Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The fourth door

Winterberry ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The third door

A bead soup "Christmas Tree" with colorful baubles and lights ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The second door

Christmas red and gold .........

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The first door

This year my blog advent calendar will be a little different because of a very personal project.
Using bead weaving techniques, I spent some time in November covering 24 little Christmas baubles with seed beads, bugles, and crystals. Some of them also got faux pearls which come from a necklace that I got as a gift for ripping up. The baubles will go as a gift to a special place. And even though I don't want to go into details, all of this is connected to one another.

There will be no long explanations or stories, only short comments, if I have something else to share, I'll add that in an extra post or leave it for January.
So the advent calendar will be like the one I remember first from my childhood, a little door for each day with a little picture behind it (or two if I want to show different angles).

The Fairy Mouse

I'm still here although I took a longer break due to personal reasons. I haven't been lazy, but you will see more about that in December for a new advent calendar of mine.

The wire had become a pretty rare guest in my creative world lately, but the other day I was determined to step away from the beads and bring the wire back. As usual I didn't have a plan, all I had were four short strands of thicker wire and my working wire.
Let me tell you about the journey I took with them which led me to a peculiar creature.

It's strange how four strands of wire can be "bound" together with more wire, and then you look at them and you start seeing something - if you are lucky, that is, and your muse is playing along. As the length really wasn't enough for big experiments, it was only natural to bend the component or whatever you would have called it at that moment in the center.
One thing I saw was a little octopus like one I had made before. It was good to know I would have a plan B, even if I didn't have a plan A. I'm saying plan B because I didn't really want to make an octopus. I wanted to make .... an eye ... an eye with feathers ... did I have a cab I could use ... the faux amber, perfect size ... and the feathers on the end (please note that none of the steps went as quickly as described in this post, I held stuff up a lot and looked at it and put one thing on the other, unwove (is that even a word?) wire and so on, and never took one picture of the process because I couldn't disturb the muse, right?) ... and now I had an eye and the "amber" kept moving a little, so I had to get the wires in the back tighter ... shining through the cab now, not sure I like that, but I'll leave it for now ... next the feathers?

No worries, I won't go on like that, but I wanted to show that this is pretty much how the process of creating often works for me.
Before the feathers my eye fell on an agate slice. THE agate slice. I got it in an early Easter sale, shortly before the pandemic made me stay home. Don't ask what agates have to do with Easter, the hardware store kept them in a basket at the table with decorative items on sale. This particular slice had been out of the stash drawer several times, but had always refused talking to me. This time, however, it said "look at me, I'm a mouse". An eye with feathers and a green mouse. Weird. Leaves instead of feathers. Leaves, woods, a green mouse ... a fairy mouse!

That's when it all came together. My mouse needed a big ear, swirls and scrolls on her body, a long tail with swirls and even swirly whiskers.
When I finally held it against the light, I noticed that especially the lower wire behind the cab seemed to add more dimension and life to the eye.

It really is an odd little creature, but aren't we all? ;-)
Now it just needs a bail and/or chain if I decide to make it a pendant. It's not a lightweight. Maybe it would look nice in a shadow box with some kind of woodsy background?

Holiday jewelry and decorations

Happy Hallowe'en!
If you have read this blog in fall before, you know that I love Hallowe'en even though I'm sure the sweets I have prepared this year will end up on my hips which can't afford it. I didn't get much because visits are scarce even in normal years and 2020 is definitely not a normal year.

What I really want to talk about, however, is the blog carnival topic at the Jewelry Artisans Community.
"Do you make holiday jewelry?"
That's something I can reply to with a big YES. I love making holiday jewelry or decorations! As a matter of fact, my shop has got its own little category for that. Pumpkins, vampires, black cats, but also Santa Cats and Christmas baubles are usually irresistible for me to make, and of course there are my Easter eggs as well.

This year, I have to admit, I haven't made anything related to a holiday. Due to the shipping restrictions which had lasted months, I hardly even made any jewelry at all, but concentrated on some big personal projects instead none of which has anything to do with holidays.
I have to be in the right mood, it helps if I'm watching something creepy or listening to Christmas carols (why I love the traditional ones so much, I can't tell you, but they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside), and I have to feel it.

Maybe that was the reason why I struggled so much with the JAC September/October challenge although I had only planned a very small ring. I won't even tell you how often I ripped this up completely or in parts.
This one was a challenge for sure, but my friend cheered me on, so I can say that I made at least one Hallowe'en piece just in time. The ring is based on one of my first own looming patterns, the "I vant to bite you" bracelet and choker.
I chose an off-white for the background to symbolize the vampire's pale skin, a mix of silver lined red and dark orange for the full mouth and a light white lined red for the drop of blood.

Who knows, maybe this will motivate me to get ready for Christmas after all!
And yes, I know, the American Thanksgiving is in November, but we don't celebrate our Thanksgiving in this way, so there won't be any turkey jewelry ... ;-)

Let's see what other JAC members have to tell!

Jewelry Art by Dawn

Oldies but Goodies - The Magpie

This week the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge was to show something that people think a magpie would steal.
Not only did we get some lovely entries, but also a literal magpie piece and two stories.

"I remember one time when I was working on a jewelry project outside. I went inside the house to get something to eat and when I went back outside there was a magpie perched on the table getting ready to steal my pendant!"

"I once was standing on a pavement near my home and right in front of me saw a magpie walking shamelessly with a round brass ring in its beak!"

Are magpies really shameless thieves then? British scienctists say they aren't (if you are interested in at least the abstract to the article published in 2015 in the journal Animal Cognition, you can find it here): "We suggest that humans notice when magpies occasionally pick up shiny objects because they believe the birds find them attractive, while it goes unnoticed when magpies interact with less eye-catching items. The folklore may therefore result from observation bias and cultural inflation of orally transmitted episodic events." I guess we owe magpies an apology.

To be honest, I think a magpie may have had problems to pick up some of the entered pieces, anyway, but that sure doesn't take away from their beauty!

1 and 2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 The Crafty Chimp
4 My Bijou Life
5 RioRita
6 Cat's Wire