Busy

I get a little irritated and frustrated when life gets so busy that I don't have time to create. This week there was work, and we had my "niece" in from out of town with her parents. Alli is almost three (okay, I LOVE being Auntie Dee.. we raced around the aquarium in Chattanooga, played throw the kid around and make her giggle games, and threw rocks in the river...) and I had a great time. Still, it meant cramming in other things around the visiting schedule and not much time at the bench.

So I started doing "regular work" (medical transcription) yesterday after they left. I lasted about three hours before I gave in to the urge, and obsessively wove chain and wrapped wire until my hands said "NO more" about 10 hours later. I took out my "in progress" box and wrapped up several projects that I lost steam on, and made a new item I hadn't done before: ear cuffs. I did the pendant at right on Monday -- my first wire wrapped cab. I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. The one thing I didn't get to yesterday was more of those, and I have five or six waiting for me to do them.

I had also ordered some sterling silver rings -- my first silver! from Maille Etc. and I think I'm addicted. Soooooo shiny. They had a really tiny AR (2.8-ish, I think), so I ended up falling back on my old standby byzantine bracelet, but wow with the sterling clasp I'd ordered it came out so pretty. The picture doesn't show it that well but it's a toggle clasp that turns into a rose when you close it. <3 I want more sterling! I need more niobium to finish another project......

So many ideas, so little time. Anyway keep an eye on my Etsy shop (and my flickr, since there are lots of birthdays and my parents' anniversary that I plan to make things for, that won't make it to the shop) for lots of new items this week. I'll probably be listing them a few at a time.

What I'm Working on

I keep running out of rings :) This past Saturday Brandon and I made a choker sort of similar to Rhiannon (see my shop) in bright aluminum with a red inlay diamond, a celtic cross pendant, and red Swarovski beads along the bottom. It came out really pretty and was made as a birthday present for our friend Mary Ann. I wish I'd had time to get a picture of it but I didn't... maybe I can bug her to get one of her with it on, with her gorgeous red Renaissance costume dress. However, as a result I'm out of 3/16" BA rings and can't do the Dragonscale belt I planned on... back to TRL.

I bought the pretty ceramic leaf pendant above from Etsian Hannahfaerie a month or so ago (go visit... her work is beautiful). I originally intended to mix this with titanium and crystal, but I really didn't care for working with titanium, and the aluminum green was closer to the shade I wanted than the niobium was (and cheaper!). And the 4-in-1 drape I intended didn't hang the way I wanted it to, so I went with Japanese, with copper linking rings and a Swarovski leaf (sheesh those are expensive). The leaf-ish shaped unit pictured above will be duplicated on the other side of Hannah's pendant and probably hung from a copper chain, but... is it too much? The more I look at it the more I think it sort of overpowers the pretty ceramic. Maybe it'd be better if I did the maille in all green. Love to hear innocent bystanders' opinion on this so please comment if you don't mind ;) If this turns out cool I will probably submit it to Belle Armoire.

Beyond that, I've gone a little hog wild buying cabochons from a really cool supplier, some of which I will resell and some of which I will use to practice wire wrapping. Stay tuned for pics of that. Seems like I haven't had much time for crafting the past few days, and the near future isn't looking too good either. I think I will steal a few hours Monday.