Happy Halloween!

Our neighbors, Christina and Carlos, invited us to their Halloween party Saturday.  We hadn't been to a Halloween party in years and this was a really fun party.


Can you guess what I dressed as?  Here are some clues, starting from the top and working down:






Not yet?  Here's some more clues:





I wore a little vintage bling and a brass necklace with a sundial pendant.  Ralph gave me the sundial pendant years ago during my re-enactor stage.  It's a copy of a historical one. 





I also wore this awesome Halloween pin by Wendy Leaumont of My Brainchild.





And I had these lace gloves with the mysterious looking ring with Asian script. Naturally I can't remember what it says.


If you haven't guessed (or seen my new Facebook profile pic) this should clear things up:





Yes, that's right.  I dressed as a witch.  Ralph dressed as a mad scientist.  As I told my parents, we went as ourselves.




Christina took this picture of us at the party.  That's a slide rule Ralph is holding.  It's a vintage one that he actually used back in the day.


Christina and Carlos are so creative.  They made a haunted maze in the back yard utilizing the deck and yard. It was complete with scary stuff, a fog machine, laser lights and all sorts of fun. Christina led everyone through one at a time and there was a lot of screaming involved.  It was a blast.  Some of the children of their extended family and some friends were posted in various locations within the maze, ready to scare whoever happened by. It was impressive and so much fun!


None of the pictures I took of the costumes at the party came out.  Christina is supposed to send me some she took and I'll post them when I get them.  


I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Bead Table Wednesday--It's Here!

My new anvil arrived today. 





Here it is fresh out of the box.  It's a 35 pound anvil from Cliff Carroll's Horseshoers Supplies.  I think I'm going to be very pleased with it.  


I went to BeadFest in Arlington, TX recently and acquired some more hammers and other things, including this  very small Fretz hammer.  I'm going to use it to do things like the cuffs, only in minature.  I have earring sized fold forming projects in mind. 




That cuff in between the hammers is the reason why I got the anvil.  I had to anneal it about six times and it took forever because my little 4 inch bench block was bouncing around when I hit it. It was fun to make, though, and I'm going to do some more. 


I showed at Red River Revel in Shreveport earlier this month.  I've done it for several years and it's always a great show.  The weather was fantastic this year.





My son, Stefan,  came with me this year to help out. It was nice not being by myself. As soon as he saw the camera he started looking everywhere but at me.






Here's a better shot of the cuff from earlier in the post.  I believe this is called a Rutger fold.  The red is reflected color from the tent we were in.






Here's another cuff I had at the show.  I really liked how it turned out.  The red on this cuff is from fire scale.  It was so pretty I left it on.  It was one of the first cuffs to sell at the show. 





And here's a pendant in progress that is a mystery.  I did finish this pendant and it sold at the show.  I didn't put the liver of sulphur patina on it until I got to the hotel in Shreveport though.  (Nothing like working until the very last minute.)  This is where the mystery comes in.  The liver of sulphur made a very brilliant iridescent patina on the brass, and a more muted patina on the copper. 





The patina was a lot more colorful in person than this photo shows. I put more LOS on the copper portion to darken it, and removed the brilliant fuchsia and blues from the brass with steel wool.  The brilliant colors just didn't go with the stone.  I really want to recreate this on some more brass.  I have no idea how it happened.  If you've used LOS before you know it doesn't do much for brass.  I have a few ideas and I'm going to experiment. 


I have a book review on a great new book, Craft Activism, coming up shortly with a giveaway.  And I'm going to have another giveaway to celebrate reaching 100 followers on the blog.  Stay tuned. 


As always, check out the other bead tables on Flickr: