A trip into the country

So, Last Thursday, I mentioned that we had seen an eagle in our travels. I'm not sure if I also mentioned that I have never seen an eagle in the wild before....

Yesterday, again on a delivery trip, what should swoop past our car and head up to the top of a huge electrical high tension tower? You guessed it, another eagle!

This time I stopped the car and I got out to take a picture. I even used the telescopic feature on the camera. You can see it is still somewhat blurred, but it is clearly a bald eagle.

Supposedly, the eagle is a symbol of great power and also a messenger of the gods.

I'm not sure exactly what it means, but we have been feeling as if there is something in the air recently business wise, personally... who knows? Seeing two within a week after a lifetime of never seeing them certainly should mean something. Or it's a coincidence....

On a more mundane vein, we were in Amish country, as usual, and when we stopped at the Bird-in-Hand Bakeshop to drop off a few boxes, I was attracted to the "barnyard" petting zoo by this gang of sleepy goats!

They look like the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" relaxing on the bridge after dispatching the nasty old troll!

Years ago, when we had our own little herd of Pygmy goats, my DH built them a jungle gym contraption with ramps and bridges like this one. They always seemed to want to be at the highest point. Must be some of that mountain goat blood still in them!

During our final stop of the day, at an Amish roadside stand, as we were getting ready to leave, this contraption drove past in the field across the road. He is cutting alfalfa hay.

While the "rig" is being pulled by mules, there is a piece of machinery on the back that seems to be gasoline powered. My husband called it a sickle bar.

Each little group of Amish has specific rules.. and they can vary one from the other. Some are absolutely opposed to any form of gasoline engine. Some allow machinery like this, but do not allow gasoline lawn mowers. Some are the reverse.

In the past, many farms had a "phone booth" at the end of the driveway that may have been shared with other families in the area for use in emergencies. It seems that now, more and more, many Amish, especially those in business use cell phones. I wondered why this is so, but it just occurred to me that one of the things that is not allowed is to be connected to the outside world by "wires". I believe the real reason phones were forbidden was to encourage family time and if you think about how much time you spend on the phone (or watching TV), ignoring your family, you will understand the theory. The age of wireless may be their undoing.

Rosemary's & Sweet Remembrances

On Saturday, Tina & I attended a class with Rosemary Gladstar, sponsored by The Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg, PA. Rosemary is a well known herbalist and writer. When we had our shop, we sold some wonderful teas that she had designed as well as a number of her medicinal herbal books. It's interesting that even with so many "contacts", I had no real idea what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised with her lively and fascinating program.

I'm sure Tina will be blogging about her class, so I decided that someone should talk about the wonderful luncheon we were served at the tea room next door to the Rosemary House, Sweet Remembrances. Susanna Reppert Brill runs the herb shop, The Rosemary House, and her sister, Nancy Reppert runs Sweet Remembrances, next door. Whenever, there is a day long event at the Rosemary House, it includes a fabulous meal at Sweet Remembrances.

We had left home early in the pouring rain to get to the class and had no time for breakfast so we were especially happy to see the lovely hospitality spread when we arrived for the class. Nancy was smiling behind the table and so I knew, as I said to her, "When we see Nancy, we know good food is nearby." Good hot coffee and a selection of teas along with currant mini-muffins and a wonderful brown bread that made me forget I don't usually like raisins in baked goods.

We were in thrall of Rosemary as she passed on a vast amount of herbal knowledge and even though we ran well over the allotted time, when we arrived at the tea room, everything was ready for us and wonderful.

This was the table setting that awaited us, set with beautifully mismatched china teacups.

We were immediately served a piping hot pot of Forever Yours herbal tea, a longtime specialty of the Rosemary House. Each table had their own pot complete with quilted tea cozy.

I have to post a picture of Tina's teacup, just because we were so taken with it's unusual shape.

Okay - on to the meal. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that - I was just too busy enjoying it!

First we were served a plate of little tortilla cups with salsa in a small Phyllo cup. It was delicious and just set the stage for the main course...

