Corvid Creations

Christmas buys

2011-12-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Please feel free to buy any items in the store before the end of the year.

Sadly, the store will be closing at the end of the year, with no plans to reopen.

I will still make jewelry, because I find that I need to, and I will still be happy to do custom items for people. But I will no longer have a store front on Etsy or anywhere else.

did some sorting

2011-08-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so I got a lot of sorting done last night. I found a whole bunch of the little bracelets that i throw in as freebies, and i found some super sparklies that I couldn't decide if I wanted to sell them as they are or take them apart for other things. I also found nearly 10 pairs of earrings that aren't photo'ed or listed, a handful of necklaces that aren't photo'ed or listed, and about 20 sets of stitch markers that aren't listed yet.

I also found 2 necklaces that I had done as prototypes, but the feedback on them hasn't been super positive. I'm thinking of redesigning them some. I really need to contact the person I know who bought one of them and see if she would be willing to try out some of the redesigned ones. if we found a pattern she liked, I'd update the one she has.

For now, I have gotten a ton of listings back into the store, so we're back at about 90 items available. I will have a large bill this month, but I'm happy to have stock up there.

I am also having a sale in there. If there is something you want, use the coupon code "SecretSale" and you'll get 15% off the purchase price. This will only be good through the 26th or 27th, so don't hesitate too long. :)

Getting down to business

2011-08-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm going to work on jewelry. Not making it yet, that space still needs more cleaning, but at least sorting through what I still have in stock and getting it listed, even if it is with crappy pictures for right now.

The wool pile is finally sorted out and mostly put away. I need 2 more plastic tubs to get the last of it put away, but that involves having more space which I don't have.

I've been neglecting the jewelry front for a while. Ever since the beginning of May, I've been horribly depressed and it is finally starting to break up a little. I'm not "over" the death of my cat, but it no longer completely and 100% consumes my thought process. I still get very weepy at the least little thing about her, and I worry because the last 3 days my other cat, Shu, has spent various parts of the day vomiting, which is what Willow did when her downward spiral started.

I'll tell you right now, I don't know that I can handle losing another pet so soon. I'm working on the hope/thought that it is a hairball and am treating him accordingly. I don't know how I will afford vet visits if I need to take him in, but I will figure something out.

Sorting jewelry tonight will let me sit on the couch with a pen, post-its, and the wheelie box and let him drape himself over my lap or shoulders. I need to run the inventory of what is in stock, and I need to let him feel better by cuddling with me. These two things are (thankfully) not mutually exclusive.

It will also be good, because I do appear to be fighting a summer bug of some sort and my joints ache, my head hurts, and my tummy is upset. On the upside of that (what? There's an upside to illness?) It's the first time I have felt ill since my tonsils were removed back in March. Before they came out, I was sick most of the time, and at least every couple of weeks I was down with something.

There will be a store update by Wednesday at the latest, depending on how fast I work tonight I might even get a few things back into the shop. I'm debating on whether to renew their listings, or remove the listings and start over. Maybe half and half.

Can you drown in wool?

2011-08-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering that right at the moment. I bought 2 sheep fleeces a little while ago, and 1 baby alpaca fleece a long while ago, and I never got around to washing the alpaca. So I bundled all of them up and took them to the local fiber mill to be washed.

I also took up all the bits and bobs of wool that I had lying around. And then all the fleeces that I was given.

I swear I didn't think it was that much. I really was looking to spin some really soft alpaca and wool so I could add it as an element to some jewelry I have in mind...

yeah... apparently, that's a big honking piece of jewelry. The pile of wool that came home with me is about 40 pounds... to be added to the unknown quantity I already had at home.

Guess I better get to work on that jewelry, huh? :)

I have a plan! It involves, dye, cardboard, tulle, beads, wool threads (handspun super fine yarn in this case because I need it to be wool and thin enough to go through the beads.) And a lot of imagination. But hopefully I should have a prototype soon.

However it does mean that my being seen out in public is going to be even rarer than it is now. :D

Depending on the weather, and if I can find the resin, next weekend may be full of making small resin items. Which would be good as I have plans for them too! But those are a summer, outside project. The resin puts off fumes which might kill the bird.

But rest assured, there are plans...

Oh, and if anyone has old sunglasses, the kind with either mirrored or colored lenses? Specifically the lenses, if you don't want them anymore, I do... VERY MUCH.

I have (yet another) plan! And I need mirrored and colored sunglasses lenses.

not dead, just horribly horribly busy

2011-07-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

The sad thing is that I distinctly remember posting in July and the posts are not here. :sigh: story of my life it seems. :)

July was Tour de France and for spinners, Tour de Fleece. Short version of that is that spinners who want to participate set goals and spin yarn while watching the Tour de France bike race.

I didn't watch the race, but I did spin some! I also made some more stitch markers and then sold them all before they even got to Etsy. Hmm.

I spent a lot of time putting more stuff away in the house and making space. I have a goal that the front room will be unpacked by the end of the year and the dining room/office will be rearranged so it is much more useable.

I have lots of fiber and yarn put away finally (but got some down today and forgot to put it back. Oops.)

I have a lot of jewelry stuff put away finally. Of course, now I need to get it back out so that I can work on some new things.

I have also come up with some new ideas for some jewelry that I want to work on. Now if only I had more time.

My stupid throat continues to heal, and the bills continue to mount up. I'm trying to keep a handle on it all, but some days it just doesn't work.

It's only Wednesday?

2011-06-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I bought a potting bench. For the plants on the patio.

I am thrilled to death because I've wanted a potting bench for years and years. Now I finally have a place to pot new plants without having to bend over at strange and awkward angles. And in the winter, I can move plant pots into the bin portion of it and surround them with hay to help protect them from the weather. :)

It will ALSO be a FANTASTIC place for me to set up some outdoor photo shots.

This weekend is going to be spent putting that together and getting all my things put away on/in/around it. Then I will spend some time making more stitch markers and finally I shall get out all of the photo stuff and get photos done.

Which reminds me that I want to see if I can light my photo tent more easily with the studio lights than the table top lights. The studio lights are much bigger, but will diffuse the light better for better shots. Guess we shall see!

Well, no pictures yet

2011-06-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

But that's okay, because I have far fewer stitch markers all of a sudden. I took them to my spinning group on Saturday and 4 sets sold.

So I only have 3 or 4 sets left. So I need to make some more and get them all photo'ed. I did find the light tent and lights and everything over the weekend, so I'm happier with that! :)

I have a new location to try out (some shelves instead of my tiny table) and we'll see if that works out better.

Well, didn't get my updates done

2011-06-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend just went POOF!

I got some plants from a friend, and got a sunburn at her house too. :(

I got the plants mostly into pots, some need to be in bigger pots, but I ran out of decent pots and out of potting soil. I managed to get some errands done on Saturday, and picked up my first CSA box on Sunday. Didn't get NEARLY as much accomplished as I wanted/needed to.

We apparently have a sick squirrel in the neighborhood and I spent a lot of time putting out Tabasco and Red Pepper flakes to try to discourage it from coming around my patio again.

I made a lovely salad with items from my CSA box, and then was slammed down into the dumps because my insurance appeal was denied (they brushed me off completely.) I had asked for an exception, they stuck their nose in a book and said "We followed the rules, piss off and die." So now I get to start a complaint with the Insurance Commissioner's office, and investigate further into bankruptcy. I really don't want to file for bankruptcy, I've worked really hard to get my credit rating up to where it is from where it started and I don't want to ruin that with bankruptcy.

So I didn't get out the photo stuff to do pictures of jewelry or stitch markers. Sorry.

The store is back open

2011-06-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, It's up! Check it out at http://ebonraven.etsy.com

It's still small because I need to rephotograph some things and make sure of stock amounts. But it's there and it's open.

I spent some time Saturday night and Sunday morning working on some sock knitting stitch markers because one of the ladies in my spinning group wanted Small, Simple Stitch markers for making socks. This is a sample of each of the sets that I made. From left to right (ignoring the square on the furthest left) these are: a light teal freshwater pearl on a hammered loop, a green czech glass crystal with aurora borealis colors, a clear and silver faceted crystal, a garnet almost heart, a white freshwater pearl, Russian serpentine, and a czech crystal cut in a spiral pattern. I just need to get the NICE photos done and get them listed in the store.

Almost there!

2011-06-09T16:41:00.001-07:00

I was hoping to get home last night in time to clean up the beading work space. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Tonight I'm going to be home late as well, but I have a plan to be able to get some stuff done anyway.

Which means tomorrow evening gets to be BEAD NIGHT! The poor cat and bird are going to be furious. :)

Hey! Remember me?!

2011-06-07T11:25:00.001-07:00

We're coming back this week! Are you excited now? :)

Unfortunately, the health issues took my beloved cat Willow from me. My own health issues kept me from coming back sooner, but what can be mended has been. I'm finally starting to feel a creative drive again. I will be making some more items this week and the store should be open by Sunday at the latest.

And for you knitters and crocheters, I will continue to keep the stitch markers and stitch marker jewelry in there. I will even still list yarn at various times, some handspun, some hand painted, some both.

Let me know if you have any requests or ideas for something. Now is a GREAT time to be talking to me about special orders. :)

~Ebon

And the store is obscured by mist

2011-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

I'm setting it to vacation mode right after this post.

It's good timing as I just got the contract stuff worked out with my job and so I am setting up a doctor's appointment next week.

This weekend is still a super busy weekend, even without jewelry. It's a "hafta weekend"; as in "I hafta do xxxx"

The Hafta list today includes:
Hafta dry the bathtub and leave it for an hour or so
Hafta take down the shower curtains (and throw out the liner)
Hafta vacuum the house
Hafta put on the grubbies and uncaulk the bathtub
Hafta re-caulk the bathtub

So I will DEFINITELY be home all weekend.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

I swear I need to find an app to let me update this blog from my phone. :D

Anyway, the new computer is finally set up and working correctly for the most part. The christmas gifts are finally all sent out (yes, after new years, I'm late.)

Now I plan to work on cleaning the house some more. As of the 14th, I believe, the Etsy store will be in Away Mode. Willow the cat is not improving as I would like, and I am concentrating on her far more than on jewelry at the moment. I also will be going into the doctor as soon as my work situation is finally ironed out, and I will be getting appointments set up so that I can get my tonsils removed. (Ugh, this should always be done with kids, not adults. It's far worse as an adult.)

So, with all that on the docket, the store will not be getting managed as much as it should. So it will go to away mode while I deal with these things. Then I can open it up again in a few months.

I will try to remember to update this blog so that I keep everyone alerted that I'm not dead yet. :) But while all this is happening, I will be spending more time on the couch knitting with the sick kitty draped over my lap or shoulder.

And now, I'm going to see if I can find an update app for one of my myriad phones!

Small update and SALE notification

2010-12-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

We're having some health issues over here. Not me, specifically, but my cat. She has been diagnosed with a probable tumour. Which will need very expensive treatment, so I need to get more money so that i can pay for it.

My pain is your gain!

what does this mean for you, gentle reader? It means a SALE, of course. :D

But it's a SECRET sale... so tell everybody. ;)

If you put the word Willow in the buyer's notes, I will refund 25% of your purchase price. I have also set everything to be free shipping in the US, and 1/2 price shipping everywhere else in the world!

So come take a look and if you find something you wish for, buy it! Please!

Birthday Party!

2010-11-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

It's Talia's 8th birthday party today. I've known her since she was 6 months old. It's impressive to me that she is turning 8 this year.

So, because it is her birthday, I have a box of Legos for her. And a hat that I made. And a memory card holder for her new (old) camera.

I will also be bringing her the necklace that I made for her several years ago. It's all hand-made. I even made the beads. :) However, every time I have made it and strung it for her, she has broken it. So I am going to string it on memory wire and give it to her again today. That should keep her from breaking it quite so fast.

But for now, it's time to let the bird up.

Welp... I made a decision

2010-11-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

I love the Louet Hatbox spinning wheel. I do. I love the size, and I love the portability and the ease of use.

I especially love the delta orifice that no other wheel in my house has...

But we don't get along. Nearly 8 years after seeing one for the first time, and 2 years after buying my first "My Own" wheel... and even now, 5 wheels later... I still want a Joy. The hatbox is smaller and even more portable and actually very well protected.

But I want a Joy. My Fidelis is perfect for when I know that I need to spin larger quantities. My Traditional is great for spinning at home when I want to treadle slowly but get more twist (bigger drive wheels will do that.) My Victoria is exceptionally fast, versatile, and portable. Mina is just phenomenally beautiful and will be drop dead gorgeous when she is finished being refurbished.

But I want a Joy. I have gotten to use a Joy a few times and it is literally one of the few wheels where I had NO learning curve. It was like an extension of my foot/brain/hand and yarn started to form immediately and in exactly the way I wanted it to.

So I am going to see if I can beg to borrow the Joy of a fellow spinner for a little longer, perhaps a few days and see if I still adore it after spinning on it every days (Oh, the agony, I shall be FORCED to spin for at least 1 hour every day. ;)

If the answer is yes, then I am selling the hatbox and using the money to buy a Joy.

In the meantime, I am going to knit a beret for a toy monkey. A toy monkey who got dressed up as a pirate for halloween. :D

Are you sure it's still only Thursday?

2010-10-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it is, but only for another 20 minutes. :) Guess I better head to bed.

It's still busy around here. I did another set of senior pictures for a High School Senior. Hopefully she liked them. She said she did.

Sadly, found out that my CD burner is having fits. But I think it is just the system driver, so I need to work on that.

