and then it becomes....

...a barrette

I just can't stand making something that doesn't have a function.

I love that I figured out what to do with it, but at 5am I'd rather be sleeping. It's going to have to be them or me, I can't take the noise anymore, I must sleep.

So this is what the new bracelet looks like in the end...kind of.

 I forgot to take a picture of the red and copper bracelet before I gave it to my mother, who I was making it for in the first place. I was just so excited that it worked I had to see what she thought of it right away I guess, lol. She loved it and my neice was jealous, so I made her one too, in pink, didn't think to take a picture of that one either. So, I decided to make one for myself in black, but then forgot that the spools I've been buying only have enough wire to make two bracelets. Kiara's was of course smaller than mom's, so I ran out mid bracelet, but I think I'll use it as an sample peice...'cause I certainly can't use it for anything else, lol.

But officially, it does work, lol

A wearable bracelet, smaller and and in silver instead of copper

Possibly the smallest ring ever, lol. Made with red seed beads and wrapped with 34 guage wire, it was so small it gave me a headache trying to see where to lay the wire.

The ring on the right is a size 5, the one on the left is a 7...the one in the middle I can get over the first knuckle of my right pinky finger, lol...and my knuckles are small.

I was just having a moment while I was brainstorming, but it's kinda fun to wear, and I can't feel it at all. I might have to do a few just for the hell of it.

blah...

That's what I think of this blog...specifically the title. At first I liked it, it was cutsie and quaint...but that's all it is, and that gets boring fast. Soooooo....let's try something else. But let's try it tomorrow...the neighbors are suddenly quiet and their guests, who were, naturally, parked under my bedroom window, just left. I plan not to have any night terrors tonight. Don't know what those are? You don't want to. But, if you do want to; imagine waking up inside a nightmare, but not really, you know you're awake, but you can't move, you can't speak...or rather scream because that's your first impulse...and your heart feels like it might burst with the next beat. Sometimes it's auditory, a birdsong turns into the scream of a lost child. Sometimes a heavy blanket feels like a stranger sitting on the bed. Or the sheet falling away feels quite like an animal scurrying across your arm and torso. Sometimes traffic lights from the nearby highway make a five year old's mind believe she's gone blind...the rest of the family remembers that night fondly.

Sweet dreams.

Exciting new idea

I'm going to combine the crocheted wire with the wrapped rings to solve my problem with clasps. I've been looking everywhere for a clasp that connects to a piece that will accommodate more than a 2 or 3mm open ring. Traditionally, all clasps have one or more small rings attached at the non-clasp end that attaches to the principle object to you want to connect, i.e. bracelet or necklace. This does not work well with my crocheted jewelry. I've had to search out two and three ring clasps and attach with jump rings which then still doesn't keep it from curling. I should probably thank my @%#$%^ neighbors for keeping me up till 6:30am on Wednesday...more on that later...because if I hadn't been up blasting my dinky battery operated radio to counter their thumping stereo, I doubtless would have thought of this in daylight hours, possibly while working and forgotten it when finally home. Anyway, so far I've made the rings, in copper wire, one plain ring and one with stones, the second I'll bend to form a hook that will also serve as the 'color' on the piece. I'll crochet a bracelet directly onto the two rings, and voila, no curling...I hope. I'll add pictures as I have them.

So far:

You'll have to imagine the ring with the red beads forming a C so that it catches the plain ring. The crochet wire will wrap around the left side of the left ring, forms a circle and wrapps around and connects to the right side (plain side) of the right ring.

Ok, as for my neighbors, I'd like to pose a question. I'm not a smoker, and while I have had a drink on occasion, I'm not much of a drinker..well, now not at all since the thyroid med can't do my liver any favors. I have never in my life smoked marijuana or anything else for that matter, not even a cigarette, nor have I ever swallowed any kind of pill I couldn't buy from the drugstore, either over the counter or by prescription from a doctor. So forgive me if I don't understand the idea of changing one's perceptions by use of burning chemicals. My question is, why the hell would you set fire to, and put in your mouth, something that smells like your six month-olds dirty diaper? Ok, so I've never had a six month old either...but that's what my appartment smells like when I come home after he's been having one of his little parties...like someone set fire to the dirty diaper bin. wtf. I'm serious, I don't understand, someone please enlighten me....I'll let you answer while I take a scented bath at 2AM. Good night.

Well that's great....

Baby brother just up and moved back to Arkansas...I say back though even for the oldest, more than half of our lives were spent here in Indiana, and all but our oldest sister was born in Florida. Our mother can't understand why, if we only spent seven years there, do we all think of it still as 'back home'. Sometimes I don't either to be honest. But he's a roofer and contractor, and jobs are getting scarce...and it gets damned cold here in winter. That said, I really hope our niece got to make him feel like a big jerk last night for packing up all his shit in the middle of the night and leaving without saying good-bye to her...though it should have been him holding her, cleaning up her face, and wiping her nose, telling his niece he'll see her again. I hope he finds work...but he's still a jerk. And he never sent me the pictures I took with his camera of our last trip to Arkansas, what a boob.