A wonderful quiche! That is an expression you will seldom see me type as my former experiences with quiches have been less than stellar! Others have been somewhat soggy or tasteless - this one was fabulous! I'm not sure what all Nancy put in it other than cheese and leeks, but the combination was just great. The quiche was accompanied by acorn squash rings cooked in cider and a wonderful salad of fresh greens. All the vegetables used were organically grown by a local CSA.

As if all this wasn't enough, dessert was a lovely gingerbread cake with a lemon sauce and a dollop of whipped cream.

I must say that I have eaten a few meals now at Sweet Remembrances and have always enjoyed them immensely. I suggest that if you are in our area and have any interest at all in herbs you should visit The Rosemary House (I believe they are in their 40th year) and if you can possibly do it, schedule a luncheon at Sweet Remembrances. You'll be glad you did!

For the birds...

Another "birdie post" today.

A few weeks ago, on one of our deliveries to an Amish roadside stand, I took these pictures of birdhouses:The first one is a Martin House. I imagine they are common all over the place, but maybe not. Often these apartment houses for birds are placed high atop a pole hoping to lure a number of Martin families. Martins are said to feed on mosquitoes, so they are a welcome addition to a back yard to help keep the mosquito population down.

If you saw the movie "Witness" with Harrison Ford, you may remember seeing one of these houses in the yard of the farmer who took him in. Witness was actually filmed here in Lancaster County, PA.This second collection of houses are bird house gourds made into another apartment complex. They are hung high on a post, so I think they, too may be intended to lure the Martins. The white paint reflects the heat so they are somewhat air conditioned for their comfort!

This final picture is something I snapped today while we were out. Although you can't really tell what it is... okay, it's an eagle! As I approached some railroad tracks, I was surprised to see what I thought was a large hawk on a power line tower. I stopped and since nothing was coming, I told Tina to get out and see what she thought because by that time, I was thinking this was probably the biggest hawk I had ever seen.

She confirmed that it was an eagle and I tried to snap a picture (by pointing the camera backwards and setting it to telephoto.) Unfortunately it didn't come out too well! The poor thing looked pretty mangy and we can only assume (and hope) that it is molting.

It flew away shortly afterward, so this was the only shot I was able to get. An eagle, though is a very rare sight - especially as close to a populated area as we were.

Violet Storm

It took a little longer than I had planned, but here's the purple organic that I feel I may have overdone. It's called Violet Storm: I just love the pale, pale lavender that I used for the tiny dots and couldn't seem to stop following the swirls around the bead! I love seeing the tiny silver dots and swirls in the closeup: I suspect I'll have to actually make something with it before I can really tell if it is overdone.

Green .. and a little purple too.

I found a couple of hours yesterday to continue my exploration of organic beads and was excited to go out to the kiln this morning to find this little treasure!


I was working on getting more depth and think I succeeded. Here's a close up of the flow:


I'm having so much fun with the little dots that I may have gotten carried away. Actually, I like them in this one, but you'll see in the purple bead I'll show later....

There's a problem currently with the photo uploader, so I'll give Blogger a chance to correct it and be back later.

Something new for me

Oooh! I'm really excited about these. I decided to just play with an organic look yesterday. I didn't make many, but each one took quite a while.

The first one is called "Rootbeer Cosmos". The silvered Ivory really sparkles and looks like a million stars in the backround as the "rootbeer" flows through it with little silvery bubbles following the stream.

I think it's probably just the monitor on my laptop, but the colors don't seem to be as vibrant on these pictures as they are in real life.

But... the dots! They went on so beautifully and I knew where I was putting them. I know it's strange for me to be so excited about that. but it still amazes me what a huge difference wearing a different lens prescription makes.

I guess ever since I took part in the pendant swap I've been concentrating more on larger beads rather than sets.

To the right is "Grape Peacock". It looks like a silvery peacock melted into a bead and the grapes floated to the top... Strange, I know, but that's what I see.

These were just fun to work with and then when I pulled them out of the kiln and they looked good ... well! I love it when a plan comes together.

These two are the best that came out of the kiln and I guess I'll be trying a few more soon.

Charmed, I'm sure....

The title isn't original, since it was the name of the charm bracelet swap I was in (what seems like) a few months ago.

Well, this is the result. There was no theme - no rhyme nor reason so the charms. It still turned out pretty well and certainly makes an interesting conversation piece.