I managed to get food poisoning last weekend, so there was far less of everything for me then. But Sunday I was feeling well enough that I did get some work done on jewelry. I will take pictures either tomorrow or Saturday.

I am still working on knitting projects at the same time as everything else. I have finished the thrummed mittens for my sister, and I continue to work on the shawl. I have made 2 grocery bags (crochet, not knit) and am at the foot of one sock. I also started a hat as a test item to see how it turns out. (the pattern is a bit strange and seems like it was made for a child. So I am doing what I always seem to do and taking the pattern more as a suggestion.)

I also had a friend stop by and ask me to do surgery on her monkey. Okay that sounds WAY dirtier than it is. She has a stuffed toy monkey. She also has mice in the house. The mice apparently found the monkey toy and chewed the back of his head off, one ear off and one hand off. So she asked me if I could knit him a small beret. I told her that I can fix his head too, since I have grey faux fur. And I am going to crochet him a small hook for the missing hand. And maybe an eye patch... and perhaps a pirate hat.

and.... three weeks later

2010-10-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Things are finally spiraling back into control. But MAN it's been a hectic month so far.

There have been complications with the zoo, so my volunteering there might be curtailed at least for a while, and I'm ramping up for the holidays, but have so many fronts that need ramping that I feel like none are getting very far. :)

At this point, I finished the thrummed mittens for my sister (I'll post pictures tomorrow when I finally have a moment to take some), and I finally finished a crocheted bag that doesn't look terrible (thanks to someone translating the really REALLY badly written directions into easier instructions with proper english) and I found a fantastic merino/cashmere yarn to make into soft socks for my mother for christmas (I hope).

This weekend I have off from the zoo which will be nice, and while I will be heading off to the spinning group on Saturday, Sunday is going to be set aside for jewelry making and jewelry photography. I have several new designs that I want to try to make and I haven't had time yet.

I had thought about trying to dye some yarn on Sunday as well, but I think that I need to really focus on the jewelry for now. If I have time on Saturday, I can do some of that.

I want to do some more drilling of hairsticks as well, and that will take some time and careful work, which means I need to really concentrate on it. I'm debating on doing the same in/out wrap trick on the bone sticks as I did on the wood. We'll see. I did finally find my lucite buddhas which I spent a YEAR trying to find and purchase, and then lost within 3 days of having them arrive. They are now sitting on the bead table making me feel guilty.

And now, back to breakfast and getting ready for work. Enjoy the fall weather!

Distracted? Me? Whatever would make you say that?

2010-09-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. Like almost always.

But I haven't been idle, just not on the computer as much. Currently I have a TON of projects going on. I got the newest spinning wheel working (with help from my spinning group), I continue to work on 4 knitting projects (3 socks, 1 mitten, 1 shawl), and I have made more jewelry and I even did a full on portrait photoshoot for the daughter of a friend.

It's been a very busy month and I have been fitting in house cleaning and unpacking in there as well. I'm down about half the boxes in my living room and will be working on getting more sorted and out of here in a few more weeks.

I finished up a pair of hairsticks that I had redone about 5 times and this time I think we have a winner. The issue was that the person who was to get them accidentally breaks them (rips the decorative bead off the end) every time she goes to take them out of her hair. So I had fixed 1 set several times and tried several different ways to make it less separate-able. To no avail.

So this time, I went at it from another angle. Now, the hairsticks have a loop above the decorative bead, like always, but the loop isn't just glued into the shaft of the hairstick. This time, it is about 10 inches or more of wire that actually goes through the side of the shaft and wraps around it, then back in again before both ends go through the decorative bead and form the wire. Now, it should be WAY more difficult to get that bead off the stick. :)

If I had a camera right here, I'd take a picture, but wait, I do! :)

Quick update before bed

2010-08-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

Last night was "Surgery from the Zoo" night at my house... No, it wasn't what you are thinking!

I brought home a large tub of costumes and stuffed toys from the children's play area at the zoo, all of which needed sewing repairs. I sorted them out between Machine Sewing (straight seams, hems, other things that can be easily repaired with the sewing machine) and Hand Sewing (mostly the stuffed toys that needed repairs.)

Yesterday I spent about 3 hours doing surgery on a lot of little stuffed toys to fix them up.

Here is the pile of toys pre-repair:

Zoo Toys for Repair

I started with the Wombat on the far left. He was pretty simple, just a couple of split seams on his side. Repaired in a jiffy! :)

Next came the camel on the far right. He also had a split seam on his side. Fixed up also! Took a bit longer since his split was about twice as long.

Then I got to the Snake on the left by the Wombat. Poor snake. Someone had ripped open a long gash on his side. But again, pretty easy to repair. That one was much like stitching up a real snake after a radio transmitter is put in or removed. Yeah, I'll just leave it at that. :D

Fourth on the repair table was the poor little Ocelot who is sitting on top of the camel. This poor Ocelot had been through hell! He'd been torn open across the guts. And had one of his foot pads pulled part of the way off. That took more doing. But he's much better now! You can almost not see the scar! See?

Ungutted Ocelot

Finally it was the Zebra's turn. He just had a separated shoulder which is a super fast repair. So he's all better as well.

That red shiny thing under them is a satin lobster claw glove that was torn. That's going to be the most difficult thing to fix. It wasn't torn at a seam, the fabric was actually ripped asunder. I decided that really the only way to fix it without leaving it prone to tearing is to sew a supporting piece of fabric underneath the satin. I have a whole bunch of felt pieces and one of them will work just fine. Then I can sew the satin to the felt, and then treat the edges of the tear with fray check, and then sew the tear up and it should be fine.

I also sold my very first skein of yarn on my Etsy store today. I was pretty darn thrilled. The buyer asked if I could wind it into a center pull ball, and so that will be on the To Do list for tomorrow.

Jewelry might get some more done soon. But I am kind of thinking of wrestling furniture around first. We'll have to see.

For now, it is definitely time to hit the sack. Night everyone!

We're making progress!

2010-08-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

We have 2 yarns and 2 rovings up now. And while I had really wanted to get another one up today before leaving for work, I don't think that's going to happen. Not when I need to make lunch, get the bird's veggies warming, do cat chores, shower, and get ready for work. So listing will have to wait until I get home tonight.

I also spent several hours on the sewing machine last night. But I have 3 out of 4 pairs of pants mended finally! I still have a rubbermaid tub of costumes and puppets that need to be fixed, so the machine will probably come out again tonight (but it might wait until Saturday.)

I have a new jewelry design that I need to start testing, but it will involve the wire jigs and the anvil, so it needs to be done in a mostly clear space. :D

And lastly, I have a custom set of hairsticks that need to be done, but I am planning to incorporate wool into them, so I need to dye up the wool I want for it first. Thankfully, that can be done in the microwave.

And now, it is time to get ready for work!

Finally! 2 listings are up

2010-08-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's beena whole week, and I only finally got 2 fibery listings up on Etsy today.

But there is 1 roving and 1 yarn. And I am happy as a clam about it. I have several more photographed, but not ready for listing yet. The photos have to be edited first and then uploaded. And I'm fighting a cold, so I tend to be a bit more dopey than normal.

So this afternoon will be spent sewing, and watching movies. Mostly because neither of those takes much brain power. :D

I just realized that it is 3pm and I haven't eaten yet today. So I am going to go off and do that now.

I have a new toaster!

2010-07-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work I walked to the Macy's store. They are having big sales in most departments and that included the housewares.

I don't normally shop at Macy's. I generally find them to be too big and too stinky (I ALWAYS seem to enter to a cloud of perfume no matter what door I use.) Their customer service is generally okay, but stinky is bad. :)

But being desperate to have a toaster that works, I ventured forth. Once I found housewares, I then had to find the toasters. Finally found them and spent a few moments peering before a salesperson came over to make sure I was okay and didn't have questions.

After much discussion about the toasters, I asked her if she had a measuring tape. She ran off to get one, I drooled on a couple of other appliances, just to leave a mark. ;P

I had it narrowed down to 2 toasters. The first was a Black & Decker Toast-R-Oven, same as my last one, just a much MUCH newer model (my previous toaster was about 15.) This was on sale down from $45 to $25. YAY! It was very large, and had a good handle, and it was one of the ones that pulls the rack out for you when you open the door. But it was all dials. I don't like dials. Turny-button things LIE to us! THEY LIE! That was one of the big problems with the Europro toaster oven that is going back to Target this weekend. It's all turny-button things and it lies.

The second toaster I was looking at was a DeLonghi toaster, smaller than the B&D, significantly more expensive... but it has a START and a STOP BUTTON! This one had a smaller footprint than the B&D, but the same interior space, and it is digital, not turny buttons. And that stop and start button pair...

I ended up spending WAY more money on the DeLonghi instead of the Black & Decker.

My reasoning is this:
1. STOP BUTTON - The old toaster had the push button toasting function. And if you wanted to stop it, you flipped the push button UP. The EuroPro did not have a stop button, there was NO WAY to turn it off if your item cooked faster and finished early. So stop buttons are important to me.
2. SMALLER FOOTPRINT - Turns out the counter is even smaller than I thought it was. The DeLonghi is only about 15.5 inches wide and BARELY fits on the counter. BARELY. So the 18 inch wide Black & Decker would have made me upset and had to go back.
3. Workmanship - The hinges on the B&D wobbled very badly. The door was a sheet of glass, and the body was overly large. The DeLonghi has an applied edging to help with heat retention on the edge of the door, very solid hinges, and the same amount of interior space with 4 inches less exterior space (the math does add up here, but it really does in person.)
4. Digital vs Turny Button Things - I bake clay in my toaster oven pretty frequently. I make little beads and big beads and various other clay items that then get baked in the toaster. The more accurate I can get the heat, the better.

And I got a Macy's card so I saved an extra 15% on the purchase which meant that while this is a $70 toaster, I only paid $3 more than I had for the EuroPro. So I'm okay with that. I'll pay it off next week and forget about the card. ;)

I have an idea for a new necklace, but I haven't had time to test it out yet. And I have the newly dyed fiber packaged up and ready to have pictures taken, I just need the time for the pictures.

And 1 of them still needs a name. Blues, purples, reds. Maybe a little white mixed in. But I can't think of a name.

Work calls today. And tonight I am going to go to a get together with my belly dance class.

This week has been downright awful

2010-07-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just saying that it has been.

It has seemed very much like anything that can go wrong has been doing so with a vengeance. Murphy's Law on major steroids.

And I know this isn't ACTUALLY true. It's mostly been small things, but it's been tons of small things piling up on one another.

So here's what we are going to do about it.

LET IT GO.

Take several deep breaths, and just relax. I am not going to go anywhere tonight. Normally I go to my former neighbors house for dinner. But tonight, I am going to come home and clean something. It doesn't really matter what, but cleaning something will let me feel more in control of SOMETHING in my life which will help to bring back some solidity and stability.

I have 3 cleaning things that really need to be done very badly. I need to find the kitchen. I know it's in there somewhere. I need to put away all the beads and jewelry items. I can't do photos or sewing machine things until the beads are put away. And i need to vacuum.

The most desperate is the kitchen. And regardless of what else I do today, we are definitely going to work on the kitchen some. But perhaps after that we can put away some of the bead things and do some photos of fiber to be listed in the store.

And lastly? We're going to bed at 10:30 tonight. Getting enough sleep will also help to bring down the stress levels and make me feel better.

And right now, it's time to go shower and get ready for work. I don't know why the dryer hasn't buzzed yet, but it will any time now. We can get through this.

Tired out

2010-07-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

So my mom was in town today. Just briefly, and mostly it was to say hello, go to lunch, go to seattle, drop off some items, pick up a dog, and go home.

It meant that I had to skip spinning today, which made me sad. I'm very used to getting those few hours once a week so that I can socialize and spin. I did get a few rows of knitting done at the Vet's office. My older cat, Willow, had to go to the vet because she spent all of last week sounding more like a goose than a cat. The poor baby is still horribly congested, but she has antibiotics for the next week or so. She doesn't like them, but tough.

I took a sock to work on while I was there, since the shawl is something that really needs to be worked on in one place where I have a table or something else to put my pattern clipboard on. A single sock is perfect for traveling. That brings my current knitting projects up to 4. I have the shawl, the neverending scarf, the pair of socks at work, and the single sock that I worked on today. (Okay, technically I also have the scrap squares, but those don't count. :)

Tomorrow, since I am not working at the zoo, will be spent doing photos for the shop and perhaps some wool dyeing. I have the big bag of wool, and some alpaca, and a few other types of fibers that could all use dyeing. I am thinking that perhaps some roving dyed and hung out to dry on the patio will be a nice part of the day.

Then photos if I can do them outside with the natural light would be very nice indeed.

But for now, it is 10pm and I am very tired. So it's off to bed for me.

Aah, finally

2010-07-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

The store is finally open again.

I had to pare things down for now, since a lot of postings haven't been finished yet, and I need to do a ton of photos to replace ones that I don't like so well or that I don't think represent the items well enough.

And I haven't yet gotten the new fibers and new jewelry up yet. But it's taken me 3 hours to get the 23 items that are up there certified and groomed. :)

I'm not that worried. I have been posting things up there for a couple of years, so I have a lot of items!

Tomorrow I have work, then I can come home and try to get a few more items updated. Saturday my mother comes to visit and run errands in Seattle. So I am going to try to do some pictures on Sunday and get that part done. I did get the jewelry displays in the house today, so that's nice. I will get the ones out that need to come be accessible for photos, but all the others will be packed away for next year with the shopping bags, the money box, and the pens/receipt books.

