Summer has finally arrived to good ol' Chicago but what would I know, I'm happy cooped up all day.

Does mean shaving my legs for shorts, ugh. Anyblubber, I made some necklaces quite spontaneously.

Like I had no plans to make this scrap of cross stitch I found into a pendant but there you go. It's all about having enough Wellbutrin in my system that the creative juices meld perfectly with the energy to make and the lets-toss-this-together-and-see-what-happens attitude. I couldn't do a thing without pharmaceuticals. I feel like there's going to be people offended by that but oh well.

You know I actually quite like these resin flower things, always have. It's just about using them right I guess. Like here I sort of antiqued it with gold gilder's. White things are beautifully antiqued with gold paste. My girl Claudia calls it butt-paste and now I do to, in my head. Made sense at the time but now I can't remember where that came from. Anyways, its snugly mounted on a very old filigree with steel wire. It wouldn't center when I mounted it so I clipped off some of the outer filig and sanded. Extra little unusual detail. The cord is a thin leather strap, the bird is teapotstelephones the driftwood is greybird but I added some color.

It seems in response to my avatar poll that those who like Chinese dude do so because they've formed an attachment to him from before. And it's all people who already lurv me. 

Whereas those who like dancing girl are thinking about what my customers might like. Plus she also won the vote. Oh and on a day of views in the high 200s, only 40 votes? Lurkers, all of you!

Anyways, here's earrings. Long with rhinestone ankhs, bone, bullet casing, african bronze, lampwork and czech glass.

These very special bablies center on ceramic bucket and pipe with a hoop of moonstone, labradorite, sequins and Indonesian glass. The dangle caps are silkworm cocoons! with gold leaf because why not. And a lot of sealant glue on top for protection. One of the drops is a vintage something I put wax paste w/dirt in to highlight the beads.

SacredCake sent me the teeny bucket! The hoops are on memory wire and the earwires are also well-sanded memory wire without oxidizing. I just feel like it keeps its shape way better. Listings to come. Love ya my babies.

Tra-La-La

It's been a week of family visits and out of town friends and I haven't had a minute to sit in the pit o' makies with my bed-head like I like to...

Made Patroness II these by tossing on some kuchi tassels. Why none for the shop you ask? Way heavy. She likes heavy! I need to start making earrings for people who want to stretch their lobes.

Was gonna name this post "Nothing's Ever Truly Fucked Up" and share the story of how I made this:

Then I packed it crappy and it broke en route. Patroness didn't want to send it back because she said it was shattered and irreparable but I insisted. Noticed these skull beads had a similar finish and had all kinds of ideas of how I was gonna fix it...

Then it turned into this mutant thing. Actually I forgot to photograph a whole other mutant step when the plumber's paste all over my fingers got all over this piece. So me with my brain, I'm all, lets get smudges aaalll over to even it out. Then there was a minor panic attack... Then there were alcohol inks. Then there was this hot mess. Then I was laughing at the thought that I was gonna name this post "nothing's ever truly fucked up."

Really should have shot this before the inks it was so insane... Especially since my idea of adding some raku-like glimmer was this crazy shiny foil leaf stuff... ... I can't even. Like a Halloween/ heavy metal backdrop or something.

Then there was lots of dremeling.

Then there was a stage between the dremeling and before the more alcohol inks which I also should have photoed...

Really the whole weird globular lower portion shoul dbe taken down in size even more. but I'm too antsy to make a whole other butt-ton of stuff so.... maybe if I'm feeling more chill some other day. Still! It's not too bad, considering how it was... Ugh, no. I got to sand it waaaay down.

Ok so Patroness told me she needed to stem the tide of jewelry coming her way so that she could financially focus elsewhere. And that was good since all these huge pieces had me developing tics. But little by little the itch builds in her and she starts buying necklaces intended for general consumption out of the shop. So I decided it was time to make her something again.

Pain-in-the-ass settings. Some on desert-found metal, some on brass blanks. Two-part epoxy and cheaty prongs with wax paste/dirt mixture to cover up the shiny and give that 'sealed-in' look of age.

