It's almost 2am

Wed morning, so i'll post a few photos b4 bed.

The studio space pics didn't come out because the day was a dark one.

  They will come another day.

Starting on the left

Black Onyx ~ Koroit Opal ~ Ocean Jasper ~ Turquoise

The silver just came out of the pickle in this photo.

Not sure what the opal & jasper will be yet.

The floss under the jasper stone is there so i can
pop the stone back out to finish the piece.

Finished Onyx & Turquoise below.
The silver on these were from scrap i was going to melt down
but then started to play around with it and decided to make these "simple" pieces.

The turquoise still needs a chain put together and oxidized.

I only purchased a few small commercial

bezel cups to see how i liked them.

I like the small stones on pieces, and will continue to use them but

i wish my hands could handle making bezels this small instead.

Update ~ i was able to get the chain for the

turquoise necklace

 oxidized, tumbled and put together when i got home today.

Both necklaces will be listed in my shop by the weekend.

It will be close to dark when i get home tomorrow and Friday

 so photos will be done Saturday morning.

~Another Update~

My neighbor wanted this, so it's been replaced with a teardrop shaped pendant in my shop.

  

Finishing my cocoa and heading for bed...

Time

I managed to squeeze some in today! 

I snapped a few photos of some small pieces that just got

pulled from the pickle 

& 

will post tonight after dinner.

I hope to have time tomorrow to finish a couple of them.

I also snapped some pics of my studio space, i will post as well.

 I have to organize better b4 i start to work in there...  

what 

a 

mess! 

I also relax at the laptop in 
the room

so it always gets 

picked up after.

I'm off to finish cooking chicken & dumplings.

~Later

Torching my Dreams...

Note ~ for those who are new to my blog & didn't get here through 

"stormy's day" (my old blog)...

This is where my new blog begins.

: )

______________________________________________________

The name for this blog came to me,  when i stopped thinking so much about it. 
I 

 really 

like the name.

Creating jewelry (using a torch), was the last thing i thought i'd be doing at this point in my life.

The earrings in the header above were torched to get that gorgeous patina; which took many attempts to get them to match up enough to sell as a pair...but i loved every minute of it.
That's pretty much where i

"fell in love with my torch".

Torchingmydreams.etsy.com
May become my new shop name 
down the road. 
Or maybe not.

I'll cover my butt just in case ...

he ever decides to read my blog

Happy Birthday Jamie!

hehe

He purchased a pair of leather

chaps last weekend, b4 it got any colder riding his bike to work in the morning

 ~ so i pitched in ~  

(early gift)

I also got him 2 nice cotton shirts from 

The Gap

We ended the day by going to 
La Villa 
for dinner.

: )

MySpaceGraphicsandAnimations.com

Blueberry Bird Poo ??

The last week has been pretty busy, with very little time to create jewelry. I did manage to melt 2 fine silver bezels in the hour I crammed in :(

Tomorrow I have a few hours to work on something else. 

Other than that, not much going on except...

This evening, Jamie and I went to do some grocery shopping ~ I got out of the truck and started walking towards the store... felt something wet land on my left baby toe (i had flip flops on) and I looked down to see what looked like a large mushed blueberry. 

 my back was bothering me so I couldn't bend down that close...

I said "JAMIE..come here and tell me WTH this is that just landed on my toe!"

(laughing a little as i yelled for him) 
He says, "it looks like a bird just crapped out a blueberry ~ giggles"

I totally grossed out ~ Yuck! 

He got a napkin out of the truck to wipe it off for me. 
 Once we got into the store, he grabbed one of the disinfectant wipes they have to clean carts, and finished cleaning it off.

it was actually pretty funny once it was removed from my foot!

*sigh*

 

Sometimes we just need a little reminder...

"Daily Meditation"

How inspiring it is to walk all day in the sunshine and sleep all night under the stars. 

What a wonderful experience in simple, natural living. 

Since you carry your food, sleeping equipment, etc., on your back, you learn quickly that unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. 

You soon realize what the essentials of life are - such as warmth when you are cold, a dry spot on a rainy day, the simplest food when you are hungry, pure cool water when you are thirsty. 

You soon put material things in their proper place, realizing that they are there for use, but relinquishing them when they are not useful. you soon experience and learn to appreciated the great freedom of simplicity.  

- Peace Pilgrim

Photos as promised

The stone is a pink tourmaline ~ not in great shape 

(that's why it was used for practice)

 The ring wasn't planned at all. I  cut out a rough organic looking circle for the flower

and sort of liked it; after I beat it to death! 

Once done, I thought it would look cool with the center oxidized black.

 

My daughter likes both 

The ring in this pic above shows the black oxidized center best.




The pendant was oxidized as well.

Not a Virgin ~ anymore!

 A bezel setting virgin that is  :o)

I spent a good 3 hours today cutting bezel wire 2 short ~ not being able to line the cut up enough for the solder to flow ~ figuring out how to cut the bezel wire so it came together with no gaps...duh! 

And last, but not least -- i set the stone b4 i thought about making a bail, so i drilled a hole and used one of the commercial bails i had.

Normally, I would be stressed to the max after 3 hours but

I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Since I started playing with solder not long ago, I new *something more* was ahead. I could taste it but, couldn't quite *see* it, yet.

When I first started making jewelry, i would look around etsy admiring this type of work/art, and thought

" if only i had the patience to do that!" 

I never thought, in a million years, I would be able to relax enough while trying. 

Will post pic's tomorrow ~ the piece is in the tumbler.

Weekend Update

I just realized I haven't blogged in a week...as i sit here checking my email...

Anyway ~ Not much to report.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a bead shop in Johnson called "Zoe's Kaleidoscope" to see what they had for cabochons and found nothing to my liking. They had a lot of beads, just not much for cabs, which is what i was looking for.

On the way back, we stopped at a country garden center that was having a yard sale and I found this great shelf for $5!!
  love it when we find good deals. :)

It's 30" wide x 31" high ~ nice "beefy" piece.

I'm about to go hose it down, and think about what color i want to paint it. I was thinking i would use it for extra storage in the upstairs bath but it's 2 big for the space, sooo.. i guess it will go in my "studio" space :)

  I can always use more storage in there.

 

A few pic's i snapped on the road.

 

Let's see ~ what else is new...

we've been talking about getting married 

 (seeing we've been 2gether for 10.5 years) 
& 
still 
so 
in
love :) 

I'm thinking about sewing myself a long tunic 

(haven't sewn since i made the leather bag)

~ I've also been practicing my soldering ~

 waiting for another Rio Grande order to arrive ...trying a 2nd pair of magnifying head wear 

(the first pr didn't work with my script) 

I hope i find something soon...i can't see the solder flow ~ which makes it hard to do!

 Silver prices keep going UP and UP and UP!!
screams