jewelry

I have started getting ready for the Holiday Crafts Fair at my job, which is November 10.  (Judy kind of put it together around me and my jewelry, and I'm co-chair of the committee). It's a fundraiser, so I'll split my intake with the school. I figured I'd start early so I'd have a good number of excellent new pieces.

I have been looking at the jewelry on the female faculty and board members very closely. So I know my audience. "Earthy" is fine, but not too crazy and fairly elegant. As it's a fundraiser, and as materials prices have gone sky-high, and as this particular audience has money, I'll be charging as much as I can get away with, so everything has to look just right. For instance, I'm going to have to restring a necklace I made after me because I can't stop thinking about two sets of beads that should have gone on in the opposite order.

I'm reusing some of my old designs, coming up with others, and taking inspiration from jewelry I see. I'm also kicking out all the stops with my materials, and breaking out some of the higher-end stuff I've been hoarding for years: some big faceted apatite, peach pearls, gold-thread quartz, shaded faceted hessionite (garnet that runs from maize to root-beer brown), some big faceted Oregon sunstone, some handmade Venetian beads, and so on.

When I talk about "my old designs,' they're pretty much in my head. I have names for some of them. Some of the ones that didn't work aren't active in my mind, though I'm sure I have a few examples around. I didn't invent the Y-necklace but I've made quite a few (in fact, that's what the round - not sure if they're 8- or 10 mm - gold-thread quartz is becoming, on gold-filled wire with a vermeil clasp; I have a big piece of irregularly faceted gold-thread quartz for the first drop).

I've "invented" designs and later seen similar techniques in beading magazine. On the other hand, I sometimes see a design in a beading magazine and give it a try, though never with the same beads and often altered. I would say I learn technique from those magazines, rather than cribbing their designs.

I have acres of beads; the materials that get used up are headpins, wire, chain, and clasps (what you'd call, collectively, "findings"). They are getting outrageous in sterling, which is mostly what I use. I've been compromising by using silver-filled headpins. Headpins don't really show, and I use dozens of them in some of my designs. One earring I make uses around 28 or 30 headpins for the pair, and silver headpins now cost around a buck apiece. ("Silver-filled," like "gold-filled," is a much finer product than plated. About 10% of the item- the entire exterior, of course - is gold or silver.)

It's kind of exciting to be immersed in it again, and I actually have about six projects lined up. (I actually wrote them down.) I dearly wish I had some money just to buy a few new beads...even one good string of tourmaline.

If I make enough money at this shindig, maybe I can put of it back into materials.

But it's very energizing and consumes me in a way that nothing else does. I never look at the clock before I start, because I'm too busy getting myself to the table and getting my materials in order. So I'm never sure how long I work at a time. I think it's usually about two hours at a time but sometimes three, and sometimes I'll do two sittings in a day. Most other things pretty much go away.

lyrics and nail polish

And before lyrics and nail polish: due to yet another trigger finger, my blogging may be somewhat limited until I can have something done for it. I had one treated maybe eight months ago or so, and I seem to have two more, although one is much worse. I had something called a percutaneous trigger finger release and physical therapy last time, but maybe I can just get a shot of steroid for this one. It's hurting a lot, and I really don't want my hand laid up for as long as it was last time. I'm seeing my primary doctor on Monday.

V. used to say that he could never consider a song to be good if he didn't like the lyrics as well as the music. I think I've decided to disagree. The sung party of a song has its own rhythm and (often) melody line that can be quite lovely even if the lyrics are ordinary...or even, say, in a foreign language one doesn't understand (see what I'm doing, here?). So I'm breaking with V. on that one.

Even though I gave up being a big slob a couple of years ago, and pay a lot of attention to my clothes, accessories, makeup, etc., I am WAY far from being a follower of fashion. Can't wear and don't like most of it. On the other hand, I do seem to be oddly tuned-in to color and style. And somehow, even though I've had ugly, plain, picked-at nails for most of my life, now that my nails are neat and polished, I have somehow plugged into the nail color cycle. All of a sudden, I'll start thinking about a color I must wear, and then I realize that women all around are starting to wear the exact same color. This changes two or three times a month. Today I put on a slightly greyish light blue, like a stormy sky, and it is just perfect. Orange was perfect last week, and a light mint-green the week before. I still have a sort of shamrock green on my toes. So glad it's spring.

