate often these last few years. But it's fun, you get to say ARRRR! carry a wooden sword AND wear a hat!! What could be finer??

Pictures would be nice but none of ours turned out very well, so I guess I'll leave it to your imagination. Our neighbour did a great costume, she called it "grandma's couch monster. She took 3-4 afghans and added huge googly eyes on a big foam head.. it was really really kewl! She had all kinds of great stuff - hats, scarfs and footies, all hand made, really cute concepts on them. And she made her visa/MasterCard sign out of felt. Very talented vendor!!

Course all the vendors are very talented! (not just me! LOL) Or have kewl vintage stuff. Or both!

Darby cakes had 6 different themed cupcakes. We bought one of each to sample.. so far the lime/coconut was interesting (read: good but not our cup of tea) and the double chocolate very tasty. I really like the pumpkin caramel version. (which looked like mummy faces, bonus!) Everybody loves red velvet and cream cheese!! Haven't tried the others - yet!

I bought some vintage jewelry at a good price to break down for future projects, love when that happens!

bought little dead guy dolls from Kimb's Creatures . Gave the set to my daughter, kept one of the little guys for me!! She had these awesome spider candy dishes. I regret, greatly, not buying the purple one. If you like truly odd ball stuff, but fun, she's the gal!

You know the most important part of all this fun?? We get to do it again for BLACK FRIDAY! OK, probably not as a pirate this time. (damn)

Random moments in my life...

Life is a series of random moments no? Here is Kya, sitting in one of my studio chairs last week, for once not in constant movement. Look at her beautiful beautiful orange eyes!!!

Here is a big pile of jewelry from a month or so ago.. we had another show that rained on us. So I spread all the jewelry out on paper towels to make sure nothing was damaged. Nothing was, most if it wasn't even wet, but it looks kind of kewl spread all over my studio floor.

This weekend Jerry was sweeping the leaves off the steps and found a friend. Isn't he/she/it cute?? He actually brought it up the studio to show me so I had to take a picture. Don't worry, he released it in the back yard away from where he was working. The cats are still miffed at him.

Now that most of my shows are done for the year, I can take a deep breath and appreciate these random moments more than when I'm going 60 miles an hour getting ready for shows. I even took time to really clean my studio and reorganize somewhat. Here is a pic of my counter top that is directly over the stairwell of my studio. The print is new, a birthday present from my beloved Jerry, and the plaque is a birthday gift from my bestest buddies, Sue and Cathie. Throw in some of my favorite Nightmare Before Christmas toys and my mirror, and it's a happy little display again.
Now that most of my shows are done for the year, I can take a deep breath and appreciate these random moments more than when I'm going 60 miles an hour getting ready for shows. Not that I don't still have a few shows; this weekend is Market Day . We get to wear costumes, woot! So if you are in Des Moines this Saturday (9-2pm) be sure to stop by Market Day and experience a moment or two.. random or not.

Follow your Bliss.......

I’m really trying to get into the swing of things on Artfire. One of the opportunities is joining guilds.. Sellers group together to help each other learn the ropes and network. I joined 3, one of them had the best name: “I followed my bliss… so now what?? “ .

That’s been rolling around in my head, so this weekend I decided to make something in honor of my new Group! I haven’t decided yet if it’s going to be a pendant or a necklace.

I started with a Vintaj brass Blank, and using metal stamps put the words and symbols on.

Then I used a hammer to add more texture, sanded the edges smooth and used a doming block to make it curved.



Now it’s all ready to color….

More pics coming as the piece moves along it’s path to finished jewelry!

Girl's Weekend Part III : Resin class

"explore " This one seems appropriate, as we were exploring a new medium!
"why Mona dreams" I've always thought Mona Lisa looks like she's day dreaming.

I researched different types of resin, and settled on Ice Resin for several reasons. It has a good rating among other artists, it's easy to use ( no UV equipment needed like some of them), lots of info on the web about using it, and since you can buy it in fairly small amounts, it seemed the prefect way to get one's toes wet. I bought a round of bezels for each of us off Etsy, and away we went!

