Halloween

It has been a busy week.  We had about 60 kids even though it was ugly out there.  It poured and the wind blew but those little kids were persistent.  We also had a Marco Polo pot luck on Halloween and you could not have believed the food.  It was nice to see a few dress up and I'm sorry that I did not have Tyler take a picture of me to show you.

Only one of 3 tables loaded with goodies ant the pot luck.

 Having salvaged a bit of wood going to the dump from my neighbors, Tyler and I spent one afternoon cutting pieces into smaller pieces.  They need another coat of paint or two but I think will work  quite well as a display to show off all the jewelry at the Xmas market.

Lots of little pieces.

Once they are finished being painted, I will attach them in groups to a base, add a bead to the top and a small screw on the back and instant necklace display.  Don't worry I'll make sure to post a photo after they are assembled.

Work in progress.

I did also manage to get the final coats of polyurethane onto the acrylic pours.  It never ceases to amaze me the formations and cells that appear as they are drying.  Very cool.

Peach Pie.

And of course you have to have a kitty in the works.  Carl is my watcher and protector all through work and play.

Making sure I'm doing it right.

Zipper Pulls

Before I get started, just a note that the Twisted Copper Top store has migrated, has a brand new look and I'm getting good at web page management.  Quite the learning curve but awesome for the little grey cells. https://twistedcoppertop.com . Please have a look and any comments would be appreciated.

Once again it was time to get out all the beads and the lobster claws to make Zipper Pulls.

All the shiny beads

I love making these little bundles of bling.  It is the perfect thing to do on a stormy day.  Turn up the tunes and have fun mixing and matching beads and charms.

I picked up 50 gold mixed charms and 100 silver charms with a ocean theme.  After making 40 earring sets for the market it was a natural (and like I said, fun) thing to use the remainder for pulls.

Earrings for the market

When making multiples of any thing, spread out and make a mess.  It helps my creative flow to be able to see everything at a glance.  The only problem with that theory is that your work space seems to shrink with time.

Spreading out

My solution is to work on a tray with my note book set as the 'work zone'.  The tray catches all the little bits and pieces that get cut off or beads that run away.

Matching pairs

Once everything is spread out, the fun begins.

Oh I have to tell you about the great recycled container I discovered.  The trays of Sushi that you buy at the market, shaped like a boat, make the best little bead holder.  Then when you are all done just pour the beads back into their containers from the pointy end.

The top of a Sushi container.

Ok on to zipper pulls.

Lined up and read to mount on the display tags.

The combinations are endless and oh so pretty.

Beads that look like rock bubblegum, remember?

The earring display tags took a bit of thinking about to mount the pulls but with all the extra bits of wire from making the tree of life pendants, it was a waste not want not situation.
They look great.

All ready for market

Jewelry Totes for the Market

This past week out came the sewing machine and 20 pretty fat quarters to make 10 jewelry totes for the Christmas market at the Cedarcrest Gardens December 7 & 8. https://cedarcrestgardens.com/seasons/

Little jewel bags.

 I love these little jewel bags that are fun to make.  I find it easy to set up and do a production line of 10 or more at a time.  Cutting out and pressing, marking the button holes and if most of the fabric is on the same tone you do not even have to change threads all that often.

Stack of cut fabric with the home made cardboard templates.

Then I discovered a need trick, instead of marking all the inner circles for stitching, just place a few pieces of painters tape in the desired locations on your sewing machine to use as a guide.  It saved quite a bit of time and you don"t have to worry about the iron removing all your guide lines.

A few guild lines

The only lines you really have to worry about are the pocket lines,  Thank goodness for templates.  Just center then with a ruler, mark your lines, sew, add the cord and 10 hours later 10 beautiful and very practical little gems.

Marking the center pocket lines.

All finished

Here is the final tree of life pendant from last week.  It turned out beautiful and is for sale for $51.55 if anyone is interested.  Please note that Tyler is in the process of migrating the Twisted Copper Top Store..... to somewhere....... so it will be down and being updated over the next few days.  Kinda like the geese migrating south, you know they go, just not sure where. lol

Thought I would leave you with a look of Saint John in the fall.

Kings Square 

Tree of Life Pendants

It has been a busy crafty week this past week.  I have been trying to have a few tree of life pendants made for the up coming Christmas sale in December.

Front

 They always look like such a mess when you are making the tree.  Wires everywhere, tangled and always in the way.  The beautiful pink stone is a resin cabochon made when I was experimenting with resin and alcohol paint.  The alcohol stains are made from immersing the felts from inside Sharpie felt pens in alcohol for a few days and then adding a few drops to the resin pour.  The results can be very cool with an almost sky (you should see the blue ones) translucence to them. A nice thing about using resin cabochons is they are very light compared to stone or glass.

the back

This tree of life pendant is the first that I have tried with beads added to the branches.  It went much better than I had originally thought it would. Using the crackle seed beads in a light green gives then the look of leaves just breaking out in spring.

Almost finished front

The tree managed to get finished but when I went to complete the clasp..... out of 28 gage silver wire.  Darn so my order should be in tomorrow and I will be able to finish and make another in blue.
I'll post the finished pendant next blog so you can see the final piece.

A few others.

Here are a few other pieces completed in the past weeks.  The dark blue is on resin colored with mica dust, the dark blue tree on beach rock, a brass on agate and a wire captured gold on red glass.  Now here is hoping that they sell.  lol. If not I'm going to have a lot of choices to wear.

Sammy getting ready to come to market with me
Not going to be left behind!

