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:

Bead Table Wednesday-Various Stages

I have a lot of pieces in progress on the bead table, some nearing completion and some not so near.



I haven't decided what to rivet onto the etched cuffs at the top yet. Most of the time when I etch the cuffs the background comes out rather matte, like the middle cuff.  I don't know how the other two cuffs got shiny.  It must be a different metal content since I etched them just like I always do. 


The twisty things are brass and copper bails.  The "queen" pendant lacks a couple of body parts but has the patina and the finish coat, as do the two spiral pendants beside her. I finished up the last batch of pearls and have some more in progress. 


Pawlie Newman is snuggled up in my lap impeding my typing. In a minute he'll tire of the typing and then he'll be on the bead table. 

Check out the other bead tables at:

Nature Shots-Bees and Butterfly

This has not been the best year for insects and butterflies.  The drought has been vicious and the heat too high.  Now that it's cooled off a little I'm seeing more activity. 


 

Here's a beautiful Swallowtail butterfly feeding on the butterfly bush. It was hard to get a shot because this butterfly moved continuously and the wind was blowing quite stiffly, making the flowers bob around.  His/her wings are being curved around the flower by the wind in this shot.  





The butterfly reminds me of a stained glass window from this angle. 






There were honey bees and these big fellas all over the bush too.


  



I think these are Eastern Carpenter Bees.  Fortunately none of them objected to having their picture taken.  I've heard that some people use a telephoto and a tripod to take photos like this but I do handheld up close and personal.  If the bees object I run like a girl. These bees are supposed to be fairly mellow.  There were honey bees too, but I didn't get any good shots.

Bead Table Wednesday--More Show Prep

I'm still busy with preparation for my show.  Here are my cuffs I've been working on tonight. They're awaiting a final polish and protective coating for the patina. 






 And here are some of my pearl necklace sets.  These are my bread and butter pieces.  They are fairly inexpensive and priced right for Christmas presents. 










Check out the other bead tables on Flickr: 

Bead Table Wednesday-Show Prep

As usual I'm going Bead Table Wednesday at the very last minute.  I'm busy getting ready for a show in October.








The "magic" necklace is about ready to be put together, although once I actually get started with the wire wrapping the design could change.  I'm not sure how I will handle the big hole on the coin straps. The wings over on the left are some earrings awaiting their ear wires. In person the crystals actually show up. 





I've finally finished the pendant portion.  Here is the front and back. The escutcheon is not symmetrical.  It's not so obvious from the front, but it shows on the back. I may even up the corner a little.   






And here are some cuffs in progress.  I've done the etching and the bottom two have an initial tumbling.  I'm going to put some decorative rivets on the brass ones, and rivet a charm with some dangles to the copper one.  Then there will be more tumbling, patina, hand polishing and sealing.  


And these aren't exactly on the bead table, but I'm sure pleased with them.  The zucchini have been frustrating me this year.  I've had big beautiful plants that I have babied through all the hot dry weather, and not a single zucchini until I harvested these today.  The little one was underneath the biggest one, but the flower was falling off so I went ahead and picked it. I guess we'll be having some stir fry veggies this week. 





Check out the other bead tables here:

Cabs and Charms

I feel like I got a few things done today, even though I didn't do much work on the "magic" necklace.  The morning started off with an AAUW (American Association of University Women) meeting that was quite productive.  We finished it up a little after noon and then my friend Martha, of Menagerie Studio, and I decided to make a quick run into Dallas to the Rock Barrell.  I wanted to get some turquoise cabs and she wanted findings. 


We hit the interstate and within a few minutes were on a parking lot on a bridge across Lake Ray Hubbard.  Traffic was barely moving.  We were on the bridge for an hour and a half.  At least it gave Martha and I time to catch up with each other. 


Martha brought me the charms I had ordered from her.





I love these little charms even more now that I've seen them close up.  The hearts with text have the works cherish and child on them with a floral texture on the back.  The fleur de lis hearts have a clock texture on the back. These will become earrings. I think I'll keep the top pair for myself!


We exited the interstate at the first exit.  There was a sign stating that the freeway was closed ahead.  Wish they had posted that sign many miles earlier!  We made it to the Rock Barrell 15 minutes before closing!  I quickly found these cabs.






These cabs range from 8 to 25 mm.  Most are turquoise, but there are two chrysocola, one fancy jasper, and one dyed howlite. Martha found some beads but not the findings she was after.


We drove home a completely different way. Since we were already in Dallas we had to make a few other retail stops.  


Once home I worked a little on cleaning up the holes on the iron escutcheon plate I'm using on the "magic" necklace. The holes were jagged and just waiting to catch a drill bit so I ground them instead.  I got them big enough for the rivets to go through, but I think they are going to give me trouble when I drill the back plate. That's a job for another day though. 

Etching Nickel Silver

I decided to use some nickel silver I have on hand for the back of the "magic" necklace.  I etched it with a cool stamp I have.  It will be trimmed so that the eye is the focus.  It has a mysterious somewhat occult feel to it that will go well with the theme of magic as illusion. 





I also etched a couple of other pieces. The longhorn and the winged heart will probably go on cuffs. 






This is the first time I have etched nickel silver.  I removed the pieces after only 45 minutes because the StazOn ink was coming off the longhorn.  Usually that doesn't happen quite so quickly.  The ferric chloride was fresh but the etch wasn't as deep as what I usually get with the copper and brass.  I don't know if nickel silver is harder to etch or if there was a problem with the ferric chloride.  My last ferric chloride etched very well, but when I opened it up tonight there was a metallic gray/blue crystalline stuff floating on the surface.  It was like a very thin sheet of some sort of crystal.  This is the first time I've seen that. Later when I have some time I'll pour it through a filter and see if it still etches after the crystalline stuff is removed.