Melissa J. Lee

I'm in love...

2012-01-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love this... (The artist is painting between layers of resin, fyi.)

(Yes, I'm still alive - I even have new work to show, if I can get my act together to photograph it. You know you've been gone too long when you log onto your blog and no longer recognize the interface.)

Hope you all are doing well and Happy New Year.

Boy Beads

2011-08-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

I had to place an order with Oriental Trading Company recently for some party supplies. As usual, I got sucked into the website and ended up buying a few more things, including these super-cute foam robot beads. Now, the Short One, whose favorite color is pink, could care less if the beads he strings are girly looking or not, but I thought he'd still get a kick out of these little boy-friendly robot designs. Best of all, they were on sale - $4.00 for a bag of 500 beads. I noticed today that the price has gone down even further - 66% off at $2.39 for 500 beads. Not a bad deal, especially if, like me, you have other things you need to pick up. I foresee a date with the above and a big bowl of colorful pony beads in our near future. Visit Oriental Trading for further information. (Please note that the designs are only printed on one side.)

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, Grand Prize Silver Medal Winner

2011-07-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've produced so few new pieces in the past couple years, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to be able to reveal, finally, one of my favorites - my bracelet entitled "Evolution". Fire Mountain Gems and Beads has just announced the winners of its 2011 Metal Clay, Metal Beads, Wirework or Chain Jewelry-Making Contest. I am so pleased to report that my bracelet has taken the Grand Prize Silver Medal in this contest.

My original concept was a substantial cuff - something that would take up a large portion of the lower arm - combined with one of my cabinet of curiosity pendants. It's a little difficult to tell in these photos but this bracelet is huge. (There is a photo of the piece being worn by a model on the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads website that gives a better idea of scale.)

As always, the chain and box were all handmade by me using silver metal clay. In this piece, I've included a beautiful fossilized urchin, polished half geode, fossilized polished trilobite, fossilized ammonite and a vintage glass taxidermist eye. The bracelet has been weighted so that the focal will sit properly on the wrist.

Thank you to Fire Mountain Gems and Beads for showcasing my work. Please visit the company's website to see the other award-winning designs from this contest (I am personally quite smitten with Rachel Justina Fleming's cufflet "Robotic Take-Over" which won the Silver Medal in the Bracelet category and Michela Verani's piece "The Dragon's Hoard" which took the Grand Prize Winner Employee's Choice Award.)

Still Alive, Still on Hiatus

2011-07-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

My in-laws were visiting, and they took the SO (and me) to the Museum of Science and Industry. Ironically, he wanted to spend most of his time there in the 727 they have as a walk through exhibit on the top floor - this is the same child we can barely get to sit still for a two hour flight... Of course, he did have some fun with this exhibit - the outlines were all generated by his bouncing around in front of a projector.

Life is good, but I'm still not making any jewelry! Hope all is well with you.

Who Does Mattel Think It Is?

2011-06-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it, I'm steaming mad. My son, about whom I often write, is 5 years old. He adores superheroes. Simply adores. For his age group, I am quite certain we have one of the biggest superhero toy collections on the planet. One of our favorites used to be Fisher-Price's Imaginext. The Short One, who plays with these toys every single day, always regretted the fact that they didn't make any girl superhero toys. So, he decided to write to the company to ask them to make some - so he could buy them, of course. Unfortunately, he wrote the letter in pencil, so it's a little hard to read (read: impossible), but I'll transcribe it below:

or, in other words:

Dear Imaginext,
I really like your toys. Please make a wonder woman figure because a different company makes
a different kind that I don't like. And can you please make an Artimus (sic) figure Green
Arrow's helper. And can you please make a Miss Martian Toy.

Sincerely,
The Short One (okay, he really wrote his name)
Age 5

This is the wonderful response that we just received, a week later:

Actually, here's the whole letter, if you have any interest in reading it.

Now, I am an intellectual property lawyer with a decade of experience, so I know exactly who wrote this letter - especially the paragraph I highlighted above - and why. What I would like to know is whose good judgment decided this rights letter would be a necessary thing to write to a child who is not yet in kindergarten (and, yes, the letter was addressed to him)? Intellectual property rights? Royalties? Licensing? He just wanted a new toy.

Dear Mattel:

We appreciate your timely response. Based on said response, it is clear that you need better legal counsel and more common sense.

The complimentary Mattel magnet with the slogan "Inspring Kids' Imaginations" enclosed in my son's original envelope that you returned to us was quite a surprise. You have certainly stimulated our creativity and imagination while we consider how best to use this gift.

Thank you so much for destroying my child's dreams. We can tell you must be the world's largest toy company simply by the level of sensitivity with which you handled this request.

Sincerely,
Melissa

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2011-04-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I've been reviewing old work recently. Here's one of the first necklaces I ever made, "Charmed Kiss", designed around one of Sarah Moran's wonderful buttons. (It ultimately appeared in the gallery section of Tammy Powley's Picture Yourself Creating Metal Clay Jewelry.)

I hope everyone had a happy holiday! Here are your links for the week:

Resin Crafts!
This week Carmi has a short tutorial on using resin as a glaze.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew takes a peek at Anne Choi's new BRONZE beads!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Rio Grande is encouraging a wonderful way of helping the people of Japan and it is SO EASY! Read about it on Jean's blog!

A Bead A Day
Do you like glitter AND jewelry making?! You are going to love this project that Lisa found over at FusionBeads.com!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
We all scream for Ice Cream! Melanie shows how she designed and made a new line of sweet pendants.

About.com Jewelry Making
What are your plans for your siver scraps now that silver is crazy expensive?

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
Cindy's made some new blush pink drops, come see what she's done with them!

Art Bead Scene
Here's a fresh idea for spring - a garden gate clasp

Carmi's Art/Life World
This weeks blog features the poppies of Paris and the jewelery it inspires.

Barbe Saint John
Barbe's giving away the latest Industrial Chic booklet and some charms!

Beading Arts
As part of the Artbead challenge, "What's Old is New Again", Cyndi has constructed a flapper-style necklace from some very cool components!

The Bead Dreamer
A lovely tree branch, soft pink flowers and wisps of silk inspired two necklace designs.

Strands of Beads
Melissa is brooding about issues of originality this week.

Shameless Self-Promo

2011-04-23T12:12:00.001-07:00

I just received my author copy of the magazine in the mail today - it was a fun trip down memory lane. The bulk of the projects I wrote for Creative Jewelry are reproduced here, as are many of my favorites by friends and colleagues (one of my absolute favorite designs by Lorelei Eurto, "The Kiss", is on page 61). It's on the stands now, so please check it out when you have the chance!

Roman Glass

2011-04-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

My local bead store, Chelsea's Beads, has just brought in a really nice shipment of Roman glass beads. (I took a look, and some of them are available on-line. In fact - hey! - I didn't even see those cute fish shaped beads when I was in the store.) It's difficult to tell from the above photo, but these beads are actually pretty big - the focal pendant is about 2" in diameter. Look under the " ~~Large Circle" section on-line for similar-sized strands.~~ Ack - since I first drafted this, they've already sold out! On the plus side, the barrel shaped beads are now 50% off, so you may want to check them out (soon!).

This photo is pretty terrible, but I really loved these two strands - the blue is a beautiful cobalt blue and the smaller beads come from broken bangles and are very colorful. For those unfamiliar with this great, family-owned store, Chelsea's Beads does have wholesale accounts - please contact them for details. (By the way, I purchased all of these beads myself, and the store does not know that I am blogging about them.)

Trumped

2011-04-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

Perfect Bronze Bead by Anne Choi.

Last year, I had this great idea to expand my "Love is a Puzzle" series of pendants - a big rebus with "Eye Love You". I have been cackling with glee over this one - I thought it was a really original, graphically appealing design. In fact, I was just getting ready to sketch it out and make it for a contest later this year, when I checked out Anne Choi's newsletter this morning and found the above bead - a design I am sure has been in her stable of beads for ages.

Damn it. I always hate it when a design I thought was very creative turns out to have already been better executed by a more talented artist. (Anne Choi is one of my heroes - who can resist her work? I mean, really?)

This is an object lesson to me to do my homework. I've had this happen once before. Several years ago, I was working on a metal clay window design. I was still in the sketching process when I came across Noel Yovovich's fabulous bracelet (you can see a photo of it on her blog, here). I got depressed and shelved the piece. Of course, many people have been playing with window design beads since then, and I have since come up with an original twist on it (knock on wood), so it is actually back on my list of things to do - but it's taken a few years in between to reconsider the design.

This one I think I'm going to have to scrap altogether, though. The originality is in the rebus itself, and I think Anne's bead is beautiful.

Has anyone else had this experience? Because, you know, misery loves company, and I am feeling seriously disappointed right now!

The Weather is Here

2011-04-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the view from my window this morning. The Short One was mighty excited (you can see his tracks in the bottom left of the photo). Me, less so! I fear our prime bunny real estate is no longer so prime...

Bead and Jewelry Linky Love

2011-04-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

"Celestial" - my fine silver Lunar Phases pendant
with gorgeous turquoise drums and onyx

Here are your intriguing links for the week:

About.com Jewelry Making
Pets and children are wonderful, but they can make jewelry making very challenging!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew debuts his new filigree bezels filled with vintage stamps coated in resin. Check them out!

Art Bead Scene
The Art Bead Scene shows off this month's challenge. Come take a look!

A Bead A Day
Are you a crafter AND a beader? Do you ever give in to mixing craft supplies into jewelry pieces? Stop by A Bead A Day to see Lisa's latest arts and crafts jewelry.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
Cindy shares one of her free projects.

Beading Arts
The final chapter of Cyndi's e-book is now available! "Fibers, Fabrics, and Beads" challenges you to integrate all the fiber arts that you already love with your bead embroidery!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie introduces a new egg themed design and wonders what the Earthenwood Design Team will hatch up in jewelry designs.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is still taking part in the April A to Z blogging challenge: "L" is for "L"isa Niven Kelly, and her "L"ovley book Jean loved and previously reviewed
http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-z-blogging-challenge-l-is-for-lisa.html

The Bead Dreamer
A vintage belt buckle takes center stage in a bold necklace designed by Charlene

Strands of Beads
Melissa is back and is wondering if anyone else has trouble using materials that are "too special" in their projects?

A Cunning Plan?

2011-04-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

So, my husband showed up at the dinner table tonight with the above photo - have you ever seen cuter bunnies nestled up together? Neither have we (I particularly enjoy the little hind leg and bottom on the right hand side of the photo). There's really only one problem with this scene:

Yes, it seems the mommy bunny that lives in our back yard took the initiative this year and set up her nest actually inside our garden box (right where the tomato and green bean seedlings are slated to be planted in a few weeks).

Each year, I watch our local rabbit wander oh-so-nonchalantly up to our garden boxes. Honestly, I can almost hear her whistling while looking in the opposite direction and gradually sidling up to the box in the most innocent manner. So, I just have this picture in my mind of her thinking, "Yes, prime real estate at last - maybe he won't even notice we're here!"

Not being the serious gardener in the family, the Short One and I are quite excited by our new neighbors. The Gardener, however, is somewhat tearing his hair out. Based on our extremely careful (ahem) internet research, though, it seems the babies should be leaving the nest in the next couple weeks, so the G. has agreed to wait until then. At which time, I'm sure he'll be seen spraying the box with fox pee (or whatever he thinks will actually keep the local wildlife away this year) - but that, as they say, is another story.

A Good Problem to Have?

2011-04-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

So, I've had this "problem" rattling around in the craft closet.

A while ago, when I was relatively new to metal clay and the Short One was more interested in reciting the alphabet than talking our ears off about Marvel superheroes, I toddled off with a 40% off coupon to purchase a packet of PMC3 from a local art supply store. When I went to check out, the nice young lady at the register asked me if I had seen the metal clay that they had marked for clearance. She took me over to the locked cabinet where they kept the clay and handed me the box, above: 10g of fine gold clay, marked down to 50% off. The price? $103.00.

Now, this seemed hideously expensive for a small lump of metal clay, but, even then, I knew it was a great price for gold, so I decided to splurge and picked it up. Because I felt like (and was) a neophyte with working with the clay, I set it aside until I felt more technically competent to deal with such a precious material.

I'm not even sure they sell this type any more - I haven't seen it around in catalogs for a while. This is the kind that actually fires to 24k. Despite the fact that it's several years old, the lump still seems perfectly malleable in its little sealed packet. I check this periodically while I debate what do to. (Of course, I could be wrong and the clay is completely unworkable now, which would make the whole issue moot. I try not to think about this possibility. A lot.)

Every few months after purchasing it, I would take the box out, think hard, and decide that my technical skills still weren't up to snuff for using it.

After I finally came off of my seven month hiatus in February and started working with the clay again, I was determined finally to get the gold clay out and use it (before it really gets too hard, and I have no choice but to turn it into paste). Then I checked the current price of precious metals and nearly fainted. 10g of PMC Gold, the 22k version currently on the market is now selling for over $600.00. Gack!

As stupid as it is, I may never get the nerve up to use this clay. Which I know would be a complete waste, but I find the whole situation paralyzing. Does anyone else have this problem, like buying particularly nice beads and then never finding a project "good enough" for them?

Eye Candy

2011-04-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

I just finished my Bead Dreams entry yesterday, as usual, running right down to the wire - but I did make the deadline. Barely. Anyway, working on any contest piece means I've been getting out my high end strands for stringing inspiration. I didn't end up using the above in the Bead Dreams piece, but it's such a stunning strand that I thought I'd post a pic on the blog. Here's some malachite I picked up last year. Isn't it gorgeous?

The more I design, the more attracted I am to the less processed stone beads - raw tourmaline, rough-sliced garnet, and this gorgeous rough cut malachite. Mm-mmm.

Grubby Muses

2011-03-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a little art project the Short One recently completed at school. I have to admit, I like it quite a bit. It reminds me of a similar project I made when I was his age (although, times being what they were, mine was an ashtray, not a coaster).

But I also really like the colors, the shapes, the spacing. In fact, I think this combination would work very well as a necklace. It's just another reminder to me that most of my inspiration comes from the grubby little muse in my house, the one who's glued too much to his Dad's iPod and enjoys conducting "experiments" (his latest involved sticking gum in his hair and, when it wouldn't come out, taking his safety scissors and cutting it all out - Sandra, the lady who cuts his hair, said that she's seen worse and that it ought to grow out after the next two cuts or so. But I digress...).

Seriously, all of my favorite designs were inspired in some way by time I spent with my son. The dragon in the keyhole pendant photographed in my header, above, came to me after we spent time reading books about dragons and dinosaurs. The maze pendant I designed for the 2010 Bead Dreams competition (there's a great photo of the piece on the Bead & Button website, here) was inspired by my son's love of puzzles.

