Another Jewelry Challenge - Need Your Votes

"Elements from the Beginning of Time"


I just went out to Stringing Magazine to see if the voting has started for the Stringing Challenge: Elements of Surprise, and it has.  I went to see if our piece was part of the Challenge, and it was.  Yipppeee :)  Mom and I are number 13 (I love the number 13, and not just because I was born on that date.  I especially love Friday the 13th!). 

As you see the name of the Challenge was Elements of Surprise and the idea of the four elements just came to me.  I told mom my idea, we went online to find some image ideas and then mom came up with different designs to saw out.  I picked out the designs I liked and mom went to town on sawing for me.  The surprise portion of this necklace is that it is two necklaces in one.  I made each necklace into a rope and a person can wrap the necklace around as many times as they want at different lengths, or they can wear each necklace separately.

The Fire and Water necklace has our lampwork glass beads - the blue beads are Fishscale beads to represent the water and the red/orange/yellow beads are to represent the flames of fire.  I used accent beads of Red Creek Jasper and Sodalite.  The Fire and Water pendants were sawed out by mom and then I kiln enameled them.

The Air and Earth necklace has our lampwork glass beads - this time I used a base bead of white, copper foil was heated to the bead to give it an antique blue look and then I added SIS (Silver Ivory Stringer) to the bead to give it the look of earth and air.  For accent beads I used freshwater pearls and Czech Cathedral beads.  The Air and Earth pendants were sawed out by mom and then I kiln enameled them.

I have some photos of the Earth and Air necklace out on our Flickr site and I will add images of the Water and Fire necklace to the Flickr site now.

Here is the website for voting:  http://www.stringingmagazine.com/gallery/Element-of-Surprise/  Don't forget to vote for #13 if you are so inclined!

I am heading over there to vote now.  This is a great start to the next week for me (anything to make up for last week's migraine!).

Have a great Sunday everyone and Happy Halloween!

200th Post Giveaway Winner Is...

Today is the drawing for the winner of our Yellow/Blue copper enameled bowl.  Before we reveal the winner I thought I would show you how we went about choosing the name.

I first typed out all the names who entered the contest:

I then cut out all the names:

Folded up the names and placed them in a bowl:

Then I had one of my co-workers draw the name out:

Name of Winner:

Marcie - La Belle Joya

The winner of the 200th Post Giveaway is - Marcie of La Belle Joya.  Marcie please shoot me an email (e13e14mccord@yahoo.com) with your address information and mom and I will mail out the bowl to you as soon as possible!

Thank you everyone who participated and left wonderful comments!

Stay tuned for December because that is our 2 year blog anniversary and I have an idea for another giveaway.

Reminder - 200th Post Giveaway

Just a reminder that there is still time to participate in our 200th post giveaway.  Head on over to the post and leave a comment along with your name to be entered.

The drawing will be around 7:30am (Eastern) on Friday.  I will type up all your names, cut them out and place them in a bowl where one of my co-workers will draw the name out.  I will announce the name around 8:00am on Friday (Eastern).  I will take photographs so you can see the process of who will win the bowl!

Once again, thanks for sticking around reading about our adventures!  We will see you on Friday!

Day of the Dead

"Day of the Dead"

 I know that this holiday is not for another week, but I had to share the necklace named after "The Day of the Dead".  I am so happy with the way it turned out, though mom was swearing the whole time she was making it for me.  THANK YOU MOM!!!

I had a design idea for the necklace and I wanted to use ribbon, this is our first time using ribbon.  I wanted the ribbon to be threaded through a chain and have the sugar beads I made part of the necklace.  I didn't care how mom put the elements together, but I knew that is what I wanted in the necklace. 

Close Up of Ribbon and Beads

The small red beads are sugar beads that I bought from Bead Angels in Indianapolis.  The white and purple beads, with clear frit on them, I made, and of course the chain (gun metal), with ribbon and our wonderful skull pendant.  At first I wasn't happy with the way the colors turned out on the pendant, but now I love, love, love it!!!

Today I am wearing the necklace and then I will either post it on Etsy or wait to have it for our Frankfort show.

Work Area Last Night

Mom and I also worked on bracelets last night.  We ripped apart about 10 of our old bracelets and refurbished them.  While mom re-strung the bracelets I worked on crimping the ends of the bracelets (mom doesn't like to crimp).  So, it was a mini assembly line last night.

