making jewelry, and more

gallery February-March show

2012-01-25T17:44:00.004-06:00

As it turned out, I got to Oxide with eight pieces (including one set), and I just got the notification that they took them all. If every one of them sells, my share will be about $215; I guess I still need to bump my prices higher. Some of these, especially the persian chain, are real bargains. Of course, if I worked in sterling, higher prices would be no problem. I missed the day, Dec 29, when it went down to $27, grrrr. I was running around trying to get my Jazzfest application pictures done, and didn’t get into town in time to get an order in. Of course silver was still under $30 for a few days after that. But I didn’t really have the money free, and by the time I did, it was getting on up. Resolve-- if it goes under $30 again, act!

After almost three weeks without word from the Festival Foundation, Chery e-mailed, and got a prompt message back apologizing that we hadn’t gotten postcards; we’re all in! Whee! Must make MORE STUFF.

Here’s what goes on display at Oxide for Gallery Night, February 4. I didn’t get the end-pieces done for the DNA lariat, so it turned into a 25” over-the-head endless chain. (Amy came on a last-minute-planned visit for the week, which was TOTALLY delightful, but did delay the making.) I threw in the dark-oxidized persian chain -- thought it could use another viewing, and the jury agreed. The most interesting piece is the copper-wrapped fossil ammonite, but my picture of it is very over-exposed, and much of the detail of the fossil is washed out in glare. A small photo of what it looked like before I wrapped it begins this entry.

old familiar weaves and new ones

2012-01-15T14:04:00.006-06:00

I decided it was time, as the new year began, to learn some new chain weaves. Almost everything I have done recently is persian, one hour less sleep, or byzantine, with a few forays into half-persian (snake chain), möbius flowers, simple 2-in-2 when I’m in a hurry, and of course european 4-in-1 for flat areas.

I started looking for weaves that fit the new aluminum rings I got from The Ring Lord. I tried elf-weave, but it was a mess. I thought I had gotten past the initial falling-apart stage, but it never seemed to develop a pattern, just looked like a heap of rings. Then I tried sweet pea.
The AR 4.1 rings I had (18-gauge swg 3/16” anodized aluminum) were said to be the perfect size for this. But I thought they were a tad too large. The inner rings seemed to have too much play, and not to line up well. So I tried with some of my copper 18-gauge awg 5/32” rings, which are a shade tighter, AR 4. They work. I have to make more rings, but I made a little section of 8 “peas,” and I think it will do.

Still looking for uses for my colorful rings, I looked up DNA chain. Once I got straight in my head how the little rings go on, that worked well. Though I believe my 1/8” green rings could afford to be smaller, 3/32” sized. You can do it with all the small rings closed, and all the large ones open. It’s kind of tedious, closing all those 1/8” 20-gauge rings. But after desultorily working on it for over a week, I have a 24” chain, plus two short bits for earrings.

I am going to make it a lariat, with a stone-weighted end passing through a sterling loop with a hook in it, to be fastened wherever the wearer wishes. I hoped to use one of my new amethyst discs as the stone, but the color just isn’t right, especially in sunlight. So I think it will be a construction of an aventurine zuni-type bear in a silver frame. Got to get the soldering-fu going.

new chains for Oxide

2012-01-08T19:19:00.008-06:00

Several new copper chains have resulted from Chery’s request for one for Jean. I made an 18-gauge 5/32 Byzantine as a trial, and part of a wiggle chain with the same links. However, Chery liked best a several-inch section of 18-gauge 3/16 snake chain (half persian 4-in-1) that I think dated to my trials for Rhonda last spring. Anyway, I finished that one late on New Year’s night, except for the largish, easy-to-grasp S-hook clasp that I made the next day. I have already gotten some mileage out of it by posting on About and on YOJ.

I stopped the wiggle chain at bracelet length, and tried out a little three-loop finding that I think I can use (after soldering) to make a compound three-chain sampler bracelet. So for Oxide, so far, I have the copper Byzantine necklace, part of a three-strand bracelet, the unfinished jasper-and-bronze necklace, and two pairs of jingly scale earrings. If I order the sterling, I will make a graduated persian necklace, and some simple sculptural earrings. A pair of amethyst disc earrings should not take long. And a copper-wrapped ammonite needs making. That’s nine. Deadline is January 21.

And I must stop fudging the prices down, despite lack of confidence that people will pay more. If I have to pay Warren a submission fee, I have to get more return. Hope it works... If I say the Byzantine necklace took four hours (more, really), I have to get $32 plus the ring cost. If Oxide’s going to get 40%, then the math says I have to set the price up at $60, more or less. We’ll try $58.

Reminder - put a tag on pieces, or a card for earrings, so Warren can stick on a number ID for the jury.

Chery and Rhonda and I got our application for Jazzfest put together at last, and I got it to the Post Office Friday afternoon, Dec 30. The clerk said it would go directly to their box and be there Saturday. They promise and answer within two weeks. I sure hope it’s sooner! However, it's been a week now. I really want to know!

Eventually I chose these four images for the application. The table-display from DHS in December was pretty well mandated -- my previous Jazzfest was ages ago, and my pictures from Ponder this spring are nothing to write home about. My picture of beaded ornaments is brighter and more fun than the winter cardinal one, but the cardinal is certainly a more “finished” piece. As for the sculptural wire, I was undecided between the rings and hematite earrings and the oval Russian serpentine pendant, but Rhonda instantly voted for the earrings, and also for the silver leaves chainmaille necklace as more distinctive than the diamond-shaped dragonscale earrings.

making Koil Kutter jumprings

2011-12-26T21:58:00.007-06:00

Six years ago I got interested enough in maille to cut my own rings, by hand with a jeweler’s saw. Beautiful flush-cut rings, but a bit hard sometimes on the fingers. And slo-o-o-o-w. So a couple of years later I splurged on a Koil Kutter. It’s a great tool, despite my low opinion of “cute” spellings. Like any power tool it is a little scary to start to use, but it is quite well designed, so that the speedy sawblade is sequestered in its little notch, and as long as you get it positioned so that it’s centered in the slot of the coil holder it’s pretty foolproof.

When mine was fairly new, I tried to take it along when visiting my brother in Boston, to show it off. Stupid me, not to remove the tiny little sawblade from its protective housing and pack it separately. The TSA was NOT amused, of course. They made me check it, and I almost lost my whole inventory thereby. But there was a happy ending. Hurray for the curious cat!

Others have described the use of this neat tool. For me, a few tricks that I worked out are useful, especially the taping of the coils, which I have not seen described elsewhere. So here is how I do it.

The tool on a Dremel rotates counterclockwise as you look at it from the business end. (I wish it were the other way, so when I use it for carving or sanding (right-handed) it didn’t tend to throw debris in my face, but that’s immaterial here.) The blade must be assembled so that when it turns counterclockwise, the steep sides of the teeth are leading and doing the cutting.

You use the hexagonal allen wrench to put the blade on the blade holder. To put the blade holder on the Dremel, you have to have the little bitty wrench that came with the tool. Don’t lose it ;-) ! You can make do with needle-nose pliers, but I speak from experience here to say that’s not very satisfactory.

You have to screw on the white housing (loosely), then insert the blade assembly into it and screw on to the tool. I tighten the blade up hand tight and then give just a tiny extra push with the wrench (the wrench is really needed only when to REMOVE the blade assembly.) Then I place the slotted top cover of the coil holder over the blade, in the recess formed by the cut-out in the PVC housing, and adjust the housing so that the blade can slide from one end to the other of the slotted cover and remain in the center of the slot. No further adjustment of the tool assembly is necessary until I have to take it apart to use the Dremel for something else. (I need another Dremel!)

The coil of wire can be from 1/2 an inch long to almost four inches. There must be room, when the coil is clamped in its holder, up against the thicker stop at the left end, for the blade in its white housing to be fitted into the right end without being against the beginning of the coil. You seat the blade in the slot and then turn on the tool, and it has to be not against anything when turned on.

I wrap my coils in tape (masking tape or artist’s tape, usually) while they are still on the mandrel. I don’t want the new-cut rings going all over the place. Also, the assembly of the coil-holder depends on the structure of the coil to hold up the slotted cover. As the last rings are cut, if the coil all falls apart, the cover sinks down on the base, and the last rings tend to get messed up, and also to jump startlingly out of the holder. I worried about the effect of the tape stickum on the blade, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I try to tape the coils immediately before cutting, and to remove the tape immediately after.

I put the taped coil in the holder and screw down the end screws LIGHTLY. I don’t want to make the cover bow upward in the center. I rub some Bur Life down into the slot for lubricant. I find Dawn liquid to be really messy, and it makes the tape come untuck. The cutter is placed in the slot at the beginning and held in place as it is turned on., and gently but firmly swiped to the left. Thin wire presents very little resistance -- if it seems to, the blade may be getting dull. 16-gauge rings have to be cut a good deal more slowly, as you are cutting twice the thickness of, say, 22-gauge rings.

With repeat coils to do, time is saved by only loosening the right screw enough to shake out the taped coil, not taking it all the way off. Then I stick a short length of heavy wire through the coil, carefully remove the tape, twist the ends of the wire into a secure loop, and voila! two or three dozen rings, ready to tumble and use.

To cut coils smaller than 1/8” 22-gauge, you have to jury-rig some sort of spacer - a slotted bit of cardboard, or such, to hold the cutter assembly a little bit above the surface of the aluminum coil-holder cover. Otherwise you cut down through both layers of the coil and have a nice pile of wire crescents. I did this with a coil of sterling. Ouch! Over a dollar’s worth of wire. :( And with large coils, be very sure they are seated centered in the groove; with coils over 1/4” their curvature is so slight relative to the width of the groove that they can easily roll out of the correct position. I guess it would be nice if Kevin made an alternate base for really big coils, and a thicker cover for cutting micro-maille rings. Oh, well, it works pretty well.

The Koil Kutter in these photos was sold to me by Dave Arens in 2008, and still working just fine. The tool is now available from Kevin Potter.

nice little Christmas present!

2011-12-19T22:21:00.003-06:00

Stopped into Oxide this morning and discovered the copper chain with the spiral-abacus pendant sold Saturday! How delightful! Of course, it would have been nice if the customer had also bought the earrings, but he didn't, and one can't have everything.

In other progress, I extended my walk to the comptroller's branch office, and got all straight with my sales taxes. Nice helpful guys.

And Chery and Rhonda and I are going to make a raid on the bead shops on Harry Hines on Wednesday...

still in progress...

2011-12-08T12:32:00.010-06:00

Oops, another three weeks seems to have gone by. And the jasper necklace is still in progress, but it is mostly made. I think I want to dress it up and give the maille fringes definite ends with brown pearls (though I usually eschew dyed pearls), and I am having some trouble making the bronze ball-end headpins for the pearls. Maybe need my bigger torch on this one.

Rhonda sold a stretch-maille bracelet for me in Galveston, as well as the long straight square jade dangle earrings. Yay!

And then we had the DHS fair
last Saturday, and I sold
eight items, for around $150.
Double yay.

work in progress

2011-11-17T16:47:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago at Artful Bead with Mary, I couldn't resist this 2" disc of scenic jasper. Since then I have been contemplating it and trying to figure out how to put it together with maille, without it seeming altogether too solid and heavy.

Then a couple of days ago one of the Chainmaillers Guild on Etsy asked my advice about what rings to use to do a necklace like this. I gave my opinion, and also thought "that's it!" about the jasper disc. I have some 1/4" brown aluminum rings that I have used very few of, because, well, they're brown. So not "ooh, shiny!" But this is their project.

So now to make a couple hundred 1/8" 20-gauge bronze rings, and heat-treat them to iridescent dark colors. Then I'll assemble it, and see how well the result matches my sudden inspiration.

new stuff for Oxide

2011-11-13T19:00:00.005-06:00

Warren is trying to rejuvenate the jewelry case at Oxide with some new “funky, fresh, and artsy pieces.” So I broke out the anodized aluminum scales I have had for a while and not done much with. The assorted pack of 100 had enough for one or two five-petaled flowers in several colors, and a whole mess of black ones. So I made a necklace with a whole row of pendant scales, including the two red ones I got as asymmetric accents. Mostly just assembling, not major artistic fabrication. But it came out really pretty, I thought, and Warren liked it too. If I had had more time, I might have made the back of the strand byzantine weave. But I was pulling as close to an all-nighter as I am capable of these days, as it was, so it got a quick 2-in-2 chain.

The pendant, that I hung on the helm chain that I already had, involved more fiddling. The pattern for the 5-merous flowers is all very well, but I wanted to put 5 green sepals behind the five blue petals. I managed it, after considerable fussing. When I have more scales I have some ideas to make it work better, notably a sort of flat washer behind the whole thing to keep the sepals from flopping backwards.

Then I had a couple of flowers done pretty closely as the original directions, if not with the clunky machine-cut bright aluminum rings that came with the kit. There were only enough pink scales and silver scales for one flower each. But I thought, after I used pink jump rings on the silver one, that they would make an acceptable pair of earrings.

Warren has, in the past, rejected the rubber o-ring stretchable bracelets, but I think he is missing a bet here. So I entered two of them, and we’ll see what his jury decides. (Whoever they are.)

origami for the tree

2011-11-09T16:44:00.003-06:00

I am partway through teaching a three-week class on origami ornaments at the public library, which is quite a bit of fun. Our tree has had origami on it for decades, but I have found some new beauties that were not invented back then. And I have even invented one of my own.

In the first week, we covered some of the classics. The crane, of course -- any tree can benefit by having a flock of colorful cranes, or perhaps ones made from gold wrapping paper.

The crane has always been a symbol of health and good wishes, but since the time of Sadako Sasaki they have become a symbol of world peace, making them particularly appropriate for the Christmas tree.

Other classic designs we covered, from my 50-year-old Japanese-language origami books, were the pinwheel and the Chinese lantern. The lantern can be modified to a cross form, with four pockets that can serve as photo corners. In this way a promissory photo of a gift that hasn't arrived yet (common in our family) can be decoratively presented.

The cootie-catcher, familiar to most second-graders, can be jazzed up with foil paper and small Christmas balls. Also, if your tree has good stiff twigs, it can be used to hold little treats like Hersheys Kisses.

Another design familiar to many grade-schoolers, the water-balloon or paper ball, makes a nice three-dimensional unbreakable ornament.

Moving to more modern creations, tomorrow we will do Tomoke Fuse's beautiful Espiral. This is remarkably easy to do. The four modules are quite simple and straightforward to make and combine, and what looks like a really complex spiral is just a bit of repetition of a simple fold.

Next week we will do the Artifact, the three-color embellished cube that shows in the first two photos. As I was trying to learn this last spring, and kept having it fall apart on me, I developed a simpler octahedron made from only two of the six pieces used in the Artifact, which we will practice tomorrow. Made out of foil, these are pretty striking. But they are actually more difficult than the Espiral, because the paper crumples where it isn't supposed to. I think I will see how it works in cardstock. It's never thicker that two layers, so this might work well. But the foil is awfully pretty. Shiny!

off to Galveston

2011-11-08T14:32:00.004-06:00

Not me, but some of my jewelry. Rhonda is heading for the Texas Art Educators Association conference this week. She and some other Denton artists have a sale table there, and she offered to see what she could do with some of my things.

I didn't get a picture of my display construction before I handed it off to her. I was pretty pleased with it. I used two layers of matte-board and some blue velvet to make a stiff velvet-covered board the size to fit in a display tray (7-3/4" x 14"). Some of my 8-gauge copper wire and a brass tube formed a sturdy easel. I made an 8" length of black oxidized copper chain, fastened at a slant across the board near the top. 10 hooks in the chain support neck-chains and bracelets, and half a dozen pairs of earrings go across the top. It gets lots of chain pretty well-displayed in a small space. I'll make a couple more before the DHS show in December.

I'm hardly going to make my fortune selling one pair of earrings a month at Oxide. Still, one pair beats no pairs. The blue and silver dragon-scale pair found a buyer at the Gallery Night last Saturday. Yay!

unexpected model

2011-10-24T18:38:00.004-05:00

To my utter astonishment, I have discovered a use for an abandoned sculpture of Craig's that I have detested for 15 years, the rusted iron and concrete barren-woman monstrosity that stands by his studio, and is too heavy for me to do anything about.

Well, I still detest it from the front, but the back makes an interesting form on which to drape a necklace for photographing.

Maybe I can turn it around...

a variety of new chains

2011-10-18T16:09:00.006-05:00

Been playing with some “wiggle chain.” This is a simple 2-in-2, save that each 2-link unit is interlinked to itself, instead of parallel. There’s a catch to it, in that each crossed double link can be right-handed or left-handed. At first, after I discovered this, I made them alternate. When you do this, and suspend the chain from one end, the links hang at 90° to each other, as if it were a simple 1-in-1 chain. But I went back and changed it so they are all the same orientation, and it looks much more like a spiral chain, which I like better.

Ran out of links when I had 11” of chain, too much for a bracelet, not enough for a necklace. Wound up some more, which I will cut shortly.

I wonder what it would look like if I put in a third ring in each link, a chain of möbius flowers?

Saturday 15 Oct

Finished the “bear-claw” pendant on chain and the wiggle chain a couple of days ago. I had to modify my plan on the pendant, but I like the results. In going through my already-made copper rings and sizing them with the red Swarovsky bicone, I picked the one that fit the crystal pretty closely. After getting the crystal wrapped into it, a process that could use some more practice, I realized there was not enough room for the five 16-gauge links of the top of the pendant. There was just room for four 20-gauge copper links, the 5/32” ones I was using for the chain. So I put those on, oxidized it, and then put on the pendant with a black top attachment. I actually think it’s a more interesting design than planned.

I wasn’t able to hook up with Rhonda to get her any stock for the Guyer show, but she is much more eager to have stuff for her week in Galveston with the art teachers. That’s the ninth of November, so I need to work up an easily portable display to get to her the week before. One tray of necklaces and one stand of earrings, I guess.

October 18

Finished up three bracelets that had been hanging around needing finishing touches.

The "hybrid-weave" that I made a while back had had its clasp hook stolen to put on some other bracelet, so I made a new one, a modified swan-hook design.

I liked the spiral hook, so I made one of copper for the 14-gauge aluminum byzantine chain that I did a week or so ago.

Then I made another of the same general type for the "tricolor lace" bracelet I just finished. The main body of this, 3/16" 18-gauge silver-clad links, has been around for a long time. I finished it by putting 20-gauge 5/32" links down each edge, gold on one side, copper on the other.

So those are done, and I'll get them up at Etsy Real Soon Now.

another sale!

2011-10-04T16:20:00.003-05:00

Hot dog! I went to the Oxide Gallery Night Saturday evening (very nearly forgot what evening it was), and found out that my copper treble clef earrings had already sold that morning! Not the pendant, though. I had thought maybe they would go as a set.

Kay was there, so we had a good chat. Also Rhonda, and Nancy (I think) and Bill, with whom they shared a house in Santa Fe this summer.

Alex Lieban was there too - has got some of his photos of the desert on the west wall. And Owen was back, though I didn't have a chance to talk to him. So glad his health has returned quickly.

Also the snacks were by The Chestnut Tree, and Yum! they were good and plentiful.

new torch

2011-09-30T00:09:00.006-05:00

My new little butane torch is a joy to work with. It is nice and stable, standing upright with no uncertainty, and it is very easily and securely handled if I need to hand hold it. The slim little pinpoint flame is very precise, and great for wire work. Probably limited in its ability to heat a large area, so I'll still have a use for my plumber's torch.

So far its lighting mechanism seems quite secure and reliable. The very first time I lit it, it required two tries, but ever since, it starts right up. It does need a quite firm push on the button -- the switch spring inside that you have to overcome is pretty strong.

I have had it for a couple of months now, but only started using it about three weeks ago. So far I have made a dozen or more ball ends on wire, and done a few small soldering tasks. There is no sign yet of needing to refill it after the first fill, but I have never yet done anything that took as long as a minute of heating.

Filling it the first time was a bit of an adventure. The directions said it would take 10-20 seconds, and to stop and pull out the tip of the pressurized butane canister when it began to overflow. Well, being unfamiliar with exactly what was needed, or exactly what the symptoms of "full" would be, I kept going until icy butane was running over my hand -- about 4 seconds!
The base of the torch, which is made into a shallow-rimmed saucer by the broad plastic foot that makes it stand so well, was full of butane. I carefully carried it out onto the porch and tossed it out through the screen, though it might have all evaporated by the time I did. Man, it was cold!

Torch and butane canister came from Lowe's.

at the gallery

2011-09-29T14:22:00.007-05:00

Since I mentioned Gallery Night (this Saturday!) and my new pieces, I thought I would put up another photo-heavy post and show what I have at Oxide for the fall and winter.

I have gotten very fond of the dragonscale weave, a "double-knit" variation of European 4-in-1. Every large ring has a small ring within it. No large ring intersects a large ring, being held in place by fours small rings. It makes a nice substantial diamond-shape pendant or earring or a lovely flexible bracelet (if the ring sizes are well chosen).

Other maille pieces include three little half-persian 4-in-1 finger rings, made from 20-gauge jumprings.

Out of heavy copper wire, I have bent up pendant/earring sets, treble clefs and abacus spirals.

And finally, there's a byzantine bracelet and a mobius-flowers bracelet.

actual sales!

2011-09-27T17:09:00.019-05:00

This has been something of a red-letter month, in terms of sales (Of course any normal-scaled business would die laughing,) But hey, ten items sold in one month is a LOT, ok?

September 10 was the Arts, Autos, and Antiques event on the Square. Warren organized 5 booths staffed by 10 Oxide artists - I shared with photographer Pam Hughes. Sold six items, one, the silver leaves chain, fairly high-end.
Also Rhonda picked up her sterling bracelet (AND with Chery treated me to a Denton Co Independent Hamburger.)

Then the next morning I discovered I had sold a couple pairs of handmade earring hooks and a bag of jumprings to an Etsian in Nova Scotia, who confirmed to me today that they arrived last week.

And to top it off, Warren sent me an e-mail that my torch-colored spiral bronze earrings sold in the Gallery!

The new Gallery Night is this Saturday, and I have 14 new pieces waiting hopefully.

inspired to earring

2011-07-01T11:07:00.006-05:00

Three weeks again since I posted. Yipes! Well, I have been keeping pretty busy. Was inspired by some big FW pearls and some astonishing amethyst drusy geode beads from Bead Renaissance to make earrings.

bronze

2011-06-09T13:19:00.006-05:00

I've been sporadically busy, but no posting for months. Especially when I am spending most of my time at the Ridge. Good for working on the green, breezy upstairs porch, but no internet except on the not-quite-stupid phone inhibits online documentation.

