A Sassy Conspiracy

On Wednesday August 4, 2010 at 11:59pm, while down on the dock watching Perseids, dear boy gave me a ring. yes, THAT kind of ring. Blinded momentarily from the glare of the ipad screen tracking the stars overhead, i couldn’t see it and was confused about what he was asking. and then… i laughed. as he professed his love and described the incredibly romantic process of making me a ring, i continued to laugh. you know, that sort of hysterical laugh you get when you can’t seem to process what’s going on around you. good thing he loves me.

He said he wanted me to choose my own ring (apparently I’m fussy *cough*), so he made something for me to wear until then. He made the ring himself, with no help or experience, somehow without me noticing. He measured my finger in my sleep with string and worked on it for weeks in the few moments before i got home in the evenings. Not even my mysteriously depleted metal stock clued me in.

Talk about a surprise :)

Custom asymmetrical earrings. The horseshoe is hand cut, pierced and polished, with the name of a friend’s horse stamped on it. The horse recently passed away, so its a commemorative piece. The french ear wires are also handmade.

This may not look super exciting (i should have tried to get a better photo) but these are some custom ear wires I made miss elektrafying to wear with her tunnels. I’ve been asked a few times by a few people who have their lobes stretched if i knew of, or could design, some ear wires that would let them use “normal” earrings with their tunnels. They seem to do the trick quite nicely, and its easy for her to switch the body of the earring whenever she wants to change them. They have a simple locking mechanism so that they don’t fall out. Despite what you might think from the photo, they’re also quite well matched, which i’m proud of. Perhaps lek will grace us with a photo of them in action with her awesome synchronized swimmer earrings :) I also made another awesome jewelry item but, alas, i cannot share until the recipient receives them (they’re a surprise).

We have occasional pastie parties to make pasties to sell as merchandise for the burlesque troupe. We’ll be at Ravenswing Craft Fair this weekend, so we made a bunch this week for it. Here are a few I made. They’re fun little projects, a great excuse to play with glitter and sequins, and most importantly, they sell well! Most of the troupe’s proceeds are donated to various community projects and charities, so the merch profits are a little something that the troupe gets to keep. More than that though, its fun watching people get excited when they by them. :)

Finally attempted some feather jewelry. Buying feathers at Michaels is really not a good plan - by the time i had my feathers trimmed to the right size, the main stalk of the feather (quill?) was too thin and weak to hold up to wire wrapping. anyway, found these black and red feathers that were a bit sturdier and it worked out well. i think i will also pick up a lighter gauge of wire for future projects- the thick wire looks nice but requires a bit more effort to wrap without snapping the delicate feathers. perhaps its also time to peruse etsy for some pretty feathers…

Bronze and black for Ms. G’s birthday, and black and red for Ms. Liz’s birthday :) ALSO very exciting - posting this from my shiny new computer!!! HURRAY!!! Thanks to Nven for the photos :)

mixed paper and ink on a vintage bingo card. :)

I have this amazing, heavy solid sterling silver chain that we picked up at the gem and mineral show last year, so for mom’s birthday I decided to use some of it to make a Tiffany-inspired bracelet for her. We both have a bit of a bunny thing going on at the moment, so in place of the classic “Return to Tiffany&Co” tag, I did a silhouette of a rabbit. The tag is 1″ x 1.5″ 22 gauge sterling silver, hand pierced, cut and polished. Rather than using the tumbler, I spent a good long while buffing the silver with my flex shaft. It’s very shiny! In another nod to Tiffany, the clasp attaches directly to the tag. I wasn’t sure what I thought of that at first, but its grown on me :)

And yes, I now have a bunny of my very own - meet Ginger :)