still making lots of soup and delicious jewelry

Soon it will be too hot for soup-making, but never too hot for playing with beads and charms and stuff.

back sides ...

Kim from Numinosity Beads, who makes fabulous glass beads, headpins and other artifacts for jewelry makers -    (www.etsy.com/shop/NuminosityBeads)

requested a look at the back of a wire wrapped element in the previous post, so here are a few examples.  I'm no expert at doing this, but I'm willing to make dumb mistakes and redo a piece until I get it to my satisfaction.  That means basically that I want it to look interesting and fairly neat and I want everyone to think that I meant it to come out exactly that way.  Fortunately, I do get better the more experience I get.   Using precious silver wire, I never would have attempted this kind of thing, but with cheap steel wire - I am utterly fearless.

And here's an "Air" piece I just finished as a counterpoint to the "Earth" necklace I posted last time:

A Prayer for the East - Air amulet necklace

grey skies

Grey skies - too cold to get the peas planted but perfect for photographing my latest pieces outdoors.

I've been home from the Land of Barbeque and Hush Puppies for a week now, missing my grandchildren terribly.  I found out that airport security doesn't seem to care how much wire and beads of all persuasions you've managed to pack into your carryon, as long as you have nothing in a liquid state, they are not interested.  And also - even though you've brought everything you thought you could possibly need, there will be some essential thing that's sitting on your worktable at home.

And then of course, there was this slight distraction:

Here are my latest offerings:

green man amulet necklace

close-up of green man

earth & bone charm bracelet

amethyst peace charm bracelet

the deer shaman's necklace

close-up of deer shaman's necklace

red jasper warrior's amulet necklace

close-up

In my hurry to get something posted last night, I left off the newest necklace. This one has Peruvian opal, Prehnite, green garnet, abalone, and mother-of-pearl.  There are two amulets attached:  a vintage one from Tibet that I think may be a bodhi seed and the little green dangle at the bottom that was carved by an Afghani refugee living in Turkey and looks like a bird or a bug to me.  Oh yes - and a copper Tibetan skull (I love these), a West African coin, and a triangular bronze bezel filled with a sequined sari fragment and topped with Ice Resin.

Time flies...

shaman's charm bracelet

Here on Long Island we waited three months for a winter that never came.  I actually like a little bit of snow to make everything look clean and pretty for a while, but  I'm not complaining.  We were far more fortunate than other places in the world.  But time has gone by really fast and I haven't managed to keep the resolution I made to post on a regular basis. (I also haven't exercised regularly, if you want to know the whole truth.)  To compound my usual procrastination, a short trip to North Carolina turned into a two week visit with my jewelry making supplies left at home.  In order to keep me from completely filling up her fridge and freezer with homemade soup and driving her insane, my daughter turned me on to Pinterest and I was an instant addict.
The thing is, every time I hit that PIN-IT button, I had the illusion that I was being creative, which was almost as satisfying as actually creating something.  I was becoming a virtual artist.  I told myself that I was doing "inspirational research" and that my Pinterest boards would look cool linked to my blog (which I just can't figure out how to do).  Fortunately my short attention span issues kicked in and some sweet little copper melon beads started crying out for a patina and before you could say "Liver of Sulfur", I was back at my work table.

http://pinterest.com/maggiezee/

Shells, I Ching coin, Tibetan copper skull, Egyptian rock crystal

I Ching coin, garden quartz, waterbuffalo tooth, Saharan bead, vintage MOP button

Amulet necklace with shed deer antler tip, ammonite, Saharan quartz bead, resin-filled bronze bezel

Close-up of bezel:  vintage brass button, sequins, artemisia vulgaris root

Close-up of dangles

Taking the big leap...

After spending most of the day writing my first blog post, I managed to hit "delete" instead of "edit" and sent the whole thing off into hyperspace oblivion.  How come every other program on this computer asks me a minimum of sixteen times if I really mean to do that before it actually erases anything? "Are you sure you want to delete that?  Maybe you should think about it a little more." That will teach me not to do anything of importance at 1:14 in the morning.  Sometimes my brain is not my best friend.

So let me start this rewrite by saying that I never expected to be writing a blog.  Although I really enjoy reading other people's, especially hearing about their creative processes and seeing their work, it feels a little self-indulgent to be doing it myself.  Why do I think anyone else might possibly be interested in knowing what I'm up to?  (Subtext:  Who the hell do I think I am???)  Well, I'm doing it because Etsy says so.  Etsy also says to link my blog to my FaceBook page, my website and my Etsy shop.

Right.

Detail of "The Empress" ,
quilt - hand dyed  fabrics

I've been collecting beads and buttons and little sparkly things ever since I learned to walk.  I still walk along with my eyes on the ground so I won't miss some treasure: a shell, a stone, a fabulous rusty runover bottlecap.  (And I'm still smacking my head into police call boxes and low hanging branches.) I take my goodies home and lovingly sort them and put them into those wonderful plastic boxes with all the dividers and sometimes in those plastic containers takeout food comes in.  And then eventually they find other things that they need to be with so they can have a conversation together.  Sometimes they want to be part of an Altoid tin shrine (I call them mojos).  Those are sort of like the art quilts I made in another life, reduced down to their essence and concentrated in pocket size.  I learned from quilt-making that if you want to be able to realize your visions, you need to have acquired the yardage to start with.

Amulet bracelet

So after several years of buying cool beads and things on E-Bay and Etsy and at every bead show within driving distance,  I've assembled more earrings and necklaces than I can possibly wear in a lifetime.  I've been inspired by Connie Fox's "brangles" and by ethnic jewelry of all kinds.  I've bought beads and pendants from refugees from Tibet and Afghanistan and from glass beadmakers all over the U.S.  Now I find myself unemployed and able to devote a big chunk of my time to developing my own style.  As I figure out the photography side of all this, I'll be posting more of my work.  I'm so inspired by the jewelry artists out there who are pushing the envelope and making pieces that look like artifacts from another civilization.  Some of their blogs are listed in my profile.  Please check them out - they are amazing.  My biggest inspirations are Dawn Wilson-Enoch and Susan Lenart Kazmer.  If you haven't tried Susan's Ice Resin yet, do yourself a favor and order some.

Thanks!

No ladybugs were harmed
in the making of these earrings
(but I had to rough up a 
spider a bit...)