Scorchedosity and Petra-fying

Testifying on the Petra-fying

Using Petra's ScorchedEarthonEtsy components is some serious fun.

here are some of my newest NuministaChic earrings

I found myself some Afghani charms to dismantle at the gem show to give the pieces some antiquity and swing.

These were some winners that already are winging their way across country 

(to a displaced Alaskan, my ever loyal customers)

Had no idea what I was going to do with the Afghani flower caps until I saw that they nestled nicely underneath the lacy ceramic bead caps. And those were some headpins that I could never sell so I'm using them.

Some of Petra's snakeskin shields with my torch fired enamel disks.

Some guy thought they looked like fishing lures.

Let's call them "allures"

It was about time I started adding some color to my shop, it was all down to winter blues and greys.

I started with the same base on these headpins. look how much they change with the application of the baking soda!

This was something new. I applied filigrana stringers to meander about on these headpins.

I rather like the effect. I'd better make more because these also flew away.

I most likely won't be listing any more until we get back from our trip.

I really didn't think I'd have to fly further south to get warm. 

We got snow again here in southern Arizona but the good news is that in Santiago, Chile it's 84 degrees! We'll be arriving on Tuesday. Can't wait.

More matchsticks.

Good news for you international customers. I can enclose these in an envelope and you won't have to pay as much for shipping.

More crubbly headpins. I hope to get around to listing them today.

And this from Quisnam.

Her Etsy shop is here

I like the way she used one of my limpet bead caps at the bottom of the piece

( top  in this case)

Now if I can get her to photograph my work!

That's all today my lovelies.

You all have a great weekend!

From a Blue Day to a Glue Day

It's been pretty quiet out here with the out of town schedule my husband's been keeping.

The first two weeks were glorious in the long sunny days with plenty of time to catch up on all of my stocking of inventory in various shops for the summer season.

Time for lawn mowing and feeding myself on my diet change, eating when I am hungry instead of "meal time" and watching Netflix series that I know would put him to sleep.

I'm getting to eat all those things that he would turn his nose up upon such as curries and eggplant, tempeh and okra. ( please no comments about the okra!...I know it's not the most popular vegetable but I am on a serious okra kick if you can believe it)

The next round has bee a little more lonesome. It hasn't helped that it rained for days on end. That seems to be when I desire the caffeine I have sworn off for my anti-inflammation, detox and general well being goal.

Sneaking little bits of those tiny Starbucks Via packets into my dandelion root brew.

I do get a dose of the public once a week at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays in Fairbanks 100 miles away.

It had been sweatingly hot at the market and a trip to the Chena Lakes brought on the impending thunder storm and wind.

I awoke to pouring rain next morning and no incentive for much except putting on my yoga pants thinking that it might propel me into actually doing some yoga.

Indulged myself in some Netflix in the morning and perhaps that's what threw me further into a funk.

Too rainy to walk to the paper.

Somehow I pulled myself out of it enough and went to the studio to play with glue & paper.

Mail art, a glue book and journal.

It had been a long time since I had approached the paper stash and collage-able goodies, I had been so focused on the beads and head pins and all of my jewelry making.

Getting started is the hardest for me so my first piece was to cover a big packing envelope for some mail art. If you look on the map you can see that it's heading to a certain studio in Massachusetts as soon as I figure out what to put in it.

Then I decided to fill up some pages in my moleskine.

I just recently heard the term gluebook. I'm wondering if both sides of every page are filled.

so far I'm only collaging one side. It helps with the drying of course too.

I finally got to use some more of my vintage Japanese business correspondence for collaging.

There's more available on Etsy right here

Just about all of my imagery is vintage from books and thrift shops .

That would be over 20 years old technically  but most is even older.

Make sure to click on this one I like the names on the map in the middle.

Then there was this journal that I started a couple of years ago.

It was an old cookbook from the 30's from Fellows Balls...ahem... Bellows Falls, Vermont

( although it looks as if this dude's have shriveled a tad)

This is the front cover

and this is the back. 

I discovered recently the joy of painting with bubble wrap.

Did you know that glimmer mist on watercolor paper with large bubble bubble wrap pressed against it comes out looking like roses. Of course you all knew that but I DISCOVERED IT on my own!

...so proud...

This book had a masonite cover with binder rings.

i thought if I gessoed the pages I would have  a great surface to paint or draw on.