Resin is both easier and harder than I thought. It's easier to mix up and pour, but I can see it will take a few tries to get it just so. I think my pieces have too many air bubbles. The directions suggest letting it set for 5 minutes.. I am thinking maybe letting it set for 10 minutes next time. I can defiantly tell which ones were poured first vs. later. The later ones are much less bubbly. Also the room was colder, and the directions suggest that can cause more bubbles.

It's hard to judge how much to pour into the cup. The cups/findings we used varied by depth.. I actually over poured a few pieces, and they were the deeper ones.
It's very important to keep the pieces level while they dry. We stacked them on shelves in the closet out of the way, and one of the shelves wasn't very level, didn't realize it til later. Those pieces have a definite slant.

My favorite piece I made is my starry night bracelet. Each component is a section of the painting starry night by Vincent van Gogh and the middle one is the whole painting in miniature. I've always loved this painting ( who doesn't??) It was so much fun playing around with this famous painting.

My conclusions about resin? It can be fun, but waiting 72 hours before it's completely dry sucks. I might have to look at the UV versions ( UV light resin can be cured very quickly!) Also, I bagged one of the pendants a week later and noticed it stuck to the bag. so now I have non shinny marks on the surface.. not good. I don't know if this means I didn't mix it quite right or if it got wet in the bag or something or what. Something to research sometime.

I will probably do more resin in the future.. if nothing else I still have 3/4Th's of the ice resin, and that's with pouring 21 cabs and 3 bracelets between the 3 of us!

Girl's Weekend Part II

Random moments during the weekend. Here Sue is LOOKING for something. Only she knows what!
Some of Sue's work from the weekend, she's very into steam punk right now. I really loved how they turned out...
Cathie showing off her Tiara!
Here I am industrially working away!

Another sucessful BeadCon, aka Girls Weekend Oct 7-10th, part 1

I so look forward to girls weekend! For long time viewers of my blog ( all 3 of you! LOL) I get together with my bestest buddies from South Dakota 3-4 times a year. When ever we get together we call it a BeadCon. We even have bags, and take turns making favors for our bags each time we meet. You can tell from the line of charms, we have been doing this for awhile!

At least one of those weekends we camp out at a hotel in Omaha ( as it's the biggest city within almost equal distance of each of us) We bring our own tables, and fill a hotel suite with beads, components, findings, food and companionship. We usually try to take a class together, and we are either getting a new challenge for next time or showing off the results from the challenge. No matter what we do we have amazing amounts of fun.

This weekend proved to be no different. We met up at our normal meeting up place: Rockbrook village. It's this great block mall that's conveniently just off the interstate I use to get to Omaha, and the interstate that Cathie & Sue use. It's also got a very nice bead shop, a wine & cheese shop, great restaurants and the best damn sugar cookies I've ever had at Garden Cafe. I always get some with homemade cream cheese frosting. yum! HEAVEN!

After much exchanging of greetings and hugs, the first day together is usually shopping and settling in day. We usually take a tour of local bead shops, the glass shop (mostly for me!) check into the hotel and transform our suite into tableland, with enough combined jewelry making goodness to rival any bead store in town! Then we hunker down and get to beading.

Thursday night was mostly exchanging of presents, checking out the challenge pieces this year, and started our "class" - playing with resin, which I'll cover in another post. This year's challenge was to make something that represented one of us, and we drew names. Sue got my name, and made this most charming muse for me. (Cathie named her Esmeralda) The body is cut copper sheet, in a heart shape, then hammered for textured. The face is a bone cab and the hair is wire cork-screwed into pig tails. I often put my hear up in a pony tail or pig tails when I'm working on stuff-- my hair is thick, long and gets in the way! The legs end in tennis shoe beads, because I'm always wearing tennis shoes, unless I'm in bed. Thanks Sue, it's now decorating my main desk lamp in the studio!

Cathie got Sue's name, and made this wonderful "cha-cha" bracelet mostly in Sue's, Cathie's and I's favorite colors. Sue loves cha-cha's bracelets! They are an incredible amount of work, good job Cathie!

I got Cathie's name. Now I think Cathie is one of best people I know, and she has a big heart and mothers everyone (but in a good way!) I don't think she get's the recognition she deserves for all her hard work on other's behalf. So I played around with this idea for some time, and finally decided she was the queen of good hearts, or at least a princess, and every princess needs a Tiara!! Besides I knew Cathie didn't have one!! If you can tell, the top wire motif is a spiral like heart, and it's a mixture of Austrian crystal and really good Chinese crystal. It fit her almost like it was made for her! LOL !! It's sort of funny this challenge was very open ended but we all used hearts in our projects... we all love each other like sisters of the heart, if not blood.

Artfire part II

I've updated my Artfire blog! See what's on my desk in my studio right this minute!

I've also been trying to list items like a crazy woman. My goal is 30 listings by the end of the week.. I'm at 25 right now, Woot!! My goal is by the end of next week is 60 listings. Most of them right now are component or glass cabs, but I'm hoping to get more jewelry up this weekend. To be honest, it's faster and easier to list findings/beads etc than jewelry. Jewelry requires much more photography work, and better descriptions. I will do this work, but it takes time. Once I build my store up to 60-70 listings, I'll am hoping to list 4-6 new items a week. I think I can handle that many a week and do a good job.

I've also got to update my website to show Artfire as my "store". One of the things I really like about Artfire is if someone wants to buy something, they are not forced to open an account. This makes it perfect to have on my website! While I like Etsy, you have to sign up to buy. While I would recommend people to create accounts on either site, it is a barrier to some. People do not like to be forced, and some folks just don't want to remember 1 more password. I am all about removing barriers from my customers !

There are several things I can do to make my Artfire studio store more successful, and I'm planning on doing them all.

relaunching my Artfire store...

These earrings feature pearls ( Love pearls!!) and PMC leaves I made earlier this year.

I've been playing around on various on line art stores, and after considerable thought I've decided to go with Artfire. I'm making a comment that for the next 6 months I'm going to try to make a consistent effort to keep it stocked, to tweet about it, to blog about and to just really give sweat and effort into the store.

I've got a goal to get at least 30 listings up by Sunday. I'm almost half way there. I've also been playing around with a bunch of features, learning more about the site. Tonight I made a collection, and boy it was easy. you can see it here .

Another feature of Artfire is a on-site blog. That one I'm more torn about, as I really like blogging here. So I'll probably blog back and forth and posts links back and forth. Then after my 6 months, I'll decide what I want to do about the blogs. I like blogging... so I"m not going to stop!!

So lots of changes coming along business wise. I still have a few things on Etsy, but for now I'm focused on Artfire. So check out my shop!

Why - Why Not? earrings with style !

I love these earrings! Sterling silver disks are punched out of sterling sheet, then textured, stamped, and domed all by hand. I added patina in the recesses and then polished the raised parts for high contrast. Then red crystals added because that's the color of the attitude these earrings possess!

Sometimes as women, we really have to talk ourselves into doing something fun, maybe alittle bit crazy. These earrings are giving you permission to relax, have fun and do something for yourself that you deserve.. maybe it's to schedule a movie night with the girls.. maybe it's trying that new triple chocolate latte crumb cake that smells so heavenly! Maybe it's taking a few hours off work so you can get your errands done early and be able to spend more time with the family. What ever the treat you are denying yourself for what ever the reason.... ask yourself the question: why? and then answer it: Why not?

These earrings are available in any color you want, please note each earring will be different, no 2 will be the same. I use different combinations of stampings and texturing, so each pair is unique and made for just one person!

When Mistakes go good...

I really love how this ended up, but boy, was it a pain to get it there! About a month ago I was wrapping this Mexican coin. I bought it with a bunch of other foreign coins jumbled in a jar at a antique shop. It's somewhat worn, but after I cleaned it up I thought it would still work great as a pendant. I really wanted to do a formal border wrap, something really simple because I thought I could make it more unisex than most of my jewelry pieces as a wrapped coin by it's nature can be either way. I was trying to make a nice twisted wire running on the sides and something happened that's never happened to me before -- I broke the wire!!

After I got over the shock, I decided to keep working on the piece and see if I could save it anyway. So I snipped the other side in the same place and came up with these curly prongs. I think it looks great, and I never would have though of it if I hadn't broken one of the wires.

