SNAIL MAIL DECADENT CANDY!

LOOK AT WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL! LUCKY LUCKY ME....there they were on my work desk when I got home, just waiting for me to open them!
Below is an amazing stash of incredible things sent to me by Amber (...aka the "CHARM QUEEN") Dawn. A while back ago Amber commented on liking some beads I had used....I had 2 more left, so i sent them to her along with a FEW other little things. Amber then asked me if I needed any more rusty bezels. Now I LOVE Amber Dawn's rusty bezels. She digs them up herself from fallen decris from a metal factory....lots 'o work! well, of course i needed more bezels. So we decide to call the exchange a swap........so...... what does Amber send me?
Bezels, of course.

BIG ONES....for pendants and shrines and mixed media paintings. She also sent me "chaton roses" ....vintage, crystal and from Austria. ZILLIONS of them!
all wrapped up in their original vintage paper....


green aurora borealis ones, bronze ones, black ones
but wait...there's more!
just look!

is that a cool hand or what? ...and look at the BUGS. The brass flowery things are findings to hold the chatons. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the barrettes with my name on them!

if you click on this pic you will see that the black flowers at the top left are velvet metal roses!

...and see those tiny square sequins? they are metal! (or maybe they are spacers?...whatever...they are FAB!)
thank you thank you thank you Amber Dawn! You are a great friend and beyond GENEROUS!
...About THREE YEARS AGO I participated in a "virtues" tarot swap...at least that is what I thought it was called...but it was so long ago I don't remember. The host ran into an amazing amount of life incidents and so the cards were never distributed. Now with this swap you made your assigned tarot cards and submitted the original art, and then the host was to copy them and mail them out.
well lo and behold when I got back on Thursday night, my deck had arrived.
Boy was the wait worth it!
The cards came in a wooden box and were accompanied by a booklet that explained the meaning of every card. Truly beautiful!

..the cards in their box....

...the booklet...

...the cards....
...oh, and here's the centipede bracelet...not exactly a success....the resin is hard, but still flexible...weird and rather UGLY.

WEDDING IN SEATTLE

On August 15th, my niece Jackie got married. It was a fabulous wedding - great food, family, friends and fun!

Jackie was a GORGEOUS bride....and her gown was stunning!

Jackie, Johnny (the groom) , and Jaden (their son and ring bearer)
The bride with 2 of the 3 flower girls. The 3rd one refused to march down the aisle, and Izzy, pictured in the center, wouldn't wear the headdress and only walked down the aisle after being bribed with a tube a lipstick and a chicken nugget! Too funny! The bride was wonderful about all the tiny mishaps....


...a jubilant mother of the bride.......
yay! it's over!

...the new Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.....

My 89 yr old dad (who needs a walker to walk!) insisted that he dance with his grand daughter.....we told him NO!....but he took his walker and made his way to the dance floor and ....
danced with Jackie...

Sleepy in Seattle.....

Pic of the Day

a bird in the hand........
Sookie the dog was outside barking and barking at something ........this little bird was just sitting there on the lanai, staring up at the dog..... it wasn't afraid of lance, so he picked it up, we took some pictures....and then it flew away. We decided it was a baby that had just left the nest and learned to fly and it didn't know humans were scary.

Micro nuts and bolts...Bullet Cross pics and MORE!

Yesterday i received various sizes of nuts and bolts from micromark. The smallest, a size 0-90, is my favorite! I got flat head screws and hex head screws.... I got a matching drill bit too so i could drill skinny holes that fit. I also got size 0- 80's, 1-72's and 1-256's.

The 1st one is a size 0-90 - my fave
the 2nd one is a 0-80 hex head, 3rd one is a 0-80 flat screw head, with the matching nut
4th one is a 1-72 hex head.....all of these are supposed to be 3/8 inch long
the 5th one is from susan lenart kazmir's Objects and Elements Shop - a good deal actually, $20 bucks for 50 nut and bolt sets! ...probably a size 0-80 as far as I can tell. 1/4 inch long..the nut however is bigger than the other ones...
...and the last one is a 1-256...small, but too big for me. Look at the head...this is what you don't want - it is a recessed head - not a flat head...not good for attaching unbeveled metal together tightly. here's a better pic to show you what I mean...

