Just So You Know...

<3

Monday Muses: Bento Bento Bento

... I have a new obsession...

 Felt Food Play- Bento Box by kenshop

Green Bento- Original Watercolor Painting by lucileskitchen

Kawaii Bento Box Bookmark by bookmarksnrings

Oh bento boxes... they're just so... pretty. Blame Mêh Blog. I saw a link to her site on one of my favorite webcomics and sat up til 1am reading her comics... and then... well. She mentioned JustBento.com and well... 1am became 2am. Lol.

Still no real word on the job front. My third interview is supposed to take place tomorrow. But I do know that I'm going to try and pack a bento box for lunch if I get hired. Lol.

Hope you all survived this Monday! <3

Odd Hours

Sometimes, I get a little crazy and get a creative jolt in the middle of the night. Last night, this is what my bead table looked like at 3:17AM.

My mind wandered while I was taking pictures with my phone and ended up playing with the camera...

Here is the final necklace. I love that pendant. I bought that shell pendant a loooong time ago. When I first started this beady adventure. I stumbled upon it while going through my stash and am so happy I've finally worked it into a project. ^_^

Just a Touch of Red

I make a lot of bracelets. And thought I would make the heart clasp (from this post) into a necklace... but... well... I just couldn't help myself. Lol.

Doesn't it make a lovely bracelet?

And I especially love the red flower. I love how it just pops out against the blue-green.

Listed here! And don't forget. Use coupon code "LOVE2012" for 20% off. :)

Happy Saturday!

20% Off!

Valentine's Day is coming up! Take 20% off my shop with coupon code "LOVE2012"

Good until Feb. 3rd!

<3

Two New Treasuries

I had my second interview today at Aaron Brothers. This was for an assistant manager position. Originally, I interviewed for a lead sales associate position. My boyfriend says that if I get hired, then I was promoted even before I was hired... silly man. I can't help but feel hopeful. I so want to work there. I miss working... even though I'm loving creating pretty things every day, I really do miss... having a paycheck :P

ALSO, they have ART SUPPLIES at Aaron Brothers. I LOVE art supplies. Did you know that? I love the smell of pencils... weird, huh?

I'll have a third interview next week. So, please, keep your fingers crossed for me. <3

I was nervous last night so after making my hooks, I created a treasury... and I felt antsy after the interview today... so I made another one. Lol.

Because spring is coming...

Because I love red...

BTW: 1/25 Heart Clasp

[I'm really sorry about the crappy pictures. It's just that taking pictures with my phone is so much easier when I'm working. I just grab and click. Next time, I'll try and take better pictures :-/]

A few days ago, I made this bangle. You see, it's hard for me to shop for bangles as I have pudgy hands. I rather like my hands... but not when I want to buy bangles so I got it in my head to make my own. 

After making this bangle, I thought that the heart I made would make a lovely clasp! It's only a few bends away from a hook clasp, after all.

Today, I sketched out some ideas.

Sometimes, the pen gets away from me. That's what happened with the top sketch. Looks like a guitar pick, huh? But I liked the other ones.

After some wire bending and happy hammering, this is what I came up with.

I sooo wish I could have made more but I'm out of heavy gauge copper wire and don't have it in my budget to buy more until next week. Oh the joys of unemployment. Lol.

After making these, I wanted to alter the clasp somehow. I remember reading an article from Handcrafted Jewelry, 2010 about different ways to alter metal... but I couldn't find the blasted magazine so I had to go off of what I remembered.

White acrylic paint and alcohol inks. That's really all I could remember. Sooo...

I painted the heart with some white acrylic. Rather rough...

And then rubbed some alcohol ink onto it. The effect is rather nice, I think. I sealed it with some Krylon sealer... because that's all I have. Lol. I'm interested to see if it holds up. Anyone have any other suggestions on how to seal the ink??? It seems to be ok. I rubbed it and threw it around a bit and it seems to be holding up ok but... eh... I just don't know.

And of course, I wire wrapped the other hook. Because I went outside my comfort zone enough today, thank you very much :P

I'm glad I decided to make these hooks today. The hammering was really therapeutic. I have an interview tomorrow for an assistant manager position at Aaron Brothers. I'm so nervous. I need this job badly... it's the second interview but you never know. *fingers crossed*

Anyhoo, the hammering really helped to calm me down a lot.

What's on YOUR bead table today?

Check out the BTW Flickr group!

Color Driven Designs

Remember this post?
Which had the Pantone Spring 2012 color report? 

Well, that inspired this:

Which kinda looks like a guitar, to tell you the truth. The boyfriend pointed it out to me.. but it's supposed to be a heart key...

Then, THAT led to this:

Cabaret pink, margarita green, and gray... LOVE that color combo.

THAT led to this:

More wire wrapping and combining THREE colors- solar yellow, tangerine tango, and sodalite blue. I strung some seed beads to finish the bracelet. Using the colored waxed Irish linen cord led to THIS:

Yeah. I'm not too thrilled with this design. Blue. Bellflower. Yellow. And cabaret.

But hey, you can't win 'em all.

SIDENOTE: Listed 2 magazines into the destash section. 2 issues of Step by Step Wire Jewelry. Want? Check it out :)

Away We Go

 

My bead soup has left California and is making it's journey all the way to Delaware to the lovely Kathy Lindemer. Miss Pretty Things Lori Anderson told me not to worry about what my partner might like and to pick out what *I* think is awesome and that's what I did! I may have over-done it but I wanted to make sure my partner has plenty of beads to play with.

The big reveal is March 3rd and I cannot wait to see what Kathy comes up with! Go on over to the Bead Soup Party site and check out all the participants! 200 blogs! Lots of reading material... and you have no idea how happy that makes me :)

Pantone Spring 2012 Color Report

Before starting a project, I've been taking a peak at the Pantone color report for Spring 2012.

The colors are so bright and vibrant. And I usually only make pieces with limited color palettes. I haven't really mixed the colors. I need to be bolder. Take more chances. Who knows? Maybe I'll make something great. Lol.

I also need to try colors I probably wouldn't choose without it... like the pretty yellow solar power.

Hmm... Let's see how this goes, shall we?

BTW: 1/18 Wire Worked Earrings

I spent the morning clearing up my workspace. I should have taken a "before" picture rather than just an "after" picture. The table was full of little baggies and the bowls over against the wall held my finished pieces. I got that lovely set of blue drawers from my boyfriend for Christmas and today, I filled it up with my jewelry and went label crazy. Then I took the baggies of beads and dumped them into the bowls.

 Oh, I have a few plastic storage things but who am I kidding? These beads usually just stay in baggies and wind up strewn across the table, thrown in my backpack... or even in my purse! So I just put them in these bowls until I can actually get around to sorting them out.

After getting the table all clear, I pulled out my sketchbook and set to work. I still have oodles of doodles that are begging to be made into wire lovelies.

A few bends and some happy hammering and I've got a lovely frame to wrap with seed beads.

I lose myself in the wire wrapping. It's great fun. Usually, I have an audiobook playing and I just listen and wrap.

The finished earrings. Originally, I was going to have a pearl as the dangle but I thought the teal Czech round was more dynamic.

I'll have these up in the shop tomorrow afternoon.

What's on YOUR bead table today?

Check out the BTW Flickr group!

My Lovely Bead Soup Partner

The 5th Bead Soup Blog Party is upon us! YAAAAAAAAAAAY! *dances*

This is my second bead soup and I am partnered with the lovely Kathy Lindemer. You can check out her blog here. Aaaand check out her Etsy shop here.

I've been sneaking around her shop trying to see if I can get an idea as to what she might like from my bead stash... here are some of my faves:

After checking out Kathy's shop, I think I have quite a good idea of what beads will be making the journey over to Kathy's bead table. Kathy lives all the way over in Delaware and my beads must travel over from California so I must get on the ball and ship out the pretties!

Excited!!!!

Inspired by Mucha

Last week, the boyfriend and I spent the day at the Laguna Beach library. I go through spells of uninspiration and I need to spend the day sketching and doodling so we took root at a large table and I went through piles and piles of books looking for inspiration.

I've always loved Alphonse Mucha. One of my classmates at LCAD used Mucha as their inspiration for our character design class. The second I got my hands on their books, I fell in love. Such beautiful flowy lines. Lovely colors and design. In. Love. So last week, I sat with a book on Art Nouveau (and maybe 1, 2... 10 others :P) and doodled away.

Sunday night, I took one of my doodles and set to work. Oh, copper wire, you are such a blessing when I make loops and curls.

I added a lucite lily because there are a lot of pretty flowers in the Art Nouveau pieces I looked at.

Also... I have a lot of lucite lilies :P

These earrings are up in the shop now. And I love them so much, I made myself a pair as well :P

SIDENOTE!: There are still a few destash mags in my shop! I'll probably go through another magazine purge in a week or so. It's hard for me to part with my wire working and stringing magazines :-\