Sunday is looking super busy already, since I need to do laundry, and photos, and clean the house and get the sewing machine out and try to get some mending done. (I have pants that need mending, and some that need shredding, and I have a box of costumes and such that need mending for the zoo.)

I need to finish the final bits for the hip belt and get that in the mail, and i have jeans that need to be returned from whence they came, and I have kool-aid and food color that needs to be packaged up and sent to Scotland... and some little stitch markers that need to be invoiced and sent to their new owner.

Okay, that was mostly a list so I know what things I need to do. I was hoping to get the plants outside as well and perhaps even rearrange the office, but I don't know if that last part will be happening.

For now, it's WAY late and I need to hit the sack. Sleep well munchkins!

I tried!

2010-07-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

I tried to get the store open last night, but failed to even get on the computer.

So I went this morning to pay my Etsy fees first. And now, even though I have paid them, I continue to see a "You Owe Fees" messages.

I emailed their help, and figured I would open the store in the meantime. I can open it, but I can't edit any of the items listed. None. I just get error after error.

So I gave up and put the shop back in vacation mode until I can get home and try it again. I also plan to restart the computer and see if that helps. I have GOT to replace that computer, and sooner rather than later.

If anyone has a decent computer that they are looking to get rid of, and would like to work out a trade or partial trade... let me know, please!

For now, I will try to deal with the store again tonight and see what happens. It may be that it will have to wait until Sunday when I will have all day to work on it.

Done for another year

2010-07-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Medfest is done again. And it was a BUSY weekend. Lots of fun, but heavy duty stress as well. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I am looking forward to a few days at home.

I did not do as well as I had hoped, but I did better than last year.

Here's a picture of my section of the booth:

I bought several more displays to use since height and variety all help to attract attention to your items.

I don't think that I like the post style displays. I don't think they are effective. The tree display catches people's attention better. The posts will be fine for displaying only 1 or 2 necklaces, but not more. They will be replaced later.

The earring display that is over on the far left side is my most favorite purchase display wise... It holds TONS of earrings, it folds up, and you can leave the earrings on it when you fold it up. I am so enamoured by it! It won't work for my photography as well, but that's why I have the little curly earring stand. The displays will mostly stay packed up with the other "show" stuff like the cashbox, and the shopping bags. But 3 of the center displays will come out and stay with me. Actually 5, now that I think about it. 3 of the bust styles. The black, white, and one of the tans. Those are fantastic for photos since they give the pieces some definition and drape. 3 colors since you need contrasting backgrounds to show off the necklaces. And the hands that are on either side of my business cards will stay out because those will be good for bracelets, rings, and interesting shots with other jewelry.

There are a few Sinister Kisses necklaces in there. There are 4 laid out in front of the business cards and 1 of the lace ones on a tan bust to the right. I'll get more pictures up soon.

One other thing I came to a decision on is that I am no longer going to take the ENTIRE stock of inventory with me. There's too much now. Last year was borderline. I didn't have enough displays, or it would have been different. This year I have too much stock, so most of it didn't get out. So I need to be more selective about what goes with me. Take some of the lower priced items, some of the super flashy items, and some of the higher priced items.

I actually sold more sets of stitch markers than anything else, which makes me snicker. Those things remain hugely popular. I did give out plenty of cards, so when the store opens back up on Wednesday or so, I will hopefully get more traffic.

Lots of stuff to think about...

Finally!

2010-07-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Just a very quick update, since I am super busy right at the moment. But I feel bad because I haven't been updating like I had planned.

Medfest is this weekend and it is the only time I vend jewelry in person. So I am working super hard to get items finished, priced, packed and ready to go to Medfest. I want everything priced and packed by Friday night. Whether that will happen? Who knows. :)

I have finally finished my first Sinister Kisses necklace, and the girl who saw it thinks it is WONDERFUL. I have the first of the super spiffy Sinister Kisses done, but it's not 100% done.

I also have 2 models who are willing to parade around Medfest with some of my jewelry on. :D

For now, I am needing to finish up the ends and chain on 17 Sinister Kisses, the parts that need sewing can be done either at work while I update things and wait for the database queries to happen, and/or I can work on them at the booth at Medfest.

I also want to get some more earrings done and if I have time, I want to get at least a few more sets of stitch markers done on crochet friendly rings.

And now I am going to get back to work!

(Oh, and just so you know I know... no pictures of Sinister Kisses until AFTER Medfest! Secrets!)

well, that's not helpful...

2010-07-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

I thought that I would be able to post from a new phone. However, the phone has other ideas. So I will update again when I get home and see if I can make this work later. Obviously, I did find a workaround, but it's not ideal.

Muahahahaha!

2010-06-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned that I had a good idea for new jewelry. :D

I ordered the components from one of my regular suppliers and when I received them, the tear drop crystals (cubic zirconia) which were labeled as "garnet"-colored are really more peach-colored. You know that orangey-red that a good peach has? Yeah, that color.

I need RED, dark red, like real garnets (except that I wasn't finding garnets cut in the shape and size I needed.)

I also couldn't find the Swarovski crystals in the correct size, shape, and color with my regular supplier. So the incorrect things will all have to go back this weekend.

BUT... I was looking at a secondary supplier last night, and HOORAY! They were clearancing the exactly right size, shape, and color in Swarovski crystals. So I am getting 600% more crystals for the same price.

And I found a new supplier for some of my metals, and that's fantastic. So I am going to order from them next time I need rings and metals.

For now, real-world job is stressing me out. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but we're in the middle of the super amazingly busy time of year and I have so many things going on that I am feeling overwhelmed this week.

But I try to take smaller bites of work to chew and then it's a bit more handle-able.

Today, I am going to make myself some dinner and then head to bed. More work tomorrow! :)

It will calm down in August and I will catch up this fall.

In the meantime, I have the new components on the way and they will be here early next week. Then I can make the new jewelry items and get them ready for market!

Blogger has not been wanting to talk to me

2010-06-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Well, the shop is now down for the next 5 weeks or so. I had one last sale go through yesterday, and they got a GREAT deal, since the items that they purchased would have doubled in price if they had waited.

At this point, I have new jewelry that is underway, and some new items that I am gathering components for.

I also have yarn and other fiber items that will be added to the store.

I currently have some sock yarn, and some laceweight yarn, and some lovely wool fiber dyed up.

I have 4 pounds of wool, and 2 pounds of mohair on the way, and 7 pounds of silk waiting for me.

All in all, this is a very busy (and scary) time since I am sinking way more money into this than I had thought I might, but at the same time, how can I not and expect to do anything useful?

It will all work out.

My current goal is to make sure to get black velvet ribbon, and possibly white velvet ribbon as well by this weekend. I have some jewelry components that need to be returned, and some that need to be purchased.

I have my once a year, in person vending show in about 4 weeks and I just got the last of the new displays for that. I just need to hit the office supply store and pick up small bags, a receipt book, and T-pins. :D

I have finally found the hairstick kit, so I need to spend some time soon making a whole bunch more hairsticks since those tend to sell well in the summer time.

And lastly, I need to go back and re-evaluate my prices.

Really, I'm going to do better!

2010-06-08T08:56:00.001-07:00

I'm going to rearrange a few things in my life to see if I can make it a far more regular thing to post here. Right now, everything's been all weird.

(In fact, this morning there was a young banana slug crossing my carpet and my older cat was sitting right in front of it going "oooooh, what are you ? You're NEAT!" I love my cats, but they are odd.)

Anyway, Revamping everything is going to take about a month. So the end of next week, on the 17th (or thereabout) the store will be closing for a while so that I can rephotograph, and rename, and rewrite descriptions, etc.

I will also be expanding my stock. I am going to add more Photographs, and I am going to start adding in Yarn and Fiber as well as knitting/crocheting accessories.

If you have had your eye on something in the store, please don't wait to purchase it! Or at least contact me to purchase it! Prices will also be changing, and if you want an item for its current price, get it now. :)

And now, before I go and do morning chores, have a look at my morning visitor! Isn't it pretty? (I actually do think that banana slugs are very striking.)

And 3 weeks go by

2010-04-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy time. I have several new things that I need to post and fees that I need to pay to Etsy. But I have a custom order to do and some new shinys to make and sell.

I am trying to avoid spending any more money than necessary, but things keep cropping up.

Today started out poorly with things getting dropped all over my shirt and feet. But at lunchtime the day finally picked up. I went to lunch with my realtor and that was very pleasant. We chatted and he is very proud of how much I am learning about fixing things in my house. He then told me that he thinks he can find me a piece of plastic for my fridge. (To move my fridge, not to put in my fridge.) He was properly appalled at the stories of what I have found in my appliances (strapping tape) and he said he might be able to help me find a replacement dishwasher and possibly even a new refrigerator.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of spinning and crafts, but if the weather doesn't rain me out, then I need to head to the zoo to see the raptor show so I can figure out my cues for the show. However, if it rains, then I am staying home. Until the afternoon anyway. :)

Tomorrow is the first day of the Redmond Saturday Market (Farmer's Market), and one of the people I know vends there selling alpaca fiber. She is bringing some yarn for me to buy and bringing me a crockpot for dyeing in. And I will probably buy some other fibers from her for spinning. :)

But for now, I need to go and grab the overly expensive bag of beads for the custom order. But should be fun!

Well that was short-lived

2010-04-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

So I was going to work on listing things this past weekend.

And then Saturday came along with its overly tempting Streaming Netflix Disk for the Wii.

And I succumbed. I ended up setting up the streaming Wii and watching movies and tv shows for most of the day. And knitting and cuddling the cats... and getting nowhere on the listing process.

I think I got 1 new item listed in the last two weeks. And then failed to continue. I shall have to work on that soon.

Like perhaps this weekend. :D

I have new stuff, and I even have pictures. I just need to get them listed.

But not tonight. Tonight is bed time. It's almost 11 and I really meant to be in bed an hour ago. You'll notice that I am still typing... and trust me, it's not from the bedroom. LOL

Ah well. I have been testing out some new stitch marker designs, and I think I have a better way to do the stitch markers on the flexible wire, so if I get home early tomorrow, I will have to try it out and see.

In the meantime, I am off to sleepyland.

Night everyone!

Non jewelry, and non-fibery blurb!

2010-03-28T12:41:00.001-07:00

Because I NEED to share for a moment.
So I have 2 gallon bags of bread cubes at the moment. Normally, when I make bread, if it goes stale, I shove it into the food processor and make more bread crumbs. How can you EVER go wrong with home made bread crumbs? Well, you can't. And since I have several friends who are allergic to various ingredients in most store-bought breads, it is just simpler to use home made bread crumbs.

Well not this time! This time I really wanted bread pudding. Don't know exactly why, but I really did. So I cubed up 2 loaves of bread, 1 French and 1 Sourdough. I have let them sit for over a week, and they still aren't completely stale. (stupid non-staling bread, why can't you teach the bread that I want to make into toast or sandwiches that trick? Stupid bread.)
Anyway, so they aren't totally stale. Not a big deal. I found my basic recipe for bread pudding and was appalled (again) at the total lack of flavors in it. This is pretty normal for me. Plain bread pudding is okay. I NEVER add raisins because I think raisins should be only eaten as raisins. Not baked into things, but as a handful of raisins, or dribbled across my morning oatmeal along with sliced almonds and nutmeg. Currants aren't too bad, but I didn't want them today. So plain it is, but I couldn't bring myself to do the 1 spice flavor in a basic, plain recipe. They call for cinnamon and that's it. How boring can you be? Jeez!

So I dismantled my entire spice cabinet (and THAT'S an undertaking, believe you me) and found my cinnamon. They wanted 1 teaspoon... Well, I'm sure there's a teaspoon in there... Those were HUGELY HEAPING half teaspoons that I put in there. Yeah, that can't be all... so I "accidentally" spilled some whole cloves into the milk, and put in the cinnamon as requested. I don't know how it happened, but a whole nutmeg fell out of the cabinet and just HAPPENED to grate about 1/3 of a teaspoon into the milk as well. Oops. ;) Then, just to add insult to injury, a whole vanilla bean somehow got split and scraped into the milk pan. I don't know what happened, I just turned my back for a moment!

The only downside is that I did find the missing vanilla beans that I had bought a bit ago and they hadn't been stored properly, so they were totally dry. A moment of silence, please, for the valiant vanilla beans. ::Pause:: So I snapped them into pieces and shoved them in my vanilla sugar jar. :D You wouldn't throw them OUT, just 'cause they're DRY!! (Great pig like that, you wouldn't want to eat it all at once!)

Want to see one of my most favorite kitchen views in the whole wide world?

Beautiful, isn't it? That's the inside of a split vanilla bean. It shimmers and glitters and the smell flows through your ENTIRE house. It's wonderful.

Anyway, got all the spices into the milk and butter, heated that SUPER SLOW on the stove, and then poured it through a sieve into the pan with the bread cubes.

This is the part that always makes me guffaw... All the recipes printed nowadays say either "put in the oven in a water bath" or "let sit for a couple of minutes, then put in the oven in a water bath"... Um, WHAT?! What about flavors, and the bread soaking up those flavors?! You're going to get jello with bread in it, not a bread pudding! Yeah, it should actually sit there for about 30 minutes so the bread can absorb the liquid. You don't want the bread to dissolve, but you want most of the liquid to be absorbed. THEN you can bake it in the water bath.

Anyway, my bread pudding is sitting on the stove top, cooling and I am already contemplating making another... perhaps chocolate this time? I have all that bread to go! :)

Bedtime!

2010-03-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

But I wanted to make a quick note here.