I made several things in the February blizzard. Then when the snow all melted and spring came bounding in, I pretty well stopped in favor of outdoor pursuits. Another spurt of activity came juts before the May show I did in Prosper, and then this past week, preparing goodies for my next offering to Oxide Gallery.

Got some true bronze (copper/tin alloy) wire from Nancy Wickman a few weeks ago. I put together a pair of earrings with graduated paisley (sort of) motifs, and then worked up a 4-metal box-chain necklace, bronze, copper, silver-surfaced and gold-surfaced German wire. It's about a quarter inch thick, out of 20-gauge 5/32" rings.

This picture in the sun shows the four sides of the box chain; from the top they are bronze, copper, gold, silver. In the lowest section, with the silver links showing full face, the edgewise rings at the top are bronze, and those below are the gold.

Ha ving turned all the rest of the 20-gauge wire into jump-rings, I was unable to fix the situation when one of the earrings made its escape at the exceedingly windy, and also muddy, Prosper Founders' Fest. Evidently, the table cover flipped in the wind and tossed it into the hay-covered mud underfoot, where I could never find it. I just yesterday received more wire, so I will try to manage a matching one.

Then with the 18-gauge I made a bunch of 1/8" links for the pendant heading this post, with a crystal eye and small crystal dangles. The silver pendant like this, with a blue crystal, sold at DHS in December (with no photo taken, bah!) So I hope the right customer comes to Oxide for this one, always assuming that Warren takes it.

testing

2011-02-03T04:46:00.001-06:00

trying to embed a flickr photo

whaddayouknow, it worked!

ok let's try the thumbnail

pendant revisited

2011-01-14T19:55:00.004-06:00

Here is my week three YOJ project, Russian Serpentine and copper (right), side-by-side with the similar one I devised in February 2007 (on the left). I liked that one, but this new one is better.

uncomplicated things

2011-01-12T16:31:00.003-06:00

In an attempt to have more nice things at a lower price point for Oxide, I have worked on pendants and earrings with interesting shapes and colors, but not hours and hours of work. I kind of have the trouble Robin McKinley has with short stories. Things just naturally seem to grow into time-consuming necklaces! But I have managed a line of simple spirals, furnace glass beads, and small shapes in earrings and pendants.

Here are the six pendants (Warren accepted the lot!) and several of the earrings. He took half of the ten pairs of earrings, and all the five chains I offered. He didn’t go for the furnace glass for some reason -- maybe looked too much like assembled findings? -- but I’ll get the first of those up on Etsy this afternoon.

new starts

2011-01-10T18:16:00.004-06:00

I had a flush of jewelry-making back in May of last year (but not quite in time for the Oxide summer show). Then when the heat moderated in September and I could work on the upstairs screen porch I made a number of things.

Amy’s visit and purchase of the zig-zag earrings from Oxide sparked her order of Christmas presents for Cathy and Janine. The DHS craft fair moved things along, and I also got my Etsy shop reactivated, and sold a bracelet! after just a day or two. Finally just after the new year I dipped back into CWJ, and found a new YOJ just starting up, so I took the plunge and joined in.

I’ve posted twice to YOJ so far, and I have an appointment with Warren Tuesday morning to show new work for the spring show. I have about two dozen pieces, which is probably more than he’ll want or have room for. So all the rest will go up on Etsy, where I have 28 items so far.

I’m excited, though actually, I have had very few actual sales yet. But enough to get me moving. Warren bought my 16-gauge chain in October and Amy got the earrings, Also the rectangular “earrings for Isabel” variation sold, I believe to the same customer who bought my “Verrakaien Pendant” at the DHS sale. Then that Etsy bracelet sale out of the blue, and Amy’s commissions, add up to a fair fall.

Onward!

back on Etsy ...

2010-12-26T20:03:00.004-06:00

sold a bracelet already, and got featured in a treasury!

Many, many thanks to WhatKnotShop for adding my wire ring to all the nifty fiber knots.

Here's the live link to the treasury.

neckpiece complete

2010-04-05T09:54:00.008-05:00

Here's the completed neckpiece, hanging on a big cedar trunk behind the gallery. It was accepted for the April show, and will make its debut tomorrow night at Gallery Night, as well as being in the Artistically Denton: Celebrating Our Place show Saturday evening.

I'm quite pleased with it all except the lacing fastening the beads to the wire; I think I could have managed that better.

The "wood" piece is a cross-section of greenbrier root -- these look like outer space monsters or strange creatures from the deeps. It is almost impossible to dig them by hand; the big old ones are down deep. If a dozer has been through, they can be found on the surface. The piece is made with one from Red-bird Ridge in Argyle, but they also occur at Clear Creek.

Here is a close-up of the peyote-woven section.

back to beads

2010-03-18T15:08:00.004-05:00

Recently (after my ornament-beading marathon) I have been spending a good deal of time making beaded pictures (sort of miniature tapestries). Before Christmas I did two, a peyote-stitch cardinal and a woven-on-the-frame abstract star.

These two are currently at Oxide. They are in matching white made-in-China frames from Hobby Lobby, though I think I have figured out what I need to do to make more satisfactory frames myself. Here Alabaster gives some scale for them.

I am now making a heavy-gauge silver neckwire ornamented with a circular peyote-stitch wild violet adapted from a photo I took at Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center. I finished the beading last night; still have wire-bending, hammering, and fabricating to do. But at any rate I am pleased with the flower, after two false starts. I tried to do it in brick stitch, but finally had the sense to just quit and start over in peyote. MUCH more satisfactory.

forgotten valentines

2009-12-08T00:23:00.004-06:00

Months and months ago, before I disappeared from cyberspace, I was working on some Valentine jewelry. Well, here is what I completed and took to Oxide. I think only one sold. The ear-threads have not been successful at all for me, though they make such an elegantly simple little minimalist ear decoration. Ah, well ... live and learn.

valentines

2009-01-20T12:18:00.003-06:00

I am FINALLY getting a little momentum on the project I have been planning since discussing Valentine's Day with Warren at the gallery, two weeks ago. I want to get him at least half a dozen valentine pieces; more would be better. I hoped to
have already done it, but between Red-bird Ridge work, house-shoveling-out, and spending way too much time on the computer, I haven't accomplished much in the jewelry line.

But yesterday and today, I have created 8 little beaded hearts for earrings, and I am in the swing of it now. I have a really rotten cold and am forced to stay wrapped up in bed, which limits distractions. Pictures later of the current crop. These are the ones I made two years ago, from beaded hearts that I made a year or two before that ...

the cat that saved my shop

2009-01-10T21:23:00.005-06:00

Actually, Agate might not have saved my shop, but he certainly saved a good deal of my inventory.

Well, the story goes like this. The week before Thanksgiving I visited Crispin and Turid and Tom in Lincoln (Massachusetts). To show off to them, and to show to the jewelry-making sister of Barbara in N.H. where we planned to visit, and maybe to place in the Central Square Emporium in Hillsborough, where I have a few pieces, I wrapped up and packed a large proportion of my finished pieces. Of course I put them in my carry-on, not my checked bag. I'm not that stupid; I know checked bags get lost.

Into the checked bag went the pints of home-made chili sauce and green tomato pickle, since such items can no longer be hand-carried. And into the checked bag SHOULD have gone my new Koil Kutter, which though I love, I thought could possibly be improved with suggestions from Crispin. But not thinking clearly, I packed it with the jewelry in the carry-on.

5:30 am at DFW. I check in, alone at the counter. I go to the TSA guys and give them my suitcase. I go through security. They study the pounds of jumprings, and the pliers (the cutter was checked), and the Koil Kutter. They say the Koil Kutter has to be checked, of course -- little motor tool with a sawblade on the end, never mind that it is completely enclosed in a housing, and won't run without being plugged in.

So back I go (not really worried, plenty of time). Long line now at counter, so I go to self-serve kiosk, put in info, credit card, take "the documents below" and go back to the TSA. The document they gave me was another boarding pass, not a baggage sticker; I held it out as I approached the TSA guy, same one I had seen 15 minutes earlier. He ignored it, and took the bag over to the conveyor. Silly me, I assumed he was doing the right thing. I went through security again and off to the plane. Sorted jumprings and made chain all the way to Boston, to the fascination of the attendants on the empty plane.

Boston. Only one bag. Filled out inquiry form. Called every day while I was there. No bag. Came home. Trudged all over DFW to different American gates where helpful people said I might inquire. No bag.

Next day I thought I might get my photos uploaded to the computer. And what did I find? Helpful Agate crawling into the suitcase the day before I packed, and looking cute, so I took a couple of photos. Helpful Agate demonstrating that yes, there was indeed a name tag on the bag, AND THERE WAS ALSO A UNITED AIRLINES OLD TAG.

Drove back down to DFW. Went to the far corner of Terminal E, where UA has three gates. Waited for baggage attendant to come back from break. "Well, we have these bags." Nope. "And we have those over there ..." You could have probably heard my squeal in Boston. I tried to give the attendants bracelets, but they declined. If I didn't give Agate treats when I got home, I should have.

Moral: Always check anything the least bit weird. And if you don't take off the old luggage destination tags from your hand-carry bags, at least know what airline they are.

Chainmaille Contest VOTE

2008-09-10T11:25:00.005-05:00

Head right on over to the Etsy Chainmaillers' Guild blog to vote in our first contest, "Linked to the Sea."

I haven't quite got these pics to work right, and I don't have any more time to mess with them. Click the little blue square and you get the picture. Or just head straight on over to the contest, the text link above works fine. There you will see a beautiful display of all 22 candidates. You have to only choose two favorites. VOTE! Then put your contact info in the comments, and you will be entered in a drawing for half a dozen gifts the chainmaillers have made as thank-yous for our voters.

oxide gallery!

2008-09-04T22:59:00.006-05:00

The owners of the Linwood-Alford florists are opening a gallery in half the store, specifically to showcase Denton artists. They held three "artist's calls" in August: one was invited to bring in up to three pieces to be photographed, following which their jury considered the photographs, and those they liked were asked to come in with a selection of work for the owners to choose from to put on consignment (40% fee).

I auditioned with the stretch "goth" choker and earrings, and the silver, turquoise, and red seed necklace that I made three years ago, that is stunning if not wholly practical. And they asked me back! So as of noon today they have twenty of my pieces - five necklaces, three pendants, three bracelets, eight pairs of earrings, and a ring. And my Etsy shop shelves are kind of bare, as 14 of the 20 had been for sale there.

The gallery opens October 1, with the big opening reception (artists requested please to show up!) the evening before. Well, who knows if they'll make a go of it; the florist's shop side looks kind of bare just now. But maybe that is because they have been concentrating on the gallery and have planned for a couple of slow cash flow months. Hope so, because I REALLY want this enterprise to be a success!

Department of "I remember when ... " — the florist's shop, then Linwood-Roberson, is across the street from where I lived from age 3-7. Its red and white sign, turning on top of its post, Linwood | Roberson - Florists - Linwood | Roberson - Florists - has been a landmark on Hickory for my whole life. I hope they make a go of this, not just for my benefit, but also for the continuity of this town that seems to be turning into all anonymous interchangeable chain stores.

rings rings rings

2008-09-01T18:02:00.004-05:00

Lloyd of the chainmaillers' guild ordered a size 10 turks-head ring two weeks ago. I am at last ready to mail him one tomorrow, as soon as the P.O. comes back from Labor Day. Turned out it took me several tries to come up with a satisfactory product.

