New Obsession

Well okay, so 'obsession' it's not... really... well... LOL maybe a bit at first ... lol

Oh and YES, look! Two blog posts withing the same MONTH!! Whoohoo! And not only that, but the month is not even half over!!

I know... I'm rather astonished as well...

But enough of giving in to the shock of the unexpected blogging ;)  I figured I'd share a new 'thing' , and tell a bit about what I've been up to, in between visiting the Bead Hoarders hop list from my last post... yes, I'm still hopping... you guys should know if the list is longer then twenty blogs, I'm not doing it in one day... or possibly even one week... lol The problem is that all the pretties blend together until I can't remember who made what... and I'm buried under 'ideas' until I just can't take another step on the 'hop path'.  I know there are those who feel similar, so at least now you know you're not alone :)

Anyhow, the other night I went to a retirement party for a coworker, and rather than give her a specific piece of jewelry I took a small selection and told her to choose the one she wanted. For those on my FB list who saw me post of the 'necklace' that morphed into a pair of earrings... those were the ones she chose :)

note- this pic was taken before I changed the ear wires to a simple oval style instead

And that was despite the fact she doesn't wear green, she just loved them too much to NOT choose them :D  I was fairly confident that she'd go for the blue goldstone pair, since she wears a lot of browns, and despite my saying she could have two pairs, she decided to 'be strong' and just took the one... at which point other coworkers wanted to see what I made. By the end of the night, I'd sold three pairs of earrings and a necklace. I was also told that I should take that little case with me all the time... and one lady told me I needed a bigger case ;) lol  Needless to say, it was a wonderful boost for my creative 'ego', which is never sure if people will like my stuff well enough to buy it.

I am really glad that I decided to do it, and had the foresight to get some change that morning at the bank. I'll be toting along my little bag from now until Christmas at least... the case of jewelry is in one pouch, money for change is in another, and a whack-load of little black organza bags is in the third. I'm considering whether or not to move it into a bit bigger bag and add a small kit with tools to be able to do quick adjustments, just not sure I want to carry it around too ;)

That night when I got home, I found my one of my stashes of finished pieces and filled the empty slots, then set aside a bunch I wanted to either change, or add to. Last night I added some little bits to three 'charm' bracelets I'd made ages ago, but never fully finished. No pictures taken yet, but I really like the way they turned out, and I doubt I'll have them long once I offer them for sale. I'll try to have pics taken of them for next time. All three are on nice thick silver-tone chain, with glass bead dangles and hook clasps so they can be adjusted if needed. One is blue, and I added a few little silver snow flakes and owls. The green glass one has a few little silver leaves and roses, and the purple glass one has silver dragonflies and fairies. Why? Because I felt like it ;) lol 

What..?

You want to see them now?

You don't want to wait until whenever I decide to post again?

Well... I suppose you have a point.... gods only know when this blogging bug might bite again...

 Hang on while I go grab the camera, play photographer, then pop them through fotofuze to fix the back grounds.
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Still waiting?

:D hehe .. okay, here they are :)

 Didn't they turn out pretty :) The blue and the green I did first, and since the headpins had nice big heads, I didn't even think of adding anything on the ends... Apparently I used all of those nice big ones though, because I remember having my purple beads slide right off the headpins when I started it, and that's why I thought of adding the silver spacers to the bottoms. Now I wish I'd put them on all of them, but I refuse to  redo all of that just for that itty bitty bit of muse-poking; they're beautiful as is, and I tested each bead individually to make sure there was no way it was going to come off that pin.

The green tested me, since usually when I think 'green' I think 'gold' or 'brass' ... silver and green just doesn't bite me as a usual combo... however, I was out of gold chain at the time I had the desire to make these, and when I tried, I found I rather liked it. The leaves and roses make me think 'summer' which also leans towards the gold tone... but despite that, I love it the way it is with the silver :) See? I pushed myself away from my usual and went with something different.. and it works :D



 Oh yeah... I never did tell you about that obsession thing I started to write this thing for, did I? Well, I have pics to go with that too, so...   how about I do that ? That would be a good idea, huh? lol

So a couple weeks ago I was out doing some Christmas shopping and I discovered a new store had finally opened, so I popped in. They had the cutest wooden buttons that immediately demanded I buy them and make jewelry with them. It'd looked like each pattern was on one large button and two smaller ones... perfect for pendant and matching earrings :) When I got home, I discovered that the two smaller ones where actually different sizes >.< So... I went back and got another pack of each, then sorted them out into sets of three, tossing in beads to match, and getting right to work in cutting wire and choosing components. Everything went into a container with compartments, so everything for each piece was all in one slot. I recommend doing this whenever you get the ideas for something and know EXACTLY what you want to put together, but don't have the time to get right to work on them :) I know if I hadn't done this right away, they'd have ended up stuck in a drawer or bin somewhere, forgotten :(

 Here are the ones I have the earrings and pendants made for.

For this one, I went with antique brass wire, and grey/purple tones.Those are greyish-purple Czech glass leaves, with one grey, and two different shades of purple crystals.

The next one, I went with silver artistic wire, peachy streaked Czech leaves, and a mix of crystals in green, peach, and a dark purple. Sorry about the slightly blurred pic... I was too lazy to find my stand for the camera and move to set it up right >.< lol

This one is the first one I put together. Silver Artistic wire with blue, white, and purple crystals, and a blue glass faceted teardrop.

I'm still debating on the chains for them... so far I keep going back to a simple chain, with a few beaded links to tie it together.  Either that or a cord, instead... although, since I have two sets of each pattern, I might just do one on a chain, and one on a cord :) Satisfy both sides of the muse ;)

Huh... you know, I just realized that all of the crystals, clasps, head pins, silver charms and beads, and the czech glass used in  all of these pieces in this post... all came from Bead Box Bargains... I guess I'll have to go share these pics on their fb group page, too :)  The larger glass beads were bought locally, and I have no memory of where I got the chain... but it's possible it came from BBB too... I'm just not sure >.<

I have several more to do yet, some of which are partially done and just waiting for me to finish off adding a bead or two, and others are waiting for me to find where I hide my gold toned 20g wire to make the pendant... if I can't find it soon, I'll have to figure out an alternative method using the headpins instead, since I KNOW where they are ;)

Oh, and I'll have to do another post soon to show you the fun I was having playing with resin, assorted metal bits, and nailart sprinkles :D SPARKLY!! :D heheh... but that can wait for another time ;)

Hope you enjoyed this extra little post with lots of pictures and things that I actually managed to get MADE :)  Maybe when I manage to completely finish my button jewelry sets , as in chain/cord and all, I'll offer one up in a little giveaway to celebrate :)  Any one interested? ;)