Plus, it matches everything!

It is interesting having charms from all over the US and a few from overseas as well. I hesitated to put it all together for fear I would forget where all the charms came from, but luckily one of the participants photoed and labeled all the charms separately and posted a PDF of the sheet. Now I can identify the makers easily. I will keep the sheet with the charm bracelet.

I had a hard time coming up with my lowly charm for this one, but then someone suggested a hometown charm bracelet.

That sounded great! I love a theme and Lancaster, PA is loaded with symbols.

The most obvious would be the red rose and that was my first thought, but then I started thinking about all the other things that say Lancaster and Lancaster County. Quilts, produce, Conestoga wagons... and Redware pottery.

I think I actually talked about this before, but these will be my contribution to this bracelet.

After we were set on the hometown theme, someone had mentioned an affirmation theme as well and somehow, that became part of the same swap.

15 people to a group and 3 groups going at a time...

I was thinking of somehow using the Chinese coins I had in the last swap, but settled on a single lampworked bead.

With an affirmation to choose... how about prosperity? Hmmm... a lucky coin and a fish, both symbols of prosperity. A green fish no less.

Now, how to identify it? Oooh I had some Shrinky Dink plastic around and started playing with it. I tried stamping, but the ink wasn't working well with the plastic. I noticed that the gold marker I had used to add a few little flourishes had stayed well, so I reached for a darker sheet and used the gold marker on the brown plastic.

I wasn't able to fit the whole word "Prosperity" on the size I needed it to be, so I just went with "Prosper". I'm pretty pleased with both the charms for this one and I am way ahead of the game sincce they aren't due until Dec. sometime.

I can hardly wait!

This has been an interesting year. I haven't done any "bead shows" as a vendor this year and I must say I miss it, but I still seem to be connecting with people who like what I do.

I've been collecting emails from happy customers. I keep them so that on those days when I feel that I've just lost it, I can read them and have my confidence bolstered.

You may know that we live on a Christmas Tree farm. That means that our busy season is rapidly approaching. We've been putting together a little "gifts and goodies" shop for the past couple of years and it's a nice outlet for soap, Tina's books and magazine, for my jewelry and for all the other little myriad projects we collaborate on during the year.

This is my jewelry display from the shop at Frog Hollow last year.

I have a lot of new things to bring out this year and I can hardly wait to see our customers from years past along with some who we met at some of the herb fairs we did this year and at our little local market that we did on Saturday mornings this summer.

We've decided not to do the PA Farm Show this year. Somehow the physical consequences just don't balance the monetary rewards for me. We were sick for a month following the show and apparently this is the case for all the humans and animals who are a part of it. I'm just too old to play that game any more.

That means we won't be making soap like madwomen during the Christmas season and will be able to enjoy it. It's soon time to send out our reminder post cards. A couple of trees are already marked for the years.... I can hardly wait!

Evolution of the Rest Stop

Today's post has nothing to do with any of my usual topics, but I'm in a group of bloggers and we were challenged to just blog about something we saw yesterday, so...

We drove down to Philadelphia yesterday on the PA Turnpike. We, of course stopped at one of the rest stops on the way there and it started me thinking.

When I was a little girl, for a few years, we lived in Columbus, OH while my father was in the Air Force. I vaguely remember a number of trips back and forth to visit family here in Central PA. One of the high points of the trip was driving through the long tunnels that were blasted through the mountains. Each family member in the car was told to make an animal noise so that the whole time we were inside the mountain, we were either crowing, mooing, barking, neighing or making some other bizarre animal noise. We must have sounded like the Brementown musicians! I'm not sure why this was done, probably to relieve the tension, because as an adult the tunnels creep me out!

The other thing that relieved the monotony of the drive was stopping at one of the rest stops along the highway. At that time, Howard Johnson's had the contract for the entire PA Turnpike. Their orange roofs and neon signs were such a cheerful sight, promising excitement to a 4 year old girl!

I don't remember much about the food, but I do remember that one time when we visited the bathrooms, there was something very different about the seats. Apparently the latest in modern hygiene was electronically cleaned seats. When the toilets were flushed, the seats raised up into a recess in the wall where they were disinfected by a vibrant blue light. I only remember that on one trip, but it definitely made a big impression.

