THT 4.30.09

THT= That's Handmade Thursday!

So I'm headed to NY this weekend and this first week's selection is inspired by my trip! Undoubtedly I'll be taking the subway. I think subway, I think graffiti.



1. Krylon Spray Paint Lamp Red by bblock
2. Brooklyn Subway Scaffolding Tshirt by livepoultry
3. Custom Grafitti Keychain by opaque
4. Subway Dish soap dish by lbegley
5. Ghetto Bo Beep print by NewYorkNancy

Be Still My Betty Heart

She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccck!! Yes! My Thursday nights have shone a little less brightly without her bejeweled smile. ;D

Worldless Wednesday 4.29.08

TaDa!

I bet you guys thought I forgot about you and trying this whole writing almost daily bit. Simply not true. I have just had a cuh-razy busy day. I'm thinking Tuesday is going to be all about the TaDa! So what does that mean? It means I'm going to show you what I've got going on that's new in the house of Beads. Like this:



I made some for myself and if I make something for myself, that may mean I'll make some for you too. Well unless it's made of carnelian. I usually hoard that stuff like it's going out of style (like it would ever do that. ha!). I can honestly say I've only sold one piece with carnelian in it. Maybe I'll stop being selfish.

Hope you enjoy my TaDa for ToDay! I hope this will also push me to have a new TaDa for you weekly!

Mmmm...Monday

Good day! So I'm going to give structuring my blog a bit of a whirl. To start off we have Mmmm...Monday. Basically this means I'm passing on tasty recommended morsels of information. This might come in various forms, maybe recipes, tutorials, clothing leads, etc. Today it is a mom approved Mmmm....
On the quest to find a preschool for young Master beads, one of the preschool teachers told me about this book and explained that this is how they do discipline at the school. Another parent in the room raved and raved about it. Well you know I had to check it out right?

Basically it is a book on how to discipline your children effectively. I was delighted to find out we sort of were already doing it without knowing it. But the book was good to read and apparently they have a DVD too.

You calmly give your children three chances to comply and then if they don't, they experience the consequences (whatever that might be. Often for young Master it is timeout.) The magic is not engaging them but calmly following through with the consequences.

Today we went to a friend's house (who has also read 123 Magic unbeknownst to me) and young Master Beads and young friend had wandered away from the group and were sitting in an unsupervised area. So I told them to come back with the rest of the group which they politely declined. Well I started counting cool as a cucumber!

"One" - wait a few seconds so they can decide what they are going to do. They didn't want to listen so...

"Two" - wait a few seconds before you bring the hammer DOWN! I kid. You will follow through with the consequences though if you have to say "Three."

And before I got to "Three" do you know my friend's son started moving fast to get back with the rest of the group?!??! It was a hysterical surprise since I really had no clue he was learning this too! This also prompted my son to move before having to go to timeout. It was awesome.

That is my first Mmmm...Monday. Hope you enjoyed and find out more about this system here

toodles!

While I was out

apparently I was on the front page! Yay!

shout out to lil' sis - PUBLISHED

Art runs in the family. This is her first published illustration. I am so proud of her!!! Yay! Get it girl!

423 on 4.23

Strange coincidence eh? Kinda cool. Not that I'd turn down sale 424 today just to preserve the moment...

Blog themes?

Hey all! I'm really trying to give it a go at this whole blogging thing. I know that there are some themes out there for different days of the week (such as yesterday's Wordless Wednesday). Anybody know of themes for other days?

I think that if I had a theme to work with sometimes this whole thing might go more smoothly...

Wordless Wednesday

Tutorial - How NOT to make a bezel in 30 steps!

Hi folks! So there are so many wonderful tutorials out there on how TO do something. I decided to do a non-tutorial to make light of an otherwise maddening situation. :D

So I have these fantastic beads that I've wanted to bezel set ever since I got them. The reason I got them was to set them. You may recognize them from this old post. At the time I didn't have the skill set but I knew I would someday. Not sure that day has yet fully arrived. lol. This has been operation in frustration, but I will prevail! Without further ado!

Tutorial - How NOT to make a bezel in 30 steps!

