Pot Luck Bracelet

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A few weeks ago, I picked up a new book by Irina Miech, Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders. While I’ve wanted it for a while, I felt better about the fact that I waited for just the perfect, large coupon from the bookstore to get it. Don’t we all love a bargain? The book is full of great ideas and I must admit that as with most of my design library, I’ve mainly just looked at the pictures. Last night, however, after a very long day that started pre-dawn, my brain was tired and I decided to actually follow a pattern. If you’ve read my posts previously, you know this is not my forte. A few hours later I had a new bracelet. Did it look like the one in the book? NO. Did it have to look like the one in the book? NO! The piece in the book was made with pearls and smaller stones than what I created. My bracelet was pot luck. I made it from the extra beads that lay upon my bead board. Several times during the process I thought I might need to turn back and actually plan, but I trudged on.

When I finished last night, I thought the bracelet was pretty gaudy; but this morning it looks a bit better. Albeit, I would not want my wired friends to inspect the quality of the work; it is simply a prototype of bracelets to come. I think with a lighter gauge wire and somewhat smaller beads, this might work. This cuff does not need a clasp as you can see from the second photo.

Pot lucks at social functions are usually quite popular. Let’s just hope that once this bracelet is perfected, it too will be something people will want.

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Papaw Polished

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The pendant at the right is Papaw polished! You see, my father was a woodworker, not a professional, but a great hobbyist with a purpose. After retiring from the Army and then from work with the Soil Conservation Service, he spent many of his hours in his workshop, sawing, sanding, and polishing wood. He could make a new claw foot for a broken antique table leg or build a cabinet from scratch. He fixed things for the neighbors and built things for his friends and family. When my family visited him, I could hardly get in the door before he required me to take a trip out to the “shed” to see what he was doing. Often, I was solicited to help with the sanding and polishing.

Often I thought I was finished sanding a piece only to have Papaw run his rough hand across it and shake his head. That meant, there was more to be done. Although I really thought the sanding was often excessive, I quickly learned that I might as well do it right or he would go back and fix my work which was the ultimate insult.

Following the sanding, there were usually layers upon layers of varnish that went on a piece until the polish was just so. Of course there was sanding to be done between the layers. Sometimes, things then required a light coat of wax  or oil to produce the appropriate finish.

Today, I couldn’t help but think about Papaw as I worked on the pendant for the pictured piece. I cut it, hammered it, oxidized it and put it in the tumbler thinking that would be the end. Wrong! The edged were still slightly ragged. So, I ground them with the Dremel, smoothed them with the file and felt sure I was done. Wrong! The piece still wasn’t just right. I could practically see my father shaking his head. Finally, I worked on it with steel wool until I had something to be proud of. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if Papaw ran his hand over it would it be Papaw polished or would I be put back to work? Maybe I’d better go feel of that pendant again.

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Stress Reduction

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With the cattle sale four weeks from today, you might imagine that stress is predominant here at the ranch. It’s a good stress, I think, because we get to hear from and see customers that we enjoy and appreciate.

I glanced at a magazine today that, as if on call, contained an article about ways to reduce stress. I think that I’ve read so many of these from time to time that I could probably write one of my own. There are, of course, the obvious stress reducers such as eating right, exercising, focusing on breathing, meditating, etc. This particular article, however, discussed how clutter can reduce your energy creating stress. Finally, something I can actually do! First, I suggested to my husband that HIS clutter was adding to MY stress. Well, that didn’t fly at all! Then, realizing that the only thing I could actually control was my own clutter, I dove right in and started cleaning the studio.

As a good researcher, I know that you are supposed to document the condition of what you are trying to change prior to starting the treatment. Yet, I failed to take a picture of the cluttered studio prior to the “treatment” of dust and clutter removal. You’ll just have to take my word for it. The studio was dirty and very cluttered! Following a two hour treatment, two thirds of it has improved as shown in the picture. What you cannot see is the bead table stacked with plastic drawers and other materials. That is on tap for “treatment” tomorrow. I do seem to feel a bit less stressed as I look around the room (as long as I don’t turn my head too far towards the beads). Maybe there IS something to this method. I suspect, however, that it will be short lived unless I can manage to keep things straight; but for the moment, I’ll take what I can get.

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Productivity

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I’ve been chastising myself for accomplishing so little the past few days. Although I’ve tried to work at my normal rate, things just haven’t worked out well.  Granted, the ranching business is quite busy as we prepare for the October production sale and the phone does, thankfully, ring quite often regarding our offering.

Yesterday, I thought I’d simply put down the jewelry design work and focus on sewing something for my 9 month old grandson. When I began the project, I noticed the cat begging at my window. Taking pity on her, I let her into the studio and out of the rain. There seemed to be a “thank you” in every swish of her tail. Following her initial pleasure, however, she realized I just wasn’t going to stop and continue petting her as long as she wanted. First she got in my lap as I worked at the sewing machine and then she hopped right up on the machine in an attempt to distract me. I wasn’t especially happy with her when my stitching went awry while she paced around on the machine cabinet. Eventually she prettied herself over on the fabric I was trying to cut out. I finally gave up on that project and put it all away, except for the fabric I couldn’t get out from under the cat.

Another attempt at the jewelry did net a couple of pieces that are going out of state. Feeling a bit down about my lack of productivity, I realized that I did at least get pictures of them.

It seems I’m not the only person in my family who has been worrying about productivity lately. Twice on my last visit with my mother, she commented on how unproductive she felt. None of my philosophical dialogue seemed to comfort her. I tried my “age and stage” lecture, then the circle of life sermon, but they just didn’t work. Another resident, who is a friend to mother, overheard us talking. “That’s just silly",” she said in a very stern voice. “I’m productive if I just make it through another day!” “You should be happy to have accomplished that.” Mother didn’t bring up the subject again. Oh, for the wisdom of our elders – what would I do without it? I’m just beginning to see that I’ve been more productive than I realized.

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Daily Oral Math

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When I taught first grade, we were supposed to follow a prescribed set of exercises for Daily Oral Math. These were very short exercises in which the teacher posed a mathematical problem and the students solved it without the aid of pencil and paper. I really liked the idea behind these exercises, but I didn’t especially like having to follow the teacher’s manual. (Aren’t you surprised?) Often, after doing the oral problem in the book, I added one or two of my own. They were often based upon a recent first grade happening or something we had seen on the playground. (If Johnny hid Jason’s shoes out on the playground, how many single shoes were brought back into our room? How many little boys were in trouble?) As I was taking photos of designs today, I almost wished again for a group of first graders to whom I might pose the problems at the end of this post.

The pictures today are of new earring designs. I’m been trying to get used to the idea of using mixed metals in more of my pieces and have used the earrings to jump start this process. As you will see by the numerous photos (minus two that have already gone out) that I got a bit carried away.

I fear that some of these earrings are in search of a woman with a long neck. Most of them are definitely swingers! It was fun to play with the mixed metals and the look is starting to grow on me. Next, I need to tackle pendants with mixed metals.

Oh, and that math problem . . . let’s see . . . something simple here first. How many people would it take to wear 16 earrings? How many women would it take to wear 16 earrings if three of the women had two holes in one ear and one hole in the other? Would this create any type of problem? How many different combinations of pairs of earrings could you create with four pair of earrings? Would that number double if you used all eight pair of earrings? How many readers DO NOT want any more Daily Oral Math?

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Stringing Along

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Today I decided to string along with my husband who went to a cattle sale. It turned out to be a beautiful day for a drive through the Texas hill country and the recent rains gave new life to the entire area. Although the grass looked pretty green, there was still little or no water in the streams along the back roads. This country may be starting to recover, but it isn’t there yet.

Since I wouldn’t want any “grass”, green or otherwise, to grow under my feet, I took my beads along for the ride and the 7 hours we spent in the car proved productive. Pictures of the finished necklaces follow.

You don’t really want to know how many beads ended up on the floor of my car, but it wasn’t too bad. Actually, I’m thinking the car is a pretty good place to work. The natural light was excellent, the company was good, my cell phone was out of range and I couldn’t hear the fax machine. Hmm . . . this could become a new place to hide out and work!

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It’s Been a Long Time . . .

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. . . since the dogs and I have been for a long walk.  The four of us used to walk every other day, but the 100 degree plus days of this long summer gave me an excuse to be lazy. Today, a 78 degree morning, seemed the time to start anew. We were all excited as we started out. I actually thought the Blue Heelers might just leap over the fence and out of their pen when they realized we were going. They acted like three children who had never been to a McDonald’s play scape before and their mother finally let them go.

Knowing the youngest one could not control her exuberance, I placed her on a leash. When her mother took off to bark at the hilltop bulls, she did also, jerking me sideways to the point of nearly falling. Bad Puppy! Finally under control again, we peacefully, more or less, made it down the hill to the front pastures. There awaited another temptation, our beautiful yearling heifers. Instinctively, the mother dog went straight for their legs attempting to run full speed through the gate to get them. Unfortunately, she is a very FAT dog and initially got stuck in the gate. With great fortitude, she backed herself out and went under the gate only to be stepped on by one of the heifers. Back she came holding one little paw up in the air. I’m sure I should have felt sorry for her.

The three legged dog and the rest of us continued our relatively pleasant, albeit slow due to the limper, walk. When we came to the weaned bull calves, the same silly dog went racing through the electric (arf, arf, ouch) fence only to be chased back through (ouch, ouch, arf) the electric fence by the little guys. Now, a very dejected three legged dog walked even more slowing back home. Did she learn a lesson? Absolutely not! When we got back to the hilltop, she again tried to get after the big bulls.

I think that dog is a good deal like some of us. I go flat out when something is of interest to me and often pay the physical consequences later. Moderation doesn’t seem to be a word that fits with my personality (or the dog’s). My poor dog will probably suffer for a day or two, but what do you want to bet that the next time we walk she does the same things again? I’m ordered a shock collar today!

The eventful walk did, give me energy for design work and I started right in this morning. Now, I have pieces polishing in the tumbler and more earrings on the brain. The picture shows a couple I made last night. Hopefully as I work today I will try to remember the morning walk, my age, and my physical abilities and do a better job of balancing myself than my dog!

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Just Pictures

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This blog runneth over with philosophy lately, so now I’m just showing a few pictures of some of today’s work. These are a little of this and that as I attempted to stay focused on my to do list. The first strung necklace and earrings shows how I just keep coming back to those bone horses. These are a bit larger than what I usually use and so I didn’t do a double strand as in previous designs.

The next design is entirely of copper wire and beads. I used both 18 and 20 gauge wire selected according to the size of the hole in each bead. The pendant is surrounded by a new type cage that I am trying.

The bulk of the work time today was spent on hammering copper sheet metal and preparing components for an order. Armed with drill, dremel and a new texture hammer, I finished most of the pieces. I have not yet put the patina on these, but  a few are shown below.  The top piece will be a belt buckle; the round piece will be a pendant and there are six ovals requested by the customer for an unknown purpose. I’ve used the same type ovals previously in necklaces and in belts.  I purchased the texture hammer on etsy from Hodpodgerie. It is one texture on one head and a different on the other.  I’m not showing a picture of how my index finger looks after I hammered it with the new texture. Those little grids on the hammer are quite sharp. I imagine I will lose my fingernail. I also imagine I will be much more careful in the future. OUCH!

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Joy in the Center

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I made a grown man cry today. Perhaps I should feel bad about it, but I don’t.