This is my work area and you can see some of our pendants in the background, a box filled with some of Kelley's egg beads that I want to make into a bracelet and the bracelets I am working on crimping.

Mom's nice and organized work area.  If I could only be that organized, oh well.  The middle bracelet is an idea I had and mom is trying to make it work.  She is using beads that she has been trying to steal forever but I won't let her.  I told her I would make her more beads but she keeps giving me puppy dog eyes, but I hold out!

I didn't capture a very good picture to do the beads justice.  You will just have to wait until mom is done putting the bracelet together and I get time to take better photographs.

Oh, I had to share these two pictures.  I finally got the water and fire pendants made up into a lariat necklace.  I am so happy with how the necklace turned out and I am really happy with how the beads I made went with the pendants.

"Fire and Water" necklace

Blue "Fishscale" beads and Red/Orange "Flame" beads

As accent beads I used Red Creek Jasper and Sodalite.

I still can't believe how much mom and I got done last night.  We usually are too tired to do anything on the weekdays so we get most of our work done on the weekends, but since mom wasn't feeling good this weekend I think we were making up for the lost work hours.

I hoped you enjoyed the photo show.  I hope to have more pictures posted soon.

Oh, don't forget the giveaway for our 200th post.  Head over to the post to leave a comment if you haven't already.

Only Halfway Done

Enamel Set Up

Mom still was not feeling well today, but we still worked, and we only got half of the enameling done and both of us hurt!!! Mom has bone spurs in her neck that start hurting after a lot of bending over and I have feet problems and I can't be on my feet more than a few hours at a time.  It sucks getting old!

I didn't get over to mom's until around 8:00am and I started up the kiln.  Then both mom and I started filing and sanding the pendants and bowls.  I hate, hate, hate filing and sanding; though I make mom sand because I hate ending up with black hands and the feel of your hands afterwards give me the woobies.  Yes, I use to sand and file for class, but I have mom now :)

I also was taking photos of the step by step process of making one of our pendants.  I still have three more steps to take photographs of, but mom and I will do that tomorrow night.  I will post what I have done on our Facebook site, but not on Flickr until I have all the steps completed.

Here is what the studio, aka mom's garage, looked like, the bowls and pendants before enameled, and the backside of the bowls and pendants enameled.  I will finish enameling the bowls and pendants on Saturday because we have more bowls that mom is sawing out now (ThumBOWLina bowls for the Frankfort show).

Another view of the enameling set up

Work area

Bowls to Enamel

Pendants to enamel

Earth and Air Pendants



Fire and Water



Frog



Green Leaf




Red Leaf
























All Fired Up




Dragon Fly



Fields of Grain



Lotus



















I am not to happy with the way the All Fired Up bowl turned out, but I plan on putting another layer of color on so I am hoping that helps.  The pendants and the other bowls need a layer of clear on the side that is enameled and then I can enamel the other side of the pendants and bowls.  I am also still on the fence on the way the Dragon Fly bowl looks like.  I used two new transparent blues on the wings and I used a new transparent red mixed with two transparent orange's for the outside of the bowl, not sure about it yet.  Oh well.

That is it for us tonight. 

Blow Off Saturday



Mom sawing out Flame bowl



Filing the flame bowl



Mom and I have grand plans on Saturdays, like sawing out tons of bowls and pendants, but that ended up not happening.  I don't know if it is the weather or what, but mom is not feeling well (she is snotting around).  We started off pretty good this morning, mom worked on sawing out two bowls and I worked on filing pendants and taking photographs of the process of how we make the pendants.  Then it all went to hell.

I asked mom if she wanted to take a break and she said yes.  We ended up going to Barnes and Noble because I wanted to look at blogging books to figure out how to make a widget for Lori's Cup of Bead Soup for November.  Mom and I are her feature artist in November and I wanted to get a widget made up for her.  I am more confused than ever.  I didn't find a book that explained it very well and I have tried to find sites that explain how to make a widget and do it for free.  UGH!!!  I need a freaking drink now!  So, not tech savy am I!  If anyone can recommend a site or a book I would love you forever and ever and ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That has been most of my afternoon, working on finding an explaination about widgets and tring to create a widget.  Mom is taking a nap right now and I think I am off to go home and have that drink!  I have half a bottle of Three Amigos left and I can finish that off while reading a book.  So unproductive are us - sorry all.

