BTW: Cloudy with a Chance of Spiders

Hobo spider checking out my beads... not really; I offed him -- look at those fangs, wouldn't you off him too??

Time for Bead Table Wednesday; there's a random title for you, eh? It is cloudy here in New Mexico today, which means our monsoons are gearing up and should arrive just in time for Magdalena's Old Timers Reunion this weekend. The "spiders" part of this title comes from the large, leggy creature that stalked right across my body at 1:00 this morning and landed squarely on my beading tray when I whacked it with my slipper. I rarely kill spiders (I am indeed one of those "get a cup! don't hurt it!" people), but this creature looked a bit too much like a Brown Recluse (*shudder*) for me to let it skitter away under my covers. Looking up spiders this morning (*shudder* again) I discovered it's too large to be a Brown Recluse and is more likely a Hobo Spider, also known as the "aggressive house spider." They do bite when "cornered," such as when a sleeping person rolls over on them, and while not fatal the bites can cause tissue necrosis and a wound that won't heal for months. I've seen two in my bedroom in the last few days, and that is SO not okay with me, so... dang it, time to do a deep cleaning.

Ocean charm bracelet in progress; I won't use the turquoise but like the color combination

In the meantime (if you're still reading and haven't run off batting away imaginary spiders), I'm working on a charm bracelet with shells, pearls, shell birds, and glass, and it needs a great ocean-themed focal piece. I thought about using a turquoise chunk but really want something more thematic (but not kitschy), perhaps in ceramic or metal. Any ideas?

BTW: Wings

Love Has Wings necklace of Gaea ceramic focal and beads, riverstone, red ceramics, and copper

Love Has Wings bracelet

I'm finishing a good number of projects these days -- maybe even more than I'm starting! Now there's a shift.... I was going to show these pieces off anyway, but in the context of my semi-organized bead tray that shows what else is coming out of this color combination. However, I left my camera, with this week's Bead Table Wednesday pictures, up in the mountains, where I've had the pleasure of housesitting for the past 10 days. I ported my little lap tray and several boxes up there with my tools, and have sat down to work on projects for all of two hours, so there isn't much to show there anyway! I did finish off the wonderful "Confetti" bracelet I showed here last week, and I'm 90% sure I'm keeping that one.... I also made some pretty earrings that match the necklace above and the bracelet at right; the necklace focal is one of my favorite Gaea creations, and I added in creamy riverstone, awesome red ceramic beads from a great vendor I'll have to look up, and copper -- I had started with brass but it seemed dull, and sterling was just too "cold," so I decided to heat things up with the warm copper and just love this combination! Now I'm off to see what's on everyone else's table this week -- happy creating!

BTW: Confetti!

Confetti bracelet (in progress) in faceted millefiore glass and antiqued brass

One good thing (and there really is only one, that I can think of anyway) that comes out of a windy, smoky weekend is time spent indoors beading. I made lots of earrings last weekend, finished two necklaces (the faceted gemstone ones I had laid out last week), and started this colorful bracelet that I just love and may have to keep for myself. I found the faceted millefiore glass beads at Michaels about two months ago and snapped up the last two strands, knowing I would find some use for them eventually. For a while I was trying out a bead here and there, just to accent various designs, but they never quite worked and that's when I realized they all wanted to stay together in one fabulously sparkly piece. Now, of course, I want more; if Michaels was less than 100 miles away I'd have run over there several times by now, but I have to wait for a more substantial reason to make the trip to Albuquerque, and hope Michaels still has these in stock.... So, what's on your bead table this week?

BTW: Treasures Unearthed

This week on the bead table: Flowery dangly sparkly earrings!

I love Bead Table Wednesday for many reasons: I get to see what other people are working on and how they organize their workspaces, it allows me to really think and learn about the creative process, and it compels me to take a hard look at and maybe organize my beading area a bit because, really, who wants to show off a big mess? A funny thing happens when I clean up my beading area: I find stuff I forgot I had, or vaguely remembered having, or absolutely knew was somewhere in the mess.... When I cleaned up my bead table last week I unearthed a treasure trove of sterling silver findings and beads that I had set out into trays and cups for specific projects, then lost track of as I shifted to other projects and let things pile up. I thought I remembered stocking up on sterling earwires, headpins, spacer beads, and clasps last fall when silver was surging past $15 per ounce, but given how busy my life is my memory of such things isn't always reliable... So when I got an order for some sterling earrings a while back, I couldn't find a dang thing and figured, well, maybe I thought about stocking up and didn't get around to it because, sheesh, $15 an ounce??....

Project on the table: Hill Tribes silver trumpet
flower pendant with faceted amethyst, pearls



Also on the table: Hill Tribes silver rose
pendant with faceted garnet, pearls

Now that sterling silver is hovering around $35 to $40 an ounce (Thunderbird Supply shows the daily market price), I am over the moon to find the 50 pairs of sterling French hook earwires, 20 pairs of sterling leverback earwires, 200 sterling headpins, and 200 assorted sterling spacers I bought last fall -- holy cow, what a find! And so I have been making lots and lots of earrings this week, and will make lots and lots more, along with some necklaces featuring Hill Tribes silver flower pendants and faceted gemstones I bought in Tucson two years ago. I do love working with copper and brass, but sometimes a design really calls for sterling silver. You can bet I'll be keeping my bead table a bit cleaner from now on; if nothing else, I should refrain from laying out stones and findings and such until I actually have the time to execute a design, and just sketch out my jewelry ideas instead when time is short.
(It's a good goal to aim for, anyway...)

BTW: The Cleanup Crew Finally Came By!

My *clean* bead table! Love that morning light.

Top tray: work in progress (owl pendant by Spirited Earth; tree button
by BeadFreaky). Bottom tray: finished necklaces with flying heart
pendant by Gaea and lotus pendant by SummersStudio.

I can finally show my bead table for Bead Table Wednesday!  ;-)  Last week, feeling the urge to create again, I realized I had to clean up my beading area if I wanted to work without frustration, which is a real creativity-killer. So I spent a windy, smoky afternoon inside watching USA's House marathon and systematically sorting through and organizing my beading trays, holding cups, and storage bins. The result: a clean, well-organized area that in the following days yielded five finished projects and three more well in progress after a month of being stalled out. Yesterday I was able to photograph and list some new pieces, and today I hope to finish a set for the June Art Bead Scene challenge -- I *love* this month's inspiration image! As you can see in the photo above, I love colorful images; with the exception of the top one, a painting from Haiti, all of these came from various Etsy artists whose renditions of birds I find both inspiring and peaceful.

So, what's on your work table today?

BTW: Desert Oasis



Desert Oasis: Necklace in faceted glass, shell, pearls, and brass



I haven't participated in Bead Table Wednesday lately because my beading area is just a disheveled, unmanageable disaster lately thanks to lots of work in the garden and puppy training. My works in progress are so messy I can't even see what I was thinking when I started laying them out, and even though I know BTW isn't about showing how neat and tidy our workspaces are (because they usually aren't when we're in the midst of creating), mine is kind of hideous right now. Miraculously, though, the necklace above emerged from the chaos over the past few days. It's mostly glass -- Michaels has had some gorgeous faceted glass on their racks lately, and I got the glass leaves and flowers from Etsy seller yashmacreations -- along with dyed shell chips, a few wirewrapped pearls, and a brass dragonfly and swallow on antiqued brass chain. I had started laying this piece out in sterling silver (I was going to use a blue lampwork focal) but didn't have enough chain and was appalled to find that silver has risen past $40 per ounce; actually, though, I much prefer the warmth that brass brings to this piece. So, what's on your table today?

BTW: Back to Work

My Bead Table Wednesday contribution is a day late this week because I've had two ABQ trips (both fun) and haven't had a whole lot of time at either the bead table or the computer. I did get some pretties at Michaels -- happy birthday AND tax return day to me! -- and started a few sets, shown above, that I hope to finish up soon. Not today, though; it is sunny and not windy outside and I'll be gardening alllllllll day. The winds come back with a vengeance tomorrow, so today is it for me in the garden till next week, probably. As ferocious as our winds have been -- gusts up to 70 mph, and gritty, choking dust that gets into everything -- I know it's nothing compared to the weather seen in other parts of the country this week. So I'll send today's perfect sunshine east... and hope we get one good soaking rain to tamp everything down before the winds blow us right on over into Texas.

BTW: Studio Time!

Today's bead table: Keeping it simple and focusing on wirework. (I traded textbooks for sterling wire - thanks, Amazon!)

(I really need to scour my bench block.)

It's Bead Table Wednesday, and I'm doing wirework today (along with coursework and gardening, of course). I still haven't taken the initiative to teach myself metalwork, but as the weather warms up I'm spending a bit of time out in my little studio (which I still think of as Mom's studio), where I can do messy projects and leave stuff out rather than cleaning up every time I have to leave something unfinished. When I clean up, I lose things like tools and components and forget what I was trying to do, whereas if it's all spread out on the table, I know exactly what I was doing and where to start up again. It's really more efficient not to clean up.

(That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.)