When the SO was a baby, I used to dream of a time when we would be able to make collaborative artwork, but really, there are already little, metaphorical (sticky) fingerprints all over my pieces.

So, how about you? Who/what are your muses, grubby or otherwise?

Shameless You-Know-What

2011-03-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

It took me ages to track them down in the U.S., but I did finally manage to get copies of Issues 27 and 28 of Bead Magazine - with full coverage of the 2010 British Bead Awards. With the winners split between the two issues, I had one piece in each magazine.

The photography of the winners is really spectacular, and I enjoyed seeing all of the pieces from the various categories. Vanessa Walilka's garment (which she calls a "first scale mail armor piece"), in particular, is incredible - kind of a female-warrior-industrial-age-of-dragons jacket. If you can't find a copy of the magazine, you can see the piece on her website, here - and I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Thank you, Bead Magazine, for making my work look so good - I loved the photo of "Geology"! (You can see my much less impressive entry photo here.)

One of My Favorite Things

2011-03-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Sarah Moran sent this photo to me ages ago, but, of course, since I haven't exactly been lively on the blog, it got buried. We traded beads a while back, and here's what she did with one of my skully pendants. I can't imagine any silver bead not looking spectacular when strung with Sarah's fantastic lampwork, but I particularly love the way they all look on this heavy sterling ring. Thanks, Sarah!

Still Alive

2010-12-14T20:03:00.000-08:00

I just thought I'd drop in quickly to say that, yes, I am still here! I've received such wonderful, kind messages from friends and colleagues over the past months. Thank you all - I really appreciate it. All of my time in the real world has been spent taking care of the Short One over the past few months (who is doing very well, I hasten to say). However, as a result, I've just been too tired to keep up with the blog and really haven't created any new jewelry recently (although you should see how crammed with ideas my sketch book is these days).

Here's a piece that I created earlier in the year that I thought would be timely to share. Despite the stark color combinations, I think it has a bit of a holiday vibe going. What do you think? Pearls, rubies and lava rock, all tied neatly together with a beautiful pendant by Saki silver.

We're slowly getting ready for our annual celebration, here. This is the first year the SO has been really excited about Christmas. He insisted on handling most of the tree-trimming himself this past Sunday - which, of course, means that 80% of our ornaments are now hanging from the three bottom-most branches of our rather large evergreen.

I hope you are doing well, too. Thanks for stopping by!

Winner, British Bead Awards 2010

2010-10-31T17:36:00.001-07:00

I am so very pleased to announce that my piece, "Geology", has won First Place in the "Other Finished Bead Jewellery" category of the 2010 British Bead Awards. This piece is a personal favorite of mine, so I couldn't be happier.

I'm also quite happy, as this is actually a piece that failed to place in a different contest earlier this year (followers of my blog may recognize it).

In the past couple years, there has been a lot of interesting writing in the blogosphere about jewelry design contests and what it means for artists to put themselves out there to enter contests - and how it feels if their pieces do not make the cut. Most of this dialogue has been in connection with the Bead Dreams competition (in fact, if you are not already familiar with it, I highly recommend you visit "Didn't Make it into Bead Dreams - But Still Winners!" on Facebook which contains photos from interested contributors of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous designs I have ever seen), but I think what these artists have to say ring true for any contest or submission process.

I don't think there could possibly be a person out there who doesn't feel at least a little depressed to receive a notice of rejection, whether it be for a magazine project, book proposal, contest or what have you. An artist always has an investment in what she creates and a sense of pride (or at least she should!) - it's hard not to take it personally when someone tells you that the piece doesn't fit or isn't exactly what they're looking for. I think it's so important in these instances to remember that judging any design is subjective and that not all judges will agree on what makes a piece outstanding or even use the same criteria for what makes a piece suitable for a particular category of design.

I've done pretty well by the contests I entered in 2010, but, believe me, I've had my fair share of rejections, too, including the one for which "Geology" was originally entered. However, as I said, I really like this piece - I had and continue to have a positive feeling about it. So, when I had the opportunity to enter it in the British Bead Awards, I moved forward. And I think the award is much more meaningful to me, as a result of this history.

As if that weren't enough, I have also earned Second Place in the "Metal Clay Jewellery" category of the 2010 British Bead Awards for "Words of Love". I created this piece specifically to enter the British Bead Awards. As I mentioned earlier, the design was pretty experimental for me - one of those concepts I wasn't sure anyone but me would actually like, so I'm quite excited to have placed with this design as well.

Thank you so much to Bead Magazine and to the judges of the British Bead Awards. I'm so grateful to have been a part of the Awards this year, and - my favorite part - I can't wait to see the other finalists' designs when they're published later this winter!

Finalist, British Bead Awards 2010

2010-10-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

The winners will not be announced for a few more weeks, but I can now share the news that I am a finalist in the 2010 British Bead Awards. Here's one of my two pieces. As you can see, I've continued with my "Love is a Puzzle" series, here, this time with a word search design instead of a maze.

I called it "Words of Love", but that's actually a bit of a misnomer, as there's only really one loving word in this piece. Can you find it? I've designed mazes before (at least on paper - "The Way to My Heart" was my first attempt to translate one into silver), but this was my first attempt at putting together a word search. I wanted to ensure that there was only one solution to this puzzle, but I found it was irritatingly difficult to prevent myself from unintentionally spelling words when putting this together. I think I managed it, though. I think. (If you find any others, don't tell me - I don't want to know!)

As usual, this piece was inspired by my son's love of puzzles. As a preschooler, the Short One's spelling is still pretty shaky, but it doesn't prevent him from poring over word search puzzles and making up his own words. As for me, I just thought the display of letters had nice, graphic appeal and tried to translate that into a piece of jewelry. I made this piece specifically to enter this year's British Bead Awards. I wasn't really sure anyone else would agree with my point of view on this one, so I'm particularly pleased that "Words of Love" was juried into the finals. Winners will be announced at The Big Bead Show in England on October 30, 2010. Wish me luck!

Go here to find out more about the British Bead Awards and to see a photo of my prize-winning piece from 2009 ("Cabinet of Curiosity", pictured at the bottom of the page on the right hand side).

ps. For anyone interested, the beautiful, rough crystals I strung with the pendant are green garnet.

Psst, There's a Giveaway Going On!

2010-10-08T17:14:00.001-07:00

Andrew Thornton is giving away a set of my more seasonal (my favorite season, really) work on his blog this week. Yep, all five charms will go to one lucky winner next week. Please go here to enter!

As for me, just hang that scarlet letter "A" on me right now, for "Absentee". Absentee Blogger, Absentee Beader, Absentee Beadmaker. I can hardly believe it, but I haven't touched a single bead in over a month, either to string or make. Somebody help me snap out of it. Please!

A Rare Opportunity

2010-09-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite people in the whole world, Jean Yates, is holding a rare one-day sale. Would you like to own this beautiful bracelet (and who wouldn't)? Please visit Jean's blog for details. But hurry, as the sale ends tomorrow at midnight.

Psst - Sale Going On!

2010-08-26T19:17:00.001-07:00

In case you don't already know - Andrew Thornton is currently holding a big studio sale. I didn't act fast enough and missed out on a beautiful Jeremy Sinkus jellyfish pendant, but as of the time I write this post, this beauty - from the early days of Green Girl Studios - is still available. Please someone save me from myself and buy this before I do! Go here to check out all of the goodies.

Colors

2010-08-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

The Short One is truly on vacation this week, so we've been lounging around at home. We spent the morning dyeing paper. This project is one I remember doing when I was slightly older than the SO (although we used paper towels rather than coffee filters - I rather like the coffee filters). It was pretty satisfying (the SO loves messing with food coloring and mixing colors generally), but we did run out of space pretty quickly:

I'm sure this will be on our agenda again later this week.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend. Here are your links for the week:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
For this week's Thursday Giveaway, TWO winners will walk away with beautiful bead sets created by Gaea Ceramic Beads.

About.com Jewelry Making
Have you ever thought about expanding your jewelry business but need a little mulla to do so? Then you may want to learn more about this jewelry grant.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows the results of her experiments with Ice Resin and LEDs... Light! Science!

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
This week Cindy's Mad for Monday is about the frit.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry: not to be missed!

Carmi's Art/Life World
This week Carmi makes a floral tribute necklace with fabric flowers.

Beading Arts
Chapter three of Cyndi's e-book is available for download! "Dimensional Beading" looks at how to use textural stitches in your bead embroidery!

A Bead A Day
Do you have plenty of beads in all the right colors? Lisa is exploring the meaning of the color purple and discovers she might need to do some bead shopping!

Art Bead Scene
It's the Art Bead Scene Monthly Carnival Blog! Join us as we embark on an exploration.

Strands of Beads
Melissa unveils her new Saturn charm.

M-A's Hearts

2010-08-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Mary-Ann wanted to make, or have her talented daughter Liz make, matching Dragon Heart earrings for the two of them. We discussed it and decided I would make a slightly larger version of the charm for necklaces to make the set complete. So the larger versions are about double the size of the original charm but still significantly smaller than my original Dragon Heart pendant. I think they're pretty cute as a set!

Thanks for the inspiration, M-A! (Tell Liz she has to send me pics once she finishes your jewelry!)

Have Spaceship, Will Travel

2010-08-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

Here's another new entry in my book of charms. Images of Saturn are so beautiful and classic looking - I couldn't resist making it my third space-themed charm. (Erin Prais-Hintz has had this uncanny ability to read my mind when it comes to upcoming designs - she's done it at least three times in the past year. Each time I read one of her comments, my first response has been: "Shhhh! Don't tell anyone else - I'm not ready yet!" If you look at my earlier rocket ship charm post, you'll see she got me again. It did motivate me to finish up these charms, though. Thanks, Erin!)

Actually, this isn't the first Saturn bead I've made. This design - all of the space designs, really - date back to 2008, when I first had the idea to develop a line of space-themed beads. I did create this three dimensional Saturn back then, but, as usual, I got distracted and moved on to other projects.

I think these charms are a modest beginning in the right direction. Hopefully, I'll be continue down this road (including more of the larger, three dimensional Saturns) this year.

In the meantime, though, I'll enjoy these charms. I hope you do, too.

By the way, does anyone know the origin of the title of this post? It's a slight misquote of the title of one of my all-time favorite science fiction books from when I was a kid. I'm just wondering if there are any other fans out there!

Thanks for visiting.

Shipping Reduction

2010-08-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, when I started making the charms a couple weeks ago, I had a bit of a dilemma - keep my standard Priority Mail shipping for the charms or more over to First Class Mail? I really prefer Priority Mail - it's convenient and it's somewhat trackable. However, I was preparing to mail my winner's charm to her last night, and it just seemed like overkill to insist on boxing it up and sending it Priority. So, I'm going to try something different. For the time being, only the charms will carded and bagged, rather than boxed, and shipped via First Class in a padded envelope. We'll see how that works out.

If you are a designer or beadmaker, and are willing to share your opinion, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on how you handle shipping.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nympheas

2010-08-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

No matter how many years pass, I can never get over how beautiful the water lilies look at this time of year. Because I am a local, I tend to take the Chicago Botanic Garden a bit for granted and hardly ever remember to bring my camera with me when I visit. I took it with me for the kite festival last weekend and actually remembered to snap photos of a few of my favorites from the garden as well.

Here's a little visual inspiration for you - aren't they stunning? It makes me want to run out and create water-themed pieces.

Salad Days

2010-08-15T18:19:00.001-07:00

Here's a pic of last night's salad. Apart from carefully arranging crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sliced diagonally, with fruit and a pickle for the SO, I have absolutely no sense of mise en place - hence the extreme close-up here. Red and yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden over fresh mozzarella, drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, fresh cracked pepper and topped with fresh basil. (The basil is also from the garden, but don't look too closely at my poor excuse for chiffonade.) Simple but yummy.

The weather has been nice and warm this year where we live so our tomato plants have been going gangbusters. We have also had a nice yield of okra, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, etc., etc. Now if only we could convince the SO to eat any of it...

I actually spent last night making a few more charms. I've had a couple orders to fulfill, so I hope to fire the kiln again on Tuesday - which means I should have at least one or two new designs to show off again. I think my design development is finally slowing down, though. I'll probably be moving on to something else in the next week or two.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Here are your links for the week:

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie joins some up with some hacker friends to play with LEDs and Ice Resin

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi pulls out her buttons to make a jeweled attachment for sweaters.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy found some inspiration by way of some very cool clasps!

Beading Arts
Do you like art charms? Visit Beading Arts and sign up to win a copy of a brand new book on making them!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean continues her analysis of the jewelry designers whom she admires--wait!!!--loves! with some of her favorite seed beaders and weavers on "The Jean's List"!

Art Bead Scene
Get your inspiration on for the August Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. Think "Sunrise."

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
Cindy previews an upcoming newsletter series, Happy HalloweenMas. Sign up for her newsletter to find out what it's all about.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is always inspired by music, and shares a favorite tune by Tori Amos.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Do you have a collection of lampwork beads nobody ever sees? Embrace simple, easy designs to showcase your glass treasures! Andrew shares five quick projects to inspire you to finally wear them!

Strands of Beads
Melissa puts a new twist on her skully charm by pairing it with a new cutlass design.

Thanks for visiting.

And the Winner is...

2010-08-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

The results are in - the Short One has selected a winner. I was quite amused that on this day of all days, Friday the 13th, the SO chose

as the winner. Lucky 7 is Michelle Mach - congratulations, Michelle! Let me know which charm you would like to have and send your mailing address to me at melissa[at]melissajlee.com.

I had a great turnout for this giveaway, and I really appreciate it. As a special "thank you" to everyone who entered, I'm offering 20% off all items in my new store through Sunday, August 15th. Just enter the promotional code CHARMED when you check out to have the discount applied. (Any orders placed during this period will ship out early next week.)

Thank you again and have a great weekend!

Avast Ye Scurvy Dogs

2010-08-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

Like most of us, I'm sure, I look forward with great enthusiasm to International Talk Like a Pirate Day (which will roll around with its usual inevitability on September 19th). This year, I plan on being really prepared with jewelry to match. I thought I could turn one of my skully charms a little more pirate-y if I paired it with a little cutlass. What do you think?

And thus, here's the last charm for the week. Thanks for visiting!

Fly Me To the Moon

2010-08-11T20:02:00.001-07:00

I think I have to face facts that I'm not going to be able to keep up the pace of design that I've enjoyed for the past few weeks. I might have one more new charm to show you before the contest deadline, but that will be it. The others will have to wait until next week - at least. The Short One will be on vacation for the next several weeks (his school starts quite late), so all bets are off as to how much I'll be able to get done. Still, it's been a fun couple weeks. Thanks for joining me!

Here's a cute little rocketship. I wanted to created a charm that would complement the moon design I unveiled earlier:

I think they'd make a cute pair of earrings. What do you think? I'm working on a third space-themed charm, but I'm positive I won't be able to introduce it until next week.

There are still two days left to enter my charming charm giveaway. Go here, if you haven't already entered.

Thanks for visiting.

Bite Me

2010-08-09T20:45:00.001-07:00

It's close enough to the Witching Hour to show off my little fang charms. Have I mentioned yet how much I love this time of year?

Honestly, I can't decide if these are cool or cheesy, but I do like how they came out. They are pretty small, too:

As with the rest of the charms I've unveiled this week, these are also a part of the giveaway, should the winner like this design the best. Go here to enter.

Thanks for visiting.

Minimize Me

2010-08-09T10:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a smaller version of my Stop Traffic pendant. I was originally going to try putting colored concrete in the pendant, rather than resin, but changed my mind at the last minute. I may try it in a later batch of charms, though. I threw this particular charm on a chain this morning and wore it to morning drop-off at the SO's camp. It was a good look, although, as is typical for me, I find that I have practically no shirts with the right collar for wearing a charm necklace.

Speaking of which, I sat down the other night and tried to come up with a few jewelry designs to support the new charms. I was completely flummoxed when I discovered that, since I usually like big, chunky designs, I have virtually no beads delicate enough to string with the charms. It seems I'm going to have to go bead shopping soon. What a fate worse than death, eh?

As with my previous posts, this charm is also included as one of the giveaway charms, if it happens to be the winner's favorite! Please visit my earlier post to enter the drawing.

Thanks for visiting.

Go Fly a Kite

2010-08-09T08:35:00.001-07:00

The Chicago Botanic Garden held its annual Kite Festival this past weekend. We decided to attend with the Short One this year and ended up having a great time.

Kites are so beautiful, aren't they? To be honest, I don't have many memories flying kites when I was a child, but I've always admired their colorful designs.

I was rather partial to this dragon, but the owners had some trouble getting it up in the air.

We all thought the shark was rather cool, too.

In addition, the Chicago Fire Kite Team performed with amazing stunt kite flying. I'd never even heard of this before - it was interesting to see formation kite flying (there are videos on the Garden website here, if you're interested).

It was a fun family event. The SO had the opportunity to make his own small paper kite, and we ended up taking a larger one home with us to fly in the field near our house.

I hope you had a good weekend, too. I actually finished up four more charm designs (with yet another 3 designs in process, believe it or not), so expect pics shortly. (And, yes, I have thought about making a kite charm but am still grappling with making the tail sturdy enough for daily wear...)

In the meantime, here are your links for the week:

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean explains a bit more about "The Jean's List", an ongoing selection of her favorite jewelry designers selected from all types of jewelry!

A Bead A Day
Lisa's exloring the concept of "happy jewelry"! Stop by and share your thoughts on expressing happiness in your jewelry designs.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei visits a cool lampwork artist in Atlanta, and tries her hand at making a bead.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi whips up a one hour brooch project with left over chain.

Katie's Beading Blog
See 3 bloggers' ideas for painting metal, stringing crystals and making custom toggles using my new components.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy has spotted several celebrities who have new jewelry lines and wonders what you think about this.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Cindy learns that the fourth time can be a charm.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie's friend David Erk Nelson shares a free project from his upcoming book Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred...a stuffed Cthulhu sock toy!

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene gets creative with storing supplies.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Offered up in this week's Thursday Giveaway is a pack of Katiedid Creative Components by Katie Hacker.

Beading Arts
Metal clay is a great material to have in your jewelry-making repertoire!

Strands of Beads
Melissa is giving away one of her new fine silver charms this week. Enter now!

Thanks for visiting.

Even More Charming...

2010-08-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

I finished a few more charm designs. Here's the first - a cute little ladybug. Once again, this reflects recent interests in our household. Among other things, the Short One discovered the joys of bug collecting this summer. He started out with fireflies but got terribly excited and ended up bringing all manner of grasshoppers, beetles and crawly things-in-a-jar into the house. Here's the one I find the most innocuous (as long as they don't travel in hordes, at least - is there a term for a group of them?), a little lucky ladybug.

I wasn't so sure about this next design:

Little silver buttons always strike me as being very ladylike for some reason. Not that I have much personal experience with this, frankly. And they are quite dainty:

I wanted to develop a design to complement the skulls, so I came up with a new version of an old favorite of mine - an eye charm. As you can see, this is a human eye rather than a dragon eye. I didn't really mean it to be a charm against the evil eye, but I guess, inevitably, it probably looks like one:

It's a bit big compared to the skull (almost twice the size, really), but I think might work well in a grouping, maybe with one of the mini dragon hearts.

Finally, I just kind of cut this charm off the cuff the night I was working on the others:

Yep, a classic cobweb. I used a few large round cobweb pendants last year for Halloween-themed designs. I think setting the design in the rectangular tag-shaped charm, gives it a nice effect. This, too, is larger than the other charms,

but still pretty understated and small for me. I only made one of these, but I liked the way this one turned out, so I'll probably make a few more, especially given that we're heading into my favorite time of year again. (I had serious negotiations with the SO yesterday about Halloween costumes. Robin - of Batman and Robin - seems to be the frontrunner at the moment.)

Anyway, I'm currently tinkering with two more designs, and a couple more on the sketch pad, so there will probably be a few more things to show before I turn my attention back to boxes and bigger pieces. Don't forget, my Charming Charm Giveaway is running until Friday the 13th - so be sure to enter by posting a comment here. These designs are included in the giveaway, should the winner prefer one of these designs to the others I posted earlier this week. (And they are also available in the shop, for any interested parties.)

Thanks for visiting!

A Charming Giveaway

2010-08-03T11:37:00.001-07:00

As sad as it is to confess, my sense of style - where jewelry is concerned - sort of got stuck in the 80s. I like big pieces. Big earrings (back in the day, if they weren't at least 2" long, they weren't really earrings), big pendants, big statement jewelry. Big. Not small.

So, when I decided to make a Man in the Moon pendant (the Short One is very into the Man in the Moon these days), I planned on making a relief version similar in shape and size to the hippo one. Pretty straightforward.

In the meantime, however, I had a request from a customer to make a simple set of "Java Jive" letter charms. The night I made them, on a whim, I cut a simple moon face charm (above). And, well, I liked it. Simple, slightly rough looking. It worked for me. And it was small, probably the smallest piece I've ever made. See?

Well, I thought, why stop there? I made a few mini skully pendants:

This design was one of the earliest I created. I made the first one about a month after I started working with metal clay. Except the original version is about twice as big as this one. These are small and light enough to work perfectly well as earring components. Cool! So I decided to shrink yet another favorite, older design:

Here's a tiny version of my dragon heart pendant, just about 11mm square. Anyway, these all turned out quite well (in my humble opinion). As a test, I hung one of the little skullys on a ball chain, wore it around over the weekend and liked the result. So, I sat down with the clay and made a small school of fish:

You can probably tell where I'm headed, here. Not only do I have these four charm designs, I have two more on the table with prototypes for an additional two and sketches for at least one more. Yes, I'm completely charmed! Charms are charming!

Would you like to share my current joy in smallness? If so, please leave a comment here, below this post. On Friday, August 13th (an auspicious day if there ever was one), the SO will pick a winner. The winner, in turn, may pick one favorite charm, among not only the charms in this post but any I show off on the blog before the 13th, to be mailed to her or him. The usual rules apply - no "Anonymous" posters, please.

Oh, and if you can't wait until the 13th, I've put a few of the finished charms in the shop.

Thanks for visiting - I hope to hear from you!

UPDATE: You can view more charms here, here, here and here.

Bagatelle

2010-08-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a little bagatelle of a pendant from me - a cute little hippo dreaming (probably) of rainbow-colored ice cream. Yum.

As I mentioned yesterday, after my grand statement that I wanted to focus on big three-dimensional pieces, I went off on a tangent and created this medallion pendant, among other clearly small, two-dimensional pieces. Oh, well. Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, as they say.

Anyway, this little guy's been on my list of things to do for the past year. Back in the days when the Short One's vocabulary consisted solely of "No", "Mommy", "want" and a variety of animal names, we took a plane flight to New York. The SO had trouble with ear pressure during the descent and, in an attempt to distract him, I grabbed his doodle erase board and started sketching animals for him to identify. About fifteen animals later, the plane landed, and we toodled off the plane and had a fine vacation, but a few of the animal designs stuck with me (us). The hippo, being the salubrious beast that he is, was one of our favorites.

So, here's a charm for peaceful travel and a good night's sleep. (I'm putting him in the store, should anyone be interested.) More new (two-dimensional) designs from me later this week.

Thanks for visiting!

Full of Beans

2010-08-01T20:09:00.001-07:00

I went out to the garden this evening and discovered that the SO's little lima bean plant is no longer all that little and is even starting to produce lima beans. I'm not sure why I'm so surprised by this, but I am quite surprised. I took photos to commemorate the SO's success for posterity, of course.

The SO and I put together a little Life and Times of the Lima Bean Plant booklet tonight, complete with the aforementioned photos, so he can take it to summer camp tomorrow for his "Show and Share" day. My little botanist is determined to donate the book to the school for posterity, but I'm trying to convince him to bring it back (it is, after all, still unfinished) so we can find out the end of the story and fill in the blank pages at the end. Still, it's good to be excited about books and plants (and hopefully lima beans, once they're ready to eat), right?

I actually fired the kiln this weekend and have some new work to show for it. Of course, after making all of those grandiose comments about making big statement pieces, I fired a bunch of small things, but they're still cute (in my humble opinion). I'll try to take pics tomorrow, so I can actually talk about beads and jewelry for the first time in weeks on the blog. In the meantime, I'll let my friends and colleagues do the talking - here are your intriguing links for the week:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew's blog recently marked its four year anniversary. Celebrate with him, by entering to win a HUGE bead stash via this week's Thursday Giveaway!

A Bead A Day
A new beading component is on the market, created by and named after our fellow bead blogger Katie Hacker.

Beading Arts
Want to get in on a fantastic giveaway? Cabbing Rough is offering a Kingman turquoise cabochon on Beading Arts

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi was at CHA in Chicago and has a fabulous post about Prima Marketing.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
This week's rewind makes a statement.

Art Bead Scene
Want to capture a bit of the summer? This week's collection of sea beads will keep those summer memories alive all year 'round.

About.com Jewelry Making
As part of the "Start a New Hobby" theme running through About.com's hobby blogs this week, Tammy takes a moment to think about jewelry as more than a hobby. What about jewelry as a job?

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews a SUPERfantastic new book by all star stamper and metalworker, Lisa Niven Kelly

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-07-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here's another shot of a view from our garden. H. is growing okra for the first time this year. I never knew okra blooms were so attractive! (I love that color combination.)

Despite the opening of my new store (store-let?), I feel as if I've been taking a little holiday from jewelry, with the end of my competition "season". I think I'm ready to dive back into it now, though. How about you? Here are some links for the week to get you inspired:

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean made some summer fun earrings for Artbeads and they are soooo pretty! Go see!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
A shopping spree at an antique mall grants Melanie with some new old treasures! What will she make with these little bits of history?

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei's blog ended up on the Wikio.com Craft category, check out the others!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Mad for Monday features Cindy's new Step by Step Wire Jewelry Double Dip Adjustable Ring Project.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has completed the necklace featuring her "found again" bezel!

Art Bead Scene
It's the Art Bead Scene Monthly Carnival Blog. This month's theme is "Commitment."

Beading Arts
You won't believe the goodies that Mama's Minerals in giving away on Beading Arts this week!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Up for grabs in this week's Thursday Giveaway is an organic, lampwork glass bead by Susan Jones Designs.

A Bead A Day
If you enjoy recycling, Lisa shared a bracelet idea using an "old" canvas belt.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy catches you up on some of her latest free jewelry tutorials.

Strands of Beads
Melissa has finally hung out her shingle and opened a modest store-front on her website.

Flowering

2010-07-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Short One wanted to admire his plants in the garden (the lima bean plants have recently been joined by kidney bean plants), so we took a look this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the lima bean plant - the one the SO grew as a preschool project and that he and his Daddy planted last month - is flowering. The plant is so small still, we're not really sure if it will actually yield beans or not, but it's kind of cool, nonetheless.

Of course, if anyone has any insight into this process, please feel free to let me know - my experience with lima beans is pretty much limited to growing them in, well, it was probably first grade for me, but you know what I mean. And they keeled over pretty quickly after I took them home - I have a completely brown thumb.

Anyway, here are your bead & jewelry links for the week:

A Bead A Day
Lisa learned quite a bit this week about the need to clean beads if they have a powdery residue inside. Stop by if you have a chance for some safety tips.

About.com Jewelry Making
Who says jewelry tools are mainly for metalsmiths? There are plenty of cool tools and gadgets for beaders too!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew creates a necklace called, "The Keeper of Memory" around one of Anne Choi's sterling silver beads.

Beading Arts
Cyndi has a copy of "Beading In No Time" to give away! Pop on over and sign up to win!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
The schedule has been crazy and the studio is in disarray. Cindy is going to take back her workspace by....brace yourself.....cleaning!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
As she gathers inventory for her show, Barbe wonders why no one buys bracelets these days

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Summertime is the inspiration for a new necklace using glass flowers from Artbeads.com and Earthenwood Studio birdie and lumber themed components.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is thrilled that Margot Potter's latest oeuvre, Bead Chic, is already available at Amazon! This is a super concept for a jewelry design book, and Jean will explain why!

Art Bead Scene
It's July and the Art Bead Scene has a new monthly challenge. Wondering what the prizes are for this month? Come check them out!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi makes a new necklace featuring the funniest artwork images!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei gives a sneak peek to the new Craft blog ratings from Wikio.com

Thanks for visiting!

Now Open!

2010-07-18T18:23:00.001-07:00

The store is now open, such that it is. At the beginning of the year, I had big ambitions to get off Etsy, establish my own storefront on a newly-developed website and really get rolling with bigger pieces. Then, life got in the way, and I find that I don't really have a lot of time to devote to jewelry-making at all right now, and that this lack of time will probably continue for the next two to three years. At which point, who knows where any of us will be? Life is full of possibilities, after all.

