Weekend Planning

Super excited that I know have Bouchon Bakery in my hot little hands! Well, depending on the recipe having hot hands wouldn't be a plus but I'm pretty sure you get that I love myself some hyperbole. I actually picked it up at Barnes and Noble yesterday with a my member discount it was $45 vs Amazon's $30 but I wanted to support one of the sole brick and mortar businesses left even if they are a giant chain but not $15 bucks worth. From now on, online ordering is it. Also, I clearly have a lot of pinions...also not surprising to anyone who knows me.





I'm also super excited that Beadfest is this weekend in Arlington. Larger shows are great for finding some harder to come by beads and findings. The International Gem Show is in Ft Worth in February and I've marked it on my calendar. I'm ready to spend some time in the studio to finish up a couple projects and then get started on some new goodies.

I got Solder Technique Studio: Soldering Iron Fundamentals for the Mixed Media Artist at B&N with a coupon - only exception to new frugal book buying policy - and want to make everything!



I'm back on the handmade bandwagon and want to make at least 1 thing for everyone for Christmas. The likelihood of this is a solid 20% especially with Sophy but we'll see. I can't wait until she's old enough and we can do projects together. Also, projects handmade by Sophy would be big hits with the fam for gifts.

Anyone else have fun weekend plans?

p.s. Cool weather has hit Texas and I got to wear my new motorcycle jacket and snuggle under extra covers. Baking and soup creation are on the docket as well. Also solid 20% on all of my weekend plans but dreaming of major productivity is almost as good as actual productivity.

Soldering Skills Come in Handy

Turns out, my being able to solder is super handy. We saw a mirror set at IKEA that I loved. Mostly, I loved the hand mirror and the large mirror hanging with pretty pink velvet and chain but for $30 I could definitely figure something else out. I bought a set of rectangular mirrors instead ($5 for the pack of 4) and decided to DIY it at home. My first attempted involved epoxy and hangers... this did not go well although I discovered the epoxy failure prior to it hitting the ground. Up next, a round of soldering. This turned out to not be the pain in the butt I was expecting. I added a patina finish and am really happy with how it turned out with my pink ribbon and vintage chain added. Now I can check out the jewelry choices without running back into the bathroom to review. You would be amazed how many runs this can be in the am. :)



I decided to continue on with the super crafty DIY skills and fixed these vintage ornaments we got a few weeks ago. There were 6 in the set but two had lost their metal hangings so a little foil, flux and solder and these are back in business!


This weekend has been awesome. Incredibly relaxing with lots of movies (Blind Side, Purple Violets, Bottle Shock), tv catch up (have you seen White Collar yet? It's greatness!)and playing in the studio. We did get some Christmas shopping done but still need to get a few more things ordered.

Hope you had a terrific weekend.

Charms are on their way!

One of the exchanges I'm in includes swapping soldered Christmas charms. I think this little basket of charms is really sweet. I hope they make it safely and people like their charms.

I had lots of trouble sleeping so I've been up since 3 am. It seemed like the perfect time to play with glass and solder so I've been busy on a few new projects but now, I'm thinking a nap might be nice!

Charm

These are some of my new favorite necklaces to wear. They were the charms I made when practicing in the soldering for Virgins class Sally Jean taught. I really love the simplicity of them but the little girl with the initial charm is a favorite and I think I made it in about 30 seconds just to have something to solder. It just goes to show you that sometimes thinking to much can really get in the way!

Paris Panels

This is what we made in class today for Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. A lot of people made very romantic and vintage family panels but I was really moved to do something focusing on Paris ... maybe I finally got a chance to focus on the theme of the retreat and really embrace the romance and magic of Paris. I had a great time making these pieces and am really happy with how they turned out. I'm really getting the hang of soldering although I'm starting to become slightly phobic about jump rings! I've learned to just be patient and keep working until they work out.

A good friend of mine took the class with me and it was a blast. She's got a great sensibility and is an amazingly talented artist in her own right. She makes gorgeous stained and fired glass pieces. I'm lucky enough to have a piece she made for me. Having a friend in the class really made it fun and helped keep us motivated as 6 collage pieces could be kind of a challenge. I don't usually make that many pieces as once. Sally Jean also encouraged us to work outside the box and do something different than our usual style. All in all, I'm really happy with my finished piece.

Italian Post

That's what I think of when I look at the piece. I'm hoping to make it the centerpiece of a necklace once it's soldered with jump rings. I love this set of stamps from Stampington that has faces, tags and tickets since they work great on lots of things. This one couldn't have been easier and the hubby pointed out that I'm getting better at these... high praise there (seriously!).

My photoshop has gone wonky so I added these without cropping. It's the front and back of the same piece.

Soldering Zen!

Seriously folks, I had a zen moment tonight while soldering. Maybe it was finally being content in my job, first day today, and being relatively happy with the state of things or that I finally learned that less really can be more. Whatever it was, I was able to solder my microscope slide pins in a little over an hour (12 of them) and normally it would've taken me an hour to do 5. I realized I have been using waaaay too much solder and a tiny amount does the entire thing. I'm thrilled with how they turned out and that I can get them into the mail to my Mom on Weds (drying time on the pinbacks). Anyway, I love the new job and am having a good art day ... I'm pretty sure this beats a good hair day hands down!

Have a great Monday guys!

More pins... soldering begins!

I've got all the pins done and now I just have to solder (which is my least favorite part) but I'm hoping to get better with practice. These turned out great and I'm really pleased with the results. I need to get started on some new projects. I want to create an altered book to submit to Somerset Studio and I need to get my scrapbooks from our trip to Europe last fall done. My goal is to have the scrapbooks done before the year anniversary of our trip (I have until October!).

I start my new job tomorrow so I'm really nervous but excited at the same time. I'm hoping to be able to juggle my time better and really do some time management to fit everything in so I'll see how it goes.

p.s. If you haven't seen V for Vendetta or Inside Man both are amazing and well worth seeing. V is especially great for getting some art ideas.

Studio space clean out update

Two large bags of trash and 4 unnecessary rubbermaid containers later, may studio is slightly more organized but still in desperate need of cleaning. The husband and I have spent the weekend doing some clean out of our separate spaces. He's been going through his game room and organizing all his stuff while I"ve been doing the same in my area. We've decided to have a garage sale and my sister-in-law and mother-in-law have graciously volunteered to come help us. This is a huge offer since my sis-in-law is a 2nd grade teacher and they wouldn't be able to come down to help until JUNE. In. Texas. This won't be pretty.

I removed two large bags of trash and several contains that turned out to be helpful in terms of clutter vs actual storage so I'm definitely making progress. The thing is that all this cleaning has made me realize that I'm stuck on the notion that I have to be surrounded by tons of things to be creative. I've amassed all of this stuff that I can't even see and expect it to inspire me. I'm really going to make a conscious effort to try not to buy things unless I really love them or I know exactly what purpose the object will serve. I've done a lot of collecting of things that I "could probably use" vs "yep, gotta have some of those plastic baby penguins...(as a for instance)".

On an arty note, I've been working on soldering my slides for my swap and I have to say that could be going better. I think I've been adding too much solder and it's pulling the foil off the slide. Not sure what the problem is but it's unfortunate timing since we have family coming in next weekend for 4 days so the studio space will have to fulfill it's supporting role of second bedroom so my time crunch is on to get the space back together, solder figured out and deep cleaned for my mother-in-law (no garage sale can't happen now as this is purely a pilgrimage to shop... plus, it's 91 already here).

Yes, 91 in March. Gotta love Texas!