Nasty Nate

Happy Halloween!!

Today's pic is not at all Halloween related. It is a picture of my new fishy, Nasty Nate. Isn't he beautiful. All of his fins have that crimson in them that you see, but you know how betas are. They seem to change color depending on which way they turn. Right now he is frowning at me and he looks entirely red. Evil little thing. He is a replacement for Fish Stick, who sadly passed away as a result of my feast or famine tank cleaning style. The water was green, and then I think I changed too much of it. I was pretty sad. It took me over a week to get a new one. I think i have the hang of it now though- he seems pretty happy to be out of that awful Wal-Mart cup they live in. And I have some neutralizer stuff for the water, so that it takes all the minerals out and helps him keep a slime coating. I think that we are going to be very happy together.

Anyway, I guess tomorrow I will update you on last night's epic cleaning session in the den. I tried last night but Blogger wouldn't load the pics. Wait till you see the mess, and then the cleanliness! The order! And all the SPACE!! So much flat surface to work upon. Everything neatly put away in it's appropriate place. Yay!

So, now that I know where everything is, and I have room to work on it, look for lots of new things. I think that my muse just ran away because she couldn't handle the mess anymore. I hope that she comes back really soon. I am ready to get to work!

If at first you don't succeed....

then try, try again. At least that is what they say. I don't know who they are, but i guess I will still take their advice.

Anyway, just in time for Halloween, here is something sure to scare you: my first resin beads! Aren't they dreadful?

So here's what happened to make these the eyesore that you see before you: I didn't have enough hardener in the mixture of clear. I was also too impatient. I didn't seal the sheet music very well, and so that is why it has some spots where it is soaked through. Next error was that i didn't let the clear set long enough before adding the paper. The same goes for adding the black. Whoops! Oh well, it is still not as bad as making a mistake with silver. I am gonna try again this week, and play with pigments.

Speaking of mistakes with silver, and try, trying again, I have a first and second try to show you. This is my first time weaving silver, and my second try. Can you guess which one is which? I hope so!

Anyway, I did another big long piece, about 8 inches, and the last four are really good looking, like the second piece. Nice and even. So I think that I have sufficiently gotten the hang of the weave to work on a finished piece. Wouldn't that be a novel idea? something I haven't done in ages!

Anyway that is just about all the news that is fit to print. I will hopefully check back tomorrow with before and after pics of the cleaning project that is really taking place right this minute.

Hope your weekend was great!

Marsha's Book

Well, here is my first installment of altered book pics! And I am actually posting pics this time, not just promising to post them. Anyway, here's the first:


And here's the second. This one is my favorite:


This one has a Sunflower base, with crackle medium applied next. On top of that is Metallic Copper acrylic. I found out that you don't get the crackle effect with acrylic on paper (yet...) but you do still get a really neat texture. Then there's some images from magazines, a line of sheet music, gold sequins, and wise words about the nature of money. Oh, and the lady is crying a blue rhinestone tear. Pretty snazzy huh?

So, Marsha's book has now hit the road and is on its way to Illinois. I am ready for my next book!

Well, for me it is now back to the task of making my house look clean and tidy for when my mom comes to town. Did I tell you that I am having my wisdom teeth taken out this Friday? Yup, and my wonderful mommy is coming to take care of me. It is nice when you don't feel well to have a mom around. :D However, my house currently looks like a craft store has vomited all over it. there are books, scraps of paper, silver wire, pliers, paintbrushes, various forms of paste and glue, and every other thing that you can imagine strewn all over the living room and den. I have to get to work. I have to not only contain the mess, but find real places for everything so that mom a) won't nag me about it b) touch things and try to mess with them. Gotta get to work!

More tomorrow. Maybe I will even show you pics of those awful resin beads that I made. You are up for a laugh, right?

EEEEEEK!

Oh my god, look at this spider that made her web on my porch!!! Isn't she horrifying? I didn't really zoom in all that much on her. She is just that alarmingly large:



Aren't you glad that this is the first pic that I show you in months? I bet so! Anyway, I have gotten rid of her. I didn't kill her, but I sent her packing. Let's just put it that way.

Well I have played around with some jewelry stuff over the past few days, but not a whole whole lot. I hope to get some more done tonight. I have had an idea for earrings rolling around in my head for weeks now, and I have just not had the motivation to sit down and give them a go. Perhaps I will do that this evening. I guess I should since this is the deadline for this week's FSOJ!

oooh, I just checked the good old email, and it seems that there is some stuff showing up here for my book altering. That is good- I was worried that it would take too long and I would hold everyone else up. Maybe I will be finishing the other pages that I want to do in the book that I have now, and those will be some fun pics to show you this weekend.

I can't believe that I forgot to mention this: two more days till Widespread Panic in Charleston! Yay, right here in my very own hometown. They come every fall. It is always nice to see them and be able to go home and get in my own bed, and not have to travel super far either. (the coliseum is about 15 minutes from my house). Good times.

