Well! Something pretty at last. I made these for the silent auction at the Oktoberfest fundraiser party our Bach Society had last night. I finished them about ten in the morning, snapped a couple of photos against the way too busy background of the backyard, took them over to the set-up, and they're bid for and gone now, so no better photos will be had.

The wire is 20-gauge sterling. I planned on some luscious deep red carnelian 4mm beads for the ends, but the holes were way too small. I had also gotten out some garnets, and these 6mm jade beads, though I thought they would be much too big and heavy for the design. But the jade were the only ones that would go on without extensive reaming and filing, which I had no time for, so on they went. And I think they are just perfect!

So welcome, autumn! (For us northern hemisphere folks, anyway.) Ein prosit, ein prosit, gemutlichkeit, Eins, zwei, g'suffa!

If you look up http://brave.com/bo, you will find Brave Combo, our local Denton, Texas Grammy-Award-winning polka band, who played last night. This is not your grandparents' polka! Lots of fun ...

I actually started these and another project Thursday morning at the VAST Artists Day Out, when Ingrid, Mary, Debbie, and some ather women whose names I have not gotten straight yet met at the Visual Arts Center for a morning of "doing stuff." Everybody else was working on watercolor, and getting tips and critique from each other.

I started on a Loren-type ring. But after I had the first full wrap done, I realized I hadn't brought the tapered pool-cue mandrel I needed to go further. So I took up my 20-gauge sterling and made these earrings, minus the jade. I felt better doing something that would't seem to the others like just knitting to a pattern. I'll probably miss the October meeting, but by November I want to have a project that I hope will be recognizable as "art."

I finished the ring Friday night. It had a minimum bid of $30 and only brought $32; I did hope for at least $50. I think the earrings were much more widely appreciated and accessible. In a plus for the development of my "market-sense," I thought that before the auction even started.

Anyway I am very pleased at getting some good stuff done again. I really haven't done anything since the Lake Whitney trip. I think I counted on that trip to get the juices flowing like at Lake Conroe, and instead I felt like the time just went by and I couldn't settle to anything. And when I did try to do some polymer ideas, they burnt to "faux jet." So as a creative break, it was a wash-out. And then I crunched my fingernail in June, and it STILL isn't full usable yet. Ah, bah! Excuses, excuses . . .