Locked Away? (Part 1)

You'll definitely want to click on the above image to get the full-size view, so you can really see everything that I've got piled onto the palette!

As you can see, I have gone maybe a little overboard on everything that I want to add to this year's BFAC kit! For my one added bead, I had to go with a size 15, and I chose a nice white-lined amber, to lighten the kit up a little bit, while nicely complimenting the amber tones already present. And then I went crazy on the non-bead items: a vintage coppery-bronze key; a titanium-coated druzy cab; 4 crystal chili pepper rivolis (two for the necklace, two for earrings); and of course, the keyhole cab from Melanie. She also sent me a pair of accents, which I may add to the necklace or earrings if that's not stretching the rules too much.

When I saw the bead kit, I first said "Great, I have no idea what I'll do with these!" But within 10 minutes, I was picking things off of my desk and adding them to the stack, to see how they went. I originally planned on adding an 11 in the same shade of amber, but then I realized I wanted to add the rivolis, and I needed to use a 15 for the bezel. When I added the key, that was when I knew that I had to have one of the keyholes that Melanie was developing for her Steam Stone line.

Did I mention how excited I was when I received my package yesterday? I had an idea that the glaze I chose would go well with the kit colors. Imagine my happiness when I discovered that not only did it go well with the kit, but the amber tones of the cab were exactly the same as the amber tones of the 15s. It's serendipitous.

All I need now is some felt to use as the base, and I am ready to start my project! I'm not sure yet what it's going to be called, but I think the name might involve secrets and things being locked away... So for blogging purposes, I'm going to use the working title "Locked Away" and that will be the tag you want to use if you want to track my progress... Because this is my first in-progress post for this project :D

I'm a kitty godmother!

If you've been to my Etsy shop this week, you've probably already seen this bracelet, but I think it's pretty, so I'm posting it in the blog. I really like this teal and green combo. The light green is an interesting color. I think of it as a green, and use it as a green, but my friend Betcey who I bought it from thinks of and uses it as a blue. I think it's one of those colors that kind of blends in with what you use it with, so with blues it seems blue and with greens it seems green. Either way, it's beautiful, and I'm going to use it again tonight.

The silly title refers to the fact that my friend Deborah of Bead Indulgences just adopted two kitties after a long time of living pet-free. I'm the emergency contact for them, and so now we're joking that I'm their aunt and godmother. Hopefully I'll soon have pictures to share of my little furry goddaughters.

My own kitty Lira (who you hear about less than Topher because she's better behaved) is sitting here in my lap, purring up a storm. It's a little cool again today, so she's been feeling cuddly. Like Deb's two new cats, Lira is also a Humane Society find. I cannot stress enough my belief that if you're in the market for a new pet, you should check a shelter or rescue organization first. Save a homeless pet!

Ok, stepping off of my pet-loving soapbox, and back to beads. I just started listing beads over in my Etsy shop, because let's face it, I have a lot of them. More than I'll ever use. It's about time I started selling some. Of course, I'll probably turn around and spend the money on more beads... but let's ignore that little fact for now, ok? I have a gigantic stack of various leaves (almost all green) that I'll be listing over the next few days, plus some other assorted beads. I like to think that I have pretty good taste, so if you're a bead lover, I'm going to recommend that you watch my Etsy shop and maybe do a little buying.

In absolutely awesome news, I got a cab from Melanie at Earthenwood to use in my BFAC project, and it is perfect. I love it so much! I'll post a picture tomorrow of the kit, plus all the things I'm adding.

Bracelet in the works.

Here's an in-progress image of my cuff bracelet, which I'm calling Dragonesque. I did a little more work on it last night, but not much. I ended up spending most of the night hanging out with Chris and Alex. Tonight I don't have any plans, though, so I should have lots of time to bead!

The central cab is a dichro piece that I've had for a very long time. The vintage sequins came from a bead store in NY. The vintage nailhead, well, I buy those all over the place. I can't remember if I got them from a bead store, a gem show, or eBay. The two colors of size 15s came from my collection. The 11s, peridot, and felt all came from a cuff-themed bead swap that I participated in.

Last night, I added some opaque dark green size 15 hex beads. I felt that I needed something dark and non-iridescent to balance out the sparkle. However, I'm determined that I will only use green beads on this bracelet, instead of retreating to the safety of black as a neutral. The 15s are pretty cool because I bought them at the only powwow I've ever been to, which was in NY. There was a vendor there with lots of cool beads... 15 hexes, 3cuts, Charlottes... lots of sparkly beads that are great for embroidery.

By the way, be sure to check out my Etsy widget on the right-hand side of this blog. There's a new bracelet and two new pairs of earrings in there!

As promised, some rockingness!

Today has been one busy day, let me tell you. But it's almost done, and soon I'll be relaxing and working on my embroidered bracelet until it's time to go out to dinner with Alex. I can't wait to eat that delicious Indian food!

The above necklace is Queen of the Arctic Ocean. As you can see, it features one of Melanie's very nice water goddess pendants. I wasn't sure if I wanted the mint alabaster crystals, because I'm not usually a fan of opaques, but Chris pointed out that they were a nice seafoam shade, and my brain went "Seafoam = goddess pendant!" perfect match. As an added bonus, the Pacific opal crystals are pretty similar to the darker areas on the pendant. I'm very happy with how she turned out.

And what else do I have to show you? That's right, the 2009 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure kit! The NDA has been lifted and I'm allowed to show you my photo! I think this will be nice to use as the official kit image for the site and any promotional materials. I have another image of everything in the packaging, which gives a better idea of the size and scope of the kit, but I think this image is more artistic and fun.

If you're at all familiar with my beadwork, you probably have a good idea that these aren't colors that I'd normally put together. In fact, I find some of the colors downright weird. But over all, I am very happy with this kit. The beads are high-quality and I love the fact that there's a wide variety of seed and seed-type beads. The "royal crown" cathedrals are my very favorite item in the 2009 kit. You can't tell in the image, but they're a nice tourmaline kind of green, with that bronze edging. Yum!

I've been gathering things to add to the kit. You're only allowed to add one bead type, but there's no limit on adding non-bead things, so I'm adding one bead and 4 different kinds of other items. I'll tell you what they are once they're all in hand!

Now that I've piqued your interest, it's time to go add some items to my Etsy shop!

Tomorrow's going to rock!

I'm late in posting, because I've spent much of the day working on my latest project -- a bead-embroidered bracelet. I think I'll take an in-progress picture tomorrow when I'm doing all of my other photography. The bracelet is pretty cool. Among other things, it includes vintage sequins. Spangling is a very addictive technique. I found myself wanting to cover the entire bracelet with sequins, but that wouldn't have been a very good way to practice my various embroidery skills.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that tomorrow is going to be awesome, because it should include new jewelry on the site and Etsy, a picture of the BFAC bead kit, and uhm, I can't remember what else. Maybe I'm thinking of the cool things that will happen to me, namely, going out for Indian and then watching a Chinese movie.

While I'm here, I'd also like to mention: AUCTIONS! Yep, the 2008 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure auctions have begun, and YOU should be bidding. Trust me on this. I know.

Staying home, getting things done.

I decided to skip D&D today so I could try to get better, and also get some things done here at home. I'm glad that I did, because it is such a beautiful day and I have a nice breeze blowing in through my front window. Even with being sick, I don't feel bad, because everything else is just right. Perfect temperature, wearing my favorite jeans, a happy cat in my lap, and Dead Can Dance on iTunes.

Spring arrived rather suddenly here in Tucson, and caught me off-guard. One day I was wearing long-sleeved tees, the next I was digging around trying to find my tanktops because once again, the living room was turning into an oven during the afternoon. I just hope that Summer doesn't arrive fast on its heels. This weather is so pleasant, I want it to at least stick around long enough for me to go to Renaissance Faire and not get heat stroke.

After I do some much-needed housework, I'm hoping to finally start beading again. I hate sitting around, not making anything, when I have so much cool, inspirational stuff around me.

Last night we went out and saw "In Bruges." It was really, really good. Sometimes I was sitting there wondering if I liked the movie, because some of the humor was off, and some of the scenes really seemed quite random. But then it all pulled together at the end and I was all "Wow!" It's only playing on one screen in all of Tucson, so I guess it has a pretty limited release. Everyone who was watching it at the same time as us really seemed to enjoy it, though. Please note that this is not the movie for you if you have a problem with cursing, or a little American-bashing. I'm not sure I've ever heard so much cursing in one movie.

The interesting thing to me about the film was that the trailer totally plays it off as a comedy, albeit a dark one with some gun fights. However, there's also some serious drama in there. Although at times I questioned the blend, overall it came across as pretty natural. "In Bruges" has the kind of comedy I prefer, which is to say, witty dialog that seems natural. I don't like forced situational comedy or physical comedy.

We also went to the CD store, where we found two QNTAL CDs, a Voltaire CD, an Ataraxia CD (I have no idea if I like them, but they were on Chris's list of bands to look for, and they were on the Lotus Eaters Dead Can Dance tribute CD), and another Nordic Roots collection. Please note that neither Chris nor I have any Nordic roots of which we are aware, but we do occasionally enjoy some good Nordic music. Garmarna and Varttina are both good, though I swear I can't tell them apart.

I suppose I should stop rambling on and go get to work!

It's leap day... yay?

I'm not feeling very enthusiastic about Leap Day or anything else right now. I'm still sick, and I'm at that point where I'm tired of it. I want to be better and be beading, darn it! I feel like I've wasted this entire week, when I could have been making cool stuff. I was going to make a cuff bracelet and everything.

I shouldn't consider the week a total write-off, though. I did meet some nice people in the USO voting chat, and I've decided to join the little group of my friend's friends who move from worthy cause to worthy cause, voting for it until it wins. It's a nice thing to do and a cool way to meet interesting people. Yesterday I was talking to someone who does Sanskrit chanting.

Also, I did a lot of behind the scenes BFAC stuff. That's one thing that I can't ignore when I'm sick, because it really piles up! Our auctions start this weekend, so there were lots of last-minute things to take care of, plus making decisions on next year's challenge. I am really excited about the auctions! You can expect me to go on and on and on about them starting Sunday. You have been warned!

While we're speaking about BFAC, the vow of silence about the kit is lifted on Monday, so I hope to be able to post an image then. Yippy!

Something to click on.

If you are at your computer, and can spare a few seconds every two minutes to help a good cause, then please come join me and my friends at Vote4Cause. My friend and editor Sheryl has recruited me to help USO take the number one spot, and we're currently lagging behind by over 700 votes.

http://www.vote4cause.org/USO-21/chat_vote

If you have more than a few seconds to spare, there's also a built in comments/chat feature. I'm there under the clever and unique name "AJ" and will be for most, if not all, of the day. Hey, if I don't have the energy to bead or take photographs, at least I can click to donate money to charity!

I hope you'll join me!

Not at all productive.

I had a lot less energy yesterday than I thought, and today I'm really beat. Blah.

I don't like to bead when I'm sick, because I just feel gross and it's like I'm going to transfer that grossness to the beads... Much in the same way that a lot of creative people don't like to create when they're in a negative mood, lest the negativity affect their art.

I'm not sure if I agree with that concept whole-heartedly, but I often find that I CAN'T create when I'm upset. My muse just shuts down. There are rare exceptions. I have a beautiful necklace that I made for myself one day when I was feeling down because someone was tearing into me on-line. It remains one of my favorite necklaces. The person, the forum, and the game tied to it are long gone for my life, but the necklace remains.

I have found that if I write when I'm in a bad mood, it has a negative effect on my characters. All of the sudden, even the nice ones are getting snarky, and everyone gets into fights with each other, and then I have to re-write it all next time I'm at my computer.

And Chris wonders why I usually sit around doing nothing when I'm mad or sad...

A Simple Transformation.

This is a necklace that I've been wearing a lot lately. It's actually an old necklace, with a new component added.

You see, I've had this copper leaf for a long time. At one point, I was going to hang it from my really cool staff that I used to take to Ren Faire, but then I stopped taking the staff. Well, I found it when I was cleaning and I said "Hey! Wouldn't this look cool with a faerie on it?" First I tried the pretty green super model faerie that I bought at the September show (don't remember her? see her here!). Well, she didn't quite fit, due to the angle of her wings. Then I found this golden faerie, which was part of my secret birthday buddy present last year, and she lined up perfectly. I wired them up, and then figured I'd make a necklace eventually. In the meantime, I could wear the pendant on a ribbon.

When I did the wire, I shaped it into sort of a closed hook in the back, but it could be pushed open. Well, conveniently, that meant that I could hook it over this herringbone spiral, which has been part of my collection for 5+ years. I like how it looks so much that I think I'll leave it like that. The nice part is, I can take the pendant off whenever I want, and wear the spiral as a simple necklace like I used to.

Anyway, today is somewhat annoying because I'm sick. Blah. I have a bad sore throat, but I'm alert and coherent, so I'm going to try to get a lot done today... that way if I start to feel worse, I can get away with being lazy. Of course, so far all I've done today is a ton of e-mail and forum posts!

Faerie Meadows and Faerie Movies.

This is my necklace Faerie Meadow. It features lampworked beads by Lois Oster. These beads were a sort-of custom order, as I needed 3 lentils and 5 spacers to make something similar to a necklace I'd already sold. I told her to make me something pretty in colors that I liked, maybe with some frit or something. This is what she came up with, and we're both quite pleased with them. The little flower drops are Thai silver, and I bought them at the 2007 gem show. It's only fair that they're in this necklace, as Lois is the one who enabled me to buy them! At the same time, I picked up the leaves that I used in Sylvan Jewels.

I've entered Faerie Meadow into Art Bead Scene's February Challenge -- Chains of Love. You should really check out the other entries, there's a lot of beautiful things. ABS continues to attract the attention of a lot of talented jewelry makers who are using the work of equally talented bead makers.

Last night, we saw The Spiderwick Chronicles. I'm not usually a fan of kid's movies, but they did a good job of allowing the film to have some dark and violent elements. I guess this may in part be because it's a Nickelodeon movie, when I was a kid they had some shows with horror themes and such, so I think they realize that kids can handle a little scariness and a little intensity.

The movie had some pretty cool graphics, and I loved the character designs for the faeries. My favorites were definitely the sylphs, which look like dandelion fluff until you see them up close. More importantly, they aptly illustrated the traditional personality of faeries -- alien, sometimes kind, sometimes malicious, always doing things for their own reasons.

Over all, I was a bit disappointed with how the movie played fast and loose with faerie lore, picking and choosing which bits it wanted to incorporate, and then re-interpreting it to suit the story. Most viewers won't even notice, of course, it's just a personal pet peeve of mine. The important thing is that the movie made the faeries awesome, and it may inspire kids and adults alike to research the lore on their own. I consider it a fascinating subject.

One post, lots of things!

I finally took some pictures! And there will be much more photography done on Monday, oh yes.

This necklace is the one that I whipped up one morning to go with my brown and silver sequined skirt. It's a really beautiful skirt... Somewhat full, ankle length (and I have long legs!), with silver paisly-ish designs. I didn't have a necklace to go with it, so previously I'd just worn this Lillypilly pendant on a silver chain. However, I simply can't go to a bead show without a beaded necklace, so I had to make this.

Sometimes simple is best. Even though this is just a strung necklace that I made in less than an hour, I've received a lot of compliments on it. While I do think that I did a very nice job of matching the color and theme of the pendant, I think people really love the pendant itself. It's much prettier in person, because the shell is lighter in the center and dark at the edges. Combined with the Celtic spiral pattern, it makes for a very attractive piece.

The necklace is strung with three sizes and colors of Czech firepolished beads, smoke topaz Swarovski crystals, and "Celtix" pewter beads that we're given to me as a gift. I think the various topaz shades look very harmonious together, and they're a pretty good look for me, with my brown hair.

I finished the necklace I was working on this afternoon, but the photo didn't turn out, so I'll try again on Monday. I am very happy with the necklace itself. It's using a technique that I haven't done for years and did from memory, without even looking at my old examples, because I wanted to see if I could. My bead count might be a little different than the original, but it still came out looking nifty.

Most importantly, my BFAC kit arrived this afternoon! I can't talk about it, though. I have to keep the colors and styles secret until everyone has received theirs. But I can design all I want! I've already picked out a few things to add to the kit... a rivoli, a druzy cab, and a key. Although I'm thinking that I might do two rivolis instead, but they'll definitely be the color of this one that I already have (which is chipped, so I don't want to use it in my BFAC project anyway).

Christina of This Girl Beads did an open blog tagging this week, and since I've never been tagged, I'm taking it and running! If you want to play, here's the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Anyway, I don't KNOW seven people who blog and haven't been tagged yet, so just like Christina, I'm going to say, if you want to play, do so, and if not, don't feel pressured! Now let's see how interesting I can make my facts.

1. My eyes change color, possibly dependent on my mood. My ID says "green" because that's my favorite color, but sometimes they're hazel, and sometimes they're grey.

2. I wrote my first story when I was 8 years old or so. It was written from the POV of a super hero I'd made up, and it was about a species of fish she'd discovered. I wrote two or three of those stories, and I still have them (no, I'm not going to share them). Why would a super hero go around looking for fish? It made sense to me as a kid, now I just shake my head.

3. I've never been outside of the US. One time my grandparents took me to San Juan Capistrano, but they didn't tell me where we were going, so for some reason I was convinced we were going to Mexico. While in San Juan Capistrano, I got a book of really nice paper dolls, and all their clothes were Victorian. I wish I still had those!

4. I like to dip french fries in honey, but only at fast food places, because it's too messy at home!

5. Peach is my least favorite color. I accidentally bought some peach beads, and now I have to sell them on Etsy because I know I'll never use them.

6. Although I like skulls, graveyards, macabre stories, and other such morbid things, I am afraid of actual dead bodies.

7. My husband and I met in an on-line roleplaying channel. If not for the fact that some guy that he didn't like decided to pick on my character, we might never have become friends! Also, my character had lost her clothes during the course of the picking-on, so Chris likes to tell people that I was naked when he met me. I, obviously, do not like his version of the story, because it makes me sound like a stripper.

Ok, I think that's about as random as it gets!

Tune in tomorrow for more jewelry pictures!

Almost midnight!

Ok, great, I've been listening to too much Voltaire lately, because all I can think is "And all that I know is it's midnight and you haven't blogged."

So. Thursday. What a lame day, this Thursday! Almost everyone else got their new BFAC kits today, but mine did not arrive! That pretty much ruined my whole day. Well, not really. I got a lot of beading done, and a lot of e-mailing, and a lot of chatting in blog responses, and all that good stuff. But the lack of the much-anticipated kit cast a pall over things. The kit SHOULD be here tomorrow.

On the beading front, I'm working on a necklace with one of Melanie's awesome water goddess pendants. I'm over halfway done, probably closer to 3/4. I'm going to wrap it up tomorrow, and then darn it, I'm going to clear off the table and take some pictures. I might make some earrings in-between those two tasks, depending on what else I've got going on tomorrow.

Tonight, we were kind of bored. We haven't had any Netflix to watch, because we've been too busy to go to the post office (we can't mail anything out from our apartment for some unfathomable reason). As such, we decided to take advantage of their streaming video option, which has a much smaller selection than the mail order side of things. We narrowed it down to watching Sliders, another one of those shows that Chris caught when it was on and I somehow missed.

There are a few shows from my teenage years that have aged well and are still enjoyable to watch -- Babylon 5, for example. Sliders is not one of those shows. It was so laughably bad, from the 90s technology to the cliche dialog to the freakishly smooth faces of the lead actors. Seriously, how much makeup did they spackle on to those two? We got through the pilot and decided that was all we could take. Oh well. We had fun giggling over the dated computer references and the horrible CG. That's one way to kill the boredom!

Another bookstore trip.

First of all, tonight our Legend of the Five Rings game was canceled. Our host was having home renovations and forgot to tell us until today, when his home was too chaotic to have a game. Most of the group was under the assumption that we could play at our friend Alex's place... because none of them have listened for the past two or three weeks when he's been going on and on about how he wouldn't be at the game because he'd be in HAWAII! We maybe could have crammed everyone into our apartment, but I wasn't about to go into a panicked cleaning spree on such short notice. So, no game. Bah.

Anyway, Chris had another commitment, which he was going to bow out of early to run the game, so this freed him up to be there as long as he wanted, and I guess that's a good thing, because it was all the way on the opposite side of town as our host's house. The brewery that he was meeting his friends at is in the same mall as the 2-story Barnes and Noble, so I tagged along, with the idea that I would shop and read books, and we'd do dinner when he was done.

I had an AmEx gift card sitting on my desk, so I decided to take it with me and buy a couple more beading books. Ever since gem show I've had this insatiable desire for new books, because I kept hearing how good they were. Today I picked up Diane Fitzgerald's new book on Zulu beadwork, and Sherry Serafini and Heidi Kumli's book on bead embroidery.

The Zulu book was one that I hadn't really heard anything about, but really wanted. There are a lot of really interesting, unique techniques in there that I'm eager to learn. The book has a nice introduction about the Zulu people and the history of their beading tradition, and then lots and lots of tutorials. Each technique has a photograph of a piece made in Africa, and then some photos of examples that the author made. It's cool to see how the stitches and cords can look so different depending on the beads you use.

The bead embroidery book came highly recommended by Betcey (my boss at gem show) and by Charlene (who I had lunch with), and really, I just kept hearing good things about throughout the show. The two authors are both masters of the technique, and I've especially admired Serafini's work because her sense of style and color really appeals to me. There's basic how-tos, an assortment of projects, and lots of information on design and inspiration. Even if I never take advantage of the technical information, the eye candy was definitely worth the price.

I'm really excited to start putting all these new techniques to use! I got a lot of cleaning and organizing done in the beadroom today, which also has me feeling inspired. As long as I'm not coming down with the cold that Chris had (for less than 24 hours), I'm going to be beading like crazy for the next couple of days!

I've got to take some pictures.

Okay, maybe tomorrow I'll clean the gigantic stack of books off of my kitchen table and actually have room to photograph some new jewelry. Seriously, I think there's more than 20 books in that stack. Mostly it's the various gaming books that we cart with us, depending on what game we play. This is why I throw myself off balance whenever I pick up my messenger bag... those sourcebooks are HEAVY!

Today the flippie boxes that I ordered from Out on A Whim arrived, so I got to put away some more beads and rearrange my collection a bit. I didn't quite finish the job. The lids were pretty tight on the little flippies and my fingers started to hurt after a while of tugging them apart. I actually managed to buy more boxes than I needed, so I'll have excess storage for a while. Of course, I still have a lot of larger beads (8mm mostly, and weird shapes) that don't fit in the flippies, so I need to decide where I want to put them. Currently they're all in drawers, sorted by color, still on their strands, but that's not the best solution. I don't tend to think about the beads in those drawers, and when I do use them, I don't use an entire strand, and then I have to tie a knot at the end, and it's just sloppy.

Going through my beads, I realized that it's about time that I did some more "strand collages" or something else which will allow me to use up some miscellaneous beads. It's really just not worth keeping 8-10 beads around when I'm not ever going to restock them!

Mainly, though, my muse wants to play with those new keys, which means I've got to clean them up. I think I'll try the Naval Jelly that Chris used to de-rust his axe. This will be an adventure for me. I'm used to trying to clean up silver, not steel!

Stubborn book.

I'm having a little trouble with my writing. After doing some great dialog before gem show (that really is my favorite thing to write), I can't seem to finish the scene and move the story forward. It would help if I knew what the story was. I know that eventually I'll hit my stride and get going, but right now it's just not happening.

Anyway, today I went out for lunch with one of my bead forum friends who was out for gem show, and her mom, who is turning into a bead fiend. First we went to the bead store, to find a few things for necklaces that Charlene was making for her mother. I got to help pick beads, and I picked up some things for a bead swap I'm participating in. Plus some cobalt blue beads, modern reproductions of those Russian cuts. I really love that shape.

During lunch we talked about all kinds of things, which was a lot of fun. Sometimes it's nice to get together with people and just hear the random stories about their lives, all kinds of experiences that I've never had and never thought about. And of course, it's always nice to get out of the house when I should be at home cleaning!

Writing time.

I've been in a very writing-y mood over the past few days, so I'm about to sit down with the laptop and either work on my current book, or work on notes for that other fantasy book that I keep struggling with. Either way, it will be good to get back into the swing of that, and hopefully it won't lead to more nights of staying up until 4am.

We just got done watching 3:10 to Yuma, which I didn't think was that great. Don't get me wrong, all the actors did a good job and such, I just didn't care. I'm not much of a Western person. I did watch The Proposition, but that had two things going for it: Nick Cave, and Australian accents. 3:10 to Yuma had neither.

Not a whole lot else happened this weekend. My ill-fated henchman died in D&D again, I got into a bit of a tiff with one of my fellow gamers about some tasteless jokes, and I read Laura McCabe's book and worked some more on my rivoli pendant. I'll probably finish it tomorrow.

Movies 'n' things.

Yesterday, Chris and I returned to our Friday date routine (previously interrupted by his new job and gem show). There were two new releases that we wanted to see for the movie part of our date: Jumper, and Spiderwick Chronicles. Well, due to timing, Jumper won out.

Jumper was everything I expected it to be, which is to say it was silly, shallow action entertainment. While I would have liked for the movie to go deeper into the characters and the central conflict, I knew that it wouldn't, because basically the film was just an excuse to have lots of teleport-heavy action sequences. I think it was a pretty interesting and realistic example of how people would use and abuse such an ability. I just wish that the characters had been a little more likable and believable. Well, that and I wish that almost every single cool scene hadn't already been shown in the trailers.

It's reached the point where too many trailers show you all of the best parts of the movie, and then when you actually go see the film, it just fills in the blanks and establishes a chronological order. There's no longer that "WOW!" moment of seeing an awesome sequence on the big screen, because you've already seen it over and over again in the teaser.

That's why Cloverfield still stands out as an example of an excellent trailer, despite being a lousy movie. The trailer told you everything you needed to know: there's some people at a party in NY. Their party gets ruined by a monster attacking Manhattan. Chaos and madness ensue. If you wanted to see the monster and the chaos, you had to go see the movie.

I think another example of a pretty good marketing campaign (despite having not seen the movie!) was I Am Legend. The animated shorts were designed to set the tone of the film, and give you an idea of the backstory, without giving away all the good parts of the movie itself.

Anyway, I did have fun watching Jumper, and while it could have been better, it wasn't a huge waste of time.

After that, we went to the bookstore where I picked up that Laura McCabe book on beading with crystals, mainly rivolis. It looks pretty awesome, and I might take it to gaming today to read while things are slow. As I've mentioned before, the lighting there is too bad to really bead all night, I end up with a nasty headache.

I'm hoping that if I pick up one beading book a month, that I'll catch up with everything I've missed and not fall too far behind on the publishing schedule. I also want to pick up some sewing books, I saw some pretty good looking ones at B&N last night. I might fill out my polymer book selection, too. Not that I have room for the books I have, so most of this will have to wait until I move into a house and can have more bookcases than I have now.

Math is my nemesis!

So, I've been trying to bead a rivoli today. The tutorial that I posted yesterday is designed for a 16mm stone, but I had an 18mm. No big deal, I figure, I'm a reasonably smart girl, I can figure out how to do a different size. A 16mm stone uses 40 base beads, and I know that to do tubular peyote with a step up, my base row needs to be divisible by 4.* First I tried 48 beads. Way too big. Then I tried 44. That seemed right, so I continued on. I get it done, try it out, and it's TOO SMALL! Nrar! Why must math defy me? I'm going to have to do 46, which means I'm going to end up with spiral peyote, which isn't nearly as attractive. Stupid peyote stitch. This is why I never do you. You always bite me in the end.

*When I explained this concept to Chris, he quickly did some math and said that if 40 beads go around a 16mm stone, then an 18mm stone would need 45 beads. This proves that he is better at math than me, but I am better at beading. 45 is not an even number, and thus, useless for doing tubular peyote.

So anyway, I got frustrated with that and strung a necklace instead, and it turned out quite awesome. I'd photograph it, but there's a big stack of gaming books in my photography spot. *sigh* I've got to find someplace better for them by Monday, when I hope to start updating my website and Etsy shop again.

I'm going to try the rivoli again at gaming tonight. Stupid 46 beads. I wonder if I could use Japanese 11s instead of Delicas and have 44 fit? Hmmm...

Almost all put away.

You know what's amazing and wonderful? Not being sick after gem show. If you were reading this blog around this time last year, you know that I got crazy-sick during the show. This year I'm healthy and energetic, and it shows. Almost all of the beads that I bought have already been inventoried and put away. I'm so on top of things, that I'm ready to start beading tomorrow. Heck, I'd bead tonight, except that I'm not back to my natural night-owl schedule yet and I get drowsy at 10pm.

I think the first thing I'll do is bead a rivoli! Beki at Out on a Whim just posted a basic rivoli bezel tutorial today... mere days after I got done buying rivolis at gem show. Coincidence? I think not. The universe is conspiring to get my addicted to rivolis, the way the rest of the beading community seems to be. If I enjoy my bezel experience tomorrow, I'm definitely going to pick up Laura McCabe's book. I was planning to do so anyway, so now if it turns out that I hate bezeling rivolis, I can save myself the money and buy a different book instead.

I think I've said the word "rivoli" enough for one day.

Actually, I'm feeling very inspired and there's a lot of things I want to make. All of these new gem show beads are very exciting, and since I mailed all the BFAC projects off, I actually have room to get into my bead room and get to all the beads I need. I also feel like doing some polymer work and getting back to work on the Pants of Doom. Too many hobbies!

The Gem Show Recap -- in photos.

Ok, I've somehow lost the ability to change my font, so we're going to have to live with this one. That's alright, though. The main attraction here is bead photos!

First, the above image. My vintage haul from East of Oz! In the center, some really wicked Japanese beads, black spiderwebby lampwork. They're actually hollow. I've had just a couple of these in the past, in light pink and light blue. To have a full set of graduated black ones is really cool.

On your left, some huge green satin drops. I forgot to ask where they were from. I'm going to guess maybe they're Czech or West German. Even though I buy a lot of vintage, I am not any sort of expert on it. I just love green satin glass, and these look like the antwerps from the old Quest For Glory games, which is funny.

On your right, some opaque green Czechoslovakian drops. They have a really cool deco look to them, and they also remind me of cicadas. I think I'm going to hang them from some sort of collar... Maybe something inspired by Flaming Teeth.

And along the bottom, some luminous foil-backed flowers. Look how they shine! Chris actually picked those out. Marie also had some in emerald green, but the darker glass didn't glow like this aqua does.
Next, my Green Girl Studios goodies! This grouping of beads didn't photograph well, most of the details just don't show up at all. Anyway, I've already got a plan for that mermaid ring. And the cool thing about a lot of these, mermaid included, is that they have words or even entire quotes on the back.
The dryad pony! She has a garnet eye and coral accents in her mane. I'm going to have fun matching leaves to her to make an awesome necklace. Because, of course, I don't have enough leafy necklaces already.
Mini-beetle! And matching spacers! Pretty cool, huh? This was actually one of the simpler and smaller mini-beetles. I almost bought a black one with green and black wings, but I am a real sucker for that green opal glass. Also in this picture, two ridiculously cute Japanese lampwork beads. They had all kinds of little animals, even a baby seal.
I bought way too many seed beads at work, there was no way I could photograph them all. Instead, here's the highlights! On the left, a very nice green-bronze marble. The most expensive seed beads I own. I didn't even add them to my database, because I'm going to be greedy and save them for myself. They're actually brighter than the photo. The middle two are Czech size 6 seed beads that have a mottled, stone-like appearance. I have some pressed glass leaves (and maybe some fire-polished) the same color as the blackish ones. On the right, magic-lined size 6! These dichro-like seed beads are unbelievably awesome.
And last but not least, some goodies that my friend Deb from Bead Indulgences gave me! Very cool ivory pressed glass skulls, a malachite cab, a serpentine donut, and Swarovski crystals. They have an official name, but I call them "dust grey opal." I was hoping for an opal version of shadow crystal, but they have a decidedly beigish cast. I've heard they look better if you string them on gold wire, so I'm going to try.

I forgot to photograph my rivolis and Czech glass, so I'll probably post those later this week. Also, I didn't photograph the crystals, because there's a lot of them. Most of them are colors that I already had anyway. And speaking of crystals, I'm going to try to put them all away before I crash tonight. I'd better get started!

Done with gem show!

Well, the shows are still going on, and I might go buy some cabs (but probably not), but I am done working! Today was the last day of Best Bead. It really flew by. Betcey and Mark kept me so busy that I had no time to be bored. We were all happy with the arrangement, though, and they already asked me to come back next year -- to which I said yes.