However, in the meantime, I still have modest ambitions. I've scaled back, but I have at least tied my blog into my web address (www.melissajlee.com, for those of you who come to me through www.strandsofbeads.blogspot.com). I still intend to phase out my Etsy presence during the course of the year (I am leaving it up while magazines and books which identify that store as the place to find me are still new and around). And I have opened a small, little storefront directly on my blog. There aren't many pieces in there right now - just a few pendants. However, they're pendants that, with one exception, I haven't previously offered for sale. And this trend will continue from here on out.

You see, I've decided to be selfish. Since I have very limited time, I'm going to work only on making pendants, beads and jewelry that actually interest me now. Which happen to be more three dimensional pieces - like the divided boxes. Although I still like my earlier designs, like "Geek Love" (which still appears in the Etsy store), I'm really more interested in new work. And maybe some large finished pieces. And if the wind shifts and my interest turns, I'll create different projects at that point.

Given my circumstances, even when I put up new work, there will never be more than a few pieces in the store at one time. Nevertheless, I hope you will check there periodically to see what I've been up to.

Thank you - and thank you for continuing to follow my work!

Margot Potter's Bead Chic

2010-07-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Bead Chic: 36 Stylish Jewelry Projects & Inspired Variations by Margot Potter has now been officially launched! Margot is not only a wonderful designer, she is a truly engaging writer. In this new work, she had the clever idea to write a book focusing on variations on a theme. She created beautiful original designs for the book, then invited other jewelry designers to come up with variations based on these designs.

Here's a rough pic of my own necklace design, entitled "Sweet Dreams", that appears in Bead Chic:

My design was inspired by Margot's original, entitled "Green Man", which used beads from Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio. An image of the piece appears in the table of contents of the book. (You can see it by using the sneak peek function on Amazon. Click on the book link, above, to go there. Can you find it?)

There's a little secret associated with my variation. My necklace uses fab beads from ceramic artist Diane Hawkey. In fact, Melanie was the person who actually introduced me to Diane and her work several years ago, so I felt it would be fitting to use Diane's beads here to create a subtle link between the work of the two artists.

When you get a chance, please take a look at Bead Chic, Margot Potter's excellent new work.

Short but (sort of) Meaningful

2010-07-14T19:32:00.001-07:00

I meant to write an insightful, thoughtful post today, but I'm so exhausted that I think I'm going to go fall on my face instead. You may have noticed I have had a "New Shop...coming soon!" notice in my sidebar for a yonk's age. These pendants will be going in there...sometime. If I'm lucky, by the end of the week. But, given my track record, you might want to take that statement with a grain of salt. The photo looks nice, though, right?

Zzzz...

Candy Colors

2010-07-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Among other excursions, we took the Short One to tour the Jelly Bell factory in Wisconsin last weekend.

As my husband commented, there's something perverse about taking a diabetic to a candy factory. However, it's a fact that the SO's favorite treat are sugar-free Jelly Bellys, which come in ten great flavors, including Buttered Popcorn (my personal favorite). From my perspective, these have really been a lifesaver, as just a few will satisfy my son's pre-schooler sweet tooth, and they also have proven quite easy to calculate into his daily carb count. I really don't know what we would do without them.

Thrillingly, we found even more sugar-free flavors (the sour Bellys) and even sugar-free taffy - which the SO had never tried - at the factory, so it ended up being a big hit from the SO's perspective. He didn't even seem to notice that the other 99% of the store was off-limits, for which we were quite grateful.

Anyway, here's a pic of the favorite candy in our house right now, in all of their glorious colors. Doesn't it just make you want to go out and design something bright and fun to wear for the summer?

Here are your bead and jewelry links for the week:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Honoring a friend who passed away, Andrew hosts a necklace auction on his blog to raise money for a good cause.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene offers up a unique inspiration piece for July. Stop by and take the ABS Challenge!

Beading Arts
Cyndi wants to know: what does your work say about YOU?

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie reviews some of the Song Lore pieces she has finished in the first half year of the project.


Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva This week's Wednesday Wire is in the mood - in the mood to make something special so she turns to a fabulous tutorial.

Carmi's Art/Life World
A Napoleon themed medallion is this week's resin project with Carmi!

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy has been thinking about Christmas in July this week, starting with beaded ornament covers.

A Bead A Day
If you are a fan of turning flea market finds into shabby chic treasures, stop by A Bead A Day to help Lisa with ideas for using a bead reminiscent of an antique treasure.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei was a participant in the first Designer Challenge at the Art Bead Scene. Come over and see what she made with her Humblebeads!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
This book review by Jean discusses making fabulous earrings in 30 minutes flat! How cool is that?

Shameless Self-Promo: Creative Jewelry 2010

2010-07-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

Creative Jewelry 2010 is now on the stands. I personally really like this issue - there are a ton of interesting designs from some of my favorite designers in here (and a truly monumental showing of beautiful ceramic beads and components from Earthenwood Studio - yay, Melanie!).

As for myself, I have four necklaces in this issue, all a little unusual for me in that they are slightly more ornate than I tend toward. One of them uses a tube of 4-color peppercorns for adornment and another uses a strand of very delicate, fan-shaped sapphires that I purchased at Bead & Button.

Anyway, I hope you'll check out the issue - it's worth it!

Psst...

2010-07-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't already heard, Andrew is giving away copies of Kate McKinnon's new masterpiece (above) on his blog this week. As you may already know, I love this book. Run, don't walk.

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-06-28T09:21:00.001-07:00

I was forced (forced, I tell you) by circumstances to shop at Whole Foods this morning, and I ended up coming home with this, my all-time favorite chocolate. This is a Naga Bar by Vosges - milk chocolate, sweet Indian curry powder and coconut. Oh, how I love it so. Unfortunately, the price point makes a Lindt bar look downright cheap, so I hardly every indulge, but I decided that today would be the day.

While I sneak off to hide my stash in the pantry, here are some intriguing bead & jewelry links for you:

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows her Steampunk Sampler class made of mixed metals, industrial porcelain, and cold connections

Cindy Gimbrone
Cindy rewinds on wire.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Cherry wood bezels are the stars in this new pendant collection.

Beading Arts
Cyndi has a copy of "Metalworking 101 for Beaders" to give away!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
thoughts about creating multiple streams of income as a jewelry artist

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene finds findings worth finding!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
review of a great book: Candie Cooper's Metalworking 101 for Beaders! Don't miss this!

A Bead A Day
Let's have a Tiki party! Lisa found Tiki beads at Big Lots for $1.00 and is looking for ideas!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Always on the hunt for unique components, Andrew spotlights "pinch bail components" from Shoutrinse on Etsy!

About.com Jewelry Making
Thinking of selling on-line but worried about the cost? Tammy has discovered three freebie sites for selling your jewelr, crafts, and vintage items.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei's studio is in total disarray. Check out some pics and if you have suggestions, she would totally be appreciative!

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off a summery necklace design with components courtesy of Artbeads.com

Highland Park Festival of Fine Craft

2010-06-26T11:33:00.001-07:00

I had a rare chance this morning. I really enjoy the Festival of Fine Craft held by our local art center, but I've had to skip it the past couple years. The Short One has had an unerring tendency to run towards the most fragile object in the fair like a linebacker - giving me (and undoubtedly the artist in question) palpitations. It's been so completely not relaxing to stroll around the fair with him, we've opted for more child-friendly activities instead during fair weekends.

However, I had breakfast with friends from my lawyering days this morning, while the SO hung out with his Dad. We walked around town after eating and came across the festival, so I had a quick chance to look around (and lost my friends twice in the process, due to my distraction).

The first source of my distraction was Steff Korsage's booth. She had the most unusual pendant ring settings for Czech glass dagger beads - the pendants simultaneously had a very industrial yet very organic look. (Sadly, I couldn't find a photo of this particular piece to share with you.) In fact, this describes much of her jewelry. I tried on one of her rings at the booth:

Enamel Ring by Steff Korsage

Beautiful, right? As you know, I love statement jewelry, and these rings are wonderfully hefty. She also had similar settings for druzy quartz cabs that were really attractive. If you aren't already familiar with her work, check out her website here.

I also had the opportunity to see Jill Hurant's work in person. Jewelry Artist had a profile on her work in May, and I was blown away by her black tourmaline and 22k gold granulation necklace. I don't have permission to reproduce the photo of the necklace, but you can see it and the article here. She had the necklace at her booth along with some stunning work in 22k gold (I believe) and raw hematite slabs. (Where does she find those beads? We completely have the same taste in stone.) Jill Hurant is a Saul Bell 2010 Finalist. You can find more information about her work at her website.

After stopping by these two booths and becoming completely distracted, I finally snapped back to my senses and left to spend a little more quality time with my friends (one of whom I had not seen in several years). However, it was certainly inspiring to have that brief opportunity to see such beautiful work in person.

If you live in the Chicago area, the Highland Park Festival of Fine Craft runs through Sunday.

Persian Nights

2010-06-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished a new project for the wonderful folks at Artbeads.com. As you can see, my love affair with their Russian artist pendants continues here. This simple necklace was clearly designed around the beautiful peacock pendant. My goal here was to create an atypical combination of colors for a summer necklace. Really, in the end, though, all I did was take them as much as possible from the rendering of the lacquered peacock.

For example, on the dangle, I really liked the fan shape of the Czech glass maple leaf bead as being vaguely reminiscent of the shape of a peacock's tail. I found one in a "Wasabi Silk" green which is close in tone to the greenery on the focal. The same is true of the ruby red teardrop bead.

For the rest of the necklace, I used two complementary shades of blue to mimic the blue in the peacock's head and feathers. I'm particularly fond of the Czech glass small spade beads, which I think also have a nice peacock-like shape to them. The ones I used are sapphire with a white core. The lighter blue rondelles are 6mm matte aqua glass. Now, I strung these glass beads with faceted pink rhodonite rounds from my personal stash - which I think complement the pink in the peacock's tail feathers quite nicely - but the round rhodonite beads from Artbeads.com would work just fine in this design.

So there you have it - an atypical but still summery (in my opinion, anyway) necklace, that would look lovely against, say a nice white linen shirt.

Thank you, as always to Artbeads.com to providing me with another great design opportunity.

Please note: some of the products mentioned above were promotional gifts from Artbeads.com for review and/or design partnership purposes

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-06-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

The kindergarteners at my son's school made dream catchers earlier this year as a school project. Ever since he found out that they are supposed to catch bad dreams and let good dreams come through, the Short One has been dying to make one.

I'd been dithering over how to find a flexible stick for the frame and never got around to gathering supplies for it. Fortunately, I mentioned this to my mother-in-law, who raised three boys and remembered this project from Cub Scouts. She and Grandpa, who are visiting, took the SO to Michaels a few days ago, and Grandma and the SO spent an afternoon making this. Pretty cool, I'd say. (It is, of course, now hanging on the window near the SO's bed.)

Plus, we had to buy a huge tub of pony beads to get the few needed for the project, so the SO has spent the past couple days stringing necklaces for all of his stuffed animals with the leftovers. Even more jewelry in the house - cool!

I hope you all had a Happy Father's Day.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
Cindy touts one of her favorite colors in this week's rewind.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie explores building materials as texture and symbolism in a new set of pendants inspired by a fortress theme

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is fascinated by the beautiful necklace which Jennifer Dangerfield created and reposts her analysis of what makes it so appealing! All jewelry afficionados really must see this lovely piece!

Beading Arts
Do you like Chinese food? Do you like jewelry...?

Carmi's Art/Life World
A button get's glammed up with tear drop rhinestones.

Art Bead Scene
The June Monthly Challenge is a painting by Toulouse-Lautrec.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei got together for a fun beady date with Kerry Bogert, and together they created a necklace!

About.com Jewelry Making
If you are selling your jewelry on-line or thinking about it, then you'll find some of these rescources very helpful.

A Bead A Day
What do you think about solar system jewelry? Lisa found a ceramic bead strand that looks like it could turn that solar system science project into jewelry!

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off her necklace design that won second place in the Metal Clay category of Bead Dreams 2010.

Summertime

2010-06-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Short One is finally officially on summer vacation - his first year of school ended on Tuesday. He brought home a nice self-portrait and these lima bean plants that he'd been growing in class for the past couple weeks. He showed them off to Dad, and they solemnly planted the seedlings in the garden last night.

The SO is inordinately proud of his achievement. As for me, I find it vaguely comforting that - for all of the massive "advancements" to the way we live each day in the thirty odd plus years between my childhood and my son's - some things really don't change much at all.

Thanks for visiting.

Bead & Button Show - Stash Part I

2010-06-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I started taking photos of the treasure I brought back home from the Bead & Button Show right before sunset - but then the Human Tornado whirled back from the park with his Dad, so I had to stop. Still, I thought I'd go ahead and post what I have, even if I continue this later in the week.

I have been an admirer of Pati Walton's work since Sarah Moran introduced her beads to me a couple years ago (basically, if Sarah likes an artist's work, I'm pretty much bound to like it as well - she has such good taste). I found out from Pati's blog that she would be attending Bead & Button this year, took a look at my budget, and decided before even entering the Marketplace that I would aim to come home with one of her beads. This is it - one of her classic aquarium beads filled with gorgeous murrine fish. Here are shots of the bead from other angles:

She even has a signature cane with the year embedded in the bead (you can sort of see it at the bottom of the last photo). If you aren't already familiar with her work, I urge you to take a look - photos of her gorgeous canes are posted on her blog and there's a gallery section of her finished pieces that completely makes me drool.

I was also particularly eager to see one of Greg Ogden's articulated crabs (a sneak peek of which was posted on Cynthia's blog right before the show). Green Girl Studios had a small bowl of them tucked among their beautiful display. I'm here to say that these little guys are even better in person! They're so tactile - you just want to touch the bead all of the time. Plus, the articulation is brilliant - the crab seems to skitter when it moves:

Needless to say, this wasn't all I came back with from Green Girl Studios - more photos to follow.

Gary Wilson, that most excellent of lapidaries, also had his usual brilliant wares - I just cannot get over the high quality of stones he offers. As usual, I bought a bag of cool supplies there (which will hopefully show up in my work later this year). Plus, I spotted this, the only strand of beads I bought at the show this year:

I love the juxtaposition of the polished with the rough surfaces on this agate, and the fact that they are chunks rather than slices. Once again, these are stones that just beg to be touched and the fact that he offered them in graduated sizes is just, well, sweet. (Gary asked me if I will keep the strand intact or break it up, but my feeling is that the strand really has to be largely kept together, don't you?)

That's it for now - a little more to follow later this week. Thanks for visiting!

Bead & Button Show - Connections

2010-06-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Really, one of the best parts of Bead & Button Show is getting the opportunity to meet up with friends that you normally don't get a chance to see face-to-face. Even after three years, I am so completely hopeless about the blogging thing, half the time I forgot that I was carrying a camera at the show. (Last year was even worse - I had my camera and didn't take a single pic of friends.) So, unfortunately, I missed my opportunity to get candid shots of many friends and colleagues. However, I do have a few!