Ho-Jo's ruled the PA Turnpike for a long time and we always knew exactly what to expoect, but as years passed, the rest stops changed. Suddenly we had choices! Sometimes there would be a MacDonald's or a Roy Rogers - it was quite exciting.

In the past 20 years or so, bit by bit, all the rest stops have been totally revamped. Each one is different, so you never know for sure what is available at each one. I imagine the American traveler expects more choices now than they did in the early days of the turnpike.

When we stopped yesterday, I was hopping to pick up a few soft pretzels, but then we noticed a Starbucks around the corner, so we also got some Danish to munch on along the way.

One rest stop on the way home offers a S'barros (Stuffed Pizza!), a Roy Rogers, a Cinnabon, a Starbucks and a new buffet style sandwich and salad place that just replaced the old Nathan's.

A couple of years ago, Tina and I drove out towards Chicago twice in one summer - this involved a lot of highways - and rest stops. I must say we enjoy them and were quite impressed by the various offerings in different states. But by the second return trip home, they had lost some of their charm!

Yup, they've come a long way, and I suppose the 4 year olds now are a lot more jaded than I was, but I bet they are every bit as happy as I was to get out of that car and check out the excitement of the rest stop.

Crystal Inspiration

I've had this crystal for a week or two. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but the crystal itself is about 3 inches long. I took pictures of both sides outside in our overcast morning light, so it doesn't have the sparkle it should, but I was too excited to care!

The crystal came along with the fluorite I showed a couple of days ago from Roe. I told her I'd try to wrap them for her and the fluorite went very quickly and easily.

This was another matter. It was irregular and just needed some kind of special treatment. She sent a broken bracelet that had a few different heart shaped stone beads, just in case I could work them into the piece.

I held it in my hand, tried a couple of things with scrap wire to see where the wires had to be placed to hold it securely, but wasn't inspired as to how to finish it off. I wanted to wrap it well and beautifully, but not overwhelm the stone itself. Tina suggested some kind of spider web look, but I wasn't sure how to pull it off.

Yesterday afternoon, I got out a bunch of old bead magazines and was drawn to one picture in particular. It had this webbed ladder-type of wrap used as a feature in the setting and suddenly I knew how to finish this.

After it was started, I couldn't put it down because it was one of those "automatic" things where I wasn't sure if I was directing it or the stone itself. There were little nooks and crannies that needed a special touch and there I added the stone hearts she had sent, along with silver beads, and a few curlicues.

Wire wrapping was never my "thing", but I have really enjoyed the things I have been doing lately and this one was just magickal!

Vibrant Autumn

Thought I'd start you out with a seasonal picture I snapped at an Amish roadside stand here in Lancaster County.

The scarlet hibiscus spilling over the bright orange pumpkins were so striking - they could be an inspiration for a gorgeous bead or set.

Speaking of striking, I'm not sure if I showed this set before.

I wear this color combination so much, especially in the summer. Jeans and bright green or other bright colored T-shirt.

I've been trying to get something made to match those bright combos and always seem to go off track before I actually get to the intended set.

The stringers will be pulled, the colors chosen, but then for some reason or other, something else will happen.

I'll just decide to make a big focal and start scrolling, entranced with the color reactions....

Or, lately, I get out the enamels and see what happens with this color or that and how it looks with various colors added.

The one to the left, I call Jade Garden. The teal stringer became a lovely jade color on the ivory base.

The one to the right, I call "Connect the Dots" It looks like a blue enamelware basin, but connect the dots seemed to fir it better!

Another bracelet made with some enamel experiments. I really like this combination of colors and oddly enough, it seems to go with many many outfits!

Finally, a pendant I put together featuring a large focal I call "Broken China" because it reminds me of a shard of fine china polished into a lentil shape.

The stone leaf is one of a strand I picked up at a show last year and haven't really done anything with yet.

This time of year is so vibrant. Very inspiring and energizing.

My plan is to get out the oranges and reds and see what happens at the torch today. We'll see what really happens!

From the kiln, etc...

I have a bunch of things to show you today.
Once again, I have been working on the beads I need for the pendant swap and am pretty pleased with the ones I got out of the kiln today.