Claudia, the etsybud I'm aaaalways mentioning because she's always sending me beads and gilder's paste and dangles and tin and stuff, asked for more close-ups is why you're getting these. Not cuz I'm full of myself. I mean, I am. 

 That's an aluminum dog tag under there, hammered and leafed.

 I'm  selling these as singlettes since all my necklaces are so expensive lately and these don't need much more than cords. The guilder's in the center of this one maybe wasn't the best idea. I thought to freshen this worn-out leafing that I must've never sealed...

 Mirror compact and big-ass rainbow titanium quartz. Steel twirled and then sort of hammered straightish.

Here's a buncha rocks set in an archeological find. Cuz I'm cray-cray!

 And a cuff with matchbox labels. Puppies!

(~~~Insert clever seguey seg way segue.~~~)

Here are some things from my sale section that I'm really wanting to get rid of. Rock bottom prices.
In a Little World. $45                       When the Child was a Child. $64
 I always feel sad for the poor little pieces that no one buys...

 
The Stars that Shudder. $35            Dirty Pink. $35

 
Things as they are. $35                      Secret Sky. $25


Evil Eye. $69                                  A Lion, a Star. $35


Sophia. $69
Oh, I have a question for you guys. You may have noticed my changed avatar. Some people change their avatars and shop banners like they change their undies, but mine have been with me from the first, coming from these awesome ancient books I found in the depths of grandma's cupboards. However one day I had the brilliant idea to write SALE on my avatar since no one ever reads shop announcements and I wasn't about to add it to every listing. Did that once, never again. So. I THOUGHT I saved a clean copy, short story long, I lost my avatar.
Since I'd been recently told by one of you guys that they thought it was a picture of some hippie dude I was cool with the switch. I chose this lady who I created from that original.

 
However... I dunno, I don't know if she really represents me. She's so ... bejeweled. I know, I'm baneyneys. Why do I wanna be the tomboy seller of joolz? ANYWAYS... shipwreckdandy went to this magical place called the Wayback Machine and found my avatar! So now I have to decide if I should go back to the original fancifuldevices. And you all have to chime in, guys. No lurkage for this. Nope. Not allowed.

• Which avatar should I use?
  	original Chinese dude
  	bejeweled dancing girl
  pollcode.com free polls

So remember this lady who sent me beads to make her something a la patroness? I've been working on two more pieces for her, trying every combination of absolutely everything in my pit o' bitses.
First I made her a relatively straight forward one with these gorgeous stones she sent.

 True, I did have to make each link as tribal stones are always too thick-holed to use eyepins.

Also those three super iridescent ones were sent by an etsybud inspired by my these made with utee over fusible film.

For each of the first two necklaces I made her I tried to add a bunch of little dangles and things and it didn't work at all. So I think I was trying to incorporate all those failed danglies into the third piece when my tired brain came up with the following hot mess...

She very nicely suggested I remove all the crap hanging off it and after a good night's sleep I arrived at a much improved this:

 It is not easy to photograph enormous pieces. You wanna go close for the details but then you loose the overall effect. Please forgive me if I indulge in some multiple images of the same damned thing.

Hmm, which one should I pin now? Maybe this one directly above? Whatchu think?

 Kuchi from actual patroness, tassel from TeapotsandTelephones. Pod from stillpointworks, rough amethyst set in plumbing putty with gold leaf.

Some of the failed bits ended up here:

This one's just for the shop.

Witness.
...

So you know how people are always blogging about critters that visit them? Well some people on my blog list do anyways. I finally have a critter to share about! I looked out my window this morning... first Mr. Devices woke me up for it and I was very unhappy with him until I saw...

This little guy taking a nap in our tree while the crows yelled at him! Here he was starting to wake up. I should proly share some of the bun-festation that's been happening for the last couple years around here. Buns everywhere. And when they're little and their ears haven't started to sprout it's nutballs. But the crows killed one and left it in our patio which was traumatic for me. Mom thought our Bingo did it and Mr. Devices was very offended. After a neighbor said she witnessed the crows get one in front of her, he texted Mom to say, "Bingo has been found innocent of all charges."