Brief Posting

Very brief posting this time.  Company's gone and I can begin doing some work after I sort things out.  Had to put my sprawl of projects in various states of completion away to keep curious little fingers from getting into them.  Now I have to sort them all out again.

Gave my daughter in law and her mother (who refers to herself as the "outlaw"), a couple thousand or more beads from my stash.  Daughter in law makes both beaded and steam punk masks which she sells at some of the specialized conventions she attends.  The "outlaw" does Native American type beadwork, so they both went away happy. I would have like for them to take a couple thousand more beads then I might have more room.

I did manage to sell a couple Faux Bone pieces, the leaf ones with alcohol ink coloring.  So, I am happy about that.

I will gradually begin to make some minor changes in this blog over the next few weeks.

Applicators and Sanders

Shown, some of the things I use to apply alcohol ink to Faux Bone.  On the left are tiny little applicators that Micro Mark sells.  They weren't specifically made for applying ink, but I adapted them to the job.  Next, the ubiquitous Q-tips, but notice one end has been clipped off.  The resulting stub end becomes another applicator!  Amazing how this works.  Then there is the make up eye shadow applicator, used without modification.

On the right, the familiar salon sanding boards.  These are really great for curves, inside and outside, nicely conforming to them, and for edges as well.

I recently made an expensive mistake.  People have been saying how great the Tronex cutters are.  Well, certainly, they are well made.  No doubt about that.  But do they really make a better cut on wire than other brands?  In my own tests of the razor cut Tronex, it did not cut the wire any better than the Xuron cutters I've been using.  Expensive is not always better.

No production next week.  Company coming in for a visit and the wrist is still hurting.

Ring Pendant

This piece went through a lot of different modifications before I settled on this version.  Faux Bone, Swarovski Crystal Pearl cabochon twenty gauge copper wire, balled and wrapped, alcohol ink.

I've done something to my dominate hand and wrist so I don't know if I can complete anything by next weekend.  When you get old things happen that you don't have a clue as to how they happened, they just do.