Illness and Ice

Well, it turns out that three members of our weekend Chicago trip have come down with a very unpleasant stomach illness.  I have been busy taking care of Jeremy and checking in on the others, and trying to keep healthy and get rest just in case the crud wants to rear its ugliness in me.  Hopefully, my full night of sleep and day of healthy food, vitamins, and restful working will keep it away. I woke up to snow falling fast, so I ran out to do my errands and returned home as fast as I could. I locked myself in my bead room for most of the day, with my space heater on so it's nice and toasty, and have been having a great time beading.  I made the two bracelets I needed to make, and plan to work on one more for good luck.  I also cleaned up a little bit and caught up on some internet stuff.  I was thinking of entering next week's Blog Hop about Ice Resin that they are doing over on Objects and Elements. Which would mean another day locked into this little warm and creativity encouraging room to work.  Sounds fine to me, especially since I have been wanting to work with more resin for weeks! Thoughts of Chicago are slowly fading into the memory banks, so here is another picture from the trip, of an icy tree and glimmering lights in the buildings above.

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Sparkling Lights of Chicago

 I have returned from our quick weekend trip to Chicago.  We had a great time, and I am left with wonderful memories of laughter, games, balloons, hot tubs, awesome food, city lights, and train tracks. It is sort of a big happy blur in my mind, one that warms my heart. Getting home last night was long and hard after such a great time, and today has been hard getting back to work.  I have shipping and some designing to do today, along with taking care of the doggie now that she is home, and taking care of Jeremy, who woke up sick.  Back to reality!

 Here are a few of the pictures I took in the city!  The top is the Water Works Tower, which was bustling with people on Saturday night, even though it was very cold and windy.  We had dinner nearby at the Cheesecake Factory, and walked back to our hotel and did some window shopping. I do love looking in the store windows, even though I am not much of a shopper. I'm not sure what the place in second picture was, but there was a restaurant up in one of the higher stories, and it looked like a Klimt mural surrounding a round room with beautiful organic lights dangling down.  It looked very pretty from the street.  We also passed by a Swarovski showroom, which had the beautiful window display of strung crystal beads in the picture below.

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Architecture and Extra Links

Oh, I miss this beautiful stairway from the cruise ship!  The architecture of it was so beautiful and I loved climbing the marble steps down to my room floor late at night, when I was a little tipsy from a nice strong pineapple mojito.  What great memories I have of that trip! I am sure I am creating new wonderful memories right now on the train trip to Chicago (I'm writing this Friday night, hehe). I hope you have a lovely weekend, and I shall leave you with this week's Extra Links:

About.com Jewelry Making
Catch up on the latest jewelry web news from contests to free tutorials with this handy list of links.

Art Bead Scene
Searching for a way to achieve an etched metal look? ABS has a free tutorial for you!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Are you a follower? Barbe has a giveway for her blog readers.

Beading Arts
A beautiful glass bead becomes the focal point of a Valentine's Day necklace!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi did "knot" stress out making this new necklace!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
With the help of Vintaj brass, Cindy whips up a set of tethered butterfly earrings with her bronze floral charms.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie reveals the delicious ingredients she received for the Bead Soup Party.

Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Kim Miles! Who makes prettier Valentine's day, or "just for yourself" gifts than Kim? Wait til you see what she has up her sleeve...the Ace of Hearts, so to speak!

Strands of Beads
Melissa is giving away a $25.00 gift certificate from Artbeads.com this week! 

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Song Lore Saturday: Breakdown

This week's Song Lore inspiration is the song Breakdown by Jack Johnson.  I have thought of it many times when I am busy and running around in a panic or frenzied busy state. It is about wanting your transportation (specifically a train) to just break down so that you are forced to stop and enjoy the moment.  I have felt that relief of something out of my control happening so I can take the day off and forget my responsibilities for a while.  Kind of like when I had a big test at school that I dreaded, and we got a snow day!  I like the imagery of Jack getting off the broken down train to enjoy a coffee in a cafe and a bit of people watching, or an unexpected conversation with a stranger.

