I got up late. The week flew by, but we were extremely busy and shorthanded due to vacations, and I am tired...yawn.
Today I hope to: design a necklace and bracelet set using various shapes of Fire Agate beads. Also to do some more dichro slide pendants. The firing time is so long on these that it frustrates me, but I love the results. I'm hoping to consign them at a local bead store.
I bought a copy of "DeLovely" since I'm inspired by the jewelry Ashley Judd wears in the film. They copied Linda Porter's (Cole's wife) jewelry for the film. There is a golden topaz necklace which is to die for. I hope to do something similar with the Fire Agate.
I bought a set of Kalera's beads on Ebay yesterday. Can't wait to see them in person.
Have a wild weekend, everyone. I'd love to hear what everyone is doing, bead related or otherwise. I miss all the lively conversation we used to have.
We have had a wild Saturday, massive storm and winds but we were lucky as no trees came down on the farm.
I am knitting a baby shawl as our son and his wife, who have been married
10 years are having a baby due late December.Our first Grandchild!! We will be in UK until end of January having planned and booked to visit our UK daughter and her husband during my summer break.We did offer to change but as our son said they will be experts by the time we get back and email, Skype and web cameras will keep us in the loop. Great excitement
Friday night I made 6 mgambo seed and Sawrovski crystal memory wire bracelets to send to the consignment place in Kona that's selling those (and a few other things) for me, but those bracelets are selling rather quickly (well, OK, if I was sitting there waiting for them to sell I probably wouldn't think so, but that's why I do the consignment), they're rather fast to make other than the seed drilling which I had gotten done earlier in the week - thank God! - as the later part of the week was dominated by plumbing problems, and I'm glad I didn't have to make anything more complicated with my dilated pupil eyes (but I did get new reading glasses too, and so I should be able to thread needles again and such things). Today was more cleanup, and getting the kid ready to go back to Oregon tomorrow, and us following Monday. Nobody told our neighbor yet that we hope he'll be feeding the cats again, and for almost 3 weeks this time. I hope I'll have time to drill some more mgambo seeds so that I can take some stuff and make some earrings or bracelets for the sisters in law and the nieces and the nephews' wives.
I hope I'll get to sleep in for a few days starting Tuesday. For the time being my torch is put away, etc., but still a lot of things to do and get ready. This being hurricane season we'll also have to do some "battening down hatches" before we go. I think I'll sleep on the flight :-) - so much for finishing DD's camera bag (I did some simple yarn crocheting in between, no beads involved other than that the closing button will be a kukui nut.) You can have crochet hooks in your carry-on, and according to the TSA website pliers are OK in carry-on up to 7" (not just mini-pliers) now, but I don't think I'll be making jewelry on the flight. Maybe on the way back.
It's been much too hot here to even *think* about turning on the oven for baking clay, or microwaving for fusing. Not much inspiration for even stringing beads. So...I just finished cutting out 55 3"x3" squares of cork board to make a backsplash for the kitchen sink. Now I just have to find enough embossing foil (in the right color, which is proving very difficult), a board to mount them on, and hanging hardware. I thought about tiling but we're renters, so can't make any permanent changes to the space.
I finished a butterfly garden necklace, started a Russian spiral necklace from the latest issue of Bead & Button, sat in on a bead crochet lesson, and painted curbstones in my condo complex. So most of the weekend was spent in a bady fashion.
Grandbabies are wonderful. I just wish mine was closer. I got her latest school picture today. I got my son's latest school picture today too, since he's a teacher.
Not windy here, but we're sure tired of rain. Rivers are high, people in flood zones are being evacuated, and they've opened the flood gates into flood control plains. I had expected to pick blue berries last week. Hope the "crop" isn't ruined. (As if I really have time for that with the wedding approaching.)
You must be in the last phase of getting ready to go to Oregon now. How long will you be gone? I'll probably be leaving for Arizona for 3 weeks shortly after you get back. I leave Aug 26.
Like you, all plane trips for me are long ones. This trip I have excellent connections. A direct 3 1/2 hour flight to Seattle, and 1 1/2 hour lay over, and 3 more hours to go directly to Phoenix. Of course I still will have a drive of a couple hours to Sedona, but the flying part is great, and these are day flights, so I won't be wrecked when I get there.
I like to take beaded crochet on the plane because it's completely self contained once the beads are on the thread. I'll still stick with mini pliers when I fly. I know they won't be taken from me.
Plumbing problems! Thank goodness ours was fixed with getting the septic tank pumped.
Have fun in Oregon.
T> > I got up late. The week flew by, but we were extremely busy and
writing from Portland ... (haven't tried to get in touch with Kalera yet
- she has a bunch of new beads out too).
We got a bit of moving done by now, Nina is just about squared away, did a large bunch of grocery shopping today (as long as she has parents with a rental car who pay for the groceries on top of it)
Book (borrowed from kid who wanted it in Portland anyway), and some non-bead crochet that I ope to finish while we're here (camera etc. bag for same kid - only got that one)
Well, there were tree roots at the end of the discharge pipe into the cesspool (we have a grandfathered cesspool. A lot of people on the newer islands in Hawaii have. Septic tanks don't work well in basalt.)
So far, so good. Hoping to go on a road trip in the next few days.
