Fruit & Veg & Beads.

Sunday Chas and I went for a drive up to the Midland Farmers Markets. Bought fruit and vegies and crusty bread and free range eggs. Prices aren't much cheaper than the supermarkets but it all seems to be much fresher.

So while we were wondering down the aisles, we were almost to the end and lo and behold there was a stall with and million strands of beads just begging me to wander inside and browse. Chas's eyes just glazed over, now if it had been a stall selling soccer paraphernalia..... well I'm sure he would have been as excited as I was at such a find. So I just casually mentioned what a good idea it would be if he took all our shopping bags back to the car while I looked around, thinking this would give me time to look, shop and hide most of my purchases before he got back. Wrong......he walked in just as I was handing over the credit card......damn, I wasn't quick enough. The guy running the stall was telling me that a lot of his regular female customers tell him if they come in with their husband he has to pretend he doesn't know them. And rightly so, what happens in the bead shop stays in the bead shop.

I couple of things I've made over the last few days. These were once a Christmas garland that I pulled apart. Matt gold filagree that I stippled over black alcohol ink and then smudged with silver rub n buff.Added some earring hooks and a very quick pair of earrings were created.

This next piece is nothing like the vision I had in my head. But I like it none the less. I had bought the silver chain a while ago and it's very silver and glitzy, so to tone it down a bit I've twisted two strands of matt black chain that I've added two different beads in shades of black and grey.
I'm not sure about the flower though. It's a smokey grey mother of pearl look. I think I like it. It still needs to have a clasp added to it.
Now I'm off to re-arrange stuff in my 1 metre x 1 metre square crafting area. I'm running out of room because the beads are multiplying faster than rabbits!

Stupid Stuff I Do Sometimes

Sometimes I go off and do stupid things and buy stupid stuff but don't realise it's stupid till I get home and try to use it. Case in point is the black chain below. Went to Bunnings because I've been trying, without a great deal of success I might add, to get coloured chain. I should have realised when I saw this chain on a huge roll and the sales girl using some great big chain cutter things to cut it with that it would be completely inapropriate for jewelery. Not only was it too heavy but it was impossible to cut with my normal jewelry tools. Lord...if I had a brain I'd be dangerous.
So anyway, waste not want not I thought, and tried to think of some way to use at least some of the chain (I bought black and white). Then I remembered seeing over at Creative Junkies site a gorgeous jewelry board that she had made awhile ago. Andrea tries to pretend that she's not the least bit arty, farty, crafty but I know different, she's very talented and creative.

Her's is much prettier than mine. I wanted to make it straight away but that meant going through all my scrapbook paper, measuring and cutting and glueing and waiting for things to dry and I was too impatient to wait. Then I remembered I had some 30 cm x 30 cm canvases that I had covered in wallpaper. They used to adorn my family room walls until I replaced them with my own (snicker) artwork (snicker).
Below is the chain, I only had gold coloured push pins so I quickly coloured them with black alcohol ink and pinned the chain to the board. Now I can hang earings from it.
Then I screwed small silver cup hooks across the bottom. I would have preferred black or white ones but Big W has a limited range of hardware stuff and as I said before I was too impatient to wait. Now I can hang some of my chains from them.
When I saw Andrea's post about the one she made I left a comment about being a copycat and that I would hang it next to my faded dusky pink sheets that are masquerading as curtains in my bedroom , which is exactly where it hangs now. (But your not going to see my sheets/curtains, that's for real).
So if anyone has some ideas of what to do with 2 metres of black and white chain, please let me know.
Or if anyone wants to make their own jewelry board and needs chain....... I'm ya girl!