...see the beveled (or counter sunk) head?
The best part of my purchase, though, were the tiny nut holders I got that hold the nut and help you screw it on easily.


I still needed my needle nose flat pliers to do the final tightening, but my fingers always seem too big for tiny things and this tool really helped. you get 4 sizes of nut holders for $19.95. I LOVE micromark. I also found a source for the nuts and bolts that has really reasonable prices, now that I know what the sizes really look like. The other company is microfasteners.
I couldn't finish my bullet cross because it was too late to rivet the wings onto the cross and resin didn't seem strong enough nor did superglue....so nuts and bolts were a great solution..(heaven forbid the wings come off).....they went on really easy...i had ordered 3/8 inch long bolts - probably would have been better with 1/4 inch, but i just cut off the excess.

I also used loctite on the threads to further keep the nuts from ever loosening, and a drop of superglue for good measure!...so now the "goth steampunk skull and bullet cross" necklace is finished. YAY!

The cross is made of brass bullet casings (used - from the set of "Jericho"). A snake vertebrae (I was told it was a cobra...maybe) is at the top of the cross. The center has a tiny blue raku ceramic skull and the hands are also blue raku. It also has vintage metal eagle buttons and brass shotgun shell bezels filled with resin and bb's, and barbed wire (but not sharp!) style baling wire links. The clasp is a forged steel toggle. Garnet drops hang from the cross as well as from the chain.

details...

metal vintage button link....
Chain is approx 34 inches long...I may shorten it to 30" and make a pair of earrings...or not!
Cross is an additional 4 1/2 inches high.
Here is a pair of steampunk shotgun and airplane earrings. They were made with little stamped airplanes that were filled with resin and microbeads, brass shotgun shell bases and old watch parts. The back of the brass base is lined with resined vintage bible proverbs and old watch parts and microbeads in more resin. The earwires are yellow non reactive niobium.


I will put these on my Etsy shop, eventually!

PLEASE leave me your EMAIL ADDRESS ...otherwise I can't thank you for visiting my blog!

huge soul clearing sale!

Kate McKinnon is having a 2 week SOUL CLEARING sale, and she is selling a ton of great stuff! Clearing the clutter out of her life, her soul! Sale starts tomorrow Aug 11th! Click here to see!

PLEASE leave me your EMAIL ADDRESS ...otherwise I can't thank you for visiting my blog!

Pic of the Day, lighting in a box...progress on projects...and more!

Faster than a speeding bullet... (it's Sookie the dog - running, in case you can't tell....)
Recently I purchased a mini lighting system from sale-a-day, and I have to admit i was very skeptical. It was only $9.99 and shipping was $5.99....but others on my Metal Clay group already owned it and said it was terrific and the price was normally $40, so along with others I took a chance. I didn't think they'd ship it to Hawaii for so cheap...but lo and behold ...it ARRIVED...and it is A GREAT SET UP!...it is small, only 8x8, but it comes with 2 balanced lights, a camera tripod, 2 backgrounds, filtered side walls and a great case to put it all in - seems to be really good quality.... next time it goes on sale again I'll let you know about it here on my blog (it went on sale again last week!)

cool, eh?

something ate my pineapple...sheesh!
simple resin earrings...

remember the bullet cross I was working on? well, this is part of the chain for it....it has winchester shotgun brass...the backs are filled with resin and copper bb's, and they are interspersed with vintage metal buttons that look sort of military to me.....and wired together with a barbed-wire link...the edges have been rounded so they aren't sharp!


...and below is the partially assembled cross......the center hole is where the skull with the wings goes.....the top 4 wires will get some sort of hanging beading...maybe glass tear drops....and the bottom 2 chains will also get a similar treatment......the whole necklace still has a long ways to go...i am so unfocused lately with my projects..... i like the chain, but the cross has been a real pain...it is all cold connected...i really MUST learn to solder (or braze) with the torch......

...and i haven't even LOOKED at the dolls I was supposed to be working on......