new pieces

I am trying to convince myself to type something to the effect that this has been a challenging week when actually the week has sucked.  Big time.  Monsoon rains and a root canal.  The highlight of the week was discovering a new app to go along with PhotoToaster - TitleFx.  Now I can put watermarks on my photos with my business name.  I have the idea that this makes them look more professional.  Not like I took them on my old picnic table with the cheapest digital camera Costco had.  At least, I think so.

These two are pretty normal for me, but then I did this one -

The challenge with this one was putting it together so that the wearer could still open the ghau amulet box to put some keepsake or affirmation in.  The solution I came up with was to use a vintage lanyard clasp.  I think I may have grunged up the faux cinnabar bead and green Tara on the ghau amulet a little too much.  When I see it, I want to run it under the faucet.

I'm working on re-doing a neckace display bust I got half off at Michael's.  Some of the necklaces really need to be photographed on a neck, real or otherwise, and believe me, nobody wants to see my neck.  NObody.

(See the watermarks?  Is that cool or what?)

lucky duck ...

Does everyone who makes things keep the best bits for themselves?  I can't be the only one.  I don't actually trust that I'll find the older, more unusual pieces that I used to be able to find on E-Bay, at least at prices I can afford, so I tend to hoard them.  The necklace below is evidence of that dilemma.

I used of some older Tibetan beads that I bought in a grab bag of broken stuff a few years back.  I would love to know what the pendant on the right side was originally used for.  I stuck a quartz crystal point into the  cavity and  I was going to wrap it with a blessing and some silk, but now I can't get it out.  A couple of the other beads look very well used too.  The silver skin is peeling off one of the metal beads and the carnelians are cracked and broken.  The amber "beeswax"  bead was missing one of its silver caps and I found that one of the repousse' caps fit perfectly on it.  I put a new bail on the Kwan Yin shrine and glued Her back in where She had just been rattling around inside.

I wish I had the psychic ability to know all about a thing simply by touching it, to be able to read whatever vibrational memories an object might have acquired.  Jewelry in particular, worn close to the skin.  I wish I knew who owned these beads and if it was hard to part with them or if they were just broken jewelry parts and they were glad to sell them.

Maybe I'll put This neckace up on Etsy with an outrageous price tag.  I've had two complaints recently from people who actually took the time to write and tell me that my stuff is "way too expensive".  My other listings will look like bargains by comparison.  Hmmm.....

Here's another new dangly piece that I'll be listing as soon as I figure out how to describe it:

And a silver necklace that's been just sitting around waiting for a clasp:

And another older piece that I lsted on Etsy recently:

The lapis beads in this necklace really are this deep blue.  With the gold flecks in them, they look like the night sky.

You know, I've realized that this has become my job.  A job I can do in my pajamas.  I am very very lucky.

homeward bound

Winding up my latest stay in North Carolina and getting ready to head back to my dogs, what's left of my garden, and - oh yeah - I think I may have left a husband back there in Noo Yawk.  We watched back to back episodes of Long Island Medium yesterday to prepare for my re-entry to Lawn Guyland.  It takes me about a day before I want to punch someone out in the local Stop-and-Shop.  I always miss the uber-polite Southern supermarket baggers who say,"Y'all want me to put the sacks in the buggy, ma'am??"

Sigh...I could so get used to people being nice to me.

Will try to get the latest piece listed on Etsy.

guilt tripping ...

It's Spring on the Piedmont Plateau.  It was still very much Winter when I left New York nearly a month ago and although I wouldn't miss waking up to my 13 week old granddaughter's smiling little face and spending weekends with my other grandchildren for anything, I do wish sometimes that I knew the secret of being in two places at once.  I dream at night about the roof of my house on Long Island collapsing and of huge sinkholes opening up and swallowing the laundry room.  My daughter and I try out fabulous new recipes that we find on Pinterest and my husband at home is surviving on Costco rotisserie chickens.

The trick, I think, is just to live in the moment (as I was typing this, I wrote "love" instead of "live" and that's right too I suppose).  Be here now.  And so I am.

I've managed to get some new pieces photographed, using a wonderful rusty gas grill side tray as a background and I'll try to get them listed on Etsy tomorrow.  Meanwhile, here's a preview:

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.