Quoting from my note to him,

"I'm so sorry to have taken so very long. Turns out I should be building one of these at least every couple of months to keep in practice, it is NOT like riding a bicycle ;-)

Actually the first one I made came out quite nicely. Only it was about a size 12, because I figured wrongly the spacing needed on the jig used for starting the pattern.

So I have a nice big ring; I will probably sell it at the show I have in two weeks. I made another, right size, but I hammered it too hard as I stretched it and evened up the wires on the ring stick (Loren supplies cut sections of billiards cue, they work really well)

So it looked kind of battered, and I tried again. Success.

At this point, I decided to try using my Dremel and some fine sanding discs to smooth of the surface of the over-hammered one, kind of to put smooth "facets" on the raised parts. That worked moderately well, and I polished and cleaned it. THEN I discovered that somehow I had picked up the wrong ring, and sanded off facets on the successful, non-battered one! Erm ... regrettable ... language was heard.

I then did one more, CAREFULLY. I am getting really good at the pattern, thank you."

He was gracious enough not to complain at the delay, and was amused by my account of my attempts, said he was glad to hear these things happened to other people too.

the benefits of root canal work

2008-08-15T20:40:00.004-05:00

Not MY root canal, thank goodness! But Mary had an infection, and they sent her to a Flower Mound office, so she asked me to drive. I had a couple of hours in the quite comfortable waiting room, and I almost completed a green-on-green half persian 4-in-1 stretch bracelet. Got it all done but the last two links, which were giving me a devil of a time — could not get them to go into the almost-completed fabric. Later, at home, I got them in without trouble — had to warp them the other way from the usual when opening them.

applied to LolliShops

2008-08-11T22:46:00.007-05:00

A new shop venue I learned about from the Etsy Forums. I'm not at all sure that I will get in, because they go for the really sweet cute cottage-style, with much pink. Still, "I'm Purty as a Pitcher" should fit right in, and the iris-photo I'm planning to fix up, and I think the LolliShops clientele might be just the folks to buy my gorgeous but so far unsold purple beaded flower. Also maybe what I do with Spoonflower, when I finally get around to getting a design in there.

LolliShops is a juried site, which is such an amazingly attractive notion, after the mess of sellers on Etsy who don't fit the rules and yet seem to get away with it. Only, of course, since it's juried I might not get in, and that would be a shame. Well, we'll see.

Here's this button to take you there, if I can figure out how to get it in here.

We'll see if that works. Hey, yes! there it is! Go check out the preliminary buzz and the blog.

Later ... (but not much later) ... well, I'm not froufrou enough. Oh, well. Worth trying. Sadie's response speed was awesome!!

found!

2008-08-06T15:04:00.003-05:00

Well, whoopee! Ellen and I washed the blue couch covers last week, and when we put them back on and were tucking in the ends, I found that coral dangle earring. I figured it might be gone forever. So I wiped it down with an alcohol pad and put it back with its non-wandering mate. and re-activated the listing.

Living with cats does make one reassess the necessities of adequate storage, even when temporarily laying something down. At least there are now just three adults, not also five kittens. They were cute, though, sigh.

cranefly at VAST

2008-07-30T14:39:00.002-05:00

Today was the take-in for the Visual Art Society of Texas members' show. I took in my cranefly, which I had fixed up with a doubling of the main support wire, so that I think that it will not dangle so low. I was feeling pretty proud of it till I saw all the art at the show, which was intimidating.

Everybody gets one piece in the members' show. But I have to get a lot more practice and make a lot more things before I expect to get in the 125-mile, I think.

The show is up from August 10 until Sept 5.

thanks to a secret admirer!

2008-07-25T12:10:00.005-05:00

Well, usually I check Majaba.com far too often in the course of the day. But yesterday, what with VADO in the morning and then spending much of the rest of the day messing with Photoshop Elements, I didn't check it once. And this morning I find two new shop hearts and four item hearts, after getting none in the last several days. This is a nice surprise. One of the shop hearts and all the items are from a secret admirer -- one of the maillers I have been Yahooing with? It's nice, anyway.

I worked more on the painterly kitty picture yesterday, and then tried printing it. Much to my disgust, my yellow cartridge appears to be out. So that's a priority this afternoon, getting that refilled before it dries up. I want to see if it looks pretty good on paper before I send it off to iprintfromhome for a giclee´.
I'm only going for a little one; actually I think I will put two ACEO sized ones and a 3.5x5 on one 5x7 for $8. Plus I need to get a print of kitten Agate and the prickly pear, in case anybody buys one.

Urgent today is to get the best of the new shots of my gothic choker printed, and the kitty painting printed, and mail off my application for the Prosper show. So I better cut short this blog entry and go do that.

altered photo art

2008-07-24T23:44:00.005-05:00

Oh, I'm pleased with myself! I feel like I have learned a new skill. I spent the morning at the VAST artists' day out playing on the computer with my picture of Little Floof and the yellow pitcher, and I produced something I am quite proud of. "Before" is below; "after" is at the head of this post. This photo was taken back when she was only fifteen ounces as an undersized six-week-old, and was mostly referred to as Miss Teeny-Cat.

Of course the original picture was snapped opportunistically, with no chance to do anything about the peculiarly large-scaled jade plant behind Floof, or the filthy window glass. But by use of the palette brush tool (I think, unfortunately I wasn't writing down what I did), as well as outlining and deleting half the bacground and fuzzing the edges both with the rubberstamp and the smudge filter, I think I produced a nice result.

sigh ... destash

2008-07-13T21:24:00.005-05:00

Well, I just sold the bright maxi-thin solar calculator that was in the office -- Isabel's desk drawer? I think I got it for them at a museum shop about the time I came home from NY. I sure didn't need it, and Carrie in Grand Rapids, Michigan wants it. Certainly $12 is better than giving it to the DUUF sale where they might get a buck, maybe. Still ...

Ayway, I can feel as ambiguous as I like, but Paypal has the cash and it's a done deal now.

insecta shimmerae treasury

2008-07-13T13:01:00.005-05:00

I neglected to note my inclusion in a most impressive treasury by molecularmuse, she of the silver molecule jewelry, a couple of weeks ago. It was my cranefly, honored for the second time, among a whole cast of cool bugs.

Most people seem to like molecularmuse's serotonin, at least it is one of her best sellers. I prefer the playful-looking dopamine earrings here. Lots of cool stuff. (But I bet she doesn't really work at her bench wearing a spaghetti-strap little black dress, as shown in one of her thumbnails!)

picture proportions

2008-07-12T19:10:00.002-05:00

There have been several threads off and on in the Etsy forums about involuntary cropping of pictures caused by Etsy's three ways to display an image. I hope this can make it a bit easier for people to get the biggest views of their items possible, without cropping off the edges.

All five (if you use all five) of your pictures show as the square thumbnails at the side of the large picture in a listing. The first one shows as that same square when your shop is viewed in List view. That same first one shows as a rectangle in Gallery view, as a featured image in the shop, or in a treasury (or of course Front Page if you get there).

When a thumbnail is clicked, the large view is shown 430 pixels wide and as tall or short as it is -- no cropping for this view. And if you click it, you get the original uploaded size in a new window.

So there is no cropping for the main view . The only consideration is that if your original is SMALLER than 430 pixels wide, it will be enlarged by Etsy and look blurry and awful.

Etsy recommends 1000 pixels for the uploaded shot. I actually usually use 860, which makes my original fill the screen nicely in the zoom view, and I fancy it eliminates any tiny distortions of scaling by being exactly 2:1 for the reduction. Some people upload an image exactly 430 wide. It is always disappointing to click on the zoom for them and nothing happens. At the other extreme, some upload hi-res images 2000 pixels wide. Aside from taking AGES to upload, these are a nuisance because the zoom is two or three times wider than the screen.

OK, for the cropping. All five pics will be cropped to the square thumbnails. Also the first one will be cropped for gallery, feature, or treasury use. The size is 155 x 125 pixels, or very close to a 6-to-5 ratio. If you make your uploaded image that size, but leave the right and left ends of it blank background or unimportant image, then it will look fine as the square thumbnail. If you upload a square, but keep anything important out of the top and bottom edge, it will look fine in gallery view. The proportions are shown in the sketch above. If the image is a 6x5 rectangle that just fits the gallery view, the gray ends will get cropped off to make it square. If it's square like the red outline, the orange areas top and bottom will be cropped to get gallery view.

If your image is really tall and narrow, or wide and short, it will be badly cropped to fit either gallery or square thumbnails, with only a strange, often mysterious center section visible. Better save those odd-proportioned pictures for the second through fifth images, rather than the one that you are depending upon to bring a click on the item.

Hope this is useful.

a SALE!

2008-06-30T23:14:00.003-05:00

I just this afternoon listed this green bracelet, that I finished while I was up at the lake last Friday evening. I was very frustrated that it only got three views in its first hour, I think because the images glitch made it invisible during its thirty seconds of fame on the front page and also in Time Machine.

So then I went off to Petco for catfood, and THE KITTIES HAVE BEEN ADOPTED, HURRAY! And then I browsed around Big Lots, and got home and checked my e-mail, and I had a sale! Red-letter day all oround.

Turned out to be two items sold, this brand new green bracelet, and the 3/4 persian purple one I made back in February 07 on the plane home from Boston.
They are both going to live in Walnut Creek, California. Woo-hoo! Maybe THIS time there really will be some momentum. Time to make some more. Oh, bouncing on air here.

organization, old is new, lost to the kitties

2008-06-27T12:25:00.010-05:00

Yipes, it's been over three weeks, and I thought I had been doing a pretty good job of keeping up!

The only really new things I've listed on Etsy are my cranefly sculpture -- new two months ago, and just home from exhibit in the library, the earrings I made at Marlynda Taylor's PMC class, and the destash turquoise butterflies I just put up. (I only bought the butterflies in May when Mary and I went to Bead Renaissance, but I know I am not going to need 45 of them, so I am going to list a few lots of five.)

I guess the PMC class was just the day after my last post. It was a hot drive out to Weatherford, but certainly worth it. Unlike when Amy and I played with the stuff a couple of years ago and had so much trouble with it drying out, the material behaved very well. Of course, part of the class was to use Badger Balm on the hands, and rub the excess on the roller, and put a thin coat on the texture plate, and keep the clay covered with Saran Wrap all the time.

I rolled mine on a floral-textured brass plate, cut discs with an off-center interior cutout, and produced these earrings.

The crane-fly, fresh from a successful show at the library, needs its support scheme re-worked. I think I will re-drill the base stone with much deeper holes, and make two wires to go in one of them. The double wire will be the main support, with the second wire going up next to the first and perhaps lashed to it with fine copper. If it is to go in the members' show, it needs to be all fixed by late July.

I hoped I was going to sell my little coral earrings. I got a convo about them, asking how long they were, which I answered right away, with measurements and a photo. But, alas, I never heard anything back. And now I have had to inactivate the listing, because one of them appears to have been swiped off the coffee table by a kitten, and is who knows where!

Amy visited from the evening of Friday 6 June till midday Tuesday 10 June. We didn't actually do any crafting, though I thought she might want to work with the silver clay that I bought from Marlynda. But we didn't get around to it. We did have one very nice evening up at the lake, and we played with the kitties a lot. But the major accomplishment was to clear Isabel's closet and install two of my Elfa drawer-racks, and get everything organized to store my jewelry supplies and tools in a convenient fashion.

Also she bugged me into calling the plumber. The kitchen faucet is installed! The shower lavatory faucet is replaced! The powder room toilet no longer leaks! Jeff's sink upstairs is fixed, AND Alex's lavatory at 610 is no longer running hot water 24/7!!!

