Saturday night ramblings

1. Chai.

You know I wouldn't do a Saturday post without chai. The flavor of the day is Power Chai, stronger than the last one I had which was very creamy and mild. So if you feel I come across powerful, I'm sure it's because of the chai.

2. One Hit Wonders.

It's amazing what you find when you clean out closets. I would swear anything it wasn't me who put those 2 CDs in there, but who cares?

Right now I'm listening to this song which is from the same year I am. A great vintage if you ask me. Come on, ask me!

I remember buying this collection for just one song that I couldn't find anywhere else. AOL radio (oh yes, you got that right, AOL, and I loved my Oldie channel), thank you for that.

3. Broken earwires.

Yes, I managed to break the end off a marquise earwire. And it led to this. Because that's the way I roll. If life gives you lemonade, you ... eh ... put it in an amphora. Or something like that. You get the idea.

4. How to break an earwire.

It happened when I made these earrings. I have to tell you I'm pretty much in love with them. I might have to make more in that style, what do you think?

5. You are probably tired of my rambling now, so ... that's all, folks!

Friday evening

I'm really tired, so let me just show you the latest and I'll be back out like a lightning, ok?

I'm still in love with the combination of color-lined crystal and galvanized seed beads. The optical illusion that makes you think you have a textured 3D piece is stunning, no matter how often I work with it. I'm really happy I stumbled upon this because it's so much fun.

This new slim bracelet is made with galvanized rose gold and yellow-lined crystal beads, such a sunny, yet also earthy combination!

It's available in my Zibbet shop.

Totally different is this necklace which is not listed yet. I'm very tempted to keep it myself, only this light blue is not necessarily my color.

Pure sparkle, I swear. It's definitely droolworthy.

I'm only glad I got my very own "dragon" taking care of the hoard and protecting it! ;-)
Boy, he looks mean in this pic!!

A new year - a new technique

Actually this wouldn't be a new technique for me if I right away had followed the whole tutorial I once got from Yoola Design, but you know me, being playful and impatient I don't deal with tutorials well and this has nothing at all to do with the tutorial itself, just me *inhaling deeply* That had to be said first.

Maybe it just came at the wrong time for me, though.

Now someone suggested the subject "New techniques" for the year's first blogring of my jewelry team on the Jewelry Artisans Community (no names will be told) and I had to think of something. It's not as if there isn't anything on my list, but none of it would fall into the urgent category, so I was pretty much at a loss at first.

Then I remembered this technique, though. I have seen it described as wire crochet (it's different from the wire crochet I have done so far) or as wire knitting. The finished product looks like a knit piece to me, but you can't grip the wire well with knitting needles, a crochet hook works much better. It also reminds on working on a knitting spool, just without the spool, and you can't just make tubes, but also flat pieces.

Actually that is what I have been making, bracelets and a necklace. This year has only just begun, I have time to try different items, I hope.

Let me show you what I have so far.

This was my first attempt. You can tell by the irregularity of the stitches. I had planned to make a simple bracelet without any extras, but I couldn't stop myself, so instead I made a long strip of wire whose edges I then crocheted together so that I could fill the bracelet with small beads.

This bracelet is by no means perfect, but I learned a lot from it already and I'll keep the design in mind.

My second attempt called for a slightly thicker wire and beads. What a nice coincidence it was that I still had the blue seed beads on the dark blue wire. Yes, this was certainly getting addictive as it turned out so nicely.

Now I started wondering if it would also work with bigger beads. A while ago I had gotten myself a few tubes of large Miyuki cubes not even knowing what I wanted to use them for.

I chose the silver-lined clear cubes and teamed them up with black wire. I wasn't all that happy about the cubes along the edges, though. It was ok, but round beads would have looked better ... or maybe no beads at all?

This took me to my next piece and this time I decided to really dig in. Bright red Miyuki cubes and clear AB finish Swarovski crystals ... bling, bling, bling. Believe me, these pictures might give you a vague idea, but they can't show the sparkle. What I like a lot is also how the cubes give the cuff a nice weight and still leave it slinky.

You know how I always seek to use up my stash? Well, here we go. Hm, more cubes. I really have to go and look for some round beads next, huh?

I'm not the only one in my team trying out a new technique. Please also visit:
Jewelry Art by Dawn
Bead Sophisticate 

Oh, and by the way, I just had a new idea for cuff #3. I still have those blue cubes somewhere ... stay tuned!

Inspiration versus stash

It is a win win situation when that happens. In this case I have three pendants.

I got the everyday design, a lovely big hole lampwork bead by Melissa Vess hanging on a drop, crocheted from fine silver wire. I see it with a blouse and jeans for example.

Wire crochet drop with lampwork bead

I got the unusual one of a kind design, modern, bold, full of contrast between the black and the white parts.

It's made up of a piece of white shell, a matte black agate, both caught in fine silver wire crochet bezels, and opaline and black Swarovski crystals.

Wire crochet one of a kind black and white pendant

Last, but not least I got an elegant and feminine design, dainty and beautiful, made from apatite beads almost hiding away in a little silver wire crochet "bowl", surrounding a white pearl. From that bowl dangles a headpin with five more pearls.

Apatite, pearls and silver wire crochet pendant

And you know what? They are all listed already. Just click the caption under the images!

Stop the thief! ;-)

Do you remember the Slouchies? I told you about them here. What you don't know yet is that one of them moved into my house where he has been standing on my desk, leaning at my box of business cards, smiling at me.

This is what Cleody told the world before I adopted my Slouchy:

"This little Slouchy has been naughty.
Apparently on their home planet, this little one got into the habit of stealing pretty trinkets from other Slouchies. After coming through the portal, we decided to give him another chance. However, it was apparent that his love for shiny things was too great. He began running around in a frenzy, giggling and hopping around, rolling in my jewelry and plucking shiny accessories from other Slouchies.
This little one is no danger to others, so he is allowed to function as any other Slouchy would. However, to keep him from stealing, he sleeps in a tiny jail cell made of popsicle sticks and he empties his little pockets every night before going into the cell. It's a pretty good system so far.
I hope whoever adopts this little one doesn't mind the occasional piece of jewelry going missing.
He's a little thief, but who could resist that little smirk?"

Yeah, now tell me it's not as if I haven't been warned, but it's true, I couldn't resist that little smirk and the little fellow makes me smile each time I look at him. Sometimes I discuss new designs or photos with him and he has been very helpful so far.

For some reason I started calling him Ben.

Well, today I had a look over there to the box and Ben was gone, but not alone. He had grabbed some of my unlisted pieces and made a run for it. I finally found him in my library where he tried to blend in. Too bad that brown wood and a jailbird outfit don't blend too well. Around his neck he wore three long lariats, wire crochet ropes, all of them with lampwork beads by Deronda Designs. 

He didn't hesitate to give them back to me, though, and he made my heart melt, so I let him wear the pair of earrings that I finished today, gunmetal colored hoops with sparkly Swarovskis all around.

I'm glad he hadn't seen my last two listed items, a bracelet and earrings, also both with lampwork beads by two of my favorite "fire" girls, from Pink Beach Studios and Melissa Vess.

Wire crochet rope bracelet with lampwork bead

Wire crochet rope hoops with lampwork beads

I guess now that Ben has licked blood, I'll have to have an extra eye on him. I don't even want to think about what will happen when he teams up with Ponder, my other master thief! ;-)

Finishing touches

You know how from time to time I'm trying to finish stuff. I'm definitely not the only one with a load of WIPs around or with a stash of beads etc. that could buy me my own tennis court (no, I don't play tennis which makes the decision for the stash a lot easier) and every, now and then the moment comes to calm your own bad conscience and finish a WIP or use up a few beads (wire, cabs, clay, yarn, whatever your poison may be). Afterwards you can happily start fourteen new WIPs and put in a huge bead order and it will feel so right!