Aloha, Maren (at home it's still Saturday, though a week later)
I finished the beaded crocheted bag for my daughter in white size 5 cotton with silver lined size 8 beads in each stitch, but it ended up looking too off-white, almost ivory and a little dirty looking. So I made another with a size 6 AB clear in every other stitch which has a more slithery feel, not so stiff. Instead of a pattern of very light colored and simple flowers in seed beads, this has 8 clusters of button flowers and leaves with front to back holes on top in clear and some even silverier drops. It turned out perfect.
Now I have a couple simple pendants to make for a friend.
And then wedding jewelry. One of my new dresses was a greener color than I expected. The next week I got a set of beads from Brendan Blake than I also expected to be bluer, and that match perfectly! The other dress hasn't arrived yet, but is smack dab in the middle of my color range and my biggest problem for the jewelry will be narrowing down my choices.
And then I will need to bring some jewelry for my sister to choose (and buy) for Christmas and other presents, when I see her after the wedding.
Oh yes, and I need to make some fruit cake and jam for family too. As I mentioned elsewhere, all those heavy things will go down Priority Flat Rate, so I can bring a larger but lighter bag (or two) with me on the plane. This luggage thing irritates me. We already pay top rates because we are 1) so far away, and 2) have so little competition for rates, and 3) are basically a captive market. We also have greater needs for luggage since we usually have different weather to dress for and bulkier clothes. We pay over seas rates and then some, but have the same luggage restrictions as a commuter hop.
I got a set of Kalera beads on auction too. Aventurine Sands. They should be surprising as well as lovely.
Patti, I would love to see what you create with the Fire Crackled Agate. I purchased some this summer from Heart Bead in Arcata, California. It is an intriguing stone. I have not made anything with my beads, but I do fondle them from time to time.
The earlier topic of "spoon rings" reminded me that I have a spoon ring. I have had it for 25+ years. It needs to be polished frequently but that's not really a bother to me.
What am I doing? I currently have in progress a fancy jasper/green aventurine necklace to hold a stunning green aventurine pendant/ehancer I found. I keep arranging/rearranging the stones but the finished neckpiece will emerge.
I don't know what Fire Crackled Agate is. How is it different from the stone fire agate?
What a shame about that helicopter that went down at the Iron Fire.
It's funny about arranging and re-arranging. Usually things go together easily and naturally for me because I like them. Or else they sit around, sometimes for years because they aren't in my comfort zone, until one day as they're sitting in front of me with another misfit I realize either that they are a wonderful serendipitous fit, or that they'll work together and I can be done with them.
It is probably not different at all. It is a nataural agate stone that is dyed a burnt umber color, and then heated to create the crackled effect. The white areas are manmade by using a permanent surface additive that enhances the contrast and crackle-like beauty. This description comes from Fire Mountain. I was initially drawn to the stone by the glow it was emitting from a glass case in Heart Bead, and once I held some in my hand I knew some of them were going home with me. I enjoy working with stones, and it sometimes takes more than a while for them to tell me what they want to be.
The helicopter crash was horrendous, and oh so sad! We had met some of the Carson Helicopter crew last month. They were really nice guys; told us all about their helicopters, where they were from etc. One of the survivors, Richard Schroeder, was released from the local hospital yesterday, the remainder are being treated down at UC Davis Burn Unit.
It is smoky enough today that I cannot see the hills to the west again. The combo of winds and things drifted the smoke from the Moon fire over us last night. It made for a rather spectacular sunset, but also served as a reminder that thousands of acres are still burning.
I put down my knitting needles and have made five small and three large beaded flower poppies. Mainly because I am doing front of house for our school production which is a war drama set in Gallipoli and they are to be scattered with spent bullets to make a statement.
When we visit Europe in Dec/ January we will visit Tyne Cot cemetery where my husbands' Grandfather is buried, I will check if I can leave a beaded poppy on his headstone.
I have a bad cold so sat by the wood fire, beaded and watched the Olympics where NZ did well in the rowing trials. Will do the same today and hopefully be back at work on Monday rested and recovered.
just got done with the crochet part of the camera bag, have to go see DD about how to attach the kukui nut she wants for a button.
Since last Saturday I saw the dams up the Columbia River up to Grand Coulee Dam, and a good bit of the Channeled Scablands.
Decided today that as we're on vacation we could have a day of "vegetating", especially Norman who's been driving for 4 days.
I may start on a necklace later, sortof variation on a lariat necklace that's double for the whole length - and may then decide that without a work surface I'm not going to finish it "on the road", depending on how that goes.
That is different from fire agate which has the translucence of agate, and you see opal-like fire in it. I'll see if I have a piece of it hanging around. I got my new Fire Mountain Catalogue, but don't see Fire Crackled Agate in it.
Jan, on the day you wrote this I too had a wood fire. It's been a very cold wet summer. The Governor of Alaska even called it "the worst natural disaster in decades". I consider that an exaggeration, but there certainly has been a lot of flooding this year.
In the newest Fire Mountain catalog it is on page 256, but I have seen it in their recent sale catalogs as well. I also saw some for sale at
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It does have an opal-like translucence. It was that glow that attracted me to it. I had not seen anything quite like it before, and it was new at Heart Bead as well. I shall be waiting to see if we are talking about the same agate.
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