new york state of mind

I finally got around to listing this piece on Etsy.  I don't know what was holding me back.  The beautiful borosilicate bead is the last one that I had of the set; maybe the thought of parting with it was too daunting.  You really can't see how magical it is in the photos.  The green is like shards of Peruvian opal and there are so many shades of brown.  The little faceted rondelles of petrified wood echo the browns in the bead.  It really turned out to be a special necklace.  I believe that's a Herkimer Diamond wired across the horseshoe.  They're supposed to have tons of positive energy, despite their small size.

I bought of couple of these Endless Knot carved shell pendants a while back, intending to use them in summer necklaces.  I collaged the back with Chinese script, skeletonized leaves, silk fabric and bits of Godiva chocolate wrapper, protected by layers and layers of ModPodge and Renaissance Wax. The cord is braided and finger-woven.

I would wear it with the collage side up, but it's reversible.  Also very very long, so it can be tied at any length the wearer desires.  Very versatile and perfect for Summer.

Happy Mango Beads is having a contest to win some of its fabulous beads, so I made a new charm bracelet to enter.  They are a great company with a social conscience to boot.  I highly recommend checking them out.

february

The picnic table where I usually take my jewelry photos has about a foot of snow on it.  The temperature hasn't gotten above freezing in ages and I've had to resort to using a set up near a north window.  We cope.  It's not ideal, but it'll have to do for now.

Shoulder duster earrings with bone flowers, wooden skull beads and beautiful amber colored horn beads.  I wish I didn't have such a short fat neck and I could wear them myself.

Leather, copper, abalone shell and a bronze Thai Buddhist amulet.  Great casual piece.

Milagros earrings.  Praying for true love.

Another variation on the abalone and leather theme - this time with a fossilized ammonite shell, a fancy copper wire bead and a recycled glass bead that makes me think of a root beer bottle.

And oh - this one. 

 This one I may have to keep.  I love the brown and the green together.  The fossilized ammonite shell with its slight iridescence, the carved horn spike.  Oh yeah. I may need to keep this.

 

in my mind I'm goin' to Carolina ...

It's almost time to pack up the old Volvo wagon and head South for a bit.  The baby is talking, the bigger kids growing ... well, bigger.  FaceTime is wonderful, but little Izzy thinks that Grandma Maggie lives in Mama's phone.  There's no place to set up all my wire and beads, so I'm trying to get everything finished, photographed and listed on Etsy before I go.

Can't wait for the AppleFest and the Dixie Classic Fair.  Apple dumplings!  Pig races!  Autumn in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Maybe we can get in a visit to the alpaca farm.  Maybe I can start to look for my dream house ...

of whales and fairytales

A lot of the time when I'm working on a piece, I reach a point when I need something I don't already have, I run out of patinated wire, or I just don't know for sure which direction it wants to take.  I don't want to force it.  I want to midwife it gently - no forceps deliveries on my worktable.  Taking a break from the work usually means pulling up some weeds, loading the dishwasher, having a little lie-down ... but I especially like to read other people's blogs.  My favorites are on the left.  I'm so impressed when artists can coherently describe their processes.  It really makes me feel inadequate.  I love the blogs where an entire tutorial is presented. Words and photos.  How do they do it?  How would I ever become organized enough?  Would a photo showing the state of my cuticles make readers gag?

Here's the finished piece - Labradorite, bone, black garnet.  The Czech glass tube beads that make up the rosary chain are an iridescent grey that almost looks like the Labradorite.  There's the whale bone again in photo three.  Every time I move it, it leaves a little pile of calcium behind.  I wonder what kind of whale it was.  A humpback was sighted off the South Shore here this past week.  Every once in while one beaches and dies out on the East End of the Island.  When my kids were small, a young whale managed to find its way into the Inlet and then couldn't find its way back out into the Atlantic again.  We went down to the Bay to try to see him.  I think I remember that he was lured out by some fishing boats and my kids believed the story had a happy ending, but what happened to him in the wide Atlantic, I just don't know.  Was his mama able to find him?  I dearly would love to believe so.  I'm a sucker for happy endings.

light and dark in equal balance ...

Such a long cold snow-covered winter ... the temps are still low, and all is brown and dead in my garden, but I hope.  Pale green is the color of my hope.

A charm bracelet - a very restrained one for me.  Charms to meditate on: peace, love, serenity, infinity, connectedness.

A necklace inspired by a pewter (?) French school medal, found on holiday by my brilliant (and beautiful) friend Janet and brought home for me in appreciation of my dog-sitting service.

Another Prehnite bead (my last one, I fear), shell, mother-of-pearl beads, more pale green recycled glass beads, Hill Tribe silver charms, quartz point, a carved Afghan jade bug perhaps?  Accents of little petrified wood rondelles to keep the energy from floating away.

As the Wheel of the Year turns once again, season follows season and I wish you a happy Equinox, in balance, darkness and light in equal measure.