Production, Production, Production

Saturday Events:

Purchase of glass, to make beads - $67
Time spent making beads - several hours
Look on mom's face when I said I was going to tell the blog world she disliked my beads - PRICELESS!!!

I seriously wish I had my camera in hand when I told her that.  The look on her face was worth a truckload of words :)

Yesterday I worked on making beads for a project.  There are only four beads out of about 30 beads that I kept.  And yes, it was a consensus between mom and I that we didn't like the beads that I made yesterday.  Those beads went into the seconds!!!!

Sunday events:
Enamel, enamel, enamel; saw, saw, saw; make beads, make beads and make beads.

Right now mom and I are in major production mode.  We have a one day show on September 18th, a two-day show on September 24th and 25th, a two-day show on October 8th and 9th and a three-day show in November.  I think we are in panic mood because we usually sell really well at the first two shows and the October show is a new show for us, so we aren't sure how we will do there.  So, production, production, production!!!

Enough with the words, let me share some photos!

Enamel Set Up



Pieces waiting to be enameled




Mom making new bowls




Mom's foot while cleaning beads

 Here are the pendants I got enameled.  I am still working on taking photographs and I do plan on posting the pendants on Etsy tomorrow (at least that is the plan).

Day of the Dead Skull



Finch




Guardian of the Wood



Blue Lotus

Orange on the inside and Yellow on the outside moon

Parasol



Rose




Yellow on the inside and orange on the outside moon

 Mom and I also want to thank everyone for the wonderful comments you have sent us.  They really helped and made mom laugh several times.  Mom is doing really well and it is hard to keep her sitting down when she is suppose to.  She is worse than a two year old sometimes!!!  Mom should be going back to work on Tuesday.  As you saw, she was working away in the studio today, though right now she is crashed on the couch. 

I think I gave her the stomach bug that I have had all week.  The one good thing about this stomach bug is that I have lost three pounds, though not the way I want to do it.  I am still not eating a lot, and I thought I was starting to feel better yesterday, but it hit mom and I about the same time and we weren't too happy about it.  But, we persevered and worked and got a lot accomplished; at least I think we did.

I am about done here.  I am heading home to work out and then crash on the couch.  Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Antsy Tuesday

Bing Clip Art Images


This is how I felt most of today.  Mom had outpatient surgery on her right foot for a "Cyst" and a bone spur.  This is her third operation on one of her feet by the same doctor, who does an amazing job, but I am still in panic mode anytime she goes into surgery.  I know she will be fine, but I don't like that I don't have my dirty little paws on her to make sure she is alright.  I trust this doctor, but hey, it is my mommy!!!!

Mom tries to make it fun each time she goes in for an operation on her feet.  She draws on the foot that will be operated on.  This time she drew a zipper.

She had me write "Unzip Here".

She highlighted it in pink.  Mom said that our doctor and his staff got a kick out of the drawing.  Mom also drew the zipper exactly where they made the incision.

Right now mom is back in bed after getting up for five minutes.  She isn't feeling to good but she should be able to take some pain meds here shortly.  I did get a wonderful shot of her as they wheeled her in from surgery but I think she may kill me if I posted that picture, and I do want to live!!!

Image from Bing Clip Art

I will leave it for now because this is what is waiting for me at home, something to help me relax.  Have a great night and I will keep you all posted!

August ABS Piece and Erin's Bead Soup Goodies

Summer Wheelin'

This month's challenge piece is called Illustration for American Cresent Cycles, 1899 by
Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell.

The minute the painting was posted I forwarded it on to mom.  Mom then forwarded me some ideas for the pendant and I sent her back the idea I liked and we actually agreed on the pendant first time around.  Usually we go back and forth but this time it was an easy sell for both of us.

Mom then sawed out the pendant from 20 gauge copper sheet, and you can see the process here.  I then used powdered enamels and enameled the pendant in a kiln.  The colors I used were transparent (wax/flax/soft) yellow, white and black for the dress, transparent (chestnut/otter) brown for the hair and transparent (elan/oil) gray for the tires though the tires look brown instead of gray, oh well.

Mom did saw out lilies and I did enamel them white but when we added the lilies to the necklace I really didn't like how it looked.  I couldn't figure out how I wanted the lilies to lay in the necklace so I asked mom to take them out.  I guess we will have to use the lilies in something else.

The necklace is accented with our lampwork glass beads.  I used a base of white and praline frit on top of the white and Tiger Eye Czech beads. 

The pendant is attached to the necklace with copper chain because when we first put the necklace together mom accidentally cracked the pendant from the way it was falling.  I fixed the pendant and mom came up with the idea of using chain instead.  Once of the glass beads I made was one of my "Dew Drop" beads and both mom and I wanted to incorporate it into the necklace.  We were first thinking of having the bead fall from her hand, but we didn't like that idea.  So, instead we added it to the clasp in the back of the necklace.

So, this is our August ABS challenge piece - "Summer Wheelin".  We had a lot of fun with this piece and I am really happy with the way it turned out.  Yes, I am about to wrench out my shoulder blade patting myself on the back :)

On other good news, Erin received her Bead Soup goodies and you can read about it here.  Erin wrote a fabulous post and she took some gorgeous photos of what we sent her.  So, to learn more you should really head on over and check out what she wrote.  She is going to give mom and I a huge head!

Model A to a T - Macro Sunday

Mom and I thought we would do something a little different for this week's Macro Sunday.  Instead of flowers we thought we would share some photos I took of old time cars at one of our shows from last year.  I also played with some of the settings in Picnik to give the cars a different look.

Enjoy!

Model A

Model A - Pencil Sketch

 

Model A - HDRish



Not Sure Type of Car - Horn and Headlight

Horn and Headlight - Pencil Sketch

Horn and Headlight - HDRish

I hope you enjoyed something different from us.  I am now off to do some sawing and torching.  I think mom is pulling weeds and then she will be working on our ABS challenge piece for this month.  I would like her to finish it up so I can take pictures of it and get it posted.

If you would like to see what other people are taking pictures of, head on over to Studio Waterstone and check out the wonderful photographs!

BTW and What I am Reading Tonight

Hey all, it is another BTW - Bead Table Wednesday.  What you see above is my container filled with copper scraps, copper wire I am working on (which is almost done) and a new copper wire spool.  I asked mom to start me a new Viking Knit (something I refuse to learn to do - don't ask me why it is just something I have no desire to learn).

This is mom starting to make the five loops for me.

This is mom starting the first row of Viking Knit for me.  Once she has that started for me I take off and go to town.  I already finished the silver colored copper one that a customer asked for and like I said I am almost done with the other copper spool and about ready to start a new one.

I had to share these two tree pendants.  One of my friends is one of our best customers.  Instead of purchasing a pendant like this from someone she doesn't know my friend asked if we could make her a pendant like the above.  I found a YouTube video, asked mom to watch it, mom then made up these two pendants on Sunday while I was enameling.  I took the pendants over to my friend today to show her what we did and to find out what she wants for "Her" pendant.  My friend loved what mom did and all we need to do is make some tweaks and buy some silver colored color copper wire and we are in business.  I am so glad my friend loves what we make and is patient with us while we find the time and figure out how to make things.  These pendants will eventually end up in our Etsy shop for sale.

This picture doesn't do these beads justice.  It is a new frit I used that I totally forgot I bought.  It is called "Praline" and I LOVE IT!  These are the beads we will be using in this months ABS Challenge piece.

This is the layout for the ABS Challenge piece.  I still need to enamel the lilies and we will be able to put this necklace together this weekend.  I seriously can't wait to get this done because I LOVE the pendant.  I have to pat both mom and I on the back - her for her mad sawing skills and me for my enameling skills.  We make a great team - when we aren't about to kill each other.

I have to share some things that arrived in the mail today.  This is a Grassy Fields Willow Cuff Bracelet Bead from Humblebeads.  Mom and I have both already figured out how we are going to make this into a bracelet and we hope to have it made this weekend.

I was super excited to see this arrive.  Guess what I am reading tonight.  I am so happy for Barbara, the book is a work of art in of itself!  If you have never been to Barbara's blog or seen her phenomenal skills, you need to go there now - like right now!!!!  I am so looking forward to reading through this tonight! 

Barbara was also kind enough to write a note inside and it about made me cry.  She is going to give mom and I a big head and then we will never fit into any of our hats - oh wait, we don't wear hats - bring on the compliments!

So, that is our BTW for this week.  If you care to join or see what other artsits are doing, head on over to the BTW Flickr site and check them out.

Bead Soup Goodies

Okay, I promised a second post today with the goodies we received from Erin and the goodies we will be sending to Erin.  Above arrived in the mail yesterday and mom made me go get the camera before I eagerly ripped open the package

I loved the wrapped box Erin sent the goodies in and the ribbon is awesome!!!!

A wonderful note from Erin.

Packaged goodies ready for us to rip open and get started at creating!

The goodies we received unwrapped.

Us laying the pieces out for our creations.  Oh, just so you know they have already gone through several changes.  That is why mom and I love putting the components on a backing tin, we can move things around several times before we finally find a layout we like.

These are the Bead Soup Party ingridients we are sending to Erin.  You will have to wait for Erin to share when she receives them.  Mom and I are exhausted.  I have been enameling since 10am and before that we were filing and sanding and finishing up a couple of pieces.

Here are some other pendants we enameled.

The pendant for our August Art Bead Scene Challenge piece.

An owl pendant.

Ballerina slippers pendant.

A humming bird pendant.

Mom was working on making two tree pendants out of wire.  A friend of mine asked us if we could make her a tree pendant and mom went out and found a YouTube video, watched it, and made two pendants.  We will send her the pendants to see if she likes them or wants us to tweek them before we make the "real" one.

I think I am heading home and crashing on the couch.  My feet and back are killing me, so I think I deserve to sit and veg out on the couch.

I Heart Macro - A Quick Post

Today is one of my favorite days, I Heart Macro Sunday!  This is going to be a quick post because it is an enameling session today but first we need to finish filing and sanding some of the pieces.  I am also waiting for the kiln to get hot enough to use.  So, there may be another post later this evening of what we have done.  Plus we received our package from Erin yesterday and I wanted to share that will you all.

So, here we go:

Lisianthus - Cinderella Lime

Lisianthus - Cinderella Lime

Lisianthus - Cinderella Lime

Caucasian Pincushion Flower

Caucasian Pincushion Flower

Caucasian Pincushion Flower

Caucasian Pincushion Flower