6/29/2016

Oldies but goodies - Teardrops

"The classic shape associated with a drop (with a pointy end in its upper side) comes from the observation of a droplet clinging to a surface. The shape of a drop falling through a gas is actually more or less spherical for drops less than 2mm in diameter. Larger drops tend to be flatter on the bottom part due to the pressure of the gas they move through. As a result, as drops get larger, a concave depression forms which leads to the 
eventual breakup of the drop."
Thank you, Wikipedia. I'll stick with the pointy end upper side thingy here because exactly that was the topic for this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge. To be exact, the topic was teardrops, but honestly, none of the entries could make me cry. In fact they rather made me smile. And I think they will make you smile as well because there is something for everyone.
I am very fond of drop shapes for jewelry, especially for pendants and earrings. My problem usually is which way round to use drops because I like both. What do you think about that? Let us know.
And while you try to make up your mind, please enjoy these wonderful drops by JAC members and don't forget to click the link up there for more pictures.


1 and 9 RioRita
2 and 6 Violetmoon's Corner
3 and 8 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 and 7 MC Stoneworks
5 Cat's Wire

6/22/2016

Oldies but goodies - Rose quartz

I loved visiting my grandma when I was a child (granted, we had some epic battles because we were both stubborn - I still am - and because even as a child I didn't think someone else should tell me what my opinion on overcooked green beans should be).
I loved playing with her things. That was also the first time I got to see rose quartz. My grandma had one of those necklaces with graduated beads and even then I liked touching them. I have a few things that belonged to my grandma, and the rose quartz necklace is one of them. Although I hardly ever wear it for which one reason is that it doesn't go that well with nerdy t-shirts, I certainly treasure it.

Since ancient times rose quartz with its pale pink color has been most commonly associated with love.

You already know that the rules for our challenges are not that strict, so for this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge pale pink non-quartz pieces were also allowed. I hope you'll feel the love that's behind all of these entries.



1 Cat's Wire
2 MC Stoneworks
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 Violetmoon's Corner
5 RioRita

6/15/2016

Oldies but Goodies - Grey skies

I don't know what inspired our challenge master at the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge this time, maybe the Texan rain. We have been dealing with that ourselves over here, well, not the Texan variety obviously. I don't mind grey skies, but find them rather fascinating. Then again I have always like grey.
Wikipedia has this to say about "the color without color" "In Europe and the United States, surveys show that grey is the color most commonly associated with neutrality, conformity, boredom, uncertainty, old age, indifference, and modesty. Only one percent of respondents chose it as their favorite color." Oi.
In fact the first things I associate with grey are t-shirts and jogging suits which is possibly a result of my teenagehood in the 80s. While I wouldn't call it my favorite color, I wouldn't think of all those things up there in connection with it. Grey is such a beautiful and classic color ... non-color ... let me go back to Wikipedia for a second .... neutral or achromatic color.

Hopefully these grey pieces from the challenge won't leave you bored or indifferent.


1 Violetmoon's Corner
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 RioRita
4 Cat's Wire
5 MC Stoneworks

P.S. If you click the link to the original challenge thread - which of course I hope you do - you'll find that the topic was actually "Gray skies". I kept writing it wrong being so used to the spelling which is more commonly used here and then decided to stick with that ;-)

6/12/2016

Quote of the week

Vince Noir and Howard Moon, former zookeepers, are working at Nabootique now, the shop of shaman Naboo and his familiar Bollo. Vince has a history of coming in late, though.
If you need an excuse for being late the next time, why don't you try these?

Howard: Come on then, let's have it.
Vince: Hm?
Howard: Every day you're late and every day another crazy excuse. What is it this time?
Vince: What do you mean?
Howard: Lego avalance trapped you?
Vince: No.
Howard: No? Your pyjamas turned into nitrogen? You got stuck on the ceiling of your bedroom? Giant kingfisher came into your room and pecked you under the duvet? Got your, uh, jodhpurs caught on a magic hedgehog? I write'em down, you know. What is it? A scarecrow took you to Paris, yeah?
Vince: I just had a few things to do, that's all.
Howard: That's not funny. It's not even going in the book. It's awful.


Got inspired? So if you try it, let me know how it went!

The Mighty Boosh, UK, 2003 - 2007

6/10/2016

Tackle that stash - A button??

I have never liked buttons. I tolerate them, but if possible I avoid them. Okay, that's not completely true. I never liked buttons on my clothes. There are beautiful vintage buttons, but the ones that I liked when browsing were always too expensive for me to just have them disappear in my supply drawers.
So when I read that the topic for a challenge in May was "use button/s", I declared right away that I was out. I'm a zipper girl. Sorry, guys. Not a button to use around here and I didn't feel like going shopping for one button.