I love it when a mistake turns out to be the best thing possible for your piece!!

It ended up being more of a female piece though, I just had to make all those lovely graceful swoops at the top!!

Now that my regular show season is done, I can play, right?

Well yes and no.... I actually have 2 shows in October, and one in November. There is a strong change I'll have another show in November, and I'm considering one in December. So at least, I have 3 shows before Christmas, and possibly 5. So I still need to think about inventory concerns.

And I'm in 2 galleries, and I'm working on a third one, so I need to be aware of inventory for them.

I have an etsy shop which I've basically ignored for several months, and an artfire shop that I've not had anything in for 2-3 months. It would be nice to get those going again.

I want to start updating this blog more than weekly again!

Late October/early November I need to start pushing applications out for next year shows... that involves research, time and money.. and I really want to get new slides made up, and I need at least 2 more strong pieces for that.

Then you have all the normal life stuff getting in the way... work, family (and Kittens!) and house up keep. One big project this year, which I've back burnered for far too long is getting replacement windows.

I love my wonderful, big, filled with oak woodwork 1920's house. I don't love the drafts we get every year, or the scary gas and electric bills I get in the winter. Windows have been on the list for years now, but with the tax rebate for windows ending this year, it seemed a great time to tackle this. We have 37 windows in our house, and the plan is to replace all the first floor ones (20) and the bedroom ones (4) So I've been busy the last few weeks scheduling appointments with window providers and doing research on windows. Today we have picked a company. Hopefully in 4 to 5 weeks we will have highly efficient windows in place and much less money in our pockets. I can't wait to see how less scary the gas bill will be this winter! We are going with Clear Choice. They gave us a heck of a deal, and their windows look really really good, both in quality and in looks. It's been really funny, it seems just about everyone is getting windows replaced right now. At least 2 of my neighbors, and 3 people at work. Out of this group of 6 people, 3 of us went to Clear Choice, so I feel pretty good about my choice. Tomorrow they come out to do the official window measurements and place the actual order. So this is at least 1 project off my list, and one less thing keeping me out of my studio! WOOT!!

Now that I've whined about how busy I am again, I have played with glass this weekend!! I got a load done Sunday night, I have a frit load for tonight, and I'm hoping I'll have enough pieces cut to run another on Friday. I promise pictures soon! I also got my Challenge piece done for Girls Weekend! Yea!!!! That I cannot show you until during or after girl's weekend.. because I can't let Cathie and Sue peek! They have to wait until October 7!

The wrapped pendant on Top is Vintage Japanese glass, and sterling wire. The pic below is Kya the cutie. While I've typed this, Kassanova ( the other kitten) has been sleeping on me. No kittens were harmed in the production of this blog!! ( just annoyed because my body keeps moving and he's trying to sleep! )

I can see the end from here....

Wow! I have Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market this Sat (7-12pm), and my regular show season is done! I have a few shows sprinkled through the fall and winter, but no more back to back shows for 6-8 weeks at a stretch! The very first thing on my wish list is glass fusing! Just as soon as Jerry (my wonderful and patient hubby) get's the car unloaded Sat afternoon, I close the books on Sat show's and get any commissions done, I'm going to cut glass! I'm hoping to get start getting 2-3 glass runs a week starting on Saturday.

Each glass run in the kiln can take 10 hours, so I usually run them at night. So Sat afternoon will be prepping for a run Sunday night. (Some of the processes in cutting the glass and positioning it to fuse involves drying time, so generally I have to run them the next day. Promise sometime soon to run step by step trough a run!) If I'm working on Cabs, which is what I'm normally working on, I can "cook" up to 12 or so in each run. Now it's not aways that many, but that's about the max I can put in the kiln at one time. To save energy I want the loads as full as possible.
Some of my cabs end up larger, and take up more space... and some are odd shapes that take up more space. (as you can see from the 3 cabs I've wrapped in this blog, many of my cabs are odd shapes. I am in a real triangle mode of late ) I've started to fill in the "blank" spaces with little bits of glass that I can use in later projects. Sort of making my own mini-cabs for projects. So far in playing with glass I've gone for the full fused look, but I've got some ideas simmering for tack fusing ( where you just melt the layers of glass enough to stick together, but not melt all the way ) so my little bits are for that.

