Last show

I have my last show of the year this weekend. Am I ready? Pretty close. I could use a day off from work to create more, but sometimes you just have to give what you've got, and hope it's enough. I am looking forward to the show, it's always a really great time. If you are in the area, stop by the Raise the Roof with Art, Food, and Music event at Temple Beth-El on Saturday night 6-10 or Sunday from 10-3. I'll be amongst the 30+ vendors.

Jade Scott Flower Challenge

A few weeks ago, I teamed up with Jade Scott to have a bit of a blog challenge. Jade made these lovely enameled flower head pins and send them to me for a giveaway. I sent the headpins to 7 participants, and kept one for myself. The challenge was to put the headpin into a piece of jewelry. I can't wait to see what everyone came up with. I, of course, waited til the very last minute and finished my simple necklace yesterday afternoon!

Introducing: Lavender Blooms

I played around with a lot of different scenarios using my lavender enameled flower- I love the layered look of a pendant, and decided on this final style. I used a filigree ring from Vintaj Brass Co., and a porcelain component from Round Rabbit Extra.  I created a bail with the wire of the head pin- after stringing it through the center of the brass ring, and through the center hole of the porcelain disc, I strung 1 brass rondelle, pulled the wire up and formed a wrapped loop bail.

I pulled out my rubber tubing from MyElements, and my rubber o rings in purple tones. I decided to keep the necklace fairly simple, just stringing some of the smaller purple o rings and some larger lavender o rings to each side of the pendant, onto dark green tubing.

  I added an enameled flower from C Koop Beads on one side, and a Silver dragonfly charm from Hint Jewelry on the other.

I finished the necklace off with some brass crimp ends from Vintaj Brass and a hook and eye clasp. Very simple, but the pendant stands out more on a simple necklace. It's lightweight and comfortable too.

Gigi Yob:  Gigi doesn't have a blog just yet, so she sent me a picture of the bracelet she finished with her flower. Here's what Gigi said about her bracelet:
"I used a vintage brass cuff as a backdrop for this beautiful enameled flower draping chains the length of the cuff and adding these gorgeous beads that seemed to just be waiting for this little flower, the colors were just so right. I then added two amethests to compliment the hint of lavender in the petals. "



Here is a link list of the other participants, take a minute to peruse all of these talented ladies blog posts, be inspired!

1. Lorelei Eurto:  you are here

2.  Serena Trent

3. Susan Raber

4. Shawna Tobias

5. Lucid Moon Studio

6. K Hutchinson

7. Gigi

 8. Lois Moon

And also!

http://cherishdesigns.wordpress.com

http://mariagrimes.blogspot.com/

http://peacockfairy.blogspot.com/

Turn it up LOUD

a Thanksgiving note

Holiday Swap Participants

If you see your name on this list, it means you have been chosen for the Holiday Gift Exchange.  Please email me with your mailing address and email so I can forward all addresses to all participants.  Please refer to this page for details about the swap, including shipping dates and opening dates, etc.

1. Deb Boshert

2. Lissa

3. Jodie

4. Jennifer Heynen

5. Aqua Junko Artworks

6. Charlie@ Clayspace

7. EmandaJ

8. Katie Nelson

9. Seashore Glass Art

10. Copper Diem

11. 2CAHummingbird

12. ME

YAY! 

I am so excited!

this is going

to

be a

BLAST!!

email LJEurto at gmail dot com

Holiday Gift Exchange Details

FancyThat

If you haven't commented on yesterday's post about my Holiday Gift Swap, here is some more information for you. I love the idea, and have for some time, of being involved in a small swap with friends where we all create 11 similar gifts, mail them out and then each open 11 gifts over the course of the 12 days of Christmas. So I thought I would host one myself.  

The gifts should be creative, but do not have to be all the same. You may choose what you'd like to send. I am assuming a lot of you are jewelry fanatics like I am- but if you have another idea, that is not jewelry-related, that would be a fun twist!

All gifts should be mailed out by December 12th - 2 weeks should be enough time for everyone to receive all 11 gifts. 

Each participant will be responsible for making 11 similar gifts, wrapping each one, and mailing one to each of the participants. Starting December 25th, we will start opening each gift, 1 for each day of the 12 days of Christmas. If you are inclined to blog about the gifts you receive, wonderful! If you don't wish to, it's not a requirement. But if each gift is different, you might want to show off what you got and see what others received as well.

Each participant will get a number. Please label your gifts with your number so that we know what day we should open your gift. For example, if I am #1, my gifts will be opened on Day 1.

I will pick 11 participants tomorrow, November 23rd.  Please leave a comment on yesterday's post if you would be interested in being considered for the swap. U.S. Participants only.-I would hate for the mail system to screw this up, so to play it safe- we'll stick to the U.S. for this year's swap. Next year I promise to get my shit together a bit sooner for all countries to be able to participate.

a few Monday randoms, & a CHRISTMAS SWAP.

* My new goal is to find Non-Bird related charms and pendants. Clearly this is getting out of control. :)

* Went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning. My teeth have hurt all day.

* I want to do a fun 12 days of Christmas exchange. 12 participants (that includes me) 12 gifts, but we are getting close to December. I wonder if it's too short of notice. Ahhh what the heck. If this is something you want to do, leave a comment and I'll pick 11 people to join me in a Christmas gift swap.

I'll give more details in a separate post.... but be aware before commenting- you will be responsible for sending out 11 gifts to 11 participants, including shipping. Oh, I think it's too late for International participants, so this gift exchange will be US participants only.

happy weekend!

Just dropping in really quick to say Hola!

It's been a busy busy Saturday. I spent the day winterizing our yard/porch.... and picking up the house for some dinner guests coming over tonight. This morning I was able to put together these two beauties! Both completely different and on different spectrums.  First a funky and bright red necklace using some red Soft Flex beading wire, faceted glass rounds, wavy silver discs,  a Black and white dotted tube focal from FlameCrazy, and some red and black buttons from Tari Sasser of ClayButtons!   I used silver crimp tubes to crimp the beads along 4 strands of red beading wire.

The bracelet is a more feminine piece with pearl chain, a black and white scroll focal from Bluberri Beads, and a silver bird charm from Hint! The focal bead is ceramic believe it or not. It's amazing. I like the mixed metals with the pearl chain and the brass components from Vintaj Brass Co.

Dark Annealed Wire

 I have been wanting to play around with dark annealed wire since I got a copy of Brenda Schweder's book Steel Wire Jewelry. The book is full of the most interesting and unique designs I have ever seen. I'm a huge fan of Alexander Calder jewelry as well so my taste for wire is growing stronger by the day. Yesterday Joe called me as usual after he was out of school and said he was at Ace picking up some keys he was having made. When he said Ace, I instantly remembered someone had told me that they sell this wire, so I asked him to look around for it for me. He brought me a spool.

This morning I put together a few pair of earrings just to play around with it a little. I like it! It's nice and easy to work with, and you can hammer it nicely too. I didn't have black hands afterwards, 

 surprisingly enough!  And I love how it looks mixed with other metal such as brass components. 

some tips i learned this morning from Brenda as we chatted on FB:

cleaning the wire with steel wool and
then coating with Renaissance wax will
prevent the wire from rusting.

if making ear wires, do these 2 steps VERY well.

 Little does he know, he's going to back to pick up MORE- I hope there's more available!

New Publications

Be sure to check out these new and upcoming titles from Interweave Press! I have several tutorials included in the following:

smorgasborg

This rocker style necklace is a christmas gift. Hopefully the giftee won't be seeing it here. :) It rocks though, I just love it and I know she will too. Been loving this new colored wire from Soft Flex Company- this is 20g Burgundy. The flying skull and hook clasp are both from Green Girl Studios. This new black chain is awesome, just got it from Vintaj Brass Co. Does anyone know where I can get a spool of matte black wire??

