rolling, rolling, rolling.....

this was the sunrise this morning.......amazing!




The DH has been busy with the silver work again.

These two pieces were originally intended to be a pair of earrings....

but after they were fired they were too different to be put together (even on either side of someone's head!)

One of them is a tiny bit thicker, and so shrunk to a slightly smaller size when it was fired....strange....

Oh well, it does add two really nice new style necklaces to the stock!



We're celebrating 25 years of making bears (and other animals) this year, so I have designed some pins to be given to each person that purchases a bear this year.

We're also working on a one of a kind silver bear for the occassion.




Two more footballs complete! Yes, they are rollin' rollin' rollin'

Time to get moving --- places to go (people to annoy?)

having a howling good time.....

The latest completed animal from the studio.

Meet Soma the Red Dog.

Notice she has one blue eye and one brown eye.

This one is named after the dog that belongs to my daugher and her fiance.



This is the "real" Soma.....

(quiz for all you that read....this dog is named for a character in a well known novel.....anybody know what the novel is?)




I decided that the puppy needed a collar, so I took him to the pet store yesterday so I could get one that fit properly.

Even the folks in the pet store were doing a double take to make sure it wasn't a live dog!!

Now that was a lot of fun.




As promised, the last of the beadple.

I haven't figured out yet just what else I was doing yesterday, but that's all that got done....oh yes, and a little bit of work on the butterfly necklace....but no egg work, no quilt work....hmmmmmm

have to do better today!

We've "sprung"

but we're really confused!

You see, for the last 15 years we've always been in Nevada City, CA, doing our favorite bear show during "spring forward" weekend.

This year, everything is confused....even if the powers that be hadn't changed when we did the springing, I'd still be messed up, because the show is a week later than usual..... [ONLY 32 DAYS TO GO!]



All of which means we're still moving along on animals.

This is Bill. The latest in a long line of penguins (some with and some without scarfs....its a little something I added on one, and it just stuck!)

We try to always have at least one of these on hand at shows.




This is the latest new animal.

He has no name yet. In fact, he almost didn't get finished. I had done the sewing and stuffing back in January, but I was totally unhappy with his face.

Well, yesterday I did some major "rework" in the mouth area and changed the shape and positioning of the ears.

Much better. Now I'm just waiting for him to "speak" and tell me who he is.



Some jewelry work is still in progress too.

Finished this beadple on Saturday. I have 2 more laid out in the tray to put together, then we'll be done with this project for right now....we've exhausted the contents of the Soup Jar.

Work progresses on the butterfly necklace. I have finally completed all of the beading around the edge, so now I must work out the fringing pattern.

Also worked on the egg, probably today I will finish the top of it and move back to the bottom. A trip to the hardware store last week gave me the stand for the egg -- a 3" PVC pipe connector.....aren't hardware stores fun!





There are now 15 footballs complete.....at this rate this quilt will NOT be a car project to California! (it will have grown too big)

And so today I will be working on animals and jewelry and laundry.....

head em' up, move em' out!!

mousie, mousie

Its amazing what inspires us to new creations.

A while back, we found this adorable rubber stamp in the sale bin at our local craft store.

Now I'm not much into the big "stamping" craze that has blown through of late, but we always look in the sale bins because sometimes there is something that DH can use to texture the silver clay.

Or, something just grabs us, as this one did.



and this is what it inspired!


Isn't this ADORABLE!!!




Ralph the Mouse is 6 inches tall (6 1/2 to the top of his ears).

He is made of German mohair in two colors. He is fully jointed, has glass eyes with wool felt "whites" behind them. His tail has a wire in it so it can be positioned. And he has large enough feet that he stands well on his own.

This little creation was designed and sewn by DH!! I did the finishing work only.

I love it!!


Progress is being made on the other projects too.

I have almost all of the edges done on the "holes" in the butterfly necklace and should be starting on the fringing today.

The top of the egg is almost complete (I admit to having to use a bit of self discipline to work on this since it is now at the "boring all one color" stage)

Last night I knit a scarf for the penguin that is almost finished, so as soon as I put eyes on the bird and fringe on the scarf that piece will be done too.





11 of the footballs are done!! moving right along

time to get busy

and today's contest.....

I've done a new version of the flamingo.

The picture on the left is the old style, the picture on the right is the new one.

Notice the longer neck? What you can't really see in a photo is that there is a joint at the base of that long neck so the entire neck/head structure can turn to face different ways.....and it worked just like I thought it would!!

Fun stuff.

Only one problem -- this one needs a name. The original one was named Fern (we have this thing for illiteration in our animal names -- Fern the Flamingo, Darcie the Dodo, Dougie the Duck, etc., etc. -- but I digress) Anyway, we need a new "f" name for the new flamingo. We will accept suggestions from one and all.





Two more "beadple" pins finished!

I tried to figure out how to do an "beanimal" to go with these, but I haven't yet figured out how to do one that I can attach a pin finding to.....

Something to consider for future projects tho'



The field beading is done!

This morning I made the copy so I can cut the backing and get busy on the edge and the fringes.

I got some really nice purple and lavendar crystal beads to use in the fringe on this one, so I'm looking forward to working on that. I may also use some pink quartz beads or "chunks" (small ones of course) in the fringing. So far I've not been able to locate any small beads made of the chariote, so the purple crystals will have to do.




and a top o' the mornin' to you!

I finished up the LepBearCon yesterday afternoon.

He has hand painted eyes (layers of gold glitter and green nail polish), and a mohair roving beard....and don't you love the little pointy nose --- and the oversize ears and feet.....

this one was a lot of fun, and its always good to stretch the creative muscles because we usually learn something that we can use in other projects





I got 3 footballs done since yesterday's blog! we're definately on a roll (although we know that footballs roll in a very odd way!)

other projects are perking along too......

into the fray!

A Milestone of sorts....

We've been keeping track of the jewelry we make since the middle of 2002, and yesterday we reached item number 1000.

And this is it!

This is a 2.55 carat aquamarine that we got in a bulk lot of stones for a RIDICULOUSLY low price. The setting is a brand new style that we had not tried before, so we got one to test.

Nice!



This is the latest piece of silver work from DH.

There have been a lot of twists and turns in this one. He started off with 2 silk leaves that he covered with the silver paste to make the base. Then he made the flower and fired the whole piece together.

Unfortunately, on one side the "vein" was so deep that when he started doing the polishing, the leaf broke in half.

After much discussion, we decided that even tho' that leaf had been repaired, it would need some support to withstand being worn, so instead of being a necklace (which was the original idea), it has been converted into a pin.

The back of the piece has two pieces of leather with a combination pin back/chain bail sandwiched between, all attached to the silver.

It's pretty neat looking!



Then there is this latest resurrection from the Soup Jar.

The body is a chunk of Russian chariote, the head is a facetted and dyed quartz, and the flower on top of the hat is a vintage 1930s pressed glass bead.

Don't you love the ringlets?

I'm working on another one that features a teal colored lampglass bead that I made at the torch.

These are such fun!!

Other work yesterday included finishing the last of the 2006 taxes for a friend (HURRAH!! -- and a record early date for this activity being done)

The LepBearCon is all finished and waiting for his pot of gold to be completed. I should have pictures of this little character tomorrow.




and I finished 2 more footballs ... 36 to go!

Today I will have my eyes checked (ok, its not quite having my head examined, but it will have to do!), which may slow down the project work, but I have to have it done every year.

and away we go!

a little bit of this, a little bit of that....

This was the sunrise this morning....pretty enough to get me out the back door with my camera at 6:11 am!

I wish there was some way to truly capture this wonderful color in a bead embroidery, but I haven't found it yet




As promised, pictures of the progress on the egg.

The lilly just amazes me....

Notice at the top edge the lighter blue beads in little "V" shapes working into the darker blue....I'm almost out of the darker beads, so I've worked in this little design variation to finish the top (and the bottom) with the lighter colored beads



And this looks more and more like a butterfly with every bead I add (to me anyway). I have the quartz squares all set up to do the earrings to go with this too.....



Back during the fall show season, I gave some rough stone to a guy to make cabs from.

This is what arrived in the mail yesterday, and I'm thrilled and amazed.

The piece at the left is a really thick tigereye with great color. The other two pieces are turquoise pieces that I've had sitting around in a box since 1969, and they look a lot better now that the cutter has done his work.

Seeing how great these look has encouraged me to look through the rough stone again and maybe send him some more pieces to do for me!





Another football shape complete (and another well on its way this morning during the quilt show, since I was awake), only 38 to go!

My supply order arrived yesterday too, so today I will try to finish up the repair order I have to work on.

football?

Its the very first of the "football" shaped components of the quilt, all stitched together (not pressed yet tho')

I get to assemble 40 of these, and 14 "half footballs" too......I spent quite a bit of time yesterday drawing the patterns on the back of the fabrics, sorting out the arc pieces into the pairs to be put together...lots of fun!




progress in small steps!

