I haven't done a damn thing this week.....

I hate being sick but I do it so well..... At least I get a pun out of my cold.  This first picture is what I wish my desk looks like--  productive!!!!

This cold is sucking all my energy - by the time I get home from work, I can hardly move.  If this follows the normal pattern I'll finally feel start to feel better tomorrow.  By Saturday I should feel pretty human again (I hope!) just in time for Downtown farmers market.  This is the last FM for the year-- we will be located near the Science Center on 4th street.  The other pics show u how some of these projects turned out.  I stil have most of these-- these pics are from 3-4 weeks ago.   

Fused Glass necklace - Just a pic today!

Craftsman Bracelet

Since I'm on a roll with tag bracelets, here is a craftsman drill tag.  cute!

Western Electronics bracelet

I'm having a blast on girls weekend.. so here is a quickie picture of one of my favorite tag bracelets... from a Weston Electric voltmeter.  There was a huge hole in the middle where a dial lived, so I took that opportunity to add a clock gear.  This bracelet is still available.

next up: Girls Weekend! wheeeee!

This will be brief.. in fact all blog entries this week will probably be brief, cause it's Girl's Weekend this week! woot!  So everyone, have a good weekend, and I'll think of you when I'm having that mango Margaretta with the gals!

Singer sewing machine bracelets, these are the last until I can find more old singer sewing machines, and only the top left colored one is left.....

Friday night in the hotel.....

Tomorrow is Riverssance, which will be awesome! The weather will be perfect, and so I'm sure will the crowds.. if you are in the Davenport Area, you should stop by for sure!

Last post I showed a pic of my worktable, and I got a question on what the cash register cog was for.  Why this lovely necklace! This is the last of the cash register cogs I have, though we have a couple of cash registers laying around ready to be salvaged whenever Jerry has time again to do so.  The crystal is a vintage chandelier crystal, and the chain ( I adore the chain!! ) is vintage copper... it's shaped like mini- clasps I just love it!        

Done in time for Riverssance!

You can see this piece in person this weekend at Riverssance in Davenport Iowa this Saturday and Sunday.

I started this a couple of weeks ago, as you can see on my project tray.  Note the stickie on the dragonfly-- that's me planning out the holes to be drilled.  I'll be honest, I originally thought to make the dragonfly a bracelet, but messed up on drilling the hole too close to the edge-- making it unsafe to use that way.  With this design I turned those holes into decorative effects instead.  Once I laid out my design I thought the color of the dragonfly was too close with the vintage gears.  Normally I add color to the critter but this time I decided to add it to the gears.  I love how it turned out!  I think I'll add color to the gears more in the future.

Earring roundup

Just trying to catch up on my picture files--  here's a bunch of earrings made in the last couple of months.

Dragonfly necklace

Good morning everyone!   Has anyone else noticed in the new Campbell Soup campaign one of the commercials features gay dads with a kid?   I think this is so awesome and really shows how far American thinking has turned on the issue of gay rights, marriage and all that jazz.  I mean a freakin' Campbell soup commercial !!!  Like is good.    This necklace is a old 1930's or earlier pocket watch with brass and crystal embellishments.

Leather cuffs

In the catagory of "Gee, I should make more of these" I would put leather cuffs.  Both of these are already sold.

Bottom pic gives you an idea of what the leather part looks like.

Artapalooza is this weekend!

 This is what my desk looks like right this moment.  I've got several items in different phases of construction--

I'm not sure I've actually just come out and said this.. but my hubby is now a fully employed teacher.  This means that after 3 years, we are back to being a 2 - income family.  And this time around he's got a career instead of just a paycheck, a career where he can make a positive difference in other's lives.  I think his soul is happier now than it's been in years.

 

I'm so proud of him.. going back to school after more than 20 years!!   He sometimes has doubts on how well he's done / doing,  but his standards are - sometimes - well,  inappropriately high.  ( is that diplomatic enough?)

 

So Honey, I’m proud of you.  

 

Meanwhile , I'm in my normal pre-show frenzy.  This weekend we have Artapalooza, in Cedar Falls, IA and it's one of my favorite shows every year.  It's well run, well patronized, right by 2nd hand shops and has 2 decent bakeries within  walking.   Everyone, from the show organizers to all the customers, are just so darn excited and friendly and genuinely happy to see us!

 

I don't want to disappoint these people!   So I'm working hard on getting as many new pieces done -- good pieces!! -- as I can in the limited time I have.   The only bad thing about this show is it's so late in my season, so I feel like I don't have any "good" stuff left to share with them.

 

hm.  maybe high standards runs in the family?

 

I'm sooo glad to have project runway back!!

For those joining this blog in progress, here is the recap:

I'm a huge fan of Project Runway.  Huge.

I've not watched it for about 3 years, because we dropped Direct TV to cut household costs down.  So for the last 3ish years, we have had DVDs , 1 tv with an digital rabbit ears and Netflix, when the wifi worked well enough in the house to use it. (Don't get me started on the wifi)

For the most part not having cable/satellite hasn't been all that bad.  I miss just turning the TV on and catching odd and kewl stuff more or less randomly.  I really just use it  for back ground noise while I do chores or work on jewelry design.  I just like having something on, I just think better that way.

