Recent work: Rhodochrosite Earrings, Sweet Azurite pendant, and even MORE trees!

Well lets see.... since the last time I wrote here are SOME of the things i've made (been busy!)
I've also been taking some better photographs due to discovering a couple of things about my camera... like the close up button.

http://mandala.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3827359
This is a piece I am very proud of... It's an all-Sterling Silver wire wrapped pendant including a piece of Azurite , a Black Tourmaline , and an Amethyst Crystal cluster. The wire weaving came out really well (I think)... The piece is about 2 inches long and comes with a French rope Sterling Silver plated chain.

I also made a few pairs of earrings. Here's a pair inspired by all the posts i've been seeing on etsy about how people are looking for items to cheer them up from these winter blues:

http://mandala.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3819367
"Can't wait for Spring? Neither can I! Give yourself a little taste with these cheerful earrings.

Each earring is composed of 2 porcelain birds peeking out from the leaves (a number of Peridot gemstones , and one Czech glass leaf bead on each). The ear wires are Surgical steel to eliminate possibility of allergies. I could also make you a pair with Sterling Silver ear wires for $1 extra. These earrings are about 2 inches long. I'd be happy to make a custom similar pair with other stones, more or less birds, longer or shorter, etc"


And, I picked up some Rhodochrosite from the local rock shop...



http://mandala.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3838399

I also made a bracelet with Gold fill wire Featuring a lovely Peruvian Blue Opal Wrapped in Sterling Silver and Gold wire
This bracelet is made with Gold fill chain * . Adorning the bracelet are a faceted Yellow Topaz , a faceted Smoky Topaz, and two faceted Chalcedony pieces . The bracelet is 9 inches long but the clasp is very adjustable.

About Gold fill wire:
the metal used in making this chain is 14/20 meaning that it is 14/20ths gold, 100 times more gold than gold plated. This process is used because gold on its on is very very soft and would break too easily in this sort of thickness.

(I actually just learned all this about gold fill!)

And, here's a photo of one of the Tree of Life pendants I did.... posting mainly because I am really happy with how the photo itself turned out, let alone the tree!


In other news, sort of dissappointed because I placed an ad for the back page of the local alternative newspaper for my website, and its NOT THERE! I was really hoping to get a little extra Valentine's Day business from the ad, especially because that would give me some extra cash to spend at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show coming up! They put it inside the newspaper which is a lot less likely to be seen. I haven't seen any business from it yet, anyway.

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...

Tree of Life sculptures

Mostly just worked, hung out with the baby....
Someone on Etsy in the Alchemy (custom requests) section, looking for a custom item for their Mother In Law, took me up on my offer to make them a Family Tree / Tree of Life sculpture including photos of her kids and grandkids, incorporating their Birthstones. I must be nuts, I quoted her $50 and i am going to be including raw uncut Rubies, Emeralds, and Sapphires. No joke. But it is good to turn some of the stones i have collected into money for now. Plus I will actually have to full on wire wrap these stone and I have been wanted to do a Tree of LIfe sculpture with stones in addition to beads, for a while.

Here are a couple other Tree of Life sculptures I created, including the first one i made also as an Etsy custom piece ($35) which gave me the idea in the first place, and another I made that hasn't been sold yet, of Amethyst (I'd like to get $35 for this one too). The Amethyst one is pretty interesting because i went through all my jewelry supplies for Amethyst pieces, running across Amethyst from all different sources I've collected over the years, resulting in varying shades of color. I was really surprised that it didn't sell over the holidays. Amethyst is February's birthstone though; Maybe it will sell then.

Since I will need it for the custom tree, I ordered beautiful Blue Topaz gemstone beads from an Etsy seller and couldn't resist buying some Peruvian Blue Opal at the same time. Looking forward to working with the Peruvian Blue Opal! I am thinking that it will look really nice with this Seraphinite I special-ordered for someone recently.... I will have plenty left over after making her earrings. (Someone contacted me looking to have some Gold Danburite and Seraphinite earrings made. I was amazed how expensive and rare Gold Danburite is. To make her earrings, I am actually going to LOSE money, but I will have some of each stone left over to work with in future projects, so it was worth it to me and also she got a good deal.)

I have tomorrow off from work. I'd like to start on a complex wire wrap with a lot of Sterling Silver. Some kid contacted me before the holidays saying he wants something custom made but that he wanted me to call him to talk about it, and since cell phones don't work in the mountains where I live, I can only try to call when I'm in Boulder. Haven't been able to get ahold of him yet. I only have so many nice wire wrap stones to last me until the Tucson Gem and mineral show in February and I would like to get this kid's commission. But I guess I will just see what comes out of my endeavors. I would rather not take too many custom orders yet for the more elaborate wire wraps. I am still enjoying feeling the synergy of the stones and which ones want to be together. Sometimes artists when they achieve commercial success wind up having to cater to what will sell, and this particular artform is even more prone to that. But there is a way to find a happy medium. Personally, I want to learn how to do all sorts of cool techniques with the wire wrapping and metalsmithing and have these skills at my disposal. However, a lot of the high end wraps that I see, the stones are suffocating in all that metal. Not all. But many. I want to make jewelry where the stones play a starring role too. I can do it.

Didn't have time to write yesterday really - worked two jobs, and then, well.. i will just repost some things i rambled about in a thread on Tooboard, a Deadhead message board I used to haunt but now just visit...


(in light of the suicide of a member of Tooboard being announced that day, someone was commenting on synchronicities they'd encountered that day involving the Grateful Dead ...Their day had involved a trip to Eldora Ski Resort with their son, and encountering hearing the Grateful Dead playing in various locations throughout the day. i remembered that i personally had walked into a local organic grocery store that day and heard Shakedown Street playing... and also...

"i hang out on this site for handmade items, called Etsy... its like ebay except for stuff that people atcually make themselves. you can find anything in the world on there that anyone could imagine.... and if you CANT find it, you go to the Custom section called Alchemy, put your idea up, and people bid on making it for you. I've seen some amazing things be conceived of this way. This morning, someone posted this insane rambling monologue resulting in a request for a $750 bodysuit... it turns out to be Courtney Love Cobain. It is definately her because this person has bought 1094 items , expensive ones, on this site since August 28. Plus only she could be this nuts. For some reason, she is stuck in my mind all day. Then i went to take the bus home after work today, and it turned out the road home was closed due to a car wreck... so the bus was going to take the long route. I started thinking about it... and just as the bus left, Tree emails me on my phone asks me if i want a ride home. I think about it and when i realized that this huge bus was about to attempt a winding mountain road with hairpin turns in the snow, i decide to take him up on it. However, i thought we passed all the places we could chill and wait, but i look out the window and there's a gas station. So i get the bus driver to let me out. Turns out it is a hippie gas station with a little coffee shop inside, a hippie girl working there, even a dog that hangs out there, and vintage posters and pictures of Jerry in it. What comes on the radio while i'm in there but "heart shaped box" "

[ i had originally wondered if the horrible news they mentioned earlier in the thread was the war breaking out between Israel and Hamas that day, or the suicide.... surprised not to see a thread about the conflict...]

my thoughts about the war include"

what i don't understand is that most people in high offices are parents , and that through these conflicts, they are putting the lives and futures of their children at risk
as a new parent, i can't see how anyone in a position of power would want to make the world anything but a safer place for their children. i guess they must think that it is unavoidable, or the situation will get worse but it seems to me that only steps towards peace, not escalating conflict, will ever work in the long run. but what do i know? "

someone else in the thread : "i didn't read this yet, but i just saw the word etsy....perezhilton.com posted some rambling Courtney blog I just read 20 min ago and it mentioned all about etsy.

weird alignment stuff going on here...... "

I post the Courtney Love Cobain Etsy request :

jminkee wow gotta link? etsy is one of my homes online... curious what she had to say...
she is a Huge shoppaholic on there as far as i can tell