My jewelry color sense is still somewhat hooked to the seasons, but I'm going to have to wait and see when I can start making jewelry again, because my hands are not up to it now. Sigh.

Yaarana, K3G, and a nice start to the new year

Between last night and this morning, I watched Yaarana (1981), which I found to be a very sweet and entertaining movie, despite the confusing and sometimes bizarre plot.  So many of the Indian movies I've seen focus on family, but this was different: all about friendship.  There is something very old-fashioned about the movie.  Early on, Amitabh plays the country-boy-in-the-big-city, which I like just as much as the angry-young-man.  His relationship with his best friend's son is charming; he works really well with children.  And he looks so very handsome in this film.  I've also become very fond of the song "Sara Zamana."

I also finally finished watching Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (2001), which was very much to my liking.  Since Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was the first Indian movie I ever saw, that became something of a baseline for me, as far as "masala" movies (that is, Indian movies that mix comedy, drama, romance, and a lot of music).  KANK is packed full of wonderful stars, a lot of color, and some great music.  K3G is very similar, with some of the same stars.  And I cried a lot at the end.

For those of you who are reading this for the film-related content -- I wanted to mention that my number-one online reference is the Internet Movie Database.  If you need the year of a movie, the name of a cast member, and particularly to see what other movies an actor or director has made, you can't do any better.

This has been a great long weekend -- unexpectedly long, since I didn't get the OK to take today off until Saturday night.  (Email issues.)  I've taken some long walks, watched some movies, and have been generally calm.  My mind seems to be free of static and of bad thinking.  Terrible how badly I can upset myself with the junk between my ears.

I made eight bracelets yesterday.  In looking for some cheaper materials to conserve my supply of silver, I went back to memory wire bracelets.  I made a set of three with soft fluorite nuggets (which is green and purple), a little amethyst and a few Thai silver beads, and then a set of five with small faceted round rock crystal and smokey quartz.  I love wearing bracelets, since bracelets and rings are the jewelry I can see best on myself; I can see and enjoy what I'm wearing.  I'm also a fiend for earrings.  I wear fewer necklaces because sometimes they just seem too busy with printed tops and being so close to the earrings.  But that's just me.  I also love anklets and can't wait until they're back in season again.  But it's December...I'll have to wait a bit.

Also -- right under the wire for 2011 -- Barry's gotten himself a bit of work.  Our lovely downstairs neighbor, Johnny, who died some weeks back, was on disability; since the landlord doesn't live on premises and this building is too small to have a super, Johnny was kind of Carmine's assistant.  He did things like put out the garbage, washed the floors in the hallways, let the meter-readers into the basement and let Carmine know if there was any problem in the building (blown light bulbs, etc.).  I had suggested to Barry that while he isn't working, he could ask Carmine if he could take over these tasks.  I didn't know if Carmine was paying Johnny anything (although I guessed that he was), but I figured it would at least be a goodwill gesture.  So Barry is now the new Johnny, and will get $100 a month from Carmine, off the books.  Even though it isn't a significant amount of money, Barry will feel good that he's doing something and bringing something in.  I'm very glad about it.

Oddly, I haven't heard from the "EF" woman who offered to take me to the MOMA movies on her membership, although I posted my email address some days ago.  Don't think I can afford any $12 tickets if I don't hear from her -- $5 is hard enough, this time of the month.

I've also decided to pinch pennies even more and join the gym -- there is a Lucille Roberts in the building where I work, and it doesn't get more convenient.  It's under $30 a month, which even I can afford.  I dropped my Filesonic membership, which I mostly used for downloading ebooks (I have more now than I'll be able to read for years and years), which puts another $9/month back in my pocket, and will probably also drop Pogo (the casual-games site I subscribe to, also around $10 a month).  I'll make it work.

why difficult online people? maybe try art

I wrote about this privately tonight; in fact, I wrote in great detail for my anonymous blog, but still felt shy about publishing it, so I kept it private.  I recently joined an online community where I am feeling ill at ease, mostly due to a snub by one person, and some posts by her that I felt were directed to me in a hostile way.  But I think she probably makes everyone uncomfortable, not just me.  Still, it's all making me a little queasy.  Bad drama, and with someone who does not have to be a player in my life.  I'm trying to hang in; I'd like to stay.  (I had an overt conflict with some very mean people in an online community some years back, and it was a very unhappy time.)

And something good:  I've been making jewelry again.  I do wish I knew how to photograph jewelry well enough to post pictures.  I have a digital camera that I think is as hopeless as my ability to do digital photography.  I've never taken a good photo of any of my work.

But I started again recently, mostly because I wanted to give some holiday gifts.  And although I have a great deal of perfectly lovely jewelry already made, I sometimes feel like I'm cheating if I don't make something specifically for a certain person.  As if a piece of handcrafted silver and gemstone jewelry, made by me, isn't a good enough gift on its own.  Geez.

Yeah, so I was thinking about making something like eight new pieces of jewelry, which was so not going to happen.  I ended up making only three new pieces and only gave away one of those.  Everyone else got perfectly lovely jewelry that I'd already made.

Part of it was that I was beginning to make a new style of earring, which means that the pieces I was making would be slow, and would evolve and improve.  Which is what happened and is still happening.  I made the fourth one today, the first pair that I felt was harmonious with my style.

The idea I had was this:  a wire piece like an inverted V, only with a loop at the peak to attach to an earring hook.  At the bottom of each stem of the V would also be a loop, with a short length of chain attached in-between, like a bridge.  Then beads attached to the chain.  It's a pretty labor-intensive style; plus I was doing it the hard way until I made the piece today.  I was beading the chain after it was hooked in to the wire, instead of beading it and then attaching it.  Trust me, it made a difference.

So I had to fabricate the piece with wire, which takes a lot of patience and a little more precision than I usually need.  I measured and cut the wire, then coiled it on something called a jig, a little pegboard.  The pegs are the guides around which you bend the wire, to get a uniform shape.  It's still tricky to get it right.  I had to use the softest silver wire, called "dead soft," and then hammer the shape to harden it.

Then I had to decide on the type of chain and number of links.  And then the color and shape of beads to use.

First pair: eight links of chain, one round 4mm light amethyst on each link.  This was most like the one I'd seen which had inspired me.  (My wire skills are so far behind the piece I saw that it would be a joke to call mine a "copy.")  The next one had a bigger link of chain, and four purple rice pearls; that pair I gave away.  The third had soft garnet nuggets, maybe around 4 or 5mm, also eight links, one bead to each link.  I wanted to give those to a blonde woman from work, but she had said she had trouble with heavier earrings, so I ended up giving her a different pair with garnets.  (She's an absolutely delightful student who brings me coffee and always stops to chat.)

Today, I went for eight links, with a 4mm carnelian cube on each link, then added a bright-orange rice pearl to each of the six inner links.  I like working with those colors a lot, the translucent carnelian worked perfectly, and the double-beaded links have some of that cluttered look characteristic of a lot of my pieces.  I've made a lot of bracelets and some necklaces that were lengths of chain piled up with beads, often many varied sizes and colors.  I also do a lot of necklaces on wire links where I add beads to the connections.  It's a lot easier when you're not making two pieces that have to match, plus everything is much smaller with the earrings.  I usually bead chain with beads averaging 8mm.

This is probably a foreign tongue even to other jewelers.  I actually did make a little drawing a tried to scan it so I could upload it here, but either my scanner or my scanning software seems to have conked out.

But the point is that these two sessions of jewelry-making required a lot of time and concentration, and everything else just kind of fell away.  There isn't a lot of creative bliss in the rest of my life; I work hard and concentrate and take a lot of time when I write, but that's just about the opposite of mental peace.  Making jewelry is very centering; there's something so present about creating something for use and adornment, and so restful about trading verbal for visual.  It's good to get away from words and onto color and shape.  It's good to work with my hands.

I had fallen away from it because my workspace is small and disorderly, not very inviting, and also because I don't know how I will be able to replace any silver I consume.  Silver is much more expensive now, and I am much more broke.  I probably have enough beads to work with for years, but the silver is a problem.  Still, I can't let the future stop the present.  You can quote me on that one.