First, we have "Grace". It was hard to name this one because so many names popped into my head - growth, sea fronds, but I think I'll stick with grace..

Sometimes you just get settled at the torch and things happen and last night was one of those times.

Another, similar bead that just "happened" was this one to the right... I call it "the Dance". It reminds me of a joyful, uninhibited dance.

I think that's the state I enter sometimes when I am creating. It's as if I'm in a trance and the glass is telling me what to do with it. If I have no plan, I'll pick up a color or two and let them tell me what to do. Sounds weird, but that's what happens.

This one, I'm calling "Fall Musings" because the colors, especially the variegations of the scrolls make me think of all the changing colors of the leaves.

The leaf change sneaks up on us and all at once, there it is. I've noticed it is already beginning.... sad, but it means another change of season and I enjoy the variety of seasons we have. I could do without the bitterest cold and the beastliest heat, but they come with the territory, so I choose to celebrate the changes rather than mourn them.

This one is a little different for me. I think I'm celebrating dots now that I have switched to my grocery store glasses and can actually see where they are going. I'm calling it "Frozen Flowers" mainly because "Colorful vine seen through a foggy window" just doesn't work!

It's one of the beads I made using enamels and I find the enamels keep the stringers (lines) from spreading too much and a lot more detail is preserved and a design can appear much more precise.

I couldn't resist posting this one. A new friend sent me a large piece of fluorite to wire and I worked on it for the past two nights. I think this is a perfect setting for this gorgeous piece!

(As with all the pictures, if you click on it, another window will open with a larger version, just hit your back button to come back to this page.)

Metaphysically, Fluorite is said to help connect mind to spirit. It does so by helping to neutralize persistent and unwanted thought patterns so that the mind, instead of keeping itself distracted by constant activity, much of which is resistance to these undesired thoughts, can be at peace.

Hmmm... I have a very similar piece that I wear occasionally. Sound like something I should carry with me at all times!

It seems I can't get a blog post up without mentioning the chickens and we've been pretty hard on them lately.

I have to admit that they aren't all mean and scary. This is our house chicken! We aren't sure if it's a he or a she. Until the day it crowed, we were sure it was a hen....

We call her/him "Socks", "Boots" or "Spats" because of the feathers on her/his feet. Whenever I walk from the shop to the house, he/she is hot on my heels because we have a little can of corn that we use to lure him/her to eat from our hands.

This one separated from the pack early and likes to hang around with us. Rudy has even taken a liking to it.

There's a welcome mat that says "Close the door quick before the chickens come in". I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it, but now.... I may have to get it because I don't think it will be long before that becomes a problem!

Wreaths and Roosters

I was first introduced to Sweet Annie (Artemisia Annua) by a friend who used to groom our dogs. I had taken the "girls" over for a visit and she showed me the swag of Sweet Annie she had hanging on the door. I was struck by it's frothy appearance and fresh, pungent aroma.

Years down the road, when we had our herb shop, one of our annual workshops was a Sweet Annie Wreath. (My sister, Tina, has basic instructions for making an herbal wreath on her blog here.) We planted a big row of it for just that purpose the first year and have never been without it since - although it is no longer in that nice neat row!

One year, it reseeded itself in a patch of Mesclun mix our young son had planted. He proudly cut and served it to us and we were surprised at the bitter taste. The next day we learned what had caused it and also that Sweet Annie has a laxative and vermifuge effect Well, at least no one had worms!

I expect to see it all over the farm now and was surprised today went out to photograph the stand of Sweet Annie that I had been watching all summer. As I got closer, something was odd about it. There's a picture of it to the left.

Those seed heads looked graceful, but certainly not the light, lacey look I expected, in fact they were so heavy the plant was bent over from the weight. I approached and gave the tops a squeeze. What? No scent? Wait a minute... these aren't Sweet Annie!

Nope, after taking an even closer look at the leaves, it turned out that the plants I'd been protecting from my husband's weed whacker ever since we cleaned out the corn patch were just overgrown Lamb's Quarters, gone to seed!

So, on with the hunt... I had gone far afield to avoid an attack by the angry rooster gang that lives at the bottom of the hill, but I was just going to have to brave them to get to the good stuff!

