Tackle that stash - Who was first, the hen or the egg?

Of course this post is not really about hens or eggs. It's about in what different ways a project can develop over time and which thought comes first.
I mentioned often enough how my designs like to change during the process. An earring becomes a pendant because I often don't have the patience for making the same thing twice. A simple wire crochet bezel turns into a multi-layer bezel of knitted and crocheted wire, never again to repeated because I wouldn't know why. A piece screams for one dangle ... and another dangle ... and how about one here and a little something on the top? These are just a few examples.

And then there are those pieces I don't even have a vague idea of when I start. They don't always work out. Sometimes I end up with something that calls for something I don't know (yet). They are usually experimental pieces that will be lying around for a long time until my brain suddenly comes up with just the right thing - although it may deny having anything to do with the result a few months later and instead blame it on my inability to listen - or they will have to wait forever serving as reminders how very, very wrong things can go. Sometimes they have to be eliminated because I can't bear looking at them anymore without being able to finish them. Oh yes, and more than I care to think of are probably hidden away in my infamous drawers.

There are also good moments when I start making something that I like, so I go hunting for the perfect component, and then I'm lucky and find it!
In this case I vaguely had a snail's shell on my mind when I began weaving a spiral. After a while a cab under the spiral to bring it out more sounded like a good idea. I was thinking of a stone cab, but unfortunately I didn't have anything in the right size that was round or oval.
Without much hope I looked in my lampwork drawer and found this lovely cab, a meltie by Deronda Designs. This must have been in my stash for a long, long time because I wrote about Deronda's melties in 2010 which I almost can't believe.
I like how the soft pink and green - and a bit of black, those are no bits of fluff - peek through the copper which will stay unoxidized this time!

Now I need just a little more light for a picture on my manikin. I love rain, but it's not that helpful with pictures.

Oldies but Goodies - Spirals

When I started out making wire jewelry, one of the very first shapes that came to me naturally was the spiral. A spiral is fascinating, it draws you in, it can be hypnotizing and it's no wonder so many optical illusions revolve around spirals - spinning ones for example.
Just give me a moment until my head is feeling normal again ... whew.

The spirals that I'll show you now are much easier on your eyes and head ;-) They are some of the entries for this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge. Maybe their beauty will be hypnotizing, though ....

1 and 6 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 and 7 MC Stoneworks
3 and 9 Violetmoon's Corner
4 and 10 RioRita
5 and 8 Cat's Wire

Now I'm craving sweets!

I am doing pretty good progress on my WIPs. Sometimes I have to take a part off that stopped the whole process, sometimes I have to strip the piece down to its fundamentals.

This is what happened with a simple silver colored copper wire crochet tube. It looked lonely after I took the "charms" off that I added to test the look.

Maybe it was my latest tube shaping experiments' fault that I played around with this considerably bigger tube as well. When flattening it slightly and shaping it into a spiral, I got reminded of those rolls with nuts in them that my sister makes sometimes. Or poppyseed. Cinnamon? And suddenly there was the idea. Instead of nuts peeking out of spiral-shaped dough .... Swarovski crystals peeking out of a wire spiral?

Spiral nebula was born. Well, not that easily and fast. It was quite a task for my fingers, but I am happy with the result.

Now where do I get my sweet rolls??

Good sign or bad?

I am trying new things at the moment. Does that mean I am developing or does it mean I am getting bored if I don't get the new kick all the time?
As it's still fun I sure hope it's the first choice.

After making the ring from the last post and therefore putting my hands on some thicker gauge wire, I feel the urge to try to do more stuff with it.
I had already made some small wire rings, again combined with crochet (sorry, no good pics), and had two scraps of wire about the same size lying around. As a Swabian (also called the Scots of Germany) I had to do something with them. Now! The now turned into a while as I am not experienced at that, but finally I had a pair of small earrings that I actually like :-)