I must be nuts

..... because I took on an Alchemy custom request to make matching hemp bracelets for a girl from Belgium (its already taken up several hours, and i'm only going to make about $12 on it in the end):

"please, only post a bid when you have toroughly read my request, to avoid wasting both our times, thanks :)

Reposting this, as I am still looking for it, and I guess because of the christmas commotion, it got a bit lost.. :

a set of bracelets!
there would be one for me and one for my boyfriend.. something like friendship bracelets.

what I was thinking of is something with maybe black (perhaps hemp?) cord, and with black beads and such, may also be some silver in, we both like dark things, we like skulls, butterflies, spikes, question marks, and filigree things.. also, I would like both to have (preferably black) beads with our initials (in silver preferably, or vice versa: silver beads with black letters) and a heart in between (can be black or silver heart) and maybe a few other beads in black and/or silver.

I'd love to hear about possibilities and such :)

this would be for valentine, so you'd have quite the time to get them made ;)

(postage would be for belgium!) "

her ideal price was $5. Um, no. But i was bored so i quoted her $15, which i immediately changed to $18 plus $7 shipping and handling.
Immediately she was on me asking why I changed my bid (it was because i added a couple of exmpensive beads to the quote) and why so much for shipping (it will cost about $5.40, plus cost of mailer, plus for international shipping i have to go to the post office and fill out forms)
So after a few false starts , a bunch of suggestions, i finally realized I was going to have to make all her beads for her out of polymer clay, except some silver accent beads (plus i have to buy some black hemp - thought i had it but i don't)

I spent a big portion of the day making polymer clay beads... Well, a lot of it i spent making beads to make a different project, because i made her a rough draft black skull and while i was waiting for her to ok the concept, i started making these little white skulls, with black in the eye sockets and nose, very realistic although the photo doesn't really show it. I put little roses on the sides, and i am going to make them into earrings, maybe with some white lace tulle and/or ribbon, plus maybe some Garnets. Sort of a Lost love , corpse bride, rock and roll , gothic , theme... Not my usual thing but that is why i love the Alchemy section -- i come up with ideas and challenges i might not otherwise conceive of. It's sort of like being an art college student all over again. They were coming out great.... except i kept holding them too hard and finding that i had squeezed the skull out of shape by the end, and then ruining the detail work when i tried to fix it. The first one came out ok pretty quickly but then the second one, i must have remade at least a dozen times. Finally I took a break and a step back, came back to it later, and was finally able to break the cycle!

The black beads i made for her, also a crappy photo. I hope she likes them. I haven't baked them yet.

Today i sold my Abalone Quartz Kyanite Lepidolite pendant to a girl from Ebay who also recently won an auction for a really nice piece of Kyanite made into a pendant, too. These pieces were both ones I liked a lot, and she is very sweet and complimentary. I'm sending her a few little nice extras in the package, like a free Floating Pearl single strand necklace with a Bali Silver toggle clasp, a Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Chocolate, and a couple other litttle things, plus i gave her a really nice Figaro chain and combined her shipping. The Kyanite is cool because it is two blades together which i have never crossed paths with before. The other piece I really like because it started off as a square piece and then all of a sudden, i just sort of scrapped what i was doing and made it into what it is now, and it's unlike anything I've made before.

Someone found some of my pieces on boulder craigslist and wants to meet me about possibly making some earrings out of Elk Teeth. He's going to ride his motorcycle all the way from Parker in the cold to meet with me about it on Wednesday. This should be interesting... I think he may also be interested in my Green Amethyst / Praisolite piece, since he asked if i still had it... I'm waiting for a reply to a clarifying email...

Well, the baby is awake now and i have to feed him and get to bed. Gotta work tomorrow...