And I missed 4 specific shows - Walking Dead, Colbert, Jon Stewart and Project Runway. 

Now almost 3 years later, we are getting satellite back!  Due to needing a new dish, it got bumped from this weekend to next weekend.

I just couldn't wait -- so I've been watching Season 14 of Runway to catch up, and I bought seasons 1-5 of Walking Dead so I'm all ready to go when it starts up again.

Colbert and Stewart are sadly no more.  I'm going to try out the new host for the Daily news, and Maybe I'll catch Colbert in his new gig.... but I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of catching up Dead and Runway!

Earring roundup

Clock hands and gears from an adding machine

These are my "upscale" earrings... top hats and vintage watch faces make classy out on the town earrings

vintage check writing machine .  I carefully shaped these number strips into nice round rings, and wire wrapped them into hoop earrings.  This was my last pair, unless  I find another adding machine or check writing machine that has the numbers like this.

real vs. fake

I got asked the question recently about if I used reproduction stuff or real stuff, like my singer tag bracelets.  

While I use some reproduction stuff, I usually incorporate it in with vintage materials.  

Since I'm usually going for a certain look, I can't always find what I need in real materials.  Also some of the vintage stuff needs backing or support.  Or I"m afraid it's too fragile to use.  

A good example is my time in a bottle series.. real vintage bottles can be pretty thin.  Also hard to find them -- so I use new bottles.

But I stuff them full of vintage clock and time parts.  

The singer tags are real... off old sewing machines we get at flea markets and such.  They are not working, grungy and dirty... we buy them, strip them and then I clean up the parts I want to use.

I love using vintage parts as much as possible, especially the clock and watch parts.  I love faces and gears!  

I don't think using real and fake mixed together is a bad thing, as long as when I sell them people understand what they are buying.  I try to make sure the vintage stuff is marked on my price tags.  Still I'm human and if you are looking at my jewelry just ask when you are not sure.

close up on Gear earrings

Not feeling chatty today so enjoy some pictures!

Recently tripped over these really cute bails, so I tried them on gears a couple of different ways..

wrench

A couple of weeks ago on our grand Hwy 141 garage sale, Jerry found this wrench.  Its old and grungy, which is perfect.. and it was only half there.

Only Jerry and I would buy a broken wrench.

But doesn't it look great on a handmade riveted bail?

Jewelry Re-do

Farmer's Market this morning couldn't have gone better -- the crowds, the weather and well, everything conspired to make it an inspiring morning!

I can't believe how fast the year is going again .. we only have 2 farmer's market's left, one in September and 1 in October.  I only have 6 shows left for the year (well that I know of )

I'll try to be a busy busy busy beaver because we have 3 shows in September and our inventory is getting pretty slim.... so many great pieces sold today, including Time Medusa and Never Grow up.   I need to get my creative thinking cap on, and come up with more great pieces.  Sometimes when I'm stuck creatively, I take apart other jewelry, either my own pieces or something vintage or .. someone Else's .   

I got these earrings that used a bottle cap as the base.  Now they were fun and funky, but really large and not really me.

Love what the bottle cap says though! It's so interesting to see what drinks are available in other parts of the country.

So I made one of them into a pendant.  To add my own flair.. I added "oui" on the back and the drop crystal. So a person could wear it either way,  Oui at work and then flip it over when you go out with the girls after work!  This is fun necklace to go bar hopping in!

I got the earrings from B'Sue in one of her Muse packages.  Love those things!   I might have to beg for another one, I deserve a treat and they are a creative shot in the arm... lots' of lovely stuff to play with and things I might not buy on my own, but spark my brain when I have them in my hot little hands.

Earrings Earrings everywhere!

 During the last three weeks I've been making earrings like a mad woman, to the point I have earrings coming out of my , well, ears!!!               

Here are a couple of group shots.

I'll be at Downtown Farmer's Market This Saturday 7-12pm .   I'm on 3rd street north, should be just 1 or 2 booths off from the corner (3rd & court by the parking ramp) .

Flowers All around Me

Just pics today....

Lightbulbs are finished

Group shot, all 6 of them

 These turned out soooo much better than I was expecting!!


As I showed in my blog here, I added scrapbook "fake" pictures behind the lightbulbs.

"create" , I added a heart key, scissors, and a painter's palette and other charms

Then I glued brass filigree piece on the back, so I could make it into a pendant.  That didn't look sturdy enough for me, so I also wire-wrapped on top and reinforced that with glue as well.  Actually I like the wire on top... the lightbulbs had the metal piece, but the wire really makes that pop!

I picked out charms that matched the word (at least in my mind!) and added vintage wrapped pearls and crystals.

"adventure" .  passport, Italy, Paris, and more !

These will premiere next weekend at Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market!

"inspire" , a dream key, heart and charms & crystals