the Akamai Knitter

Yesterday was a busy day. I had several errands to run, a doctor’s appointment, the bead show, and dinner out. I won’t regale you with tales of my errands and my doctor’s appointment as they were all rather mundane and boring, but I’ll share my loot from the bead show.

Before that though, I want to introduce you to Andrew who’s with Green Girl Studios. He’s actually Green Girl’s brother and he’s a sweetheart. I look forward to seeing him whenever he’s in town.

Isn’t he a cutie? He used his wiles on me and I ended up buying all this:

I really love the mermaids. I have a “thing” for them and these are really beautiful. Take a look at the backs.

Don’t you think that makes these pendants extra special?

I also got a free bead for wearing a Green Girl bead to the show. It’s a real beauty!

I also got some charms just for me from Hip Chick Beads.

I especially like the one that says “Balance, Belief, Beauty.” I think those words are especially inspirational. :)

Here’s the rest of my goodies.

I really love those Panda Bears. They’re so sweet!

There is one last thing for me to share, but I didn’t get it myself. My lovely mother bought it for me as a gift. I wish I could remember who the artist is, but alas! My memory! It is shoddy!

I just love the colors! In certain lights it also looks green.

I wish I had taken more pictures, but even though I was there for two hours I still didn’t really get a good look at everything. It was such a whirlwind of people and now I’m just exhausted.

I did manage to get some new earrings up on the shop though. Since I’ve been doing such tedious and complicated designs, I felt the need to do something simple. So I came up with these earrings.

It was a really nice change of pace and talk about instant gratification!

I think it’s time to try and recuperate from all the hustle and bustle.

Happy Saturday everyone!

I made a deal with Cookie because she’s such a good friend. She sends me beads and I make her jewelry. In return, I get paid in beads. Cookie likes the simple stuff, so this works even more to my advantage.

As I was making her jewelry, I was inspired to keep on going with the simple.

Sterling Silver Crimson Red Glass Earrings

Sterling Silver Carved Cherry Red Glass Earrings

Black and Silver Lampworked Glass Earrings

Thank you, Cookie for the inspiration!

Sometimes less is really more. Not to mention there’s a certain restfulness in such simplicity. :)

Speaking of rest.

Since I once again woke up at 6:30am, which is waaaay too early for me considering how late I go to bed,  I do believe Quincy has the right idea.

Happy Tuesday, folks!

I’ve been positively lazy the past few days. There’s been attempts at knitting, crocheting, and some wireworking.  All of which have resulted in the realization that my thumb still needs more rest.  So I continue with activities that are less taxing on my injured digit, like spinning and seed beading.

I don’t have much handspun to show yet, but I finally finished a leaf component in black and sewed one of the Trillium Flowers to it.

I like this much more then I do the white. I’ve always been more partial to black then white though.

I can finally show off some knitting I did before the thumb injury. Here are my first pair of Fetchings that I made for my friend Lisa.

I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted and boy was it a pleasure to work with such a nice yarn.  More details are on my Ravelry project page if you’re interestesd.

Another gift I can now share is a pair of earrings I whipped up for my friend Blogless Barbara. The project idea came from the magazine Easy Wire and it’s one of those things that made me want to slap my forehead and say “why didn’t I think of that?!”

Quincy is just ecstatic over all the jewelry fun.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.  Thanks for all the well wishes. They’re truly appreciated. :)

Yesterday I was in a not so shiny mood.  Kind of a “I see the colors and I want to paint them black.” You know the song? It was no big deal really. We all have days like those and it soon passed.

What I did with all that energy though, was experiment with this.

I didn’t take any before pictures, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say that these earrings were really shiny before they were turned into this.

And this bracelet was mighty shiny before morphing into this.

I think if I ever do a big piece like that again I’ll need to use a bigger applicator then a Q-tip to get a more even look. In fact, even though it’s much more matte and even looking in person I might go over it again.

A bit about the bracelet, I made it over a month ago at (where else?) but The Bead Gallery during their Cuffcake Class. I got to use this gigantic roller machine to emboss a completely flat piece of metal with a pattern. Then I hammered that flat strip into a bracelet shape.  I love to shape metal with a big ol’ hammer so this was much fun.

I would have posted about this bracelet earlier,  but I normally oxidize my pieces with hard-boiled eggs. Although environmentally friendly, this process can often give unpredictable results. Like the finish will be uneven or the piece will only turn brown instead of black. I also find all this rather tedious.

With the Extended Life Gel, all I had to was apply a little bit of it onto the piece with a Q-tip then let it set. The bracelet blackened in less then 5 minutes. With the egging method it would have taken at least 20 minutes, sometimes more if you have to repeat the process.

Normally Liver of  Sulphur is considered toxic if it’s not disposed of properly, but with the gel you use so little of it, it becomes much more environmentally friendly. You can even use the rinse water to oxidize jewelry!

I also made a ring yesterday.

I haven’t decided whether or not I want to antique this one yet. I’m leaning towards oxidizing it. Thoughts?

Here’s another look. (Excuse the haggish hand.)

I think the next time I make this ring, I’m going to leave out the beads above and below the central focus bead. Unfortuantely I’ve run out of the type of wire I need to make those coils, so that’s going to have to wait. :(

In the meantime, I have lots of wire in other gauges to do many other things.  Not to mention the fact that the spinning wheels are still crying for attention and I just bought some yarn to make my mother the Daybreak Shawl.

I also have my once a year jewelry show on Saturday. I need to get ready for that.  By the way, I’ll be taking all my inventory from the shops. So if you have your heart set on something you might want to get it now. I’m not positive that I’ll be able to make more before Christmas.  I think I can? But I’m just not 100% sure.  I’m also not sure how well I’ll do at the show, but you never know!

To all you Americans out there I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and a happy Wednesday to the rest of you! :D

P.S. There are no cat pictures because they all head for the hills when I take my camera out. Bastids!

I’m still recovering from the weekend. Forgive my scattered thoughts.  But do you remember that tangle of yarn vomit? Look at it now!

It arrived yesterday in a box and it wasn’t alone. Look what else the Yarn Angel sent me!

I have all sorts of ideas in my noggin for these beauties.

Meanwhile, I started a bracelet for me over the weekend while I was at a jewelry workshop. The colors I chose are rather surprising for those who know me.

Shocking isn’t it? All that pink!I even bought a pink shirt. I even wore it out.

Yes. I’ve decided to just embrace my inner girly girl.

Also, I’ve listed new earrings in the Etsy  Shop!

and the Artfire Shop!

So far I’ve had zero sales in the Artfire shop.  I’ve decided to give it six months. If nothing comes of it, then I’m moving everything to Etsy.  I figure that I’ll have at least tried something new.

I’ve changed up the blog a bit. I got tired of seeing all the gray. I’m not sure how much I like the red, but I’m going to keep this up for at least a week to see how I like it.

Finally, Quincy has found a new place to nap.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!