So this is what I "whipped" up (yea right) - started last night finished just before dinner this evening! I do love the cobalt glass though! YUM-MO!!

Best Buds

A few weeks ago I was cleaning out the front flower bed and found this little treasure....it was true love! The textures are simply amazing - check out the stem. So much inspiration in this tiny little bud!

Tried it out with a "nestier" feel. (HORRIBLE LIGHT I know!)

TA-DA

Presenting the addition of a little silver bird with a coral chip.

So I finally finished (I think) the necklace I've been working on. The coco pendant is from The Bead Pod. I love it! I took forever foraging through my stash, thinking I wanted one thing but it didn't look real right - you know the drill. I am happy with the finished design though. In the past I've been such a symmetrical gal and then in the last few months I'd moved into an asymmetrical grove, but that wasn't working for me. It may have something to do with the pendant having such a dramatic vertical element in it's center. I don't know. I am thinking of hanging a tiny silver bird from the "bail", and add a teensy tiny red bead from him. Hmmm. The light here in Michigan is typical. There is none. Gone from now until June 18th or so. So the picture kind of sucks. I do like it on the water spotted wood though. I went to the bead shop this morning. The "good" one is just far enough away that it takes me forever to get motivated to go. Was good though. I have decided that I am totally into the hunt and stash. Perhaps I was a squirrel in a past life. I got the goodies home and now I just want to hold them and look at them. Maybe that is just part of my process.

So I went on my first little get-a-way with the girls this weekend. It was planned as an artists retreat, however, none of us even picked up a pencil. To be fair, we only had not even the whole weekend actually. Six of us rented a house in Sagatauk, Michigan - great town - lots of cool shops, galleries and on Lake Michigan. We did take a little hike Saturday morning and walked over the dunes- which were wooded at this point- to Lake Michigan. Found some great natural treasures- acorns, stones, driftwood. We also shopped. Wonderful antique shops. Note: If you love to "hunt" don't go antiquing with five other women. Although I probably stayed out of trouble (at least at the store) because they were there. A few things I did find, among them were the bulls eye buttons. I absolutely love the colors and the wear on them! Turquoise, red and gold are at the top of my favorite color combinations so these little beauties were a must have. When I got them home it occurred to me that they might just go with a necklace I am in the process of building. Last week it occurred to me to experiment with images of parts of some of my paintings so I made the pendant. Jer and I had gone to the flea market two weekends ago and I found that glorious necklace. I really like how the flower segments go with the pendant. When I got the buttons home yesterday I really really liked how all three work together. So it will be a fun process to see how everything comes together.

Vintage Rose Earrings

I have had some vintage chain tassels just waiting for the right design. I think these pair quite nicely with my new vintage rose beads!

I LOVE THESE BEADS!!!!!

So I am a self proclaimed etsy treasury junkie and one of the items I featured in a couple treasuries ago was vintage beads from a2zDesigns . They were absolutely lovely (as you can see) terra cotta colored roses with gold highlights. Had to have 'em and worried that someone would buy them from my treasury! Anyhow, they arrived today! I can't wait to play!! She also included, as a thank you, the gorgeous lentils. Now I am really thrilled because as you can see they are perfect with the lampwork beads I purchased a few months ago from Blue Seraphim !

So I ordered a bunch of supplies to get started with metal clay. Things should be arriving within a couple of days so I will keep you posted with my progress. Or not. If I don't comment I probably had a bad clay day. Can you blow up a kiln? I have a couple of shows (painting) this winter and spring so I must get a move on that. I don't know why deciding what to paint is so damn hard! I'm thinking still life. I was soooo frustrated last week because I started panicking a bit. I stumbled across and old Artist Magazine and it had some good articles. Opened me up a bit. See that's why I don't ever want to get rid of anything! Somehow I need to get a manageable schedule going of when I will create, list and post. I did spend the afternoon listing more beads on Little Blue Egg. It is amazing how long that actually takes. Granted, I did take the photos today as well. I "set up" a few earring configurations too, so I can actually create some while Jer and I are watching TV. Stay tuned:) The picture is a pair of vintage wooden shoes I found at my local resale shop. I L-O-V-E LOVE hunting for treasure!

And you know how much I love Frogs!!!!

Ooooohhh check it out! As I was searching for other metal-minded bloggers, I came accross a really cool give away! Visit Loreli's Blog to enter your name in a drawing for some Green Girl Studio beads in frog themes!!!!

Good grief how does it get to be more than month between posts?!?!!? This has just been a really really weird year! I can't seem to keep up with everything I want to get done and yet at the same time I feel overwhelmed all the time and can't seem to get started!!! I truly hope this is all hormonal and will pass.

My FireFly kiln arrived over a month ago and now I need to order metal clay supplies and don't quite know where to begin. (If anybody works with metal clay I would love to hear about your own experiences with this medium.) Because I like to incorporate metal into my jewelry designs, I decided it was necessary to use beads and components that were uniquely my own and not always commercial. (Not there is anything wrong with that and I don't intend to stop using commercial components entirely.) Because I don't particularly have a desire to play with fire, metal clay has a very strong appeal to me. Of course there is the clay aspect as well that I am drawn to. That was another reason I chose this kiln in particular. It was not overly expensive for a beginner such as myself and from what I am reading, it has a nice firing range so that I can dabble in enameling, small ceramics and fused glass. Happy Birthday to me! Thank you Sweetheart!!