I got 5 more pendants and 3 pairs of earrings done today. 1 pendant and 1 pair of earrings are for a custom order. 1 pendant is so horrible that I have to take it apart. But the rest I rather like. I was working with spirals again today, and I got a wire wrapped pendant that is roughly heart shaped, exactly as requested.

And then the router went down AGAIN, and I gave up on anything else for tonight.

And now, it is nearly 11 and I have zoo tomorrow. Night night interwebs!

Look at that, another update in under a week!

2010-03-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm as shocked as anyone. :)
So after my happiness with the pendant from the last post, I have been hurrying to try some other things. I worked last night for about 2 hours on pendants. I picked up a HUGE number of rocks (semi-precious stones) and have been working with those.
I found 1 more chunk of labradorite that was worked this morning, and I found a LARGE number of labradorite granite beads. They are all diamond shaped beads, the smallest are the size of a quarter, the larger are about twice that size. They are silver and black, which is FASCINATING. I also got some composite green stones, and several different types of jasper, and some low grade amethyst. I also got some great black either agate or another jasper, I don't know which. But it's super shiny and lovely.

So last night I worked on several different pendants, and I find myself drifting more towards my previous style of simplistic wrapping. And I tried a more traditional wrap job and was forcibly reminded that I haven't done those in a VERY long time and I need more practice. It turned out okay, but I still obviously need more practice again.
Then this morning I ventured WAY outside my comfort area and worked with sterling silver wire to make 2 pendants. 1 turned out quite nicely, in my opinion, and the other turned out good, but a bit more busy than I wanted. I need a clearer vision in my head of what I want to do with a piece when I work with sterling. It's too expensive to screw up with regularly.

On to pictures! I will work some more on jewelry today and then get out the photo tent tonight for high quality pictures. But for now, this will be fine. :)

Last night's work: 7 of the 8 pendants that were made (#8 is on the other side of the house and I didn't feel like getting up to get it. :)
They aren't THE BEST IN THE WORLD, but they are not bad for now. I like them well enough and I am sure others will find them enjoyable.

This morning's work is here:

The black one was wrapped with dead soft sterling. I think it is WAY too busy, and I may still decide to take it apart, smooth out the wire and start over. The other one, the labradorite, was done with half hard wire, so it will actually hold its shape pretty well. Not if someone tries to crush it, but the occasional drop shouldn't do much if any damage to it. I like how it turned out. The stone has GREAT flash all across the face (not that you can see that from the picture), and the wire frames that very nicely. I like the wire going down the outside, it is very reminiscent of lightning. That pendant I am pretty happy with.

Things I learned this time around:

MAKE SURE to have a clear vision of what you want to do with wire before cutting sterling for a pendant.
If you are not sure, DON'T DO IT. Or use the tinned copper wire first to see if you like it.
I definitely need to go back to practicing my wire wrapping, traditional style.
20 gauge sterling isn't the same size as 20 gauge anything else, so we need to go to a store and buy the wire in person. WHICH MAKES ME MAD!
I need to buy tool magic if I am going to work frequently with color coated wire.

and lastly:

I had forgotten how much I missed and enjoy making JEWELRY. Not stitch markers, or the bare jewelry for those. But actual pendants and whatnot that take some thought.

And now, I am off to get the bird fed, and me fed, and then hit the library and the grocery store. Then back here to get work done on more jewelry.

yes, yes, my ability to update sucks bollocks

2010-03-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

I understand this, I really do. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. None of my other websites are getting updated either, so it's not specific to this one. :D

But I am working on new items, I continue to spin and dye fiber. I am also working on new jewelry.

I just did this piece tonight in about 10 minutes! I was thrilled because this is very fluid, organic, and lovely, and SUPER FAST.
I think it isn't PERFECT for my likes, but it's not bad for a first time trying this idea. The labradorite was SUPER cheap, but has amazing flash to it. I used super soft wire since I have that, and I have LOTS of it. I have seen other people who make things similar to this, but most of them go WAY too busy for me. They have loops and swirls and more and more loops and swirls. But they are too busy for me. I already have found myself tweaking on this, so I know I'm not finished. :)

In fact, take a look after tweaking:
Isn't it beautiful? I think there might be a few too many swoops on the side, but I'm willing to forgive that for this one because of the z shapes. I am SO happy with those!

Okay, it's after 10 and while I want so badly to keep working, I need to go to bed.

So I'm thinking of yarn...

2010-02-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Sadly, the cough is making my hands not steady enough for jewelry work. So I spent the last few hours carding up alpaca fleece.

I'm thinking of doing some yarns in jewel tones based off the Black Jewels books. The jewel ranks in the books are:

White
Yellow
Tiger-Eye
Rose
Summer-sky
Purple-dusk
Opal
Green
Sapphire
Red
Grey
Ebon-Grey
Black

Now you'd think that these would be pretty straight forward. However, all of the jewels have different strengths, so I want to make the fiber multi-tonal in shade. So, white would be ecru, white, cream, etc. Yellows all blended together so you get bits of butter, sunshine, crayon, etc. Tiger-eye will be interesting, since that will need really well blended golden orange and browns. Rose can be pinks and lavenders (and hey, I just spent all day carding up lavender! :)

Summer-sky has never really been defined. But I tend to think of it as shades of blue, maybe with a touch of white and yellow through it occasionally. Just a hint. Never a dark blue, but like the clear, deep, brilliant blue that you see vaulting overhead in the middle of summer. Purple-Dusk would be blues, purples, with some pink threaded through it as well.

Since Opal is the middle of the ranks and can be a dark or light jewel, and since opals contain so many colors in them, I plan to blend bits from all the other jewels into 2 different opal yarns. 1 with all the light colors and 1 with all the dark colors. I might even do a third with super fine singles of each and ply them together so that you have the balanced dark and light halves.

Greens, Sapphire, and Red. Pretty basic, I want to blend all different shades of those into each fiber bunch. Grey will be interesting, since I can blend so many different colors of grey and Ebon-grey can be the same grey blend, but with 1/4 or so substituted with black.

Then you get the Black jewels which will be as black as I can get them.

I also intend to get sparkly additions to add into the fiber to be spun. I just have to buy it. I know they make White that sparkles with WHITE, various shades of white with blue, green, and purple shimmer...there is also purple, blue, gold, red, black, all the colors I need.

Now I just need to be able to afford them. Ah well. That's what the 9-5 is for. :)

Another cold has arrived

2010-02-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

I definitely need to buy a hepa type filter or something similar. I really hope that will calm down the number of times I have been sick. It used to be that I was sick only 2 or 3 times a year, but I've been ill 3 times in just the last 6 months, and I think a couple more than that.

ah well. Tomorrow I shall vacuum, and put some more things away, and see about doing very little. :) Unfortunately, I will have to call the zoo and let them know that I won't make it in on Sunday. But that means that Sunday can be spent at home knitting and depending on how steady my hands are... working on some more jewelry. I have tons of ideas, but not enough components for most of them.

For now, it's time for sleeping.

3 weeks later

2010-01-23T21:43:00.000-08:00

So my resolve to post more often hasn't met with much success.

Work has had to take precedence over art and my jewelry has all had to be set aside for the most part recently.

I finally got to do some yesterday as I made some alpaca shaped earrings for Lynne, the nice lady who sold me a TON of alpaca fleece. They were a sample based off of a pair of earrings she has, and I can mimic them easily enough. I will probably make some other changes as I go, but they are simple. I do, however, need to get thicker gauge wire to make them with.

I also made a necklace version of my stitch marker bracelet. I wasn't completely happy with the result and neither was my tester. So it's back to the drawing board for now. I have 3 new ones made up now and we'll see how those work out.

For now, it's bedtime. Tomorrow is a big picture day at the zoo.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 has closed and we are now in 2010. Is it just me, or did 2009 seem REALLY fast?

Now we're trying to start a new year and we shall see what is in store.

So far this year, I have sold more jewelry, and I bought a whole bunch of alpaca fleece to play with. In fact, I have some in the microwave right now being dyed purple. I also have some that is dyed "black (more of a super dark purple)", some a wonderful rich yellow, I have a fantastic rich red and some variegated green.

Plus all the natural cream/beige color and some beautiful cinnamon brown. I am using this to learn more about carding as well.

I have a possible wholesale order for stitch markers soon. I had an inquiry about if I would be interested/could make about 100 sets of stitch markers and if I would drop the price.

I can get that many stitch markers done in about 4 days (of intense work), and should get started on that soon. Just in case. :)

For now, today is going to be mostly offline. I have a lot of chores that need doing around the house and not so many that need doing online. :)

And now I am going to go card up some more fleece and then knit some more on my socks.

wow, christmas already?

2009-12-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Where did the time go?

I have spent the last nearly 3 weeks working on jewelry and housecleaning. My sister arrived on the 21st for the holidays. We had 2, nearly 3 whirlwind days in Seattle and then headed to our mother's house.

Since I cannot work on jewelry on the train (can you imagine how much of a disaster THAT would be?!), I worked on getting more of my sock completed. I have now completed the heel turn! I am very proud of myself. :D

I expect I will have finished that sock by tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. Then I can start on the second sock. With any luck, by the new year I can wear my very own, hand-knit socks!

For now, it is quarter to 11pm, and my sister and mother are planning to go to midnight mass. More power to them. I am going to stay here, eat something, and then probably read my book until I am ready to sleep.

Good night, happy holiday of your choice, and peace and well-being to you and yours.

oops

2009-12-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Overslept. Didn't mean to. I vaguely recall the alarm going off, and then getting up. Unfortunately, there was a 25 minute gap between the two. CRAP.

So there will be no further sorting of STUFF. Heck, I shouldn't even be here updating, but oh well. it's a quick update.

I got a whole bunch of beautiful garnet beads to make into stitch markers and necklaces and stuff. So I am probably going to come home, watch Dexter and work on those tonight.

Our weather is generally below freezing at the moment, but clear and dry. So dry, in fact, that it's dehydrating people like jerky! But it means that I leave work a bit earlier and work from home for an hour or so to make sure that I can get home.

We are expected to get more clouds starting tomorrow, which means we will be getting ice.

So today, I need to call the IT helpdesk and get my phone set up to get my emails. yup yup

My latest customer's package is all ready to go. I went a bit tape happy on it. But my last 2 packages that I have received were torn up, so I want to be extra careful with ones I send out.

Okay, now to work!

That was weird, & A busy weekend

2009-12-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

2 stories in one! Which will have to be short because it is after midnight and I really do need to go to sleep. :)

So I tried to log in just now and Blogger kept telling me that I couldn't be logged in because I didn't have cookies. Um, WTF? Yes, I do have cookies, I even have one for here, and Java is enabled. TRY AGAIN. To which Blogger said "Oh, yes, I remember you!" Weirdo.

So this past week, not just the weekend, was very very busy. I ended up coming home most days and making new stitch markers and bracelets because my last batch just FLEW out the door. It was shocking to say the least. :) But a good shocking.

So I needed more and spent many days making new markers. By the end of Friday night I had 20 new sets of markers and 5 new bracelets up and listed. I spent most of Saturday morning getting things photographed. Oh, how I love my new light tent! Things just look so much better! The light is so much more even and the backgrounds make things look amazing. And I love the little display table that is so shiny shiny that I have to wipe it down with window cleaner between each item to keep the dust off. But it is so shiny that I get lovely reflections in it.

Here's a picture of one of my favorite sets of stitch markers:

Seriously, these have the same look as a piece of creamy hard candy. Like those Werther's Caramels? Yeah, except these are pineapple quartz, and I SWEAR UP AND DOWN that they look like pineapple candy. Every time I look at them, there is an urge to put one in my mouth. And I'm NOT 3 anymore! :) But oh, these were hard to photograph. I think I took 15 pictures of JUST these markers and I only got the color accurate in this one. It's a tiny bit off, but not much.

And in other news, I have started knitting my first pair of socks. Or at least my first sock. :) I have a little over 1 inch done and I'm picking up speed, so I might be finished with the one sock... by christmas... maybe. :D

Between jewelry, continuing to unpack and put things away, and work? I just don't have as much time to knit as I might like. But I'm working on balancing better.

I was working on the crocheted hip scarf for my friend MissD, and unfortunately, screwed up royally on my decreases, and had to rip out 5 inches of work. I was so mad. SO MAD I tell you! So I put that down for a little while because I nearly destroyed it from fury. So I will start working on that again after next weekend. But there was no way I was going to let it stay that way. The edge that was supposed to be decreasing wandered around like a drunk cow.

Anyway, it's quarter past midnight, and I must go chill the bedroom down to about 35 degrees. My bedroom is normally only about 10 degrees warmer than outside, and it's 25 degrees outside right now. I know, I have been informed that my sleeping with the window open even in this weather definitely shows that I am insane. :)

Night night!

Go me! Creativity is coming out my ears!

2009-12-04T01:08:00.000-08:00

It's late, so I am going to make this short. :)

I sold nearly all my stitch markers and all of my stitch marker bracelets over the last couple of weeks. I was so surprised I nearly spit my soup!

I only have 2 sets of stitch markers left in the store, so I have spent the last 3 nights making more. I also dug through all 9 boxes of bead stuffs and found my last 2 toggle clasps to use for bracelets. So I have 2 more bracelets ready to go, and (drumroll please!) I have 15.75 sets of stitch markers ready to go!

(1 of them still needs trimming and tidying before it's ready, but that will only be about 10 minutes of work.) So tomorrow, since I still have some thoughts on more ideas, I think I am going to finish up another few sets of markers, and then put away all the making side and get out the photo studio. That way I can photograph all the new jewelry and stitch markers and get everything listed tomorrow or Saturday at the latest.