I've picked up a few more nice things since my last blog post. I'll try to take some photos and do an end of show recap tomorrow. Tonight, I am really, really beat.

The apartment is such a mess. Chris and I were both so busy with work and socializing this past week that no housework got done. Yuck. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow, in addition to photography and blogging?

Real update tomorrow -- gem show day 5

Whew, I am one busy gal! Work has been good the past two days, there's been plenty for me to do, whether it's packaging crystals or bagging peoples' purchases. I've met a few cool people, and touched bases with some friends. Tonight was Bead Dinner. Almost half of our attendees backed out, so it was just 6 of us. We had a great time, though, chatting and eating delicious Chinese food.

Yesterday I bought one of Margaret Zinser's new mini-beetles. It's amazing! She had a WHOLE BUNCH of them, and each one was a tiny marvel. I wanted them all!

So far, I don't have any plans for tomorrow night after work, so hopefully I can do a more detailed blog post then. Tonight I am just beat!

Too busy to blog -- Gem Show, Day 4

I've got to be at work in half an hour, and I still need to do my hair, put on some jewelry, oh, and pack some lunch. As such, this is a really quick blog post.

Had a nice dessert with my friends last night. We talked about the shows, beads we'd bought, mutual friends, and computers. Deb brought a bunch of her beautiful wire work for show and tell, and I gave her a sneak peek of Peacock Feathers. We also swapped some beady gifts, and mine from Deb included some really cool pressed glass ivory skulls. YAY!

By the way, I made a Sock Dreams order for some things to wear to the shows... The Harajuku Steampunk arm warmers are just as awesome as they look on the page, although they're very prone to snagging on any rough edge. Today I'm wearing some purple over-the-knee tube socks. They're warm and comfy on my legs, but HUGE around the feet. I think the toes are going to bunch up and give me some serious blisters. Definitely not a good buy if you have size 7-8 or smaller feet.

Tonight I am going straight from work to gaming. If you're going to be at Best Bead, come into Beyond Beadery and say "Hi!" I'll be the 16 year old looking brunette in lots of purple.

Shopping and Socializing -- gem show day 3

My apologies for the lack of pictures. I need to leave in 15 minutes, so I don't have time to photograph anything for show-and-tell.

As it turns out, I didn't need to go into work today. So I chilled out at home, and made a necklace to go with the skirt I'm wearing, then in the afternoon, Chris drove me down to Manning House, because he's awesome. Manning House is the home of To Bead True Blue, a show with a wide variety of vendors. Some of my favorites are there, so I was really happy to have today off to shop.

My first stop was Green Girl Studios, where I stocked up on a LOT of beads and pendants. I couldn't afford to make the wholesale minimum, but the guy there was really sweet and cut me a nice deal anyway. It's so good to deal with vendors who understand how hard it can be when you're a designer. I almost bought one of the beautiful shibiuchi Moth faerie pendants, but I'm trying to cut down on impulse purchases for myself, and there's no way I ever would have allowed myself to sell it. Hopefully, they'll still have them at the September show.

Then it was just 10 feet or so to the Christi Friesen booth! Christi is such a sweetie, and I was lucky enough to arrive when she wasn't teaching a class or swamped with customers. She not only complimented my necklace, but oooh'd and aaah'd over Sky Dancer. I'd saved up some of my holiday money for one of her beads. I took a break from my tradition of buying dragons from her, because she didn't have any green ones, and instead bought a horse. Not only do I love horses, but this one has a mane of leaves! It's a dryad pony!

Then I proceeded to wander about. I ran into Betcey and Mark, my bosses for this year (and my friends all other times), then 5 minutes later I ran into my friends Deb and Dave at my old booth neighbor's table. I helped Deb decide that she did, in fact, need one of his jellyfish. Even when I'm not working there, I sell Jeremy's beads! After solidifying tonight's dessert plans with Deb, I continued on my merry way. I picked up anodized findings to make myself earrings, purple wire lace for Marilee (it's REALLY purple, you'll love it!), and said Hi to my old boss Norm. I also said Hi to the nice lady from Beads of Courage!

All in all, I had a great time at the show. Due to some poor management, there's been heavy vendor turnover. I'm guessing word has spread in the bead world, because most of the new vendors didn't have beads or beading stuff -- they had clothes. Really beautiful clothes that I lusted after, but refused to buy. I've already run roughshod over my budget.

Tomorrow I start work! Hopefully I'll be able to sneak off on a few shopping breaks. At the very least, I have to go snag a bead from Margaret Zinser!

In the meantime, I'm off for dessert. Mmmm, chocolate!

The Day Between -- aka gem show, day 2ish

It always feels weird to have gem show in town, and to not be doing anything gem show related. That's what today is like. This is the day where I have to do all of my chores and errands before I really dive into the shows. Of course, I'm not going to bore you with the nitty-gritty of that, so let's move on.

The above image is the dish of beads that I'm working from right now, and a little piece of the necklace. That base strip is actually done now, and today I'm going to try to add the fringe and finish it up. That's right, it's Peacock Feathers, the cousin to Phoenix Feathers!

Originally, There was going to be some black in there, because I really don't like working without a neutral. However, I'm almost out of black size 11 seed beads (again?!), so I let Chris convince me that it would be better without... He felt that the black made it too dark for a peacock. At first I doubted the combination of cobalt, gold lustre olivine, and iridescent dark tealish green without any neutral serving as a barrier, but it quickly grew on me. It definitely has the rich, decadent look of a peacock's tail plumes.

Oh, and it never fails... gem show is in town, and it's pouring rain today! I sure hope it clears up soon! I feel bad for all the vendors who are setting up today.

Look at these KEYS! aka Gem Show, Day 1

We just got back from Gem Mall a little bit ago. Man oh man did I blow my budget. As usual, my first stop was Lanshang for crystals. The only problem was, I forgot to bring the list of what colors I needed to buy! At first, I just picked out some colors that I knew I needed... but then, I decided to just stock up on everything. Due to the international market and the dollar being weak versus the euro, the price of Swarovski crystals is supposed to go up significantly this year. So in the long run, it just made more sense to buy loads of crystals, and then I won't need as many when the September shows roll around.

After that, I was making my usual circuit, heading over to see Raven's Journey and East of Oz, when I passed by this place that sells a lot of vintage, and they had tons of brass stampings. Well, I started looking at stampings, and was debating whether I wanted any, when I saw a tray with a single vintage key in it. And so I said to Chris, "we should see if they have any more!" That's when we saw it: a plastic shoebox 3/4 full of old keys! Well, we both descended on it with great glee. There was a mix of your standard modern-style keys and the older, more elegant style. Of course, there were no prices, so we had to ask, and discovered that we had $50 worth of keys, so I winnowed them down a little bit to what you see above. Aren't they beautiful?

The funniest part was at lunch, when I called my friend Lois to let her know that I'd only been able to get half the crystals she wanted. She asked how the show was, and I gleefully told her about my shopping, and how we scored a bunch of vintage keys. The conversation went like this...

Lois: "Keys? Like the kind you open things with?"
Me: "Yeah! But vintage skeleton key style ones!"
Lois: (in a not very convinced voice) "Oh-kay."
Me: "It's a Goth thing!"
Lois: "Oh, okay, I see."

I love Lois like another mother, but she and I have completely different tastes. Unfortunately, she's not at Gem Show this year, but in previous years, we'd hit Gem Mall together, and show each other things. There were a few things we'd agree on, but mostly she'd respond to my enthusiasm with "Sorry, it leaves me cold" and I'd respond to hers with "Eh, it's OK, I guess." Of course, the nice thing about that is that when there's a limited amount of something, we don't have to fight over it.

Anyway, keys in hand, we continued on. At Raven's Journey, I said "Hi" to Jamey and Lenka and picked up some gorgeous Czech beads. I actually only picked up one type of leaf this year, but I also nabbed some beautiful lentils and windows. Then I went over to East of Oz, and I chatted with Marie, and I got some great vintage beads. Black glass Japanese spiderweb-y rounds, and huge green droppy things, and some opaque flat drops with a Deco look to them, and some foil-backed flowers... All very nice stuff. Plus I found a vendor with some cool bells, and brass and copper clasps that practically glow.

By the time I bought all that, my bag was heavy (actually, the strap came unstitched!), I was starving, and I'd spent more than twice what I intended to. We didn't even go to the other tents -- I had all that I'd come looking for, and then some, I didn't need any impulse buys!

