Something Sublime Class by Deryn Mentock

So I decided since i'm not working yet I would take this opportunity to take a class from a lady whose jewelry I adore.  I bought her book earlier this year and I am so inspired by her work.  Here's a look at the book:

I saw that she was offering the class back in February but my life was in such flux that I decided not to add anymore to it.  But now that I am sort of settled for now i'm taking the class.

It's called The Alchemy of Objects taught by Deryn Mentock.  I did a review of the book in an earlier post. Deryn uses lots of found objects in her work and I have always wanted to try using them.  But I never understood how to take things apart and use them in another way.

Well, this class walks students thru her process of designing, using color, tools required.  It's very in-depth and so far well worth the price of admission.  This class runs thru April 20th, 2014, so even though i'm late beginning, the videos and the written material have helped me to get into the groove of the class.

During the class you make six pieces of jewelry incorporating some of Deryn's techniques. I went out today to an antique mall i've been passing by.  I found some nice jewelry parts but nothing that i'm gaga for yet. I will show you some things I picked up.  The first lesson is about symmetrical jewelry designs.  So I picked some items that I thought might be pretty focal pieces.

I love the one below.  It has a great patina and is a pin.  It looks to be brass with some simulated pearl and red rhinestones.  Now, taking the class I know how to turn a pin into a plain focal for a necklace or bracelet and the tools to use.

This one is a really pretty gold-toned necklace.  The focal is a locket that opens and closes.  And I like the pretty red rhinestone.  It has some steel cut silver decoration the front.  I also love the three-way connector with the red rhinestone.  I really picked it up for the chain.  A closer look shows the deocrative links in the chain.

View of the chain on the locket necklace.

Then I bought some plain twisted glass beads for only a buck!  I figured why leave them behind.

The focal below is some type of silver colored metal with lots of decoration.  And now that I know what it takes to put holes in metal and what tools to use I think this would make a nice focal.  The blue beads and the hearts I won't use for this piece but maybe in something else.

And lastly I bought some rhinestone bracelets because it's nice to have a stash of rhinestones that you can use to replace stones in a piece missing some stones.  So i'll just keep them to use if needed.

I probably spent an hour and a half in this antique mall.  I had a blast.  I love antique jewelry, furniture and just all-around weird stuff.  I spotted another antique mall just up the street also and hope to hit it on saturday since it's supposed to rain here over the weekend.

Deryn's class is still open until April 6th and the class ends April 20th.  I am so excited to be learning new techniques from this very talented lady.

As always comments are appreciated.  Thanks for stopping by!

Bead Soup Blog Hop Soup has Arrived!

I went to my new PO Box this morning and my bead soup for the 8th annual Bead Soup Blog Hop sponsored by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things blog was in there!  I was so excited.

When I finally got home from errands I opened it and was thrilled with the soup my partner Cynthia Abner of Created Treasures blog sent me.  Here it is (and let me apologize in advanced for the awful pics):



It arrived in cute little bags.  The bags themselves look like a party don't they?

And I opened them up to reveal this:

There is a lovely flower pendant, a butterfly clasp in silver and various beads with green, pink and off white.  It also contained some tiny silver hearts.  It looks like spring in a bag.


My mind is already plotting and thinking what to do with these lovely elements.

Thanks to my soup partner Cynthia Abner.  I just hope she likes the soup I sent her!! I'm very nervous as this is the first time i've participated in a bead soup party so I was a bit unsure what to include.  And I forgot to take pics of the soup I sent Cynthia.

All of this moving and unpacking and trying to get settled has me so rattled right now.  But this too shall pass.  I'll just be glad when it does.

Again, sorry for the awful pictures.  My new space just does not have much light.  I'll have to figure something out for sure.  May have to take all my pics outside from now on.

Well, off to think about my project!

Finally Moved!

So we finally moved all of our stuff to storage in Texas.  We are living with my sister for now to get our bearings.  Even though I was raised here it's so different now.  The last time we lived in Texas was 1990!!!!  I can't believe how quickly the time has seemed to fly by.  When I left I was a young woman and now I'm old.  So sad.

But on a lighter note I have set up my craft room at my sister's house.  It's still foreign to me but i'm sure i'll get used to it.  This room is much larger than my old little room and much nicer too.  It's carpeted and spacious.  I won't know how to act i'm sure.  Here's a couple of pics:


As you can see it's not really set up I just placed things where I know I can find them.  Also notice that I now have access to a sink because there is a bath attached to this room.  It doesn't look like much now but pretty soon i''ll get in there and straighten and place things where I want them.

Moving has been such a chore but I gotta do it.  I have one more move to make and that's to my new permanent home.  I'm so blessed to have a sister who supports me.  Not many people would let you take over 2 rooms in their home!

In all of this moving and packing and unpacking I decided to participate in a bead soup party.  I don't know what the hell I was thinking but oh well.  I've always wanted to participate in one but was afraid I wasn't good enough.  So insecure.  I decided to just take the plunge and go for it.  If I create something awful so be it.

I have my bead soup partner now and I sent out her soup this morning.  This party is being hosted by a wonderful lady named Lori Anderson of prettythingsblog.com.  She has Lyme's Disease which is disabling.  So for her to go ahead and host this blog party is incredible to me.  Some people are just awesome!  Check out her blog, it's awesome.

So anyway, I have been paired up with a lady named Cynthia Abner.  Her blog is here.  It's called Created Treasures.  We haven't talked much but I scoured her blog to find out more about her.  She makes lovely jewelry and has an Etsy store like me.  I hope she likes the bead soup I sent her this morning.  And after sending it off I realized I forgot to take a picture of it.  Such a dodo I am.

So that's all that's going on with me right now.  I'm off to try and organize my craft room.  Do you have any chores to do this weekend?  Hopefully i'll have some time to create this weekend.

As always comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Moving and Not Making Sucks

So we have moved almost our entire house to storage at our new location.  I had to go ahead and take all of my jewelry making stuff to our new temporary home.  I guess because I don't have it i'm really wanting to create.  It's driving me crazy.

So crazy that they had a bead show here in Oklahoma City and a friend of mine reminded me of it--twice.  I finally drug myself up from my chair, changed out of my pj's and robe and went to the show.  I told myself I would only spend $100.00- if that.  Well, because Oklahoma City was expecting a lot of ice the next day, the vendors had slashed their prices.  It was glorious!!

I spent way over my budgeted amount.  Since my husband didn't go with me this time, I was free to go absolutely wild-which I did.  Let's just say it was over double what I intended to spend.  I know I am not the only person who has to be tamed at bead shows but afterwards as I was driving home I was rehearsing in my head what I would tell the hubs.  Do I lie? Do I tell the truth?  What do I make up to tell him?  Well i'll tell you I told the truth------sort of.  I just said I spent a bit over $100.00.  That's the truth!!!! it was a bit over that.

Anyway I thought i'd post some of the goodies I bought.  All I can really do is drool over the stuff so I thought you might want to drool over it also.  So here goes:


This bunch below was slashed unbelievably.  There are rough aquamarine, faceted aquamarine and various other faceted stones and glass crystal.

And then there were these that I couldn't pass up.  They are all hand made pendants by one vendor.  She had them priced at $ 8.00 per pendant but slashed them to $5.00 each.  I bought 5 of them.  It was really hard to choose but these are the ones I bought.  I love the amethyst druzy one! Think that is mine.

And then I found this pendant.  It's an amethyst druzy.  It's of course purple if you can't tell with gold druzy flakes.  This is definitely mine.  I think i'll change the hanger.  It's a stunning purple around the edges.  Love it.  Couldn't leave it.  I think I bought the prettiest one.  The lady even said so.  Of course I have to take that with a grain of salt.

I bought some really pretty strands of glass crystal, some magnesite turquoise and clear glass crystal.  And some turquoise colored strands and orange strands.  Those little turquoise crosses are little stretchy bracelets that the vendor sold to me for a dollar each.   I will take them apart to use for something else-good deal though.

These are dyed jade strands.  One in a beautiful blue and another orange strand.  They are 5mm sized beads.  I can't wait to make something with both these strands.  Sorry the pic is poor quality but the light today is very minimal.

I guess I was into some bright colors and saw these turquoise colored graduated discs (they are magnesite).  I only bought one strand but I love these center drilled chips.  They were an absolute bargain and I could not resist this strand.

These beauties are strands of glass crystal which i'm obsessed with.  There are multi-colored glass and clear crystal which I love to mix with colored crystal.

And then there are these huge mother dusters.  All glass crystal at a bargain price.  There are pink, yellow and clear.  The red ones are small center-drilled ones.  They are a gorgeous red.

Again, i'm sorry some of the pictures are bad quality but I think you get the gist.  It was a glorious day of bead shopping for me and pulled me right out of the doldrums until I got home and thought about the fact that there is nothing I can do with them but admire them.  But at least I have something pretty to look at.

Have any of you bought anything to craft with lately?  As always comments are welcomed and appreciated.