Be ready for pretties!

I was very bad to my pocketbook and bought several new strands of beads for this. Including some lovely stripey cherry quartz pillow beads (puffy rectangles) and some more millefiori squares in blue and purple.

But for now, bedtime. I need to be up early to get to work tomorrow. Sadly, my brain is still buzzing with the "must do more ART" impulses. :D

Yeah, I've been slacking on posting again

2009-12-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

I need to find an app to post with. I'd be faster that way. :)

I have ended up selling nearly all of the stitch markers that were up in my store. So last night I spent a couple of hours working on new sets and found that I am totally out of headpins. This is bad.

So I have to break my rule (only buying new materials when I have enough to justify an order from either Firemountain, or the other wholesalers. I'm ONLY missing headpins. I have been using paddle pins, which work and will be unique, but since they dangle and have the paddle on the end, they could potentially snag more easily than a standard headpin.

This means that I will have to stop at the craft store tonight on my way home and buy headpins at a higher price. However, no waiting and no shipping will balance that out.

I will then come home and work on more stitch markers and more bracelets, since I sold all the bracelets that went with the stitch markers as well. I even sold MY bracelet. The one that I made for ME, and used with MY stitch markers. All gone! All gone, so sad!

However, I have discovered that while I love the ease of using magnetic clasps, I ran into problems with the fact that the magnets in the clasps I had were so strong that it took a lot of effort to get them open without breaking the chain. So I had to include warnings with both of them to say "make sure to hold onto the MAGNET and not the chain when you open the clasp. otherwise the chain will break instead of the magnet opening."

I think I am going to replace them with S-Clasps instead. That way I won't have the trouble and I won't have the bracelet getting grabbed and wadded up by the magnet either. But that will wait until I order from Firemountain. :)

Finally got pictures!

2009-11-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I finally got my new light tent and stuff for my photography. Yay!

Of course it took some time before I was able to get it set up and actually in use. :D

Today was the day for pictures. I'd been saying it for a while that I would get pictures tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (like Macbeth, no?)

But I did it this morning. First thing! I hadn't even let the bird up yet when I set up the light tent and got everything set up. I did finally let him up afterward, but not before.

With all the ambient lights turned off and the blinds turned backwards to block out the light, I got set up. I turned on the side lights and opened up one of the backgrounds.

WOAH! The backgrounds (at least the white one) are flocked! This is fantastic! A velvet like background actually makes for better pictures because it doesn't reflect light back at the camera. It's why a lot of film makers who need a perfectly deep background to hide people in dress their people in black velvet or velveteen and stick them in front of black velvet curtains. It's expensive as all get out, but the people vanish.

So I am thrilled to say the least. :) I take a couple of test shots to check light levels and make the necessary adjustments to light placements and camera settings. I do want to check to see how to set the self timer to just be ON for taking jewelry pictures. Apparently it can't be, it has to be set for each picture. LAME!

Man, oh man... my colors are so much better in this than in my last light tent! Having 2 lights definitely helps. My displays are much better in the bigger tent, they don't run into the roof the light tent and I don't have to focus as tightly to keep cardboard out of the shot now. YAY!

The little display table is wonderful. It gives a lovely amount of reflection for smaller objects like my stitch markers, but doesn't call as much attention to itself as using fabric or something did.

I still need to work on a stand for when I use a book in my pictures, but that will be something I work on later.

Oh the other really nice thing about this new light tent? One of the sides is completely removable. It's either the front or the top. It has a slit in it, so if you want it to be the top, you can still shoot through it, but no extra light will get through. This will be fantastic for a lot of smaller jewelry or things that I want a top down shot on. :)

So remember the stitch marker bracelet conundrum I was having? Well, I made the bracelet, as I mentioned, and lots of stitch markers, so here's an example:

It wasn't my fault! I blame the cat!

2009-10-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

I had so many plans to get so many things done last week and this past weekend.

I have items to photograph and things to get listed, and more things to make... it goes on and on.

However, I got the flu last week. It was so bad that my hands shook from Friday until Tuesday, and there was no way I could even hold my pliers, let alone actually get anything made properly.

Heck, Saturday, I huddled on the couch under blankets and tried to just knit. And I couldn't even do that because my joints hurt too badly from the stupid illness.

Sunday I did better and I was able to knit a few rows at a time. So I did that while watching the first half of Season 1 of True Blood. Cute series, it makes me giggle (and cough). But it also reminds me that I can't read those books for too long because after a bit, I don't care for the Sookie character. She gets annoying after a while.

Same thing for the series, she still gets annoying, but I can turn it off at the end of an episode and pick it up again later.

There aren't too many series that I can watch one episode after the other for long periods of time. 3 exceptions come to mind... Buck Rogers (the one with Gil Gerard), Farscape, and Red Dwarf. Those are the only ones I can think of where I can watch season after season without needing a break.

However, I am finally getting rid of the flu grungies. By later this week, I should be able to work on jewelry and even spin some more soon!

And, I feel very excited. I bought a new light tent for photographing my items. My current one works, but since it is made from a box with tissue paper, it's sometimes hard to manage. The tissue tears with a wrong look sometimes. And the box is ugly and sometimes I just can't hide the cardboard.

The new light tent is being shipped tomorrow (hopefully), and is a pop-up style like the pop up hampers and storage cubes you can find all over now. It comes with 4 different backdrops, and a little professional display table, 2 lights and a camera tripod. And the tent comes with it's own little carry case so I won't have to be trying to have a 12x12x12 box sitting on things! yay!

I don't need the camera tripod, I have 4 of my own. :D But the better quality nylon of the tent will better diffuse the lights, and the lights that are coming with it will be better than the single desk lamp I have currently.

AND I bought a flash diffuser for my hotshoe flash (that's the kind of flash that is attached to the top of the camera, not a built in flash.) So if I need a touch more light for something, I can use the flash without getting the harsh glare from it.

So yeah, I am TOTALLY excited. I will have more stuff done hopefully this weekend and I should have my new light tent either this weekend or next week, and then I will have to remind myself constantly that I am not allowed to set the box one on fire. :)

Early Sunday, I beat the sun

2009-10-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's just after 7am on Sunday morning. I'm up before the sun. Nothing quite like hearing an unfamiliar voice in your bedroom to wake you up faster than believed possible. I am definitely turning off the alarm on my phone.

Ah well. Today is supposed to be a cool but lovely day. That will be nice. I like lovely days. Fall is such a great time of year!

Yesterday was a day of making jewelry items. I spent many hours working on jewelry for a custom order from Etsy. Now I just need to spend several hour taking photos of all the pieces. Possibly Tuesday or Wednesday for that.

Today I have to trim my fingernails.

I finished the scarf that I was making for the soon to be 7 year old. I was going to put a crocheted picot edge along the edge, but now I am not so sure. I need to try it again when I have the eyelash yarn facing the correct way. But it looks fine without the edging. I will get pictures of that soon too. I need to be camera happy for an evening. :)

Time to go feed the cats!

weekend weekend!

2009-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Finally friday! And I am just about to tidy up and head home!

But I have to make an unexpected stop at the craft store again. I am working on a scarf to be given to Talia the six year old for christmas. The pattern calls for a 36 inch circular needle. I started with a 32, and bought a 40 inch.

IT DOESN'T ALL FIT!!! So I have to go and get a 47 inch circular which really annoys me.

Tomorrow I am at the zoo, and Sunday I get to sleep in!

I will probably work on jewelry on Sunday as well. Sorry, not much of an update today. :)

An update with pictures!

2009-09-22T18:07:00.001-07:00

So I promised pictures soon. And I still haven't gotten pictures of my stitch markers taken. I was going to, and then my camera battery died. And instead of getting one of the other cameras, I just tossed in the towel for that evening.

But I have a quick, seat of the pants picture of a pendant that was special ordered a little while ago.

See? Here is it:

I was trying to recreate Obsidian Heart, but the wire, my fingers, and my subconscious apparently didn't want to cooperate. So it because Obsidian Spirals.

But it's beautiful and I love it.

In yarny crafts, I was making a scarf for someone, but didn't know who. It has been mostly claimed by the 6, soon to be 7, year old, Talia. The probelm I ran into? I got about 18 inches into the scarf and hated it. Absolutely hated it. Hated the pattern, hated the yarn in the pattern, hated it all. So I ripped it all out. Then I started a second variation. Hated that too. Ripped it out, tried a third variation. Still with the hate. (I'm just a hater, apparently.) So I went looking for a different pattern. Found one for fishnet lace. I like it better. But I am thinking that a 6, nearly 7 year old isn't the best choice for a fishnet lace scarf.

So I am going to rip the whole thing out (AGAIN) and start over (AGAIN!). However, I think this time I want to do something that will be textured, but not lacy. And I am thinking that a ruffled scarf might be a better option. So I am going to go looking for scarf patterns, and it might end up crocheted instead of knit.

I am almost 30 inches done with the hipscarf for my friend MissD. I am getting so close, I want to hurry hurry, and that would be terrible. When I hurry, that's when I make mistakes. I hurried with the scarf and dropped a stitch and had to tear out 2 inches just to get back to a place I could pick up the stitches. I hurried with the hipscarf before and had to tear out 12 inches. Not gonna do that again.

This weekend I am working at the zoo on Saturday instead of Sunday, so Sunday will be spent doing laundry and jewelry and maybe a movie. :)

yeah, I know... a month

2009-09-14T07:58:00.001-07:00

If it's any real consolation to the 1 or 2 people who read this, I haven't gotten much new done and uploaded...

I spent a lot of time over the last month doing house keeping, and working at the new job. I am trying really hard to get my house tidied and put away. It's very slow going.

I decided to try making stitch markers for knitting, and so I have a large number of those made up. I will get some more going, as I have visions of getting them made and put onto a bracelet so that it falls under "jewelry" as well as "useful to knitters".

I had had plans to settle at the craft table this past Saturday and work on jewelry, however I spent all weekend very dizzy and ill feeling, so no jewelry, not much of anything.

Let's see, I have also had the experience of having my sliding glass door break, the landscapers broke it by accident. They also fixed it, but it was terribly upsetting. And it made me realize (well, that and the holiday), that I detest being a contractor. At least with the contract I have, I do. This contract says that I get no paid time off and no paid holidays. I have pretty much useless insurance, and no transportation benefits (like subsidized bus passes).

So yeah, that has not made me happy. However, the contract is up in January (they think it's February, but 6 months is January) and I can be looking for another job with the benefits I want and need. And this will be a good learning experience in the meantime.

I will have pictures of things in a few days after I get more done and can photograph all of them together. For now, it is time to get ready to go to work!

I have some new things!

2009-08-09T20:33:00.001-07:00

I went to a Renaissance Faire over the last 2 weekends. Had lots of fun, chatted with lots of people. I bought a new belt (Yay!!)...

And I found a lovely vendor lady who had several different gemstones that I wanted, but I was mostly good...

I bought 5 bags of "Mermaid's Tears". Blue/green beach glass that was tumbled, but not polished.

If I want to polish them, I have the stuff to do so. :) But I have some great ideas for wire wrapping them.

However, I won't have a chance to do any wrapping until thursday. Monday is wrestling, Tuesday is dance, Wednesday I have someone coming to pick up a monitor, and I'll probably go to her house after that to watch a movie. So Thursday, thursday, thursday, thursday.

Then I shall select a movie from my Netflix queue (one of the instant play ones), and watch that while I get wiring.

But for now, I need to go to bed. I was at the zoo all day and between last weekend at the Ren Faire, and the zoo... and THIS weekend at the Ren Faire and the zoo.... I am seriously sunburned and I seriously hurt. So I am off to sleepy land...

But I will post pictures as I get things going!

Yay for the rain!

2009-07-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's raining for the first time in like a month. I'm totally thrilled. It probably won't last for very long, but I am thrilled to have the rain just the same.

Sadly, it did mean that the yarn I had drying outside had to move since I didn't need it to get rained on.

I have roving dried, both wool and silk. I have been very busy with the dyeing. I have the Midnight roving that I dyed last weekend, and I have a tie-dyed experimental roving that turned out beautifully. I have the midnight silk roving, and the yarn from today.

I will be doing some spinning this next week, and some more jewelry. I have some chores to do with the jewelry, so I will be working on it. I finally found my lace, so I will be dyeing that soon too so that I can make some chokers out of that. At least some part of that will need to be tea-dyed.

Tomorrow is my zoo day, and it is supposed to be hot tomorrow, hotter Monday, HOTTER on Tuesday, and EVEN HOTTER on Wednesday. It's times like this that make me kind of sad that I now have a job and can't just hide in my house when it gets too hot.

On the other hand, I get paid and I like that part.

Oh, right, I was going to put up pictures of my roving and yarn. You can see it in my Flickr Account. I need to dye more Exploded Hippy, since I really really really want to see that spun up.

More going on all over the place

2009-07-22T22:07:00.001-07:00

New job is still going well. But until the end of July, I probably won't have as much time as I want to do my crafty things. Right now I am matching my schedule to the schedule of the person who is training me. But I want to come in a bit earlier. I have too many evening commitments now to work until 7 or 8.

I have 4 ounces of wool roving that I dyed in purple and black. It's lovely. I will have pictures tomorrow. Today I took the plunge and actually dyed some Tussah silk. That's silk gathered from wild silk worms. It's this gorgeous slightly cream color naturally, and I dyed it with purple and black as well. It looks lovely. I will have pictures of that tomorrow as well.