May went by and still no button had crossed my path. June came and I didn't think about it anymore as the challenge was over, anyway (although we are quite cool about deadlines, we all have been late one or the other time). Until yesterday, that is.
I was playing around with my Little BigShot lens and randomly grabbed tourmaline beads from the shell next to my light tent which also holds some Swiss coins. I have not the slightest idea where they came from. I have even less an idea about the thing I picked up next. In fact I don't even know why I picked it up.
It was a button, and I stared at it as if I had never seen a button before in my life.
It was made to look like an old Austrian coin, 20 Kreuzer from 1826, and showed the double-headed eagle with "GAL.LOD.IL.REX.A.A. 1826" on one and  "HVN.BOH.LOMB.ET.VEN." on the other side of it.

That means Hungariae, Bohemiae, Lombardiae et Venetiae, Galiciae, Lodomeriae, Ilyriae, Rex A.A. = King of Hungary, Bohemia, Lombardy and Venice, Galicia, Lodomeria, Illyria, Archduke of Austria.

Some of that I knew by myself, but I had to google for the other ones (Lodomeria? - never heard that before).

This is not a treasure, but it was an interesting find nevertheless and again - where did it come from in the first place?? It's a pity I couldn't find out when this was produced, so instead of obsessing over its past, I started thinking about its future.
I held different wire colors against it and decided to use a dark copper tone for a wire crochet bezel. Tiny orange carnelian beads for a bit of color. And last but not least a bronze tone ball chain to pick up the brassy color of the button.

Voilà!

6/08/2016

Oldies but Goodies - The Graduate

16th of June, 1983. We sat in the kitchen of the little house that was just for the higher grades. One of us sat in the open window that faced the path coming from the main school building. He held a champagne bottle in his hand and every time someone came walking over from the school he yelled out "Finished? Finished!!!!!!"
It was the day of our oral exams.
School was over for good. Around here we didn't have official graduation ceremonies. No speeches, no diplomas, no caps and gowns. We had marched through the school, one half of us dressed in mourning clothes, the other half doing samba in the hallways to show we were both sad and happy. We spontaneously decided to have a small book burning of old school books and some of the boys set up a tombstone for our (at least) thirteen years of school, a stone some of us used to visit each year on the 16th of June, so they could have a small reunion dinner afterwards. And of course we had a party in the gym.

The little house doesn't exist anymore, there's a more modern and bigger building now. I'm almost sure the tombstone doesn't exist anymore, either. Every time I come by my school (at least once a week) I wonder about that, one of the these days I'll have to walk into that yard and take a look.
And almost exactly 33 years later our Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is about graduation gifts. I don't remember what I would have liked to have, I don't remember what others might have received as gifts.
This, however, are some jewelry ideas from our members. As always there's more to see if you click the link above.
What do you remember about your graduation?


1 and 4 Cat's Wire
2 and 6 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 and 7 MC Stoneworks
5 Violetmoon's Corner

6/05/2016

Quote of the week

I vividly remember the discussion about children thinking that cows are purple thanks to a commercial icon. I had the luck to have a godmother whose parents had a farm, and my very personal cow there, Diana (whom I desperately wanted to buy), was light brown and white.
I also remember listening to parents at our local zoo who told their children the most incredible things about our animals. It usually didn't go down well if I took the liberty to educate them on the goat NOT being the sheep's mom and I didn't even go that far to tell them the goat was in fact male.

Maybe that's why today's quote made me both roll my eyes and laugh out loud at the same time.
We are in the beautiful county of Midsomer (where your life expectancy is about as high as that of a worm surrounded by a flock of hungry birds) and people have come from the city to drive their cars off-road through the mud of the countryside.

Brad: Oi! Excuse me? There's a farmer who deliberately put a load of bulls in the field we want to go through.
Brad's pal: Yeah!
Brad: Now a bridle path has a public right of way. Why would he do that?
Garth: And where was this?
Brad: It was in a field at the Melham Cross Road.
Garth: Hm. I think you'll find they were cows.
Brad's group starts laughing.
Brad: Cows (laughing). When was the last time you saw cows with horns?


I can only understand Garth's feelings too well ....

Midsomer Murders, UK, 1997 -

6/01/2016

Oldies but Goodies - Black Tie

Have you ever been to a black tie event? Honestly, I haven't. Okay, so I don't really wear black ties at all ;-) For such an event it has to be a bow tie, I read. I remember that when I was a teenager it was totally in to wear a bow tie, both girls and boys did it, sometimes even with a special t-shirt. We were such fashion victims ... erm, rebels. One of mine was metallic blue leather.
I'm digressing. This week the Oldies but Goodies Challenge at the Jewelry Artisans Community was about black ties, not metallic blue ones, about formal, fancy events, not about a party for teenagers.
For once it's a good thing we are no experts for men's jewelry. Did you know that at such an event you are not even supposed to wear a wrist watch, no matter how fancy it is?
So instead we set out to see what we could find to spruce up a lady's gown for the fancy black tie event. Enjoy!


1 MC Stoneworks
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 The Crafty Chimp
4 Cat's Wire
5 Violetmoon's Corner