Kristi Bowman Wonky Bead Blog Hop

 I don't usually participate in these sort of challenges but I was intrigued with the beads that Kristi Bowman had made up and one of the requirements for purchasing was to use them  for this blog hop.

Doubling the challenge for me was that this was out of my color comfort zone added to the fact that designing with chunky beads was outside of my comfort zone as well. I also had never designed using primarily polymer beads.

I went strait to work as soon as I had the beads in my hand and had this necklace finished the same day as I knew that I wouldn't have the time during or after my trip back east.

I had some really nice WondrousStrange ceramic shell disc pieces that were screaming to be included.

Also a wonderful Shipwreck Dandy faceted polymer piece that was perfect in it's gemlike splendor to balance out the chunk and funk. 

Let's see yes I had some  numinositybeads mini criffles of my own that were hanging about. This necklace was making itself! 

With a ragged worm tube remnant for which to dangle as a focal piece and then accented by some faceted turquoise rondelles and a few red Tibetan mala bead to finish it off, I was quite pleased.

I'm not accustomed to wiring pieces together so this has a stiffer design than most of my necklaces.

I just had to give you a close up of the faceted polymer bead. I just love it!

Salmon Skin Leather and Other Assorted Projects

I don't know if you remember me posting this photo of the salmon skin leather I picked up in Chile on my South America trip. It looked rather delicious in a design kind of way not the eating kind of way although I am known to fry up smoked salmon skin in lieu of bacon at times.

Actually I was still recovering from the attack of the picoroco barnacles (something scary I et whilst in Chile) when I spied this at an artisan shop.

Anyhow I finally got around to trying some out today, just simply cutting out the shapes and punching a hole in the leather.  Someone asked me what they smell like and they really just smell like leather to me.

I just found these components laying about the house for some reason. They had sari silk tied to them that just wasn't doing it for me so they were prime candidates for some experimentation.

You probably have seen this bracelet before but I finally finished it. 

I have a thing about making bracelets... I don't really like to. 

It's the sizing that does me in when I add the clasp and no matter how I think I have estimated the size it never quite is what I think it's going to be when I finish it. This one however has many possible links to clasp to. That's a Kristi Bowman focal piece and one Scorched Earth ceramic link along with my two beads.

Yes, this one is for someone with a bigger wrist than mine...which isn't that unreasonable since mine are on the tiny side. This was formerly a necklace but those don't seem to be selling much these days and my style has changed a bit since the necklace was made. Hopefully it's new incarnation will attract someone.

I got this idea from Fanciful Devices on graduating rings...no not a graduation ring!

There's a couple of Petra's ceramic connectors, a jade ring, some fused bottle pieces and a typewriter part as well as a relic artifact metal ring.

OK, I'd better post another pic so's you can see the parts better.

Well, sorta better

And since I had stuff I needed to get done to prepare for a trunk show tomorrow I decided to do dishes and make earrings. Funny how procrasterbation works.

sporty dangly matchsticks

It feels good to be making things again back here in Alaska although spring disappeared and winter came back. We might even go ice fishing this weekend. Crazy weather!

torch fired enamel - the only reason the twisted rings are wired is that I can't figure how to keep the jump rings closed. I think the wire works as a design element as a result ...so cool on that

Some new delishes in the shop... and I got a new load of glass just waiting for me until the Garaj Mahal studio warms up enough to work in again.

Mini criffles. The glass looks so different before I crustify it at the torch.

This is the same criffles held up to the light. Pay no attention to that dirty thumbnail!

And these I didn't want to put in the shop

until I took this photograph

These are new mini criffles in my shop too.

These got snatched up pretty quickly, what do you think?

I called them kaleidoscope unicorn horns.

And wrapping it up  here...

My friend just graduated with a construction certificate thru the University of Alaska.

This is the beadwork his mother did on the vest he wore for the ceremony.

I'm pretty proud of him for he's had a hard row to hoe for a long time.

Don't you love my Nancy Reagan gaze?

And now "How Max Paid the Rent"

Sorry it's not a cool gif

Learning Curve on Photographing My Jewelry...

I'm finally applying myself to the task of trying to take better photos of my jewelry. I have relied on my trusty scanner for a long time which has pretty good results but tend to make the pieces look less dimensional and leave the way they may hang to your imagination.

Still hoping to develop a more cohesive "look" that exemplifies my style and at the same time makes it easier on me in the process rather than running around the house and yard experimenting.

This first photo was taken on my scanner  and then edited to make the background more white.

I like this background but the shadows are a bit much

ooh... macro and sparkly quartz. Maybe alright for a side pic on Etsy

so they do hang but not the best photo

Got that background in grey gesso? still alotta shadow

( future journal page BTW)

I made these with some old painted metal tiles from out on our  remote property

Javelina Trail, how's that for a name?

distressed background

Hanging but still not my favorite photo look

This is when it gets more difficult on the scanner. things don't drape exactly right but shadows are minimized

I like the color on this. I have no way of knowing how it looks on your monitor though.

greens and creams and copper here.

