Lend Me Your Ears

I've had an earring weekend. Long weekend here with strange weather. Sunday was beautiful weather, a warm spring day. Then yesterday was cold and today is freezing.

These earrings are grungeboard and wallpaper. It's a bit hard to tell but it's a really nice lemony lime colour.More wallpaper and GB.
Wallpaper, GB and beads.

These are my favourites even though I don't wear gold. Erin and Brighita loved them too, so they each got a pair. Very blingy and retro.
I cut all the discs out with my cuttlebug. I was bit worried about the GB being too thick for the dies but they just went through it like butter.
I have a million ideas using GB and wallpaper, and it's fantastic for earings because they are so light. So making big bold designs isn't a problem as they won't drag down your earlobe to the top of your shoulder.
Until next time.......enjoy your week and happy creating.

I've got Beads, They're Multiplying.......

.....and I'm losing control.
Last Tuesday I had a beading lesson at my new favourite beading store Galaxy Beads. It's a tiny little shop in Morley that you couldn't possibly swing a cat in (but one still manages to meow each time you walk through the door) but it's chock a block full of gorgeous beads, interesting findings, plenty of kits and lots of beautiful ready to wear jewelry.

Wendy and her daughter Sharne (hope I spelt that correctly) are the kindest, sweetest people you could possibly meet and they bend over backwards to help you with purchases, queries and all manner of things bead related.
I was having trouble finishing off my stringing so Wendy gave me lots of tips and tricks to make the process easier and give it a more professional look. Here she is showing me how to add French Bullion to the beading wire.
Some of the glorious beads on display.
Lots of Swarovski Chrystal beads.
Strands and strands of every colour on the planet.
I have my eye on these.
Here they are totaling up my purchases. Oh dear, spent a little more than I intended to.
I'd highly recommend a visit and if you can't get there, they have a great on-line store.

Prizes, pieces and Pop Art

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a prize on the HHH Enterprises blog. It's a lovely metal tag and I could choose to have some metal stamping added to it, so I chose the date that I won. Sarah asked the winners to send a photo of how we used the tag and she was kind enough to show it on their blog, so pop on over and have gander and while you're there check out their range of gorgeous beads, findings and some quirky bits and bobs. Thanks Sarah.
Now this piece was a headache. I must have pulled it apart about 6 times trying to get it sit right, but I think I've got it right now. I've had about 2 weeks of 'green' rehab and I'm not cured so you'll all have to deal with it, ok?
Green shell beads, bugle beads, silver tube thingies (don't know what they are called) and some little silver charms and black chain.


These are a bit pop art, retro and yeah baby! Grungeboard, silver wall paper, and black chipboard discs and black crackle beads that I'm a bit in love with at the moment.
Just want to give a shout out to my friend Brenda who has recently started blogging after much nagging from friends. She's incredibly talented and does some beautiful work, have a look at her flickr and be amazed. So head on over and say hi.
Also the lovely Dawno who has been featuring me on her blog round up. I was totally amazed and thrilled because I'm amongst some very talented people, the likes of Margot Potter for one. Dawno also has an Art Fire store with some lovely pieces in it too. I have my eye on several.

Just a quick one

A quick post before I dash out the door for my "Journal Junkies" get together and so you don't think I've been unproductive this week.
Glass disc that I picked up for a song during the week.
In all it's finished glory. The flat round beads are from Bali. My sister in law who doesn't have a crafty bone in her body was given the mission of buying me beads on her last holiday up there. Apparently it nearly did her head in as there are literally billions of beads to choose from. But she did pretty well considering she didn't have a clue about anything bead related.
The other beads are little glass faceted ones and some gold metal op shop beads. Gold and autumn colours aren't really my personal colours for jewelry, more a silver and green girl as you well know. But I can't keep making what I like. Gotta explore all the other colours and appeal to a wider audience.
It's got an unusual clasp which I meant to take a close up of but forgot. A filigree leaf in antique bronze that was just made for this necklace.
I've made quite a few other things too. Earrings, another necklace and have been playing around with wire, different loops. I need a wigjig, oh dear! something else to buy. Plus exploring more of my wallpaper designs. Stay tuned.

Nothing much to see here.......

......except this. Can't decide if it's the ugliest thing I've made or it's just quirky, or strange.The naked torso's are opals poured into a mold. She's got cellulite too! The black discs with the African lady are shrink plastic charms I made awhile ago.
Little silver charms that I beat the heck out of with a hammer to distress them. They were a bit too shiny and then I glued a tiny picture of a Japanese lady and covered them with glossy accents.
And just a lot of bits and bobs from my scrapbooking days. i.e ribbon charms that I also distressed and some recycled glass beads from an old pair of earings.
I bought the chain on line a few weeks ago and it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Thought it would be black as in a true black, not antique silver. Also it's quite short so I need to add more chain to it. I should name it Ethnic, what with Greek torso's, African heads and Japanese ladies, it's certainly a mixture of countries.
Can't really imagine anyone wearing it to be truthful. Unless they're a combination of Lady Ga Ga, Marilyn Manson and Grace Jones.
Feedback people, please. Be truthful, I can take it. I won't cry if you say it's ugly (well, only a little bit).

