Well, POO!

Totally missed the month of August!  It went by so fast!   By Monday, I'll post some photos of progress and finishes.

Progress....and a Finish

I have some progress pictures and a finish to talk about today.  First, my progress pictures:

This is Grisella my Nifty Fifty doll.  I'm making her to celebrate my 5th decade.  She is supposed to be done by October.  I think she might be.  I was a bit stymied about her hair, but finally decided what should look like.

You can see  that she has two butterfly "tattoos"...ahem...well...in strategic areas.  And her hair is a natural do o of bead strings and square beads.
I've started adding garters...wooohooo.....and will make a pair of peyote stockings for Grisella.

 














And here is my finish:  

 This is my third bead embroidered cuff bracelet.  I used three dichroic cabochons that I bought from the internet and used all kinds and shades of brown beads.  It looks really rich.

Bead Embroidered Cuff

Another finish!  I finished my first bead embroidered cuff.   I used three dichroic triangle-shaped cabochons and lots of vintage beads, Swarovski crystals, and other stuff. 

 I really liked making this cuff and I'm definitely going to make more!

AND, I've had some paper clay hanging around for some time now.  I haven't had much of an idea of what to do with it.  So, I decided to make cabochons with it using some of my polymer clay molds.  Here's what I came up with:

I really like working with cabochons...there's so much you can do with them.   Some of these guys will end up on cuffs, some as pendants for necklaces.

Finally a FINISH!

Finally, I have a finish to a project I've been working on for months.  I finished my 1920's Flapper off-loom project. Here's a picture:

It is done in 3 drop peyote.  I made it from a copyright free design that I tweaked and then colored.  I'm going to get a shadow box for her and hang her somewhere.

This is a picture of my Edwardian girl Loom piece.  It's hard to tell what it will look like from this picture, but it will be nice.  I have about 98 more rows to go.  I've made quite a bit of progress on her this week.  She's destined for my mom's house.

Still working on Griselda and my bead embroidered cuff.  Maybe pictures of them tomorrow.

Glass Disaster!

Got some nifty new glass fusing molds on Thursday last week.  So, I brushed on kiln wash, filled them with glass frit and got them ready for the kiln.  Saturday morning I put in the first mold which was a neat moon figure.  Saturday afternoon I took out the mold when it was done, only to find that the glass had cracked rather badly, but not irreparably.  I put in the second mold, a sun.  Sunday morning I took out the sun mold to find it had broken badly during firing.  The mold had literally crumbled.  That was quite disappointing.  

I put the moon mold back in with the glass repaired and refired it to fix the broken areas.  I took the moon out after about 8 hours to find that the mold had also broken, probably in the first firing which is why the glass cracked in the first place.

I've contacted the online store I bought the mold from and asked for replacements.  Hopefully I'll hear from them soon.

So, bad weekend at the kiln.  I did, however, get some work done on my bead loom project, an off loom project and some bead embroidery.  

I'll get some pictures posted this afternoon.

Nifty Fifty Doll and other Updates

I started out my fifth decade thinking that I would make a small artsy quilt for every month until I turned 51.  Well, with settling in back here in Hawaii, I just couldn't manage that lofty goal.  BUT, I felt the need to commemorate my fifth decade in some artful way.

Lately, I've been really into beaded embroidery.  That hobby comes and goes.  I will always like using a needle and thread and using them with beads is pretty much heaven for me.  SO, I decided to make a bead embroidered doll to celebrate my entrance into the 50s.  I call her Griselda the Nifty Fifty doll.   

I'll be posting updates on her.  I have her scheduled to have her finished by 12 October.

In other news, I just got back from two weeks in New Hampshire visiting my mom.  It was really nice and restful.  I gardened and shopped for vintage beads, jewelry (to take apart), vintage beaded bags for my collection and clothes.  No sales tax in New Hampshire except for restaurant type purchases.

I'm girding my loins this weekend to do a mountain of laundry and continue my quest for organization of my craft supplies :)  (Don't ask me how that is going :) )

Book Review Time!

Ding, ding, ding....time for book review!  I've gotten a couple of craft books lately and thought I'd give my observations:
Totally Twisted: Innovative Wirework & Art Glass Jewelry 

First one I really, really liked is Totally Twisted.
It is a good book for learning to manipulate wire to make wire jewelry.  There are several nice projects, but more than that, it gives you techniques you can use to make lots of other jewelry.  Check out the link to this book on Amazon.

Simply Stylish Chain and Metal Jewelry 

This second book is also very good.  Lots of chain looks...mixing metals, which is hot right now, and even some metal clay techniques.  Check this one out for some really good projects. 


  Bugle Bead Bonanza: A Sparkling Collection of Jewelry Projects (Lark Jewelry Book)
The third book is about using bugle beads (had to plug my favorite online bead store).  I have lots and lots of bugle beads.  I use them for fringe on some of my mixed media quilts and once in a while in a necklace.  I have some lovely vintage bugle beads and I want to explore other techniques for using them.  Well, I'm not going to find them in this book.  It uses bulge beads for...guess what...fringe and necklaces.  There are a couple of bracelets, but they weren't very imaginative.   This one is going on my pile for books to be put on eBay.  One of these days, I'm going to list them all and get some of my money back.