Fini Friday! Re-working and Musing...

Hello Hello!

Welcome to Fini Friday!

I hope this post finds you well and ready for a fabulous week-end!

As it seems to flow in the Fall of the year... I've been struck by an urge to clear out, clear up and organize!  Along this line, I took a look at some of my personal jewelry that have been traveling companions for years now and realized that we may not be suited to each other anymore! Upon further examination, I determined that some of it can be repurposed and used in creations. Some of it will be moved on to more loving homes.

I stumbled onto some very early creations (pre-Sprite Creations, even!) in the midst of this sorting, which begat some musings on how my skills, techniques and styles have changes over the years of creation. A great many of these creations will be up for adoption after I tend to any design or material improvements!  Overall, it is obvious that while much has been refined, both through better materials, skills and techniques, there was an "undomesticated" quality to my early creations that I anticipate revisiting with future creations!

Well, enough of this reflection!

Let me show you one of these early creations, all grown-up and refined!

Title: As Yet Unknown

Ingredients: Clay Manatee, hand-dyed fiber (Idaho,USA), glass, lead-free pewter.

These next creations are part of my experimenting with a recently-acquired batch of steel neckwires closed with magnetic bayonet clasps. I don't often procure pre-made neckwires such as these as I prefer to create as much as possible myself and yet it is refreshing to play with different and easily embellished materials from time to time! 

Title: Cherries!

Ingredients: Lampwork glass, acrylic, steel and metal neckwire.  

These necklace-creations are in the still-growing/idea stage.. 

It is difficult to capture the wonderfully mysterious red-wine-purple colour of the faceted crystals on the left, but I intend to play with the smokey mystery they evoke! The focal beads are Mood beads and so will change colour with varying temperatures! I'm excited to be mixing the casual, pop-culture essence of Mood beads with the faceted elegance of the cut crystals, all woven (somehow!) around these very modern and simple neckwire! 

Stay tuned to see what these grow into! 

And with that...Fini Friday is Fini! 

Have an awesome weekend! 

Ciao!

Whimsy Wednesday! BookMarks Abound!

Hello Everyone! 

Welcome to Whimsy Wednesday! 

My week, so far, has been productive so far and I hope the same can be said of yours! 

I've been playing with some of the loot I brought home at the end of September and have some of the first finished creations to show you! 

I found the bookmark blanks and fell in love with the details stamped in raised into them! I chose one each in an antiqued brass and antiqued silver finish, which showed the stars, moon, flowers and etc. in lovely detail! 

Here is what they grew into! 

Title: Fairy Tale 

Ingredients: Vintage German Glass, Czech glass, metal

  Did you see the pun in the title? Hee! 

My vision was to combine a variety of colours and textures in this creation much like a tapestry!  The golden-yellow bead is actually Vintage German glass and always reminds me of the sun!  It seemed a fitting match to a lovely strand of flower beads and a leaf dancing in the breeze with our Ballerina Fairy in the midst!  if you look closely, you might be able to see the extraordinary chain from which these are suspended!  It is an infinity symbol and two hearts set back-to-back!  Isn't that just intriguing!?!

And now! 

For the second bookmark! 

Title: Stars and Fish 

Ingredients: Earthenwood ceramic starfish, cultured Pearl, Czech glass, metal.  

I relish the bright ocean-inspired colours!  Perfect for warding off thoughts of the upcoming winter chill!  

I was delighted to find the star-shaped cultured pearls and have had so much fun weaving them into various creations!  That's the star you see beside the Ocean Blue spiral bead at the top!  I treasure the whimsical addition of the bright green, petite fish swimming just above the ceramic StarFish!  Speaking of the StarFish.... that's a hand-fashioned porcelain bead from Earthenwood Studios! I adore Melanie's work and have so much fun playing with her creations as materials! 
Whee!

Well there we have it!
The end of another Whimsy Wednesday!
I'll see you right back here for Fini Friday!

Ciao!

Fini Friday! Changes and New Ideas!

Hello Hello!

Welcome to Fini Friday!!

I hope this is an excellent end of the work week for (many of) you and the start of your weekend!!

The sorting, organizing and reorganizing continues around my studio and my life! I'm actively seeking to finish, lay to rest or stage to donate things that no longer serve me. I'm finding that I can only do so much of it in one stretch of time and then need to revisit it later. Good to know!That's part of the change referenced in the title.. but wait, there's more!!

While doing all of that, I came upon these creations, still growing...two of which have been languishing for a while and one that is newer!

I'll show you the two older ideas first...

Working Title: Ocean at Sunset

 

Working Title: Ocean at Midnight

 

You can see that both of these have a fabulous hand-made sea-shell focal of Lampworked Borosilicate Glass (from Unicorne Beads)! I've matched them both with hand-dyed silk ribbons, and included Swarovski Crystal yarn and a sparkly copper-coloured ribbon with the "Sunset" design and am playing with various types, textures and shapes of blue beads for the "Midnight" idea.

More changes are afoot and I wanted to draw your attention to another that I am proud of!  As many of you know, I have an Internet Studio (Store) on Etsy.  This is an Internet Marketplace of Hand-crafted Goodies!  They've introduced a new "About" feature to our studios and I've had fun playing with the Portrait and Studio Photos they've encouraged us to upload, as well as telling a bit of my "story".  Click here to take a go take a look!

And now, that last and newer idea I mentioned earlier!  