Colour Co-ordinate

She's 91 years old. Almost totally deaf (won't wear her hearing aids because they make her look old). Her eyesight is almost gone due to macular degeneration. In constant pain from osteoarthritis and has shrunk about 4 inches. She can only shuffle short distances with her walker and each day is a hurdle to overcome.But you know what? She can still colour co-ordinate. I'm constantly amazed every Saturday when I pick her up for our day out shopping and lunching how she manages to put her outfits together. And don't think because you get old you'll stop wanting to shop and spend money. Oh no! If we don't buy something each week she's a little grumpy when we get back to the nursing home.
My mum didn't start wearing slacks and trousers until she was in her late eighties. And now she even likes to don a bit costume jewelry.
See, your never too old to change.

Re-worked, Re-vamped, Re-jigged

This is the necklace from the post below. Pulled it all apart and glued the discs together. So now there's six instead of 12. Made a large central disc and dabbed several different colours of rub n buff over a metal washer (to give the whole piece a bit of weight) then covered it with glossy accents and glued it to the disc. Added some beads that I had bought eons ago and it's finished.
More wallpaper. This silver and black wallpaper is my most favourite piece. So much so that I conned Carmen into giving me hers as well. We've both got similar sample books and I put on such a good act about needing it for something special (I used it to cover a journal we were both making in class) that she felt sorry for me and couldn't say no. So the few small pieces I have left are precious......and no Carmen, you're not getting it back.
A mixture of purchased and op shop beads.
I could just cry when I look at these. Decided to have a go at making my own earing wires. So very carefully followed the instructions in one of the books I have and was so pleased with the result. Almost perfect and pretty easy and wow, I'm going to make heaps of these. So after blowing my own trumpet and tooting my own horn and patting myself on the back for making such perfect ear wires I thought I'd better try them on. What......why aren't they going in my ears, what's wrong. Oh for goodness sake, the wire is too thick. Sometimes I'm so silly I scare myself.
So it's back to the drawing board again. I tell ya, my drawing board is awfully full with mess-ups, mistakes and a mish-mash of projects.

Successes and failures

Here's a few things that I've been playing with the last few days. The bracelet below was on op shop find. Bone (I hope it's not ivory....eeek!) rectangle shapes that were strung on hat elastic. I took it apart and cleaned it then stamped a design on the rectangles and added some black beads, they look like swiss cheese and re-threaded it with beading elastic.
Now this one below looks great I think. It's grungeboard discs that I covered with wallpaper. I was lucky enough to have a punch the exact size of the discs which saved a lot of time. Thought I was being smart by just covering the front with wallpaper and painting the back with black then adding eylets and attaching them to the chain. But because the grungeboard is so light the discs twist around with the slightest movement, so it's back to the drawing board. I think I'll glue two discs together so they are the same on the front and the back, but that will reduce the number from 12 to six, so I'll add some other baubley bits and bobs to fill it up.

I know, I know......I said no more green for awhile. But in my defence I had painted and stamped these grungeboard discs prior to my 'ease up on the green' post from a few days ago. Painted them with Golden's Green Gold fluid acrylic and stamped with black and white ink. I love this one, especially the chain.
The silver snail things are Opals, a mixture of Zeehan (silver) and Black.
The other silver circles are from an op shop find necklace.
Once more the green beads on this ring were purchased before my green post. These were fairly quick and simple to do. It's a kit I bought from Wishware beads consisting of the fillagree ring blanks, beads and some wire and it's just a matter of weaving in and out of the ring and threading on beads as you go.
The ring with the read beads is my own design. That one came with a decorated scrabble tile that was supposed to be glued on, but I decided to change it and use some of my own beads instead.
Those wrinkly hands up there are mine. Gosh.....hands really give away your age don't they. Oh well, like the rest of my wrinkles I earned every one.

It's Too Easy Being Green.

I've had a very long love affair with the colour green. A lot of my clothes and many of the decorative items around my house are green, in fact there's quite a bit of green in this house when I stop and look around. My mother was the same. I remember when we were young and on the rare occasions when mum bought something for the house my 5 sisters (yes 5!) and I would all groan and say "Not green again". We had a green dinner set and kitchen chairs as were the sofa and chairs in our lounge.

So what's this got to with anything? Well you might ask! I've decided that Green and I are going to have a trial separation. No Green, we're not breaking up, we're just going to put some distance between us for awhile.
You need to let me go out and explore the colours of the world. I need to try colours with names like Vermillion, Tangerine and Azure. You have to admit Green, they sound a lot more romantic than Sage and Olive. Red, the colour of passion and anger, Orange the colour of the sky at sunset, Ochre the colour of the Australian desert, Aquamarine the colour of Chris Isaak's eyes. And then there's green, the colour of bile. See what I mean Green?

Now don't get all sulky and sooky on me Green. You know green with envy isn't a very attractive colour on you and it's not forever, you know I'll come back, I always do. I just need to connect with my inner colour chart and live life on the edge for awhile. Aubergine and Magenta are calling me.
Two pairs of earings I made last night.
Totally unrelated but I was shopping for a Fathers Day present yesterday and was completely stunned to see David Jones department store putting up their Christmas decorations already. Can you believe it? The world has gone mad!