Luna's Baublebilities

So.  I have been sooooo busy.  I won't even try to tell you about it.  Except you should go look at photos of Ruby Thursday and her mama over at The Beorningstead.  They are part of the reason I'm swamped.

School started this week.  No tears from anyone.

Molly's music teacher was cut to 8/10ths time or something (thank you, Mr. Cuomo - grrrr!)  and cannot do the musical this year.  Which is a BIG sadness.  One of the other students' moms is a talented Middle School music teacher at another local school and said she might be able to do it - so there is hope.  Maybe.

I was straight out this week with orthopedic appointments, back to school stuff, milking the cow and dealing with the milk , etc... But yesterday, I popped over to Kelly Angeley's blog, where she had a photo of her "Better With Crystals" bracelet, for which she is teaching a class on the West Coast later this fall.

Man.  I would really like to take that class.

Alas.   I live in Upstate NY and have no money so I cannot.

But I was inspired.  I didn't have any crystals the right size and only one color with enough 4mm czech polished rounds to make ONE gorgeous bracelet that I think is based on the same Rght Angle weave techniques that Kelly's bracelet is.

Gotta get some more 4mm firepolish beads!

It was a wonderfully satisfying bracelet to make.  I got it done in one evening - probably about 4 hours total.  It is so rich looking and feels substantial, it is one of my favorites so far.

I love that I found a use for these herringbone drilled pearls that have been sitting around in my studio for 4 years.

I hate that I use almost all of them on this project and have no more left to do similar things with.  (Wait - maybe I have some yellow ones.  I'll have to go look!)


It was also a very good place for a magnetic clasp.  I think anything else would have been too much.

I also opted not to put picots or any other embellishment along the edges of the bracelet.  I looked through my stash and found several magatamas that might have done the trick, but everything else just seemed to be acting as competition for the pearls and those great blue cube beads.


This one is in my ArtFire shop.  At least for now.


















....

What a wonderful surprise!

 I discovered this morning that my earrings were featured in yesterday ArtFire collection of the day.

 I love ArtFire.

 Even though there are thousands of jewelry makers there, every now and then one of my items shows up in a prominent collection because they take such a democratic and inclusive approach to who and what they feature. Thank you ArtFire!!!

So.  We've been away for a little while and now that we are home, I am coming to grips with Back to School realities.

In some ways, I hate August.  Summer teaches me how much I love my family and enjoy being with them and then September comes and rips them away from me all over again.  It is a difficult transition for all of us.

The realities of teacher economies is always difficult, too.  It doesn't matter how well one plans - the last two or three weeks of summer are very sparse while we wait for that first paycheck of the academic year to appear.

So this summer, I'm trying a big back to school sale in my supply shop.  30% off everything until September 15th!  This collection has some samples - but this is not all that I have.  Clicking on an item should take you straight to that item in my shop.



This is a great chance to grab some wonderful supplies for super cheap or indulge in some of the pricier items I've got right now - like those huge, gorgeous crystal beads or a big assortment of dragonflies or those really luxe TOHO metallics.

I'll try to add a few new things every day.  I know I keep promising that - it turns out that I need to re-photograph about half of my inventory before I can list things again.  I'll pick away at it - with Bry and the kids going back to school soon, I will have more time to work on that.