Here's Melanie Brooks, helping a customer at her Earthenwood Studio booth. I wish the photo were a little clearer, as the necklace she is wearing is so completely fabulous. You can click on it to get a closer look, though. Melanie was the first person I really connected with at Bead & Button. I think I met her first at the 2006 show. I wasn't beading back then, so I was only shopping for buttons for my knitting. She had a ton of beautiful ceramic buttons that year, and I bought several sets.

Melanie later introduced me to Diane Hawkey when they traveled together to a Chicago-area bead show:

Here's Diane in front of her booth. I love the inspiration jewelry she had set up behind her bead trays this year. It's a little hard to tell from the photo (once again, you can click on it for a larger image), but one of my favorite pieces of hers, the mermaid, is the focal in the center necklace. The one on the left incorporates one of her new skull beads which I completely love (I purchased one of them myself at the Suburban Bead Bazaar this spring).

I was also happy to visit with Kate McKinnon, the metal clay artist whom I admire most and a lionhearted individual. I wish I had thought to photograph her hands, as well, as she was wearing some of her beautiful rings at the show. As much as photos of the rings are lovely to look at, seeing them actually worn on the hand - well! They are so dramatic and beautiful. As it is, I snuck around trying on various rings she had for sale at her booth, like a little kid playing dress-up, while she chatted with her other friends and customers. Oh, and note the beautifully weighty chain she is wearing around her neck.

No visit to Bead & Button would be complete without seeing Andrew Thornton, at the Green Girl Studios booth. I also met Andrew for the first time at Bead & Button, I think it was two years ago now. Andrew is really one of the kindest, most generous human beings on the planet, as well as an incredibly talented artist and jewelry designer. I actually have the good fortune to have one of his finished pieces in my private collection. Before I met Andrew or Cynthia or Greg, I won a giveaway Cynthia held on her blog. I can't even remember what the giveaway was about, but the prize was one of her brother Andrew's necklaces. His work is both so delicate and precise, it's amazing to see in person. My only regret in visiting Green Girl Studios this year is that I missed a chance to see Cynthia with baby Max.

I would also like to say how lovely it was to meet everyone at the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads booth. I had a photo taken with the group, but of course, idiotically, it didn't occur to me to ask anyone to take a photo with my own camera. They made me feel like family, which was wonderful.

And, of course, I enjoyed seeing some of my favorite lampwork artists like Michele Goldstein and Stephanie Sersich (whose baby, Amos, has the cutest curly hair on the planet), as well as Sara Hardin and Jamie Hogsett at the Soft Flex booth. I had the good fortune to meet artists such as Anne Choi, Katie Hacker, Jennifer Heynen of Jangles, Heather Powers of Humblebeads and Erin Prais-Hintz in person for the first time and also chatted with the good folks at Art Clay World.

So it was a full day! I even managed to squeeze in some shopping in between - and all this within about four hours. I didn't have time to photograph my stash acquisitions today but will try to add them in tomorrow. (I managed to nab one of Greg Ogden's fabulous articulated crabs, among other treasures - you can see a photo of them on Cynthia's blog, here.)

In the meantime, here are your beady links for the week:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew hosts the BIGGEST prize in Thursday Giveaway history ever! Find out how you can win a set of beautiful lampwork glass beads by Barbara "Basha"!

Jean Campbell
Check out Black Crow's Gothic Contest winners...fantastic!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi recycles a beautiful tea box to create this necklace..

Cindy Gimbrone, the Lampwork Diva
The Empress models a statement.

Art Bead Scene
Join the Art Bead Scene Carnival Bloggers as they pay tribute to Bead and Button by creating a statement necklace

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Look at all the fun I have have playing with fire.

A Bead A Day
Do you have crafting or beading get togethers with friends and family? Lisa shares the anticipation of "Craft Night"!

Beading Arts
Shhh...don't tell Cyndi's Mom! Cyndi made her a necklace from some wonderful lampwork beads from Artbeads.com!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Lydia Muell's mesmerizing art beads and her free giveaway this week!

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy is proud to announce some of her jewelry designs were recently published in BeadStyle magazine

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei started up a new website, and would love to hear your input on it

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off her entry that won the Grand Prize Gold Medal in the 2010 Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Metal Clay, Metal Beads, Wirework and Chain Jewelry-Making Contest

Thanks for visiting!

Winner, Second Place, Metal Clay, Bead Dreams 2010

2010-06-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

I made it up to the Bead & Button Show today for just a few hours - let me state for the record that four hours is simply not enough time to visit the Show. I did have the pleasure of seeing a number of friends and colleagues while there, though, including several I had heretofore not met in person, which is always so wonderful. Plus, of course, I visited the Bead Dreams Exhibit. (Yes, I am grinning like a fool as I upload these pics...)

I have to confess, despite taking my good camera with me, I royally screwed up the photography here - half of the shots of the exhibit that I took are unusable. So, I decided not to sweat documenting the metal clay category (only seven finalists this year) or what have you, and just show you a few of my favorites overall from the exhibit.

Sandi M. asked me what the back of "The Way to My Heart" looked like, so here it is:

It's the key to the maze - it's solution, worn secretly over the heart. Oh, and a couple people asked about the stone discs with which I strung the piece - they are rough cut rose and smoky quartz. Here's "Cabinet of Wonders", my other Bead Dreams entry that made the finals but did not place:

I'm a big fan of Joan Miller's work and am personally very glad that there's a place for ceramic beads and buttons in Bead Dreams once again this year:

My favorite in the set, the tomato button is half obscured, but I think you can see here just how charming veggie buttons can be! Plus, dig that cool button display (that Joan made herself)!

Kim van Antwerp was a finalist with a huge needlefelted bead - I just love this idea, and, of course, I love the koi theme of the piece.

Robert Jennick described his entry to me earlier this year, and it made me laugh when I finally saw it. I think this is a testament to the transformative powers of glass. Here is "Just a Bunch of Nails" in the lampworking category:

Sherry Serafini's "Road Warrior" completely blew me away. I would so wear a necklace like this.

I saw Vanessa Walilko's "Chainmaille Jacket" on-line after the finalists for this year were decided. It's even more impressive in person.

Finally, I thought Shiba Yuko's "Mine" was too cute! The beaded umbrella really makes this piece for me.

I have more photos from the show and have some new stash acquisitions to show off, but my eyes are shutting on me and I'm about to keel over from exhaustion, so I'll have to wait another day for those.

Thanks for visiting!

A Final Bit of Sharing - Stringing Summer 2010

2010-06-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

I feel as if this week has been nothing but shameless self-promo, but I thought I'd go ahead and share this last little bit for the end of the week (well, sort of - I also hope to have photos from Bead & Button to share over the weekend). I just received word from the publisher today that my pieces are on their way back to me - I have two summery necklaces in this issue. If you go over to the Interweave store, you can actually see a bit of one in the excerpted Table of Contents - it's the piece at the very bottom of the second page toward the center that looks like it's strung with blue cloud-shaped beads. These are, in fact, my very favorite rough cut (but polished on the fronts) Sleeping Beauty turquoise.

It's hard to believe that summer is already here, don't you think? I'm not prepared!

Thanks for visiting!

"Cabinet of Wonders", Bead Dreams 2010

2010-06-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here's my second piece that was juried into the finals of Bead Dreams this year. Yes, it's another Cabinet of Curiosity, just like last year's entry, only more so, if you know what I mean. It's kind of a monolith, a big, heavy breastplate of a piece. This is my most elaborate divided box to date. I have to admit, I still enjoy making them. This was also my first attempt to make metal clay chain of any true length.

As you can see, I went a little gothic on this one, adding a nice bluish, purplish patina and little fang-like dangles from the chain. As far as the contents are concerned, I found the little skull (which was carved from antler) in a shop in New York City last year. I thought the brachiopod fossil looked satisfyingly winged-like, so I added that, along with the vintage ceramic teeth and taxidermist glass eye. The other teeth are fossilized shark and spinosaurus.

Here's a shot of the back:

I was rather pleased with the effect of the patina on the back - nice and aged looking. I used my lunar phases pendant as the toggle ring here with an arrow as the bar, for a "shoot the moon" kind of theme.

Again, if you are attending the Bead & Button Show this year, please do take a look! The Bead Dreams Exhibit will be set up (I believe later today) in the foyer in front of the Marketplace.

To see my other Bead Dreams finalist piece, please scroll down to the post before this one or go here.

Thanks for visiting.

"The Way to My Heart", Bead Dreams 2010

2010-06-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I originally wrote this post before I found out that this piece won second place in the Metal Clay category of Bead Dreams 2010 (calloo! callay!). For photos from the actual exhibit (including photos of some of the other entries), please go here.

As I understand it, the 2010 Bead Dreams Exhibit will open tomorrow in Milwaukee, so I thought I would go ahead and unveil my two pieces that made the finals in the Metal Clay category. Here's the first one, entitled "The Way to My Heart". This pendant is a three dimensional maze, assembled entirely by hand, out of a multitude of (irritatingly small) pieces of metal clay

As with the binary code, I've always felt that maze designs have pure graphic appeal - similar to, say, a Greek key design. In the beginning, my ambitions were modest:

Here's my original maze design from 2007. Simple, sweet, not even all that difficult to solve. I always sort of had my eye on similar designs, though, especially since my son has been fascinated by these types of puzzles since long before he could say the word "puzzle".

When I started making boxes at the beginning of last year, I found I really enjoyed the whole process of building them. It wasn't long before I had this really wild idea (wild for me, anyway) that these techniques could be used to make other complex shapes, like, well, mazes. I jotted the idea down in my notebook - then let it percolate for another year, as I was too scared to try making one.

As it is, I'm not ashamed to say that this piece really kicked my posterior. Designing the maze was reasonably straightforward. Translating it into clay was not. The amount of clay I had to gather just to roll out the base made me say naughty things. Pieces were measured, re-measured, measured one last time, then cut. Due to the close proximity of the pieces, I had to assemble the pendant a layer at a time, finishing each section before moving on to the next. Each section I completed, I was aware that an incautious move could obliterate hours of work, not to mention a huge investment in the clay itself. This whole process made me sweat.

Timing was a bear. This was the second of the two pieces I made for competition, and I didn't have much free time for anything by the time I started working on this one. It took me weeks of intermittent work to complete. That I actually finished the piece before the deadline had everything to do with the fact that my in-laws were visiting over Easter and that they and my husband took the SO to the zoo that weekend which gave me a solid five hours on my own, during daylight hours, to finish the piece.

I have no objectivity when it comes to this one. I really have no idea if it has any chance of placing in the contest or not. I will say, though, that, as far as I'm concerned, this is the stuff for which contests are made, at least from the standpoint of the entrant - I learned a lot making this piece and traveled well beyond my comfort zone. I'm very proud of the result. So, if you will be in Milwaukee this week, please be on the look-out for "The Way to My Heart" in the Bead Dreams exhibit.

I'll unveil my second finalist piece tomorrow, so please come back!

Thanks for visiting.

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-06-06T14:14:00.001-07:00

Superman now lives at our house. (To be honest, it's a little difficult to distinguish him from the Short One when they're asleep - along with the gazillion other stuffed toys that the SO likes to put in bed with him.) A friend of mine tipped us off to a special deal Six Flags was running this week for season passes, so we decided to try it this summer.

The SO appears to have all of the makings of a true coaster aficionado - much to his Dad's satisfaction. (I personally have terrible motion sickness and have been known to fall prey to it even on normal airplane descents, so I'm happy he didn't inherit that from me.)

He also was able to exchange high fives with Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Scooby-Doo during our visit, which was a definite plus in the SO's books. As you can see from the photo, he's currrently working on maintaining his secret identity.

I hope everyone else had a nice weekend. I can't believe it's Bead & Button Show week, finally! I'll be sharing my 2010 Bead Dreams entries Monday or Tuesday, so please do check back. In the meantime, here are your bead and jewelry links for the week:

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is thrilled to be in BeadStyle magazine's July All Star issue, with pals Tammy Powley, Heather Powers, and Katie Hacker who made the cover so beautiful! Come and see!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
The prize for this week's Thursday Giveaway comes courtesy of Green Girl Studios! Find out how you can get ahold of these fine pewter beauties!

missficklemedia.com
The Staples of Jewelry Making

Art Bead Scene
Gearing up for that big bead show coming up? ABS has the top ten tips for your bead buying trip!

Jean Campbell
Jean reviews Nathalie Mornu's Leather Jewelry, a bang-up book.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie celebrates her 1000th blog post with Ten Days of Giveaways!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
A set of smokey quartz beads inspires a new necklace.

Katie's Beading Blog
Get the 411 about BeadStyle's gorgeous All Star Issue!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe is having a "City of Love" giveaway!!!

Beading Arts
Chapter two of Cyndi's e-book is available for download! "Altered Surfaces" begins the exploration of the exchange between mixed media and bead embroidery!

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy is getting back to the basics, starting with jewelry making tools. What is your must have tool?

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei has been answer some of her reader's questions from a previous giveaway post. Read up on what everyone wants to know!

Carmi's Art/Life World
A handmade bezel results in a new necklace for Carmi called FAITHFUL.

Strands of Beads
It's Melissa's turn to review Kate McKinnon's fabulous Sculptural Metal Clay

Thanks for visiting.

2010 Grand Prize Gold Medal Winner, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Metal Clay, Metal Beads, Wirework and Chain Jewelry-Making Contest

2010-06-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

So, I've had this wonderful secret I've been keeping for the past month. Toward the beginning of May I had an unexpected phone call from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, congratulating me on winning their 2010 Metal Clay, Metal Beads, Wirework & Chain Jewelry-Making Contest. "Wow!" I thought. "I placed first in the Necklace Category!" It wasn't until we were well into the conversation that I realized Fire Mountain Gems and Beads had actually awarded me the Grand Prize Gold Medal, for my entry "I Think, Therefore I Am 2.0".

Some things are so far out of the realm of possibility that it just never occurs to you that it might happen, you know? I nearly passed out - that evening, my husband kept telling me to snap out of it, I was in such a daze. (There's a very incoherent quotation from me on the Fire Mountain Gems & Beads website that comes directly from that telephone conversation.)

Anyway, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads has now made the formal announcement of winners in this contest, so I can finally share my news and the necklace with you. The photo of the piece at the top of this post is the one I submitted originally to the contest, based on which the piece was juried into the final round of judging.

As you can see, I am continuing to fiddle with my love of binary code as a design element and ended up combining it with my more recent preference for box-making in this design. I had trouble coming up with a frame for the piece, but ultimately chose a Shinto shrine gate as my inspiration here, which I think works well in a cyberpunk setting.

