That Girl Has Stacks!!

I want to share some cool stuff from one of my new beading buds, Susi! We met during the Del Ray Artisan's bead exhibit and I fell in love with her work right away. She gives new life to old plastic. After lots of hard work digging through her apartment building's recycling areas to find any kind of plastic that would add to her palette, she cleans and goo-gones and scrubs and cuts each plastic piece out of its original shape and into small sheets. Then, she hammers away at them with dies to cut different sizes of discs. Her husband loves this part! haaaaaaaa I gave her an empty green deodorant container and it was like a little treasure for her!

She let me share her disc stash and make a few beads of my own. Little holes in the middle and a short stack on a wire makes for a very cool bead! I poked a few little holes in my hand, but not many...it was worth it for these. I love them!

What's also cool is that after I had worked with the plastic for a while, I reached into my glass bead stash--which is pretty significant because I love them--and started stacking. I used discs from HMB Studios and Linden Avenue Designs as well as some small beads from Lisa New to come up with these mixes. I love the color and texture and size of the finished pieces. I'm not sure how I'll use them, but for now I can at least admire them!

If you're interested in chatting with Susi, I can put you in touch--just drop me a line!

A Little More Wired Than Usual

Saturday night was my office Christmas party, so of course I had to come up with something fabulous to wear--jewelry drives the outfit in my house. I definitely had wire on the brain, so I worked up a fabulous big shape, about four inches wide. Then, looking around on my table, I saw a great big jasper stone that I thought would mix well--lo' and behold, I have this great work all tied together with leather!

I'm not sure where all this twisting and turning and wrapping and weaving and polishing and burnishing will lead me, but I'm happy to be on the trail...big pieces or small!

I'll keep mixing up my stones and glass and silver and follow where it leads. Oh, and one place it will be leading in the spring will be Step-by-Step Wire Magazine! One of my projects will be featured as the 5-minute project!! I'm so excited!

Wrist Love

I have had a lovely morning with a cup of coconut-creamered coffee and a refreshing look at my stash of stuff. I'm getting ready for a big show this weekend at the Del Ray Artisans, so I'm on leave from my "real job" and working here at home. I've had some big bracelet ideas...

The silver oxidized swirl and leather has been in my brain and on my worktable for a couple of weeks. When I get an idea just before falling asleep I scribble it down on whatever paper's nearby. Usually, it's a little receipt or something, so I have lots of scribbly receipts. I thought of this design a while ago and had to work it in parts with the shaping and weaving and oxidizing and polishing and then finally finishing it this morning. I love it!!

So, then I felt like going all color and texture. I love this hodge podge of a bracelet that has some handmade glass, stone, polymer clay, felted wool, and some special Czech glass that came from a little shop in Hawaii. This piece combines a whole bunch of memories of great shopping adventures into a fun, colorful bit of wrist love.