Achey Breaky Bits and Pieces

Broken components.

 As a component maker I am so saddened to hear that someone has accidentally

 broken one of my pieces before they have even gotten to use it.

It seems there has been a run of it lately. The fact is that glass and ceramics are while being durable also can be fragile and shatter if you get too rough.

Oh the heartbreak! This is what happens when you are trying to get phone reception in the studio by a window near your bead stash while trying to work with tech support on your internet connectivity.

I broke the delicate tip right off of my HappyFishShop daggers. This is the first she's heard of it.

I have applied some of my Aves's Apoxy clay for to rescue this piece. Now that it has sufficiently hardened I think it should hold fast and is ready for some paint. I'm going to paint it in some sort of contrasting color.

And then I got too futzy with my wirework here and broke my point of connection.I was in love with these honey droppers of Jana's  ( HappyFishShop again)

Please don't think her pieces are too fragile, it's me that's doing the damage!

Ave's Apoxy Clay to the rescue once again. This is ready for paint and  I'm confident that they will stand up to reasonable abuse now.

So what do you do when a  tourist customer buys from you in person and finds this when they return home from their trip. I got the message that the "stone had broken"

This means two things to me. I didn't talk up my work enough to let them know that it's actually a ceramic piece made by another artisan although I know it's part of my spiel these days, I'm certain I wasn't specific when I sold these.

Also I don't do much for packaging other than a bag when I sell at the farmer's market and I should  realize that when I sell to tourists I should take take some rough handling into account although I do ask them how they want it bagged up in most cases . So I feel partially responsible in this case and can't bear to have a disappointed customer that has fallen in love with a set only to find it broken and unwearable upon return home. Lucky for me I am on a chummy basis with my gal Petra all the way over in the UK and she is going to help me out with this so I can do a remake. Talk about going the extra mile!

I made these "mussel shell" beads eons ago. I don't know how they showed up on my work table again but they were begging for a remake with this wonderful lapis.  WIP of course, they need earwires.

I was going back to some simplicity yesterday so I could do some serious shop fluffage. I  have a bead show in October and a am starting to wonder if I can ever get my inventory back up.

These are some combinations I've been working with and as you can see I am loving my bicone bead roller.

They disappeared as soon as I showed them though so there ya go!

'sbeen awhile since I went all limp on you.

Limpet's I mean.

Man, I can't get enough of this yellow umber!

I have just a few rods left of this strawberry something or other glass and so I've been hoarding it. What's the point of that? Use it I say.

Experimenting with some crubble concepts. Oooh coffee!

Crubbly cube's how ya been? Haven't seen you 'round these parts lately.

Very old WIP that is about finished. A Staci Loiuse polymer piece.

Kuchi metal glued to some salmon skin leather with one of my crusty crystal headpins sandwiched in by another piece of leather that I sewed together.

 Keeping it real with some rust and nails

 I was kind of proud of this one. It sold fast.  Bye bye favorite piece!

Still struggling with pieces that have a lot of wire work. I guess I'm a fan of the drapey but it was fun to use some of my polymer pieces to go with WondrousStrange's beautiful raku piece.

Knobular amber, I was entrusted with a deceased friend's stash of amber and have been putting up some pieces in my numinosity Etsy supply shop. They are un-drilled  but some nice specimens.

I have a couple of amethyst slices left too.

 It's a pleasure to photograph amber I've found. So photogenic.

I'm off to Salmonstock festival for a super long weekend of driving and fun. See you next week!

Reverse Procrastination

I was going to do a blog post about my WIP's that I had left behind before I went on my trip.

Somehow I was feeling guilty that rather than blog about the unfinished pieces I would go ahead and finish them. Weird psychology I know but that's what we do to ourselves, especially us self employed artist types. Skewed priorities sometimes!

Speaking of guilt/gilt, I picked up some gilders paste at the gem show and had a little gilt fest.

The organic looking pod thingy in this necklace was dyed turquoise blue but had some nice raised vein texture so I rubbed a onto that to bring bring it up a notch ( or tone it down depending on your point of view) That's a really lightweight iridescent shell bead encased which is perfect because I'm afraid those beautiful beads may be a bit fragile.

Just about everything in this piece has a bit of silver guilders paste on it.

The ceramic takes it on so well.

That's a bullet casing in the center adorned with one of my headpins/

This is a bit of a departure for me style-wise. Sorry I have no mannequin down here with me.

I had to make do with an antique rusted bicycle seat.

A little hard to get a good shot with this marvelous long focal pendant piece by Petra.

Making square shots of necklaces for Etsy is a continual challenge

Ukrainian artifact piece and some of my torch fired enamel.

No, I didn't make the lampwork bead. It's always a little funny using other's lampwork in my work. No problem with ceramic and otherwise but people automatically assume I made it and that can be confusing.

Outdoor shot of the ScorchedEarthonEtsy piece. I forget what she calls them...mystic sandstorm?

Let me tell you these oober headpins are fun to design with (lots in the shop today)

and you know what? ... those are gilded limpets that floundered in my shop because you all thought they looked dull and lifeless ( I'm assuming you did because I thought so too and they never sold)

They take the gilt quite well.

(Talk about a gilt trip!)

You've seen some similar to these before. Made with Petra's elephant hide ceramic beads.

There's a pair in the shop today. Different colors, tho.

Crublimpet earrings

Afghani silver components, coral and lava beads

These were made with those double headpins that I promised to make more of but never did.

Now I feel guilty again.

Some Afghani components and my torch fired enamel matchsticks

Let's have a better look at those headpins.

There are a few new things in my shop this week.

not listed yet

woooo!

mmmmm.....springy

and now for some textures and color from South America

Possibly the worst public art sculpture I have seen.

This was in Puerto Montt. So kitschy that it's cool, actually

how about them feet!

You would buy something from this guy wouldn't you. His name is Julio and he's a Guarani Indian from Paraguay.  Which reminds me I was going to do a post about the new stuff I bought, crafts and the like. Oh well, maybe next time.