In the next stage of organization, Mary and I had a quiet lunch together out at the Ridge yesterday. She knitted for a couple of hours. I had sacked up all the mixed supplies, tools, finished items, project-in-progress, etc. that I had been collecting in the corner of the living room. I brought them all out with us in a big bag and spent the time sorting out. Entropy has been set back for another few weeks.

Every thing else I have listed recently has been something I made a while ago but needed to clean up, photo, and list. These are three of them.

another Etsy treasury! whee!!

2008-06-05T13:50:00.006-05:00

Just a few days after I listed my cranefly sculpture (that I have to go collect from the library exhibit today) on Etsy, Ivydee picked it for a treasury! And some of the other pieces she put it in with - WOW. I had just discovered the knitted wire pomegranates myself a couple of days ago. And the copper birdfeeder is a real work of art that Linnie and Bill need in their patio.

Ivydee's shop is encouraging, because she seems to be making a success of combining beadwork, wirework, and paper art all in the same shop. I think I need to take tips from her on the cohesive "shop look" of her backgrounds.

"day in the sun" over

2008-06-02T13:18:00.001-05:00

Well, sometime between 9 and noon today they put up a new batch of knockouts on the FP of Etsy. My earrings had about 6 days up there, and ended up with 430 views, so now we'll see what the rate of view acquisition goes down to. Nice while it lasted.

in my first Etsy treasury!

2008-05-31T09:54:00.000-05:00

"Walrustusk" chose my Easter evening picture of sunset through the pines for her treasury. Yay!

She is a former Alaska girl who now lives in Arizona. Boy, that's a big environmental transition. At the right is one of her meticulously bead-encrusted hair ornaments, available at walrustusk on Etsy.

Etsy Front Page (sort of)

2008-05-27T23:48:00.000-05:00

My post tonight in Etsy Promotions Forum:

it WORKED!!!!!

piedras says:
I took a picture of my new earrings http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12036344 on a background of white card, and whited out the off-white to pure white in my trusty Photoshop Elements, and used it as my first pic.

And they're up at the top of the FP in the little white knock-outs! Wheeeee!

'course, nobody's BOUGHT them. Oh, well, can't have everything.

Abigail

The earrings are here.

my whole name

2008-05-25T13:04:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, like most of us, I Google my name. I'm learning to be thankful for my middle name. I always liked it for the family associations; my mother was an only child, so both Crispin and I have her maiden name as a middle name. Crispin has managed to pass it on; LilleTom, almost six now, rejoices in the full name of Rolf Tom Einar Mount-Miller! I, being a spinster aunt (with no hidden love children to my name) can only try to add permanence to the name by using my full name, Abigail Mount Miller, to identify myself and my works -- primarily my jewelry, of which I have sold a few dozen pieces now in various venues.

The specific reason I am glad of my middle name is because of Abigail Miller, the Christian faith singer. If I google just Abigail Miller, I mostly get references to her, and while I am sure she is a worthy person, she is certainly not me (even though I do sing). There's also an Abigail Miller who is head of a Montessori school. I admire her ability tremendously; I taught in a middle school that was associated with a Montessori lower school. I sure couldn't do it, but I think it is by far the best way to learn.

So just for reference:

I am Abigail Mount Miller
the daughter of Mary Isabel Mount Miller and Tom Polk Miller, (who were Mount Miller Architects)
the sister of Crispin Mount Miller (the engineer, not the maker of teddy bears or Mark Crispin Miller the author)
the grand-daughter of Jess Wallace Mount, Ellen Donald Mount, Enoch Lester Miller, and Willie E. Chumley Miller

If I go find the right papers and notes, I can go back further, but I think that identifies me as me, not those other Abigail Millers.

International Mail (preliminary)

2008-05-25T11:36:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a digest of the important stuff from the Post Office's International Mailer's Manual ( IMM). I haven't finished it yet. Meanwhile here is the very barest beginning, extracted from the Etsy forum post I made which got me started on the idea.

-----------------------------------------------------

Once you start checking the rates, most things have one rate to Canada, one to Mexico, and one to everywhere else. It's a real pain that the P.O. doesn't present it that way, but in separate charts for every country in the world. But that's how it works out.

• Global Express Guaranteed starts at $38.95 for a half pound -- this one does vary, there are some countries, such as Algeria and Lithuania, where it is twice as much
• Express Mail International starts at $25.95 for a half pound
• Priority Mail International starts from $19 to $24 for a pound (flat rate envelope $11.95)
• First Class International starts at $1.40 for one ounce

Everybody has the same size limits of:
42 inches in maximum length and 79 inches in maximum length and girth combined
except for a couple dozen countries that let it be a bit larger.

--------------------------------------------------

More later.

liver of sulfur— NOT

2008-05-21T00:48:00.000-05:00

I just finished a choker of stretch maille box chain, to which I attempted to add a Goth feel with a V-shaped pendant "lace" of black chains, terminated with amethysts in hematite rings.

My first accomplishment was in successfully making balled sterling headpins, which was gratifyingly free of major difficulties. Then I wanted to oxidize said pins (once they were assembled into the captive-amethysts-with-wrapped-loops) so that they would not stand out all bright and shiny against the black anodized aluminum.

I knew egg yolk usually produces just a thin golden layer of oxidation on silver, or that's how it's worked for me in the past. So I thought I'd give it extra time and warmth, and put the headpinned assemblies and the yolk in a covered pyrex dish in a 200° oven for an hour. Hmm, still just light silvery-gold.

So after a bit I decided to be more emphatic in the heat treatment, and put it back at around 450°, for maybe 45 minutes, maybe more. I had the kitchen exhaust fan on to keep the house from getting too hot.

Well, I must have stunk up the neighborhood, though I didn't smell it in the house. The egg yolk turned into a NASTY stinky black-brown oily, oozy lump, with condensed droplets of the stuff all over the inside of the dish and lid. I had to wash my silver-and-stone assemblies and tumble them a while to get the oily gunk off them. But they are a PERFECT black!

Here they are in the finished necklace. It is currently for sale in my Etsy shop here. I have matching earrings almost made, save that I want to make handmade silver wires for them too. And sacrifice another egg yolk? Maybe.

etsy treasuries

2008-05-08T00:39:00.001-05:00

Ever since I've been on Etsy I have been hearing about treasuries. Some people make them incessantly, apparently. They are, on the face of it, an altruistic way to show your favorites of others work. If you make lots, and get many people kind of feeling like they owe you (kind of like when they've been asked to dinner several times), then you are likely to be in their treasuries. The real payoff comes if a treasury in which you are displayed catches the eye of an administrator, and you find an item of yours on the front page. I don't look at FP that much, but I gather many people do.

Well, anyway, I gave it a shot. Took me several tries to get the hang of it and to manage to be awake at the opportune moment. But I got this fiesta-colored assortment into Treasury West, and then a day later the gray-greenish page of art from Dentonites into the main Treasury.

It was kind of fun. I guess I'll do it again. Of course, to get them SEEN you either have to blazon your accomplishment all over the forums somehow, or think of a REALLY intriguing title. Sigh. I hate promoting. Sigh.

getting Etsy views

2008-04-22T23:43:00.000-05:00

I had an inspiration that worked out well, yesterday — I used some of the iris blooms as easel/backgrounds for new photographs of some lightweight earrings and pendants. Then today I used those pieces as examples in a couple of Etsy Forum discussions, and also showed them off on About.com About Jewelrymaking. I ended up with about 300 new views for today, or 25% added to my total since the views got reset in February.

I posted links to all three pieces on About. That post has 100 or so views, though only 5 or 6 replies. Then the green maille earrings on the gold iris were the start of a lively discussion on Etsy's Site Help Forum, about using as many tags as possible without tag abuse, that had 50-odd posts. I also used both the picture of pearl threaders on a blue flower, and of the peyote cross on an apricot one, to show off the iris technique. Only 20 posts in that thread.

Well, the pearl threaders got 41 new views, the peyote cross got 33, and the green aluminum earrings 128! What's more, a half-dozen other items got 5 or more new views, so there was some spillover once people came to the shop.

On the other hand there were no sales, or item hearts, though I got a shop heart. So how much good does it do to get views from fellow crafters, especially other people who make jewelry? Who knows? Obviously there is a lot of marketing yet to be done.

older beadwork

2008-04-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

I've been putting up on Etsy a number of the pieces I did 2 or 3 years ago. Since I migrate through different phases, this means these are media I'm not doing so much now. Right-angle-weave beadwork, for example, with those red, red recycled beads, On a red, white, and blue three-strand necklace with fiber optic accents. I think I made that one soon after the Beads 'n' Things trunk show with the sleet-storm. That was way back when - 2004? '03??? That's when I discovered the faceted fiber optic beads.
These blue striped barrel beads are one of the nicer ones that Hobby Lobby carries. I made a double-row-of-squares bracelet for Shanna on her birthday a few years ago, and then finished up the package with this single one.

So far none have sold, but they are getting views, especially the Red, Red Bracelet. Need to search the stash for other older pieces that are good workmanship, not the experiments that didn't quite work ;-)

to change the card?

2007-12-18T09:03:00.000-06:00

One of the reasons I joined Etsy last year was to have an online selling venue that I could put on my card and point people to. I didn't properly set up my shop and get active until this fall, and I have noticed, as many have mentioned in various forum posts on Etsy, that nobody to whom I give the card and point out the address has ever heard of Etsy.

But maybe, I thought to myself yesterday, that is changing. Surely the NY Times article will have some effect. Maybe I should make it easier for people to see my address, and that I am affiliated with Etsy.

So I redid my card. The top is the new version, with the orange box that calls out Etsy, and the larger type for the URL.

But . . . second thoughts. The card is so busy already, and this fills it up more. Plus the orange really clashes with my red-bird. Maybe I should just junk the whole design for an elegantly simple almost blank card that says Abigail Mount Miller — jewelry, like a shop window with one perfect piece in it.

My card is more like a junk-shop window. But again, I really LIKE my cardinal on the quartz. I spent a lot of time on him.

Decisions, decisions . . .

2007-09-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

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 . . .

April showers around May flowers

2007-04-13T07:05:00.000-05:00

I finished it! ten or twelve hours of work (several discs worth of Sue Hubbell's Broadsides From the Other Orders and a little quality time sitting out on the deck when it got warm again), and it's done — my sterling silver 26-gauge, three-strand, 11-lead, 20-bight turk's head bezel for Laura's Iris cab.

For sure it's not perfect. The main body of it actually is pretty close. But the edges are a difficulty. Leaving aside that there are three places where I flat goofed on the first pass and made an edge loop go over-over instead of over-under, I find it very difficult to get the three strands to lie parallel at the edge. After I finished and stretched this, I realized that I should actually have them tighter, almost overlapping, as I do it. Because when the broad open form is stretched, all the edge bends flatten out and get straighter, so they don't need so much clearance for the outer strands to curve around the inner. But when I was finally able to stretch it enough to get the cab in — a really good tight fit — it did make most of the fabric form up nicely into a neat silver weave.

The middle of the process was the most time-consuming, the end of the first pass and much of the second. After I made the five or six first leads where you just go around the jig overlapping each strand, I had some trouble keeping straight what was supposed to be over and what under (witness those three wrong edge-loops). And then after I had it off the fixture I had a good deal of trouble persuading the somewhat thin little wire to slide in beside the space-creating needle as it ought. Finally I had an inspiration and threaded the end of the wire onto an embroidery needle and "sewed" it through, and the third pass went much more quickly.

