Purple Agate Pendant 2

Making the cage to hold the agate was a little harder than I thought it would be as I wanted to make sure that it would never fall out.  The half hard copper wire is a little harder to make good 90 deg folds than perhaps a dead soft wire but is much stronger.

Creating the cage on the back

Taping the existing wrapped wire to the stone helps keep things in place.  A few coils makes the back very pretty.

Holding it all together

At this point I started deviating from the original design.  Making coils and wrapping wires, trying to balance out the piece by eye.

Changing the location of the drop bead, and adding an extra coil to the bottom looked more natural to me.
It turned out beautiful.

finished back

finished front

I tried a few different cords and chains with the completed purple agate pendent and decided that only a made to order chain would look best.  Having a few of the beads I used for the drop off the pendent I added them to the chain with a few accent beads to create the perfect accompaniment.

just a little bling

handmade links and clasp

Don't you love how you can wear it front or back showing?  I wore it out to dinner last night and received numerous compliments, I'm keeping this one for myself.....it is purple after all, my favorite color.

Purple Agate Pendant

Purple Agate Pendent

I thought I would try the design and plan method for a beautiful purple agate slice.  So getting out the note book I traced the stone and tried to design a few wire wrap variations.  I'm not very good at the design part of jewelry making and so far have just designed as I went.  Here are the variations I came up with.

page 1

page 2

I rather liked the center design on page 1 and added a few beads to it and a few notes to keep the ideas straight in my head.

Pretty stone slice

I was so pleased the other day as I was digging in an old box looking for model car paint for my mom when I came across a small jar of agates in different colors and sizes.  New things to play with.

Having decided on the design and planning how it went together was a different story.  Easy enough to say that this is what you want the pendant to look like but you have to make sure that the stone stays in place.  Unlike a bead that has a hole you can string a wire through, a cage is need to make sure the stone doesn't fall out.

Out comes the wire box, the tools, and get organize so you don't have to dig for anything. I like to have things at hand.

Time to start

Then I guess, just dive in.  Wrapping the two 20 gage wires is a little harder than you would think and I found it difficult to be consistent in my tension.  I have a tenancy to wrap tighter and tighter.

Following the design, (ok I did deviate a bit) until it was time to make the cage.

ready for wrapping

making the cage

That was as far as I got on Thursday and hoping to work a little more on it today.  Will let you know how it comes along.

Longarm Retired

After 8 years of working on the longarm, I decided to sell it.  It was a hard decision but one that I had been thinking about for quite some time.  I am so glad that a very nice quilter from Mission bought it and is excited to be starting a new passion for herself.

I'm also excited that I am on a new aspect of discovery for myself and have a huge list of things to try out over the next while.  A little wire work, a bit of glass fusing, a bit of bead work, add some painting, learning to use the serger and maybe a course or two should keep me busy for a while.  Quilting is still on the list as well and I am still enjoying volunteering at Century House quilting a few times a week.  I'm also hoping to hone my skills at machine quilting and creating a few fiber arts pieces that I have had designed and not had the time to get to.

My son picked up a video camera the other day so I am hoping to make a few "how to" videos to post on this blog as well as You Tube.  So keep tuned and check in from time to time to see what's on the board.

Terry

Columbia StrEAT food truck fest

photo from /www.newwestcity.ca/calendar-of-events

Last Saturday the City of New Westminster closed down Columbia Street down town and moved in a over 150 food trucks.  It was fun to wonder up the strip and check out the different food venues.  I settled on Pad Tai and of course had to have a local brewed beer in the beer gardens.

There were artisan displays in the Anvil Center, things for kids to do, things for adults to do and by 6pm it was packed with lineups to many of the trucks.

It was a fun day that ended at the far side of the strip (for me) at one of my favorite restaurants the Taverna Greka for lasagna (I know in a Greek restaurant, right.  But so good.) and to watch the belly dancer.

A fun day to wander, snack at all the watering holes along Columbia, people watch and enjoy the awesome weather we have been having.

Beer garden in the shade.  

Fusing glass in a microwave kiln

I've been having so much fun wire wrapping glass lately that I have run out of pieces that tickle my fancy.  Time to make a few more.  It is always questionable as to what is going to turn out in the end and as of late I have had a few with cracks in them.  Beautiful but damaged.  So make more!!.

I always have to laugh at the prep it takes to make a few little bobbles.  Here is the supplies all spread out on the table ready to cut and design.

goodies to play with.

Not being sure what glass code the glass is  (bought a bit of scraps out of our local stained glass scrap bucket) I have been trying to keep clear glass with clear and opaque glass with opaque (not knowing the glass code may explain the cracking).

Today is red day, add a bit of clear and a very cute millefiori slice.  It should be cute.

fun to play with

When the are all designed and cut the glass is ready to put in the microwave kiln.  Making sure to put down a piece of kiln paper first.

Transfer the bottom to the microwave and making sure the glass hasn't moved place the top on and set the time.

All ready for the microwave

My microwave is 900 wats which means it takes a little more time to fire than a bigger and stronger microwave.  According to research some microwaves need as little as 2 min.  It is a trial and error to find what works best for each microwave.

The microwave I have seems to work best at 12 min.  Then it is a matter of waiting the 12 min and a quick peek to make sure it melted.  Make sure that you are wearing heat proof gloves as the kiln is really really hot.

Great gloves

It's hot!!

After a quick peek, close the lid and move the kiln to a save place.  I use a wire trivet to set the kiln on, on my bamboo cutting board just to make sure I don't scorch the counter.

On a trivet

And then you wait....... and wait..........and wait........even Carl waits, 

....... might as well pick tomatoes........... and wait.

Heart Patio Tomatoes

After about an hour check the kiln to make sure its cool, remove the lid and cross your fingers.  Lets see what we have?

Definitely not what I had in mind.  Interesting that the beautiful red glass turned almost black.

Has potential 

Oh well back to the cutting board.  Hummmm maybe opal glass next time.

Here is one that did turn out.  All wrapped and finished.

cute little fishy

Thread Play Completed (maybe)

Well it is cleaned, trimmed and hanging on the wall.  Just a note that it is really long 5'10" x 1'7" wide.  The photo to the left is a panoramic I made with a new program that I could not figure out how to keep the squareness of the quilt.  So the top is square in real life.

Detail 1

I love how it turned out. Very organic.  I had intended to follow a scene or progression from sky to ocean bottom.  So hopefully with a little imagination the concept was achieved.  

Sun set to mountains as in detail 1.

Detail 2

Detail 3

Mountains to foothills a (detail 2) to pastures to shoreline (detail 3). Then to fish in the sea to the oceans sea bottom (detail 4).

I loaded the quilt back on the longarm to add a narrow thread border in order to keep the edges flowing and to try not make the quilt look rectangular.  But after having it on the wall for a few days have decided that something is missing.  I'm thinking it needs a branch to hang off or something  to add detail to the top of the quilt.

Detail 4

                                                                       Any suggestions or comments on whether or not to add a binding for the border or if you think a creative branch would solve the problem.  Thanks, tg.

Thread Play day 5

The last bit of thread has been added and sewn
down.
I was surprised at how much thread I had left.  Here I had been worried about not enough.  There are spots however that I could have made a little thinner as the longarm really had to chug to get over.

remaining thread

The whole art piece took 6 needle changes, a 3000 meter spool of thread for the bobbin (with only a half bobbin left) and 7 spools of variegated thread with not much left on them.

Whats left of the variegated thread.  I still had another spool of
thread for the bobbins, just in case.

Then came unloading the quilt and laying it on the floor . Omg is it ever long.  Just perfect.

All stretched out on the floor.

The next step was to fill the bath tub up with warm water and clean off all the wash away stabilizer.  Everyone got into it even the cats.

Rub a dub dub.

I rinsed about 3 times just to make sure to get all the starch out of the quilt.  Not wanting to squeeze the fabric and warp it in any way it was a matter of just standing for a few mins to drain some of the water before hanging it over the shower rod.  Hanging it over a towel and towels on the outside of the tub to catch the drips.

A few rinses. 

So now it is hanging by a few pins on the wall waiting for me to reload it onto the longarm and finish the edges.

Add a hanger and it will be completed.  Finished quilt on the next post.