I plan to do much picturing tomorrow. :) I will add pictures of the yarn spun from the fire colored roving as well. It turned out to have more pink than I normally would want, but it's still pretty.

The last experiment I am doing tonight is I am trying out an idea for overdyeing of fiber. I have 4 ounces of wool in the oven with a beautiful light grass green all over it. There's some variegation of the color, but not much. It's pretty even. I am then going to use garbage yarn to tie off sections and then dye the roving again with a medium blue dye. Tie off again and dye with purple, then one more tie off and dye little bits of it with black. I am curious to see how that turns out.

I think that roving is going to take a couple of days, since it's 30 minutes per color and then cool and rinse.

I'm hoping to spend time this weekend working on some new jewelry ideas and spinning. I am thinking vaguely of spinning the silk without dyeing it, and then plying it with pearls strung on thread. That's just a thought I am toying with. it might or might not happen. :)

Week 2 and a jewelry show done

2009-07-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Week 2 of my job has started. Still going well. And this week, finally, I expect to be able to get back to my jewelry and spinning. Tonight, I will be catching up on my Animal Crossing, but tomorrow I intend to put away the new beads, and sort the jewelry left over from the Belly Dance festival over this last weekend.

That was exciting. Medfest happens in the middle of July every year here in Seattle. It's always a lot of fun, and I usually go and socialize with a lot of friends I don't get to see all that often.

This time I decided to actually bring jewelry with me, since I am still trying to make ends meet until my paychecks finally start kicking in. So I had my display tree, and about 95% of all the completed stock.

I didn't sell all that much, but from what I saw, most people were not buying very much at all this year, so I was thrilled to just break even. Of course, now I have to untangle and unpack all the jewelry left over. :)

But I will do that tomorrow and get it all stored away again. I have some pieces that friends wanted to buy, so those did not go to the show, and 1 that I found was not as well maintained as I had thought, so that one will actually be taken apart and remade. Yes, I will actually do that. I know, I'm weird. I have some new pieces to make as soon as all the rest of the chores are done, and I even have a couple of items that are requested to be on hold for people from Medfest.

The store is currently in Vacation mode, still, but I am going to turn it back on as soon as I am done with this entry.

I gave my exploded hippy roving to my friend Janice as booth rental... :) She's thrilled. I did give her the fire as well, but ended up stealing that back so I could have something to spin, since I didn't bring enough roving with me for me to spin. Long Story...

I have some more roving dyed at home. It's called Midnight. It's purple and black, with bits of white peeking through. The purple and black both had a wonderful wicking effect where there is tons of blue streaking through the fibers. But there was no blue dye put on the wool.

I need to order more roving, and I am going to start investigating some other fibers as well.

I also need to wind the ribbon yarn into a ball so that I can start work on the hip scarf. Sadly, that did have to take second fiddle to Medfest. But it will be done tonight and then I can start work tomorrow or Thursday. It won't take long, crochet is pretty quick. Then I can dye it and get things attached.

Tonight on the way home, I will be stopping at one of the local bead stores so that I can see if I can find some items that I had purchased before. I have a request for a similar piece to one that was sold. I make no promises in that case, but I said I would try.

Besides, then I can look for some more large beads for bead wrapping. :)

I also need to look up my bank and see if there is a branch near work so I can deposit a check. I had a request from a coworker for charms. I showed her a selection, and she bought about 10 or so. So I have $22 in my pocket. Which will end up going back into bead purchases. :) ( I always have to be careful, since there is always the 2 year old mentality of NO! MINE!!)

But other than that, not much going on. I will be dyeing some more roving into exploded hippy this week. I am thinking that I am going to divide up the ball of roving just like I did before into one 8 oz bump and two 4 oz bumps and dye the 8 oz into exploded hippy and the 4 oz into other colors. I really liked how the Fire spun up, now I need to get it heat set and photographed. I might even offer it in my Etsy store just as an aside. I still prefer the jewelry, but serious, I have TONS of yarn. And I find that I really love the spinning part, and the knitting/crocheting part is less of what I want to do right now. Ah well. It will all work out.

And now, I am off to turn on the store, then shower and head to work.

Have a good day everyone!

Day 4, starting out... :)

2009-07-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm now on Day 4 of the new job. It is not the most difficult job I have ever done. It's not the easiest, but it is most definitely not the hardest. It won't be difficult to keep it going. And I expect that by next week I will be back to doing more jewelry and spinning and dyeing of things.

In fact, tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday will be jewelry exclusive. Medfest is this coming weekend, and I need to get more jewelry done, and I need to get all the jewelry going with me tagged. Then packed and ready to go.

I also do henna on people there, but that's unofficial. I don't actually charge. That's a donation based thing and technically, I am just doodling. :) I do it that way because then I do not HAVE to do it. And I don't have to get a business license, or a booth, or split profits with anyone. And I don't have to compete with the other henna artists. Besides, I haven't done henna on anyone in over a year. I DESPERATELY need the practice.

I finally found my little barrettes that will be decorated and sold. That was nice. I have been looking for those.

But now, it is time for me to get ready to go. I meant to be leaving now, but the dishes had to be done so that I could feed the bird. So I'm running a bit late.

2 super busy weeks...

2009-07-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got offered a job. A real job! It's a contract job, so it won't last for long. But it's a job just the same.

So the last 2 weeks have been crammed full of trying to get paperwork filled out for the new job and the background check and all kinds of other things.

I have managed to find some time to spin a little bit. I was sent some silk hankies and I spun those into a super thin single ply yarn. I will probably use it to ply some other yarn. I don't have any pictures of it yet.

I have put away quite a few more things, and I bought some shelves at Ikea. I forgot to bring in the water from the car, so I will have to do that tomorrow.

I have more final plans for the belly dance hip scarf that I am making for a friend. I will be crocheting it and then dyeing it after it is crocheted.

I have gotten more yarn dyed and my first attempt at dyeing roving. I have some beautiful roving that is dyed in a double rainbow. It looks like a tie-died hippy exploded all over it. :)

I also dyed up 4 ounces in fire colors. I sprinkled dry dye on the wet roving on the ends, and then added red and yellow dye so that I have red on one end, yellow on the other, and orange in the center. I am debating on that one. Part of me wants to spin it exactly as is. Part of me wants to flip half of the roving over. I think I might do both. If I like the results, I can always make more.

I got a surprise call from the recruiter saying that I will be starting on Monday, even though all my paperwork said Tuesday. Surprise! I was annoyed, but I was annoyed more because I had plans for things that needed to get done on Monday than because they changed plans.

So now I need to try to cram all those things into today and tomorrow. And Tomorrow has the zoo.

I am going to see if I can find an oil change place near the new office and get the oil in my car changed on Tuesday.

Dang, I wrote all this yesterday and somehow got all confused and distracted. So this was yesterday's post, yeah. :)

Go see pictures of my roving, yarn, and jewelry on my Flickr account.

300% successful yarn dye test! Oh my, it is lovely!

2009-06-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Look! LOOK!! It is SO beautiful! It looks like a waterfall trapped in yarn! This is 1 ounce of rayon ribbon yarn that I wound into a center pull ball, soaked in vinegar and water, then dyed in roughly thirds with Jacquard brand dye in blue, green, and purple. I added a hint of green to the blue and a hint of blue to the purple. But the green I left alone. This was the result:

I also did a 4 ounce hank of fingering weight merino wool/bamboo that I left dry before adding the dye. That took the dye beautifully as well.

Both of these were done in the oven and not in the microwave. I like the way the dye takes much better this way. I don't have the large white spots in between the colors. This looks much better blended.

I have 1 last batch of yarn in the oven currently. I have a crocheted gauge swatch that I am dyeing after crocheting, and I have it's originating ball that I dyed in the same way as the one in the picture above.

I don't know yet, what I will do with the wool/bamboo one. It's so pretty that I just want to pet it for a while. But it's still wet, so that has to wait until it is dry. :)

Everything is done. Looks lovely. I will photograph things tomorrow. It's late now and I have paperwork to finish before tomorrow morning. And tomorrow will come very early.

Yarn test is dyed!

2009-06-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see if I could dye with food color... I understand that if you can dye with Easter Egg Dye, you can dye with food color. But it's more along the lines of Can I dye yarn with food color... :)

So I whirled 2 ounces of shiny shiny ribbon yarn off the swift, and mixed up some dye and stuck the yarn in.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

See? Pretty pretty!

It's only been 2 days? Really?

2009-06-25T16:05:00.001-07:00

It doesn't seem possible to have only been 2 days.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both spent running errands with my friend Trina. I need to find a large pot for dyeing yarn and roving. I haven't found one yet. I may go with oven or crock pot if I can't find anything else. I forgot to pick up vinegar on Tuesday, so I had to get it yesterday. Yay for Costco! I got 2 gallons for $4.

I was invited to dinner both nights which is very nice. I wish they ate more vegetables, since I eat significantly more veggies than they do normally. Oh well. I will make do, like I always do. :)

I got some lovely rainbow Chard yesterday from Trina. Her family won't eat it. I am going to chop it up tonight and make enchiladas with Chard in them. I think it will be a very tasty dinner.

Trina also brought me a bag and a half of fruits and veggies today. I have some peaches, 2 eggplants, 3 or 4 small summer squash, some green peppers which I won't use. I really do not like the taste of green peppers. Trina also brought me several prepared salads. So I ate salad for lunch! Yum!

Now that all that is finished up, I am going to go fill up the tea kettle and get boiling water going. Once I have that, I am going to set yarn twists and hang the yarn to dry.

I also need to wind undyed yarn into balls so that I can finish up my gauge swatches. (Stupid tangled yarn! :) Once the swatches are finished, then I am going to do some test dyes on the swatches as well as some strands of yarn. I want to see if I like it better crocheted up and then dyed, or dyed first and then crocheted.

I also want to get the recycling out and get at least 2 more boxes unpacked today. I am feeling the need to hurry since I have a prize available if I clear out enough room by the end of July... :)

Tonight I am going to watch a movie and work on some new necklaces. For now, I am going to go get some more water. I'm thirsty. :)

working working, whoops!

2009-06-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

So today was... interesting...

It's late now, I'm trying to finish up so I can go to bed. I ended up getting up because my phone's alarm went off. Weird... Don't remember setting it, but okay... Got computery stuff done, blocked some spam bots on Twitter, checked Etsy for the flyer that I am waiting for. Got Animal Crossing done. Got the dishes done, lunch made, phone interview done, brownies in the oven, and finally settled down to try to finish plying the new handspun yarn. Couldn't control the bobbins on their own, so I whipped together a quick Lazy Kate to hold them for me. Plying, plying, pl-PTOING! Dang it. Hematite bead snapped off the plying thread and shot across the room... Back to plying, plying, ply-PTOING.... crap. Slowed down the plying, doing better... much better! I get several yards on with the beads intact. BZZZZZZ...Buzzer for the brownies went off, I jumped and dropped what I was doing to go rescue the brownies. They were SO not done. Stuck them back in the oven, got back to the spinning wheel and realized that jumping is what caused my horrible problems last time too.

My plying thread and the yarn are so tangled up that I can't separate them without at least 2 more hands, and preferably 4 more. Snapped the yarn, beads shot EVERYWHERE. Gave up on that for the night. What's sad is that I was nearly finished with that. Next time, I will have to have 2 lazy kates, one on each side so the yarn and thread are not right next to each other.

On the other hand, this is definitely smoother going than previously, so it will continue to smooth out. Soon I will (hopefully) be spinning the super fine yarn threads that I want to be spinning and then I can ply those with beads or not and then use them in my jewelry creation!

As it is, the fuschia (pink) will be used to probably make a keyhole scarf or something like that. Probably for the 6 year old. I can't stand pink. She adores it. :) But I might need to find someone else to take it, since she got the bag that I crocheted and I should make sure that others have the chance to get stuff too. :)

I am also working on a pearl illusion necklace still. There will be more of that tomorrow and wednesday. Part of tomorrow will be spend testing my dyes for yarn and roving. Should be fun. Of course if it rains, I won't be dyeing the yarn, because I need to do that outside. But as long as it doesn't rain, I'm going to get messy tomorrow! Woo!

Today is going to be crafty!

2009-06-19T13:25:00.001-07:00

I finished all my chores in my silly video game. (I play Animal Crossing on the Wii. It's fun, but sucks time horribly. :)

now I just hopped online to check a couple of things and now I am going to sign off the computer and go work on my spinning wheel for a while. I currently have a fuschia roving that I am spinning into fuschia yarn (go figure) but I am stringing little, tiny hematite beads into the yarn as it is being spun.

This yarn is the most difficult thing I have spun in a while because of those beads. The last time I was working on it was a few days ago and I managed to get about 10 inches spun and the phone rang. I jumped and lost control of my yarn, beads, and wheel. And then I didn't even reach the phone in time. ::sigh::

Several people have said, somewhat pompously, that I should turn the phone off when I want to work on something that takes that much concentration. However, since I am still trying to find a job, I need to leave the phone ON in case a recruiter or a resume recipient calls me with questions.

In other crafty notes. I had some nibbles on the idea of illusion necklaces, the true illusion style ones. Where the cord is clear, there are beads suspended, but not with crimps. So I picked up some monofilament yesterday. I have 940 yards of monofilament. Should make LOTS of necklaces. :)

I am currently working on a multistrand pearl illusion necklace at the moment. It's something I can work on with minimal space. That's good because I moved the computer so that I can watch movies or tv while working on the knotting.

