The Last of My Black and Silver Rut (I think)

I'm having so much trouble with blogger. It's so temperamental for me at the moment and I keep having the same problem on and off, the bold and underline icons become highlighted as soon as I start typing and then all the text is blue and underlined, plus there's a weird black line on the left side flashing on and off. Trying to get someone from blogger to help is nigh on impossible. Anyway that's a problem for me to try and solve, nothing you'd be terribly interested in unless you've experienced the same problem, if that's case email with a solution and I'll be forever in your debt and you can have my first born or a piece of jewelry.....take your pick. Just quietly I'd go for the jewelry.....even though first born is a sparky and can be quite useful around the house for installing electrical plugs and such like, he's got a large appetite, so be warned.

So this piece below was quite a challenge. Lots of cutting, glueing, setting eyelets, embossing and smudging, making figure 8 connectors, making sure it sits right, adjusting the chain quite a few times until I was happy. And happy I am.

Silver wallpaper and grungeboard.

Just a close up. And now one of my photos has disappeared. Ok it's up the top of the post now Grrrrr!
Hot water is back on, so now we can shower and use the dishwasher. It was a toss up which was worse, not having a shower or not being able to use the dishwasher. I'd forgotten what an odious task hand washing dishes is, almost up there with cooking!

Black and Silver

A very hard necklace to photograph so please forgive the awful quality of these pix. I whipped this up on Tuesday lickety split and before I could say good grief, it was done. I lie.....don't believe a word I say.....it's taken me a few days to put this together. I kept changing things around, different chain, tried different ways to highlight the focal added this, took off that, played around for ages until I was happy with it. Such a simple looking necklace too, who would have thought it would take me so long.

The chain is very long, about waist length, so it can be worn a couple of different ways if desired.
The focal is wallpaper and grungeboard (what else?) with a silver metal filigree whatsit attached with some beads and crystals.
I'll see if Brighita likes it, if so she can have it as a welcome home present. Only 1 more week until she arrives home from three and half months working in New Zealand. Can't wait...I've missed my bratski.....I need her back to balance out the male to female ratio in the house and I know she's just dying to have some of my home cooked meals (my tongue is firmly in my cheek).
Speaking of cooking, my cupcakes were a hit last week but I won't bore you with photos of them. Your welcome. Now I have to try and think of something to cook for dinner tonight. Ugh!!!

Black, Cream and Grey

Remember this from my last post? (I've got old lady hands..now that's depressing).Here's a close-up of the beads after I stamped them.
Another close-up. The large speckled beads were once on another necklace.
Wallpaper and grungeboard discs. The middle one looks as though there is a Japanese lady peeking out from behind a tree. Total serendipity.
Here's the whole necklace. I was unsure if it was a bit too busy, but after getting a couple of opinions from females from either end of the age spectrum, one a young, funky, hip and happening kind of girl and the other an age appropriate hip and happening kind of lady they both assured me it wasn't too busy and both would wear it in a heart beat. So I was pleasantly re-assured.
I have a few of the stamped beads left so I might make something entirely different with them.

Earrings, A Necklace and ANZAC Day

More earrings I've made with silver tape and grungepaper, embossing and smudging. I thought this photo would turn out a little better than it is. The background is a mocha coloured lacey material, not grey as it appears here. I take my photos under a skylight in the kitchen and usually they turn out ok and fairly true to colour. Maybe it's the autumn sun not being as powerful as the summer sun. These are covered with wallpaper and embossed.
The same with these......I rather like these.
Some beautiful paper a friend gave to me cover these discs.
I've covered the front and the back.
And I figured if I join the discs with figure 8 connectors they sit much better than just using jump rings......go figure!
Now on to matters of a more serious nature. Today is ANZAC day. We commemorate the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli in 1915. The first World War. All over the country dawn services take place and parades with former and currently serving members of the armed forces march and we remember and revere those who lost their lives in WW I, WW II, Vietnam and battles that are still raging in the Middle East.
My sister Annette has written a very moving post about our Uncle, whom we never met , losing his life in New Guinea during WW II.
So today we remember, reflect, and hope and pray that one day the whole world will be at peace.

Easter Jewels

Easter Sunday, happy Easter all. Lovely cool day here in sunny Perth at long last. I was just about at the end of my tether (what is a tether anyway and have I spelled it correctly) with the heat.
So the cooler weather has inspired me and I've made stuff.
This one, copper chain, ceramic beads and shell discs that I stamped with black stazon.A little bit of wire work.
And some copper and sparkly charms.
Vintage glass beads that I picked up from a trash and treasure stall at the senior citz next to the nursing home my mum lives in. Web jasper beads and pink jasper large discs. The focal is brushed silver metal, I picked it up in a small antique store in a place called New Norfolk when we were in Tasmania over Christmas.
Gun metal grey oval chain.

I'm loving this one. Grungeboard covered with silver wallpaper and embossed and smudged with black rub n buff.
I might do a series of this style and use some of my artwork on the grungeboard. I like the design and the off centre large disc. Shame it doesn't photograph better because it's much brighter in real life. The silver wallpaper is really shiny and they actually look like real metal that has been textured with a hammer.
So I'm going to wear it today as we are not only celebrating Easter but also my mother in law's birthday. Dinner at the Burswood, I've got a new outfit to wear, new jewelry and lots of dark chocolate to eat, so all is right with the world.