Working Title:  Book of Dreams

  

A while ago, I did a series of three necklaces, all with small books similar to this (Yes!! You *CAN* actually write in them!!!) and they grew into The Book of Love, The Book of Mysteries and The Book of Life.  The Book of Mysteries and Life have found their people and been adopted and the Book of Love is still with me!

(Not a bad thing, says I!) It seems that the time has come to finish The Book of Dreams!  Stay tuned to see what all of these grow into!

Here is a look ahead at what I'm up to in July!

My BlogTalk Radio Interview with Cheryl Patton!

Messages From the Faeries #9!
PLEASE NOTE!  Due to severe weather and other events, this has been rescheduled to NEXT Tuesday, July 24th from 3pm to 4pm (CST, USA)!  So! You have another opportunity to tune in and listen up!

And my next event is.....

July 28th and 29th
Saturday 10am to 7pm
Sunday 10am to 5pm

Bean Factory Artist Market

J and S Bean Factory

1518 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN (USA)

It would be grand to see you there!

See you on Friday!

Ciao!

Whimsy Wednesday! Ocean and Stars!

Hello Everyone!
Welcome to Whimsy Wednesday!
This week has been filled with lots of interesting activities so far and I'm really enjoying it!  I hope the same can be said for you!
I have some watery-goodness to share with you today, so let's get started!
The first creation I have to show you has been languishing for a while... waiting for the proper time to finish it, I suppose!  Most of it was assembled, but I think it was waiting for the final ingredient of whimsy!  Here it is!
Title:  A Mermaid at Play
Ingredients:  Czech glass, Popcap pendant (non-toxic, hand-coloured resin, popcap, Czech glass, aluminum), metal, lead-free pewter. 
I love the mermaid clasp and the Popcap pendant (created by yours truly, of course) and these are really what this creation was built around...but the final touch of whimsy was to hang the side-drilled fish bead so that it looks as if it's about to swim through the "hoop" that the pendant is suspended from!  Isn't that adorable?! 

The second bit of whimsy for today is this bit of ribbon or trim that you see to the left!  I found this while I was out and about at Johnstock this past weekend and just love the cheerful and unusual style of it!  I've never seen anything that combines stars, hearts and snails with the ocean and I love that the stars are smiling!  I'm not yet certain what I'll use this for, but I that is often how these things go!  I'll collect materials for a bit and then they all come together in a beautiful creation!

So I'll leave you now with a little reminder of what I'm up to next week and I'll see you on Friday!

BlogTalk Radio Interview with Cheryl Patton of 1Woman's Wisdom! Faerie Message #8 Tuesday, June 19th 3-4pm (CST, USA)
Ciao!
 

Fini Friday! Sea Scarf!

Hello Everyone!
Welcome to Fini Friday!
I hope your week has been grand! Once again, I'm pleased that the Fusion Beads March Blog Challenge has coincided with my Fini Friday theme! Today's Blog Challenge idea is to embellish something and I'd picked up three scarves a while back with an eye towards attaching beads to them in some fashion. I took this opportunity to finish one of them!
Here is the scarf unembellished!

And here she is, The Sea Scarf!
Ingredients: Czech glass, shell, thread, Fray-Check, rayon, metallic thread.
and a little closer view...

The last 12 inches or so of each end of the scarf have excellent quality Czech glass and natural shell beads lovingly sewn in between the wonderfully soft rayon fibers. There are a few metallic threads woven in here and there for a bit of flash and shine! Fish, shells and ocean-coloured bits peek out from what is reminiscent of fishing netting! These embellishments truly glow in the light!
This creation are available for adoption in my Etsy shoppe now!
So there you have it!!
I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!
Ciao!

Whimsy Wednesday & Fini Friday! An Ocean of Possibilites!

Hello Hello!
Welcome to Whimsy Wednesday and Fini Friday, all in one! I'll be out and about and away from the computer starting tomorrow through this weekend so this post will serve double-duty!
I'll be showing you the loot I picked up on Walkabout this last weekend for the Whimsy Wednesday portion of the post. I found lots of nifty stuff, including tie tacks, keys Swarovski crystals, cookie cutters and more!

Did you see that camera tie tack? Isn't that awesome??!!! And aren't those keys pretty? I intend to paint resin on the tie tacks and perhaps also the keys... though that remains to be seen! The owl and crescent moon cookie cutters will be used to make pendants out of polymer clay and the Swarovski crystals? Well! You'll just have to wait and see! Soooo many possibilities!!! Wheeee!!

And for Fini Friday, I've a finished creation to show you!
Last Fini Friday, I showed you two creations that were in the growing stages and I'm happy to announce that one has grown into completion!
Title: An Ocean of Glassy Calm
Ingredients: hand-crafted Popcap Pendant (hand-coloured and hand-poured non-toxic jeweler's grade resin, sea glass (hand-picked by me from Monterey Bay, CA), recycled popcap), recycled chain, recycled glass, Bali silver, permanently-coated copper wire, anodized aluminum, pewter.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out! It is all ocean inspired... toggle clasp that reminds me of the rope used to secure a ship to the star-shaped Bali spacers on the recycled glass (legend has it sailors would often set their course by the North Star) to the sea glass shards submerged in sea-coloured resin!
And!!! It is now listed in my Etsy shoppe!!
So there you have it mateys! A post to satisfy the treasure-hunter and sailor alike!
Have a fantabulous weekend and I'll see you on Monday!
Ciao!