I finished the crocheted mesh bag I was working on. I forgot to get a picture before I gave it to Talia's mom. So I emailed, and they will hold onto it for me until I can get over there to photograph it. I then started a small bag, about the size of a deck of cards. It's going to be a soap bag for holding pieces of soap in the shower/bath. I hate having soap bits that get stuck on the shelf, or the floor, or the drain. This will give me a cotton bag that can hold a full sized bar of soap. Since it is cotton, it can get wet and not have issues. And I don't even have to take the soap out to use it!

Uh oh. The bird is climbing around the outside of the cage. Better go wrangle him.

Have a good weekend!

More uploaded, stuff done, and general all around update!

2009-06-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Finally got the rose quartz and pink pearl pieces named and listed!

They can all be found here:
Gold wired necklace:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26591037
Silver Wired Necklace:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26591269
Gold Wired bracelet:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26591486
Silver Wired Bracelet:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26591665

I ended up naming them Blush and Bashful, after the wedding theme in Steel Magnolias. The funniest part was that I have never yet seen Steel Magnolias. :)

But yeah, got those finally named and listed. I was so pleased. I really want them to go to nice homes.

Yesterday I wanted to get some updates done around here and jewelry stuff made, but I got a phone call asking if I could do a couple of friends a HUGE favor and drive one of them to a doctor's appointment. He was feeling awful and needed to go get a CAT scan and an MRI. So I said sure, and they came to collect me. I took my crochet with me to work on in the waiting room. I am working on a mesh bag. It was supposed to be about the size of the reusable bags that you can buy from practically any store under the sun now... yeah, no... LOL I admit it... I did a gauge swatch, but not a really big enough one, and I fudged a lot of it... So that part is all my fault. But the bag is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the size it is supposed to be. But it's cute, so I am finishing it off and will give it to probably the 6 year old. She can use it as her very own grocery bag. :)

Drove James home, and was finally able to go pick up my car from the repair place! yay!

Sadly, I was only able to pay for it by not paying bills and not buying a few things that I was supposed to have bought. But car is necessary. So I'm trying to work it out.

I continue to work with the new spinning wheel. I haven't spun on a wheel in about 20+ years, and oh my word, does it show. I have 2 pounds of wool roving and 1/2 a pound of silk roving that are waiting patiently for me to feel more like I know what I am doing with the wheel. At the moment, any little thing can break my concentration and then it all goes to heck. But I am working on it. I have found that my flyer needs a bit more sanding to try to make the yarn feed just a bit more smoothly.

Once I am feeling like I actually am spinning well, then I can move towards one of my goals, which is to spin lace weight yarn with beads that can then be knitted or crocheted into some of my jewelry. And spin yarns that I will use for whatever.

I had a phone interview today for a "real" job. I don't think of them as "real" jobs, but as "bill paying jobs". My REAL job is taking care of myself, my pets, and my house. And taking care of myself most definitely includes the creation of my jewelry. Since if I don't get to create stuff, I go nuts!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Well, 3 out of 7 isn't too bad...

2009-06-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

I have 7 new items that need to be uploaded, and 3 so far are uploaded. The other 4 are 2 necklaces and 2 bracelets. They are nearly identical, but one is done with silver and one with gold. They are the ones that I put up in the last post.

The ones that are uploaded are beautiful! I have a necklace made with lavender pearls and purple crackle glass, and a bracelet to match it. I also have a very rare (for me) piece that I made using sterling silver.

I don't normally use sterling because it is too expensive for my very limited budget. By using silver plated instead of sterling, I can make more items and keep my prices much lower.

However, today, I found a pair of absolutely beautiful rock crystal facets spheres and they were just beautiful on sterling head pins and sterling earwires. You can see the pair of earrings here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26361784

Anyway, it's time to call it a night. It being 11:30pm and all. :)

'Night bloggers!

Busy busy busy!

2009-06-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

I have 2 new beautiful necklaces made tonight! I was so pleased with them!

A while ago I had bought some freshwater pearls that I thought were white or off-white. I bought them because they were on a SERIOUS sale. As in one of those "I NEED to buy those, the price is too good not to" type of sales. I think I got them for $1 for the two strands.

Anyway, when I put them next to the white pearls, they were definitely pink. PINK! They are a delicate, shell-pink... the kind of pink that just barely blushes across the inside of a curled seashell.

They are pretty, but at the time I had nothing in mind to make with pink pearls. And then while I was tidying up a spread of jewelry supplies, I found 2 small bags of rose quartz beads that I had gotten a while ago. I had beautiful faceted tear drops and faceted hearts. The best part of all of this is that the pink pearls almost EXACTLY match the pink of the rose quartz. It's PERFECT!

I ended up putting them together so there are pearls and then rose quartz tear drops interspersed with the pearls and then the heart in the center.

I don't wear pink, but I would seriously think about it for these two... :)

Take a look. I haven't done the "real" photographs for these to be listed, but I wanted quicky photos so that I could show what I have been working on.

This is the Pink & Silver This is the Pink & Gold

Hey! What happened to my posts?

2009-06-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

I posted 3 posts since the 16th!

I don't know.

Super short version:

More stuff uploaded!
a couple of things sold!
More stuff uploaded!
More stuff made!

And now, my car is broken and I am desperately trying to pay for repairs. So if you have any items that you are interested in, now is a GREAT time to purchase... or convo me through etsy and give me an offer. depending on the offer, I will probably take it!

~Ebon

busy busy!

2009-05-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today was definitely craft related, but it involved making necessary repairs to clothing. But nearly all of them are repaired! I need to do some hand stuff, sock darning, and buttons, but nearly everything is fixed. As soon as they are all fixed, the sewing machine can come off the craft table.

After the craft table is de-machined... then I will be getting all the beads and jewelry supplies packed up and tidied away. I need to re-arrange the craft room/office area and the beads have to be tidied up first.

Yesterday I found a beautiful cast iron jewelry tree that I bought. It's more expensive than I can honestly afford, but I had been trying to find a good display for a long time. So I decided that I would find a way to afford it.

Once I get a new and bigger photo box made, you can see the tree in pictures! :)

More stuff uploaded! Go me!

2009-05-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have more items listed in the Bargain Shopping section. Mostly earrings at the moment. They are fast and simple, and easy to list.

I have some more necklaces for the non bargain section, but I have not gotten them listed yet. I was going to do it now, but I just realized that I was hungry. So I am going to go make myself some food and then come back to the computer. :)

well, I was trying to update more often

2009-05-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

And then I had to replace a router to make my computers are all working correctly and getting on the internet.

But it's all working finally and things are back. I get to place my order for stuff in a couple of days. Today is tidying day, and cleaning up my craft area. I need it cleaned so that I can re-organize the office/craft space.

Tomorrow I have a meeting in the morning, and then Thursday we shall see. Friday is devoted to Etsy!

Yay!

2009-05-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Tax refund arrived yesterday. So I will be paying off credit cards and other bills, and also buying the minimum of new jewelry ingredients. Nothing super extravagant... :) That is saved for when I have more money available. But things like new gift boxes, wire, some new stones, new beads, chain, etc.

It would be nice to be able to order WHATEVER I WANT, but it's not going to happen this time. :)

Should be fun, though.

or not....

2009-05-08T15:59:00.001-07:00

Nope, Twitter hates me today. I am not able to post anything. I will try again later.

Small updates all in a bunch

2009-05-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well, Twitter doesn't want to work today... So no tweets yet.

My mortgage paperwork has been completed, so now I can focus on things around here that need work... Like the DISHES!!! :)

I have more items that will be uploaded today after I get some money things straightened out.

Oooh, twitter has started to respond! Yay!

I have a goal to have all unlisted items listed by the end of tomorrow. We shall see, won't we? :)

Lots of new things to look forward to, and then next week I am going to re-arrange my craft area and office, and then on to making more items!

Hope you all are having a good day!

Things are getting uploaded

2009-05-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

Slowly, but surely. I am going to spend some extra time tomorrow getting more items uploaded.

For now, all prices have been updated to be lower. And the new bargain section is up and going. There are 5 items in the new section so far, and I have probably another 20 right now ready to be uploaded.

Here are my featured items. You can see some of the new items in this selection:

Etsy
Buy Handmade
Ebonraven

more stuff created

2009-05-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

I was mostly offline all weekend. Yesterday was filled mostly with bready type products. I made 11 pizza crusts, 1 loaf of roasted garlic sourdough bread, and 1 loaf of plain sourdough bread.

I also put in about 6 hours of jewelry work, and then watched a movie.

Here's one of the pairs of earrings I made yesterday:
Today was cleaning of the house, then more jewelry. I got several more items made today. The pictures are finally uploaded to Flickr and will be uploaded to Etsy tomorrow or so.

Here's a sneak preview of one of the things I made today:

Now I just need to get all these new things listed onto Etsy! Project for tomorrow. :)

I promised a Craft Show update!

2009-05-01T19:09:00.001-07:00

I did promise, and I try not to break my promises. I don't always manage that, but I do try. :)

So anyway, Craft Show. Saturday May 9th is the big Seattle Etsy Craft Show. It's not HUGE, but it's good sized. 32 Etsy vendors will have booths on site.

Here's the official announcement!

What: EtsyRAIN Spring Craft Show - Shop the Show!!

When: May 9, 2009 10:00 AM

Where: Click the link below to find out!

Join us at the EtsyRAIN Spring Craft Show - shop the show, introduce yourself and support EtsyRAIN
Saturday, May 9, 2009 - the day before Mother's Day!
10:00am to 4:00pm

At the newly rennovated SodoPop event space:
2424 1st Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134
(directly across the street from Starbucks Headquarters! Look for our EtsyRAIN banner!)

http://moourl.com/SodoPop (google map to SodoPop)

Bring your friends! Bring your family!

32 EtsyRAIN members showing jewelry, bath / body products, bags / purses, clothing, accessories and much more!

Vendor list (in alphabetical order):

alisespieces.etsy.com
boodlebags.etsy.com
debralinker.etsy.com
dreamsome.etsy.com
glasselements.etsy.com
hasenpfeffer.etsy.com
jillmaccorkle.etsy.com
kimmi.etsy.com
maluhia.etsy.com
norik.etsy.com
oneeyedcollie.etsy.com
oneheartstudio.etsy.com
patinaparty.etsy.com
pepopark.etsy.com
queenheroncreations.etsy.com
revivalink.etsy.com
seattlesundries.etsy.com
selenaeon.etsy.com
simabella.etsy.com
skybox.etsy.com
station1528.etsy.com
steeltoestudios.etsy.com
stirtextiles.etsy.com
sweetnaturedesigns.etsy.com
tinyhouse.etsy.com
tittame.etsy.com
uglybaby.etsy.com
underyourbreath.etsy.com
wicksandwire.etsy.com
wiretree.etsy.com
wovenchains.etsy.com

Swag, prices, and Twitter

2009-05-01T11:03:00.001-07:00

Last night, for no real reason, I signed up on Twitter. So now, Ebonraven is on Twitter as well as Blogger and Facebook. :)

Feel free to add me to your Twitter if you twitter. I will probably see about setting it up to send daily updates over here as well, if I can. But that's not right now. Right now, sadly, is a trip to Renton. I didn't really WANT to drive to Renton, but I failed to get my package in the mail yesterday.

I am putting Swag into free Swag Bags for the EtsyRain Craft show on May 9th. I will put up more information on the Craft Show later. But they asked for swag. That's why I made the simple earrings, and what sparked the idea of the Bargain section in the store. The earrings are all put through business cards instead of normal earring cards. So now I just need to get my stuff together into a package with some flyers and head down to Renton.

I went through the entire store yesterday and dropped pretty much all prices by about $5-$10. It makes sense in these hard economic times (like the catchphrase? :) to lower prices. No one has much money to spare, and I would prefer to lower my prices and make some sales than keep them up and not sell anything.

Keep an eye out on the Etsy store

2009-04-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm re-evaluating prices, due to the economy.

I am also going to be putting up a sale pretty soon, but it will be a special sale, you will need a code word, or something that will be located here, or on my Corvid Creations Facebook page.

Just a heads up. :)

Woohoo!

2009-04-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

I got 15 pairs of earrings made yesterday. I'm going to see if I can include some of them in the free gifty bags at a craft fair soon, I am thinking that if I use my business cards as the earring holders, then it would get the word out about my shop a bit more.

I am also going to make a whole bunch more and list them as bargain hunting earrings. I am going to list them and price them at about $5 a pair. They are cute and would be fun for a daytime earring.

I am also going to get some cute little stretchy bracelets made today with some beads on them. Those should be fun too.

Other than that, I am still trying to kick up sales, and still trying to find a day time job as well. Hopefully sales will pick up soon. :)

Hope you guys all have good days!

It wasn't quite as productive as I wanted...

2009-04-25T15:58:00.001-07:00

We had an event locally today, where I had hoped to get some stuff, and contacts.

It was a sheep shearing/craft fair. I got to talk to some other spinners which was very nice, but I was with a 6 year old who decided to get sulky after about 30 minutes when she found out that she wasn't going to be given anything she wanted.

I was hoping to get some new contacts for my spinning and knitting, and there was someone doing some interesting pin braiding that I would have loved to get more information on. That would have been a great addition to jewelry. Especially since I have my spindle and I still have a few ounces of roving that I could spin into a fine thread for some jewelry.

Oh well. I am going to email some people to see if I can get more roving locally. If you know of a place that sells roving relatively cheaply, let me know!

Power was iffy for a while, but we're okay

2009-04-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

At least for now. I'm still trying to work it out and get a job, but there aren't many jobs out there.

