April comes like an idiot…

Posted by gwen on Apr 1, 2012 in design, photo | 1 comment

Channel font by Mawns

No fooling, free National Parks Week is coming up this month

Posted by gwen on Apr 1, 2012 in to-do list, travel | 1 comment

National Parks Week is April 21-29 this year, which means, admission to all the US National Parks is FREE.

Visit the National Parks Service to see which parks this includes then plan your trip!

Photograph: Tunnel View, Yosemite, by Don J. Schulte

Day 8: Date with a bead friend

Posted by gwen on Mar 16, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

Jill doesn’t actually bead but she is a friend and I was looking for beads and we had a date hitting up the local swap meets Saturday. I found a couple old bits and bobs but it was more of an experience than a treasure trove. We did see some good stuff, though.

Like this truck we spotted on the way over. Pretty flippin’ awesome, huh.

And saw lots of horrible little dolls and clowns.

And one lady who lost her clothing. OOPSY.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Day 6: Create your own color palette

Posted by gwen on Mar 15, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

Blush and gold and grey and navy.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Day 13: Inspiration Board

Posted by gwen on Mar 13, 2012 in craft | 1 comment

Today’s challenge is to make an inspiration board. I’ve always had a journal, the writing kind, but a couple years ago, my artist friend Karin showed me hers and I was blown away by the page after page of beautiful art instead of a jumble of pointless words. So I’ve been trying to keep more of a visual journal, which is mostly me amassing torn scraps from magazines and occasionally sitting down and gluing them in. I also practice my calligraphy (still working on that) and keep movie ticket stubs and lists of things I want to do this summer and occasionally even draw (still working on that, too). So these are a couple pages from that.

Jewelry

Style

Hair

So we’re not going in order any more, I’m just doing things as I get them done and photographed. Days 6 and 8 are queued up already, 11 and 12 need photos, Day 9 I should have saved that flower for.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Days 7, 10: Different metal and found object

Posted by gwen on Mar 12, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

I got the correct tape and gave soldering another shot, on a piece of beach pottery I found on the San Francisco Bay. It is not the prettiest soldering work ever, and I am very badly burned, and I managed to use up half the spool of solder, and I couldn’t get the jump ring to stay on — maybe I should practice on something a little more regularly-shaped til I get this down.

Day 7: Use a different metal in your jewelry
Day 10: Use a found object

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Day 5: Incorporate chain into a jewelry design

Posted by gwen on Mar 5, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

Day 4 was Organize your bead area. I cleaned up my tote bag. I would take a picture but would just think, lord, her bag is a *mess*. But all the stray little beads got put away and my findings and pendants and grouped nicely and believe me, it is about eighty times better and that’s what counts. If you’re feeling disappointed by the lack of evidence, here is a picture of someone who is seriously organized:

There are many other fly ladies on the Fusion Beads Facebook page, if you like that sort of thing.

. . . . . . . . .

Day 5 is incorporate chain into something. I made a rosary-style long necklace with a mix of gunmetal and brass, vintage glittered and Czech glass and gemstone beads.

It seemed like a nice place to hang my favorite old rhinestone button.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Day 3: Learn a new beading technique

Posted by gwen on Mar 4, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

I tried to solder a piece of beach pottery to make it into a pendant, but that didn’t work out at all — there were many extremely frustrated attempts at making the solder not go flying off the piece and spent an hour turning the internet upside down trying to figure out WHY until finding out I was using the wrong kind of tape. Even though it is clearly labeled as being for soldering. Anyway. I will get some proper tape and redo that later.

So I made a singed-edged flower and sewed a vintage-style cluster of beads in the center, then took a trio of ribbons, did some heavy wire wrapping at a couple points, then tried doing a wire-wrapped finding-end instead of using a crimp. I think I might take the flower off and stick it on a hairpin instead, I’ll probably get more use out of it that way.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge