Hoarding - but not quite buried alive

So I've been hoarding handmade beads from fellow artists that I found through my blog hopping.

Here's some shots of my growing stash:

There's ceramic components, polymer clay beads, lampwork beads, wood tiles...

I love using these beautiful pieces in my work - but just as one part of the whole picture. I still want most of the components to be either made by me, and incorporate mainly gemstones; it's part of wanting the pieces to represent me. Although the other artist's pieces were selected by me among the thousands on offer, so I guess in a way they still represent who I am.

Take these earrings for example. Very pretty, heh? Made with Kristi Bowman triangles and Radiant Mind lampwork beads. Yes, but what's mine about them? I just took some commercial earwires and wrapped it all together. Although of course I'm still the one chosing which pieces to use for the final result, in the end who's to say they are "Quimera" earrings?

But with this necklace I'm using the beautiful components the way I want to: integrating them into my vision for the final piece. There's a house charm from Menagerie Studio, flower bead caps and bead from ChelleV2 and a ceramic flower from Captured Moment. Hope this one takes the wearer to her happy place when she needs it.
Now the downside of this: Africa, I love you, but you have a serious post problem. I currently have 4 packages missing - 2 from December, 2 from January. Yes, I have waived them bye-bye, don't expect to see them around this parts ever. Which is a serious dent in my budget. Plus they were pieces I really loved and was so looking forward to using.

I only contacted one of the artists of the missing packages to see if there was a way to track it. There wasn't. And although I didn't expect her to replace the items or take responsibility for it, I also didn't expect the cold shoulder I got. Lesson learnt: do not order from that artist again.

Ok, off to make more stuff with the items that did make it across the Atlantic, the african continent and landed on this patch beside the Indian Ocean.

Letting go of fear

Sometime early last year, I purchased a tool that I knew would open up many new possibilities in my work. As I usually do, I purchased the best one I could - I really don't like purchasing cheap tools just for learning thinking I'll upgrade once I'm more proficient in using the tools. The whole point of the best tools is actually making your job easier, so why start with something of lesser quality? (if you can afford to, of course)

The tool arrived, I inspected it - and I stashed it away in a box. Until now.
I'm talking about a jeweler's saw. I tend to read a lot and research before going into a new technique, so I had read extensively about how you brake numerous blades as you start, and how it's the sort of technique that you're better off learning formally. In a class. With someone who knows what they're doing.

So it remained stashed away. As I mentioned before, around here, there are no classes, no teachers, no supplies, zero, nada, zilch (is that a word?).

But there comes a day when a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So I got my beautiful jeweler's saw out (it's red too, one of my faves), and got to it.

Well, I'm happy to report it's been easy peesy... I can even saw round shapes, and turning corners is apparently the most difficult thing to master. Not to yours truly! And not a saw blade was broken. Woohooo!!!

Here's a few things I've made:

Sterling silver strip with riveted copper round, wire wrapped amethyst briolette

A triangular shape sawed from a copper sheet with a riveted flower makes my "Enchanted" piece

The copper heart in my "Home is Where the Heart Is" was also sawn.

And while I was at it, why not teach myself to set a stone with tabs? Well, I learnt that more difficult than sawing is measuring very accurately so your stone fits inside the tabs and all the rivets are where they should be. This was the biggest pain - when I finished, I hadn't left enough space in the top layer around the stone, and it didn't fit inside. So I had to wrestle the tabs back and forth - luckily I didn't break them - until I could finally set the stone.



I find that working with metal takes so much longer than other techniques I tried before - sawing takes time, and then there's all the filing... but I also find it very fullfiling. I like to make each individual component, I like that I can see how much I worked on a piece.

Lately I have been using some handmade beads from other artists in my work, and I love to do that, but I really don't want my work to be just a nice sum, well-put together, of components others have made. I really want to sweat over my pieces. The process is 90% of the fun for me. So I guess I'm in a long term relationship with my jeweler's saw.

