I've got spoons on the brain!

See my most recent ETSY west treasury here!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=100676

Sea Star and pearl necklace

I've been busy in the barn making extraordinary things!


I've found that my recent vacation to the beach has inspired me to make a more relaxed style of jewelry the past month. You can see the results of that here.

Simple thoughts

Well, it's Tuesday. I've been busy at my 'dayjob' lately. It seems to be either feast or famine in the newspaper biz. Right now (today anyway) it's feast. Later this week? mostly famine. My Etsy shop is still dismally slow. A few lookers, no buyers. I'm just going to have to make a giant push for promotion, or, call it quits. Just disapointed with the whole thing right now. I'm going to give it another month.

On the home front- We've got the '05 Jeep Liberty listed in several places. I think the price point is still a bit more than most are looking to spend right now. But the bank payoff is what I must have. Sorry shoppers... More Sorry checkbook!

Our 'puppy' is about 60+ lbs. now.... just a guess as no one can get her to stay on the scales for any length of time. And I'm not picking that beasty up to hold her. She rolled in some foul dead thing from the woods this afternoon. She smells ripe.

I've been hitting the gym with increased regularity in the past month. I feel so much better for it. I've been following a clean eating plan, and working out with Jim when I can. He makes me use heavier weights than I would normally attempt, and makes me CONTINUE to use those heavier weights for more reps. It helps to have him as a spotter when those heavy weights try to smash me too.
One of my favorite magazines 'Oxygen' offers so many workouts and clean eating recipies, I'm never bored at the gym. Added benefit- I eat better. There's more work to it, but the food is about the same cost as the 'old' diet plan (which was non existant) I just don't have pre package food in the house any more. No candy, cakes, chips or cheezy dips. I can have fresh fruit, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, healthy breads and some healthy fats. There is no denial here. Just acceptance that I will never be able to eat 'HOT GARBAGE' like McDonalds, Buger King or any of those other 'fast food' places again. Sure, once in a while might be acceptible... But better not to tempt fate- eh?

Here's to Wednesday, A lower body work out day. Quads- watchout!

Jewelry creation 101- silver head pins

I'm currently working on a top-end piece of jewelry that involved sterling silver wire, aquamarine gemstones crystals and seed pearls. In making this, I grew frustrated at the cost of sterling silver head pins, usually sold in 10 packs. I needed, like, a hundred of these very simple, but essential items for my necklace.
I had tried using a spiral at the end of my pearl bead drops, but the finished look seemed not as professional as I wanted for my piece.
I'm the type of person that will completely take apart an item If it's not quite what I wanted it to be.... This was one of those items that I'm not going to accept anything but what I really want it to be!
I'd taken the time and expense to order the top drilled, dagger style, aquamarine nuggets from an artisan supplier on ETSY.com

So- I wanted the finished look to be a certain way, not sloppy, or amatur. I set about creating my own silver ball tipped head pins. These tiny silver balls are what the bead rests on, with a spiral wrapped loop at the top. The loop attaches to the necklace in some fashion.

I started with 24 guage sterling silver wire. I cut 10 pieces of wire about 1 1/2" long. I summarily took these to the barn and had Jim start up the hand held propane torch... (cause he's a man- and it's a man skill- right?)

I held the wire in the hottest part of the torches fire, easily creating a molten ball of silver. Trial and error found that you have to hold the wire pretty much vertical, with the molten ball on the bottom to get the ball to center on the wire, and not be off center. These first 10 pins were burnt and tarnished looking, but for all apparent purposes, it seemed to be just what I wanted.

I had a silver polishing cloth that I took my dainty treasures to. I polished for more than an hour to get all the brownish tan tarnish of the pins shaft, and the darker charcoal color off the ball itself. That's not very cost effective.
Not willing to give up, I cut a larger handful of the wire to about 1 1/4" length, a more managable size for the tiny seed pearls anyway. If I was going to make the effort, I might as well make it worth while. The bundle of wire was only about 9 bucks. and the cost of the headpins to purchase them, would have been closer to double that... you do the math.

So, off to the barn I went. You can see in the pictures below what wire I started with, How I held the pin in the flame (I photoshopped in the wite line so you can better see where the pin was held in the fire), and the finished result. What you don't see is how I got the headpins to be silver, and with very little carbon burn or tarnish!
Ahhh trial an error again. I had made one pin that had the silver molten ball harden a little off center. I just stuck it back into the flame for a second more and took it out pretty quick, not wanting to over heat it and make the ball too big. I noticed that where it had been re-heated to cherry for that little second was shiny clean! The carbon film on the outside had been burnt away!
the Ah-Ha moment had arrived.
I reheated each of those pins just to the point of cherry glow, then removed them from the fire before they were molten. All were nearly perfect!
Joy! Let the endless wire wrapping begin!

Raindrops on Roses- hints of spring

Just a warm feeling comes to mind when I see all these favorite things. They remind me of the blooming spring and soft rains.
Enjoy!

Lauri the Madmodiste

Chinese New Year feature

I was just posted on fellow Etsian blogger: Rebecca Hamilton Stockdill's blog- 'Iced Blueberries' for a Chinese New Year feature. Very nice of Rebecca to share her favorite chinese new year items from ETSY.com.
Thanks for the blog love Rebecca!

Blondie3022 on Etsy

My local friend Sondra got a feature at the INcrowd blog. Yeah, Sondra!


http://indianaetsy.blogspot.com/2010/01/meet-blondie3022.html#links

A Valentine for ETSY!

I've got a valentine for you!!!

See all the details about this Color a Valentine contest at:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/valentines-day-card-design-contest-an-etsy-coolmompicks-co-p-6808/

beading Madness

Well, During the last week... I've had a few days off for a mini-vacation, Personal sick days and child sick days... Not very productive on the newspaper front. But VERY productive at home at the work table. I've opened my own ETSY store front to try to sell some of my more distinctive jewelry designs! visit my store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/madmodiste to see all the details and more items. Thanks for your support! We'll see how it goes from here. Word of mouth is everything. So Tell your friends!