Dipping My Toes Into 2014

Well, well, well, here I am again after a long absence.

They say your first experience of the new year can set the tone for the rest of the year.

I woke up on a dry-docked yacht in the desert.

It was actually one of the dwellings for rent at the Shady Dell Trailer Park where we had partied the night before. The grand ideas of hiring a cab fell through although they called and woke me at ten to four AM to let us know they could pick us up finally but we were comfortably ensconced in the yacht by then.

This morsel has been a WIP for a a bit of a while.

I wanted to experiment with the Apoxie Clay that I learned about in Michael deMeng's class.

The bead was a wonky vessel of sorts, meaning that it was hollow bead with only one hole.

I had never quite figured out how I was going to use it (and nobody else had either because I was never able to sell any of this series)

Apoxie clay is great for attaching things to things and is paintable and carve-able and dries within a few hours. It's a two part system as any epoxy.

So this pendant was not soldered at all, just stuffed and it adhered the two pieces just dandy. (dandily?)

Did a little designing with some of Marsha Neal Minutella's Spiky organic ceramic bits and made some sgrafito beads as well. 

I am still struggling with the whole bracelet idea...

sizing and such... finishing and such...

 but I have a pile of bracelet ideas half strung.

I thought I had a buyer for this one when I showed it online but the pesky Australian import rules about seed pods squashed it thoroughly. Be careful people, you don't want your customers to pay hefty fees and experience months of delay or the possibility of your piece being returned because you included some organic matter in your design that they don't allow.

Messing around with the Apoxie Clay and checking out the difference between Apoxie Clay and Apoxie Sculpt when making these headpins. Apoxie Sculpt is more of a Play Doh texture when working it, more supple and the Apoxie Clay is stiffer, more like polymer clay.

It was a little dark in the house when I painted them. I couldn't tell the difference once they dried and were painted.

Inspiration for crubbly cubies.

( actually I spotted this after I made them so it was kind of a reverse inspiration.)

The crubbly cubies inspired me to take this picture.

Went on a crubbly cubie streak. Cornerstones of funky beadwork designing.

and made a few earrings

I ended up having to keep these for myself since I dropped and broke the tip off of one. Now it's glued and they are mine.

I discovered some new frit that takes to my headpins quite well.

The only reason these are still in my shop is that I put a certain LoveRoot on moratorium for buying because she's joining me at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show next month.

I'm excited to have a pal and partner in bead crime.

I hope it doesn't come down to fisticuffs over coveted wares though!

I met the neighbors.

Remember the "clown house" I spoke of way back when.

Well we've got invites there now. Lots of fun.

Things you can see on a typical bike ride in Bisbee, AZ

Mining runoff.

I hope to be back on a bit more of a regular schedule (in the loosest meaning of the word)

and keep more up to date with this blog. Things got busy there for awhile!

thanks for sticking with me.

XOXO,  Kim

Gold Leaf for the Holidays

I got out my gold leaf the other day for a little bit of holiday flash. I'm pretty pleased with the results on these opalescent headpins.

Winners!

Extra long brass wires on these blingy transparent leaf headpins

Goldstone latticino limpet bead caps with metallic edges.

see how they match my prop shell

I was experimenting with layered headpins. The second one just didn't behave so I flattened and twisted it. Makes even a more interesting set and I know you guys aren't afraid of mismatched!

I might have shown these before but they are merchandise now.

In my Etsy shop

I decided to finally list some of these Numi- Petra combos

( that's ScorchedEarthOnEtsy who makes these ceramic spikes)

Butter criffles 'n' spikes

Blueberry, Cranberry - Alaskan inspired criffles

Mmmm, lookit that pale green!

Orphan assortments in the shop. lots of them!

"Whorlpools"

asymmetrical crusty large whorls

( rust not included. I find such great things on my walks around this high desert town)

A great focal. If you don't want this, I do!

It's been a great year in ye olde numinositye shoppe and many thanks to you all that keep me going.

I know I've fallen off on blogging and following partly because I've been so dang busy in the studio keeping my shop stocked. Also I became a guest blogger over on LoveMyArtJewelry Blog twice a month and I guess I don't have so many blog blathers in me to overflow into my own.

So if you want to see what I've written there you just need to head over on the first and last Thursday of every month. There are new posts there every day from many talented artists with a wealth of skills to share.

I just did a post this week about murrini and millefiore  cane.

Check it out here.

And now for some potatoes that my son illustrated to send you on your way.

Trippin'

We just arrived back in Arizona after the 5 week trip to the states from Alaska.

It was pretty intense with lots of road travel and socializing.

I started out  by attending Art Is You in Stamford, Connecticut which put me on the east coast, my former stomping grounds.

I had been wanting to take a class from Michael DeMeng for years, in fact had one canceled here in Arizona that I had signed up for a few years back. He does have online classes too.

I ended up taking two of his classes to make up for that  missed one.

What you see here is some of my "Good Brushes Gone Bad" projects.

I learned a lot about some really cool paint applications and new materials that I'm itching to expand on ( notice the baby being birthed beneath the eye)

That eye was from some Bollywood CD trash that I found in India)

This one seemed very Alaskan totemic don't you think?

The face in the middle was from my Uruguay Haul last year and I'd been saving that little stub of a pencil for a long, long time.

Those little paw thingies radiating out from the face are the bottom half of some plastic squeeze toy.

That's the kind of  fun you can have in a Micahel DeMeng class!

I used one of my old lampwork dog bead attempts in this one. he always seemed rather Simpsonesque to me.

Using another one of my relaxing babies and a anenomonic lampwork piece I made this cover for this tin in the "Teeny Tiney Shriney" class. I still need to paint where I connected the glass to the top.

I loved learned his technique of coloring mica to make it look really old.

I forget what he called it -"Dead Guy Under Ice" or something to that effect.

I used a lighthouse from a Beech Cliff sardine can to harken back to my Maine roots and since it was my first job at the cannery and all.

I took Cat Kerr's "Tube Soldered Pendants" class and it was my first foray into playing with solder.

I filled the tubes with glass stringer nubs from my lampworking.

It was great to finally meet Cat after years of blogging and she had been a participant of my ill-fated Candace, the traveling doll escapade.

We grieved a bit at the loss of our dear Candace who went missing right before she was to be returned to me after a year of travel  'round the world.

I also took a class with Seth Apter of mixed media fame.

Learned a lot about layering and glazes that I'll be able to put to use. This class was called

"52 Pick Up" which was going to be a mini journal of  52 playing cards that are painted and collaged.

This is front and back cover- reflecting a bit of Indian theme it turns out.

The most challenging class was with Richard Salley and Jessica Jordan as I have only a couple of day long metal smithing classes under my belt. This was also made in one day. 

I'm pleased to know that they will be providing workshops during the gem show in Tucson in February.

How convenient!

Little did I realize that the influence of Michael DeMeng would translate so directly into my lampwork upon my return home. I had used murrini on the ends of headpins before but when I used Donna Millard's murrini that I had picked up when I saw her in Alaska these magnificent eyeballs appeared!

I warmed up to the torch making some more matchsticks and have been trying to come up with some batches to list so that I can fill my shop once again.

I am taking custom orders and that's why you might not be seeing so much new stuff appearing quite yet. I am working on it!

After my CT workshop I flew to Dayton and met my bead buddy and jewelry artist extraordinaire Nikki of LoveRoot. She has a new facebook page by the way and is already sharing some of her magic  in tutes and such. Go Nikki!

We had a great lunch together, her and her man and mine and she gave me some uber cool handcrafted vodka for my birthday. It just so happened to be her birthday when we met that day.  

I gave her some beads of course. I still have some of the vodka left and perhaps she still has some beads left.

From there we set out for the Michigan cottage that has been recently reacquired into my husband's family and hung out with his two sisters and some cousins for several days.

We then drove up and through Canada and down into New England ending up at my Mom's place where my brother and his family from Bali were still staying.

We got to celebrate our respective birthdays a day apart, my brother and I and also did Halloween with his young children

Don't I look older now?...this is right after my birthday

After that we had a whirlwind trip in a southerly direction meeting up with folks at every turn.

We did six states in one day once. All in all I saw 3 sister in laws, 1 brother in law,

1 bro, 2 sis's, 1 mom, 1 aunt, 4 cousins ( one I hadn't seen in 40 years) 3 old high school friends, 1 junior high school friend that I hadn't seen in 40 years, 2 art workshop/ blog friends, one new bead buddy and another Etsy customer. 2 old Alaskan friends, 2 nephews and one niece.

I apologize to those of you that I had hoped to visit along the way but nearing the end of the trip we were getting anxious to head to the barn. Next time, OK?

I only misplaced/left behind one hairbrush and one set of sunglasses and only lost one earring ( one of my own) gained quite a few pounds with the impossibility of avoiding wheat and gluten on the trip which I hope to wear off quickly now that I'm ensconced in Studio South.

I have two new paintings of my brother's to hang in our house here and one of Michael DeMeng's own teeny tiney shrinies for my collection.

Always a little overwhelmed as to where to begin. I missed creating after several weeks without and felt envious when I saw what you all were doing. 

Best thing I can do right now is to go melt some glass!

Random Road Trip Pics

A few pics from the trip. Trying to see if I can manage to blog from my phone.
I made a ring at Art is You. Went on a paddle wheel river cruise and met LoveRoot Nikki. Not in that order.
My laptop computer battery was all bulged out from it's storage in Arizona these last 6 months so that's kind of dead in the water until I find a new one.