This is a necklace that at the time I made it, wasn't so sure about but today I adore it. That triangle focal bead is from Elaine Ray. That girl is tricky, it has two holes on the right and left. I layered it with this Polyclay stamped pendant from Swoondimples.  See those flashes of pink Elaine's bead? Works perfectly with the polymer bead.  The ladybug charm is from LeAnn at SummerStudiosEtc.

 I also used some cool faceted Swarovski mosaic cubes. Have had these in my stash for a while, but they are finally making their debut.

 Didn't realize Heather's pendant was stamped on the back too. Unfortunately this piece doesn't wear well on this flip side. Now I wonder if I would have liked the LOVE bravely side better.

 This is a cute mirror and owl that I picked up in Keene NY at this awesome gift shop there. I loved the place, wanted one of everything. Including all of the custom rustic furniture that the owners make. Lovely stuff!

Well that's it for my smorgasborg of a blog post today.  Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Returned from a Mountain Paradise

Hi!

I want to apologize if I've made you worry. I think we are back on track now. It was a very stressful and long week last week- I felt doubtful and unsure, and very sad. It's tough when something like this hits you out of left field. But I think we are back on track, and my eyes are wide open now. Not necessarily looking for something to happen but just being aware, being on my toes, having my guard up.

We ran away to the Adirondack mountains, and spent two days breathing the brisk mountain air, eating our favorite foods, relaxing together with no agenda and no ringing cell phones and no text messages.
It was so nice to visit this area of NY state again. We almost moved to Saranac Lake when we were getting out of college. Joe tried to do his student teaching there. We talked about how different our lives would be if that had actually happened. We suspect we'd be skiers. And possibly thinner from all that exercise. But we are quite happy how things are, and where we are. Yes. I am just right where I'm supposed to be.

 thank you all for your support, words of encouragement and just sticking with me. regular posts will start again tomorrow.

excuse me

things are a little upside down 

right now.

lesson learned, 

when something big like this happens,

you can't go on and just act like

everything is normal.

you have to re-evaluate things.

you have to fix things.

you have to pay attention to certain

details.

even if you don't want to.

so please excuse this 

radio silence. 

i am working on a few important things.

This calls for a getaway.

i'll be back back as soon as i can.

lorelei.

Weekend Recap

It was  a good weekend, the open house went really well. I was pleased!
The food turned out great. Artichoke and Spinach cheese dip, Choc Chip Zuchini bread, and Chili! Delish!

Although I saw few people stop by, I still did fairly well in sales! Necklaces and Earrings sold the most. Things on my linen busts did not sell. I find that really interesting. Especially since I thought the busts showcases necklaces so perfectly. Maybe people don't like to fuss with taking it off? There is a whole science behind the jewelry displays!

This morning and yesterday, I posted some of the jewelry in the shop that did not end up selling.

Jade Scott Flower Participants!

Can I get a HOOT HOOT!

1.  Serena Trent

2. Susan Raber

3. Shawna Tobias

4. Lucid Moon Studio

5. K Hutchinson

6. Gigi

7. Lois Moon

COME ON DOWN!
Ladies, please email me with your mailing address and I will get your flowers out to you all this weekend! Remember, the reveal day for your blog posts will be November 28th. I think I have all of your blog addresses but just to be safe, please put your links in your email to me.


Create a piece using the bezel, photograph it and write your post. I will put together a blog post on my blog at least 2 days before reveal day,  where all the participants links will be active. Come on over, copy paste the list, and please post this list in your blog post.

Here is how a blog hop works successfully. You should be able to click the #1 link, and then on that blog, click the #2 link, and on that blog, click the #3 link.
Let me try to explain this better. Everyone should be posting the full list of participants and once they copy and paste the live link list to their blog, people should be able to click through each person's blog,  link by link by link. does that make sense?
Flowing easily from one blog to the next without going back to the original blog that showed the list. 


Thank you to everyone who commented for a chance!! 57 comments! Woot! K, I guess you like this kind of blog thing. I like the smaller ones- it's a bit more manageable. If you have any suggestions on components you'd like to see me use for the next blog challenge, leave a comment or send an email!