The guy to the right is the biggest bully of the bunch. He leads the attack and is shortly backed up by his lieutenant, a red rooster.

Tina has a pretty funny story about this bunch in her blog here.

But, I digress ... on with the hunt.

So, watching my back, I approached what I was SURE was Sweet Annie and took a nice shot.

You can see how lacey and upright the real stuff is. It's a bright yellow-green and the stems toward the middle of the plant are red. The aroma alone will give it away, but just watch out for those pretenders out there!

When it is ready to cut, the seeds bulk up a bit and the branches really fill in.

To the right is a shot of another patch of Sweet Annie next to a piece of equipment - it's a front end loader that is about 6 ft. tall - so you can see the relative size. It really gets BIG!

I was always surprised when I needed to get out the heavy "loppers" to cut the thick stems (trunks) in the fall.

So, now you probably want to know what we do with this stuff.

Well, this this a wreath I made last year around this time. The whole picture is faded, I'm afraid.

I can describe it to you though. The base is sweet annie with a some pampas grass plumes added in and a bit of blue garden sage. The flowers are the most beautiful hydrangeas - an unusual variety I found in one of our brothers' yard last fall. They were purple and burgundy - just beautiful.

This wreath hangs in our bedroom and I really wanted to plan a color scheme around it.

So, be sure what you are cutting and you may have the makings for a gorgeous, fragrant wreath in your backyard too! Just tying a bunch together with a ribbon makes a nice fall swag for the door.

Just watch out for roving rooster gangs - and don't eat the Sweet Annie!

Enamels... we've got enamels

Today, I really got on the enamel train! There are more, but this is the best of the bunch.

The picture is terrible, but it shows the assortment.

I finished a few more of the yellow redware branch beads, but got off track and had to try a few others.

There are so many choices now that I got the whole set of enamels and I've really only tried a few of the colors... haven't even touched some of the new glass colors I got at Beadfest almost a month ago!

The blue bead in the top middle was a try at a bird and it really did turn out well, but that blue is too dark to use on a dark color - not enough contrast. Then I tried again with the yellow one to the right.. Didn't turn out too badly, but I chose a couple others to spotlight:

To the right is a "Willow" pattern bead. It is one of the patterns I found while Googling redware patterns and I found that the brown stringer was stiff enough to get some decent detail.

I love blue willow stoneware and the willow motif is pretty cool. It may wind up in the swap box.

If you click on it, it should come up larger on another screen, just hit the back button to come back to this page.

Just before I finished up, I decided to try something else and the one to the left was the result. I think it has an art nouveau feel to it and I like it a lot. The colors are soft, but the pattern is clearly visible.

I'll have to see what else I can come up with just playing with it in a "free form" kinda way.

I think a simple setting will work with both of these because the beads speak for themselves and will both be easy to wear with a lot of things.

Beads and oh, yes.... Cheese!

I've been trying to get a good picture of this set since I made them. We have a sunny day today, so I took them outside and snapped this picture.

They are truly a gorgeous organic set of beads. I made them pretty much the same way as the big one I made into a pendant a few weeks ago because I knew they would be beautiful in a bracelet.

If you look at the enlargement of the third bead from the left, shown here, you can see how complex and amazing they are.

The little silver dots add just the right sparkle too!

I'll be getting back to the redware beads again as soon as I have a chance to torch again.

BUT! The other huge thing I really need to try VERY soon is to MAKE CHEESE!

Last evening, Tina & I went to a class taught by Betsy May, one of Tina's regular herb writers, at the Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg.

Ever since I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, I've felt that I have to learn to make cheese, so when we heard about the class, we signed up.

Betsy showed us, step by step, how to make a variety of soft cheeses including goat cheese (with none of the goaty aftertaste that has kept me from eating it for years) and Neufchatel which is very similar to cream cheese.

But the Pièce de résistance was the 30 minute mozzarella!

Here's a picture of Betsy. I think she's just poured the whey off the curds for the mozzarella.

Even in the less than ideal conditions of the lovely dining room of the Sweet Remembrances Tea Room (next door to the Rosemary House) where the class was actually held, she made it look easy enough that I logged on to the computer this morning and ordered the hard to find ingredients (like Rennet and Lipase) to make our own.

