Family photos

I was in upstate NY a few weekends ago with my 3 sisters. We all brought along old family photos, 7 boxes in all, and tried to decide what to do with them. We sorted and weeded out the duplicates, and then divided them between us. We plan on scanning them, uploading to a photo site and having a family photo album printed. We found some real treasures!

new necklace

I finished a necklace tonight.  The focal is a blown boro bead.  I love the organic nature of it, and I found some unpolished labradorite that matched it well.  There are pearls too, and tiny seed beads to bring in another color.  I tried to finish another necklace, but I must have measured wrong and it was too short.  I have to restring it, but it won't take as much time as stringing it in the first place, since I have made all the design decisions.  Shows are coming up fast!

Sick!

This month has been tough!  I was either at a show or teaching every weekend so far, and I have not been feeling well.  What started out as a nasty cold has morphed into a sinus infection, so I am taking antibiotics again and hoping I will feel ok by the weekend for yet another show.  Especially this time of year, I have no time to be sick.  I have not been able to work on my torch, or even put jewelry together, so I am really behind.  Those of us who are self-employed really suffer when we are ill.  No work, no pay.  When I do feel better, I will be working overtime trying to catch up a little!

Time flies

Where did Sept go?  My fall shows have started and several teaching weekends are coming up, which means it will be a while before I have a free weekend.  I didn't get everything on my list done last month, and it won't be done this month for sure.  Maybe starting my January to-do list would be a good idea.

People tell me it is good to be busy, and I totally agree.  But a little down time would be nice too!

Keyring bead

Oh happy day!  I have my favorite keyring bead again.  Years ago I wired it to my keyring to see if the bead would survive.  It is about 2 1/4" long and thin, and it survived just fine.  The wire has broken several times where it wraps around the keyring, but not the bead.  I had been making a lot of long, thin beads then, and was asked all the time how strong they were.  I think I proved they are not fragile at all!  Over a year ago, it disappeared.  Last weekend, a friend saw it on the floor of my car!  (We won't say anything about how often I clean my car.)  Once again, the wire had broken.  This time I used two lengths of wire to attach it- we will see if that works any better.  I always liked how 'clean' the bead is, and how the cane wraps around it.  I was not trying to wind it evenly; I wanted it to look like a natural vine.  I had grown attached to it, and really missed it.  I am happy that it came back to me!

Black beads and pearls

While I was sorting all my stone beads and pearls, I found these black pearls and immediately thought they would look good with my black hollow boro beads.  I like the contrast between the rough, jagged pearls and smooth beads.  So after taking a color theory class and sorting all my beads by color, I ended up making a black necklace!

Organizing beads

Ok, I give up!  I bought another drawer unit for my stone beads.  I now have 9 drawers full, each color in its own drawer.  The pearls are in their own drawer unit, and another unit is full of seed beads.  I discovered I have too many green stone beads.  Why, I have no idea.  That is not one of my favorite colors, so I don't know why I bought so many.  Now I need to figure out a way to sort them by shades.  Will this never end?

The cases on top are full of silver beads, silver findings, copper findings, etc.  I could spend days and days sorting and organizing!