My long anticipated Girls Weekend is coming up in 2 weeks, so I need to get ready for that.. including my challenge piece. I have sketches, I have all the materials I need now.. it's just a matter of having time ( if my idea works!)

I've got tons of back log projects, new materials, new toys and I can't wait to have more time to create items !!!!

And of course there is the more mundane items of running a household, doing my normal 9-5 job and being a wife and mom.

I'll never be bored.

A Quickie Post

Trying to get ready for my last 2 day show of the year ( at least that I know of) Here are some recent pendants, and for once I believe all of these are still for sell. First up is another fused glass Pendant wrapped in sterling, and I really think it turned out so well.
This pendant is Crazy Lace Blue Agate, with sterling and a few crystals. You can't really see it in the photo, but the agate has some druzy on it.. yummmm!
Last is a another blue pendant (in sterling) with crystals added. I just realized all 3 are blue in some fashion, good thing that is my favorite color!!

I'll be in Davenport this Weekend at Riverssance I hope to see some of you there!

More Pendants in time for Artapaloolza in Cedar Falls IA!

OK that's stretching that alittle.. these are pics of pendants I've made sometime this summer, not what I've made in the last few weeks. The last few weeks have been crazy busy.. among many items, my Daughter is celebrating a birthday - 14! - and most of this week is cleaning the house and then decorating it for her "luau" themed party. Tomorrow is the big day, and then the crazy really starts: getting up at 3:30-4am to be on the road no later than 5am to get to Artapaloolza by 7am to be set up by 9am. Still it's worth all the effort, Artapaloolza is one of the best shows in this region, and it's such a fun show!! I couldn't make it last year, so I'm very excited we get to go again this year. Seriously if you are in the area, stop by, the show is 9 to 4pm. Be sure to stop by my booth, and say hi!

OK alittle about my pendants, this first one is sterling twisted wire on mystery jasper. The second is again sterling wire, formed into a graceful shaped leaf with more jasper. Last is another version of my wire flowers. I love making these!! Hopefully next week I'll be able to make more pendants... and earrings, and necklaces and pins and .. oh anything that feels good at the time!!

Earrings, Mage Con, Kittens and such...

I love this picture of myself, my daughter and my wonderful kitten Kass! He likes to sleep on me, and nothing short of a sleeping baby is more peaceful than a sleeping kitten! We could all use more peace and love and fun in our lives.. I highly recommend a kitten!
These first earrings already sold, but they are the web built on my own sterling soldered rings I make. You can't go wrong with pearls and sterling!!

I got a little time today to cut glass, and boy did I miss it! I've got 2 runs set up and I'm keeping fingers crossed that I can run one tonight and then again one tomorrow. Now that it's cooler out, hopefully we can run the kiln and Jesscera's air conditioner at the same time. ( got to love older houses and their wiring!) We had a couple of issues with that during the summer, and then with the kittens living in the studio, and I couldn't really play with my glass for safety reasons. I have several ideas bouncing around in my head, and it's great to actually think glass again.

Mage Con is this weekend, really looking forward to it... mostly because of the great folks I get to hang out with !! And it's a huge opportunity to catch up on inventory. I'm also thinking about Halloween and Christmas jewelry, and I've been pulling stuff to make at Mage for these holidays coming up.

These earrings are sterling wire and orange glass. I really like the weird off center orange "tooth" and wanted to make something that accentuated the shape of the bead. I believe these already sold also ( yah, I know, I need to get new pictures taken! )

I'm also working on my Challenge piece for this years Girls Weekend. The challenge is to make a piece that represents one of my friends, and we drew names. I got Cathie, and I've been thinking about this challenge ( got the details in Feb!) off and on for months. I mean, a single piece of jewelry to tell the story of my wonderful and complicated buddy! Wow! I finally got a hopefully good and workable idea a few weeks ago, but had to order some materials for it. Just got the shipment this past week.. so now it's finding a couple of long nights where I can work on it. Girls Weekend is Oct 7-10th this year, so I don't have that much time, considering I have shows almost every weekend til then!