Jumping Back In

It's been a busy summer for me with long periods of solitude and time to make beads and jewelry.

I am so surprised that it's turned into a full time job for me.

I decided to dig out some of my Thai silver hoard and use a few pieces from time to time.

These were some polymer pieces I made using Blue Bottle Tree's Rustic Beads tutorial.

How wonderful it is to have a stash of your own handmade components at the ready.

    

I picked out some of my own torch fired numi-sticks for this set and dug into what was one of my first ever bead catalog purchases (before online catalogs even!)

Those little jasper heishi beads are from that very first haul.

I've been making some extra large and bulbous "end of the rods scraps of the day"  headpins that I call my "embonpoint " series. I've been selling some of these in my etsy shop from time to time.

 You don't need to add much to call them earrings. I used a couple of my "Spacey Crusters" and some Faerystones earwires here with a few little African brass spacers.

 

I found that Petra's Scorched Earth ceramic pieces were the perfect accompaniment to  these lovely geode slices.

In case you thought I was going too neutral on you I made these "Fruity Coodlers"

They are an offshoot of my "Spacey Crusters"

"Spacey Crusters" of course!

Just Crust if you Must

Or Lustrous and Crustrous

Extree Long Numi-sticks with abbreviated headpins (redo from another set) and some of RaggedRobyn's wonderful stoneware beads

Another set using beads from the beginnings of my bead hoard. Resin Filled stamped Thai silver beads that were brought back to me by a friend before I had ever even visited Thailand. 1995 or so?

It was before I was even lampworking I'm sure.

We took a trip to Lake Michigan to gather up some Leland Glass. What fun!

Leland Slag glass is a by-product of the iron industry  in the late 1800's when they mixed limestone and coal to extract the ore. The waste product was this beautiful glass that they deposited in Lake Michigan and it's still washing up to this day.

 I purchased this Leland slag glass cabochon thought from a  local shop in the town of Leland

OK, still a fan of creepy baby dolls here. Antique store score. 

She's squeezable and she squeaks!

Some of my first murrini ever. Yeah I've been making lampwork beads for almost 20 years and never made murrini. i think part of it was that I thought it was too graphic for my organic style. I've gotten over that now.

Cuz you can crust it up and do this!

Oh man, I just discovered this new "Avorio Lapis" glass too!

I can't seem to make enough of these Numi-Sticks. Who would think people shopping at our farmer's market would be buying them?

I have been on an etch-a-thon lately. Seems to befit the "oobers"

A little view of Bar Harbor and the Porcupine Islands from Cadillac Mountain

Sorry it's blurry - instagram to facebook to here

 An erupting poppy from the yard.

Summer is over already here in Alaska, we've had frost and snow already.

Just a few more months here before we head south for warmer climes. Missed you all!

Kim

Tinacious~ NuministaChic Earrings

Remember all that vintage tin I got from Suzanna at Sushipotparts?

Well I've been workin' it in between orders for crusty rusty bits in my Etsy shop.

You guys are keeping me hopping with the orders. This is a first for me I'll have you know.

Somehow it doesn't matter how many orders I get in the vintage and supply shop it just isn't the same glory as selling my own stuff to you all. Many thanks, I know that there will be some more torch days coming up.

So this is what I've been doing with the tin.

I am discovering something about designing assemblage style pieces...

that they don't necessarily hang the way they look all nice and flat on your work table.

In fact they tend to flip around quite a bit.

I decided to solve the problem on the previous earrings by adding a bit of bling to the back side so they won't be just one sided earrings ( especially with the big blank white space on these.)

Wouldn't you know I just happened to have some of my beads that matched the tin, already made and waiting on my work table?

I have lots more tin left and some pieces cut out in the queue waiting for me.

I had a mishap the other night which involved rescuing an elderly man on the roof.

We were enjoying a warm night on the patio with our friends when one of us heard someone crying "help me!"

In house downhill from us lives a man that has obviously suffered a stroke before.

It's dark and I try to find where the voice is coming from and he's on the roof! ...and it's dark out!

Well I basically had to run around the block while I was on 911 so I could determine his house number.

Meanwhile the guys were trying to find access to his yard which was quite a heap of obstacles.

I went through his house to get to the backyard while my other neighbor climbed up to help get the man down. Meanwhile I was directing the cops to  his location and they were having a time of it getting up the steep ladder. One had to take off his bullet proof vest because it was getting snagged on boards and nails. I went to assist holding the ladder and didn't realize there was a ditch between me and the ladder and fell snagging my ring on some wire that was holding the ladder to the was. It practically yanked it out of the socket. The old man got down and we ascertained that he had been up there for a half hour and presumably was fixing his antenna. ( he has speech problems from his stroke) He was uninjured just stuck and I have a numb ring finger that doesn't seem to be keeping me from making stuff so all is well.

It was an exciting night though.

Cold Weather Productions- On A Roll

Nothing like a bit of unseasonably cold weather to drive me into the studio.

Snowing and blowing to beat the band just 8 miles from the Mexican border.

Actually the torching studio was too cold so I spent the last two days making some new earrings.

I was trying to stretch a bit and make non-matching earrings extra long.

...and loose up some of my new supplies...punch holes into 1000 year old relics

wire it, dangle it make it balance somehow.

The sun came out enough to photograph a few

I realized that having the earrings close to the same weight was important to me.

I think it feels funny to have one significantly heavier than the other.

Blobs torched right on to the crude filigree

Ceramic pieces in the middle from a supply swap

Thanks, Robbie!

dapped disks of a crusty aluminum baking pan

numinosity headpins

yak bone mala beads

This is what I do with my own headpins

brass disks, yak bone mala beads and numinosity headpins

Was inspired to make some red earrings after reading alek's post at infinity stop

red yak bone mala beads, dapped copper disks, copper spacers

Copper earrings with wire

More amphoras~ currently in my shop

in the shop now

currently for sale

And just to show you what my first earrings looked like when I started out back in '97

even before I was making my own beads!