A couple more pictures…

of my newer stuff in the shop for sale.

The pins on the left are kilt pins. They are beautiful as decorative pins, but they also work great as scarf pins, shawl pins or hat pins.  The set on the right is carnelian (I believe) and yellow turquoise necklace and earring set.

 

I don’t recall where I read about it, but it turns out that cone incenses are persnickety to burn. Usually they are set standing on their fat end and lit from the top, but they don’t burn down all the way. That means wasted money and wasted incense. If you turn them upside down and burn them from the bottom up, you solve that problem. It’s very hard to find such a burner to do that with, however, and most don’t even know there is a fix to this burning dilemma. So….  I decided to make some burners for cones. I made 4 to try it out and see if anyone was interested. They were and all 4 sold out pretty quickly. So I made more and these are the newest ones. They are made out of polymer clay and are each a quirky in their own way. Viva la inscense!

 

Stock Up Time!

Well, it’s time to switch things up a bit on my shelves at “Keepin’ It Local” in Athol, MA. I have a large display case there where I sell the jewelry/gifts that I make. I wanted to change  things up for spring/summer. I took a few pictures of them, but only three turned out decently. Tomorrow I will be taking some more pics so I’ll have them up here tomorrow. For now though.. here ya go! The ones on either end are shell flowers. The cloud in the middle is made with polymer clay and the beads are glass and crystal beads. I’ll try to get better pic tomorrow of the shell ones.

These are my newest earrings. (I have another rack of them I’ll get a piccy of tomorrow). The wire ones are really bright colors and really shiny and pretty. There are a couple glass beads mixed in there that I just thought were cute. The others are Peanut Butter and Jelly sets and I made those with polymer clay. The pot in the background I made with  clay pot/tray then painted them.

Ok, I call these Head People. These are fun and quirky and each one has its own personality. You don’t really get to see the details like the purple bow on the back of Red Hat Lady or the flower on the sun bonnet, or the mohawk on the back one, but you get the idea. I had/have tons of ideas for these but they do take a surprising amount of time to do all the detailing. They are fun though and folks like them for everything from little desk friends to bingo buddies. lol.
The blue necklace to the side I made with polymer clay and glass dark lucite beads. I may just redo that one though. I prefer using glass/stone/crystal.

More to come tomorrow! 

 

A Christmas Shawl

Well, I’ve been working on this for a couple months off and on and its finally finished! The picture isn’t the best but you get the idea. I’ll put a link to the pattern in case anyone wants to make it. It was a free pattern from the i’net so I’m not worried about it. It’s quite long so it will really cover her arms nicely. It’s made from Bernat’s Handcrafter Holiday yarn in snow white with silver strands running through it. It is 100% cotton. She lives in Florida and cotton is good for those cool nights, but won’t be as hot as a regular yarn would have been. Since she is also in and out of water a LOT, it will be easy to just toss in the washer/dryer. The pattern you can find at www.redheart.com and its called “The Friendship Shawl”. It’s pretty easy, but even still they assumed a certain understanding of how to do a couple of the things. It’s sewn in two panels, but there isn’t a word of instruction on how they want you to fasten them together. I did a basic whip stitch after I tried to insert a knit panel in moss stitch and ran into problems with that. Also the ends you pretty much make up as you go because it was not great directions for the row ends so you always had to count all your stitches to be sure you have the right amount, then wing it each row. It was a bit odd that way. They also use, of course, redheart’s soft yarn, but you can use whatever you want and it worked just fine with cotton.

The pin is handmade by me. The middle medallion is shell and I wire-wrapped it in silver. The two blue beads I made with polymer clay (did I ever mention I made jewelry and sell it in town?) and I made it in shades of blue to remind me of the ocean and it has shimmer in it. The silver beads are pewter and they are hung on what is called a Kilt Pin. You can use these pins for everything from actual kilts, to shawl pins, scarf pins, hat pins or just regular pins on shirts or coats.  I liked all the silver because of the silver strands running through the white yarn.