Visit my Etsy Shop

Visit my Etsy Shop
Click Photo to Visit my Etsy Shop

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Busy Week Behind Me...

Happy Saturday everyone.  It has been a busy week at my house.  I took Justice to the vet to have her thyroid levels monitored and the thyroid medicine she had been on had over corrected taking her levels to 6.6.  Normal for a dog is between 1 and 4.  When Justice was first tested last December, her level was 1.9.  We were advised at that time to wait six months and retest.  In June when we retested, it had fallen to 1.3 and along with the fact that she had high cholesterol, Dr. Deam and I decided to put her on levothyroxin.  Having too much thyroid can cause other problems like damage to organs, high blood pressure, etc., but at least we know the medicine is working.  I have cut her dose drastically and will retest in 30 days.  Like in people, sometimes, it takes some tweeking to get the right dose, but I continue to be optimistic and thrilled that we have at least identified the problem and are working to correct it so that Justice can maintain optimal health as long as possible.

I have also been busy, busy making jewelry.  Stringing Magazine's deadline for Spring 2013 submissions is September 29 (by e-mail) and two weeks later for their office.  So, I make something, e-mail it and then it goes in one or two piles.  Send It In or Don't Send It In.  So far the Send It In pile is bigger than the Don't Send It In pile, but not by much.  The important thing to me, however, is that I'm having fun.

I have managed to make a couple of other pieces this week that I can show you now.  When I am working on pieces to submit to a magazine, I really go through my stash in a thorough fashion looking for inspiration and often I will make something not to submit but something that just needs to be made.  At least I think it does.

This first piece is a necklace I made using Ingrid Mueller's Blue Iris Pendant.  I had these beautiful deep blue beads and I also liked the contrast of the flower beads.  They are peach and pear and I arranged them so that they begin at the bottom with a lot of peach and fade to more pear as they go up the neckstrap.  I am not sure about this necklace.  What do you all think about it?  Is there too much contrast and not enough transition in it?


Since I have been making ball headpins, I have found all kinds of cool ways to use them.  On this piece, I balled one end - strung two beads and balled the other end.  Then I used the distance between the beads to twist them at the top.  Unlike making dangles, they stay in place and hold the orientation that you want them to hold.  Pretty cool, huh!













I also made a cuff bracelet using one of
Ingrid's horse cuffs.  It is a remake of a
previous piece that sold rather quickly.


Again, I used my double balled headpin thingy to add a couple of turquoise beads with a twist.







I made a lariat necklace using one of Alison Crenshaw's polymer clay owls and egg beads and one of Ingrid's brown porcelain beads.  These are a gorgeous topaz/turquoise bead mix that I ordered wholesale.  I received 2.2 lbs. of them (a kilo) so you will probably be seeing a lot of those in the future.


Oh my goodness, are those more twisty beads below the owl.  I think they might be.











Finally for today, another lariat using Cindy Dolezal's ceramic pink bird, Nan Emmett's faceted blue bead, Alison's blue egg, and a mix of wood rounds, jasper and another wholesale order of Czech aged striped beads.  I now have lots of those too so will not be so stingy with them.  If you have been following this type of bead, you know they are very, very expensive.





I hope everyone has a great weekend.  In Kansas City, it has turned a bit cooler, so I would also like to get some yard work done this weekend.  Maybe that will happen and maybe not.  We'll see.

 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always glad when you post; glad you're doing some tweaking for Justice Marie. I love your dogs. Love the lariat necklaces, too.
vickie

Unknown said...

Great lariat necklaces. My favorite is the pink bird - totally feminine. And the bracelet with the horses just rocks. My son has a horse named Zohan - he's a monster over 17 hands high. MY DIL's horse is Sierra. I like the other necklace but would like to see coins or something like them filling the metal circles nearest the focal.

Jean A. Wells said...

Sharon - duly noted about the coins or something like them. I will investigate that in the morning.

april grinaway said...

Love your work ~

Alice said...

Wonderful pieces! I especially like that cute owl lariat.

I keep saying I'm going to make pieces for magazines, but it seems I always miss the deadlines. They sneak up pretty fast!