Earring Extravorgazma

I'm going to go backwards in time with my earring making spree.

I wanted to start with the pair in which I'm most proud.

( how's that for proper grammar?)

These were made with some metal tile that I found out near our desert property.

I brought a few of my pre-cut pieces back with me from Arizona.

I have a goodly stash to return to November but for now this is it.

Look how the light comes through them

Those are faceted pyrite lashed on with silver wire.

I can't keep hoarding my silver stash just because it's expensive now.

Yeah I kept these little torch fired copper enamel rounds for myself so far.

Revisiting my "roadsmithed" design with smashed bottle caps that I find on the streets in Bisbee.

Those of you that have followed for awhile might remember them.

Oh, we have litterers here in Alaska but it's a big highway with lots of wide open space.

I think there are more can people here that litter anyway.

And huge ditches and lots of brushy stuff, not so convenient as curbed pavement for searching.

And big snow plows and road graders scrape the roads clean.

Got some new and different supplies in a trade with Kim from Flotsam Tide

I find it's best to put newly gifted supplies immediately to use.

And you just might be able to see how she influenced these.

I haven't done much of the chainy work before.

Spacing is important I realize now.

How many times did I have to fasten the charms so they didn't overlap too much?

Found some old supplies that I made into these simple earrings.

Somehow little perfect frames aren't me anymore but I tried to funk them up with some lava and trade beads. Put on some extra long silver earwires to glam them up a bit so they weren't too pedestrian.

There was a time when I was going to sell out all of my tribal & trade beads since my style had veered away from that style. Imagine that, they've come back  'round to me again

 I finished this pair with NKPbeads

Petra of ScorchedEarth's ceramic rings, Kristi Bowman's charms

and my last set of baubles- double ended headpins on copper.

I do need to make more of those again sometime.

This is where I riffed off of an amazing design of earrings that I got in a trade with Darlene of DarliciousHouse

( I said riffed off, not ripped off and am happy to say she feels the same way. I checked with her to make sure)

My headpins matching the faceted carnelian

Multicolor matchsticks with some faceted opal

I finished these too. You know how I was squawking about doing custom pieces?

I just needed one criffle to match the other one.

Did I get it right?....no!

Different sizes and different colors. I ended up using a different stray orphan from my work table just because I wanted to finish these.

I'm at the end of my outdoor shows now and will be stocking some of the local galleries and shops in addition to several nice warm indoor shows.

The next one will be  "The Bad Girls of the North" in Fairbanks at the end of the month.

Great name eh?

They serve cocktails and hors douvres and the women they are happy cruising through with their wine glasses.

Oh, and one big question for those of you  that have the new activity feed on Etsy.

What do you think of it?

I happen to absolutely love it but was shocked to find that so many abhor it.

Must be because I have a Mac and follow such great folks because it all looks scrumptious to me.

The Last Projects of 2010~ Happy New Year!

Trying something new

Where the lampwork meets the "roadsmithed" bottle caps

Opals and rust

Chrysocolla and quartz

A choker of vintage buttons and sari silk ribbons

Lampwork baubles, disks and sari silk ribbons.

It's challenging for me to create a distressed and shabby look that works.

I finally got a whole day to myself to finish some projects that I had started over the last month. In between visitors and parties I found myself craving some time alone in the studio.

While  the Dave-man was off on a hiking in the Grand Canyon I got back to my bottle cap earrings. I had just bought some sari silk ribbon from Mudhound  Studio's Etsy shop and was anxious to put it to use. These are a few of my latest creations to finish out the year.

A very Arty New Year to you all and thanks for your acquaintances  and support this past year. I've enjoyed the journey.

xoxo Kim

Score at the Store!

First Beads of February by Kimberly Rogers

"Roadsmithed" bottle cap earrings (sans ear wires)

Here's the score! Calamine pink paint on old tin ceiling tile

Reverse side of the tin ceiling tile

Nothing like being away from my stuff for a month to make me go wild in the studio upon returning home. I've been jumping into projects like nobody's business. Just deciding which artistic direction to go each morning is a quandary. Will it be a hot glass day, a rusty bits day, a paper day or some combination of all of them? I've been kind of jumping around , playing with my new stuff and trying to remember the ideas I had before we left on our whirlwind trip.

Yesterday I got out the rusty bottle caps I had been picking up on my walks to the gym. They're much easier to find in Arizona. In Alaska the plows and snowblowers pick them all up before they have a chance to get crushed and rusty. These rusty bits I use in my "Roadsmithed" earring series. I've been pairing them with vintage look ear wires that I get from Cindy's Wicked Good Beads. Unfortunately I left those findings in Alaska. I'll have to finish them when I get back home there.

A couple of hours in the glass studio too, trying to stick with a theme or a series in similar colors. I have to really focus on making a series in the same colors, I get bored and want to jump around and experiment with other colors but beads seem to be more saleable. OOAK is alright for focals but SOAK sells beads (several of a kind)

Today I couldn't resist doing a bit of antiquing in Old Bisbee. I was dropping my husband off at the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum where he had just gotten a volunteer docent position. It was an uncharacteristically rainy day in the southwest. I was hoping to show some of my work to one of the shops for consignment as well. I headed down to the bargain basement of on of my favorite Old Bisbee shops, Miners and Merchants and found a wagon full of turn of the century or earlier tin ceiling tiles with oh, so many layers of paint on one side and tin in different stages of rustiness on the other. My aim was to buy ten of the 1 foot square ones if the price was right. They weren't marked and the cashier didn't happen to know the price but said that she'd call me after speaking with the owner. I dashed off to the gym and awaited her call between reps and my aerobic workout. When she called with the price for all ten I swear my heart beat went higher than it's normal count (never mind the caffeine I had directly before my workout) The embossing is at least 2 inches deep in the center. They are certainly destined for some projects, resale and barter too.