"i hope this old train breaks down
then i could take a walk around
and see what there is to see
and time is just a melody"

Recently, Alex and I went to a hobby shop that specialized in model trains.  They had a junk pile that we were able to pick through, that was full of broken and incomplete train parts.  We each spent less than $10 and got a little bag of metal and plastic treasures!  I was singing this song on that day as well... my brain seems to just trigger the song when I think of trains.  I knew I would be using my parts as tools to press into clay, and I was finally able to play with them a bit last night.  Below is a picture of the still rough clay pieces that I made.  They will be glazed in dark metallic and rusty colors, with bright contrasting parts in neon and white "danger sign" accents.  I really love the circles and think they will be neat to use in beading.

I am posting this today because I am traveling by train to Chicago today!  But, lets be clear... I do NOT want MY train to break down!  hehe.  This is a vacation... I don't need to be forced to stop to take a break this time around.  I will return Monday, ready to get these pieces fired and glazed before I leave again to a trip Up North with Alex.

I found a fan video of Breakdown so you can listen to it, and you might imagine how giddy I was to see that it is taken in Chicago, with some of the skyline and buildings that we will be likely to see on our trip!  enjoy...

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Elongated Toolbox Treasures, and a Train!

*running around screaming and flailing!*  So much to do before we go on our weekend trip to Chicago!  A bunch of friends and I are taking a train from Lansing to Chicago tomorrow morning, and spending the night there.  It will be a lot of fun, and I am sure we will get into some good trouble!  I can't wait, but I have so much to do before we leave. Laundry, gym, packing, and gathering up something to work on during the train ride.  I will definitely bring my camera and try to take some pictures.  Trains and signs and traffic have been an inspiration lately, as you will see tomorrow in my Song Lore post (which I still need to photograph and write!  add it to the list...)

 

 I don't think I ever showed these pendants on the blog.  They were made from the excess pieces of stamped clay from my Clockpunk Ornaments over the holidays.  I just cut out random rectangular shapes.  I really like them, especially the elongated shape.  Some of the new work I am doing is a variation of these shapes, like the Talismans that I already showed.  The pendants I made last night are like this, with found objects stamped into them, but I have moved away from gears a little and found some new clay toys!  I look forward to showing them to you...

 

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Art Beads Artistry: Sweetheart Necklace

 Quite a while ago, I was given a gift certificate to use at Art Beads.  I used it to buy a variety of pewter charms, shown above. Oh, and a skull button, which I thought would be a good clasp.  Anyway, I stole the two hearts from the set to make a Valentine's necklace to go with the bracelet that I blogged about yesterday.

 

 I used the pewter hearts, two sizes of pewter beaded rings, a large red porcelain heart and three accent beads, and gunmetal chain and a big spring ring clasp in the front.  I like the asymmetry of it and the way the hearts swing back and forth in front of the big heart. I have listed the sets of ceramic beads in my Etsy shop.  I guess I am just missing a pair of earrings... then my matching Valentine's jewelry will be complete!

  

The pewter charms used in the previous post, specifically referenced as from Art Beads were provided as promotional gifts by for review or design partnership purposes.

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!

Art Beads Artistry: Sweetheart Bracelet

Last month, before my trip, I was given the opportunity to pick out some Valentine’s Day beads and components from the fabulous website Art Beads.  They arrived for me the day I returned from the cruise and they were a cheerful little pick-me-up after a lot of traveling.  I ordered a pair of pretty sterling and red enamel heart charms, a detailed swirly sterling heart toggle clasp, and six of the tiniest, cutest little heart padlock charms.  They are adorable, and have a different design on each side.

I thought the silver charms and clasp would make a nice match with my little Heart Flutter Charms.  I also had some little accents to pair with it, so I made up this quick and cute Sweetheart Bracelet! I added some matte black czech firepolish beads and some pewter beaded spacers.  I love it!

I have listed some sets of the Heart Flutter charms and accent beads in my Etsy shop in the Sweet Heart section. While I was in a Valentiney mood, I made a necklace that would match this bracelet.  I'll save that to show you tomorrow!

The heart themed silver charms and findings used in the previous post, specifically referenced as from Art Beads were provided as promotional gifts by for review or design partnership purposes.

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be purchased at her Etsy shop and her jewelry and gifts can be purchased in her Etsy Galleria.

If you would like to leave a comment on this post, please go to the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog. Thanks for reading!