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