I actually did both (AND even listed an item) and I hope you are as impressed as I am about myself. I think I earned myself the right to order Delicas in abundance later. Now if I could get enough peace to take photos, everything would be fine, but it's hard to concentrate on the right lighting with a yelling cat sitting in front of the door. So you will only get to see pictures of one piece now.

This necklace actually started out as a sample for a custom order. The middle part is spool knit fine silver with my beloved dark red and black Swarovski crystals, a color combination that I'm crazy about because it looks so luscious. I crocheted a very slim silver rope to go on each side and added a little focus to where the spool knit part meets the rope by wrapping around two rows of crystals.

It's dainty, it's elegant, it sparkles ... and it will hopefully be listed in my shop tomorrow!

Tears of the cloud

Once upon a time there was a little rain cloud. It was pretty cute for one that doesn't look all fluffy and white like cotton balls, but no one noticed. Whenever it went out to play, all the people down there started opening their umbrellas or running off.

The little cloud was very sad about that. Just because she was dark and grey didn't mean she was something to be scared of. She had never done anyone any harm and she didn't intend to.

One day when another bunch of people had fled just at the sight of her, she started crying. Suddenly she heard a laugh and she looked down in surprise. There stood a woman smiling at her who caught the cloud's tears in her hand ... and they were all sparkly and beautiful ...

Tears of the cloud one of a kind pendant

Cheesy, huh? I'm not saying I am this imaginary woman, but I do like rain, not just when I'm inside to watch it through the window.

The beautiful grey agate cab reminded me of a rain cloud, so I decided to really make it one. I crocheted a bezel for the cab, then I made the individual parts of the cloud, attached them to the bezel and to each other and topped it with a handwrapped bail.

The sparkly tears are clear Swarovski crystals which do not only set a contrast, but also bring movement to this one of a kind pendant which is available in my studio now.

Welcome to autumn!

If you prefer it, I'll welcome fall as well. Whatever you call it, it truly is welcome to me because it's my favorite season and I am really looking forward to it.

When the Starving Artists Team decided on "Change of seasons" as the subject for the September challenge, my brain started going into overdrive. My first idea was to crochet leaves in different colors with Swarovski crystals to enhance the colors and let them dangle from a chain on earwires. I'll keep that idea, you never know.

Then I thought it would be nice to have a tree with all the different colors - the green that is still showing, but will soon be gone, the yellow and red tones of fall ... so I came up with this little tree pendant on a slim tube rope.

Each tiny branch is crocheted individually with Swarovski crystals worked in as the leaves. You can wear the pendant from both sides of course with one side showing more yellow and green and the other one showing all three colors.

As there is not just one brown in nature, I chose to make the rope from a slightly different color. To me it makes the necklace look more alive. Of course it's no problem, should anyone prefer the same color for the rope and the tree.

This is available in my ArtFire studio now.

Office chairs, a pillow, cucumber and icicles

Yesterday was ... well, interesting.

I left early from work, took a little break sitting in my favorite spot on the bench on the way home to read in the sun and then ...

... who would leave two fine office chairs at a street corner? And in the street, too. They just stood there and waited. Maybe it was an offer to sit down? Or maybe they waited to be used in some kind of street chair race? It would have had to go uphill, though, it's a one-way street in that direction.

While I still wondered about that, I stumbled on the slice of cucumber. A little dried around the edges it lay there in the street. Had it just fallen off a sandwich? Just one lonely cucumber slice? It may seem weird to you, but in my mind I try to think of possible stories around something like that, and I see somebody eating a cheese sandwich without that bit of vitamin. Isn't that sad?

If you think you've heard the best already, you are wrong. Because that was when I came round the corner and saw the pillow. A not so small colorful pillow lying in the middle of the pavement, still wrapped up in plastic. Was this Candid Camera or something?? I picked it up and found an address on the plastic. It wasn't far from where I was, so I decided to take it there.

