More Earrings!

Top left - Earth. Top right - Galaxy with Swarovski dangle.

Bottom left - construction of Galaxy. Bottom right - Galaxy.

I haven't loaded these up on my Esty page yet because I need to get some gold tone Euro lever wires. I like those better than the fish hook wires because they're more secure. I'm going to price these at $20. I love making jewelry.

I finally got a 2TB external hard drive (WD Elements). I've loaded my laptop, my desktop and my music hard drive on to it. I'm ready for the MacBook Pro transitition.

Two More Weaves Learned!

The Orbital (bracelet $20, and earrings $10) ^^

The Inca Puno weave ($80.00)

I did learned the orbital weave last weekend, and just learned the Inca Puno weave today. It was much easier than the Persian Weave. Both of these are available in my Esty store, made to order, of course. I'm loving this chainmaille thing!

I bought a pink Fender (Squire) Stratocaster yesterday. I haven't even taken it out of the case to play it. Pink! Pictures to come...

My New Version of the "Rearden Metal" Bracelet

My Esty Page

Yes, I'm wearing it, but the first one is MINE (a prototype)! These will be handmade to order, for $80.00 plus S/H. It took me five days to make the bracelet. It wore me out, considering I was starting a new job at the same time as learning a new skill (at my age). Seeing the finished product filled me with such a sense of accomplishment... completely gratifying. This is the first item on my Esty page. I still have 4 large link ($20) and 4 small link ($15) bracelets in stock on this blog (bracelet page, at the top of the blog), available for immediate shipping. Once they're gone, I'll only be making the Rearden bracelet out of niobium jump rings. I can't find that previous particular link anymore, and jump rings are immediately available, albeit a bit pricey. I wish it was Rearden Metal. Eventually, I will be a dotcom.

I'm going to learn a new weave in a couple of weeks. I want to master starting the Persian weave, which was next to impossible (FIVE HOURS). I had to really understand the pattern. It made no sense during those five hours, and then the next day, I just did what I understood it to be, and it was correct. That was a lightbulb moment of "letting go". I had faith that it would turn out, and it did. Stay tuned for more creations from Creative Magic.

The First Batch Of Earrings Are Done!

I've been at it since 11:00am this morning! All of these are handmade. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. I even made my own earwires, out of copper (bottom right). Here are the results:

I've found my new passion. I had to physically push myself away from my work table. I'm supposed to be making the new Rearden Metal bracelets, but I'm scared to tackle assembling the jumprings (into chainmaille). I'm going to post these earrings on my Esty page. Some of them I've decided to keep (the middle picture, and the picture on the right - my mother's old pearls). Once I got the loop making down, I was off and running. I'm still having trouble with my wrapped loops, but today was only the first day... the first day. I'm not posting until I have enough to sell. I need more silver and gold euro lever earwires. I also need an anvil and nylon hammer (I slammed my finger today - still hurts). I need more pliers, at least a pair of bent chainnose and a pair of flat nose. At first, before I started, I didn't know what they were for, but after today, now I know!

Hello Fall!

Where do I start? I changed jobs! Hopefully, my new job will be a much better fit than the last job. It will free up a lot of time in the morning for me to do "my" stuff (writing, knitting, making music, and my new passion: jewelry making). From what I've learned over the last 3 years, I will not become this job. This job is just a means to fund my life. I will not take the job home with me. I do wish to get better hours though.

On the hair front, my hair is still coming out, even after the Aphogee 2 Step Treatment. To protect what I still have, I decided to go back to basics, and put on a lace wig (see above photos). Hopefully, I can grow out the weakend hair (my fault - I've pinpointed it to the color remover fiasco from a couple of months ago). Since I haven't gotten around to getting my new 12" virgin malaysian straight (from Rex, of course), I decided to cut my old 18" RVMS and cut some bangs into it. I'm happy with the results. I didn't paint the inside of the cap. I just put the self adhesive bandage around my head. I don't even have a wigcap on. I was being lazy about it, but very happy with how it turned out. My skills are still there. I thought I would have to add some lace to the back and ventilate some hair back there, but it fits my hairline perfectly. I will probably need to redo it the Sunday night before the first day of work.

Okay, even though it's knitting season (yeah!), I'm getting into jewelry making. It started with the sale of two of my Rearden bracelets. I still have enough blue metal to make several bracelets, but being proactive, I started to look for more blue metal. From there, I found jumprings, which led to learning how to make chainmaille (think Dark Ages, Middle Ages, King Arthur), which led to wire wrapping. I have an (empty) Esty store and I will sell bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and anything else I can think to make. My Esty store will also carry my handknit goods, and eventually my music (mp3s), my photography, my lacefront DVDs, and my books. I love knowing that I have an outlet for all this creativity.

Hello Esty, here I come!

Very exhausted, but it's under construction:

Creative Magic

Handmade knits, the "Bracelet", my music, lace wig application DVDs, etc.

Finally, a commercially creative outlet for my expansive output.

Stay tuned.