Currently it is strung on a satin cord, threaded through holes I poked in the weave near the back edge. I'll probably put silver jump rings in there and a chain someday.

I don't suppose I'll do anything else exactly the same size, so I guess my 1-1/2" dowel can go back to the basement, with its two rows of 20 little nailholes in one end. My stretching device was a pool-cue butt and a hammer handle, inserted together and levered apart. If I'm going to make finger-rings, I will really need to get a real ring-stretcher.

Anyway, it's done. And it's all mine!

pendant swap

2007-04-07T13:06:00.000-05:00

Finally got my goodies off in the mail yesterday for the pendant swap Billie Sanchez of Flagstaff is running on About Jewelry Making. However, after I mailed them I chanced to reread the directions post, and she may not want all of them, 'cause I forgot she said "no seed beads." Also she didn't mention metal pendants, and I sent my minuet chain mandala.

Most participants are probably sending focal beads for MAKING pendants, but I don't really have many beads that sit there and say, "I'm a focal." So I mostly sent made pendants, along with co-ordinating beads to use with them in a necklace, and maybe matching earrings. I was collecting up my scattered stash and UnFinishedObjects at the same time, and finding various bits of treasures I never had made into finished items. So, without remembering Billie's original rules, I sent along a couple of partly done seed-bead focal components. I didn't just send bags of seed beads, but one packet is a net-stitched little star-form centered with an embedded 8mm cobalt bead, with GF corrugated saucers and beads accenting the rim,and another is three of my morning glories that were originally planned to go on the broad collar of netting that I never made. I thought they might make a great spring pendant confection done up with some green stem/leaf construction of some sort, and included two packets of green beads. So now I have to e-mail Billie and see if she wants to send them back to me. Oops.

Then I sent two pieces of stone focal and wirework.One is the aventurine nugget I wrapped with a free-form GF swirl with a basket-weave sort of a bail, that I did last year. I packaged up some assorted shapes of aventurine beads that might be used with it.Then there is the (really cool, if I do say so myself) big bead of Russian serpentine that I did for YOJ last month, with the curl of heavy copper surrounding it. Again, I sent along a few matching beads. These are the Russian serpentine beads I got as part of my haul from the Rings & Things Dallas show last March. Sadly, I missed the one last month.

I hope someone will be taken with my "fetish" construction with the brass buffalo, and feather, and turquoise Zuni-type bear. They're put together with a twist of copper and silver wire, with a silver-plate bead and a couple of gorgeous red platino seeds that a woman representing the Colombian Craft Connection sold me at Bead Renaissance at Grapevine. I need to pass along that babies shouldn't be allowed to play with that piece, because the platino seeds could be toxic if chewed on. Assuming they are harvested sustainably, they make a wonderful natural, renewable, non-dyed alternative to coral, very "green" in philosophy.

Another artifact of my initial forays into wire design is the pendant made of GF wire spirals and furnace-glass beads. I sent an additional pair of the smaller beads, plus some GF ones. I really love this kind of bead, and wish I could afford more of them. Unfortunately they must be fairly difficult to make. $15/ounce seems to be the going price, and if you like the big chunky ones, that's not very many beads!

My last packet is just components — rose quartz donuts and fiber optic beads in various sizes and shades of green, plus some rose quartz beads.

Now I have to just wait to see what the postman brings me in return! I will try to get organized to show it here, as well as what I make.

starting half persian 4-in-1: a tutorial

2007-01-22T12:28:00.000-06:00

How I start HP 4-in-1 — Illustrated with some rather inferior photography. The pictures are mostly pretty small and low-resolution. Clicking on them will get you a somewhat bigger, but not necessariy clearer, image.

There is only really one tricky place, where you insert the fifth ring and then hold onto things until you get the sixth ring in.

It's easiest to get used to if you use two different color rings. The finished weave has two crossed rows of rings. Each of the reds, in this example, is linked through 4 brights, but NEVER through another red, and vice versa. Except for putting the second red ring in, each ring is actually inserted through only two other rings, going through the eye of the previous two of the other row. The other two of the 4-in-1 get inserted into the current ring each time in the next couple of steps.

Start with all your rings open, except for three of one color. It is not had to do this weave with one complete set of closed rings, like rubber O-rings, but it's easier to learn by putting on one open ring at a time.

Pick up the three closed brights and hang them on one red ring. Then flip one of the brights around, so that you have one in front of the others on the left side of the red, and two on the right side. They should make a diagonal stack, like a diagonally skewed stack of coins.

Bring the second red ring through the right-hand bright, back to front, then lead it back through the overlapping eye of the first two brights. Keep this red ring completely above the first red ring; do not let it go through it. WITHOUT letting go of the little cluster of rings, brace the open red against the closed one and get it closed enough that it can't fall off. Do not let go the stack to pick up your other pliers, or it will be extremely hard to get them arranged again.

Pick up another red ring. Insert it front to back in the eye of the second and third bright rings, keeping it horizontal and on top of the previous red. You will see by now that each color of rings makes an uninterrupted sort of sidewise stack, with the two rows of rings interpenetrating each other.

Now rotate the nascent chain slightly so that the bright rings are lying horizontally, making a sort of stair rising to the right. Pick up a new open bright and insert it in the eye of the rightmost two red rings, being careful not to let it go through the previous bright. By now it is safe to let go the chain to pick up pliers to properly close each ring as you insert it.

Repeat the previous step with a red ring led through the eye of the last pair of brights, making sure the diagonal stack of reds continues unbroken.

Then another bright ring is added. This photo shows a mistake. The bright ring is inserted properly through the eye of the reds, but it is also slipping through the previous bright. No ring should ever go through one of its own color (or through its own row, if you are making a solid-color chain).
Slide the tip of the bright ring back out of the other bright, and close it properly.

Continue adding red rings and bright rings alternately. The pattern of half persian 4-in-1 is very bold and definite, so if you keep an eye on your work it should be obvious quickly if you have gotten a ring in improperly.

This is the chain made from the 15 rings that were originally shown on the table at the beginning of this tut. These particular rings - aluminum 1/4" rings from The Ring Lord - are a bit tight for this weave. It is not difficult to weave, but the chain has almost no flexibility.

This last photo shows 15 more rings added to the chain in the Forars Kaede variant. Here the continuous diagonal stack formed by each row of rings is not done; instead the rings are inserted alternately above and below the preceding one of the row. For the same rings, this chain is slightly more flexible. This chain has an extremely limited AR to work properly. This particular example holds its arrangement perfectly well. But if the rings are just slightly larger or skinnier, they can slip past each other in their placement in the eye, so that the pattern of Vs is no longer clear.

I will try to describe doing a stretchy half-rubber 4-in-1 later. Basically, you follow these directions, using O-rings for the brights. Start with three rubber rings on a metal ring. Add the second metal ring as shown with the second red above, except that it has to already have a rubber ring hanging from it as you insert it. Then just repeat that step, putting a metal ring through a single rubber edge, then back through a rubber eye.

morning zephyr YOJ week 1

2007-01-06T13:05:00.000-06:00

I wasn't planning to pay attention to this week's theme, because I knew that the next thing I HAD to make was the bracelet that poor patient Lynette has been awaiting for six weeks or more. But then I thought about the couple of dawns I've seen recently, and breezes blowing the white clouds around, and grass greening up in the recent rains, and I had the color scheme I had been searching for. I hope, anyway. Lynette, get your friend these pics. Too much color? Too much blue? Wrong colors? I've got the weave back in my head, so I can switch out some rings if desired.

It's 50 rings around, which I think the other one was. It seems to me to be a teeny bit looser on my wrist. Possibly these copper rings are not quite the same. Anyway, I expect if it is actually too loose that you can figure out how

to extract one copper and one rubber ring.
I'm very sorry for the unconscionable tardiness. Hope it's more or less worth it.

Santa necklace

2007-01-05T21:35:00.000-06:00

Now that Kim has finally received my belated gift, I can write about it and put up its picture. Basically it's a necklace made of byzantine sections of 20-gauge sterling, with 1/8" ID rings, connected by sections of 1/4" 18-gauge copper rings in a 2-1 pattern with more little silver rings connecting. Each copper ring has one or more embellishments: glass teardrop beads, GF 5mm beads, Bali beads, some tiny rings I made from 21-gauge square GF wire, twisted. Clasp is 16-gauge sterling.

half-persian, half-neoprene, half-copper

2006-10-27T13:18:00.000-05:00

Seem to me that's too many halves. Anyway, here is a finished picture of my stretchy bangle. I'm about to go work on another one, and I will get a couple of shots of how it's done. If I'm going into production on these I better get a Koil Kutter, or decide to patronize the ring-sellers — it's a lot of copper-sawing.

last week's monochrome

2006-10-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

Oops, I'm behind. Signed in to describe the bracelet I posted last night in FSOJ, and discovered I never put in last week's. Here is the most up-to-date picture:

I call it silver rick-rack. It's a straight piece of Euro 4-in-1, with every other pair of side rings small. Then I use a big ring to gather up three rings on the side, alternating sides.

The whole thing is made of 20-gauge sterling, which turns out to be pretty delicate for a bracelet. This one is not for daily wear-and-tear; it needs to be saved for dress-up occasions.

Still no clasp. Before the Ryan High craft fair next week I have to turn out everything, so I'm sure to find those elusive little silver toggles I have somewhere.

synergy or assynergy? FSOJ week 3

2006-10-14T21:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I made a bracelet, a variation on Rebecca Mojica's "Möbiused Rosettes Bracelet" in the Lark book Chain Mail Jewelry. The synergy, if present, comes from the use of alternating metals, copper and bronze, rather than all copper. Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? or less? I vacillate.

First I thought it would be neat to do the chain with the rosettes in silver. Then I decided that would have a spotty appearance, and that each section of chain would do well to be in a new color. I went for bronze because that would be too much silver used on an experiment for my currently very parsimonious soul. But using bronze also meant changing to 16 gauge, since that's what my bronze wire is, so I enlarged the rings from quarter-inch ID to 9/32 inch. That makes an AR of 5.86 rather than 6.25 as in the original. It also had the benefit that the larger rings meant I only needed seven groups rather than eight. Thus, with an odd number of groups, I could have a bronze group on either side of the copper clasp assembly, giving good symmetry. With the short length of 2-in-2 connecting the toggle, it fits me perfectly.

I think I like it. I think I'll probably be more sure that I like it after it is tumbled. I just finally finished this evening and took the photos immediately, quickie nighttime indoor shots with the on-camera flash, which means pretty poor quality. I'll post better later when the chain is all burnished up pretty. The trouble with using the bronze is that the beautiful shine it gets in tumbling is very short-lived.

This one is for me, both because of the bronze, and because my first attempt at fabricating a toggle fastening (out of 12 gauge copper) is not exactly ready for prime time. It works, but it sure isn't a thing of beauty.

camo chic: FSOJ week 2

2006-10-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

Mother Earth, Father Sky? Combination of the material and the spiritual? Ummmm . . . no.

Definitely off theme here. Strictly non-spiritual, a whimsical approach to a very non whimsical fabric designed to make men hard to see while they are trying to kill some other men. But you see, I got this new (to me) color of Delicas, a dark matte olive-green, and it virtually shouted "army!" at me, so I poked in my drawers and found some beige and brown, and here they are.

