kiki p. oodle reads the post

miss kiki loves loves her trash journalism.

actually, what this dog loves is to sit at the table - and we let her.
and no, she is not named after kiki dee, but after kiki de montparnasse.

siam

the last new necklace.

my flameworked glass beads strung with golden baroque freshwater pearls.









the clasp is sterling silver with an applied black patina.

summer in siam by the pogues

a belly full of thanks

thanksgiving was a happy blur.

here's to great friends, a raucous feast, general silliness and almond scented champagne.

p/s that's macaroni and cheese in the foreground.

treasure

i love the idea of hand making treasure-

pirate worthy jewelry.


i put the big set of sea creature beads together with hand hammered sterling links -

and little irregularly faceted glowing red garnets.

i banged on a commercial clasp until it has some character, which is something i had never thought of doing before, duh.

the finished necklace is for sale at the more fire glass holiday sale which starts on friday. i will be there working friday afternoon and most of the day on saturday.

the studio will really be humming with both glass blowing and flameworking demonstrations. elizabeth and jen have made a mountain of the most beautiful hand blown glass ornaments ever. and if you've been a really good little girl or boy there are elizabeth's giant glass vessels (as seen most recently in metropolitan home) or one of her amazing glass floral chandeliers.

jade babies & bananas

there is a small piece of a song stuck in my head, it's going around and around, over and over again.

"i loves bananas because they have no bones."

i think it's from some 78rpm record that was being played at a party, or maybe something my husband was singing in the shower. where ever it came from it's not going away. ugh.


jade babies bracelet.

sterling silver, my flameworked glass beads, freshwater pearls, a couple of kinds of jade, rock crystal and some square chunks of metal that i think are galena.

ok, i just went on utube and found the song...

now you can have it stuck in your head too.

plasma ruffles

i have so much new jewelry to share with you...

there's lots of stuff in this bracelet besides my glass beads - coral, nice mexican turquoise nuggets veined with silver, one big white turquoise nugget, a black coral branch and some tiny turquoise chips used as spacers.

the colors of moretti glass i used in these beads are coral, turquoise, dark ivory, light ivory, red and black. just globbed it all on randomly then rolled them in bits of silver foil. the ruffles were made at the end by spot heating and twisting with my tweezers.

it's snowy and cold here today - i wish i could just s'lounge around with the poodles doing nearly nothing, but bead duty calls. i am watching over an open torch session this afternoon. it's one of my new favorite things because i get to see all the stuff the experienced bead makers are doing and show the newbies some tricks and help them with their basic skills.

little miss college comes home today for thanksgiving - i cannot wait to see her and enjoy the amazing energy she brings back to the house. it's too quiet here without her and her friends.

dark heart

one of the newest necklaces made in santa's little sweat shop.

i wound this one together late last night.

the chain has some lovely dark mysterious greenish bronze freshwater pearls with little opals threaded onto each 24g sterling silver handmade link.

i almost, almost kept this one.

big chickadee

it's big - about 1 1/4" from tail feathers to beak tip.

i started with a simple round dark gray glass core rolled in dark ivory frit then encased with pale gray transparent. then i spot heated and pulled the tail with my tweezers and then ploped on the head and beak.

sigh - every loose bead, necklace, brooch, bauble and booger is tagged, photographed, inventoried and delivered to more fire glass for the big holiday show that opens on friday.

santa's little sweatshop

so many beads, so little time.

this silver foiled heart is really big - almost 2" long.
by later this afternoon it should be a necklace - plink, plink, plink goes my hammer.

i will be spending my snowy sunday getting ready for the holiday show at more fire glass - because everything needs to be delivered on monday afternoon.

this makes me want to make some crazy cocktail rings.

bioluminescence

a nice big set of encased foil beads.

they're meant to be suggestive of undersea microscopic stuff -
if you are using a cartoon microscope.

i used all the colors of transparent glass i had on hand -

and lots and lots of silver foil.

my plan is to string them with pearls to make a big necklace.

something really showy for the more fire glass holiday show.

i keep hearing bits of disney's little mermaid in my head

"...everything's better, down where it's wetter, under the sea."

my daughter is almost 20, which means i have watched the little mermaid at least 100,000 times on video cassette.

sweet tweets

i am in another etsy treasury!

thanks nancy.

twilight & a rude awakening

the sky was amazing late yesterday afternoon.

but -

nature was not so amazing this morning.
have i written recently about how much i loathe the cold?

ginko leaves in the grass

last week most of the leaves had finally fallen off the three ginko trees in my yard, they are always the last leaves to give up and admit that winter is here. they cling to their branches for weeks after the maples and copper beeches have dropped everything and bunkered down for an another upstate new york winter.

the honey colored ginko leaves against dark blue green grass with the little bits of lamb's ear (that has crept out into my yard from the flower beds) were the color inspiration for this set of topaz and teal glass beads.

they are encased silver foil beads.

each bead started with a barrel shaped black core which was rolled in silver foil. next, one end was encased in light topaz and the other in teal to make a nice round bead. finally, they were re-heated and squeezed on the each side with my tweezer mashers - which makes this little cartoon bumblebee shape.


a close up of the foil.


the whole set of nine matching beads - each bead is a little bigger than a nickle.

i think i am going to add some amber and make a necklace from them.

fifi cardinal

"oh no, it's not another beanie baby hat, is it?"
- my husband

yes, but this one is different - it's for a small child. they won't even know what they're wearing - just that everyone will think they're cute. nothing is too weird on a toddler.

i used most of a nice, clean cardinal beanie baby and some spikey overly decorative beige synthetic novelty yarn for the nest.

the body of the hat is a mix of soft brown wool yarns and the red edge is wool and wispy italian mohair.

i wish i knew a toddler to give it to, sigh.
but since i don't it's up on etsy.

pumpkin gloves

knitting season is in full swing.

a little pile of wool that came from 'bits & pieces" the used craft supply store (i love that place). there's some orange slightly nubby worsted and two little skeins of very fine red mohair. knitted all together they make a very soft pumpkin tweed.

i am knittering away at a pair of fingerless gloves using a pattern from knitty called 'fetching.' it's a great little pattern. last week i did another pair for miss sophmore who (thanks to the usps) is already wearing them.

north american land sloth

behold ! the north american land sloth

(latin name) furrus kielbasaica

keep on nappin' napoleon.