Now I have to figure out where to put all these beads! Yikes!

Beading right along.

My special gem show necklace is coming along quite well. I did take an in-progress photo, but I haven't had the chance to pull it off the camera and edit it yet. Had a pretty busy day.

I did find time to dance, during the afternoon when it wasn't ridiculously cold. Feels good to be active again, sometimes I fall into too much of a rut and spend all my time at the computer.

The past 3 days have been so busy and chaotic with Chris's new job, so I'm really having a hard time gathering my thoughts to make a coherent blog post. I'm going to go veg out now. Should have more to say Sunday, when I get back from Gem Mall. Tomorrow I've got to run errands before D&D. Bah.

I like insects!

It's true. I like insects. I think it all started when I read a National Geographic article about beetles, and found out how diverse and nifty they really are. That's the big reason why I have a bunch of scarab beads, pendants, and cabochons in my collection -- sure, I like Egypt, too, but mostly it's because they're beetles. But even aside from beetles, most insects are just awesome when you look closely at them. And that's why Insect Picture of the Day is in my blog roll over there on the side.

Now, normally I don't consider myself a very good photographer of anything but jewelry, and I have a hard time taking pictures of the tiny jumping spiders and little brown beetles that are in my apartment. But one day I went outside, and this huge green larva was outside, so I ran back in, grabbed my camera, attracting the attention of my husband Chris and our friend Rene. All three of us went outside and pestered the bug, taking pictures of it. Some of them actually turned out well, so I sent them to David Brady.

And today my picture is on InsectPOD! Yay! David picked the best of the three photos for his blog. The above image on my blog also isn't too bad, which is why I posted it. There have been too few photos here recently!

If you check out the previous three entries, too, you'll see some really beautiful butterfly pictures. Even if you don't share my love for beetles, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies, I think everyone loves butterflies.

Today I'm going to finish up my custom order (I was supposed to finish it last night, but some of the beads didn't work out) and pack up some BFAC items to mail out, and hopefully also start on my gem show necklace. I'll post some in-progress pictures, because I want to write a tutorial to possibly submit to a magazine while I'm making this necklace.

Best Laid Plans.

Well, I didn't get to work on my book or my gem show necklace last night! Instead, my brother and his best friend came over, and we stayed up way too late playing Apples to Apples. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'd actually been wanting to play the game lately, and there's no way to play it with only 2 people. Even though Apples to Apples is best with a lot of people, the four of us still had a great time.

I did manage to get all of my housework done yesterday while waiting for Chris to get home, so today I have more time to bead. And by bead, I mean sleep. I expected to get up at 8:30am with Chris (who had a phone call scheduled then), but instead I kept falling back asleep until almost noon. This doesn't bode well for my ability to get up early for gem show! I hope my boss doesn't mind having a zombie booth slave.

Have I mentioned how excited I am that it's almost gem show time? WEEEEE! It's all going to start on Saturday or Sunday, when I'll go to Gem Mall to stock up on crystals and say "Hi" to a few favorite vendors. Saying "Hi" involves buying beads, by the way. I can't wait to get my vintage fix from East of Oz and snag some pressed glass leaves from Raven's Journey! If you're hitting Gem Mall, and you're not already familiar with either of these vendors, I highly suggest that you seek out their tables and check out their awesome wares.

My iPod is driving me crazy. It keeps playing all this awesome music that makes me want to dance. And the living room is actually de-cluttered enough to dance in. And it's not too cold to put on a skirt. And I haven't danced in a couple of weeks. And I know I'll be too tired to dance during gem show. I really need to make a playlist called "Music to hold still by" so I don't sit here doing ab and arm isolations at my desk like I'm under the effects of "Otto's Irresistible Dance." By the way? My rib circles ROCK! My teacher would be so impressed. When she first tried to teach me how to do rib slides and circles, I was convinced that my ribcage could not move from it's usual position of being aligned with my hips.

That's it... I'm gonna go dance!

A busy day.

I dragged myself out of bed at a little after 10am (early for me) and I've spent most of the day since then working on one thing or another. I'm trying to get done everything that I need to do before I start working at the gem show next Wednesday. That includes the custom order (almost done), the BFAC stuff (almost done) and hand-washing all the nice clothes I want to wear to work (not even started). I'm also hoping to make myself a necklace, as I always like to have something new to wear to "bead dinner." I might start that tonight, after dinner, if I don't get another "Haven't slept well for three weeks" headache.

Anyway, in the really good news department, Chris seems to have a new job, which if it works out, is going to be really awesome for him. There were two positions open, and when the company heard that Chris had a former co-worker who was also qualified for the job, and that they had programmed together for their former company, they snatched them both up. I really hope that the job turns out to be as good as it sounds. Of course, after 3 1/2 months of having him around all the time and being able to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, it's going to be hard to adjust to him working full-time again, even though he'll be working from home.

Now it's back to the grind for me!

Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure -- 2008

The 2008 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure gallery is up, complete with a slideshow! Now you can see all the photos I was working on, and all of the simply gorgeous items that I've had the honor of seeing in person. There's an amazing amount of variety, which hearkens back to the earliest little seed of an idea that started BFAC... what would happen if different beaders were given the same beads to work with? This is a popular theme that a lot of bead magazines and groups play with. Everyone likes to see the artistic inspiration that comes from different muses being presented with the same material.

I'm already gearing up for the 2008-09 challenge. I do hope that this year's bead kit is more to my liking. I'm hoping for greens or teals or blues. Maybe with some bronze thrown in. Bronze makes everything better!

I'm not sure when the next update for the site and Etsy store will be. To be honest with you, I haven't been sleeping well for the past few weeks and I am always tired. Hopefully I can get my sleep under control before gem show, when I'm going to need all my energy!

I did end up writing last night, which was great. I did a couple of pages in a couple of hours, not too bad since I had to spend a lot of time refreshing myself on what I'd already written. Sometimes it's good to take a long break from a story. I found myself writing things that I had never even thought about the last time that I worked on this book, and I now like the direction it's going in. I plan to spend some more time writing tonight.

Raining all day.

It's been raining all day, or at least as long as I've been awake. It never fails -- gem show season approaches, and the rainclouds roll in. As much as I love rain, I do hope that the weather dries out a bit. I always feel so bad for tent vendors when it rains. Some tents -- like the one that I used to work in at Gem Mall -- are really nice, with cement floors and good roofs. Other tents -- like the one outside of Manning House -- are really bad, with dirt floors that turn to mud and roofs that leak. Plus, no one wants to go outside to a tent when it's raining.

Whenever it rains, I want to write. I've been feeling the desire to write a lot lately, anyway, so I think tonight I might boot up the laptop and get back to work on one of my books. It's been months and I feel a little guilty about it. I've really missed my characters. I'm just not sure about the current story I've got them in.

I shouldn't be here!

It's almost 2pm, so instead of sitting at the computer, I should really be getting ready for gaming. Of course, Chris is still at HIS computer, so it's not like we'll be leaving anytime soon.

I read most of my Faerie magazine last night. They have a really good article on Arthur Rackham. I was already familiar with his art, from the "Fairy Art" book that I bought last year, but this article covered different ground. At one point they were talking about his work and the Art Nouveau movement. There's a picture in there of this bracelet that was designed for an actress playing Cleopatra. It's this snake, all in gold and opals and other gems, with an attached ring and all these chains, and WOW! It treads a fine line between gorgeous and gaudy, and I can't imagine wearing something like that, but it's really beautiful to look at.

Ok, Chris is actually getting ready now. I'd better go change out of my PJs and pack up some beads!

Ghosts and Faeries.

As planned, Chris and I had another movie date today, and we saw "The Orphanage." I'm happy to say that it did not suck, and in fact, was every bit as good as I heard that it was. It had a nice creepy, tense atmosphere, a lot of sadness, and a few scares. Much better than the "Oh no! Children are SCARY!" film that I expected from the trailers. If you're a fan of stories that inspire a lot of emotions, including fear and tears, without an overload of gore or jump scares (of which there was admittedly, just a little bit), you should definitely go see this film.