Step 1: Do not measure your stone before ordering your metal sheet (26 gauge). That way when you decide to get the sheet cut down to certain dimensions you won't realize that now your bead will not fit onto the sheet and you will have to get *creative*. Oops.



Step 2: Make more work for yourself by now having to solder together two pieces of sheet metal to make a backing larger enough for your stone. Do whatever stamping on the back now because later would be extra difficult.


Step 3: Note that this would have been Step 1 if you'd not screwed up the whole metal sheet size thing. Wrap your fine silver bezel strip around your stone. Realize that you really like the wide strip that you got from your metalsmithing friend Carolyn and wish you'd ordered more of that because if you somehow manage to mess this bezel up, you don't have enough for a new bezel...

Step 4: Feel relief that your bezel is a good fit. Pat self on the back because by this point in time, girl you need it!

Step 5: Attempt to join your bezel to your backing sheet. After several unsuccessful attempts, a break, a snack, a cry and a good old fashion scratching of the head in confusion, realize either your bezel or your sheet is not flat and you forgot to check that.

Step 6: You realize that steps 1 &2 led you to this point. Did I forget to mention up top that joining those two sheets pretty much ensures your sheet won't be flat and you'll spend time not only joining these pieces together but also flattening sheet? I didn't mention it? Probably because I didn't realize it until I got past Step 5...

Step 7: Anneal (heat up metal so it is more malleable) your metal, cool it and then whack the heck out of it to get it flat. Whack the edges as opposed to the center so your metal won't bow out. See? There is actually a bit of good information in this silliness. While doing this, simultaneously do the following:

a. hope that you do not wake your son
b. hope that you do not upset your neighbors
c. pray a prayer of thanks that your hubs is out of town so you can stay up FOREVER trying to fix this
d. contemplate whether or not staying up FOREVER is wise. After all Team Belfry is down one parent.

Step 8: Sand your bezel a little bit using figure 8 motions on each side to make sure its flat and even.

Step 9: Say a prayer to your God of choice. Heck, to everyone's gods for that matter. One has got to pay off right?

Step 10: Attempt to join bezel to sheet again. See that it worked in one tiny spot but not the whole way around. Why? Oh yeah, you got tired of whacking the metal to get it flat and said "eff it, I'll make it work."

Step 11: Another attempt at joining the pieces. Things are looking good. Oh f*@! You melted part of the top of your bezel.

Step 12: Get to *creative* thinking. Remember you don't have enough to make another bezel!

Step 13: Flip the bezel down so that the melted side will now have to somehow magically attach the the sheet but the non-melty side (technical term) will look good on top!

Step 14: Get the bezel all soldered except that gap.

Step 15: Eureka!!! Stick a scrap of fine silver in the hole. Heat that baby up and pray!

Step 16: Shed tears of joy!!!

Step 17: Drill some holes if you are like me and like to fiddle around with putting the stone in the setting but then want to be able to take it out before it's actually set.


Step 18: File the heck out of the back until there is no line. Pat self on back.

Step 19: Attach ring shank. No problem!


Step 20: Don't leave well enough alone. Heat the piece up some more. This sort of craziness does not happen when you are asleep at 2AM!

Step 21: Sugar.Honey Ice Tea. You heated it too much and the ring shank fell over and is now attached to the bezel in *the* most incorrect way.

Step 22: Cry some more. You are so upset you forget to take a picture to document for your untutorial. Here is a drawing:



Step 23: Saw ring off cursing the whole time. Curse everyone's god but your own because you know where your bread is buttered.

Step 24: Make NEW ring. Solder to bezel back.

Step 25: Clean this bad boy up. File, tumble, all that good stuff.

Step 26: Finally set stone!!!!

Steps 27-30: Have a stiff drink. A mugful even. Just kidding. Mostly.


Will be in the shop later today. See post below for more shots!

Galactica - Heavenly Body Ring

Wee!!!! This ring was the bain of my existence for a bit but now I love it!!!! Will be in the shop this afternoon.

