Tackle that stash - Wire knit rope necklace with Boswana agate and lampwork

I have had these Botswana agate chips around for a while, they were a gift. Up till now I didn't have an idea for them. They were not regular in size and shape, just like chips are, and they were not drilled, either.
The only thing left was to cage them in wire which is what I did with one of my rope necklaces. It's a long necklace without a clasp. As the agate was mostly pink and grey, I picked the rose gold wire for knitting the rope.

I still have my problems with asymmetry, but we did talk about comfort zones lately as you might remember, so I did go for it. Some of the chips were randomly caught in the rope along the length, but I also added two "bubbles" full of agate and one with two grey lampwork bubble beads in it.
It's funny, when I learned chain stitch in elementary school for the very first time, we had to make a shopping bag. I picked pink and grey, since then these are two colors that belong together for me (they will turn up in a future project as well, by the way).

And here it is now, this week's stash tackler.

Oldies but Goodies - Agate

When I saw that the topic for this oldies but goodies challenge on JAC was agate, I was really looking forward to some great pieces, and I wasn't disappointed.
Fire agate, crazy lace agate, blue lace agate, moss agate, dendritic agate, crab agate, red agate, or even Stinking Water plume agate, it was obvious there would be some fun to be had here.
The name comes from the river Achates in Sicily (now Dirillo), by the way, which was one of the places where was agate found in the olden days.

Just look at the variety in all of this jewelry!

1 Cat's Wire
2 MC Stoneworks
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 The Crafty Chimp
5 RioRita
6 Violetmoon's Corner
7 Robin's Jewelry, Antiques, & Collectibles

Zibbet finds of the week - Couch time

There's nothing better than curling up on the couch when it's raining, but what do you have to do to make it the perfect couch experience?
I went to Zibbet and made a list of everything that will make you want to stay on that couch forever!

Wrap yourself up in a warm and cozy blanket.

Pastel rainbow afghan by Castaway Crafts

Put a nice pillow behind your back.

Hummingbird print pillow by Joom

Light a beautiful candle. Or two.

Handmade pebble candles by LessCandles

Some coffee sounds like a great idea.

Chocolate hazelnut flavored coffee by Teaman

Some cookies would go really nicely with that coffee, don't you think?

Alligator cookie favors by Cake It To The Limit

How about turning on the old record player?

Vinyl record "The Beatles - Abbey Road" at Scrap Pantry

Now grab yourself a book. It doesn't always have to be the latest bestseller.

Vintage book "Lovey Mary" at The Lonely Book Junkie

And now you are ready for the ultimate couch experience .........

Quote of the week

John Robie, a former cat burglar known as "The Cat", is trying to avoid getting blamed for jewelry thefts he didn't commit.
He convinces an insurance agent to give him a list of his richest clients to catch the real thief himself. One of those clients is a very rich lady with a very pretty daughter, Frances, who is very intrigued by the handsome cat burglar.
Then there is Danielle, the daughter of a man who used to work with Robie, who is just as intrigued.

John: Say something nice to her, Danielle.
Danielle: She looks a lot older up close.
John lets out a groaning sound.
Frances: To a mere child anything over 20 might seem old.
Danielle: A child? Shall we stand in shallower water and discuss that?

P.S. To be honest, I'm intrigued as well ... I mean, Cary Grant is playing Robie, and by now you should know how much I adore him.

To Catch A Thief, USA, 1955

Tackle that stash - Wire knit bracelet with tiger eye

It's cold today, not wintery cold, but April seems to have forgotten that its time is over now. I connect warm colors with May, so that's what I went for with today's piece.
Not that it really helped, I'm still cold!

When rummaging through my stash I found brown tiger eye beads. The amount seemed just right for a bracelet. There is nothing more annoying than beads running out before a bracelet or necklace is long enough because you can't do anything about it except maybe buy new beads and that wouldn't quite go with this challenge.

It was easy to pick the right wire for this project. Warm and bright gold colored copper wire team up in this knitted bracelet. Actually the warm gold looks a lot like pure copper, but not completely, and the bright gold is more of an orange tone. Perfect for the brown of the tiger eye!