Watching her make the soap - I mean cheese - reminded me so much of our soapmaking adventures. Mixing up the rennet ahead of time, heating the milk, waiting for the curds to form ... it just seemed vaguely familiar.

There were 16 people there and we ate every bite of the (about 2 pounds of) mozzarella! I wish I could have brought some home for DH to try, but I'm sure he'll be trying some soon enough.

I just can't wait to get everything we need together and make some. Wow! That and a homemade loaf of bread - I'm golden!

More Faux Redware

I was working on a special order vessel this weekend along with some more of the "redware" type beads I was so excited about in my last post.

This is the final vessel. After a couple of false starts, we wound up with the perfect thing for the person who wanted it. Her business includes the word "spiral" and there's one on both sides.

Then, on to the faux redware beads. I tried a couple with a blue background, attempting to inscribe hearts and other shapes.

I was using Ivory to do the inscriptions and I think that was my first mistake. Ivory is not as "stiff" as the brown and they turned into shapeless blobs so you won't be seeing them here. I knew I could do this "branch" pattern. I love the way they look and expect them to become more refined as I go along.

I had googled redware to find old patterns and made some quick sketches of things that I want to try as time goes on.

I do think these or some variation of them will be my "hometown" charm. I can't wait to make a full bracelet of them - 'course then I'll have to go buy the right clothes to go with them. Oh the perils of jewelry making!

Inspiration!

So many ideas going through my head - and in so many directions!

First, I had a really nice response to the wire wrapped focals I showed last week, and it was suggested that I try wrapping crystal points the same way.

This is just a small one, maybe an inch or so long. It had a nice uneven "glob" on the top which made it really easy to catch up into the wire.

I'm not showing the first one I tried. First, it didn't photograph well and second, it was large and in my opinion, it looked overdone. I tried wrapping it in a figure eight and adding a number of stones and coils. Well maybe I'll show it later(!) and you can draw your own conclusions. I suppose in the right situation it could be appropriate.

The second is a bead which was inspired by something I saw online yesterday. I actually tried to copy the bead I saw, but got a somewhat different result. The one I was (yes) copying had a mossy look to it, but mine came out of the kiln looking like a piece of redware pottery.

My first reaction was that it would be perfect strung up with some of Tina's herbal beads and I'm definitely going to do that, probably with a charm that says "Grow".

My second reaction was that this is a direction I would like to follow, adding other colors and making a whole collection of redware beads. Redware pottery is an art form that is closely associated with our area. It involves the use of colored glazes, painting with slip (colored, liquid clay) and sgraffito (scratching a slip-covered piece to expose the red clay underneath) . We have a few plates commemorating our marriage and our son's birth with beautiful PA Dutch designs on them that were made that way and this has the very same look.

Having just signed up for yet another charm swap with the theme of "Hometown", I think I know now how to handle it! My first thought was red roses, for Lancaster, the Red Rose City (after the English War of the Roses, Red for Lancashire and White for Yorkshire). Another idea was some sort of quilt design, but now.... I think it will be redware.

And more swirly settings...

I knew I wouldn't be able to restrain myself.

The first pendant here, the earthy one was the first one I tried to put my own spin on this morning. I was really surprised at how beautifully it went together - even though I was reading the instructions wrong in the first place and decided to do something a little different anyway.

This one is wired through the bead. The instructions were for a cabochon which wouldn't normally have any holes in it.

I loved the idea of wiring it with silver since there are silver dots through the bead itself.

The second pendant I am showing - to the right - was a bead I made some time ago and loved, but never really knew what to do with it.

The base is galaxy glass, so it's quite milky and opalescent. I added a number of stripes and streaks of greens and turquoises and was happy with the delicate yet organic look of it.

The silver setting was the answer to the question, "what to do with this?" This one, I made actually following the directions in the magazine (so the bead is encased in the bezel, but there is no wire through the bead hole.) Normally I do that first and go from there, but for some reason, this time I did it differently.

The major problem I have with this technique is to know when to stop. Every time I look at the "finished product" I want to add another swirl here and another coil there.

Okay - I'll stop, but next time you see them, I can't promise they'll look exactly the same!