Only sheer stubbornness is responsible for their finished existence: I decided to use up some thick twisted brown silk thread to make them, as I had had it so long I didn't trust it to string a necklace on, and it looked appropriate in color and a sort of twill-ness like uniform fabric. Well, it was WAY too thick, even for big-holed delicas - if I tried to go through a bead any more than thrice I risked breaking the bead, or cutting the thread on the eye of the needle. But by the time this was obvious, the stubbornness had kicked in, I had started these earrings and I was by gosh gonna finish them!

Well, I finished the diamond shapes, and they looked awfully plain. With those beads stuffed full of thread already (which can be seen pretty clearly in the right-hand one here), there was no way I could add any fringe, though I had it in the original design. So I quick swirled up a couple of wire bits with low-grade tourmaline that matched the camo, and that did it. A project that if I had had any sense I would have abandoned or changed at the outset, but there they are. They exist.

And that's what is SO satisfying about any craft project - one has a thought, and one's creativity and (it's to be hoped) artistic sense are engaged until there emerges a concrete exemplification of the thought. I get so tired of seing how many people are employed for big bucks just to rearrange papers. I may not be a mover or shaker in the world, but I create real things that I hope others look at with appreciation, or joy, or amusement, and that is very important to me. OK, now I'll step off the soapbox.

autumn leaves: FSOJ week 1

2006-10-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

These are my first entry for the new Four Seasons of Jewelry, made in mid-September.

Actually, I made them for a Yahoo woven-bead earring swap. All my others for that are peyote or brick stitch, which is more according to the spirit of the stated woven-bead theme of the swap. But when I started to work with these little 15/0 iris seeds, none of my needles would go through. Having a roll of 28-gauge and also 18-gauge copper wire on the desk, I just threaded them on and did what came naturally. Well, on CWJ we call that weaving with wire, don't we? so they ARE woven earrings. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm going to do some more in silver with equally tiny hematite-colored beads. I learned on these that I need to be more careful to make all the veins on each side of the midrib parallel, if possible, especially at the tip. I also think a bit of gentle hammering on the frame before I weave the beads on wouldn't hurt. But I have been really admiring them as they lie on the desk, so I think they're worth repeating.

more chain

2006-09-04T15:20:00.000-05:00

Two more of the chains that I played with in July. This is a copper spiral rope chain. It's a beautiful chain, but it is frustrating that you have to make one connected in a continuous loop (like Mary Ann Barnhart's necklace at DUUF last Sunday) for it to hold its shape. Given its druthers, it relaxes into a form that is a very subtle spiral, instead of the clear flat ribbon twist seen here. Actually, the relaxed form is the spiral of a Jens Pind chain, except a proper Jens Pind is done with such fat, small-aspect-ratio links that the chain is locked into its spiral.

I'm probably going to take this one apart to recycle its 16 gauge bronze links. It's an exploration of combining byzantine and flower chain, and it has a definite pattern, but it seems overall kind of busy and florid and unclear. This was one of the very first chains I made this summer; I was working on it at the lake when Amy was here in June. I think I've learned some since then, and can find better uses for these rings.

The lovely high shine on those bronze rings is basically tumbling. I really see why folks on the forum rave about it. This isn't even machine tumbling. It's put-chain-in-a-jar-with-BBs-and-shake-for-30-minutes tumbling. I had no idea it would be so effective. Load jar, walk to public library shaking jar in rhythm to steps, check out books, return, decant beautiful chain!

a fair collar

2006-09-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

Probably the most impressive piece of maille I have made in the last couple of months is this copper collar. It's about two inches wide, made of 350 or so rings of 16 gauge copper a little over 5/16" ID. At the inner edge are two rows of smaller sterling links as accents. The smallest row, of 20 gauge silver, serves to keep the inner copper row from flopping around.

I learned "speed-weaving" European 4-in-1 on this piece, that is, weaving with one open and one closed ring added at the same time. I also learned to do expansions by hanging an extra ring off the center of a ring above it, between the two "eyes" where rings are normally added.

I mostly finished it early in August, except that I wanted silver for the accent links, not the "silver" craft wire that I had handy, and I couldn't find the spool. I had in mind entering it in the County Fair Creative Arts show, which I knew meant I had to have it ready on Thursday Aug. 18. The previous Saturday I took the morning that Ellen was working and zapped over to Plano to get soybeans at Whole Foods and wire at Texas Beads, but sadly Texas Beads was closed. However eventually I found a short bit of silver wire which was enough, and Thursday morning I worked like a beaver and got it fixed up. Now it's going to go into the Bach Society Oktoberfest Silent Auction, I think, with a minimum bid of $50.

Edit — later — after some preliminary chicken-feed bids by bidders who didn't understand about posted minimums, two bidders dueled up ten dollars, and the collar brought the Bach Society $60. More would have been nice, I figure it was worth twice as much, but it was the first year we'd been in that venue or had an auction, so it's a learning process to get the bugs out.

Chains, chains, chains

2006-08-25T19:09:00.000-05:00

Let's try this entry again -- I had it all written up a few days ago and Safari "unexpectedly quit" while I was working to get the pictures inserted.

This entry is a retrospective about work I did back in June when I first started doing some jewelry stuff again after a longish dry patch. I spent all my time and energy for a while this spring on counting calories and minutes of exercise -- spent my time on the Walking forum rather than Jewelry Artists or Creative Wire Jewelry. Lost 30 pounds, gained back 5, got a lot more fit. Now I'm trying to keep it up but balance with creativity too.

In late May or thereabouts I got my goodies from the Bulk Wire Buy, including a pound of 16 gauge bronze. My cousin Amy visited for almost a week in June, and at an afternoon up at the lake I got started playing with it. Hard to remember that it was almost chilly that day. We went into the water for just a little while, after our yummy stirfry (we forgot the oil, but it worked anyway. Put crumbles of feta cheese in your stirfry at the end -- it makes sumptuous sauce.) Then we sat at the table and enjoyed the chickadees in the cedars and oaks over us while I made chain and she read His Majesty's Dragon (recommended highly). It was a good day. I went up for a swim and walk and brief picnic a couple of weeks ago. Water practically body-temperature. Air in the shade about 98°; I don't even want to know what it was in the sun. I didn't make any chain, just sort of sauna'd.

The introductory pic above shows the whole group of chains I made in early- to mid-June. I tried out several weaves, but mostly flower-links and Byzantine, and combinations thereof. Here are three versions of flower chain. The all-bronze one was my first - just single flowers connected by single links. If the flowers are in mirror-image pairs, it lies flat like this. If the flowers are all turned the same way, it twists slightly.

The one with little green connectors is done with 16 gauge copper and 20 gauge colored wire from Hobby Lobby. It's pretty difficult to work with that stuff and keep it all looking good, because if your pliers slip, they tend to strip off the green plastic coating.

The copper/bronze bracelet has found a home with Ellen, my mother's caregiver. The bronze flowers are about as massive as you can do them, 5 rings interlocked in each rather than 3 rings. Then they're connected with 18-gauge copper byzantine sections.

The main problem of course with all of these is that, though they polish up beautifully, they don't stay that way, but get dull and dark very quickly with wearing. I'm really looking forward to being able to use more silver again when we get past this leanish patch in the budget. But I've gotten fond of the substantial chains made with 18 and 16 and 14 gauge, and the ounces really add up. My blue-ribbon collar, of which more later, weighs several ounces. It would be really sumptuous in silver, but it's gonna stay base-metal for now.

trying again

2006-02-12T19:53:00.000-06:00

Maybe it is something about being a new month?? I had a little trouble back at the beginning of January too, I think I remember -- couldn't get the dragon post to show up for a while.

posts not working?

2006-02-12T19:50:00.000-06:00

This is the third post I have tried to publish since the end of January. The one I did on Feb. 7th I gave up and deleted. I guess I will just keep trying until they show up.

just because they're pretty

2006-02-12T15:57:00.000-06:00

After getting compliments on my wire-framed leaf beadwork, I went back to my old Zip disks and resurrected the scan image where I archived the ones I did a few years ago. (All the wire-framed ones have since sold. I only still have the little scarf-rings; they seemed to be an idea whose time had not come.)

So, just to show off my pretties that I made in 2002, here they are.

photoshop masquerade

2006-01-29T15:25:00.000-06:00

Or, how to use masks to highlight just what you want in a picture. I learned this from Evan Hollander's great tutorial about how to get a good bead picture, and have it floating above a blurred hint of a background. But my first application was to a photo of me wearing my new leaf pendant.

First, catch your rabbit -- that is, get a decent digital pic to play with. Here is a photo of me on the deck outside Isabel's window, with the back woods, in all their drought-given brownness, and the playhouse behind me. Crop the photo at some time during the process to just the area you want. It doesn't matter when you do this, but if it's a big picture and you do it first, other processes will be a bit speedier.

In the LAYERS menu, make a duplicate layer. This will show in the layers list as a duplicate of the background layer, above it in the list. This is the layer you work in; you leave the original layer alone.

In the FILTERS menu, choose Blur, and then Gaussian Blur. Use the slider to make it more or less blurry.

Then go back to the LAYERS menu and choose Add Layer Mask, selecting Reveal All.

Then comes the magic part. You choose black as the foreground color, and get a big soft-edged brush, and PAINT over everywhere that you want to see through the blurry mask layer to the original photo below. In this instance, I used a normal paintbrush to reveal my face and front and the pendant. Then I used the options panel for the brush to choose Dissolve, not that I had any idea what would happen, and with a brush with only 12% opacity and the Dissolve characteristic, I painted over the rest, and got all those little sort of sunflecks. Finally you merge layers, and lower the image size if you want, and it's done.

I can't wait to try this with a closeup of a jewelry piece, and to explore all those other options - other filters, other brushes -- WHEE!

finished leaf pendant

2006-01-27T18:16:00.000-06:00

Well, almost finished. I realized after I took the photos that I still need to trim the ends of the silver wrap wires. But that should be a tiny detail.

The previous post shows my Beadscape plans for this bit of peyote work, 930 beads, the first solid piece of peyote I've done in a long time, I guess over a year. It was quite slow because my eyes and glasses are so poor. Kept switching between without glasses, where I could see the work fine but at 3" distance, and with glasses so I could pick up more beads without having to curl down over the dish.

To the right is a good view of the beadwork with the light reflecting off the front. Complete backlighting gives a totally different feel to the piece, seen below.
Of course, when worn as a pendant, complete backlighting is unlikely. But I think the effect will be different depending on whether it's worn over a white or dark blouse.
If I can manage to trim the wires neatly enough to make it reversible, one might even prefer to wear it with what I think of as the back in the front (top right photo).

Anyway it's done, and I am pretty pleased with it.

leaf pendant, part 1

2006-01-23T10:11:00.000-06:00

Partial report here, since I have the beadwork done for the core of the pendant, but I'm getting going on this week's Orient Express now, and I'll have to get back to this. What I'm showing here are reduced versions of my Beadscape renditions of the two-drop peyote pattern. First I had it planned for a black background. I changed my mind but didn't redo the pattern, and just winged it for a few rows with a light background and silver leafborder. Then I went and redid the pattern, changing the background and removing one of the inner shades of green, since I only had two silver-lined colors that went well together. Then at the last possible moment to change before I would have had to take out rows of beads, I realized how peculiar the crook in the midvein was where the petiole joins the leaf. I redid the pattern. One green bead is left where it should perhaps have been silver, but I left it rather than taking out two rows.

The beaded leaf is now complete, since Saturday evening. Tuesday evening was when I first started playing with ideas, and Wednesday was when I started putting thread to beads. I'm kind of out of practice at peyote.

asymmetrical balance - week 16

2006-01-17T21:30:00.000-06:00

This necklace was mostly done back at Thanksgiving, but I never finished the chain at the back, or the clasp. It seemed to fit the Asymmetrical Balance idea so perfectly that I decided I better finish it. Overall, it looks symmetrical, but if you look at any single element, the corresponding one on the other side is different.

Sterling beads and wire, all 20-gauge except for the 16-gauge clasp, fine silver 30-gauge wrapping wire, turquoise nuggets and beads and a couple of Zuni-type bears. Commenters at 4 Seasons have thought heavier wire might make it better. This might be true. It is perfectly sturdy like this, but it could be a case of more being better. Unfortunately I'm almost out of 20-gauge, and I don't have any 18-gauge, except for a couple of feet of totally black wire of Isabel's that I found in the tool closet cleanup. I can go over to Texas Beads and get 20-gauge. 18g is going to have to be mail-order, or Rock Barrell.

What, from a practical standpoint, this thing really needs is not heavier wire, but shorter dangles, or simpler wiggles, or dangles placed farther apart. It has to be laid down very carefully or some of the dangles can tangle up. Maybe I'll take a couple off and put them on earrings, and shorten some of the rest. Hmmm . . .

I need to keep this one and wear it as often as possible to find out if the red seeds are durable. These wonderful coral-colored accents are a tropical seed that I got at the Bead Renaissance show near Dallas last May, from a representative of a Central American co-op. I'm looking for the receipt to identify them better. I hope they are durable, since the color is so great, and I'm pretty sure it's less destructive to harvest them than coral.

The closeup of the center section is the better focussed picture. I include the shot of the whole necklace with insert of the clasp to show the proportions of the whole thing. I used a new photo setup. Recently I have just been running outside and laying out whatever I'm photographing on the weathered bench outside Isabel's window. But I figured that would not work for this, first because its complexity requires a simple contrasty background, and second because it has to hang to look good, not be laid on a flat surface. So I grabbed a length of black velvet panné and hung it on the line. Then I thought I would make it not completely vertical, and draped the bottom over a chair. I think it worked fairly well.

contemplating creating "art nouveau"

2006-01-15T19:33:00.000-06:00

I guess I’ll get some record written down about my attempt for a piece of jewelry in the Art Nouveau style for FSOJ. This was due back on the 4th, ten days ago, but it is only now beginning to take concrete form.

I was “studyin’ on the matter” off and on all week, to no final decision or plan. I knew I wanted something with wire, and leaves, and pearls, intertwined somehow. I thought about plans to do a copper-enameled form, but I’m really not set up for that right now. Finally I came up with a mental image of a form to make from my 8-gauge copper wire, to which to add polymer leaves and wires with some of my half-drilled pearls from MiGem.

The heavy wire would be wrapped as shown to secure it, then leaves and pearls attached there, or some pearls on wire stems twining up around the copper.

Well, that’s what I had kind of in mind, but life intervened and I didn’t physically work on it till this last week. Friday I made a skinner blend for the leaves, though I think it isn’t quite right yet. It’s illustrated in the “creating dragons” entry. It’s resting under plastic wrap right now. Then yesterday I set out to do the copper.

Well.

I knew it would be hard to manipulate. I would have been pleased to use 12-gauge. But 8-gauge is what I found a whole messy coil of down by the shop, years ago, and I’ve been mining it for utility, for hanging basket suspension, and for craft work ever since. I figured if I annealed it often enough I could make what I wanted.

It didn’t agree.

Eventually, together, we settled on a different design.

So, actually, I decided I liked this form more than my earlier idea (sour grapes?) and I sketched out a plan, including a bead in the small curled spot in the center.

But then, after I showed the frame and the sketch to Isabel, and was working back in her room to finish the piece that is for Week 16 (even though that one is late too, now), I chanced to see my sketch upside down, and I thought, “wait a minute, that WORKS.” Also that bead didn’t seem to add to the design, so I’m going to use a Hill Tribe dragonfly or butterfly. The dragonflies I have on hand actually have a very attenuated Art Nouveau look to them, I think.

So I think there’s finally a concrete plan. Still have to do most of the fabricating, though. I have NEVER thought so much before doing a piece before in my life, even my most planned patterned loomworked copperframed bead piece.

creating dragons

2006-01-13T17:35:00.000-06:00

Been trying to get organized with the pictures to tell how I made Bri'th, who now lives on Mary's library office desk, defending her Cascading Style Sheet documents. She was created from about 2pm to 10pm on New Year's Eve, and slightly overbaked (I fell asleep) from midnight till three. Gave her to Mary the next afternoon.

First I made a Skinner blend of metallic green, gold, and translucent. Then I reduced it in width by a process I invented, shown below with a different blend I just made this afternoon.

Take a blended sheet that is too wide from one solid-color edge to the other. Cut it into strips, with narrow ones at the edge. Keeping them in order, overlap them so that they form a sheet either two or three times thicker. Run it through the pasta machine a few more times to blend the strips, and you have a long narrow blend rather than a short wide one.

Wrapping two lengths of this around a short fat log so that I had a green spine and pale belly, I reduced and lengthened the log. This created a nice organic body piece shaded from a dark green back to gold sides and a paler belly. It even sort of had a spinal stripe from where the mica-shifted metallics were disturbed at the fusion. However, that got covered up by the spinal embellishments. I used half of the log for Bri'th; pictured below is the other half, plus a few other scraps of clay, and the tool I found most useful.

I pinched and shaped the head end of the log, then rolled and rolled to get the tail stretched out skinny and long enough to wrap around the quartz. A little tricky to keep it from twisting. I formed the body posture first, and did the face and decorations afterward, as Christi Friesen recommends. NOT the proper procedure when doing a statue like this wrapped around a hunk of heavy quartz. I should have done the head and wings, and the spine decorations, and then shaped her around the quartz.

The wings are cut from just the green/gold section of the blend, folded in half and then cut to get two identical symmetric wings. Best chill the clay beforehand, so you can get the two pieces apart again. The eyes are smoky quartz, the head and spine have quartz chips, and an orb of aventurine is at the base of the skull.

Sticking on the embellishments is a fiddly little job with fingers four times too big. I need some tweezers tipped with little chunks of makeup sponge, or some such. After getting a decoration to more-or-less stick, I would use the end of the tool to mess around with the clay at its base and kind of push it and blend it in.

the world in your pocket

2005-12-30T20:30:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post about the little chain I got started with in this current phase of chainmaking. I needed a gift, supposedly under $10 value (but some members seem to be VERY good at shopping!) for the gift-giving at the naturalists' party. I'd been considering it a while. Not-too-expensive, unisex gifts are tricky, especially if making jewelry is your exper-tise. I got the Keren Hill Tribe dragonflies way back months ago with a Master Naturalist gift in mind. I was trying to figure out how to do a tie-keeper chain that could convert into a toggle-fastened bracelet, but without success so far. Then I came across some neat colored key rings and was inspired to do a key chain, using the dragonfly and also one of my remaining polymer clay planets.

Well, the days went by and the party got closer, and still it wasn't made. The evening before I spent making my cathedral cake, which was also an exercise in creativity. So I'm up at 5am to make a chain. Sawed out 16 large and 7 small silver links, and 7 GF ones, and started to put it together. Turned out my links didn't work together. The GF wouldn't encircle the small silver ones, and the silver ones were too tight to hold four large links each plus the space required by the GF one in between. So at 8, when Ellen came, I was cussing and clipping out bigger links with clippers. I got it put together, and it looked nice, but of course the clipped links weren't as good as sawed ones. Moreover, in my
hurry, before I gave up on the saw, I practically wore through the skin of the finger holding the coil with the back side of the blade, which of course is about knife-thin.

chain detail

Well, I did it and got to the party on time, and I hope the gift was appreci-ated. I don't know the name of the woman who got it. But I came home, and worked on improving my sawing technique, and made another one for me. However, this afternoon I gave it instead to Melynda Behrens, my new tenant, when I gave her her keys. But at least I did run outside and get a photograph.

cutting jumprings, not fingers

2005-12-25T12:27:00.000-06:00

Here are the illustrations for my small-time jumpring manufacturing. I wind a coil on a mandrel - here it's 18 gauge copper on a 3/16" rod, which makes rings approximately 5mm ID and 7mm OD. Then I tightly wrap the coil with tape, and slide it onto my saw blade to cut from the inside out. I was concerned that the tape might gum up the sawblade but it doesn't seem to. The tape holds the coil together nicely, and keeps the rings from falling off as each is cut.

When it's all cut through, I simply open up the tape cocoon, and behold, there are my rings.

I tried using my rotary tool with a slitting disk to cut them, but thin as the disk is, it is still way thicker than a fine sawblade, and the results were not satisfactory. Guess I'll stay with hand tools.

The section of 3-in-3 chain with byzantine bits (that is byzantine, right?) was my first effort with these copper rings. On a quiet Christmas Eve with nobody around, I got it finished up into a bracelet. This is the only picture I have, because I gave it away this morning to Ellen without getting another photo. I offered her a choice of several items, and she grabbed the copper chain right away, which was fairly gratifying.

So Merry Christmas to all!

ringing

2005-12-24T04:04:00.000-06:00

I've been working at making jumprings for some chain and mail experiments. I drool at sites like Urban Maille, and Golden Maille, and The Ring Lord. But I have wire, and time, and NO money, so I have been making my own.

Last week in a BIG hurry, trying to finish a gift before taking it to a party, I had to make a few with wire clippers, but they really are not satisfactory at all. Back when I was taking a silversmithing class, I remember sawing them out of a coil with the coil wedged in a grooved bench pin, and I recall that wasn't very satisfactory either — I couldn't hold them very well. Although any variety of sawed ring is superior to a clipped ring.

This week I started by having a short coil threaded onto my saw blade, and just holding it in my fingers and moving it back and forth over the stationary blade. Works, sort of. (I'm not at any kind of a bench but sitting in the comfortable chair in Isabel's room where it's warm, nattering on to her about my progress, in case she's hearing it.) I did turn out some decent rings. I also nearly wore a cut into my finger with the back edge of the sawblade somehow, without even noticing. Also the blade, even a #6/0, tends to catch in the rings and twist them out of line in the coil.

The last two days I have found a very satisfactory solution. I make the coil and then tightly wrap it with a few thicknesses of the same tape that I use to protect my cracking fingertips. Then I saw through coil and tape, while the rings are held in place, don't wiggle and catch at the sawblade, and don't fall into my lap and get lost as they are cut off. Then I just lay open the cut cocoon of tape, and voila! about three dozen shiny neat rings.

I'll get some pictures of this process tomorrow (that is, later today, since it seems to already be tomorrow, technically).

learning blogger

2005-12-21T20:11:00.000-06:00

No jewelry yet, but I just managed to decipher the HTML of the template enough to make a few changes to the proportions of the page, so that I like it better. May change again, probably, in fact. As I said in a Jewelry Artists post, onward and upward...

starting out

2005-12-20T11:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I just set up this new web journal to use in conjunction with the Winter Season of the Four Seasons of Jewelry on Creative Wire Jewelry. The Winter Season starts tomorrow, so now I have 8 days to make something, and find out how best to post pictures of it. Onward....

Here's a piece of wirework in craft-wire and gold-plated wire that I did a month or so ago, inspired by the Autumn Season posters. Now to get going on a piece every week. Learning something new every day, keeping the brain healthy.