The code states "I think" on the front of the piece and the words "therefore I am" are scribbled in a rough graffiti-like manner on the back of the piece. The quote, of course, is from Descartes, and I mean it to be a reference to artificial intelligence in this setting. I strung the pendant with a strand of beautiful cut black tourmaline, green aventurine and amethyst. Oh, and for the button, I used my binary code "Geek Love" design - the partial word "love" is inscribed across it.

Thanks for visiting. I think I'm going to go celebrate at the park with the Short One now.

Harmony

2010-06-02T12:52:00.001-07:00

To be honest, I called this necklace "Harmony", because the large brass beads in it reminded me of Chinese chime balls - you know, the type that come in a set of two and chime gently when you exercise with them in the palm of your hand. Perspective is a tricky issue, but the beads in this necklace are actually all quite oversized. This is a necklace that Wilma Flintstone would love to wear - very, very chunky. (Note the cool ceramic flower button by Diane Hawkey set in the clasp.)

It's been kind of a bad day. If I didn't have other obligations, I'd seriously consider throwing clothes in my suitcase, tucking the Short One (undoubtedly squawking) under my arm and hopping the next plane for an exotic, relaxing locale. As it is, I'm going to have to settle for the necklace and a pina colada, or some other fluffy drink. And maybe a shirley temple for the SO. Or something like that.

Third Year Anniversary

2010-05-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

Midnight Garden, 2007

It's my third year anniversary working with metal clay. Well, technically, I fired my first piece (the ring with the little rice-shaped bits inside in the above necklace) about three years and a week ago, but I finished this necklace on May 31, 2007, so I feel it's close enough. I always take a moment to reflect on the year's work. First, I wonder why I haven't made more progress than I have. (Don't you wish there were an extra five hours in the day? Or maybe that you had an extra set of hands? Me too.) Of course, inevitably, while I'm brooding the Short One comes up to me and says something like "Mommy, you're getting really old, aren't you?" and snaps me out of it.

Also, I actually have tried a few new things. I work on my own, more due to circumstance than design, so progress is pretty slow for me. Last year, I sat down, thought about it and decided what I really enjoyed doing was making the big showcase pieces, pieces that ideally stretch me a little creatively and technically. So I ended up narrowing my focus and spent the bulk of my available time making contest pieces this year. I'll be able to discuss several of these pieces in just a week or two, as judging will be over shortly. I can't wait! Now if only the price of silver would descend from the stratosphere...

Mostly, though, I think about what a great field this is and how boring my life must have been like before I had this creative outlet - sort of like before the Short One arrived in my life but less noisy (the metal clay doesn't constantly complain about what a bad job I'm doing and ask for more ice cream). Really, bead-making and beading are so satisfying that way, don't you think? Let's hear it for the power of the bead. (Oh, and another great year of working with metal clay, of course.)

Thanks for visiting.

A Question for My English Readers (+Bead & Jewelry Linky Love)

2010-05-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

To anyone living in England (esp. London or Oxfordshire) - have you seen this chocolate before? Can you tell me where I can buy it? My father's traveling to England shortly, and I'm sending him on a mission to bring back a few things for my son: 1. Cadbury Highlights 2. Cavalier No Sugar Added Belgian Chocolates and 3. Marmite. (Okay, the Marmite's for me, but still.) I figure that the Cadbury Highlights ought to be available at any Tesco or Sainsburys, but I'm not so sure about the No Sugar Added Belgian Chocolate. On the off chance that anyone is actually familiar with this brand, I thought I'd post a pic and ask. Any tip on where something like this might be purchased would be very welcome. Thank you!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Like Czech glass? Andrew hosts a giveaway courtesy of Raven's Journey. Find out how you can win these luminous beads!

Beading Arts
How many people out there are participating in the Bead Journal Project this year?

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is delighted to review Totally Twisted by Kerry Bogert! You will LOVE this book which focuses on wire and art beads!

Art Bead Scene
ABS is here to help you with your business. Check out Zazzle to customize your earring cards for your jewelry business.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Book Review: Wrap, Stitch, Fold and Rivet

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy ask in this quick poll about how you use social networking to promote you and/or your jewelry business.

Humblebeads
Heather shares some time management tips for creatives.

A Bead A Day
Looking to make some super-sized jewelry just perfect for a princess? Lisa uses large blueberry briolettes and a swarovski mix to create just that!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi's button maker is the reason for this new vintage image necklace.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Bead storage has been a question amongst my fellow beady peers, and so I thought I would share a link to how I utilize my bead storage.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
This week's Wednesday Wire is a free tutorial, "Matchin' by Wrappin'."

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Learn about the Raku firing process and see the results of Melanie's new Raku adventures!

Jean Campbell
Jean reviews Kate McKinnon's wonderful new addition, Sculptural Metal Clay.

Strands of Beads
Melissa discusses the process of reworking a weak necklace design - the revised version of which now appears on the cover of The Best of Step by Step Beads.

I Read This Book in One Sitting

2010-05-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

I have to admit - I have a Kate McKinnon bias. I know I've said this a gazillion times, but just in case you don't already know - I was introduced to Kate's work by Sarah Moran, right before I started working with metal clay. I met Kate herself at the Bead & Button Show a few months later, just 2 weeks after I had started working with the material. I walked away from her booth with copies of her Annuals tucked under my arm (and a cute spinny ring with one of Sarah's beads on top on my finger).

These were the right publications at the right time for me. I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to do with metal clay, but I badly needed some technical instruction. I basically used Kate's books (including her later published Structural Metal Clay), as well as two other publications, to educate myself in working with this material. And, frankly, they are still the basis of my education in metal clay. So I knew, as soon as she announced that Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry: Techniques and Explorations would be published, that I'd be in the market for a copy.

Kate is not only a skilled artist, she is also a very experienced teacher and a talented writer. As a result, the instructions in the book are very detailed and very clearly written. It's actually hard for me to describe how packed with information the book is except to say that words are simply not wasted in these pages. She not only provides step-by-step instructions, but she takes the time to explain why to do things a certain way and what the consequences of deviating from this way can be. She problem solves in a way that I imagine might come up in a live class but really rarely does in this type of book. Frankly, it's hard to select just a few points to highlight, but I'll give it a go.

I love the fact that the most basic issues are addressed in detail in these chapters. As anyone who has worked with metal clay knows - it can dry out quite quickly. She not only recommends her favorite storage method to keep the clay fresh over time, but instructs the reader on proper, minimal handling of the clay, and, again, why it's important to develop these handling techniques to extend the life of the clay to its maximum. Although taking up just a small section of the book, the topic is important, and it's clearly presented.

Now, I came to work with metal clay with a slight background in wheel-throwing (I was never very proficient at it, but I did take classes at a local pottery studio). I learned to work with clay in ways specific to stoneware or porcelain on the wheel. So, issues like the importance of compressing metal clay or maintaining a slow and even dry time to avoid warping made a lot of sense to me from from the get-go. Kate discusses the importance of these issues, which I think is a little unusual in itself. However, she also takes care to discuss certain differences in clay handling - such as the fact that you do not score a piece of metal clay before attaching it to a piece, in the way you would score a mug handle before attaching it to a thrown mug, or that water is simply not used in the same capacity or quantity when working with metal clay. This is useful stuff, whether you have experience in wheel-throwing or not.

One of the reasons I really covet this book is because it emphasizes work-hardening metal clay. For someone like me, whose education in metal clay is solely from books, it was hard to find instruction on this issue, specifically as it applies to metal clay. (In the end, I attended an introduction to metalworking course at my local art center last fall, to try to get the answers I needed on this and related subjects.) Kate covers work-hardening for a variety of forms, including a simple method for work-hardening rivet posts which was completely new to me - and I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

I also enjoyed her coverage of domed shapes - discussing cases in which it's better to fire the shape flat and then dap them and other cases which really require shaping the clay on a form before firing.

Finally, of course, Kate continues to cover metal clay safety issues comprehensively and clearly. For more information on this, please visit my related post, here.

Really, though, all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a ton of good information in this book (including a few points that had me tearing my hair out, as I spent too much time and wasted too much clay taking the long way around figuring them out on my own). I highly recommend this book. Buy it from Kate (she will include a free additional project if you buy it directly from her), buy Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry: Techniques and Explorations from Amazon - but just buy it.

Thanks for visiting.

Not All Jewelry is Created Equal

2010-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how we're pretty much drowning in jewelry at my house, I'd been kind of thinking lately about what constitutes an important, or valuable, piece of jewelry. Ultimately, I had to conclude that the most important piece of jewelry in our family is not, in fact, my wedding band (an obvious choice, I think) or my engagement ring, or even the ring that my mother gave me on the birth of my son.

No, the really important piece of jewelry isn't mine at all. Rather, it's the medical I.D. bracelet that my son now wears. It's unassuming and plain stainless steel but, although we hope he'll never have to rely on it, potentially vital to my son's well-being. It made me think about other types of "functional" jewelry like, say, dog tags, pill box necklaces or teething necklaces. As adornment goes, these are all very understated but all important in ways not necessarily connected to their aesthetic appeal.

So I was wondering: do you have any "functional" jewelry in your life? What jewelry is important to you and your family? Something functional? Something sentimental, like a necklace inherited from your grandmother? Please share!

Beachcombing

2010-05-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

My friend Merrilu and I like to walk on Wednesdays, while the kids are in school. This morning, she suggested we walk down at the beach by her house, which is where she usually collects sea glass. She wasn't a-kidding! Look at the treasure we found during our almost two hour walk. I think I have enough sea glass to keep me going for the rest of the year now, not to mention little tumbled pieces of shell, a few cool stones and that piece of driftwood. Yep, there's treasure everywhere, all right. A happy day.

The Hot New Trend

2010-05-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

I found this in my son's cubby at pre-school. Cute, eh? Lagging behind, as I usually am in these trends, I just found out that these items are the hot new accessory for kids (so naturally, I wanted to share, for anyone else who might not have tween kids in the house). They're called Silly Bandz and come in all shapes and colors for easy stacking on the wrist (or wherever).

The band was a gift from his school (I believe - they've been studying Australia all month), but I found out about them through Lark Books' brand new website and blog. It doesn't officially launch until June 7, 2010, but you can visit them (and learn more about Silly Bandz) here.

Thanks for visiting.

The Wild Hare Beadery

2010-05-24T13:13:00.001-07:00

So, as I was saying yesterday, while the Short One and I were visiting family in Oklahoma, I had the chance to do a little shopping. Now I love a good name and nice beads and this store has both. Don't you love "The Wild Hare Beadery"? I wish I'd asked the owner the origin of that particular name. This above image - which I also love - can be found on the reverse of the store's business card.

There has been a bead store in the same physical location on Campus Corner near the University of Oklahoma for a number of years, but it's changed hand several times. The new iteration is the Wild Hare, which opened last August. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of unusual strands there and ended up coming home with several lovely ones (which I received as a gift from my father). These are my favorites:

Dainty cut and tumbled turquoise from Afghanistan. Similar to the type of Roman glass beads that are so popular nowadays (and that I love), these beads were re-cut from other ancient objects. They were tumbled and have a beautiful matte finish that just begs to be touched. The store has a nice selection of turquoise, generally, from Chinese turquoise to a few really lovely strands of Royston turquoise that I was hard pressed to pass up (but ultimately did in favor of the above). (I also found dyed magnesite in this section, properly labeled, and at an affordable price.)

Here's my other favorite strand from the store:

It was hard for me to capture the lustre of the shell in these photos (see the close-up, below), but there are actually green abalone shell - glued back together and drilled.

I love their smooth, organic shape - kind of like a seed pod, but with that nice green lustre, and, of course, light as a feather for the size of the bead.

The store also had a second whole room devoted to glass and some estate pieces, but I had to close my eyes at this point, since I had already determined to take the turquoise.

I understand from the owner that they do not advertise. I very much enjoyed browsing around there and feel that I came home with some unusual treasure. So, if you find yourself in the area and feel the need to bead, be sure to stop by The Wild Hare. It's located at 319 White Street in Norman, Oklahoma. 405-447-5929.

Thanks for visiting!

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-05-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

After a several month sojourn in one of the Short One's toy boxes (a strange and murky journey, for sure) the Rings & Things Russ Troll Bead was recently seen conferring with a few colleagues in our house. (Personally, I like the idea that Russ Nobbs may have a secret identity as a beading superhero - Beadman? The Green Bead? Nah...)

The SO and I have just come back from our trip to Oklahoma, which will probably explain our recent brush with tornadoes. It was very pleasant and included a jaunt to the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, which the SO always enjoys. The museum is a really nice size for the SO's age and the children's science book selection in the gift store is first rate.

I found a very nice, and relatively new, bead store there, near the University of Oklahoma campus - I should have pics of some of my finds there later this week. I also had a chance to check out Susan Lenart Kazmer's great new line, Industrial Chic, at a local Michael's (which I find hard to do at home, as the closest Michael's is a decent drive and the SO tends to run around like a little Tasmanian devil in the store, making it difficult to look at anything), which ditto.

In the meantime, please don't forget to vote in the Bead Star contest! Here are your bead and jewelry links for the week.

A Bead A Day
Lisa explains her thoughts behind part 1 of a new bracelet project.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy recently took a trip to the Bahamas and discovered some souvenir pennies in her purse. They were so bright and shiny they had to be turned into jewelry.

Art Bead Scene
It's the fifth month anniversary of the ABS Carnival Blog! Come see how we've grown!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Take a jewelry class with me at CREATE!

Beading Arts
The new Rubber Glass silicone has inspired Cyndi to create some beginner projects!

Carmi's Art/Life World
In an effort to use all that she buys, Carmi repairs and recycles vintage metal from Paris.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Cindy's starting a new feature on her blog - The Wednesday Wire! Come take a look!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
A gift from a local potter starts Melanie on a new clay adventure: Raku!

Humblebeads
Heather explores 23 days of inspiration as she gets ready for the Bead & Button Show. See how Van Gogh has inspired her through the years.

Jean Campbell
Jean's just full of travelogues, isn't she? This time she went to a Kansas bead retreat.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Voting has now opened in the Bead Star competition, come check out my 5 entries!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
The best wedding I never went to! My editor's incredibly romantic wedding -- Australian Beading Magazine

Strands of Beads
Like several of her esteemed colleagues, Melissa has a few pieces in the Bead Star competition to show off this week!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew has six finalists pieces in the Bead Star competition. Please take a moment to vote!

missficklemedia.com
Vote for your Bead Star Favorites!

Thanks for visiting!

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-05-18T20:23:00.001-07:00

I was reading blogs tonight, when i suddenly realized I never posted my links for this week. My apologies to my fellow bead bloggers. It's been a busy week, but of course that's no excuse...

(Meanwhile, since I've been thinking about flowers and skulls again, I thought I'd re-run this bracelet I made last year - I love this piece (if I may say so myself). My fine silver skull charm and button, but the lucite roses really make it - I have them in a charcoal black color, too. They are just the best!)

Snap out of it, Jean!There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews Kate McKinnon's inspiring new book, Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry, with DVD included!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Check out the new beads on Cindy's site - Turquoise Sky!

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene has a new look and some new opportunties to get involved. Come see!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi uses some amazing digital images to create a new resin filled bezel necklace.

A Bead A Day
Creating jewelry for special vacations can help you look forward to upcoming trips and keep the memories fresh afterwards.

Katie's Beading Blog
This week, Jean Campbell interviewed Katie for Beading Daily. Read some bonus Q&A on Katie's blog.

Beading Arts
Rubber glass? Rubber glass?!? What the heck is rubber glass?

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie starts production for the Bead & Button Show and has studio pictures to prove it!

Humblebeads
Heather shares some sketches of possible designs.

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off new designs using cool skull beads and charms from Rings & Things

Thanks for visiting.

Cover Girl - The Best of Step by Step Beads

2010-05-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

I just received my advance copy of The Best of Step by Step Beads. That's my necklace on the cover, I'm so very pleased to report. Although I came up with the concept of "Java Jive" first, the actual necklace was largely designed around the festive set of lampworked beads by Jenn Kelly of CaliGirl Art Glass. This was my second attempt to use these beads. Want to see the first? Here you go:

Pretty horrible, eh? Especially given the high quality of the components (the pendant in this necklace is by the fab Alicia Abla, even). I had been designing jewelry for about 4 months at the time I strung this piece back in 2007. I made it originally to enter in Art Bead Scene's Monthly Challenge.

Even at the outset, I was pretty dissatisfied with this design and stuffed it into my beading drawer (I only had a few small drawers of beads back then - oh, those were the days) then promptly forgot it. When I started sketching the concept necklace "Java Jive", I remembered Jenn's beads, unceremoniously cut the original necklace apart and ended up combining them with my own simple fine silver components and the super-cute lampworked coffee bean beads by Kristine Dery of Krissy Beads. Ultimately, I came up with a new design that I liked so much I actually wore it myself (and still do). The project appeared originally in the January 2009 edition of Step by Step Beads and was my first placement in an Interweave Press publication. I can still remember how exciting it was to receive copies of that issue in the mail. (I know, I know, it wasn't actually all that long ago, but it seems like a long time now...)

Anyway, I think this is a decent example of the rewards of going back to the drawing board when you're not happy with your work. While we may enjoy believing that great designs spring fully formed from a designer's head like the goddess Athena, fully armed and ready to do battle, in practice (for me, at least), this often doesn't happen. As I've said before, everyone has their bad design moments - some more than others, sigh. It's important to recognize them, think about them and strive to move beyond them - which, of course, everyone does, eventually. Please don't let these times get you down - they are, like everything else, part of the process and a learning experience.

As for me, I couldn't be happier with the end result of my struggle to showcase these lovely beads. It's also nice to be able to raise my glass one last time to the excellent Step by Step Beads. My editor told me that they refer to the cover shot artists as their "cover girls", and I'm so happy to be joining the ranks of them here.

Thanks for visiting.

Fate

2010-05-14T12:24:00.001-07:00

It's a strange thing. I was thinking, just literally a week ago, that it would be nice to find one of the classic subway tokens lying around somewhere to make into a pendant - and made a mental note to check my older jewelry boxes and other places that might have that type of accumulated stuff. Then, me being me, I promptly forgot about it.

Cleanup day in our neighborhood was this past Saturday, and my husband and I were moving our old loveseat, which I'd owned for over a decade and which had seen better days, to the curbside for pickup. When we came back, I found what I thought at first was a coin left over from my husband's days of traveling to China on business in the doorway. In fact, it turned out to be the genuine article - a New York City Transit Authority token. Apparently, it had been stuck in the loveseat's cushions for the past decade. The weird thing is, I bought the piece of furniture after moving to D.C. - but it was at a time I was still traveling to Manhattan fairly frequently. What are the odds?

Pushing Up Daisies, Revisited

2010-05-13T13:12:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since I've had a Rings & Things post here - which basically means that I've been sitting on a hoard of gorgeous goodies from the company for ages. I feel it's past time to share, so here's part of one of the bags that has been sitting on my desk. (I say "part" because I became so excited to use some of the beads, that I forgot to pause long enough to take a group shot before starting. Yes, I am the epitome of "professional"...)

I find the bobby pin blanks strangely compelling for one with too-tightly cropped hair and expect to experiment with those shortly. In the meantime, anyone who knows me, knows that I love skull beads, so there was no question that I would drool over the lovely calaveras lampwork beads and silver-plated charms.

Since floral motifs go hand-in-hand with these skulls and since I have always loved the "Pushing Up Daisies" theme (see my necklace here, for an example), I thought it would be fun to play around with these beads and add some brightly-colored plastic flowers and rings from my stash. Here's the result - a cheerful, long and dangly charm bracelet:

I really like the way these skulls look, hanging from daisies all in a row - and the bright, candy-colors of the plastic beads actually work well with the floral design of the more monochromatic calaveras. I think they also work well individually:

Here's a single skull and daisy hanging from a chain. Cute, eh? As you can see, the overall shape and construction of the focal works quite well with both the lampwork beads and the silver-plated charms (there is also a gold-plated version of the same charm available). I don't actually wear much jewelry myself (ironically), but I think I'll be wearing this necklace around a lot, this summer.

So there you have it - two fun, simple projects for skully lovers, like me. As always, thanks so much to Rings & Things for giving me the opportunity to play with their wonderful products.

Please note: Several of the products mentioned in this post were promotional gifts from Rings & Things for review and/or design partnership purposes.

The Beanbag

2010-05-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

The Short One made me this nice present for Mother's Day yesterday. "It's a beanbag!" he said. "I drew a butterfly on it!" Well, I can actually see the butterfly (upside down in this photo), and the beanbag ought to make a nice potholder, too. We had a nice day yesterday, with a Peking duck brunch at Mom's favorite Chinese restaurant and Dad even cooked dinner (Chicken Provençal, from the excellent Two Dudes, One Pan: Maximum Flavor from a Minimalist Kitchen - our current favorite cookbook). I hope you had a nice Mother's Day, too, regardless of whether you're a Mom or not.

Here are your cool bead and jewelry links for the week:

Beading Arts
Cyndi has launched the first installment of her brand new e-book on bead embroidery...and it's free! Hurry over for your copy!

missficklemedia.com
Should I patina or leave the metal bare naked?

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
A song about hammers, nails, labor, and social involvement inspire Melanie to create some new woodlike components

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi finds a way to incorporate vintage turtle beads into a necklace.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Cindy works through her to-do list and lists a new set of glass birdhouse beads.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew starts the month of May off with another giveaway by Lillypilly Designs! Find out how you can win a set of tribal-inspired wooden beads!

A Bead A Day
What does swarovski sparkle mean to you? Lisa shares the happy feeling brought on by sparkly stars.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy has some fun in the sun summer time jewelry tutorials for you, including a cute turtle charm necklace.

Art Bead Scene
Free Project Alert! ABS has a new necklace project for free on their website!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean brags! Yes, she really brags! It's worth a look because it's cool!

Jean Campbell
Jean's been at the grindstone, but also at the gardens...check out these beautiful images from the MoBG!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is back on track this week and is giving away coordinating beads with Sab's help, from BeadBead.biz!

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off a new version of her Cabinet of Curiosity pendant.

Shameless Self-Promo - Easy Beading Vol. 6

2010-05-08T20:04:00.001-07:00

I just received my advance copy of Easy Beading Vol. 6: Fast. Fashionable. Fun. in the mail today. My project, "Branch Out for Fall", appeared originally in BeadStyle magazine in November 2008. The necklace incorporates one of my Autumn Tree pendants:

This design was one of the first I ever made in metal clay and the project was the first one I ever sold to a magazine, so it remains a favorite.

If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you probably already know this, but for anyone else - it was the positive reception to my early work by the editors of BeadStyle magazine that really encouraged me to continue designing and working with metal clay. So, as you can imagine, I am so pleased that they selected this project to include in their sixth "best of BeadStyle" volume.

This is a hefty tome, full of beautiful projects - many by names you will already know. I tried to pick out a few favorites to highlight here, but there are too many - Jean Yates' "Linked Barcelets", Jane Konkel's "Fashionista Frida", a ton of beautiful pieces by Rupa Balanchandar, including one of my personal favorites, "Tibetan Prayer Wheel Pendant", work by Lorlei Eurto, Heather Powers, Susan Kennedy, Nina Cooper, and on and on!

It's a good book. Really.

Suburban Bead Bazaar

2010-05-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

I made it to a local bead show about a week ago, so I thought I'd flash my new stash acquisitions. I say "local", but it's just far enough away that this was the first time for me to make the trek out there, although I believe the show has been going on for a couple years. Two of my friends, Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio and Diane Hawkey, were exhibiting this time, and I decided it would be nice to see them before the Bead & Button Show - and it was!

I came away with a cool ceramic lock, flower button and skully focal from Diane. The skull bead appears in BEADS2010, along with some of Diane's other beautiful work. The photo is not terribly clear, but I believe if you click on it you will get a closer look at the beads, especially the skull.

I also bought one of Melanie's gorgeous resin-filled ceramic bezels - Dawn, from Chelsea's Beads - one of my go-to local bead stores - spotted it while we were chatting and insisted that I take it home with me. So really, I had no choice but to add it to my stash. Right? Right?

I also managed to pick up several clasps at Saki Silver - I love their work, beautifully detailed yet clean in design. I was so inspired by one of the silver clasps I bought that I used it just a few hours later in a design I ended up submitting to Bead Star. The one in the photo is from their line of shibuichi.

Those green stone beads are actually tumbled emeralds, if you can believe it. Kathy at A/D Adornments has the best eye for stone. I was so depressed when she told me last year that she was getting rid of her inventory of stone strands. Nevertheless, I still found these at her booth last week (the exception to the new rule, perhaps), and I'm completely smitten by them. Being tumbled, they have a wonderful texture - they pretty much beg to be touched.

Finally, being the, uh, generous person that I am, I helped Robert Jennick destash. He had a wonderful basket of beads from his personal collection set out at his booth, and I couldn't help but drool over this very beautiful strand of natural purple spiny oyster spikes. The color is quite vibrant in person and the shape of each bead is gorgeous.

As you can probably tell, this was an exceptionally nice show. Although it wasn't large, all my favorite people and vendors were there. I am a little worried, as the show didn't seem as busy as it ought to have been, but I hope it continues to have success in the future. I will certainly make an effort to go again in the fall.

The next show I attend will be the big one - Bead & Button! How about you?

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Free Comic Book Day, everyone. This was the first year we took the Short One over to a local comic shop to celebrate and pick up the DC Kids sampler - highly satisfying for the SO, especially since he managed to score a few (pre-school appropriate) superhero action figures (Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel) during the visit, too. As part of his continuing obsession with all things superheroes, the SO has just started "reading" (ie., we read them to him) the DC Super Friends and the Tiny Titans which last involves stories of the Teen Titans as kindergarteners. I have to say, so far we've been pretty happy with these titles that are, well, aimed at kids the SO's age - the language is clean and reasonably well-written, the story often has an uplifting message (with good friends you can do anything, etc.), they're not really violent and the characters all look very friendly, even the villains. I hope you're enjoying your Free Comic Book Day, too - er, whether you read comics or not.

Anyway, here are your bead & jewelry links for the week. Happy weekend, everyone.

Beading Arts
Here's a quick little tutorial on how to create a barnacle texture with seed beads!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Spring is the time for new life and new charms at Cindy Gimbrone Beads.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie spreads her wings and designs a new pair of carvings to be made into pendants.

A Bead A Day
Do you ever find beads in your own collection that you forgot you had?

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene's newest member opens her heart and shares how she feels about the Art Bead Scene. Maybe you feel the same?

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew shares his trip to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Bead Society's Bead Bazaar.

About.com Jewelry Making
School is in session, or at least, it will be when you sign up for one of these free copper clay e-courses.

Strands of Beads
Melissa uses lava beads to help teach her son about volcanoes

Volcanic

2010-04-27T17:54:00.001-07:00

Given recent events, the Short One and I have been spending some time learning about volcanoes. My mother actually managed to find a book on the subject meant for elementary school-aged kids. I have to simplify the contents a bit, but he's been quite interested to learn about how volcanoes are formed and their destructive power (what is it with boys and destruction, eh?). The SO, in particular, loves all of the dramatic photos of molten lava spitting and flowing from the volcano.

So, imagine how impressed he was when he discovered that we actually had lava rock in the house (although he was a little disappointed that it wasn't glowing orange, as in the photos). Yep, I took out my small stash of lava beads (some of which he surreptitiously added to his rock collection - I pretended not to notice) and we discussed how the stone looked and felt and what we liked about it. From my perspective, this was a nice, educational and practical way to use the beads. In the end, we took a little time out to make matching bracelets on stretchy cord, too. Here's the SO's version. Pretty manly, eh? I'll have to find some obsidian, now...

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

2010-04-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you like a piece of jewelry but never really wear it? You may recall this piece from a few months ago. I made it for myself to wear (the reverse side of the pendant has a photo of the Short One in a shallow bezel), but I just never seem to get around to actually wearing it. Really, these days, I hardly ever wear any jewelry apart from my engagement ring and wedding band. Is this strange? Anyway, I've been having some thoughts of cutting this apart and starting over - that rough cut pink tourmaline is too good to waste.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here are your bead and jewelry links for the week:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Be entered to win a one year subscription to Beadwork magazine! Find out how!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Stranded by the volcano, Carmi has time for a little more window shopping.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
For Cindy, yellow is the color of anticipation.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie sets up a trunk show at her favorite local indie craft gallery. Check out her display!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Resin has become quite popular in jewelry design lately. It's a lot trickier than Lorelei had originally thought. She tries out the technique for the first time.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Do not miss out on Andrew Thornton's amazing sale and giveaway! It is fantastic!!! Go now! Really fun!

Strands of Beads
Melissa creates a sweet Spring necklace from wasabi-colored pearls and a beautiful Lillypilly pendant courtesy of Artbeads.com.

About.com Jewelry Making
It is flower power time! Mix resin, real flowers, and beads for this necklace design.

Art Bead Scene
The Art Bead Scene Welcomes Miss Fickle Media to the editorial staff!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe will be at Unique LA promoting the Steampunk Style book.