Well, gesso on thin sheets of paper curl up like some 1st grade science experiment so I sewed several pages together and then gessoed them. They've been waiting for me now for 2 years.

faces aren't my strong suit just yet!

I found this lovely stretchy tie dye tube stuff at the Saturday market in bangkok years ago. They had the best colors, Sure wish I could find some more of this sort of thing. It's part of my supply hoard that I only let go in small pieces because when I'm out, that's it!

I do dabble in stamps once in awhile but try to come up with combinations that aren't too homogenous with a certain ubiquitous look that I've come to know.

(ooh, did that sound snobby?....sorry)

As soon as I get away from the straight on collage, things begin to get messy.

Oh OK, things are pretty damn messy with just paper and glue, I admit.

So the funk has lifted and I'm happy once again

( but don't get me going about my computer issues!)

My update to Snow Leopard means that my scanner driver for my Canon no longer communicates.

Ever try to download anything with dial-up?

Now I've got to haul my desktop computer somewhere that has wifi just to download another driver.

Ooops, I guess I got myself started on that one.

And today I got a package of ephemera from Crystal Neubauer over at Other People's Flowers.

You can follow her blog to her Esty shop to see the good closeout deals she's offering in ephemera.

Tribal In Paradise

This is what happens on a drizmal day that I decide to do some sewing for a change. 

Although I have been nattering on about junkyards and  music festivals the truth is I have been hard at it in the studio for the a good bit since I have a large block of time to myself.

The huz is off doing archaeology field work which takes him away a couple of weeks at a time. They've been finding paleo sites along with historic gold mining camps.

I've been relishing hours of uninterrupted time to catch up with stocking my own booth and galleries and shops hoping to place myself in a few new ones as well.

So what happens is rather than heading out to the studio I suddenly find a table full of supplies in front of me and a warming cup of tea and inspiration.

Yesterday I had spent several hours trying to produce headpins that had been requested.

I found that my glass acted strangely. I'd noticed it before with some of the CIM brand "messy colors"

They have some wonderful opalescent milky clear glass which inexplicably to me anyway will go opaque depending on which color you lay over it. I was going for a white stripe twisty on an opalescent base. I ended up with some subtle two tone neutral whites.

Of course my time was not wasted and instead of stocking up my Etsy shop

because for some other inexplicable reason will not even load with my dial-up lately,

I went at it and used my own supplies. Not fair, right?

I pulled out some bins of beads that I've recently designated for a more tribal look.

$45

$38

Those are vintage buttons strung between African copper spacers.

$45

These kind of scanned a little wonky but I'm showing you how I beefed up some previous earrings that didn't seem to move well sales -wise (the little coil-y dudes)

Vermeil wires and findings with brass nuggets.

$45

Now here are the opalescent headpins. I really like the way these came out with an experiment with double headpins. 

S O L D - to a lovely blogger in Denmark!

$38

$45

Apatite and Thai silver

$45

Vintage buttons and copper beads and spacers

Sunstone with copper spacers and Thai silver

$45

Amethyst & Thai silver

$45

You can click on the photo for a closer look.

$38

This is what I have left of  yesterday's batch of headpins.

I'm open to suggestions for color combinations on the pointy twists.

Rounds, $2 each

twisties $2.50  each

Discounts given on larger orders.

I am accepting Paypal payments if you have an interest in owning any of these pieces.

You can deal with me directly with any transactions.

I'm having too much trouble getting my Etsy shop to come up on my dial-up connection lately.

Heh!

Now that I have a little more time on my hands I've decided to take up the Art Challenge over at 

Kesha's Blog

I've been building up my studios (one in Alaska and one in Arizona) since my retirement.

I figured that since there was a bit of money left from the sale of my house when we bought the Arizona place I could have a little fun hoarding  filling it with art supplies.

Now it's time to really ramp up and use some up before we head north again.

Right now I'm in the process of figuring out if my grounds and glues survived the deep freeze we had a few weeks back. Something I'm quite cognizant of in Alaska but Arizona? Who knew?

I did this collage the same day as the "It's Spring" collage.

I actually find it easier with collage if I keep my options for scraps and images down, otherwise I get overwhelmed with possibilities.

Detail of "Heh!"

Yeah, I have a shoe thing going on with my collages in case you haven't noticed.

Just wait there's another one drying as we speak!

Don't forget to stop by to comment on my 200th post giveaway here if you want a chance at some

*numinosity* goodies