Up Periscope

 

I thought I'd take a bit of a break to see what's been going on in our little Bloglandian community. I really miss visiting and catching up with all the news in your lives. Less then a week now and then it's all over!!! Boy and howdy I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to take on this mess again next year!!

The Art Walk Friday evening was a great success. We had a good showing of both foreigners and nationals. Not all the snowbirds have roosted yet, and not everyone realized the season's schedule had started. I took 8 new necklaces and 3 bracelets and added it to the pieces already in the store. Now my secret hope is that they don't all sell before the bazaar on Tuesday!! But that might be a pipe dream. When Larry stopped by the store for coffee, Helena said the pearl and amethyst necklace had already sold. YEA&OH NO!! I still get a huge rush every time something sells but there goes my very small (and growing smaller) inventory!! Soooo I guess when it's gone, it's gone and I'm done selling for the holidays.

Here is a couple of pieces I took to the art walk and hopefully will take to the bazaar.I used some more of the huge delicious amethyst, along with some nice lemony citrine. The picture really doesn't do the two colors any favors.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see the two contrasting colors really were good complements for each other. Who knew? I don't have a whole lot of experience with purple. It's not a color I care much for and I think the last thing I owned in purple was a bulky turtle neck sweater in high school. :) So in my myopic little world the only color I thought went with purple was pink. And we all know how deathly allergic I am to pink! ;)

I challenged myself to find a pleasing way to use this big amethyst focal. It's hard to see but it's shaped a bit like the letter L or a straight back chair with lumps. I really had to search around in my stashes to find something that would work. I found this little silver angel charm who just happen to be sitting. Perfect!!! Do I, have a throne with your name on it!!

With this one I used another one of the big milagros we found on our trip. I added a bit of green patina and then "dirt-dy" it up with shoe wax.

There are garnet nugget strings on the big angel and with the smaller angel milagros I used vintage yellow glass trading beads.

Instead of using a couple of rhinestone earrings at the clasp I "deconstructed" (translate tore apart) a little opal and sterling necklace. It's good to be different for a change. Nothing worse then being predictable.

This one is a nice loooong one. I used another one of the big milagros, the Madonna and child.

I used  rosary links with the aquamarine and garnet beads. I've been noticing that chain has been showing up on a lot of jewelry this year. I suppose it's because it can keep the cost of pieces down. It also can give jewelry a bit of a streamlined, uncluttered look. Well except for those necklaces that consist of 20 rows of different size links and chains. Anyway in keeping with this season's trend I incorporated some antiqued bronze chain. One thing is true, it's a lot faster to make these with far fewer wrapped links. 

Now I have a sad story to tell. For the clasp I used a cute leaf and blue rhinestone earring, as the claspee and for the clasper I used a piece of polymer clay. I made it from a mold of an antique knife handle and then did a bit of aging to get the look of an old  hair brush handle made from bone or ivory. Oh I have to tell you it looked sooooo good, I managed to get just the right color and shading. Now remember I'm a real real green newby when it comes to all things polymer. So I thought it might be good to spray a bit of clear acrylic on to protect the surface. OHHHHHH how wrong I was!!! (sooob) Little did I know that all but a couple of acrylic/varnish type agents will react with the polymer clay. The varnish,etc. will never really dry and it forever remain sticky!!! Even if you sand the finish off it still has a tendency to resurface to make the piece sticky again!  Needless to say the "brush handle" is no longer the clasper. And I have learned another one of those "sandbox rules". I think I'll stick to just a soft buffed finish from now on!!!

 I'm thinking it's about time to dive in again. When I finish the necklace I'm working on I'll have another 4 pieces to add to my little nest egg. Oye! and today is only Wednesday! I seem to have stumbled into that very elusive zone where inspiration and productivity manage to merge. Yep so far (knock on wood) the inspirations have been flowing freely. How rare is that?? Most of the time inspiration tends to disappear when you need it the most! So I think I'll just hang on tight and ride this baby out, hoping that inspiration doesn't find the exit sign before next Tuesday!!

Have an audacious art filled day no matter where in the world you are.  p;