Still here . . .

Yep, I am still here. Getting over a nasty allergy/upper respiratory infection, cough, cough, a-a-achoo.

I lost all (ALL!) the photos of my jewelry on a faulty storage disk, so I don't have anything pretty to show. Hopefully I will get a chance to do some work this weekend.

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I will just leave you with a peek at our pups Windsor (12 years) and Lindi (for Lindisfarne 5 years). Both are very shaggy Miniature Schnauzers.

Thanks for checking in. What are you up to these days?

An Experiment

I have been experimenting with the lovely pewter pieces I have accumulated recently. Nan Emmett and I talked for a long time about what I could and should do with them.

Remember this set of necklace and earrings I made while on vacation?

The silver finish is beautiful, but I have access to a process that will allow me to add color to the finish. Also, I am thinking about offering these as components in my Etsy Shop, so you can add them to your creations.

This is a a spooky, scary Halloween bat pendant I started while on vacation too.

Would you like to finish it? How would you use it?

Should I 1) make it available as a component

or

should I 2) finish it and post it on Etsy?

I finished the bat-wing earrings with blood-red coral tear-drop beads.

And here's another design of bat-wings as earrings.

I just love these small wings. Either as blackbird wings . . .

Or humming bird wings. These two pairs of wings are from the same mold, but they have a completely different feel because of the colors used.

While I was working on the wings below, I was reminded me of Hummingbird Wings and the blog Deryn Mentock wrote ( Something Sublime ) last Wednesday about a poor little hummer that died flying into her closed window. These wings are about the right size for a Hummingbird too. The same colors on a larger wing remind me of a parrot's wing. This design has hole on the tips of the separate feathers for dangling tiny jewels or to create an asymmetrical design.

So here are some questions for you:

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How would you use these pieces?

Would you want to buy them as components?

or as finished pieces (necklaces, earrings, etc)?

Would you want to be able to specify coloration?

Would you want to have them available with stones/beads/crystals?

Or without?

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I feel as though I am on the very edge of a new direction and I value your opinions.

Please leave a comment.

My Friend Nan

So here I am on vacation in Galveston. Nan Emmett lives in Houston. We have never met until yesterday. She drove down to enjoy a day at the beach.

Okay, so this isn't the MOST flattering photo of us.

But it was a gorgeous breezy day, what do you expect?

Here we are exchanging goodies.
Yumm-O! (I will post better photos later, but click the "Yumm-o" to Nan's Etsy shop.) We spent a couple hours walking along the beach collecting shells and watching the sea life.
We had the beach to ourselves (along with my sweet hubby)!

. . . and this mighty fisherman, dancing with a Black Drumfish.

The fish was HUGE!

Nan and I had a great discussion about our jewelry businesses and how to improve and diversify our individual product. You will be seeing some results of this discussion in the future.

Have you ever had a heart-to-heart with someone you respect that changed your direction?

I'm on Vacation!

To quote Billy Crystal in City Slickers, "I'm on VACATION!!"
We have escaped for almost two weeks to Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island. We are a couple of minutes walk from the beach and have enjoyed many hours wading through the surf and beachcombing.
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When we are not on the beach, we relax with a good spy novel and quiet hours with our dogs. While my husband reads aloud to me (Daniel Silva's novels are very engaging!) I make jewelry. I brought a few beads and crystals along with my peweter pieces from Reaper Miniature. Here are a couple of things I put together:

And this:

And this -- I ran out of earring findings, so imagine these with lever-back finding. Spooky, huh? I am thinking about Halloween.

Tomorrow Nan Emmett from Spirited Earth and Spirit Rattles is coming down from Houston for lunch, a walk on the beach and some "serious" jewelry talk. I cannot wait!

Do you take your jewerly stuff with you on vacation?

My New Camera

After a couple of false starts, I received my new camera in the mail -- actually, "Brown" (What can Brown do for you?) attempted to deliver twice and my sweet husband went to the local depot to collect it on the second day. I was away at a four day quilt retreat and picked it up later.

I still have to learn the tips and trick to this new camera -- it is kind of like my old one (may it rest in peace), but I will just have to play with it. This is the first photo I took with my new camera -- a two-color quilt I started and finished in the last four days at retreat.

It is for a National Fabric and Craft chain's challenge and all will need to be completed by December 18th to be considered. I was a semi-finalist in a similar contest for the same chain several years ago. As I get closer to completing the work I will give more details. And here is a detail of a photographic nature:

The block pattern is an off-centered square in a square called "Happy Hour" but I drafted it myself to be an 8.5" block. The setting and borders are of my own design and I wanted two of the squares to have "runaway centers". I will need to applique these in place.

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Speaking of running away, my husband and I will be going away to the gulf coast for a few days. I will not have internet and so will probably get very far behind in my reading of blogs and certainly in my writing of them. I will post photos and details when we return, but I sure am looking forward to quiet walks on the beach and hours spent reading and beading.

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If you were to run away, where would you go and what would you do?

Arrrgh!

Dang it! My camera broke!

What will I do until its replacement arrives?

(Not my camera. Hey, I don't have a working camera. Remember??)

Cindy's Giveaway

The Lampwork Diva, Cindy Gimbrone, is having a fabulous bead giveaway to celebrate five year (5 YEARS!) blogging. Go on over to her blog {HERE} and sign up to win this bead stash.

"Who cooks for you? Who? Who?"

We had another interesting visitor to our wild backyard:
a barred owl.

(I did not have my camera with me, but I found this photo online.)

My husband called me into the kitchen to peek out the window overlooking our little fish pond and there is was -- beautiful! I happened to have been going through a gorgeous deck of Celtic divination cards I bought for the images. The card in my hand when he called me to see this beauty was the Moon card -- night and wisdom. I find inspiration anywhere I can, don't you?

Our visitor did not make its distinctive call for us ("who cooks for you?"), but check out this Youtube clip for a great close-up and its mating call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c

And the winner is . . .

Pam from Klassy Joolz.

Pam won this pair of wings:

I cannot wait to see what she does with them!

Thank you all for your comments. I guess I will have to do some more giveaways in the future.

Hmmm, I saw some really cool bat-wings the other day at work, I wonder,

would anyone be interested in them for

a Halloween-ish giveaway? (Do tell!)

(Pam, Send me your mailing info via my email: artymeziaATyahooDOTcom)

Reminder -- Wings Giveaway

Don't you just love these beauties from Reaper Miniatures? They could be yours. Leave a comment on the previous post to have your name put in the drawing. The deadline is midnight Friday September 10th.