PLEASE FINISH ME!

The other day I opened a box that was on the shelf in my studio.  It scared me half to death.  All the little pendants on the inside started yelling "FINISH ME, FINISH ME".  So I took them out and took out my beading board and put them on one at a time and told them I would do the best I could to finish them.  After two hours I had every bead I owned, every crimp, crimp cover, chain, toggle and 4,000 feet of wire on my table.  Does this happen to just me?  I still have 3 boxes full of pendants and pieces that need finishing, my office looks like an explosion and I can't find the top of my work table but I did manage to finish some things.

Love this heart made from the Randee Ketzel tutorial.

This is Mr. October.

Husband approved this one.

I love this one.  Another one from the Randee Ketzel tutorial.

Purple and turquoise, my favorite color combination.

I hear more pendants calling me.  

Maybe it's just the voices in my head or it could be a sinus infection.  Now, if I can find the top of my work table it will be a wonderful day.

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.

TH EARTHY INFLUENCE NECKLACE

THE TORY HUGHES EARTHY INFLUENCE NECKLACE.

This is the necklace I've been working on since I took the Tory Hughes class two weeks ago.  I wasn't able to finish it right away because I had to finish the buttons for our clay guild's exchange this Saturday.

We took two classes from Tory.  One was called mixed media and the other one was hinges.  This necklace was made with mostly Premo clay.  I textured the front and back and then antiqued it with acrylic paint after it baked.  The necklace is made of deep brown chips and small pieces of turquoise.  The toggle is a beautiful antique copper piece that I found at a bead store.  The top hinge was made from 20 gauge copper wire that I bought from A Beaded Affair http://www.abeadedaffair.com/.  She sells beautiful copper wire and has an Etsy page also http://www.etsy.com/shop/abeadedaffair.  I love this wire and won't use any other copper wire.  I got spoiled.  The bottom pieces are 18 gauge copper wire (also from A Beaded Affair).

This is the back of necklace.  I guess I could wear it either way.

As you can see on the top, it leans down to an angle.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do this so it would hang straight so I used the 16 gauge copper wire and made eye pins and attached them to the piece and put the chips going between the eye pins.  The single turquoise piece on the bottoms swings freely which I really like.

I'm still working in my dining room because of the flood in my studio and the new window won't be in till the 24th of February so, I guess I'll be here at least another two weeks by the time everything is done.  I guess I should be thankful.  It could have been a lot worse, at least I can still do clay and my 18 year old cat Booboo is sleeping right here next to me.  He got a blanket in the mail from Humane Society of the United States and he loves it.  He sure snores loud though.