See, it's better to see these hanging because they're long ones.

I cut up those copper embossed metal bits I bought on the banks of the Ganges.

the long tube in the right is copper that I enameled long ago.

There is evidence of my headpins in all of these earrings you may have noticed.

I think they're a blast to work with.

Art shot attempt

 too much shadow..shadoobie

trusty rusty, hang 'em high

Stuffs for other earrings. My excuse to sit out on the patio and soak up some sun.

I'd better be careful and pick up EVERY metal shaving, else they get embedded in someone's bare feet.

( oops, shouldn't brag about bare feet weather, most of you are grey and frosty and cold still...Ok I will anyway, I see green leaves budding out here, so there!)

This lovely item is what my archaeologist husband dug up in our yard yesterday when he was planting a tree. Look closely, it's part of a motorcycle!

Our house was built in 1915. I imagine that this heavy iron toy might have been from the 20's or so.

There you have it today. Input and feedback is welcome on the photos (and the design too)

In The Beginning

I'm reposting one of my early blogs from two years ago since I know many of you viewers hadn't found me yet.




















































Let's go back a few years ago to when my crafting first took wings.


My mother who had had a good liberal arts education was determined to have artistic children or at least provide us with every opportunity to express ourselves artistically. We had family projects at the round clawfoot kitchen table.


  Whether it was playdough, clay or paints and paper, we were given free range to create. She didn't feel particularly artistically talented herself but she always seemed to be involved in crafts too. I think she knitted over 200 sweaters during my teen years. She crocheted and did the ubiquitous 70's crewel embroidery on burlap. She was more comfortable following other's patterns and then she became a veritable machine at cranking out items.
  
 We entered into a business relationship as I would bring her crocheted rug yarn purses to high school to sell. They were $4 each and I got $1 for every one I sold. (Record albums or concert tickets ran about $5 each those days!) Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull, here I come!

 It was then that I began my first hobby of embroidery. Embellishing jeans was all the rage. I had one pair of super bellbottoms that I got at age 13 that I started on as the wear began. Layers upon layers until we had to add side panels as my 107 lb body shaped into a tad more womanly shape. (Well, I was pretty much a stick even after I filled out another 10 lbs. I was sometimes still mistaken for a boy as a teenager) I also didn't have much confidence in my own drawing abilities and used other people's images as my patterns for my patches.


 What I really liked to do was make patches for my friends for their jeans. I would work on my patches for several days after school and give them as random gifts to people that I thought were special. (usually boys, I think)


 What you see here is my first real body of work. They are better preserved since there's not a chance that I could fit in them these days. These jeans are over 40 years old now although the embroidery is a young 39 year old or thereabouts.

You can try this too~ A New View

It seems that I'm trying to pack in a bunch during my last month in Arizona and looking ahead to the move back to Alaska. There are so many projects that I'm hoping to get done before I leave.

In the middle of that we just annexed our residence to a little co-op apartment in Tucson so that we'll have a little camp there too when we make our jaunts for groceries, gem show, whatever. The price was too good to pass up and a good Bisbee friend has the apartment above us too.

Just what we needed as we think about our journey north.

This year we're driving so that we can swap out trucks. The one we have here doesn't have AC and the one in Alaska does so it just makes sense!

We'll be making the ferry trip from Bellingham, WA to Haines to cut down on a little driving time.

We'll be doing it the old fashioned way of camping out wherever we find a couch since there are no rooms  left on the ferry...more adventure!

I've been trying to do triage on projects now as my season of selling is about to begin.

A few new shops on the horizon in Alaska, one in Talkeetna and one in Chicken!

(yes there is a town of Chicken, Alaska. Apparently they didn't know how to spell ptarmigan so the story goes)

Disc and dapping, headpins and bead sets on the roster and two presents that I have ideas for.

In the meantime it's going to be record breaking hot here and Im sending some to all of you that have had the tough winter.

.....And now to the main point of this post.....

Blogger has rolled out a new viewing feature that lets you view the images on anyone's blog by adding 

/view to the end of their url

Then you go to the sidebar feature and pick a viewing mode.

I rather like the mosaic!

www.numinositybeads.blogspot.com/view

now go to the sidebar dropdown and pick mosaic or any of the other choices

Enjoy! 

It Comes in Waves

It Comes in Waves 

by Kimberly Rogers

SOLD!

I made this found object assemblage in response to the earthquake in Japan.

The news of the devastation and impending effects of the nuclear disaster

is hitting me in waves.

Made with pieces of rust, a discarded squeeze tube, Japanese postal ephemera,

antique porcelain doll arm and button.

a mounted on a composite stone backing and framed in a used discarded frame of linen and wood. 

detail

detail of body

Outdoor shot

I am offering this piece for $100

All proceeds not including shipping will go to a Japanese  Earthquake relief fund of your choice.

I'll calculate shipping depending on where it's headed.

estimated minimum of $20

Thanks, Kim