Gourd experiments in progress (note goggles & dust mask)

Last weekend we had howling winds that made gardening and hiking impossible, but I wanted to be outside so I stepped into the studio to start doing something with my gourds from two summers ago. I got a notion to make little bird baths and hanging planters with a few of them, so out came the Dremel (which was also Mom's) and paints, and when they're done I'll lacquer them and put them around the garden. Today I'm also making earrings for a custom order I have long neglected because I was out of the sterling wire I needed and couldn't get my hands on more at a reasonable price. My order finally came in yesterday, so I get to play with the hammer today!

BTW: "All your pretties are belong to me"

My bead "table" this Wednesday is my bed because what I thought was an allergy attack seems to be a worsening cold, and Dr. Max Kitty here seems to think I'm best off in bed where I can most effectively focus all of my attention on him. I was hoping to start learning how to solder this week, since I'm on break, but I can wait till next week and, in the meantime, try to finish off a few of my endless UFOs (unfinished objects). The pearl necklace above might be finished (keep it simple, or add danglies?), and last night I finished off some earrings I had laid out a month ago, so I just have... a dozen or two more projects to finish.... Max is good company as long as he doesn't try to climb onto my lap, where the beading tray usually rests. He has been banished more than once for this offense, which I'd like to think happened when he just couldn't contain his affection for me anymore, but I know it's just because my lap is the warmest place in the house.

In other news, I did pick the winner of my giveaway 2 weeks ago (sorry I was so late; coursework had to come first) and the random number generator came up with #6: Shannon C. of For My Sweet Daughter! Congratulations, Shannon -- I know you'll love this book! Heck, you'll probably get to it before I do given how things have piled up here, and I can't wait to see what you come up with. Enjoy your week, everyone!

BTW: Adventures in Metalwork (and a Giveaway!)

Studio space, wide view. Thanks to a kitchen re-do last summer I now have plenty of working space.
(It's only neat because I haven't started working in here yet!)

Time for Bead Table Wednesday! Now that the weather is warming up, I've decided to move my messier jewelry-making projects and tools out to the little studio in the back yard. This was my mom's painting studio, and last fall I moved my mosaic supplies out there just to free up space in the house and garage; now I'm ready to start working out there and want to make it the kind of quiet, creative space that it was for my mom. It's also a much more suitable space than the dining/family room for my new adventure: metalwork! So this morning I moved my Dremel, new microtorch and soldering accessories, patinas and supplies, metals, and other metalwork stuff out here, and it looks like I'll have plenty of room as well as light and ventilation to start working out here soon.



New studio metalwork area #1: Patina, soldering, and chasing

I've been wanting to learn how to do metalwork for several years now but have not had the time or money for supplies or training. I was on the verge of signing up for a local metalworking class when my dumb car accident last fall took away the money I'd been stashing away for it. Since then I've gradually been accumulating tools to get started, most recently the very affordable Blazer micro-torch shown at right, which (for now) is about as far as I want to go in the playing-with-fire part of metalwork. I was able to get that, a jeweler's saw, and two books (Soldering Made Simple and Mixed Metal Mania) thanks to an Amazon credit from turning in used textbooks, and this week I picked up some sheet copper and brass, shears, butane, heat-proof blocks, tweezers, and a few other supplies at Thunderbird Supply in Albuquerque so I can get started during my upcoming 3-week break from school.

Following suggestions from other metalworkers and common sense, I'll start with copper and brass given my total newbie-ness and the price of silver; this works for me anyway because a lot of my jewelry lately has included those metals. Once I've made a few things I can then play with the patinas I got from the wonderful MissFickleMedia, whose tutorial I also bought and have found really useful as well as readable. While I love the patinated components I've bought from her and other Etsy sellers recently, I also love the idea of making my own, not just to save money but really to experiment and see what I can come up with. Again, this little studio is perfect for that process, which thanks to my experience with Liver of Sulfer I know can become smelly and a bit messy.

So what new things have you all been up to lately? Tell me all about it in the comments section and, if you're also interesting in trying or refining your skills in soldering and other metalwork, I'll enter you in a random giveaway for a copy of Soldering Made Simple! I accidentally ordered two copies, and this fabulous book is a great way for me to thank both my long-time and new visitors and followers. I'll draw a number using a random number generator next Wednesday (March 16) and announce it in that day's BTW post. Good luck, and thanks as always for visiting!

Bead Table Wednesday: Endless



The bead "table," shifted from the bedroom and tidied up just a bit...