I picked antique copper tone findings to finish the bracelet off and voilà!

It is available in my DaWanda shop now.

Oldies but Goodies - Earth Day

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970.
"Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 50,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world" ~ Earth Day Network

Earth Day also was the topic for our Oldies but Goodies Challenge at the Jewelry Artisans Community and this is what we came up with.
Let me pick out one the pieces this time, the pelican necklace. This is what Dawn, the artist, told us about it.
"I was devastated when the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred in 2010. Seeing pictures of the wildlife struggling to survive just broke my heart. I felt so sad, helpless and angry. One day I was thinking that I could donate a few dollars to the wildlife rescue which got me to thinking about how I could do more than that. And, then the light bulb came on in my brain.
Pelicans became the symbol of the damage done to wildlife, so I decided to use it as a symbol as well and painted a pendant with a beautiful, healthy pelican on one side and a sick oil soaked pelican on the other which was made into a necklace. There was a lot of other symbolism that went into the necklace, but it's too complicated to try to explain it all here.
Once the necklace was done, it was raffled off. A ton of tickets were sold and nearly $500 dollars was raised which was donated to the Louisiana Audubon Society specifically for the rehabilitation of the birds injured due to the oil spill.
Being able to do that was incredibly empowering and helped me overcome many of those feelings of sadness, helplessness and anger."

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

Working in my comfort zone

It's time for the monthly Jewelry Artisans Community's blog carnival again. Our topic today is "comfort zone".
What's the comfort zone?
Wikipedia tells me that "the comfort zone is a psychological state in which a person feels familiar, at ease, in control, and experiences low anxiety. A person in this state uses a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk".

I'm not going to talk about all of my comfort zone, just that little spot in the corner where I have set up my studio.
What is my comfort zone as a jewelry artisan, anyway? And how are creativity in artisan crafts and comfort zone linked? How much of it is how to promote yourself? Is it important if you are doing it full or part time or maybe even just as a hobby?

Let's get to my limits that I can think of at the moment:
I limit myself to three techniques mostly, wire crochet, wire knit, and bead looming.
I hardly ever make really big pieces. That doesn't mean I always go for instant gratification and knock out 15 minute pieces. I do spend hours on some pieces and patterns, but sometimes I also lose patience during a project which turns it into a forever WIP if it's out of luck.
I avoid tutorials.
I don't deal well with some styles or colors, especially if I don't wear them myself.

Now do those things hold me back? Should I step outside my comfort zone? Am I maybe just trying to convince myself if I say that I'm happy with what I'm creating? Should I ask for more criticism? Should I try to get my pieces juried? Enter them into challenges? Send them to magazines to push myself? Look for shops that would take them on consignment?
I'm not saying these thoughts never haunt me, but so far I have always ended up back in the studio corner of my comfort zone because frankly, when contemplating it I really am quite happy at the moment with what I do. I haven't run out of creative ideas yet and it makes me feel good to create and to experiment with things within my limits.
Maybe my goals are not high enough, maybe I'm too lazy, maybe the hammock in my comfort zone is too comfortable or maybe I'm just frightened and won't admit it to myself.

The thoughts will come back, no doubt, and that is a good thing, too. They will kick me and eventually the kicks might be hard enough to throw me out of that hammock. We'll see.

Here's a video about the comfort zone, the learning zone and the panic zone which was interesting AND fun to watch.



What do our other JAC members have to say about their comfort zone? Hop over there and have a look.
I'll add more links as they come in.
 
Jewelry Art by Dawn
Echoes of Ela
Ponder the cat


P.S. At the time I am writing this post I have eleven more days to come up with an idea for a steampunk challenge piece. I'm not a steampunk person and I don't know much about it. The only thing that comes to mind are watch parts of which I don't have any at the moment.
If I haven't had an idea until now when this post goes live, I'm in trouble because it will be only three more days.
I am tempted to say that I'll skip that challenge, but this is one opportunity for a very small walk outside of my creative comfort zone into the learning zone and I shouldn't miss it.
I guess I'll start with watching this episode of Castle for inspiration as there is not much else to do at this time of night. Wish me luck!