Besides family this is the only thing I miss about Arkansas

More rings

I can't seem to find my dremel battery charger, so the cabinet will have to wait. So, this is what I did today (after it got too hot to be outside, I thought it was September?!?!).

26 gauge silver colored wire and, and shells from Grandma's seashell collection

26 gauge copper wire and 3mm fire polished czech glass

26 gauge wire wraped hoops, with 4mm green crackle glass beads, on base metal earwires

What I did this week

I've been away a while and this is what I did when I wasn't doing something else, lol.

I found a use for the 26 gauge black coated wire:

Wrapped bangles

Wrapped rings

These are sterling silver, for my mother, she can't wear anything else.

I'm used to working with base metals and so I don't worry as much about mistakes, I can just make it again. I can't be so careless with silver, it's too expensive. I didn't make the posts (though I do for my own, since I can only wear silver in my ears) but I did make the links and the jump rings (which I used most of for a necklace, I made nearly 200, and let me tell you, that is tedious). I made her a bracelet/necklace/earrings set in the amethyst chips too, and then forgot to photograph them. I've not had idle hands this week...and I have the callouses to prove it.

One more thing...
Thirty-three inch chunky bracelet/anklet/necklace/belly chain

I will most positively be doing this one again, I love that it works so well for so many things and I think it'd look great as a headband too, just needs another clasp to hold it in place at the other end because it's too big for one wrap and too small to be wrapped around twice



I've been getting lots of positive feedback on my crocheted jewelry, but I think, instead of more jewelry, I'm going to finally make this project idea a reality.

I'm going to start with a miniature version...but it will still be functional. The cabinet is solid at the back, top and bottom. The corners are framed making it open on three sides, with crocheted wire attached from the inside, and lighting attached at the top to highlight the glass beads that will be crocheted into the face and sides. Hopefully I'll show you a finished piece next week. :)

Grandparents day

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. ~ Albert Einstein

Sometimes, I couldn't understand it, until she explained it to me.

If you have a Grandma, give her a hug and a kiss and tell her how much you love her.

Vina Geraldine, My grandma, the 'Grand Mama', left us Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2010. Her twin sister, Vera Movaline, Aunt Molly, passed away Labor Day, Monday, September 6, 2010.


Caring nurses, loving mothers, doting grandmothers and spoiling great grandmothers who will be missed terribly.

I miss my grandma, but I can't end on a sad note, because that wasn't how she was...

Right back atcha Grandma!!

Two new necklaces

These are both glass beads in pinks and mauves, in fact they came from the same packages of assorted beads.

Pearls

Soapstone Roses and Czech glass.

New title

Let me explain...to my mother, every child is a Punkin, so at one point or another all of her children and grandchildren are or have been "Punkin"...and every year I grow a pumpkin patch in her back garden...so in tribute to my mother, who encoraged the artist in me at a very young age, this is now The Punkin Patch.

I only ever plant one vine, but somehow it always seems to take over...

More basic Necklaces

I used glass beads for both of these, and base metal head pins to make the links.

A choker made with Czech glass beads in almost chartruse color, sort of a yellow green, with a flower hook and eye clasp.

I was surprised by how this one turned out, the beads are glass, but not well made, they were in a bargain bin and I liked the green milk glass kind of color and figured I could salvage the good ones, but then I couldn't find any colors I liked to go with it, and everything I had seemed to inhance the flaws in the shape, but alone, and by alternating the sizes, it works well.

Back to Basic

A necklace, by request. She actually wanted the Swarovski crystals I used for her mother's bridal set, but I was afraid she'd wear it too frequently. These are 5mm black diamond bicone beads, and 4mm x 3mm smoke fire polished czech glass beads. And I simply made the links with nickle plated base metal head pins.

Hope she doesn't mind, I tried it on :)

This one was inspired by a failure, I tried making my own jump rings with a black coated wire, but it turned out to be too thin, so right now I'm still thinking about what I can do with a spool of 26 gauge wire. I had been saving these jump rings because they seemed too big for anything I usually make, but as it turns out they were perfect for my original idea...

Still crocheting

A watch...I needed one, I think I'll share this one on Etsy though, I think other people would like it. I used a 1.00mm crochet hook and 34 guage wire, and twelve 2mm semi-precious gemstone beads.

A matching bracelet, same needle, same beads, but I added the beads randomly.

Another bracelet, this one was crocheted with a 1.00mm hook and 34 guage wire also, but has twelve 4mm bicone beads in light Siam, Amethyst, and light Amethyst.