Don't you love corner houses? No matter what I do, I always go to the wrong side first and then have to go all the way back to find the door. I rang the bell, but there was no answer. Luckily a neighbor just pulled up with her car full of groceries and looked a little confused first at me, then at the pillow. I told her I had found it and wanted to drop it off and she told me "she's probably sleeping". Shoot, I really thought this time I'd find out the story. Had she picked it up from the post office and lost it while riding her bike? Why didn't she trace her way back, it wasn't that far? Or did the parcel guy lose it on the way? Why was she sleeping at 2 pm? Working a night shift or just taking a nap?

Questions, questions, questions!

I finally made it home, ready to confront the next question in my brain - what to make for the Starving Artist Team's May challenge? The challenge was to be inspired by a picture.

Suddenly it came to me. It was so hot ... cold ... winter ... ice ... icicles ... dingdingding!

A least one question was answered today.

This is the picture that inspired me.

And this is what I made from this inspiration. It's an icicle pendant with lots of clear sparkly Swarovski crystals.

Mission accomplished!

P.S. I still wonder about the cucumber ....

Self defense

Have you been in that situation before? You just happen to go for a little walk, see that murky castle up on that hill and think you'll go by to check out their ancestor gallery. When you knock on the castle door, it just opens up by itself and the next thing you know is a vampire charging at you, obviously being very interested in your neck?

Now wouldn't you feel better if you had something to defend yourself with? Like a cross?

Ok, seriously now. I have no idea if this cross works against vampires, but it sure looks as if it should.

Dark red and black Swarovski crystals around a big black glass cab on black wire make a pretty stunning combination. This is a statement piece. It's huge, it's sparkly and it's impossible not to see. How could I have resisted to make it??

You can find it in my ArtFire studio now.

Big Bling Theory

A bad pun, I know, but after working on one bling Swarovski cuff after the other this weekend, I couldn't come up with anything smart.

Black, crystal, silver, padparadscha, montana blue, crystal AB, copper - you'll find all of these colors in the cuffs. They have different lengths and widths and patterns ... now I think I won't want to see a Swarovski crystal for some time!

Well, of course after I have taken photographs and listed these six ;-)

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??

Bling bling

This was one crazy week!!

I feel as if all my energy is drained, but still I managed to got a little bit done. Let me show you my latest creations with Swarovski crystals. I will be blinded soon if I keep working with them ;-)

And that's meant in a good way referring to their sparkle.

Do you remember Tomomi, my little dragon (read up on her story here)? Here is a new nest of hers, a little different from the others. The "egg" in it is an antique pinkish faceted glass crystal and all around the edge of the silver colored nest are black Swarovski. The bail is not only coiled, but also twisted.

Next is the Magma ring, crocheted from fine silver wire, adorned with a dome of light siam and black Swarovski. The name was thought up by a Plurk friend and when I read it, I could see it myself, the way the hot red magma shines through the black rocks.

Mabel had her say again as well, this time it was her playful side.

"I am Leo, hear me roar ... and see me sparkle." There are crystals all over him, his face, in his mane, even the nose and his tongue!

I hope to list these pieces in my shops tomorrow as I have to go out to dinner tonight. Yes, it's true, I have to. I'd rather stay home to catch up on some seriously needed chilling.

By the way, for those who don't know yet, there is still a sale going on in all my shops, 20 % until the end of January!

The weekend is almost over ...

... which means the day job is waiting for me around the corner. It's going to be so hard to get up really early again!

As I don't know if Mabel will be overwhelmed by this fact (I found muses can get bored easily) and run away to Maui or Australia (in which case she could bring me some opals) , I took the chance to quickly work on another piece, a huge cross with lots of Swarovski crystals - blue and clear - and a faceted midnight blue glass bead as focal.

The addiction has taken over, that went quickly.

Here it is, if you want to see more pictures, you can find it here in my ArtFire studio.

P.S. "She has been telling stories about us again." "Nah, you are kidding, what did she say this time?" "She said we don't use the new box." "Doh, what does she know? Let's show her."

And that's what they did this evening. In abundance. Greebo, Esme and Ponder.

Here's just one example. Let's make the human look like a fool. Well done indeed.