Psst - Andrew's Sale and Giveaway

2010-04-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't already heard, Andrew Thornton is holding a Spring Cleaning Sale over at his shop right now. Lots of good stuff there, including this wonderful shibuichi skull by Bob Burkett:

I purchased one of these from Andrew earlier in the year, and I love it (as beautiful as it looks in the photo, it's much better in person)! Anyone who makes a purchase from his shop will be automatically entered to win a subscription to Beadwork Magazine. Go here for more details.

Bead Dreams 2010

2010-04-22T21:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a kiss-the-postman kind of day. He brought me a nice, fat envelope from Bead & Button Magazine with good news - both of my entries for the metal clay category have been juried into the finals of the 2010 Bead Dreams Competition.

As sad as it is to admit, it has become traditional for me to tear my hair out, weep and have at least one major meltdown - during which my little boy comes up to me and asks me if he can kiss my boo-boo better - while trying to complete my entry for Bead Dreams. This year was particularly difficult, as my son and his health has been my priority this spring and the time I have been spending on jewelry was cut down to virtually nothing. I had one piece prepared before his diagnosis, but I sort of kissed the second one good-bye after our hospital stay. That I was ultimately able to finish the second piece is due entirely to the generosity of my family - who helped me free up enough time to work on the piece - and the fact that my son is a remarkably brave and good child. All of which is not to say that I did not follow tradition to a "T" and weep and cry and carry on, et cetera, up until the competition deadline, of course.

Anyway, here's a sneak peek of the first piece I made for competition. You can probably kind of guess the style of piece it is (if you know my work at all). However, after the super-cool, substantial response I received to those ceramic teeth last summer when I posted a pic on the blog (go here to view), I just wanted to follow up and let you know that, yes, I used them and, moreover, I used them all together. :) They do make a statement, right?

Thanks for letting me brag a bit - this has been a bright spot in the year for me, and, well, I couldn't resist sharing.

Shameless You-Know-What

2010-04-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

I love this magazine. It's bad for my budget, but I do love perusing the wonderful new products profiled here each year. I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it cover-to-cover yet, but I'm really drooling over a number of the ceramic artist beads in this issue (you can see several of them on the cover).

My Stone and Shore box pendant (the one with a tides design on one side and small pebbles from Lake Michigan on the reverse) is on page 25 of the magazine. The photographs of the piece really knock me out. As usual, many thanks to the editors for making my work look so good.

What I Did Over Spring Break

2010-04-21T06:29:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, it's been sort of a tough start to the year for the Short One. So, over Spring Break, we took him on a well-needed vacation to Disney World. It was his first trip there, and Mom's and Dad's first trip to the Magic Kingdom in about 30 years.

The SO had a great time. After receiving a thousand kisses from Minnie Mouse, he insisted on meeting all of Mickey's friends, rode his first (kiddie) roller coaster and loved "It's a Small World" and "Peter Pan" - but NOT "Pirates of the Caribbean." Mom and Dad hadn't realized just how much the ride had been re-vamped post-movies - it's definitely not as child-friendly as it used to be.

Naturally, the SO made out like a bandit souvenir-wise (and we even found some sugar-free gummy candy in the shape of Mickey and Minnie for him, which was a nice surprise), but I also managed to come home with a little remembrance of the trip. Of course, this small bracelet is meant for a little girl (although it actually fits my skinny wrist). If you look closely at the photo, you'll see that the colorful plastic beads are actually in the shape of mouse ears. I thought they were cute, as well as an interesting example of Disney's dominant branding. And do I ever miss an opportunity for bead shopping, wherever I may be? Well, duh.

The SO and I will probably cut this apart and use the beads for other projects, but being a nice find for the intrepid bead-hunter (in my opinion, anyway), I thought I'd show it to you now.

Thanks for visiting.

Sweet Pea

2010-04-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is I, your friendly neighborhood jewelry blogger. It seems I was a little bit optimistic about blogging more regularly last month - but I do at least have a nice, new spring design to share today. A while back, Artbeads.com asked their blog partners to select a few items from their catalog with which to create a new spring design. I chose this beautiful mother of pearl pendant by Lillypilly and a strand of wasabi potato pearl s. I thought the color combination would work very well together. I elected to combine them with pale pink resin flowers that I already had in my stash. Artbeads.com has a beautiful selection of similar beads here. I also added a little sparkle with Swarovski crystal bicones (again, Artbeads.com has a beautiful selection of similar beads here). I finished the piece off with a few rose quartz nuggets and a very simple sterling silver toggle clasp.

I'm quite happy with the result. Although the wasabi color of the pearls is not quite a true pea color, they still reminded me enough of sweet peas for the name. Obviously, the focal here is the beautiful Lillypilly pendant, but I could easily see taking the pearls and resin flowers to make a cheerful multi-strand bracelet, perhaps with a nice, ornate box clasp.

I strung this piece while waiting for the Short One to finish his Spanish class. The timing was good from my perspective, as a few of the other mothers in the waiting area commented on the piece as I put it together. Since I usually work alone, I never have any third-party input in a piece while I am designing it, so I found the comments quite interesting. When I spread the materials out on the table initially, the other women felt that the colors I selected did not really work well together, and in particular, that the brown shade of the Swarovski crystal bicones clashed with the more pastel shades of the piece. For my part, I felt that the pastel green and pinks looked too washed out without a bit of contrast, so I kept a few of the brown bicones in the finished design, although I did reduce the number of the bicones I incorporated. What do you think? Would you have taken them out or left them in?

As always, this piece was made as part of the blogging program with Artbeads.com and would not have been created without their generous contribution of the pendant and pearls. Thank you, Artbeads.com, for once again giving me an opportunity to design with your lovely products.

Please note: (as stated in the post) some of the products mentioned above were promotional gifts from Artbeads.com for review and/or design partnership purposes.

Between the Folds

2010-03-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law, who is an artist, tipped me off to this beautiful, beautiful documentary on the art of paper folding, after she found out that the Short One and I have been having fun with origami. This is a gorgeous film. I'm only able to embed the trailer, above, but you can watch the whole thing at PBS through their "Independent Lens" page here.

The sheer visual drama of watching the transformation of a single sheet of paper into something beyond the reach of imagination (my imagination, at least) is fascinating. I know, I know, I'm such a geek. But even if you have no interest in origami, mathematics or engineering, you're going to love this film. Trust me.

Hall of Shame

2010-03-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

In my mind, I've sort of had this pledge to myself that I'd share the good, the bad and the ugly on this blog. Here's some of The Ugly.

I was flipping through my photo log this morning and came across this masterpiece. Seriously, what was I thinking? Perfectly beautiful pieces of faceted solar quartz with bunches of...Stuff. I even submitted this to a couple magazines (I received politer responses than I deserved).

It's sort of like those photos of myself from the 80s - I wince at the clothes (hot pink spandex mini-skirts, anyone?), I avert my eyes, I move on.

Still, we all have those moments, right? I think it's important to remember that we each have our own personal, er, design troughs - and we all get over them, eventually. It's all part of the process.

Anyone else have Hall of Shame stories they'd like to share?

And the Winner Is...

2010-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Batman and Robin by the Short One

Batman and Wolverine! Er, I mean, skygrazer/Christy! Christy, please email me at melissa[at]melissajlee.com with your contact details, and I will mail out your pendant. Congratulations!

Thanks so much to everyone who played - the Short One had a great time selecting the winner. Actually, it was hard to restrain him from selecting 5-6 more winners, he had such a good time, but unfortunately I only have one prize!

In the meantime, we've moved on at our house from the Super Friends to the Teen Titans (under a bit of parental supervision - I find some of those shows a touch violent for the SO's age) and Batman, the Brave and the Bold. The SO can now recognize the Atom, Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold and Green Arrow on sight. Now, if only he'd apply this enthusiasm to learning to read...

Thanks again. Happy weekend, everyone.

Kate McKinnon

2010-03-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd show off something from my stash today. This Crabby Owl on Branch pendant is part of my personal collection of exquisite Kate pieces. I can't get over how beautifully balanced this thing is. It nestles perfectly comfortably, and upright, on the wearer's breastbone. I believe it's a featured project in one of Kate's upcoming books - have you pre-ordered your copies yet?

(By the way, the incredibly cute but crabby owl bead is by Karen Elmquist. You can purchase her work here.)

This week, Kate is running a new web sale here. It's her practice to continue to add new inventory to her sales, so be sure to check it out periodically. She currently has one of her amazingly cool cocktail rings up in her shop:

Grab it while you can.

De-stashing Again

2010-03-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

With spring around the corner, I've decided to start going through my stash of cotton yarns and artisan novelty yarns (much, much smaller than the winter yarns, but still) and list a few things on eBay. One of the items included is a kit to make the above sweater. It's by Prism Yarns, that high-end purveyor of all things "Stuff". As with Koigu kits, I think with Prism Yarn you either love it or hate it, and I love it. I still think this jacket is really attractive. However, even though it's an easy knit, given the circumstances at home, I doubt I'll get around to knitting it up (and it's already been sitting in my closet for several years). Plus, to be brutally honest, do I go anywhere anymore where this type of jacket would be appropriate (and would survive being climbed up by an active toddler)? Err, no. Anyway, if you'd like more information about the kit or other things I have up (including a few leftovers from the last time I destashed), please go here.

Thanks!

Reasons to celebrate

2010-03-14T18:58:00.001-07:00

Happy Pi Day! I know you know it's Pi Day today, right? Go on, admit it - it's your favorite holiday - you can't hide it from me. March 14, which here in the US is noted 3/14 or 3.14 - or pi taken out to 2 decimal places (which always makes me wonder - is Pi Day celebrated in countries where March 14th is annotated as 14.3? Just curious).

March 14th is also White Day in places such as Japan, South Korea and I believe one or two other countries. It's one month after Valentine's Day - the day when the boys respond to the girls (traditionally, only girls give out chocolate on Valentine's Day where White Day is also celebrated). So Happy White Day to you, too.

Thanks for all of the kind comments and interesting entries for the Short One's Superhero Giveaway. For those of you who inquired, any superhero is fine! (I love Underdog, myself.)

Without further ado, here are your bead & jewelry links for the week:

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
An inveterate wirer, Jean approaches new things which other designers do with ease verrrry cautiously...as if they might be wild animals! Grrrr! Should she run away? Decide for yourself!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Thinking of selling on Etsy? Read this post, Lorelei has shared some tips from what she's learned along the way.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
When is more, more? When you've got shell pearls and lampwork glass!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Button making turns into jewelry making for Carmi this week!

About.com Jewelry Making
Jump rings seem like small items when it comes to jewelry making, but they can cause big problems!

Art Bead Scene
ABS unveils the March Challenge painting - Van Gogh's Almond Blossoms.

Beading Arts
Cyndi has a fabulous Zulugrass bracelet to giveaway this week!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Another favorite song inspires Melanie to make new Heart Window pendants

Strands of Beads
Melissa is giving away one of her floating box pendants this week in honor of her son.

The Short One's Superhero Giveaway

2010-03-11T22:41:00.001-08:00

The Super Friends, courtesy of The Short One (and Daddy).
This was completely rendered using the touchpad on our MacBook - not bad, eh?
I'm particularly fond of Wonder Woman.
(The skinny dude next to her is Aquaman, in case you were wondering.)

It's been so long since the Short One's actual birthday, I decided to change the theme of the annual giveaway (plus, I think the SO would be insulted if anyone were to suggest that he just turned four - he's been four for a long time now, practically forever, thank you very much).

Superheroes are a big theme here right now, and, to tell you the truth, we're in need of superheroes at the moment. I've been sort of debating all along what to say and not to say about our circumstances right now. This blog is technically part of my home, and of course, I routinely share family stories here. However, this one is rather personal, and it's not really my story to tell - it belongs to my son. That being said, I think I can at least share this much.

The SO ended up having an unwelcome birthday surprise this year. Shortly after he turned four, I took him to his pediatrician for what I thought was going to be a routine physical. However, within a few hours of that visit he had to be admitted to the hospital and by that night he was definitively diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

The SO was Not Happy in the hospital, to put it mildly (and who can blame him?), but the Peds Ward had a lending library of videos to distract the patients. I ended up grabbing every Scooby-Doo movie he hadn't already seen - and I also found a copy of a Super Friends video containing a selection of episodes from one of the original versions of the show (the Legion of Doom series) from the mid-70s.

To say that the SO - who up to that point had not so much as heard the word "superhero" - became immediately obsessed with all things Super Friends-related would be an understatement. We live and breathe superheroes night and day right now. We have serious conversations about the fact that "Lex Luthor is Superman's anemone" and its implications. We discuss in intricate detail options for this year's Halloween costume (curiously enough, Robin seems to be winning so far). We develop long and involved hypotheses concerning what kind of pet accompanies Aquaman (since Superman has Krypto and Batman has Ace the Bathound, after all).

And we love it. Despite the irony, I can't think of anything better in which to have the SO's imagination wrapped up than strong characters who are always brave in the face of adversity (even if they do wear their undergarments on the outside) as he goes through this major life change.

Which brings us to this giveaway. Here's the prize:

As you can see, my floating box pendant has no relation to superheroes, sadly (although I suppose you could say that the sea glass is sort of a kryptonite green, eh?). I had this in mind from last year as the prize for the SO's giveaway - mostly because I designed this pendant originally for my mother, who wanted something reminiscent of a locket that could contain the SO's photo. This version has a shallow square bezel on the back in which you can paste a photo.

Now the SO always gets a kick out of selecting the winner of these contests, so I thought that, to make it more fun for him, I'd have a new rule for this year. In order to enter, you must let the SO know who your favorite superhero (or supervillain, we are equal opportunity on this point) is in your comment below this post. Comments which do not meet this requirement will not be entered in the giveaway. I'm sure he will be tickled to see which hero (or villain) wins the contest. (Me, I'm rooting for Batman.)

My other usual rules apply. If you leave a comment using the "Anonymous" option (ie, if you are not registered with Blogger), be sure to write your name at the bottom so I know who entered. You must return to the blog at the end of the contest to see if you won - I will not contact the winner by email.

The contest will end on Saturday, March 20th. I will post the name of the winner at that time with instructions on how to claim the prize.

Thanks for continuing to check in with me - I appreciate it.

Rube Goldberg Machine

2010-03-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

Not many things have been able to make me laugh these past couple weeks, but this video did. If you have any passing interest in Rube Goldberg machines at all, you should take a look at this video. It doesn't hurt that OK Go is one of my and my husband's favorite bands.

Things are settling down over here into a new normal. I should be back on the blog wagon next week. I hope everything has been going well in your lives. I miss you guys.