I do plan on enameling tomorrow.  I have six pendants and one bowl ready to be enameled.  It takes the kiln about an hour to heat up so I think I can get two more bowls filed before the enameling session starts.  I have my fingers crossed that mom is feeling better tomorrow, I need to put her to work.  There are two pendants I would love to be able to enamel tomorrow (if they are cut out) and I have glued down two bowl patterns to be cut out; a kokapelli design and a bonsai tree design.  Oh well.  Hopefully we are more productive tomorrow.  Cross your fingers for us!

Almost Full Moon Photographs

Moon Behind the House

Yesterday, as I was pulling out of my garage when I noticed a bright light off to the west.  I am thinking to myself, "What in the world is so bright over there because I know it isn't the lights from the Wal-mart or the factory".  Then I remembered the moon was almost full.  I pulled further out of the drive, and yup, there it was; The Moon.  I had to go digging through my purse looking for my camera so I could get a picture of the moon in all its glory!  Let me tell you, I think the moon knew I was trying to take a picture of it and it seemed to be setting faster than normal.  Darn moon, didn't it know I wanted to capture its beauty, what a Prima Donna!

Fountain in the retaining pond, car going by and the moon

I moved further down my road to try and get a better picture and stopped by our retaining pond and took some pictures.  The one above is of the lighted fountain, a car going by and the moon behind the house.

Moon with Clouds across it

I then left the subdivision and went to the parking lot behind Wal-mart to try and get a better photograph of the moon.  Didn't get much better then this shot.

Somewhat decent photo of the moon

Then this morning I got up a little earlier and when I left the moon was behind my tree.

You can sort of see the leaves obscuring the moon. 

So, there you go.  Shots of the moon.  I just wished I could have got a picture of the moon and the way the light was shining so bright yesterday.  It was just awesome.  I hope you had a chance to see the full moon this week.  It makes you stop and appreciate the beauty around you that is for sure.  I am going to see if mom can design a bowl around the full moon!

My Second Treasury and Weekday Studio Time

This past weekend I worked on creating my second treasury ever and it is honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  As you can tell I love lampwork and enameled, but I found a few other things that were really cool.  I love the origami words and the Goddess doll is awesome.  It was so much fun going through the pages of items that artists made in honor of this month and the fight to stop breast cancer.

This treasury is honor of all those ladies who are "Fighting Like a Girl" - in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Breast Cancer Awareness Polk... BeadasyJewelry $18.00	Breast Cancer Awareness Squa... BeadasyJewelry $18.00	HOPE - Breast Cancer Awarene... mjalexander386 $15.00	Save the TA TA'S (7) Ha... afterhours $38.00
Lampwork Glass and Pearls Pi... CreativityInCh... $20.00	Love Your Breasts Awareness ... dkjewels $15.00	Awareness Earrings...New Low... BeadedIndulgen... $10.00	Breast Cancer Awareness Brac... Andi624 $17.99
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS -TYP... magiccloset $29.99	Breast Cancer Awareness chai... yarnhoardinmam... $30.00	One-Decade Handmade Rosary -... e13e14mccord $45.00	Hand Painted Breast Cancer A... cutiepatooties... $18.00
Think Pink necklace - breast... lizajayne $24.00	Breast Cancer Awareness Worr... Kelleysbeads $25.00	Breast Cancer Awareness - Pi... Deliverance05 $12.00	Goddess Pin Doll - Rhodonite... WhimsiGals $22.90

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Mom Working Away

Last night mom worked in the garage on sawing out another bowl and I worked on watching TV shows mom DVRed for me (I know, I was real productive last night)

Dragon Fly Bowl

Mom and I are working on making more inventory for our show in November.  We want to make about six more bowls and more necklaces and bracelets.  We also have all the inventory laid out because we have to re-label it with the show's numbers and I need to re-take photographs of everything because of the hard drives dying on us.  I am also working on re-working some of our bracelets, so I have a pile of those I am working on.

Inventory Laid Out and Waiting to Be Photographed

Mom's Work Area - Cleaner Than My Area

My Work Area and Bracelets - I spread Out

Photography Area - Though I like taking Photographs Outside

So, that is our studio for this week.  Just wait until this weekend when we have all three tables set up and I have enamel spread out everywhere because it will be one big enameling party on Sunday.  I think Saturday I will work on making some beads and putting together necklaces and bracelets while mom works on sawing out more pieces.

I hope you are having a productive week also.