Moved to Saint John

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since updating this blog.  Many things have happened but the best is the move to Saint John.
Over the past year we finished the house on Cape Sable Island and how wonderful to see the old girl with a face lift. A lot of hard work but well worth the effort (even though my back did not think so on some days).

Fun stenciling the floors.

Bright and shiny new cedar shakes.

Quite an improvement.

But as with everything time moves on as did my son Tyler and I.  We ended up spending way more on the house than expected and reality set in.  Time to get a job and like Tyler said " I am so looking forward to being able to order in a pizza delivery". 
One of the first things we did once we moved to Saint John. lol

We bought a nice smaller home in great shape and although there are things that need to be updated nothing required is immediately.  It has a beautiful back yard and lots of garden potential.  Wait until spring!

Our new house on Manawagonish Rd,

In the past month of unpacking, Hanging pictures and opening boxes that have not been open since we left Vancouver in the motor-home, I have managed to set up my craft corner and am back to having fun making things again. 

Organized chaos.

So I'm back!!  Yeah.  Get ready for regular updates.  Posts on quilting (joined the local quilt guild - Marco Polo Quilt Guild), jewelry making (have a table at the Cedar Crest Gardens Christmas Market Dec 7 & 8), and gardening once spring rolls around.

It is lovely to be home and back to being creative, I've missed it.

New Store Site

Very exciting!! Tyler started me a new store front in Etsy.  He's been working hard at taking new photos and moving them all over in hope of selling a few of my trinkets.

Twisted Resineers Etsy store 

We are also looking into finding a few markets in the local area of Barrington Passage or close by.  In the mean time I'm having fun making things and in the next blog post will do an acrylic pour for you.  Dirty pours are really fun and are way too cool.  In the mean time here are a few of the latest jewelry creations. 

Green Glass Copper with rose bead.

I've been having fun trying to imitate green amber.  Out collecting bugs, moss and lichen to add to the resin.
Then pouring my own beads.  They are very interesting and really hard to tell the difference between the two.

This beautiful blown glass cabochon came from the Fernhill Glass Company in Astoria, OR.  

More hand poured resin beads.  I love making my own beads. They are unique and they always turn out a little different with each pour. 

Rain Chains

I've been looking at making rain chains for a few months now. Checking out all the cool rain chains on Pintrest and other sites. 

See Tyler working away in the background.

Deciding on 2 different types just for fun.  One out of bottles and one out of zinc strips left from the roofing.  For the bottle chain we bought a bottle cutter and I made copper chains from recycled copper grounding wire. 

Ginger beer bottles and copper chain.

The leaf rain chains took a little more thought and prep work to make.  I made a leaf shape template out of an recycle plastic container and marked and cut the shapes out of the zinc strip.

simple leaf shape

marked on the zinc strip

Adding a hole at the top of the leaf and pinching it just a bit.  Then cut copper wire to slip through the hole and use as a hanger on the copper chain.

rough measure

a little curl to hold it in place

slip through the hole

Make the chain links by wrapping the wire around a broom handle many times.  Then cut out the individual chains to link together.

Lots of wrapping

clip them into jump rings

link them together to make a chain.

I then twisted the leaf wire onto every second chain and there you have it.  A home made rain chain.  

Only another 8 feet to go.

They are going to look so great on the corners of the house when we get the gutters back on.

Earring Holder

Finished earring holder

I have been admiring the wire in a frame jewelry holders on Pinterest for quite a while and with the banging (new roof) and rain (no banging but no outside either) I sat down and thought about what I needed in a jewelry holder.  All my earrings have been in a little pocketed pouch since we left Vancouver in the RV 6 months ago.  Having to dump it upside down last time to find a pair of my favorites it was time for an organization solution.

Gathering the tools and materials

Finding and cleaning a old picture frame, pulling out the copper wire, tools and a handful of small screw eyes (20), I set to work.

Twisting for a basic shape

The frame I found in our new old house was dusty and stinky but solid. A good scrubbing and then left to dry over night. 

Once I gathered 12 long (never long enough) strands of wire; twisting them into a basic shape helped to decide where to place the 20 small screw eyes along the frame.

Never being one to pre-design most of my crafts (not all) as I like the fill in as you need approach to most things.

I eye balled the placement of the eyes in the frames groove hopping to hide them a bit.

a little tricky because of the small size eyes.

It was a little tricky  adding the tiny eye screws with my fat fingers but a pair of flat nosed pliers came in handy for holding them in the correct place.  I also pre-made holes with a awl.

They all managed to be placed

Once all of the eyes were placed it was a matter of twisting and wrapping the copper wire into shape.  I used a 18 gage copper coated wire that I bought for testing jewelry making.  I have lots and it is very soft to work with. 




I don't particularly like the wire as it marks and shows the aluminum core when nicked or bent to much.  It was perfect for this project as I was using what was on hand and the hanger is just for me. 

Once all the eyes were placed it was just a matter of  placing the wire and start twisting.

Making loop as I go to hang hooks on.

I twisted 2 strands of wire together for the roots of the tree adding loops to hold jewelry as I twisted.  Then wrapped them trough and around the eyes to hold in place. 

When I needed to weave in a new and longer strand of wire I made sure to leave a long tail to coil or make larger leaves.

The basic shape.

It was fun to coil and twist and make loops and leaves.  Trying to space out the leaves and coil to maximize the empty space and still keep the over all look random can sometimes be a little difficult.

It turned out wonderful..

Lots of places to place things.

Lots of room to add more. lol

It was a fun project to do and I might just find another frame to make one for necklaces and other bling.  I'll keep you posted.