here is how she asks for someone to make a custom lace bodysuit for her, this morning:
handmade custom lace bodysuit2
posted 1/3/2009 , expires 1/24/2009
new approcah inthe frugal months ahead prepare to be copied like hell by the way this iis an origianl idea and its going to be in many mgas and many many shows but well deal with it! new idea for a handmade bodysuit based on learning that cutting ONTHE BIASa net suit to my exact propertions and then sewing a static lace soltis, fantstic and id o mean fantastic lace or better yet chantilly you or i find ( ill pay if its pendy as it generally st tho someof the stiffer is not) affixing with good sewing the ;ace to the bdysuit jmy assnt will give you all exact measurements and then tearing up a paino shawl illsend you you put one leg the ;eft one dense wth the larger florals and you can also dye in reds vermillions more crimsons the stretch piece in the botom leep thte top black for now unless your dying for some silver metallic crewel
youl lookat emma cook 30 and 31 for an idea but were going cooler that that were taking lace that isnt stretch qandmaking it so - the bias stretch fabric trick genius@ n emroidering lace for me jut sewng it on thenet !the most beuaitful lace you can find when you bid if youve found the lace send me there and ill grab it if i accept your bid, footless and with chantilly crochet on top of the round crests in chenille so it looks like velvet, put circles of silk tulle underneath and when you cut the chantilly leave some blank space so you can do some psycho embroidery in metallics even metallic blacks, what i know about depressions is black is OUT red is the new black i promise, and guady colours that clash noone needs to see blakc right no unless its rick, or ricardo, otherise pffft to black, its all very well to make fun of stifr atthe top of a recession but darlings ill be touring in the middle of a depression, so we need bidyuits that can go under sheer flapper dresses even be worn alone the scallops atthe bottom of any chantilly shawl use as legs and when you hit that scallop i need a ruffle can you pintuck s do shirring? iof so i have alot of business for you hutrry cos ive ordered alot of fabric from solstiss were you look for your lace or sophia hallette tho nothing beats long ago suff, its a very collabartice priocess but youll have to read mt midn edera has done a pyshco brilliant job and will share with you what shes done untol i get my other computr back and can pull up the almost strictyly dancingbut saved f machine that could fgo psyhco on us, but we dont however this was a food lesson i dont have to use patch bits like emma i can have one beautiful lace just one style, and thats what im going to use for the entire suits, with a circelt of embroidery on left leg and a series of appliques try m and j go for the crown golf boulions and they have many other cool ones fredfrabjle too and very very cheap, youll need cabochaon and teardrop matte crystals, are you up for this task if so youll be up for alot of others, it depends, if i could put up that dress afaon id go for 2000 dollars see who came out for the dress, that was worth 3k in this frugal time wehre i need to keep my eye onthis record and getting my kid into a safe owend home, these will be knocked off fast but fuck em youll get the credit andme tio for thinking of em and theyre way harder than they think, just pelase lord dont let ahemvommy knock me off! ha! now you see mt nasty side sorry, okay bids ladies???lets GOOOOO> remember modesty issues, a little thicker around the vageegee area,

Materials: chantilly lace sha, fishnet or floral, atop that my measu, cabochon and teard, e600 if must be, piano shawl i priv, appliques, for starp left and, cique feathers and, iridescent i think, velvet stretch for, scalooping for teh, pijk
Tags: bodysuit, handmade fantasy, emboridery on one, this one easier as, ruffles on the bot, chantilly lace wch, colours, wild wild colours, freedome to do wha, crewel in silver o, a bit of a doublin, circus, rocjk n roll


[interest insight into the workings of her mind, through a request for a body suit to be made, no less... like i said, after reading this, it stuck in my mind all day]

The lady who mentioned reading the Courtney Love Cobain blog posts what she read, and sure enough, it is the same writing style, and CLC is talking about her love of Etsy and how she has even taken on some creative endeavors of her own, such as embroidery, crocheting, dyeing, etc., through her involvement there (as far as I can decipher anyway!)

It just now occurred to me that not only were synchronicities involving the Grateful dead, as well as involving nirvana arose, but also, last week at Eldora, a lunatic with a gun freaked out and killed the manager at Eldora, then committed suicide by cop
http://themountainear.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=196&Itemid=33
Kurt Cobain committed suicide
And so did the fellow from Tooboard.
Not to mention, I just looked, and the reason why the canyon was closed was because someone driving a sewage truck was involved in a fatal accident
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/04/sewage-truck-accident-kills-erie-man-boulder-canyo/

RIP Jerry Garcia, Kenny Rogers of Tooboard , Kurt Cobain , Randy Snyder the sewage truck driver, Bryan Mahon of Eldora Mountain Ski Resort, and even you, lunatic-with-a-gun