Color/texture sort; I see 2 or 3 projects developing here

I hear and read about people complaining of boredom and think, My God, how can that be -- there is just not enough time in the day, week, or year to do everything I want to do. When my grandfather's health was failing at age 87, he lamented that he wasn't close to finishing all his projects, and indeed he left behind notebooks filled with writings and sketches of paintings he wanted to do, places he wanted to go for inspiration, classes he wanted to take.... Last summer my mom faced the same dilemma as she found herself too weak from a ruthlessly aggressive cancer to sit up in a chair to paint, so she bought a woodcarving kit figuring it was something she could do semi-reclined in bed. This kit, still unused, is on my metalwork table now; after she passed away in July I couldn't even look at it, but a month ago I set it down next to my little bench block and hammer, both as inspiration and as a reminder that the creative spirit pulses on even as the body is failing.

Bead sorts and patina line-up (near top)

Anyhoo. Here's a glimpse of what is on my beading "table" these days; I put table in quotes because this past winter I've been beading mostly in the comfy rocking chair in my bedroom, wrapped up next to a heater, with the TV on or my 7.8 GB music collection on "shuffle." For these photos I moved my active projects into the dining room/studio, right in front of a sliding glass door that is now wide open because it is almost 70F outside!! The little lap desk in the top photo has served me very well all winter and may well accompany me outside as I shift my operations to a comfy chair in the back yard. I got the idea to use the little metal tins as beadholders from someone on my blogroll -- I'm trying to track that entry down now so I can give credit where credit is due! -- and knew exactly where to find some: in my mom's little painting studio out back. I believe these were originally her father's, and when she took up oil painting five or six years ago she was able to use many of his painting supplies that she had taken for safe keeping after he passed away. So, although I've drastically repurposed these, I feel good keeping them in service, honoring the memories of these people I loved so much and whose relentless creativity I seem to have inherited. I have a feeling that my creative sprite Maggie, who takes after her Granna so much, will snatch some of these long before I pass away, and I'm cool with that.

Bead Table Wednesday: This Little Piggy Went to Market



Ceramic beads, button, and pendant from Gaea



Colorful polymer clay beads from EarthTonesOnline

I love these memes -- thanks to Heather Powers of Humblebeads for starting this one! I feel connected to fellow creatives and, while there is a theme, I can do my own thing. So today I'll show you what's on my "bead table" (right now it's a lap table by my bedside because I'm still kind of in hibernation mode) and write about suppliers. Being snowbound and far from civilization isn't what it used to be thanks to the Internet and e-commerce. Although I do sometimes miss going to bead shops to fondle the gemstones and drool over the lampwork glass and dream about how to use the great variety of beads and findings I see, I can do plenty of drooling and dreaming as I navigate through online shops that may be located anywhere from Albuquerque to Sweden to Hong Kong. I have a few reliable suppliers of basics, but lately I'm turning to Etsy for both unique handmade components and basic findings. Recently I went on a bit of a shopping spree and today decided to show some of the amazing creations I've picked up from fellow Etsy sellers. I much prefer to support the artisans and small entrepreneurs, and now that I have a more defined style and have found some wonderful smaller, more personal suppliers I've all but stopped ordering from places like Fire Mountain (their "handling fee" on top of shipping charges really ticks me off).



Ceramic pendants from Spirited Earth

For general supplies such as glass and crystal beads, findings, and cord I usually order from Fusion Beads (free shipping on all US orders and frequent discount coupons via email and Facebook) or Artbeads.com (free shipping on US orders above $10). If I were doing a higher volume I'd surely be ordering from wholesalers, but for what I do these suppliers offer a good range of products, and they also offer some volume discounting and have more artisan-made pieces for sale than larger suppliers. Recently I've found some great Etsy sellers who offer both basic and unique findings for very reasonable prices, and I've been especially happy to find lots of cool brass and copper findings there because, with silver prices going into the stratosphere, I've needed to adjust the composition and style of my pieces somewhat. From necessity has come a new burst of creativity and a shift towards an earthier style, so of course I had to go shopping for new components to better express this new style....



Handmade ceramic pendants and buttons from Beadfreaky

For the really good stuff -- handmade ceramic, lampwork glass, patinated metals, polymer clay, and other artisan components -- I always check Etsy first and have been bowled over by what I have found there. Hence my recent shopping spree (and the title of this post), both because I have found so many beautiful things and because I had let my supplies dwindle over the past two years (since my last trip to Tucson, sniff!!). I can't say I'm done buying because I'm still low on lampwork glass (especially non-focals; I need some rounds and saucers to go with the gorgeous lampwork hearts below), and geez, these creative people keep making more beautiful stuff! Now to find the time to use it all in new creations... given that it's only early February and gardening is still a few months away here, that shouldn't be a problem, so I hope to have lots of new stuff to show here shortly! 

Lampwork glass heart pendants from Boomwire Glass