Recent news v2.0

Okay so I take responsibility for not updating much lately, but now it seems that the stars (or Blogger, or both) are aligning against me! the last two posts, which were highly informative, are not here! Ugh. So let's try again with the high and low points.

Since deciding to take a breather from selling, and relaxing my expectations and refocusing, I have had so much fun. Lots of ideas, and lots of branching out and starting new things. One thing that I am having a lot of fun with is something totally new for me: altered books. Google them; you will see amazing examples on the net. Anyway, I joined an altered book group that was started on one of the forums that I frequent. I am currently working on the first book that I have received, and I gotta say that I am having a blast with it. My book is in Ohio right now, and I don't think that I will see it again for about 5 months. I can't wait to get it back! So I will post pics of the pages, but not tell you who they are for, in case those people don't want to know.

I have started over again on the FSOJ. It is already a new season, and I have been making stuff, but I have already fallen behind on posting. Ugh. Sigh. Shame on me. So, I am going to get back on track with posting and writing it up here. Lots of new pics to come, I promise!

Here's another high point of the last few weeks: my new neice! Caroline Arrington Henley was born 12 days ago! She is just wonderful, and I really like having her around. She is a big snuggler, and cuter than anything. I need to post pics of her too don't I?

Here's a low point of the past two weeks: while I was waiting at the hospital for Caroline to be born, I was also working on a horrifically abscessed tooth that ended up having to be pulled. Not fun. Not fun at all. Anyway, the pain pills kept me pretty foggy for the better part of that week, and Caroline kept me busy otherwise, so not a lot happened last week. I guess it was week before last at this point!

Oh and yesterday my car pooped out on me. Something with the clutch. I have been on my hands and knees (figuratively) begging and praying that it is not the transmission. Please, please, don't let it be the transmission. Please.

So with no car, I am stuck here for the day. That means that I have no excuse but to clean the house, do the laundry that I need to do, and get back to work on fun stuff.

I will check in tomorrow with pics hopefully!

Procrastinating

Two updates in a row! What will she think of next?

I am really just updating my blog in an effort to not have to mess with the pile of crap on my desk for even just a few more minutes. Pretty sad, huh?

Well, the purpose of this update is to kinda counteract the tone of the last update. I re-read it and thought that it sounded pretty melancholy. I hope that it didn't come across that way to you, faithful reader, because I am really excited about the change in direction! I think that sometimes admitting things to yourself that you don't really want to hear can be pretty liberating. I know that I feel like I have a big wieght taken off of my shoulders. I wonder what it is about Americans as a culture that makes us feel like we have to be superhuman. I was starting to feel that I failed somehow by not making every spare minute count toward some sort of progress. Progress to what end? I dunno.

So far so good on the new jewelry plan. I am finally doing what I said that I would a million years ago, and I am devoting two hours a day to my jewelry. I really like it! I have only done it for a few days, but I can already tell that the definite time period makes me lots more productive. At what, you ask?

Well, I am working on something that is rather ambitious for your usual Silver Lotus piece. I told ya I was gonna push myself! It is lots of chain, lots of headpins, and lots of really pretty watermelon tourmaline. The bracelet is beyond labor intensive! After about four hours so far, I am almost done with the bracelet, and I made 50 headpins last night to get started on the tourmaline parts. I have a feeling that within the next day or so it may be put aside for a little while so that I can do something else. Mostly because the design requires LOTS of repetition and tedious work. Maybe since I haven't posted photos in so long I will share this as a work in progress. I love looking at works in progress, and seeing how much they change from one phase to another.

Well, that is all I got for ya today. Not very exciting, I know.

Crossroads

Hmmmm.

Ever feel like you are being pulled in two very different directions? That is the way that I have come to feel lately with regard to a lot of different things, most notably my jewelry, and the vision that I have for my business. I think that the pull of both things has been equal up till now, and that is what had me stuck in one spot for the last month or so.

I have been torn between what my jewelry is and what I want it to me. I think that in the past few months I have played with a lot of different styles in an effort to find my own style. Ultimaely what I have come up with thus far is a parody of other people's styles. I no longer want that for myself. I want very much for people to see my work, and say, "That is a piece from the Silver Lotus Studio." I don't think that they can quite yet. and the places that I want to take my jewelry are a bit scary to me. they are scary because they are new to me, and require me to ask a lot more of myself. But, I think that after a lot of thought, I am up to the challenge.

So, here's what I am going to do: I am going to take down my website for a bit, and re-work some things. I'm going to narrow my focus to things that I think will help me set myself apart from a lot of what you see out there today. Mostly, I want to be able to get behind my work again.

I also would like to push myself artisically without forcing the business. It was the hardest thing to realize, but I am just not in a place where I can devote myself to growing a business. I want to grow *me* as an artist before I can put myself out there to sell. I think that will put the fun back into it again. I was really sad there for a bit thinking that jewelry was no longer fun. I just want it to be fun again. So, watch for new things, totally unlike what you have seen from me before.

Should be exciting....