I am still getting new items created and uploaded. It's getting slower, because I am running out of supplies. As soon as I can, I will be buying more supplies.

In the meantime, I am becoming creative with what I have. I had an idea a few days ago for using some of the beads and a crochet hook. I don't want to crochet wire yet, since I am running low on wire. But I have other things.

I am also still unpacking the house and trying to find my other beads and tools. I have so much that is still packed! :)

Go take a look at what I have, I could still use purchases!

Please buy from me!

2009-04-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am still working on more jewelry.

However I was just informed that my power will be shut off in a few more days if I do not cough up $200.

Being unemployed still, I do not have this.

I am not eligible for help from most of the companies that supposedly help people who are out of work, because my unemployment pays me too much. Never mind that it all goes to pay my mortgage and barely clears that.

So this is a plea for anyone interested... please buy some of my jewelry!

I am going to post up gift certificates as well, ones that I will actually print out and mail, so if you don't have something now, please feel free to buy one of those!

Please, I am getting desperate here.

Well, I'm getting more stuff up

2009-04-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Not a bad days work...

I've gotten some new lovely pieces made. I was trying to focus more on simple items the other day. I got a couple of lovely necklaces made, but they haven't been photographed yet. I also got some lovely bracelets made.

I love bracelets. They go with everything and add some lovely delicate color to outfits.

I intend to work on more jewelry tomorrow morning, but I am also going to make cinnamon rolls to take to the zoo with me on Sunday. But in the meantime, you can take a look at two of the bracelets I made:

Tomorrow is jewelry day and Marketing day!

2009-04-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was definitely ... interesting.

My friend Elaine reminded me in a round-about way to create the fliers to go to the local Sci-Fi convention.

So I got all of my fliers designed, and laid out. And then had issues with saving and printing. But after nearly 3 hours, I finally had about 60 fliers ready to go to the convention, and a chunk of business cards as well.

So marketing is proceeding apace. :)

I have a lead on a kiln for precious metal clay, for use, I can't afford to buy one at this point. But at least this way I can buy precious metal clay and make some things in silver that I have been making in clay for a while.

Tomorrow will be spent doing some more work on house cleaning and jewelry working. The reason I am still including house cleaning, is because I have a TON of hair sticks in a box somewhere. I want to make some more hair sticks, but I need my hair stick kit!!

I also have some new ideas for some more jewelry pieces, that I want to work on.

Got my taxes done and will be getting just enough money in a refund that I can spare a little bit for some new jewelry supplies.

Yay for new supplies!

Finally better!

2009-04-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, it took FOREVER to get over the plague this time!

But I am finally over it and back to the jewelry bench. :)

I'm a bit slower than I was before, but that's not really shocking, given how long I was down.

However, I have gotten new items going. I got a beautiful little agate cabochon from a friend, and I was going to wrap that in sterling and put it on a sterling chain... however I can't find my soft sterling. I found my full hard, and 1/2 hard, but those are good for the frames, not so good for the winding bits. :D

So it got wrapped in silverplate. I then cut black wire for a green and black stone I found.... and mis-measured, so the wire wasn't long enough. So that got put onto a nifty black and grey donut I found. I try to make sure even mis-cut wire doesn't go to waste!

I have a new bracelet made with copper wire and these great multicolor beads that my sister picked up for me in Nigeria. I have more beads, this time from Ghana, on their way to me this weekend! Woohoo! Since I can't travel anywhere at the moment (lack of funds), at least my sister is willing to shop for me when she is out and about. :)

I will post pictures when I get them taken and uploaded.

It'll be a couple of days

2009-03-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have managed to come down with a nasty head cold. It's make me woozy, so jewelry work is out of the question at the moment. My hands shake too much. :)

But as soon as I am over this thing, I will be right back to making the jewelry and getting it uploaded. :)

And here we are again

2009-03-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

Friday night and I'm running way late, like most Fridays.

I spent a lot of time working around the house and baking. I didn't get to make jewelry so much this week, except for some custom pieces.

However, I did refine a couple of pieces and rephotograph them. :) I will spend several hours tomorrow working on jewelry and photographing them.

I have plans to buy more gift boxes and a couple more displays the next time I sell some pieces. I am seriously out of boxes, and I am running out of supplies. But I have enough to continue to for a while.

I have several colors of wire for wire wrapping and making wrapped loops. I have several plans for new items.

I want to make a couple of very simple bracelets, and at least one or two simple necklaces. I also have ideas for some new wire wrapped pieces.

If anyone has preferences for color combinations, let me know. I have silver, gold, copper, black, brown, and purple wires.

Here's a picture of one of the tweaks that I am now happy with and will be going up on Etsy Monday. It's called Charybdis Dreaming, and is being modeled by a friend of mine:

I've been too busy to post!

2009-03-12T23:48:00.001-07:00

I decided at the end of February that I wanted to figure out the more "traditional" wire wrapping process. Take a look at the result:

I think it turned out very nicely for only my second wire wrapped piece ever. I named it "Eye of the Maelstrom" because it really reminds me of hurricanes. The colors, the shapes... hurricanes. I think it is a beautiful piece. I put it on a doubled length of chain, so you get 1 that supports the necklace, and one that drapes slightly so you get a really pretty flowing look.

I have been working quite a bit on more jewelry (except for Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday, one of my cats got sick all over my craft area. I spend tuesday cleaning it up, and wednesday airing it out. :)

Today I was able to get back to work on the jewelry, and I had some new stones to play with. Take a look at one of today's pendants:

This one is called Dance with the Wind. Because it really MADE me make it this way. I was originally going to make a different pendant with a different stone and black wire. But when I looked at the wires I had just cut, it was 5 strands of silver instead of 4 of black. And it was the wrong length for the other pendant. So I made this one instead. :)

This is Blue Flash Labradorite. It's beautiful. The pendant is about 3 inches long, not quite, but close. I was very pleased with it. The wrap of the silver across the face reminded me of a really strong wind that swirls past you making you feel the need to turn with it.

I put this on a 20 inch chain with a small spiral carved chunk of green flash labradorite on the far end. That way it's pretty on both sides. ;)

If you are interested in seeing any of the other wire wrapped pieces, please take a look at them in my Etsy Store.

I'm ahead!

2009-02-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have gotten a whole bunch of new items made, photographed, and listed. yay!

I am very pleased with them. They are beautiful. I got several new bracelets, a couple new pairs of earrings, and even some new necklaces.

I was thrilled with the way the donut bails turned out. I tried a new method of making them, and I think they turned out beautifully. They are made specifically for the individual donuts, and then hammered to harden them and give them a beautiful texture.

You can see one of the donuts here.

I also got several new fireworks types of bracelets done. I also just uploaded a beautiful pearl necklace that I made in the style of a rosary, but with no religious items on it.

Isn't it beautiful?

I'm ahead sort of...

2009-02-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

It's been interesting this wekk.

The washing machine broke, the bathroom sink pipes are leaking. But I'm actually feeling accomplished on jewelry. I got several new things made and uploaded. I have more jewelry that needs to be photographed and uploaded.

I tried out a new camera on the items that were recently uploaded. The new camera is fun, but it does not take pictures nearly as well as my little tiny camera. The new one has a longer lens, which makes it focus on specifics very quickly and easily. But it leaves more things out of focus.

I got a new focal light for my light box and it's being amazing. It makes everything wonderfully bright and photos are turning out very nicely. I need more backgrounds for the photos, but that's something that will wait for a while.

In the meantime, I am going to work on some new wire designs and if I can make them work in silver plated wire, then I might try them out in sterling. I have a small amount of sterling wire, and some gorgeous gemstones that I would love to combine. But I need to work out the wire designs first.

Thoughts are always good. If you have some, please let me know!

Must... photograph...

2009-02-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

It's been very busy around here this week.

But I have new items. I just need to get them photographed and listed. I have a new necklace with clear glass dangles.

I have some new super light-weight necklaces great for summer.

And I have some wonderful Leonid Shower earrings.

I just need to get things photographed!

Tomorrow, tomorrow is the day.

I promise!

Still going...

2009-02-10T23:27:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was entertaining. I woke up to snow again. I love snow. I love to play in it, and I love to take pictures of it.

My lovely new camera arrived. It is my christmas and birthday gift from my grandmother and my mother. They both sent me money for christmas and my birthday, and the camera is what I chose to use it for.

I bought a Nikon Coolpix P80

I have now taken pictures of the cats, and some jewelry, and the cats again, and some random things... And then the moon! I haven't managed good pictures of the moon before, so I am all kinds of happy.

Today I finished the last commission piece I had on request. That will get packed and in the mail on Thursday, unless my friend Karen comes over tomorrow, in which case I may run the package to the post office tomorrow instead.

Tomorrow, barring a possible trip tot he post office, I am going to stay at home, do some household chores, apply for some more jobs, and make some more jewelry.

And just as a non-sequitor, someday, I really need to learn how to make good hash browned potatoes. I'm still trying to learn how, and I'm only slowly getting better, and I have been trying now for 10 years! It's one of the few foods that I still have trouble making correctly. :)

And now, for sleep! Sleep time!

Woo! Trucking ahead!

2009-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

I have finished all 4 of the beaded commissions!

I also finished the knitting commission! Money in my pocket!

I have 2 new commissions to work on now. A bracelet and a pair of hair sticks.

I also have some new pieces that I am working on, but the commissions come first since they are definite sales.

I expect to have both of the new commissions done by Tuesday or Wednesday. Then I can take more!

Today is a good day for window shopping

2009-02-02T11:31:00.000-08:00

I have some knitting commissions to finish. One is a scarf for a friend to give to her sister-in-law. That will go with the afghan that I knitted a while ago.

I had someone else ask for a plain scarf. That's possible to do as well. And fast. The scarf for my friend's sister in law is a lace pattern, so it's a bit slower. The next one may be just a plain knit stitch which is very fast.

I have 4 beading commissions to get made.

And then I got distracted... :)

I started this post at 11am today.. and now it is 12 hours later and I just realized that I had not finished.

I have 4 beading commissions to do, and with a couple of days free, I can get them done very quickly.

And now off to find clothes for tomorrow and then to bed!

Apparently today is not the day

2009-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

I finally got my beads and findings order. Yay!

I spent over 3 hours today sorting and putting things away properly.

While I put things away, I apparently was losing things as well. My chainnose pliers vanished and I haven't found them yet.

I sorted generic beads away from focal and swarovski beads. I rearranged nearly all of the smaller organizers so that they were more efficiently using space.

All of this is very good, well, except for losing my pliers. :)

I then pulled out the turquoise, pearls, crystal fish, hair sticks, and antiqued gold jump rings and head pins.

First project was to be a new pair of hairsticks called "Gone Fishing". They are dark wood hairsticks with an 8mm Lapis Lazuli bead on the end. Dangling from the bead are 2 lengths of delicate silver chain. I placed blue-dyed freshwater pearls in the chain lengths, and quartz crystal fish on the ends of the chains. So they have a look sort of like fishing poles with fish on the line and delicate drops of water clinging to the line.

That was the image I was going for. So I was very happy that those turned out as well as they did.

It took me 3 times as long as it should have to make those. My hands were shaking so much that I was having trouble with the wire wrapping and the jump rings. I don't really know why they were shaking, but I moved on to trying to make a bracelet extender that was ordered by a friend.

I managed that as well, but still had similar problems, so I decided that perhaps today is not a good day to try to make jewelry.

I think that my blood sugar is too low, and that's why my hands are shaking. So I am getting dinner made and we shall see if that makes things better. And tomorrow I need to make sure that I eat more regularly, and then I can try to do more jewelry. :)

Soon... sooon I can feel productive again!

2009-01-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

I placed my order which included new chain, since I am now out of chain.

Darn chain. :)

Yesterday was my birthday, so there was no jewelry making. Instead, I spent the day playing video games on my DS and going to the house of some friends for dinner.

Today I will be doing some planning for jewelry, and some wire-wrapping in preparation for getting my chain from the supplier.

Today is freezing cold again, and there is intermittent snow around town. I have errands to run, since I forgot to add eyeglass holders to my last order. So I am going to stop at a bead store during errand running today and pick up a few. I have a request for some eyeglass chains.

So I have 2 rosaries to make as soon as the bead order gets here, and a bracelet extension to make. And 2 eyeglass chains with beads and bobbles. :)

As soon as that is done, I get to move on to new jewelry creations. :) Woohoo!

Yay!

2009-01-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

The fabulous thing about having a digital kitchen scale is that it can do double duty as a postage scale. :)

The post office is finally starting to redeem itself in my eyes. I was finally able to get an account set up and was able to order mailing supplies for mailing of packages.

And I finally found a way to ship to Australia without it costing $25 per package. yay!

So it's been a good day as far as mailing goes.

~Ebon

Hmph.

2009-01-19T01:17:00.000-08:00

I actually did 4 necklaces today that are not as chain dependent as usual, however, I am still nearly out of chain and it is very frustrating to me.

However, I am very pleased with the necklaces I got done today.

One of them, pictured here, is a particular favorite. I'm very proud of the fact that it uses one of the tektites that I got a few years ago. Tektites are lumps of stone and glass formed when meteorites impact on the Earth's surface. So they are partially from outer space. Pretty nifty.

I made a light box for better photographs, but it's not perfect. It's a little too small, so I need to make another one that is bigger. I also am going to adjust the back a little bit so that I can more easily change the paper or fabric backdrop.

And now that I have gotten the Daughter of Shadows necklace listed, and the fact that it is 1:30 in the morning, I am exhausted and am off to find sleep.

Have a good night everyone!