smaller, more affordable

Working on making pendants with cabs, trying to figure out how they should hand from a neck. In person, this looks o.k., here I don't like it. The left side beads seem too small, the right side too jumbled in color. If I'm going to use semi precious stones as the necklace part, they need to be simple and dark...garnets.

second neck piece

Learned a lot making the first one, this was 100% easier. Less b.s. starting with using black pellon and not gluing the ultra suede on the back. It is for a swap with a friend here, she's going to be making me a mosaic mirror. The big stone and the malachite are from her father's collection, he cut and polished them.

first beads

First beadwork of the new year is adding a picot stitch to the edge of this to sew the ultrasuede on the back. It's part of a necklace to be swapped for a mosaic mirror done by my friend Sharon Svenson, woot!

determined creativity.

The guy climbing the ice fall is leaving on the ferry tonight. He's going to be gone until March on his annual trip to Washington and Hawaii. I'm trying not to miss him already. I'm going to use the time to be as creative as possible, make bracelets, make felt, make screen prints. We have an interesting relationship: two very independent loners hanging out together pretending it's all casual and stuff.
Today's screen print is "raygun" I have some flowers and scrolly girly stuff on the same screen right now but I just wanted to do the raygun! A touch of the steampunk.

Each of these runs involves learning something new... sharpie drawing on acetate is not as good as actual inkjet printing. The inkjet is more opaque and makes a better photo stencil. The photo emulsion sheets sold with the Yudu printer are lame and expensive. The sheets sold by Dharma for less than half the price are mailed in a stiff/flat package and are much better at adhering to the screen. Last of all: the amount of ink on the screen needs to be proportional to the size of the part of the image you're printing...as in you don't need so much for the skinny part of the ray gun as you need for the grip end. (yeah, I know...Keen sense of the obvious)