I did work on the necklace and the egg yesterday too. They're coming right along.

The lilly is all complete, so I'm now down to just putting in the blue to fill up the rest of the egg.

Pictures tomorrow!

I did manage to get my Ebay listings up too, so I accomplished just about everything I wanted to yesterday.

Today its laundry and taxes and a trip to Walmart for niacin and a few other things.....

rocks in my head?

well, maybe.....

We went to the gem show up in Denver yesterday and I was VERY restrained.

I actually went with an idea of what we needed to purchase, and pretty much stayed to it.

Some silver chain was necessary, as DH has been turning out some of the most wonderful art clay pieces, which I make the necklace parts for, and we were almost out of raw chain. We were able to get 2 different styles which will go quite well with what he's been doing, and at a very reasonable price.

The picture above shows all of the stones that I bought to work with.

The 2 pink rose quartz squares at the top left are for a pair of earrings that would go with the necklace I'm working on right now. The 2 purple ovals at the bottom left will also work for that purpose.

The blue, pear shape on the top right is a piece of Lorimar. I've been wanting to get a piece of this stuff since it started showing up in the gem magazines, but this is the first piece I've found that I could afford.

In the center row, left to right we have a rectangular sunstone with very pretty color variations, a trillion shaped ocean jasper and an oval mookiate jasper piece from Australia, all of which will probably go into smaller necklaces.

And the last two pieces on the bottom are both from Australia, the center 3 being a type of opal which I plan to turn into a necklace with matching earrings and the irregular shaped purples will also be earrings.

I was flipping through a book recently and realized I've missed a whole other design possiblity in not using any "fringes" on bead embrodiery earrings, so I'll be playing with that idea with some of these.

Today I will be writing up Ebay listings (having spent about 45 minutes in the photo studio taking pictures of things); and working on the quilt.

Its time to get moving!

altered couture and other objects de art

I read (and re-read!) a magazine called Belle Armoire.

One of their features has been altered couture....where someone takes a used garment of some kind and remakes it into a whole new thing

I guess that stuck in my head to be revisited by DH telling me that this shirt shrunk. It was headed to the pile to be donated to Salvation Army, when the little creative "bug" struck, and I rescued it for a make over of sorts.

I'm thinking cardigan style jacket, cable knitted banding, big time embroidery on the back, beads .....mmmmmmmmm..... lovely thoughts!

pictures will follow!


and then there is this little bit of recycling creativity

When I'm working on bead projects and get to the end of a package of beads of any size I toss them into a jar. I also put in mismatched pieces of findings, parts of jewelry that I tear apart, etc., etc. In our studio this is called the Soup Jar.

Every now and then (usually about this time of year), I pour the contents of the Soup Jar out into a tray and see what I can create out of it.

This is the first of several pins I will be putting together this time. I call these "Beadple" (bead people). Cute, huh? (I did have to buy some wire to do the hair)

I'm looking forward to making about a dozen of these (if the pieces hold out!)





A major milestone reached last night. All 96 arcs for the quilt are complete. Now its on to creating the "football" shaped units. There will be pressing and marking and sorting (OH MY!) today or tomorrow to prepare for this step.

(and according to DH, I'm WAY ahead of schedule to have the top of this done by the wedding!!)

time to get moving, I need to take a bunch of pictures of some stuff I'll be listing on Ebay......

250 Posts!

I can't believe that I've actually done 250 of these .... WOW! Its an anniversary of sorts!



This is the latest animal that DH is working on.

No, its not a DEAD mouse.....its an UNBORN mouse.

This is his design, and he has done all of the sewing except the gathering of the ear back to the ear front. The mousie is now ready for joints and stuffing....

Yeah Mousie!

This will definately be ready for Nevada City in only 43 DAYS!




Its done! Finished up the bracelet, and it does look nice!

Notice on the side view that you can get a good look at the nice double row edging and the textured surface of the top.




And this is coming along nicely too.

The lettering is now all complete, so the only chart left to be worked from is the lilly. I still have the top of two petals to complete on it.




Another new piece begun! The dark pear shaped spots are actually openings. I'm hoping for an "eyelet lace" look since the two stones are pinks and purples (the big stone is an enormous piece of pink quartz and the two little pear shapes are Russian charoite)



90 arcs complete! only 6 more to do before we move to the next phase

time to get busy