Category Archives: craft

Feb24

The next couple days

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The next couple days

The only thing I fixed was pasta and sauce. Vivi was home sick from school, maybe from all the Valentine’s sweets. Oh, and I fixed her some hot tea, too.

Day 15, #the100dayproject2024, #fixandfinish.

Viv was better the next day, so I headed home for a couple of days. I stopped at Cracker Barrel and found this, on sale!

My sister-law, Pam, loves peacocks and has a new studio at her house, with windows! I took a detour and headed straight for it. I gave her the glass panel, we had a great visit, and I finished my trip home. Day 16, #the100dayproject2024, #fixandfinish.

Feb23

Back to Valentine’s Day

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Back to Valentine’s Day

Day 14, #the100dayproject, #fixand finish. I had plenty to do on Valentine’s Day! I finished this necklace for my daughter.

All it needed was a chain and findings. The stone heart is rose quartz. I bought it at Cherry Tree Beads in Swannanoa, NC. See how the red paper heart hides the logo on the JTV gift box?

I fixed a hammered copper heart I made this Sept. at the JTV Workshop in Knoxville. I just swapped the silver chain they gave us for a copper one. When I torched the heart, it formed a hot pink streak, which is hard to see in this photo.

(I like the torch firing!)

I’d bought Vivi a candle from Natural Life that said, “You are So Loved,”

but I didn’t have the right size gift bag. Then I remembered a white bag a neighbor’s little girl had used to deliver us some Christmas cookies. It had red tissue in it, and I had saved it! I recycled it with red paper hearts I had punched and a heart from a box of conversation candies. Perfect fit!

I didn’t forget my grandson, who just wants money.

I sent my hubs stacked boxes of goodies from Wine Country Gift Baskets. I can reuse the colorful boxes and the ribbon that held them together!

Vivi didn’t want the carnations she had received at school from friends. She left them in my car. I put them to good use. I got this mug on clearance and was afraid to use it to drink from because it had a flaw. I put it to good use, too!

It was a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Feb17

The 100 Day Project

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The 100 Day Project

This is the third year I have participated in the 100 Day Project. The first year I did collage papers. I used the gel plate to print many of them.

Last year I concentrated on bracelets, beads and buttons. I made gemstone ladder stitch bracelets and sometimes fastened them with polymer clay buttons I made myself.

This year, I have chosen, “fix and finish.”

This is a broken necklace that has been waiting years to be fixed. I’ll be documenting what I fix or finish here moving forward.

Feb13

Valentines with Vivi

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Valentines with Vivi

We made valentines and valentine jewelry, tonight. We ate chicken noodle soup because Vivi wasn’t feeling well. She persevered to get her valentines ready for school tomorrow. No store-bought cards allowed.

Vivi said this was her first piece of “sophisticated“ jewelry. She usually puts some beads on a string and ties it. She learned about crimps and jump rings, and this was her design.
This was mine.
Feb6

Brace Yourself!

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Brace Yourself!

I’ve gone bracelet-making crazy!

Unakite with a hand sculpted mushroom button
Sodalite with a polymer clay button
Dragon’s Blood stone with a TierraCast button, This one was for Adrianne. She picked out the colors.
Two for me! Sodalite and Gray Agate with an AB (aurora borealis) coating
The buttons have been in my sewing drawer for years!
Rhodonite with black leather and pink cord
Unakite and 1.5mm leather, just to see. Another hand formed mushroom closure
Fancy jasper, natural turquoise leather, rust cord and a serene polymer clay button
Sunstone with a polymer clay button and Moroccan red leather (orange)
Red jasper, brown leather, and a vintage brass French horn button
Mookaite, burgundy leather, and a vintage button from my button basket
Morganite, white metallic leather and a sewing box button
Black agate, black leather and a TierraCast button
Rhodonite, black leather and an old sweater button
Gray agate with an AB coating, Chandi (lavender) leather and a sweater button
Aventurine, metallic ocean green leather, and a polymer clay button
Wood opal (petrified wood,) dark brown leather and a vintage button from my button basket
This one was on tv! Susan Thomas showed it on The Circle on JTV extra. The theme was Western World. She talked about it on the Jewel School broadcast, the next day, too!!! Stones are mahogany obsidian. The button is TierraCast.
Mookaite, burgundy leather, and a polymer clay button I made myself
Aventurine, ocean green metallic leather and a handcast polymer clay button
Dec21

Latest Bracelet

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Latest Bracelet
I am loving that ladder stitch!
The button is handmade polymer clay, cast from a fondant mold.
The beads are 6mm red tiger’s eye from JTV.
The leather is turkey red by Leather Cord, USA, and the nylon cord is an unnamed rust color from Bead Smith. Both were ordered from artbeads.com.

Unhinged, I think it looks like a snake skeleton! Thanks, again, to Tracy Proctor from Tierra Cast for teaching me this stitch.

Dec16

Once upon a time…

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Once upon a time…

I bought a kit and knitted a bracelet. Then I went crazy and bought different cords and number 6 seed beads in every color I could find. The original was gold, and the second was hot pink. The third was silver-lined crystal knit on silver cord. I lost interest, or a life thing came up, and I never added a clasp.

Today, I found that silver bracelet bagged up with its leftover beads!

I found it in this pink gift bag, and inside are at least a dozen other zipper bags with beads and matching cords!

Now, to find the pattern!