Currently

Atlantis

Atlantis creeps slowly onward... but it's nice to get a feel for what the finished cuff will look like! I should be able to finish it up this week.

In not-bead-embroidery-related news, I started playing with making poly-clay jewelry using a book I found at Garden Ridge (Creating Your Own Jewelry: Taking Inspiration from Museum Masterpieces by Cris Dupouy) as a guide. (Side note- Garden Ridge is awesome.) The idea is to make antique-looking pieces that could be mistaken for metal- I don't think I've got the technique down quite yet. Some of the things I made were more successful than others. But! The real reason I started the project was because, if I liked the look of these things, I thought I could make my own interesting cabs for my beadwork. Wouldn't that be kind of cool?

I think the branch pendant is the most metallic-looking.

These were a super simple trial run, but I want to do some more with lots of detail and filigree and see how that looks. My biggest problem was that you're supposed to paint them with model paint for the metallic finish (then you texturize and dab the paint off and blargh blarh blarrr)- and the model paint is still tacky months later. Yeah. I have no idea why or what to do about it. It's not THAT humid! I read online that sometimes model paint can stay tacky for a few days or even a week or two after use, but I am not even exaggerating- I did these in October or November.

Any tips are appreciated! I have no idea how to fix it for the next round!

Lastly, I have some snow dog pictures to share. Zilla is not a fan of cold or wet, but Henry loooooves it. So here he is, doing this thing that looks like jumping, maybe:

You can click that to see his silly jump even bigger.

And here's Zilla, post-snowball fight:

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter!

Once Again I Am a Finisher of Things

Which is great. I'm feeling pretty accomplished right now, after having finished Mom's Christmas cuff (before Christmas, obviously) and OSIRIS! BOOM! Both totally done. So first, pictures of Mom's cuff:

I was a bit nervous to give it to her. It's kind of huge - because of the mother-of-pearl cab- but she likes it. I also practiced my raised beadwork around the center, and aside from how it made a semi-wonky line, I like how it turned out.

And now for Osiris! I have to admit that I am super happy with it. It turned out better than I could've hoped. It's a little bit hard to get a feel for the colors from the photos; they're a bit more vivid in person, but they're all pretty under-worldly.

I thought I might show you the "idea" stage in the cuff-making process. I've mentioned before that I keep things pretty loose and like to make changes while I'm working, but I do think it's a good idea to have a sketch so that I don't forget my ideas. 'Cause I will.

The top two above should be recognizable; the first is Fee Jee Mermaid, the middle is Snow white. You can see that they don't follow the sketch exactly, just the general concept.

And these two are cuffs I haven't started yet- Hephaestus and Medusa. I'm definitely more excited to start Medusa! I'm always lucky if I can read my shorthand notes, but I've chosen greens, silver and black for Medusa, with both thread and bead snakes coming out from the center cab. I'm also planning on fading the background beading from black in the center to white at the edges. It's awfully ambitious! But I think it will look very cool.