Before "The Orphanage" they played the trailer for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" which I am still not tired of seeing. In fact, it only gets better. This time it was EVIL FAERIES on the big screen! I'm so excited! This is a good year to be a faerie lover, because of course, "The Spiderwick Chronicles" comes out on Valentine's Day. When I first saw that trailer, I dismissed it as a kid's movie, but it started to grow on me. Then I read that it was by Tony DiTerlizzi!* I really, really, really love the artwork that he did for the old D&D and Changeling books, so I really want to see his work on the big screen. I don't know if it will convince me to read the books -- I'm generally not too into kids' books -- but it may convince me to buy them for my niece when she'd old enough, which should be soon.

One other nerdy movie confession: I really love that Coke commercial. You know, the one about the weird little guys living in the Coke machine? With the willow tree with the steampunk-inspired mechanical arms? It is seriously the single coolest commercial I have ever seen, and it makes me wish that I liked cola so I could drink Coke. It played before both of the recent movies I saw. At the "Cloverfield" screening, at the same time I was telling Chris "This is the best commercial ever!" a woman two rows up was saying "I don't get it." I'm so sorry for you, ma'am. It must be sad to live in a world without wonder and imagination.

*I read this in Faerie Magazine, because I finally got my first issue yesterday. GLEE! There's an ad for a faerie event in Oregon that I desperately want to go to, but it's 1 week after Comic Con. Qntal is playing there. QNTAL!!!! And other cool bands! I think I've got to start going to these faerie festivals. They might be even better than Ren Faire.

Anticraft review.

So, the other night I curled up on the couch and read through that Goth-y crafting book that I mentioned on Sunday.

The book is called "Anticraft: Knitting, beading, and stitching for the slightly sinister." This title, on a black, white, and gangrene cover, was what caught my eye as I was leaving the craft section of Barnes and Noble. There's something I need to make clear about myself: I am very easily distracted, especially by visual things. A normal conversation in the car goes like this:

Chris: So, what do you want to eat tonight?

Me: Well, I was thinking we could have -- ooh, nice, a Mustang -- sandwiches, or maybe we could splurge and go to -- CORGI! Awww! So cute! Can I have a puppy? Hey! That guy didn't use his turn signal. Oh, there's a new book store, we should check that out. What was the question?

And it's also pretty normal for us to be in a store, talking, and I suddenly veer off to look at something shiny. Chris is used to this, and doesn't mind it, except when I randomly shout out "Puppy!" or "Kitty!" and he thinks that one is about to dart in front of the car.

Anyway, I picked up the book, flipped through it, and saw that it was mostly knitting and crochet, so I was going to put it back. But then he saw Cthulhu in it and insisted that I should buy it. Note to self: carry Cthulhu post-its and stick them on anything that I want to buy, thus ensuring no arguments from Chris.

While most of the projects ARE knitting, with a little crochet, sewing, and jewelry thrown in for good measure, the book is pretty entertaining. There's a lot of general craft info, including some helpful first-aid hints for those inevitable craft disasters. There's also recipes, a guide to throwing a party, and silly comic strips throughout. Because the book is geared towards Goths, Punks, and anyone else who likes to craft but doesn't like the frou-frou pink preppie look favored by many craft books, everything is served with a healthy dose of snarkiness. And because I love to snark, this really won me over.

There's really only one project in here that I'm likely to make, and that's the duct-tape corset. I don't even know when or where I'd wear it -- maybe to Comic Con, or to whatever haunted house we go to next Halloween. There's just something appealing in the idea of being able to say that I made a corset out of duct tape.

Since I haven't tried out any of the directions, I can't say how well-written they are. There are few how-to illustrations, except for the basic techniques section in the back, which has copious photos. Even if the insutrctions do prove to be not so great, I'd say the book is humorous enough to go on the bookshelf of any "slightly sinister" or otherwise darkly inclined crafter.

By the way, this book is the product of the website www.theAntiCraft.com which I have not yet checked out, but will soon. I'd imagine that a visit to it will help you decide whether or not you're interested in the book.

Pre Gem Show Crunch

I'm not sure if there's going to be an update this week. I have a lot of things that I need to take care of in the next 2 weeks to get ready for gem show. I have to wrap up all of my BFAC responsibilities, fill this custom order, and take care of planning for the show itself. I've got almost all of that under wraps already, so I want to spend the next couple days getting it done so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

It's hard to believe that gem show is almost here again! I'm so excited! Of course, I'm also a little sad, as a couple of my friends and favorite lampworkers won't be there this year. It seems like with the current economy, a lot of artists are finding that it's not profitable to come all the way out to Tucson anymore.

Although I'm sad about the people who won't be here, it does leave a chunk of my budget free, which I think I'll spend on beads from new-to-me artists. This will be a good way to work on my goal of adding more variety to my work.

We now return to our regular scheduled programming

After a fun jaunt into the realm of movie reviewing (which is one of my numerous hobbies), I'm back to what you expect from me -- talking about beads and beading.

Today Chris and I went over to the 2-story Barnes and Noble across town. I picked up the latest Beadwork magazine, which has some great techniques in it. I'm glad that they've had more innovative beadweaving in there recently. Don't get me wrong, I love spiral rope, but there's only so many variations I can see published before I'm tired of it.

I also picked up a cool Gothy crafting book that I'll post about in more detail after I've read it. It was a total impulse buy. If I was going to buy any sort of how-to, it probably should have been "Sewing For Dummies" or that new Zulu beadwork book that I've had my eye on, but oh well. Chris talked me into buying that instead.

Chris picked up "The Deep" which is a huge coffee-table type photography book of creepy deep sea critters. He spied it back before his birthday and hinted about wanting it, but I bought him other presents instead. So today I told him he should buy it for himself (in addition to the usual science nerd books that he was picking up). He's sitting there reading it now, and telling me about the various freakish jellyfish contained therein... thus further convincing me that I should stay on the land.

I've been working on some spiral rope bracelets for the Etsy shop. Not sure what I'll put on the website tomorrow. We'll see what I feel like making when I get up.

Cloverfield Sucks.

Do not buy into the hype. Cloverfield is a lousy, stupid, pointless movie with shaky hand-held camera shooting the whole way through. I am so annoyed that we wasted our date night on such a lame movie. I hate it when the ending of a movie or book leaves me sitting there saying "What? This is all I get?"

Chris and I had both been convinced that it might be a cool movie. The buzz around the Internet was really good. Unfortunately, the non-disclosure acts surrounding the movie kept us from hearing that it was not nearly as awesome as they wanted us to believe that it was.

Oh well.

Next week we're going to go see The Orphanage, because I've heard that it is really cool. So far, I've been really impressed with Guillermo Del Toro's other movies. Hellboy was fun, Pan's Labyrinth was amazing, and the second Hellboy movie looks like it is going to be AWESOME! (Ok, seriously, I can't get over the evil faeries in the trailer. I could watch it a million times. I'm not even sure I need a movie. I'm just all: EVIL FAERIES! and that's enough for me) Although the trailers for The Orphanage struck me as lame, I've heard that it's a nicely scary combination of horror and drama, and Chris wants to see it. Of course, he wanted to see Cloverfield more than I did, so if The Orphanage strikes out, he loses movie-suggesting privileges!

After the lousy movie, we went out for Indian food, which was incredible. I am so stuffed! Murgh Tikka is the best.

The five minute necklace.

The necklace that I made yesterday with my bat bead was actually quicker to make than even the simplest earrings. My original plan was to just hang him from a pre-made box chain, but I'd worn that chain last week with the same shirt I was wearing, and it was an awkward length. That was when I noticed the 12 inches of over-priced chain that I'd bought to use as anklet extenders, then stopped using when I bought some chain wholesale. I'd been reserving the chain to make something for myself, as it was really to pricey to use in anything I wanted to sell.

The nice thing about being slender is that 12 inches of chain plus a bead that's a couple inches wide, plus a clasp, equals a choker. I cut the chain in half, used two jump rings to attach it to the loops in little batty's wings, and attached an S hook to the ends of the chain. Instant necklace! It's such a nice, clean, simple design that I'm going to leave it like that until I come up with a fun way to really utilize the three-part nature of the bat. And the best part is, I can repurpose all of the other parts when that time comes.

As a warning, I have a big custom order to fill, so next week's updates may be a bit small. We'll see what I can cook up between bouts of working on the order.

Nanananananana -- BAT BEAD!

