Actually this was also the topic that started the regular featuring of the Oldies but Goodies on my blog last year. Can you believe it?
So this week we got out the autumn colors for the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge once again. Autumn colors never go out of style. We love the earthy look, we love the brilliant reds and yellows of autumn leaves and it's getting hard to believe that there were days when we are almost burning up from this year's summer heat.
Are you looking forward to autumn? What do you like about it? Tell us!
Maybe this picture will help you a little to get in the mood.
1 2 Fab Fristers
2 Violetmoon's Corner
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 The Crafty Chimp
5 MC Stoneworks
6 Cat's Wire
When I was a kid, my friend's parents often took her and me hiking. Hours of walking and picking flowers here and there which we then looked up at home.
I don't remember when I stopped going hiking, but it's really not my thing anymore, for several reasons.
It's not Kenya's thing, either, but her landscaper Brian won't take no for an answer.
Kenya: Who in their right mind would go out in heat like this? I mean, what is the point?
Brian: Don't look down, look up. Look at the mountains.
Kenya: I'm looking for rattlesnakes.
Brian: Don't worry about rattlesnakes. The mountain lions eat most of them.
Kenya: Very funny.
Okay then ....
Something New, USA, 2006
The other day I made a pair of earrings for the monthly Jewelry Artisans Community challenge, shoulder dusters, larger deep red firepolished crystals, black and golden seed beads and red crystal drops, very gothic.
I figured the design that had come from a slightly messed up filled netting bangle would also work for a bracelet ... and how about using bicone crystals ... silver and blue maybe ... what do I have in my little drawer ... hey, wait!
It's amazing. I go through that crystals drawer a lot, sometimes just to take in the sparkle, but I hadn't seen that small bag of blue firepolished crystals in months. How they worked their way to the front all by themselves, I don't know, but they were certainly looking for attention.
At first I wanted to make another pair of earrings, but the longer the line of little "hearts" became, the more those crystals wanted to be a dainty and sweet bracelet. Who am I to disagree?
These are the earrings, by the way.
Due to technical reasons which caused a lot of hair tearing, hitting my head on the table and sobbing uncontrollably none is listed yet, but let me know if you would like to see more in this design, maybe with some other colors, too?
On Monday I told you about my sad experience with cacti. Today I'll share another experience with you, this time about sunflowers.
I have to start with a visit on a farm when I was a kid, though. I'm not sure why we went there, my friend, her family, and I, but I remember the little pigs and how the farmer's wife gave me some daisies to plant at home. Believe it or not, they actually lived for a while. We didn't have a garden at home, only a strip of soil along the driveway, and my Mom said I could use one corner.
After the daisies were gone, I hadn't lost my gardening motivation yet and planted some sunflowers. The first ones were about three feet high. I used their seeds to grow new ones, completely ignorant about their needs. The last generation were dwarfs, but I loved them because they were mine. So when a friend of my little brother's pulled them out, I really showed him. Verbally. He started crying. Don't judge me, I had to suffer quite a bit from that bunch, and to be honest, the kid was a bit of a crybaby back then (which he confirmed many years later when we happened to meet on a train).
These sunflowers from this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge are beautiful enough to give you back that summer feeling if you are headed into fall like we are here.
1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 MC Stoneworks
3 Salara Jewelry
4 RioRita
5 Cat's Wire
6 Violetmoon's Corner
You know how sometimes when you really don't want to make a mistake that seems to trigger all kinds of mistakes?
After Herbert H. Heebert's girlfriend leaves him, he is determined to stay away from women. Fate has a different idea for him, though. He takes up a job at what turns out to be a boarding house for young ladies. Now Herbert is always eager to please and to do everything just right.
So when Willard C. Gainsborough, a quite dangerous looking fellow - the C stands for killer, you know - comes to pick up his girlfriend, Herbert does his best - and fails miserably.
Willard: Well, where's my girl?
Herbert: Well, I just wanted to tell you ...
Willard: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You went up to get my girl, right?
Herbert: Yeah.
Willard: You didn't get close to her, right?
Herbert: No.
Willard: You didn't get even near her, right?
Herbert: That's right.
Willard: Now you come downstairs, you got lipstick on your face.
Herbert: Oh, that's not ... when I went ...
Willard: Hold it! I don't believe it. Do you know you're sitting on my hat? Do you know that's my brand new hat? Do you know that you better get up and give me my hat!
Herbert: Maybe we could get it weaved.
Willard: Fix the hat.
And that's what Herbert does. Well, kind of. So when Willard's girlfriend is coming downstairs ... look for yourself.
The Ladies Man, USA, 1961
Welcome back to "Tackle that stash"! *insert merry jingle here*
I know it has been a while. Don't think that I haven't made anything during the time. I started a personal project, the "fan wall", so far with one bead loomed portrait of a favorite actor, I played around with new beading techniques and with patterns. Somehow none of them made it onto the blog, though.
Now I am back with an announcement.
I love jasper. Yeah, ok, so I said it before, but I really can't imagine why there was a time when I thought it was boring just because it didn't sparkle.
Whenever my muse Mabel is out of town and takes my beading mojo with her, I grab a cab. Not always does that actually make something happen, but sometimes it does.
This great Biggs jasper cabochon had been in my stash far too long because I wasn't able to decide on a color combination.
Picking it up for the umpteenth time I finally decided to go for the earthy look, use some copper wire and see where it would take us, that's the Biggs and me. Wire knit bezels are fun for me. They leave so much options to play with them, add another layer, connect those layers, add beads on the inside or outside. With a wire knit bezel I hardly ever know what it will look like in the end.
In this case I ended up with chocolate brown pearls which look good enough to eat and a brown rope to pick up the colors of the jasper. Aren't they perfect together?
Now tell me again - why didn't I use to like jasper?