Hanging Gardens of You

Ah yes! The Hanging Gardens of You. Goodness I love a pun. A lovely customer of mine wanted me to make some flower earrings incorporating these little Czech glass beads that I use for my basket and flower vase necklaces. I came up with these! I don't know why I didn't do these earlier. Click the pic to see them in the shop.

Did you guys go vote for me yet? And then did you tell all your friends to too? ;D

A Vote for Me is...

well, a vote for me. Sorry I've got nothing witty to say. I'm excited though! Oooh weee!

My It's A Boy drip necklace is in the mix for Mother's Day Jewelry. Thanks Etsy! If you are so inclined, please vote for me!

In other news, I managed to keep my cookie consumption last night to two and my movie was cute! I got This Christmas.

Stupidly instead of going to bed after the movie I thought it would be a good idea to fight some more with metal and torch. Yeah. Should've gone to bed. Luckily, I live to fight another day!!!!

Free 99!

How I'm spending my Sunday night. I donated $1.00 for some charity at the grocery the other day and got a scratch off ticket to win $5,000 or a free product. I got free cookies! Everyone's a winner! ;P

I also was informed that you can get movie rentals for free at RedBox. Someone gave me a code and bada bing! Free movie! So it's me, a movie Mr. Beads would never watch (I'm notorious for picking bad rentals) and a cookie or two (or several).

Today is a good day. I didn't get to everything I wanted to this weekend because:
a. The weather has been beyond beautiful. I had to go outside.
b. It's just Mrs. Beads and young master Beads at the ranch right now.
c. Things did not want to work out! Sometimes you need to step back.

I will be sharing a sort of non-tutorial within the next few days to vent my frustrations from this weekend. lol...

Double Trouble

Well, I was inspired not by the park itself but in anticipation of going to the park! I wanted to wear this purple top I have and then I decided I wanted to make some earrings to match. So I used some lovely amethyst beads I had hanging around! Click either picture to be taken to the shop listing. I just now learned how to add a link to a picture. You'd think I was brand new to this thing. Yeesh!



In related news we stayed at the park for 3 hours. It was glorious!!!! This new park is very nice and D was a champ sharing his snacks and everything! I was a proud mama. I took a really cute shot of him on my camera phone. I need to figure out how to get it to my computer. As you may have noticed, I'm not that technologically inclined.

When the little guy wakes up we are definitely going out again. Perhaps for a nature walk this time. It is simply to pretty a day to be inside for longer than you have to be!!!!

Weeee! - Zip Line Sterling Silver Necklace

Hiya! This is dedicated to my son's first encounter with a zip line at a playground last weekend. We are going to another new park this morning. Who knows what I might come up with from that experience!!!


Weeee! - Zip Line Sterling Silver Necklace

In other news I got over my fear and soldered the 14K gold last night and I have to say it was sooooo much easier than soldering sterling silver!!! Woop! I might have to start buying gold more often (in small quantities of course). I will have to take photos and show you later.

Hi peeps!

I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I was working on some personal things like trying to potty train my child for one. I tried that "whole train him in less than a day" bit. I got it done in a week. lol. And guess what? I thought I was the business. You couldn't tell me NOTHING!!!! (For the grammar police I know it should be ANYTHING. Just roll with my enthusiam 'K? thanx)Well I guess my child just wanted to show me that he *could* do it because now he is totally uninterested. I'm OK with that (mostly). Just as long as he gets this ish (literally. heh) done by September for pre-school, we are A-OK.

I trust everyone is doing well and we've all fawned over the Obama's new dog already and cried that Ugly Betty is MIA. ;P

While I was gone I also took a class where I learned how to bezel set stones. Awesomeness!!! Have I done it again since class? No, but I plan to try this weekend! I haven't even taken pics of the item I did in class but here is a shot of one I tried myself before class:

I like it but I'm soooo glad I took the class! In other news I have a private commission to work in gold. I'm a little scared only because I've never soldered gold before and you know that gold is mad expensive!!!! I have the materials and am scared to take them out of the box. hee hee!

So I'm having a little grand re-opening sale through the end of April. If you want in, join my mailing list by emailing beadsinthebelfry [at] gmail.com.

Here are some of the new pieces I've been working on that I added to the shop!

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Finger Ring

Mottled Hoops