A Sneak Peek...

This sneak peek was supposed to have been posted last night but my computer had other plans. It's still not too cooperative this morning. Anyway, here is what I was working on this week. I finally got some smaller mandrels to fire these filigree beads. The bead on the left has white enamel on it. I think it looks so neat. It reminds me of snowflake obisidian stones. The chartreuse green is one of my favorites too. It's amazing how the enamel changes color in its cooling process. Who thought this bead that was the color of baby poop would turn into this cool shade of green?! The copper headpins were a little tricky. I had made these to use with resin (those will be making an appearance soon) and thought "Why not try some in enamel?". My technique with these needs some refinement. One of them went "Poof!" like I was doing a magic trick.

I'm having a lot of fun with this torch enamel stuff and I'm working on a necklace incorporating one of these filigree beads. Which one of them will I choose? Hmmm...

A challenge?! How dare she?!

My friend, Daniele, of Thistle Farm presented me with a challenge a couple of days ago. Each Thursday, we are to blog about a creative accomplishment we achieved during the week. I agreed. What was I thinking?!

It's 9:15PM and I got nothin'. I know. I know. A very lame start to be sure. I'm hoping to have something to post for tomorrow. I've had many ideas swirling around in my head and it's time to produce these imaginations. This will certainly be a challenge as my desk is covered with new beads, works-in-progress, papers... and that's just the top layer. Also, I'll have the kids and my husband at home as everyone has the day off.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have found my desktop and been able to transform an idea into a lovely piece of jewelry. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!

Is this mine?

Meet one of my four cats, Taz (aka: "Naughty Man", "Bad Boy", "Big Boy Bad Boy" and many other nicknames). He's found a new place to claim as his own. This is a six drawer chest I bought at an auction last week. It has shallow drawers so I was thinking I could use it in my "studio" (which is actually my former living room that was rarely used and now more accurately should be called a drop-off zone). I'm not sure if this will end up being used to help me organize my studio or to help me organize another area of my home but one thing is for sure, Taz and I both like it.

Watchya' been doin'?

This is my latest adventure - torch-fired enameling. I had read Barbara Lewis' article in "Belle Armoire Jewelry" and then bought a bead pulling station from her etsy website. On the right are headpins I had made with copper wire that I balled the ends of. From there I heated and added different colors of enamel for this cool layered look. It was a good idea to start with headpins as the beads are a little more tricky. Getting the beads where you need them in the whole process will take a bit more practice but I'm happy with how these first tries turned out. I've been digging through my beads, scrap and anything else I can think of to start throwing them in the flame! Thank you Barbara for my new obsession!