Bad Day for Enameling

Scottish Thistle necklace, Butterfly Kisses Necklace, tray of bracelets to assemble
tray of earrings to assemble, tray of Viking Knit, and part of a piece for a
challenge.

Out in the garage mom has the tables set up to work on the inventory (have to relabel them for the Frankfort show) and we have custom orders to finish and several pieces that need to be put together for the show.

This is a Sugar Skull plate that mom just finished sawing out.  She has finished filing and now she is sanding the piece.  Needless to say I am NOT enameling this today after the problems I have been having.  I SOOOOOO don't want to ruin this piece.

I only had one table set up today for the enameling session - I just had some circles to enamel for earrings, two clasps, a kokopelli pendant and pendants for the October ABS Challenge Piece.

These are pieces with transparent enamel on them ready to go into the kiln.  This is when I first started this morning.

These are pieces that are out of the kiln, have been cleaned and are about ready to be enameled on the other side.  There are three pendants that I was going to enamel next week (guardian of the wood pendant, bird pendant and a heart pendant).

First disaster

This is my first disaster of the day.  I used the wrong type of enamel on these circles (enamel for boro glass).  I thought something was wrong when I started to sprinkling the enamel on, but I just kept going.  As you can see the enamel is popping off.  Mom had to take a hammer to the circles and I have to start from scratch.

The second disaster of the day.  The larger circles I was going to use for the ABS Challenge piece.  I had enameled the front side and mom was cleaning them so I can do the other side.  All the enamel broke off.  I have no idea what is going on but I am done for the day.  I am really pissed off and it just isn't fun right now.  Mom is still filing and sanding pieces so I will try again next Saturday.  I will give myself two days to enamel so if I am having another bad day at least I have Sunday to make up for it.  UGH!!!!!  This totally ticks me off.  Just a really, really, really bad day in the studio.

I think I will head home and just veg on the couch.  I know we only have one more weekend before the show, but if it isn't fun then it isn't good to be working in the studio!

I hope you are having a better Sunday than me.  Have a great week everyone!

A Fall Song - I Heart Macro

A Fall Song - by Ellen Robena Field

Golden and red trees
Nod to the soft breeze,
As it whispers, "Winter is near;"
And the brown nuts fall
At the wind's loud call,
For this is the Fall of the year.

Good-by, sweet flowers!
Through bright Summer hours
You have filled our hearts with cheer
We shall miss you so,
And yet you must go,
For this is the Fall of the year.

Now the days grow cold,
As the year grows old,
And the meadows are brown and sere;
Brave robin redbreast
Has gone from his nest,
For this is the Fall of the year.

I do softly pray
At the close of day,
That the little children, so dear,
May as purely grow
As the fleecy snow
That follows the Fall of the year.

 

 

 

It is fall weather here now  and the leaves have fallen to the ground and the flowers are dying.  These are just some of the macro shots I got from my walk to the hort park.  I have my fingers crossed that this week will stay sunny so I can walk at lunch and take more shots before everything is gone for the winter.

 

I am linking up to I Heart Macro on Studio Waterstone.

 

Have a great Sunday everyone and enjoy the weather while you have it!

Hooters Challenge - Artisan Whimsy Site

I am entering in the Hooters Challenge on a cool new site Artisan Whimsy.  I am slowly making my way through the site; reading, uploading images, looking at other pages, etc.

I thought this month's challenge was really fun - owls.  The challenge allows you to either create a component or piece of jewelry that includes the owl.  I thought I would enter mom and myself in the component category - the owl pendant.

Owl Pendant = Owl in Flight

Definition of an owl:  night-hunting bird with hooting call: a predatory, usually nocturnal bird with a large head, large front-facing eyes, curved and feathered talons, a small hooked beak, and a distinctive hooting call. The owl is traditionally described as wise, perhaps because of its human-looking face and fixed gaze, as if it were considering something carefully.

Mom and I first made an owl pendant for the Bead Soup Blog Party back in August of 2011.  We used the pendant in one of our necklaces and we both loved how it turned out.  So, we thought we would make a pendant to sell.

How we made the pendant - we use 20 gauge copper, mom puts a pattern on the copper and then uses a jeweler saw to hand saw out each design.  Once the pendant is sawed out we file and sand the piece and then I enamel it.  I love playing with the enamels and seeing what color combinations I can come up with.  I love, love, love how this pendant turned out.  Mom and I call this piece Owl in Flight.

If you like our component, or any of the other pieces, you can vote here.   Voting begins Oct. 28th at Midnight until Oct. 30th Midnight.  You do have to be a member of the site to join, but it is free.

Thanks and happy voting!

Wednesday Happenings

Bing Images

Today mom had a procedure done in her neck - she receives a steroid shot in her neck.  She is giving twilight juice to make her sleep and they inject the shot into her neck.  Mom has to be off almost all her pills for two weeks before this shot, especially aspirin, because there is a chance the doctor messes up and mom can bleed out without him even knowing it.  Nice thought huh?????  The shots do help with mom's pain, which is good since she does not want to have surgery.  Mom goes back in two weeks for another shot.  So far it looks like the shot has helped - she said her right arm is feeling much better now.  That is good because mom said it was starting to be hard to grip a pen to write, she couldn't use the flex shaft to drill holes and I am not sure if she is going to be able to help file and sand the pieces we have done before I enamel them.  Cross your fingers these shots last a long time because I hate to saw out all those intricate designs, file and sand too :).

This is still mom's sawing area - she did finish that mask (though needs to be filed and sanded).  You can see the next pendant she plans on working on.

Here is the mask before filing and sanding. I am not sure what we are going to enamel it but I can't wait to see the finished piece!!!!

Here is a pile of cleaned beads - we have beads for two necklaces, two bracelets, and several earrings in there.  Some of those beads are experiment beads for a customer.  We are trying to match the colors of a necklace she bought but I am out of the glass I made the beads from and where I buy my glass does not have it - so experimenting with color.  I think we have some beads that might go now just need to make them up into earrings.

Here is my sawing area - all easy pieces to saw out.  I have some circles, kokopelli and a leaf bowl.  Like I said, easy pieces!!!!

The following arrived in the mail:

The beads are polymer clay pillow beads from Tropical Blonde.

I made the following from two sets of her beads back in September and they both sold at our Art on the Wabash show within the first two hours.

I hoarded her beads for over a year before I made up lampwork beads that went perfectly with her little beauties.

Well, I wanted to buy more polymer clay pillow beads but I saw her shop was empty.  Mom said try emailing Kate and see if she would be willing to sell us some more.  Well, Kate responded and said sure and that is that.  I seriously can't wait to create something with them.

I am off to work some more in the garage before I head home and do nothing.  Trying to make sure mom doesn't do anything stupid to hurt herself.  Who needs kids - I have my mother :)

Have a great Wednesday!

Grasshopper, Butterfly, Flowers Oh My

This week I walked over to the hort park during lunch to take some more pics of the flowers - before they are all gone.  It was a gorgeous day and I had a lot of fun walking around taking pictures.

This little guy appeared while I was taking pictures of a butterfly and flowers.

This was the butterfly I was trying to get a good picture of - it looks like he/she was having a rough summer.

I love these flowers - if you haven't been able to tell that over the summer.  I just love the way they photograph and I love the color of the petals!  I have one I took with a lady bug on it and that I think is my all time favorite picture!!!!

Mom and I aren't usually into oranges but I just love the colors of these flowers!  They just look so bright and festive and puts you in a good mood.

I have linked up to I Heart Macro on Studio Waterstone.  Come on over if you would like to join in the fun!

Today is back into the studio to saw, saw, saw.  Mom is almost done with that mask and I am still drilling out pilot holes on the sugar skull.  I will make some more beads before I tackle that sawing project.

Studio Saturday and Zola

This mom's sawing area - love all the pendants we have to saw out.  The upper right corner is the mask mom is working on sawing out right now.



Add caption

This is mom sawing out the hat part of the mask.  I think she wanted to saw out most of this piece today, but I think she is pushing herself too much with her neck and shoulder.  Mom does get her shot on Wednesday so hopefully that will help with the pain.

I worked on making beads today.

While I was making beads mom cleaned beads (I will try and get a better photo of the beads later).

Once I was done making beads I sawed out the the two pieces so we could have the extra copper to use for pendants.  I did saw out the perimeter of the sugar skill and I have drilled pilot holes for the saw blades.  I am still trying to convince myself that I can saw out the design.  I use to saw intricate designs for my metals class I don't know why I am so freaked out now to try and saw out a design.  Possibly because mom has done it for the last five years - yes, I know - suck it up buttercup and get it done :)

Baby Zola

On October 16th, 2011 mom and I welcomed Zola to mom's fur baby family.  You can read more about it here.  Mom could not believe it has already been a year - it feels like she has been with us forever.

Isn't that face just adorable!!!!  I tried to get a picture of her tail, but she isn't holding still.  I think her tail is twice the size she is.  Zola and Lily love each other - they are always chasing each other, especially in the mornings.  Mom says they bank of her couch and go flying into the bedrooms.  Zola also still thinks she is a kitten - she tries to curl up under mom's neck (her favorite spot when she was a baby).

Zola about five minutes ago.

I just wanted to say happy one year anniversary to the family Zola girl!!!

I Heart Macro Sunday

It is I Heart Macro Sunday over on Studio Waterstone.  If you love taking macro shots and would love to share them go over and link up with everyone else.  Or, if you want to see what people are taking macro shots of check out the site.

This week I thought I would share some macro shots I took with my Droid (I am seriously impressed with the camera on this phone - technology can be so awesome!).  I was a little early for a meeting I was heading to on campus so I stopped at my favoirte place to take pics - the hort park.

Here you go:

You can also see some of these pics on my Instagram.  Another wonderful app for the phone.  That is almost as bad as Pinterest :)

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Customer Orders and Hacked

Mom working on resizing a bracelet

Well, today started out as a good day.  I arrived over at mom's house and then we went to breakfast at our favorite restaurant.  We went home and I did some stuff on the computer and mom started straigtening out the garage.  Mom also laid out all the bracelets for custom orders and I looked for glass to make beads for a custom order for earrings.

I went through our glass and we didn't have the color I needed so we went to our favorite store - Inspired Fire.  They were out of the glass I needed so I got a color that was close.  We will see how close I was when I get the beads out of the kiln tomorrow.

This is one of six cookies sheets mom and I use to lay out our projects we are working on.  Right there is about three projects - upper left corner is a bracelet that I need to patina and then assemble, the Scottish Thistle will be a necklace once I get the beads made up - the bottom right corner is a necklace I laid out but both mom and I ended up not liking so need to rethink that one.  And then just beads, a button I want to use for a clasp and some seed beads and wire.

Here is Viking Knit that mom and I just pulled through the draw plate to reduce the diameter of the wire we want to work with.  I was experimenting with two of the chains by using several different colors.  I really like how both of the chains turned out.  Now, just need to figure out how we want to use it in our necklaces or bracelets.

Mom and I also had our business debit card hacked today.  Thank goodness mom wanted to work on the EB budget; because we purchased the glass today she wanted to update the spreadsheet.  While she was doing that she went out to our bank and noticed that someone purchased items from Bed, Bath and Beyond in New Jersey.  Mom called me in and we started calling Bed Bath and Beyond to let them know we didn't purchase anything from their store that day.  Once that was done we called our bank (which had just closed the hour prior) so we had to call the 800 number and had both of our debit cards cancelled.  We are waiting for a police office to arrive to take our statement (we called the police station asking if we should report it and they said they would send an officer out).

Mom and I are both in panic mode because that is our money from the last month of shows.  This is money we use to purchase much needed supplies and some ass hat went and used that money that isn't even theirs.  This truly pisses me off because mom and I work so hard for that money - that is the money to buy new beads, gemstones, saw blades, enamel, frit, etc.  You guys know how hard it can be and then someone just thinks that they can take what you worked hard for - that is so wrong on so many levels.  Just so that ass hat knows - Karma is a Bitch and you better hope she gets you and not me or mom (especially my mom!!!)!!!!!

Mom and I want to warn everyone to check their bank accounts more often.  Both of us went out to our own accounts to make sure everything was good.  We just wanted to warn you all!!!!!

Okay - enough of that.  I will finish this off with some photos of this tree stump that I love.

This tree stump is along the road I take to get to mom's house.  I have been telling mom all summer that I wanted to take a picture of it.  Just so you know, during the summer the leaves were green.  When I was driving home on Tuesday I finally pulled over and took pictures of the tree stump.  I just love the colors the leaves turned and the texture of the bark.  I keep telling myself there is so many wonderful and gorgeous things in life and we just have to take the time to look for it.