Giveaway Reminder and New Earrings

Just a reminder about my giveaway, still a few days left to post a comment.

Some new earring designs which I'm really loving. Grungeboard painted with a metallic blue, embossed and highlighted with a white metallic wax and copper findings. The beads on the end are copper with a black speckle, they don't show up very well in the photo. Possibly because my shadow was in the way.I'm keeping these. Grungeboard painted with metallic champange, embossed and highlighted with brown stazon ink. Little bicone pearls with a very slight pink tinge to them.
These are the mother of all earrings. Fun, funky, bold and dramatic. Grungeboard painted metallic black, embossed and highlighted with silver rub n buff.
I'm going to make another pair with a slightly narrower and shorter strip and try some different colour combos.
I've just been to the doctor for a blood test. One of those glucose tests where you have to drink really sweet fizzy stuff and then wait at the lab for 2 Hours and have more blood taken. I new I had to wait but I thought I could wander off to the shops and browse around and look at stuff and kill a bit of time. But no....I had to sit there for the whole 2 hours twiddling my thumbs. But after she took the last test she said I had to go home and not do anything all day......really? so I can't do laundry or vacuum or dust or do the grocery shopping, or wash the car. Noooooo! she said. Well, I'll just have to sit at my desk and play all day. Yes! she said. Whoohoo I said.

Tooting My Own Horn

Months ago I sent a photo of one of my wallpaper necklaces to Australian Beading magazine. Each edition they have a readers gallery and the opportunity to win $100.00 worth of beads from beadsonline. Well I didn't win but my piece was published. This was one of the first pieces I made when I was experimenting with wallpaper and grunge board.
I was pretty excited when I saw it. A definite confidence booster I have to say.

The Drawing Board Calls Once More

Remember my prototype? Well here is the finished piece.
Looks quite lovely doesn't it?....well that's where you'd be wrong. Now if you, like Marnie the manniquin are flat chested and don't breathe it's perfect. But if you feel the need to inhale and exhale and you have bustline any bigger that 32 AA then this isn't for you.
Because the slightest movement and all the discs sort of fall into each other and become concave (a bit like Marnies chest really). So all that cutting of grungeboard and glueing of wall paper and opening and closing jump rings and adding chain and a pretty clasp was all for nothing. Sigh!!!!!
But this wasn't. I love this even though DH said it looked like a dog choker. This from someone who when told a guy told our daughter her hair smelled like a meadow asked, "a meadow, is that like a swamp?" no dear, a meadow is a field of sweet smelling wildflowers. Shrek lives in a swamp.

Another little experiment, black rubber tubing, jade coloured strips of frayed silk ribbon, wire wrapped together and silver beads threaded on.
Look......I even made my own clasp.
So glad I made these after the gold disc disaster. Boosted my confidence some what.

The Long and Short of it.

I've photographed these earrings about 10 times trying to get the colour right. Not much luck. So you'll have to use your imagination.Silver background wallpaper with fine almost bronze coloured stripes and what looks like Asian writing. Grungeboard discs in small, medium and large. Glued the WP to both sides of the GB discs and then set eyelets in them. Connected them together with black square jump rings that I made myself.
The dangle on the bottom is a black faceted disco ball that I had no intentions of adding. Last night in bed while I was working out the design in my head I told myself to remember not to punch two holes in that largest disc. What was the very first thing I did after all the glue had dried? You guessed it, I punched two holes.
These earrings are long, very long but according to my daughter they're just right. I might try and talk her into modeling them for me so I can take another 10 photos.

I'm Keeping It

Just a few pieces I've been working on the last few days. Grungeboard and wallpaper necklace. The focal is just GB that I painted black, embossed with the cuttlebug and then smudged silver rub n buff and attached to a black chain.I really like this one and think I'll keep it.
A close up of the texture.
Three bracelets I made with beads and threading elastic all in shades of black, grey and silver.


I' d actually tried to make a three strand bracelet. What a disaster! So it was pulled apart and made into these. Ya win some and ya lose some.

Earring Experiments

These are an experiment. I bought some grunge paper the other day and wanted to try a few things with it. Because it's a bit thinner than the GB I thought I might be able to eliminate a couple of steps with my wall paper shapes. Normally I cut out the GB shapes then the wall paper shapes and then glue front and back. A bit time consuming, so I wondered if using the GP I could glue the WP onto the front and back of a long strip of GP , wait for it to dry then cut out the shapes with my cuttlebug. It's not bad but the shapes can't be too intricate otherwise the cuttlebug just won't cut all the way through.I don't know where the pink tinge came from because it's silver with a black stripe.
These are another pair of metal Christmas deccies. They were originally gold so I've painted them with black metallic paint and then smudged with silver rub n buff.
Now these are a new thing. My BFF Carmen very kindly let me go through her wall paper sample books. We've both got about 5 books that are the same, but she has a fantastic book with the most gorgeous embossed wall paper. They are all white and the idea is you apply them to your walls then paint them with your chosen colours. So here I've just left them white and smudged over a black stazon stamp pad to pick up all the raised areas. Added some black bugle beads to give them some weight and Roberts your uncle.
I really like them. I think Carmen better count her wall paper books each time I leave her house. If the embossed one is missing..........it wasn't me, OK?