Now where did I put the soldering supplies I bought last year?...

Africa the beautiful... Swaziland

Whoever said
orange, blue, grey and green don't look gorgeous together?





House on fire: an artistic venue which every year hosts a large festival featuring various African bands, atracting visitors from all the neighboring countries.
You can buy your tickets from this awesome ticket booth...

And you can dance or sit down on the grass here...

You can read all about it  here http://www.house-on-fire.com/

And when you come, they'll welcome you with flowers...



 And a Rumi poem...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi)

In Africa, there is always some animal roaming free anywhere you go...

And lots and lots of palm trees...

And sausage trees...

And lovely lodges with rooms with thatched roof, under which you can sleep after your senses are left overwhelmed with the colors, the smells, the wild...

Meaning

My, I've been blog-lazy!...
But I have been working hard, and I'm trying, again, to do different things.

More and more, I feel like making pieces that speak to me, that have meaning, and are not just a simple collection of nice materials in complementing colors.

This one started the moment I purchased the pendant online: a handmade ceramic house (from Captured Moments on etsy). There and then I had the title for the piece: Home is where the heart is. I think it came out because sometimes more than others, I miss home.

I filled the pendant with resin and words cut out from a vintage dictionary (home; refuge of our lives), sawed a heart with I stamped with the word "safe", cut a hole in it which I filled with resin colored with turmeric (and you thought it was only good for curries...), prepared another bezel with resin, a map and the word "where" and added warm colors in gemstones and silk. Home, warm, safe, refuge...

The hyacinth girl

'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;

'They called me the hyacinth girl.'

-Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden,

Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not

Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither

Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,

Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

                                           in Wasteland, T.S.Eliot

Czech glass beads, silk, Vintaj chain, Swarovski pearls, lava beads, copper wire, and handmade ceramic beads and focal by Michelle Johnston (Chellev2).

Mermaid Tales

The story of the beautiful mermaid that wanted to feel the earth beneath her feet.

The fish and creatures of the sea are her confidants.

One day, her wishes come through and she steps on land for the very first time...

Her beloved is frantically looking for her (yes, I know, there are some gaps in the story, but you have a good imagination, don't you? Besides, I couldn't depict the whole story 'cause if someone ever buys the necklace, they can't be walking with their chin on the ground from the weight of the 300 pages, now can they?...)

They fall into each other's arms and live happily ever after.

The End.

Inspired by Linda Larsen's journal in the Handcrafted Jewelry e-magazine.

Transformers

Starting my jewelry making adventures not so long ago, I started buying everything I could get my hands on; (NB: I am not implying I no longer buy everything I can possibly can...as my imaginary bank manager can attest to...SIGH) I knew little of metals, had trouble deciphering the sizes of beads and components, and had no clear idea of want I wanted to do with the little techniques I had started playing with.
So I bought a few items that I tossed aside as soon as I got them.
That's what happened with the copper-plated components below.
(If there are any palm-readers out there, feel free to send me your findings).

At the time, all I knew to do was to stick a bead onto a ready made headpin, make a standard wrapped loop and boom - a boring earring.  I might not have known much about making jewelry then, but I could tell they wouldn't make nice pieces.

Going through my stash the other day, I came across them again. This time I had a few more techniques under my belt. Could I actually make something nice with them? Hmmm...

So I applied a patina to the components, got some nice pictures that I glued to them, covered with Ice Resin, made headpins and earwires which were patinated, cleaned with steel wool, tumbled, and wrapped with freeform or fat wraps with various gemstones.

Now that's what I call transformers!

I'm quite happy with them! And I didn't waste my components. Sweet...

Ok, I think this post needs a break from all those dangles... (and so do I - there were 56 copper headpins handmade and wrapped with small beads...aarrghhh). Here's something  different.

I think the teal ones look like little people.

Talk to you soon.