EARRINGS, EARRINGS AND OH YES, MORE EARRINGS

My 96 year old friend Jane who is in a nursing home back in Wisconsin is having the time of her life.  I haven't heard her this happy in a long time.  In a prior post I mentioned that she dresses up every day and in the past 8 years I've made her earrings and necklaces to go with every outfit.  In the last month she's started quite a little business out there with the nurses and employees of the home.  They all saw her earrings and asked if she could get more.  She's been selling earrings for me by the dozens.  My fingers are sore from bending wires.  I talked to her yesterday and she gave me an order for 9 more pair besides the pink ones I was trying to finish.  She sold a pair right out of her ears (she asked if it was ok that she used the money to buy a bottle of vodka).  They bring her a martini every night.  When 4 o'clock rolls around she calls it "Martin Hour".  Now she got a pad of paper and is designing earrings.  She tells me how exciting it is.  I'll see her in September when we go back for my nephew's wedding.  This is what I have been doing all weekend.

This is the pink set.  You can click on the picture to see them up close.

I like these with the black pearls.

Everything for this lady had to be in silver.

She also wanted chunky and turquoise so I put posts on the front ones.  They aren't as heavy as they look.

Next request was long, coral.  Must be silver.

Burgundy and dress up.

This lady wanted long and fun, I like these too.  All three women that I'm making earrings for are over 6 feet tall.  I told Jane "that's quite a height requirement for working there".

More long and fun.

Black and white and silver.

I wish I had bought more fancy headpins and lever back ear wires.  They all wanted lever backs.  Made some of my own headpins and hammered them.

I'm going to sit on a heating pad.  My back is tired.  Now I just have to pack them up and mail them.

Hey Booboo, I'm doing better but I think about you every day.   I think this Halloween in honor of your birthday I'm going to eat tuna fish all day and sleep in the closet.

LUCKY BURRO POOP PART 2

I'm not sure how many parts to this story there is going to be but it will be at least 3.

Here's part 2.  I sanded the resin on one of the pendants and it looked terrible so I put more resin on.  The first layer of resin was Gel du Soleil which I read about some where.  I ordered it because I like UV hardening resin.  It comes in a 9 ml bottle which is very small and the smell is very strong.  It does dry very clear.  I didn't realize the bottles were so small.  On top of that layer I put the burro poop and then another type of UV drying resin called Ultra Dome.  It's a bit thinner but also dries clear.  After all the chaos in the back yard and the problem with the resin I decided to put Magic Glos on it which I am a big fan of.  I put a layer on the top and put it in the sun and then I put a layer on the bottom and put it in the sun.  It actually looked pretty good but you could still see some of the problems where I think they fell on the rocks and the guys picked them up and put them back on the wall.

I decided I wanted them shiny so I put some gloss on them and put them back in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.  When I got them out I was shocked.

The resin had turned to amber.  I really like it better this way.  Not sure what caused the color change because I've rebaked Magic Glos and it never changed colors.

I made pendants out of them and going to give one as a gift and wear the other one to the casino tomorrow.

This necklace and bracelet were made by my friend Rose Anthony.  She did turquoise, amber, coral and a couple techniques to make beads.  She put this gorgeous necklace and bracelet together from all the beads.  The turquoise are my favorite, no maybe the amber or maybe the coral but I like the lapis too.  I can't decide.  LOL

Well, Part 3 will be here Thursday or Friday.  Stay tuned.