At the EM Gallery

This week, I was invited to set up and display my pearls and parasols for a reception for wedding planners at the EM Fine Art Gallery here in Seattle. It was a lovely evening, with amazing food catered by the folks from Herban Feast, especially the creamy paella with pan-seared scallops, garnished by lemon basil foam. (Yes, I am obsessed with food!)

The venue is truly lovely, an older building lovingly refurbished. I especially love the old brick along the back wall.


Podium by Candlelight by *dbvictoria on deviantART


Candlelight by *dbvictoria on deviantART

I packed light, but still got to show off some of my favorite pieces.







They even stuck a couple of nails in the wall so we could hang and backlight one of my parasols:




And on top of all the other goodness, it gave me a chance to wear my new pearls:



If you're in the area, you should go check them out to see what loveliness is hung on the walls!



~

A Year in the Making, day 272

I'm in another photo situation. The camera battery is dead, and I can't find the recharger this time. Dangit. Finding one black piece of black plastic in a house that's filled with lots of black objects ... yeah, that needle in a haystack thing? Worse.

I spent the evening after making today's necklace at my second waltz class. One two three one two three. We were short gents this evening, so took turns leading, to much hilarity.

Two necklaces today, one from last night and one from tonight:

Pearl and Celtic Knot Y-Necklace:



Amethyst and Pearl Choker:



Now off to a night of watching Dresden Files on Netflix and sipping a glass of cider.

A Year in the Making, Day 174

Just woken up from a long end-of-winter nap. Munchkin snoozing vibes, one of the most powerful forces on the planet. No sewing of buttons for me today. Yet, at least. I did pull out the thimble, though. I was early to bed yesterday again, too, as I had a very early day for the "day job". Did finally get pictures of the antiqued faux turquoise piece yesterday afternoon, though:

Faux Turquoise and Antiqued Sterling Necklace



And today's piece, still for lack of a clasp but otherwise done:


Amber Glass Peridot Pearls by *dbvictoria on deviantART

This has become another cat-impaired post. Miss Nellie Kitty has managed to pin my left arm at some point when I was typing this up. I don't know exactly, when, though. Feline stealth mode successfully activated. Funny beast.

A Year in the Making, day 167

Another bright sunny beautiful cold day. And I have finished knitmonster #2! Well, except for tucking in all the yarny end bits. Pictures tomorrow, I hope. The danger of working free-form - this one is shorter and wider than the last one. A natural progression of the passage of time, right?

Here's a new necklace, in lieu of knitmonster pictures. I'd made a strung choker with these lovely offset drilled teal pearls, but I dropped one in the process. I found it a few days later, rolled under the sofa, and have been sitting on this single lonely teal pearl for a couple of years now. So today I paired it up with more freshwater pearls in a complimentary shade:

Teal and Pale Green Freshwater Pearl Y Necklace

A Year in the Making, day 166

We just got back from the park, fooled by the bright sunny day, and are currently wrapped around hot steaming mugs of tea to try to warm ourselves up. It was much colder than expected and very windy to boot. Brrrrr! But it's still a beautiful day, and spring fever is hitting like crazy.

I'm almost finished with knitmonster #2. It's been in the works for ages now, but the end is in sight. I'm about 3/4 of the way through with the last skein of boa yarn, so will probably finish it off tonight.

Something simple today - I found some tiger iron briolettes at my last trip to the bead store. Yeah, that trip when I was only supposed to be buying one strand of pearls for that custom wedding set. I am weak.

Tiger Iron Briolette Necklace with Freshwater Pearls



And tonight, I get to pick up my corset! Squeeee! It's my very first completely custom made piece, from the amazingly talented Marie of Fitting Room Corsets, ivory shantung silk with an overlay of beige lace with pink accents. You can see a picture of it here.

A Year in the Making, day 165

These earrings are jinxed, I tell you! I retook the pictures yesterday afternoon, and went to go edit them this morning, and of the four pairs, there were only pictures of two of them on the camera! There is an earring picture gremlin in the house.

So here's two of the four, finally listed, and hopefully I'll get the others tomorrow.

Faux Pearl Triple Dangle Earrings on Sterling Earwires



Purple and Lavender Swarovski Crystal Earrings



And two new pieces for the day. I sold a pair of cinnabar heart and pearl earrings from my Etsy shop earlier this week, and was going to remake them to relist, and then I discovered I only had one of the hearts left. So instead of a pair of earrings, I now have a necklace:

Red Cinnabar Heart Necklace and Freshwater Pearls



This last piece is way outside the box for me, as I hardly ever use plastic beads, but I found these large chunky clear lucite pieces that begged me to play with them. I paired them with some black faceted glass for a 3-strand strung piece:

Clear Lucite and Black Faceted Glass Multi Strand Strung Necklace

A Year in the Making, day 162

Happy Friday!

Munchkin is cheerfully counting all the Valentines she got at school today for the 6th time. I start to wonder how she can do something like that over and over and over again, and then I remember some of the jewelry pieces I've made over the years, and I realize she gets it from me.

It's raining here, actual umbrella weather. Normally I don't consider what they call rain here anything more than a persistent heavenly drool, but today was actually heavy enough to warrant the use of an umbrella.

In honor of the grey skies, I finally listed a piece I made last weekend:

Grey Glass Pearl and Celtic Knot Y Necklace



And now for something completely different! Another odd bit from the stash that I'd started to string as a pendant a couple of months ago, and then couldn't figure out how to finish. Well, I just recently acquired another box of bits and bobs, and found these vintage beads and chain that went with it beautifully. It's much chunkier and more masculine than my usual pieces, but that's good. I get told often enough that I need to more stuff for the other half of the species.

Raw Copper Pendant and Vintage Beads and Brass Chain Unisex Necklace



The pictures of the earrings I made yesterday went "poof" earlier. I took them, swear I transferred them off the memory card to the computer, but when I went to go edit them, they were gone. Not in my picture files, not in the recycling bin. Disappeared into thin air! And now I've lost the light, so they'll have to wait till tomorrow again. Color me annoyed.

A Year in the Making, day 160

Today, I sorted through and found some components I'd salvaged from a broken bracelet that I acquired in a mixed lot of jewelry some time back. There were four pink Swarovski bicones, and four matching rhinestones in settings, plus half of a toggle clasp set with smaller rhinestones. I paired them with some contrasting pearls, and used the clasp half as the pendant:

Pink pearl and Swarovski Y Necklace



Tonight, I make roasted garlic puree for a potluck tomorrow night. Easy peasey and so tasty.

Take about 8-10 garlic bulbs, chop off the tops, put them in a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle liberally with olive oil, and bake at 400F for ~1 hour. Peel and puree with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with slices of artisan bread. Be prepared for people to give you lots of room in the elevator at work the next day. Make sure your spouse eats some too.

A Year in the Making, day 159

I told you there were more pearls to come! Today, black pearls, which of course aren't really black, but a lovely iridescent charcoal grey in color.

Black Pearl and Glass Y Necklace



As I was making this, I had the laptop set up next to me on the dining room table, a pretty regular occurrence. I have a tendency to surf while creating, which slows down the creation process some, I'll admit, but otherwise I'd never keep up with some of my mailing lists. And I happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch a treasury. This one's inspired by a line from Percy Shelley's Ode to the West Wind:

A Year in the Making, day 158

Still digging into the pearl box. I had a few of this, a few of that left over, and wonders! they were complimentary in shade. There were some peach pearls left over from my first attempt at a knotted necklace, and a few hot pink pearls, but not enough to do a y-necklace, and a few almost pure white pearls too. So here they all are in a cluster:

Pink and Peach Pearl Cluster Necklace



And it looks like I'll still be in a pearl groove for a few more days, as there's a couple more colors that are demanding I play with them NOW!

A Year in the Making, Day 157

Slightly distracted while making this post because I am watching the Superbowl.

This is a monumental occurrence, almost as earth-shattering, looming apocalypse portending, as the Saints being in the Superbowl.

I pride myself on my indifference to any and all sport-like activities. But it's the Saints. In the Superbowl. I'm trying to not be too hopeful. I really don't think they'll win. That would definitely be a sign of the end of the world.

I avoided the urge to make something black and gold in celebration.

Firstly, a simple piece:

Opalite and Peacock Blue Freshwater Pearls Necklace



The pendant is rescued from an old necklace that I'd recycled almost all of the original parts originally into new pieces. And I'd had just those three peacock pearls left. Both have been sitting in different boxes for months. Funny how these things suddenly come together!

The other piece, the big one I've been working on since Friday, is a new multi-strand Steampunk piece:

OOAK Steampunk Freshwater Pearl Multi Strand Necklace



We'll be breaking out the nachos in earnest shortly. Extra sharp cheddar, jalapenos, sour cream, and homemade salsa. Yum!

A year in the making, day 155

I'm back in the pearl box again! And the steampunk-y watch bits, too. This style of earrings seems to be rather popular, for which I'm glad, because they're fun to make:

Steampunk Watch Parts and Freshwater Pearl Waterfall Earrings



And here's the last couple of days' work listed now in my ArtFire shop:

Cobalt Blue Glass Bracelet



Sardonyx and Burgundy Fire-Polished Glass Necklace and Earrings

A year in the making, day 149

Off shortly to enjoy high tea with a birthday girl, so I wanted to make sure I got this done before I lapsed into a finger sandwich coma. I'm pretty sure she's going to squeal when she sees what I found for her on Etsy - I'll post a picture later.

Two new necklaces already today, because I woke up at "Oh my goodness it's what time?!?" today. It's truly frightening, all the little odd bits I've got stashed away in my bead kit that I've completely forgotten about and been discovering in the course of this project.

First is this carved agate pendant that I finally strung:

Carved Red Agate and Matte Black Onyx Necklace



And here's one made with another of those metal loops I re-discovered when I made the stitch markers I mentioned a few posts back:





And I've listed the black and pink set today too:

Black Glass and Pink Crystal in Sterling Necklace Bracelet Earring Set

A year in the making, day 132

Just made it under the wire for my post tonight!

I started this piece over the weekend, and finally finished it today, a new Steampunk necklace with matching earrings. Freshwater pearls and antique glass beads rescued from a broken necklace, on sterling wire: