Thing-a-day.com

This TAD should go through the next month because I swear, I would have gone straight to bed this evening. But instead, I HAD to get a ‘thing’ done so here it is. Simple, yet still a thing. Hooray. I think I’m going to open an etsy shop. I have a website but I don’t like updating it and I don’t like making things when I ‘have’ to per someone’s order. I’d rather make what I feel like, and then someone can buy it, instead of vice versa. And it makes more sense to have a site that I only pay when I actually sell something versus one that I pay monthly and do nothing, right? Ok, I’m too tired to be at the comp. I’ll ramble on all night. The Baby is actually asleep right now, which is already better than last night, I should go to sleep myself. Or enjoy the silence. Ahhh, the dilemma. At least I got my thing done.

Today I finished the beaded front flap of this small bag. Tomorrow I plan to felt the bag.

I’ve been making bunches!  I have some really cool single beads though that are coming out great as rings.  I’m excited about an order I’ve got in with a glass artist who does amazing work…can’t wait to get those beads!!

 This one is for sale in my Etsy shop by the same name.

OK, I didn’t really do anything on Saturday except shop for the tools that would allow me to accomplish what I did today.

Remember the mountains of glass from Day 8? One of my ideas for using the glass was to find pieces that were roughly cylindrical, tumble them in my rock tumbler to give them a beach glass kind of finish and smooth all the sharp edges and then bead over them, kind of like I did on the agate in one of my earlier posts (day 3 or 4, maybe?)

Then I came across a bay in the glass lot full of black carnival glass cullet. If you’re not familiar with carnival glass, it has an iridized finish. Go to www.ddoty.com and take a look at that plate with the grape motif. The 2″ shard below comes from a similar piece — perhaps that very pattern. My camera cannot begin to do justice to the iridescence.

I went totally nuts in carnival glass bay. The colors were gorgeous beyond belief. A lot of what I picked up will need to be broken into smaller pieces and have the edges smoothed (so Saturday, I bought a rotary tool with a diamond bit).

My idea is to create beaded bezels around these carnival glass shards (and I picked some shards of carnival glass on transparent green, red, and pink glass.) I’ve never done this kind of netted bezel before, but that’s the technique I want to use, since some of the glass is transparent. The second photo is my 1st stab at a netted bezel.

I’ll probably ditch this first attempt and start over, now that I have a better understanding of how to make the bezel snug up tight against the glass.

The last photo is an older piece I did with a beaded bezel around a dichroic glass cabochon, but this is the kind where the cab is mounted on a backing fabric. But you can at least see the concept I’m working toward with the carnival glass pieces. These are a real challenge, because in addition to being irregular in shape and sometimes in thickness as well, most of them are not flat, since they are pieces from broken bowls and vases and the like.

I found directions for and learned a really great technique for speed beading flat peyote. (Drawback: When you screw up, it’s a lot more complicated to backtrack.) I don’t do that much straight-out flat peyote, except for these folded pendants I make. The speed beading technique was AWESOME for this.

So I started working on a pendant into which I could incorporate my curled peyote from Day 5.  To go along with the curly piece, I thought I’d add a ruffled edge to each flat piece.

The first photo shows the flat peyote. The second shows what it looks like when I’ve twisted and folded it and also the curly piece, now embellished with a pink freshwater pearl. The third photo shows the nearly complete pendant. I’ve added a ruffled edge along the front of the curved piece, using 15/0 beads. I still need to weave in the thread ends and make a beaded-tube bail.

I made this today…

I also wrote a tutorial on my brand new blog, so if you want to make your own rings, read up there…  http://caseyacrossthepond.blogspot.com

This one’s not for sale because it’s not as perfect as I’d like it to be, but I’m putting more up in my shop soon!

For day two I took a few slices of my cane from Day 1 and placed them on a pearl coloured heart. The heart will get baked and drilled a pendant bead for me to wear for a Valentines choker.

I made a sweet mokume gane using Liquid Acrylic ink and Jones Tones Foils with the Polymer clay. This was the first time I’ve used the foils. During the stacking process I realized I’d flipped one of the foils upside down. I was like “Oh crap. I just screwed this slab up.” But then when I stared slicing, I loved the the two toned metallic contrast. I made several beads and a couple of book marks.

Since I was experimenting, I only made a small slab. But I’m planning to make a bigger one for a new mask in the next month or so.

Today I made this ring.  I think it came out gorgeous, and I’m so happy I pushed myself to do this today.  Now I’m all revved up for the rest of the month!