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.

The Muse, MacGyver and Me

Yesterday I took myself off the the Craft and Collectibles show at Claremont. I have to confess I spend more time in the antiques and collectibles than the craft section these days and I bought this necklace (of course I've pulled it all apart) because I knew those cream tubular beads were the right colour to go with some wallpaper focals I've made.But they were terribly bland and blah and ordinary and when I got home I was looking at them trying to come up with an idea to jazz them up a bit. Well as luck would have it, the muse just happened to pop by for a quick visit and said.....why don't you stamp them.....brilliant idea I said....but wait a minute, how am I supposed to stamp something that's tubular.....and she just shrugged her shoulders and said....not my problem, I just give you the idea and it's up to you to bring that idea to fruition.....so I said.....but don't you do both?....and she said....nah, that's just an ugly rumour someone started......and poof! she was gone.
So I thought, how would MacGyver tackle this problem.
Well for a start he'd definitely have a piece of wire handy.
And he'd know without a shred of doubt that the wire should be threaded through the bead.
Then I guess he'd look around for a stamp the approximate width of the bead.
Ink up the stamp and very carefully roll the bead down the stamp until it was covered. Of course he'd use two hands because he would have an assistant to hold his camera.
And this is what he would end up with.
So when I've finished putting the necklace together I'll post some photos.

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.

All Things Silver

I quite like this. I made it for me to go with my new funky, edgy clothes I bought. Lots of silver and clear glass, and black beads.I crocheted two strands of beads and twisted them together and added a silver chain. There was an incident with the wire though......it snapped just as I was about to finish off the ends. Drat and double drat. But with a bit of ingenuity and a lot of cussing and cursing I managed to salvage it (I think). The beads are quite large and some of them are reasonable heavy, hence only doing two strands so I'm wondering if the 28 guage I used is a little too thin. Jana are you there? I'll soon find out when it all falls apart I guess.
It's a choker style necklace which I've decided is one of the best styles for me. Because I wear glasses for reading and have them hanging off those horrible glasses hanging things most of the time, if I wear anything longer it looks weird. Plus everything gets all tangled up.
Slightly blurry photo. I should get my tripod out and use it. I always forget I've got one until I see a photo like this.
This morning I cut out a whole lot of grungeboard discs and some beautiful paper given to me by one of the ladies I work with. So another necklace and some earrings are in the pipe line along with a few other things I'm experimenting with.
Enjoy the rest of the week.

Listed in Artfire

"Eleanor Rigby Lives" and "Forest Lichen and Moss" are now listed in Artfire.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Introducing Eleanor

My photos aren't terribly great I know and they certainly haven't done justice to Heather's beautiful ceramic pendant. It's hard to describe the colours in it, a very pale sage green with white and dark brown markings on it.

I've used blue jade faceted rondelles, olive green I don't know what....I'm terrible I buy beads and forget what they are, and mother of pearl beads all joined together with brass wire. Two brass filigree flower connectors and a little brass bird charm.

I didn't have any brass toggle and clasps so I made a beaded clasp and added a vintage button for the toggle. Wasn't too sure about the colour scheme but the more I look at it the more I love it.

Eleanor Rigby

I guess I'd better think of a name or Carmen will be on my case again about naming my pieces so being an old hippy chic Beatles fan, I'm calling it Elanor Rigby

I'd Rather Bead than Cook

I've had a heck of time trying to do this post. Blogger has gone stupid on me and instead of normal text it keeps reverting to Html. Rage inducing stuff I have to say. Just a couple of pieces I've made over the last few days.
A large, what I think is an etched metal ribbon slide for scrapbooking that I removed from the spine of one of my art journals. I took it off because I wanted to see if my cropadile would punch holes in it (which it does) so then I added a chain and clasp.Rub n buffed some metal letters and glued them on and added several charms to the
slot at the bottom.

A gorgeous Cathy Dailey clasp.......
.....which I added to this chain. Attached some beads, mother of pearl, web jasper, and faceted cloudy quartz which has one of Cathy's silver handmade bead caps that I just love.
Some goodies arrived in the mail yesterday, things from Humble Beads and Summers Studio so I've got lots of things to play with over the next few days, along with the arrival of my new oven. I worked out the other day the oven we have at the moment is almost 40 years old. It's a gas oven and two of the hobs don't work properly, the griller hasn't worked since we moved in (22 year ago) and the oven hasn't worked for the last 10 years. I've been making do with a little bench top oven that belonged to my mum, so now that will become my craft oven.
Hello polymer clay, shrink plastic and anything else crafty that can be cooked in a little oven. I'm more excited about having a dedicated craft oven than I am about the new oven because the new oven means I have to cook! Can you tell I'm not overly thrilled about the cooking thing?

This Is What Happens........

......if you use this, some sort of silver electrical tape that I rescued from my sons bedroom waste paper basket.............grungepaper is slightly thinner than grungeboard.......
....yay for Tim Holtz.....
.....die cut some shapes......
.....emboss said shapes......
....smudge some of this on them....
.....put it all together.....
......and you get this.
Worthy of my Artfire shop?
If you love gorgeous hand made pendants and would like the chance to win one head over to Tish's blog for your chance to win one. She's having a giveaway.

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.