A Busy 10 Days

The last 10 days have been busy for me. The Bellevue Botanical Show depleted my inventory (yay!) so I have been working on new things for my upcoming show in Conway. When I do a show, I try to have things in all price ranges. I make some simple assemblage pieces and then I have the more labor-intensive art pieces available too. For the last 10 days I've been making both.

First I made these multi-strand assemblage bracelets:

"Chasing Rabbits"

"Frog Pond"

"Milagro"

Then I made some of these simple scribble bracelets:

Blackened Steel Wire Scribble Bracelet

Then I made this soldered, fold-formed brass bracelet. I stamped it with the words "As above, so below." I made it from the roll of 26 gauge brass sheet that I bought from Skagit Steel last week.

"As Above, So Below" (front)

I intentionally gave the letter stamps strong forceful blows, because I wanted the letters to be in little circles for this one. 

"As Above, So Below" (back)

I used plumbers solder on the joint, and hid the seam by using gold Rub-N-Buff. I put a little more around the bracelet, to blend the deep gold into the brass color. 

Then I made this simple asymmetric druzy necklace. When the druzy arrived, it was way to shiny, so I used Swellegant metal coating on it, to dull the finish a bit. This is the bronze color. 

"Chasing Enlightenment"

I wanted to make some simple assemblage earrings, so I bought some fabulous findings from Vincent and Nooma Cav of Inviciti, and made 7 pairs of earrings. I love using their findings because they are really well designed, well made, and also very lightweight. 

Their charms come with those fabulous patinas too, so I find I don't need to mess around with them at all. I am going to be ordering more from them. Of course it makes me want to learn how to cast pewter myself, but I'll save that for another day. 

Finally, I still find myself obsessed with making soap. I found an old Madeleine pan at my local thrift store, and used it to make these lemon scented melt-and-pour shea butter soaps. The pan worked really well. I sprayed the cavities with olive oil spray and sprinkled a little lemon tea into the soap base before pouring. I'll figure out some packaging for them this week. 

Lemon Tea Soap

So those are the things I have finished in the last 10 days. I also planted four 12-foot rows of garlic and scallions for next summer. When I planted garlic last year the bunnies, or somebody who lives underground, pushed all the cloves back out of the dirt! I'll have to keep an eye on it this year.

Until next time, leaving you with this quote:

"People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way that a dog that runs after rabbits will dream of rabbits. It's what you do that makes your soul, not the other way around."

-Barbara Kingsolver