Today, I visited my mother at the “center” which is her word for the nursing home. I do not know if she has a psychological dislike of the later term, but center is what we have called her home for six years. One of the churches donated a nice reasonably new spinet organ to the center and I’ve tried for months to get mother to play it. It has been somewhat of a source of consternation for me since it took a considerable number of “lessons” from me, which she is sure she didn’t ask for, in order to get her reasonably adept at the sound settings. Finally, with that task checked off and a small bag of music that she could manage with her wheel chair prepared for her, I felt reasonably secure knowing she would enjoy playing the organ on a regular basis. WRONG! Days later, she told me there was too much going on in the living room where the organ is located and that she couldn’t bother folks. My mother is a great musician and I feel sure people would love her playing. I finally learned from my probing questions that even one person in the room is too many for her to play. Luckily, my son suggested I get earphones so that Mother could play the organ without anyone hearing her. We practiced the plugging in and removal process for the headphones and I felt she was on her way. WRONG! Days later I discovered she still wasn’t playing. It was then that I learned that not only did she not want anyone to hear her, she also didn’t want anyone to see her playing. My terse response to this was to explain that I didn’t have a shroud to make her invisible and she explained that she didn’t need a shroud because she wasn’t dead.

For some unknown reason, when I approached the organ playing today, Mother was amenable and although she used the earphones, she didn’t worry about being seen. She did, however, lean over to me several times while she was playing to ask if I could hear her. I explained that all the sound went to the earphones when she plugged them in. “Well,” she said, “you didn’t tell me that part!” I tried not to make a face.

After Mother finished playing, she agreed to let me play without the earphones. After a while, a man rolled up behind me and I could hear him talking about his daughter who plays the pipe organ. He explained that he was a preacher and she had been his organist. I quickly changed from the tunes I was playing to hymns and then I heard the therapist with the man say, “please don’t cry.” This 92 year old said, “it’s just so beautiful.” It was all I could do to keep playing. After several hymns, he asked if I could find a peppy one, which I did, and he and my mother commenced to sing along. Every once in a while he would shout out “halleluiah!” and I would pretend I was used to this response. We closed this impromptu concert with The Old Grey Mare (yes, I know that isn’t a hymn) and everyone in the room sang along. I promised the man that we would come look for him the next time we played the organ and he and my mother both assured me that neither of them was going any place.

So, I DID make a grown man cry today and I hope I can do it again. The blessings of an elderly preacher stimulated by strains of Amazing Grace brought joy to all of us at the center.

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Shiny

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Today was a shiny day! You might think this means that the sun was out today, but it was dark and cloudy. Usually, we would think this is bad, but today it was a happy phenomena. Following what seems to me to be an eternity, we have received over an inch of rain and this initiates hope for our drought stricken area. While that doesn’t sound like very much rain, relatively speaking, it’s huge. We went out after supper tonight to move the young bull calves to a different pasture and they were leaping, jumping and kicking in the cooler weather. If I weren’t partially over the hill, I would have been kicking and jumping too. The wet, black animals looked shiny and clean following the day’s washing and I can’t remember ever being so pleased to come back to the house with muddy shoes. I’ve decided “shiny” has nothing to do with the sun.

As an example, several years ago, my husband remarked that a young woman at a meeting he attended was “shiny”. Since I hadn’t heard that term in reference to a human before, I wondered if he was talking about her makeup or her clothes. My husband just kept saying, “you know . . . she’s real shiny.” Finally I decided that this was a half compliment indicating the woman was polished or fixed up to look attractive. I’m still not quite sure about that one, but when I learned her young age, I quit worrying about it.

A person could certainly have a shiny personality. This often connotes a bubbly disposition and a gregarious person. While this is usually pleasant, there are times when a shiny personality can be downright irritating. Someone with a shiny personality needs to know when to and when not to SHINE.

Today, shiny is an adjective for a new bracelet. It’s copper and I elected to omit the patina. It definitely has bling! The ovals were cut from a sheet of 24 gauge copper and the rings are handmade from recycled copper wire. I made a second bracelet in the same style and did patina it. This is for a boutique owner who doesn’t like shiny (on her jewelry).

All things considered, shiny can describe a feeling, an action or a state of being. Some think shiny is good and others see it as negative. All I ask is that tomorrow’s shiny day also brings more rain to central Texas.

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