A Flower and Carnelian

I've had a bunch of these great Thai Hill Tribe flower charms for ages.  They never really went over very well, regardless of the fact that I love them.  My customers didn't feel the same way, I guess.  The other day, I had this idea to use them, while keeping it super simple.  Here are the results:

What's not to like, I ask you?  Click on the photo to go directly to the listing.

More Mixed Metals

I started the pair of earrings with pre-made and very shiny hammered brass disks. I drilled some off-center holes in which to "plant" the Bali silver spacer beads. They look like little daisies. They are held in place by handmade ball-end headpins that act like rivets.

Making the headpins requires the use of a torch. The heat of the torch colored the brass to charcoal gray color. I used some fine polishing paper to highlight the high spots on the brass, resulting in a warm, rich almost coppery color.

These very lightweight earrings are suspended from sterling silver earwires that have been antiqued and hand sanded.

Inspiration and a Bouquet of One

Whatever your art supplies may be -- beads, paints, paper, fabric, all of the above -- on some days they just look boring. You've seen them all before. You love them like the dear friends they are, but they aren't providing the necessary inspiration. What to do?

Go for a walk. With your dog. We walk everyday, on one of two routes: to the inlet or around the Birchwood ariport. While this can seem quite boring to me, Xena never tires of it. Each day she finds something new to sniff, a new rock to climb on, a new leaf to paw and new dirt to scratch at.

Inspired by Xena's view of the world, I looked at my beads with new vision. I've had these petal pearls for years, and the amethyst, well, I've had a bunch of these since 2000! I never looked at them together before. Then the length of wire was in my hands and the wrapping began.

I searched through the little ziploc of completed, but unused fine silver elements and these 2 irregular pieces surfaced. This flower was meant to be created that day.

Look at your art supplies with a new perspective. Maybe another flower will be born, or maybe you will create something even more fabulous than you can imagine.