Fruits Of My Labor

Remember this weekend when I posted my

"Hoops" tutorial?

Well, here's the fruits of my labor after playing around with some different materials this weekend.

Click photos to enlarge images

I'm having fun making hoops, covering them with recycled sari silk and various colored ribbons and wrapping them with the darkened annealed steal wire and adding a few little seed beads and crystals - too fun!!

Grunge Hoops

The Grunge Hoops will be available in my Etsy shop this week.

Also, the weekend before, when we played in the garage studio and I dipped some things in liver of sulfur? 

Well, here's a few of those items now, too. 

I love how copper can look on different surfaces and with different colored backgrounds - it's such a cool metal!

I'm gearing up for the Annual Nutrioso BBQ and craft show this weekend up here White Mountains of Arizona and so some of these are going to be put on display there, but several will be in my Etsy shop next week as well.

I'm limited to what items I have up here at my sis's cabin, but it's stretching my creativity to play with what I have. I even forgot my LOS, so no dark metals other than the ones I made up prior to coming back up here - oh well - I'm still having fun!

Someone asked me if my being here at the cabin fueled my creativity or did it just make it too hard to create, being in such a beautiful area and wanting to just enjoy my surroundings. The answer is a little bit of both!

What's fueling your creativity this summer? 

Are you inspired by your surroundings?  

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Creating Fun Things!

Cheers,

~Shel~

 

Happiness Is,...

A Walk in the Woods

You never know what you're going to see,...

Or Who!?!

Happy Sunday!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Having Fun!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Linking up with I Heart Macro today

over at Studio Waterstone

*Scary dude in the Ghillie Suite is the hubby,...stalking our son and his friends in the woods and having a blast! ;-)

Jumping Through Hoops!

Hoop earrings are always in style and if you practice making several sizes and embellishing them in different ways, then you’ll always have this essential earring staple to complete your wardrobe no matter what the current trends may be.

Here's a simple tutorial for creating some basic hoop style earrings.

Flush cut two (2) pieces of 20g wire to your desired length. Your length will depend on how large or small you wish your hoops to be.  For these photos I cut two, 5 inch pieces of wire.

Make a simple loop on one end of each of your pieces of wire.

To form the hoop portion, you will need a mandrel.

This can be a fat marker, an actual ring mandrel, a nail polish bottle, a film canister or your looping or wrap-n-tap pliers.

Wrap each piece of wire  around the mandrel you've selected to form a round shape.

To keep the shape you’ve created, you will want to lightly tap each ear-hoop with your plastic or rawhide mallet, either on your bench block or while it’s around your mandrel.

Neither the plastic or rawhide mallet with flatten your wire, but it will work harden it enough so that your hoops will keep their shape.

Take your jewelry file and smooth out the straight part of the hoop.  This portion will go into your ear so you want to make sure it is smooth and won't scratch your ear.

Grasp the straight part of the wire you just filed with your chain nose pliers,  about 2 to 3 cm up, and bend it to a 90 angle to form the ‘hook’ that will fit into the loop portion of your hoops to close them.

Lay your hoops on your bench block and hammer the bottom of the hoop portion to flatten it a bit. This not only gives it some strength, but some style as well.

And, if you're planning on wire wrapping some lovely little gemstones or beads on to your hoops, this will help the wire from spinning around while you're wrapping!

And remember, your hoops don't have to be round.  Oval hoops are quite fun and stylish, too!

Now for the fun part! 

You can leave your hoops they way they are right now - simple and stylish - or you can embellish your hoops with bead dangles, wire wrap them with a different metal for a mixed metal look or you can wire wrap some fun beads on them to add color and texture.  

 

You can even wrap ribbons, leather or cord around them with wire or add charms or other beads for a truly unique and textured look!

Whatever you do, have fun and Hoop It Up!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Hoopty-Do!!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Higher Ground!

Well, we headed up to higher ground last night.

We're back up to my sis's cabin. We're pet sitting for her and my brother-in-law while they're on vacation for a bit.

The Tree House

My sis is down in Florida at my brother's house and my other brother is meeting her down there, too. They're having a mini brother/sister reunion -minus me! 

My sister, Marsha, me, my brothers, David and Gordon

I got my 'mobile studio' set up this morning. The hubby's got our RespirCare phones on (the company we own and co-run together. You know,...my day job!) and things are pretty much up and running today, business wise.

Make-shift Studio while at my sister's cabin

It was a sunny morning and now it's raining and it's cooled off quite a bit and we're so loving the temps. They're heaven compared to what's going on in the Phoenix area this week!

The rain through the pine trees

  One day while we were back home, we went out to the garage to get in the car to go to dinner and the temperature in the car said 118!  Yep, that's a bit hot for me! 

Anyhoo, hope you're all doing well and creating beautiful things this summer. Please take a moment and share what you're up to if you get the chance. 

I love hearing what every one's doing and I don't always get around to every one's blogs each day/week like I want to when I'm up here because the Internet is a tad-bit slower here in the mountains! 

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Gentle Rains!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Back to Work!

Remember yesterday when I told you I was taking a "play day"? 

Well, here's a look at what took place:

Some un-finished designs just out of the LOS

I played around with some copper and brass,....hammering, putting texture on metal, punches holes in things, wire wrapping and even dipping stuff in LOS - Stinky!!

But it was fun!!

Mike playing with fire.

Mike was out in the garage workshop area - melting stuff!

Mike's pewter goodies

He's got this thing with melting pewter and making molds and cool stuff.  

Some of Mike's melting tools and his pewter crosses

This is my work area of the garage compared to his.

See the old sewing machine in the corner and that old clock up top from a few blog posts back?
Mike actually did learn to sew on that machine. And the clock, well, we're still trying to get it to work.

I don't usually play with fire like he does.

When I do,...it's just small stuff. Or if I feel like some heat, I turn on the kiln (which isn't often). 

My trusty, old kiln!

Haven't seen one of these since the stone ages, huh?! 

I traded our friend a 6 pack of beer for his first kiln he used with his dental business - I got the better end of the deal!  She's a trusty thing!

The Masked Rider hangin' with us in the garage studio

Even "Axl" (aka - the Masked Rider) was in on the fun.  Ever watch the t.v. show, In The Middle?  You know, Axl Heck, the no shirt wearing, walking around in his underwear, doesn't own a hairbrush, teenager?  Yep, that's pretty much our son too. Seen here in his 'Axl Costume' (un-masked)!

Having fun with colors!

 

I did manage to play with some of those beads I showed you all yesterday. The filigree ones were plastic and their color was chipping off so I thought it would be a good time to play with some of my alcohol inks. 

Their colors turned out really cool. Now I just have to seal them and then wipe them with some Ren. Wax.

Playing with all sorts of stuff

And, I played with some of my gilder's paste from over at B'Sue's Boutiques, too - used it on some of her brass findings and also on some of my embossed Vintaj blanks.  Fun Stuff!

Playing around with some Gilder's Past and Alcohol Inks

We played until later in the evening then fixed dinner and talked about our favorite part of the day.

Mike's Fun Crosses

A pewter ring and a pewter, screwy-thingy-ma-bob for the tree house.

Might have been seeing the storm roll in.

 

It was a beautiful, fun and wonderful day all around!

Hope you're all geared up for the week and that you took some time to play or relax this weekend!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Getting Back To Work!

Cheers,

~Shel~