I used some of my holiday money to buy a 3-part bat bead from Melanie this weekend. The bead just arrived today! He's really cute. I'm going to wear him to tonight's game, because last game, my character was invited to join the Bat Clan. I'm a nerd like that. My character probably won't join said Bat Clan, as much as she likes them, because she'd rather go study with the Ratlings and learn their name magic. My character is also a nerd like that. As a roleplayer, I find it's good to share a couple of traits with your character, so you can get into playing them a little better.

Oh, the other reason for not joining the Bat Clan is that it causes all of my friends (me included) to sing "Nananaanana BAT CLAN!" every time it's said, and that derails the game pretty quickly.

This is why I almost never talk about the details of my gaming life on this blog, by the way. It makes me look like a big geek!

I've done a whole bunch of nothing today, except for responding to a lot of BFAC e-mails. Oh yeah! The 2008 BFAC gallery will be live soon, so I will definitely post that here. I'm really proud of some of my awesome photographs. Not all of the photos are awesome, but none of them are bad, so I feel really good. I'm doing the 2009 photos, too, and it will be much easier now that I know what I'm doing.

I have to figure out what I'm going to bead during tonight's game. Probably something not-green, since this week's update was pretty green-heavy. But if that's the only color my muse wants to work in, that's what I'll have to go with.

The fruits of my labors.

Sorry about yesterday's rather short post. I was so tired, and today isn't much better! I've been sleeping terribly. Our phone number is one digit off from a large hotel here, and we keep getting people who have mistakenly dialed us instead of the hotel. 4:20am on Monday morning, I get this guy calling for the Doubletree. Seriously! I think I'm going to start just unplugging the phone when I go to bed.

The image above is Fields of Arcadia, which I made yesterday morning and posted on the site last night. I love the necklace, but I'm not thrilled with the photograph. I kept getting a lot of glare... the other pictures I took were even worse. I also posted Budding Leaves on the site. The two of them go quite well together.

I guess I'm ready for Spring already, given the bright greens I'm working in. Or maybe I just can't get away from green no matter the season.

The Etsy shop is coming along quite well, too. I'm really happy with how easy the store is to manage, so I hope that it actually works out as a good venue for me. Head on over and check out the new items. You really have to check out Broken-Hearted Robot, I had too much fun writing the description.

If you're looking for Valentine's jewelry, definitely head over to Etsy. I put up some really cute heart earrings yesterday. And check out my friend Deb at Bead Indulgences, she has some gorgeous maille earrings accented with Swarovski hearts!

I'm not sure what's on the slate for today, other than laundry (bleh). Hopefully some dancing and working on my pants later tonight!

Shiny New Things!

There's gorgeous new jewelry on my website and in my Etsy shop! Hurray! Also, because Chris rocks, there are now Etsy widgets on this blog and my website. Hurray!

I have spent almost all day beading, taking photos, editing photos, and adding things to Etsy and my site. I am so beat! As such, the usual long post with lots of chatter about the new jewelry will happen tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to collapse into a puddle of laziness.

At last!

So, for the past few weeks I've been trying to come up with a necklace for the Earth Goddess pendant that I bought from Melanie. It's very tricky matching glass to ceramic glazes, so the first two combinations that I tried ended up looking really bad with the pendant. But yesterday, I finally came up with the perfect blend of colors and a cool design, and then I made the entire thing during gaming. I forgot to pack a clasp, though, so I need to attach that today.

Tomorrow, I hope to update my website and my Esty shop, but first I need to make more jewelry. I've only finished two things this week, and I hope to put them both on Etsy. Today I'll try to come up with something to put on the site.

I'm also planning to cut out my pants and dance today, so I'll be pretty busy. Seeing as how it's almost 3pm already, I guess I'd better get a wiggle on.

What did I tell you?

If you'll recall, when I posted about how I was going to start sewing, I predicted that Topher would "help." Here it is, the photographic proof! Coincidentally, it's also photographic proof that he is one gorgeous boy! His markings are what made me pick him out of the litter, and he's grown up into a rugged example of tomcattery.

Anyway, it doesn't help that the pieces for these pants are so big that I had to put the cutting board on the floor... no way it was going to fit on my kitchen table. So there I am, sitting on the floor, putting tissue paper on cardboard! This is absolutely a place that Topher must be, because tissue paper and cardboard are his two favorite things in life. When he wasn't sitting right on top of the project, as seen here, he was sitting on the empty end of the board, swatting my hand as I tried to pin things down. And as you can see from his expression in the photo, he wasn't the least bit ashamed of himself.

That was only one of the problems that faced me with making these pants. First of all, measurements and sizes. WTH, Simplicity? According to my waist measurements, I'd need to cut out something like a size 20 to fit my waist. To get an idea of how patently ridiculous that is, here's my picture from Ren Faire 2007. Oh yeah, and by my hip measurements... I'd need a size 10. *sigh* Thank you, Simplicity, for rubbing in the fact that I have decidedly unwomanly hips. Since my particular instance of this pattern only goes up to a size 10, that's what I'm cutting out. I seem to recall from my Mom sewing my wedding dress that their measurement/size charts tend to be grossly inaccurate, so I suspect these pants will be too big. This is why I'm starting out with the cheapest fabric I bought!

And speaking of cheap fabric... As you can see, my fabric is very pretty. It's also very soft. If they turn out, these will be wonderful Summer pants. However, it's also terribly unevenly cut. You'd think that after spending 10-15 minutes in line to get my fabric, I could at least get some straight fabric. I didn't realize just how uneven it was until I was over halfway done pinning everything down, and realized that with how it was laid out, I was never going to be able to cut these pants out. That realization came at 12:20am, and this was the point where I said "To heck with this, I'll try again some other time."

That some other time will probably be tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Introducing my Etsy shop!

I am pleased to announce the grand opening of my Etsy shop, which can be found at erthefae.etsy.com. You can find the above earrings at my shop, and three other items. I will be adding a lot more on Monday or Tuesday. My plan is to migrate a few things off of my website to Etsy, to help fill in the shop, but there will also be brand-new items in there at least once a week.

I am very pleased with how happy it was to set up my shop and list my items. Much easier than eBay!

I am very, very pleased with how the above picture of the Sacred Cloud earrings came out. I love my camera!

I am extremely pleased to say that I now offer free shipping from my Etsy shop and my website.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty pleased.

Yippy!

I'm excited, because I'm going to San Diego Comic Con this year! As you may already know, I write a gaming column for the e-zine Collector Times. Our incredibly awesome editor wants a strong CT presence at the convention this year, and is generously covering the hotel rooms for her staffers. Comic Con is a lot of fun, and I believe that this past year, I posted here about how bummed I was at not going. So I'm very happy, because not only do I get to go this year, but it's very likely that I'll get to meet several people who I've only known on-line until now. Yay!

Oh yeah, and it's an excuse to wear COSTUMES! By then I might even be sewing my own!

Speaking of which, today I get to go to JoAnn's and pick up some fabric so I can try to learn how to sew. You know what is going to be fun? Cutting out patterns with my cats. Not only does Topher like to help me craft (remember this picture? and this one?), but he is a tissue paper fiend. Lira is a little more laid back about it, at least, and I can probably count on her preferring to sit in Chris's lap. Note to self: make sure to only cut out patterns while Chris is sitting at his desk.

Yesterday, during our Legend of the Five Rings game, I did a lot of kumihimo. I haven't measured, but my cord has to be about 30 inches, so I think I'm going to make it into a two-strand necklace, with the skull hanging from the bottom strand. I just need to decide on a bail design. Anyway, it's kind of cool. The yarns were all variegated colors, so the cord looks different every few inches. Plus it has a lot of texture due to the different types of yarn. It also reminded me about how fun kumihimo is for gaming, so I'm going to have to do more of it in the future.

What I did today.

I've got to leave in just a minute to go to my usual Wednesday night game, so this is really brief.

Today I made a necklace called "The Day My Robot's Emotion Chip Malfunctioned." It's perfect for Valentine's Day, and will likely go into my Etsy shop. Tonight, I'm going to work on a kumihimo cord using fibers from the ABS prize that I won. One of the pendants from said prize will hang from the cord. It will be pretty cool.

Last night I read the manual for my sewing machine. Of the 17 safety warnings, 3 of them were telling me not to let children play with or use my machine. IE: If your kid sews through his hand, its not our fault! Luckily I don't have kids, and the cats will probably be scared of it.

And with that, I'm off!