A Smelly Project

I do tend to volunteer for some odd jobs and today's was no exception. We have our annual Gem and Mineral Club show this coming weekend (June 3-5) in Puyallup, WA and I'm not sure how I managed to volunteer to make all the display case favors. I did find the instructions and the transfers but was hoping for some help but with going on vacation and other things, I just didn't get around to organizing any help. Oh well, I didn't have anything else to do today anyway. So, I am making tumbled marble/stone coasters. I found a site with the instructions and the club decided that would be a good project for case favors. If you are interested in doing some of these yourself, here is the link to the instructions on Vintage Image Crafts. They also have lots of images if you are interested in vintage pictures. Instructions can also be found on the waterslide decal transfer sheet package. I'm sure there are several types but I used the Lazertran for copiers.

Do yourself a favor if you do make some of these and do them outside. The smell of the pure turpentine is terrible. I haven't put the sealer on them yet....that will be tomorrow's job and then the cork backing. Some are turning out okay but we shall see once they are finished.

I do hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend where we honor those who have fought and given their lives for our freedom.

Catching Up

It feels so good to get things caught up and accomplished. I"m not sure why I don't do this all the time...lazy I guess.

We made it back from our Alaskan cruise on Sunday and it was great. Talk about scenic cruising, this was the one for that. It was a little chilly but being from WA State we are used to that. One of my favorite parts of this cruise was watching for wildlife such as these Orcas.

Then there was Glacier Bay. What a fantastic site. That large snowy thing behind my mom and I is the glacier.

We even had time for a little shopping...okay a lot of shopping.

So, now we are back, the vacation is over and time to get down to business. I had gem trees to ship to Pacific NW Gem and Art Gallery on Monday and for the past couple of days I've just been getting caught up on all my art charm swaps that are coming due, oh and unpacking and laundry. Why is it that if you have all your laundry done before you go on vacation, when you come home you have more than if you didn't go at all. Usually, I only have two loads per week but this time I had three. How does that happen?

Today we had a rainy cold day and I noticed that my lilacs were blooming. Now lilacs are my favorite flower so as soon as the rain stopped I ran out and cut some to have here in the house. You never know if the rain and wind keeps up, I might not have any blossoms left to enjoy outside.

Hope you are having a wonderful day.

Big News

Sometimes fate has a way of knocking you in the head. Take for instance the last gem show we did in West Seattle. It is just fate that we happened to be at another gem show where the organizer saw us and asked if we would demonstrate at her show at the last minute and we just happened to have that weekend open. Then at the show I met a woman who purchased one of my gem tree books and was commenting on how wonderful the gem trees were and how they would be great in a gallery in Oregon that she had visited.

As fate or luck would have it, I contacted the gallery (Pacific NW Gem & Art Gallery) and sent pictures and low and behold I will be commissioning some of my gem trees there. Yea, what fun. I've already made one special tree to be sent to them and am working on one more. The other trees I send will be from stock I already have. Happy Dancing....woo hoo. We actually did pretty well at that show in terms of sales. A few books, a couple of custom jewelry designs that I was able to make there and lots of gem trees were sold.

Here is Hubby with some of the gem trees.

This is one of the new designs I made at the show. All in fine silver except for the sterling silver chain.

In one of my last posts I was complaining about our office not being finished, well today the contractors showed up to finish the job....yea. Hopefully things are now coming together here at home so we can finally get the house back in order and all the office stuff out of the living room and in the office where it belongs. I'll post finished photos soon.

I still haven't given up my charm swaps or bead swaps and in fact will have a blog hop coming soon. Lori Anderson organized a Spring Fairy Tale swap and we are shipping our beads to each other today. My partner is Loretta of Designs by Loretta. She does some wonderful polymer clay work. You can check out her Blog or her ArtFire studio to take a look. I only hope she likes beads.

Okay, I'm off to get some beads shipped and finish my portion of a Round Robin necklace. Have a great day everyone.

Dana

Gem Show Season has Started

This weekend Paul and I are demonstrating at the West Seattle Gem and Mineral show. He is demonstrating gem trees and I am fusing fine silver. I was able to get a couple of pieces completed and a special order for a customer at the show who wanted a pair of earrings. Check out this link to the West Seattle Herald. There was a reporter there taking a few photos and talking to a few people. He did get a snapshot of one of my gem trees in the display case.  If you are in the area or want to get out in the beautiful weather tomorrow the show is at the Alki Masonic Lodge from 10-5pm. It's a small show, a few vendors, display cases, gold panning, silent auction, door prizes, demonstrators and a deli if you get hungry. Here is a photo I snapped with my phone of Paul and Tammy a friend of ours who is one of the vendors there Crystal Rich. You can see some of their items behind them such as spheres and mineral specimens. I've bought several mineral specimens from them in the past to use as gem tree bases.

Here is a photo of my gem trees in the display case.

We have several more shows we will be doing this Summer in July including the WA Agate Society show in Tenino on the 23rd and 24th of July and the Regional Gem Show in Chehalis which is the 29th-31st of July. We also do a couple of shows in the Fall in Castle Rock and one at the fairgrounds in Puyallup. I'll provide more info on those shows when we get a little closer to the dates.

If you are interested in taking a gem tree class vs. just watching us, I have two scheduled this Summer at Shipwreck Beads http://www.shipwreckbeads.com/catalog/Classes/Wire-Working-Classes/. The first one which is already up on their web site is June 11th from 2-5 pm and then second one is July 2nd from 1-4 pm. You can register on-line at Shipwreck Beads or call them directly.

Since it's such a beautiful weekend, finally, here in WA state, go out and have a great time tomorrow in the sunshine.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

We've had a frustrating couple of weeks while we wait and wait some more for our office furniture to be finished. We hired a cabinet maker to custom build cabinets and a Murphy bed for our office/spare bedroom. Everything has been cleared out of the room since early March, the carpet was ripped out, walls refinished and painted and a small window seat build by our handyman. Now we wait. It was looking promising when they showed up today to install but of course things just couldn't go smoothly. The wardrobe cabinet was built too large so it and the Murphy bed couldn't be installed in fact the wardrobe had to be taken back to be rebuilt. Now I ask what else can happen. As it is, this remodel of the office is taking longer than the complete gutting and remodel of our kitchen last Summer.

While we have been living with office stuff and boxes all over the house I just had to clean and organize my studio to have one tranquil place in the house. I should really clean and organize it once a month but just can't seem to get myself to do it. I went in there today to get away from the cabinets being brought into the office and it was so clean and organized I didn't know where to start or what to do. I guess I'm going to have to get it messed up again to get creative. Here is a few pictures of the clean studio.

As you can tell it isn't a very large room so I have to make the best of all the space in there. I still need to organize the open bookshelf cabinet a bit more but I just kind of wore myself out and had to stop.

This is a sneak peak of what how the office is coming along.

This side of the rooms cabinets are finished except for the shelves, hardware and other small details. I love how the leaded glass turned out.

This is the wardrobe cabinet that they had to remove and are rebuilding. It is small but a guest really won't need that much room to hang things up. It's not like they are going to stay long or at least that's what we hope.

 Here is the Murphy bed as they were unloading it out of the truck and dismantling it so it would fit into the room.

Poor Murphy bed in pieces and it is still in this condition tonight....just waiting to be put back together again.

and now a fun little collection to share.....

Aurora Borealis

  Curated By: danasjewelryd...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

A Diversion from the Norm

This past weekend was supposed to be our Spring Barrel Tasting over in Eastern WA but hubby had a Gem & Mineral Federation meeting on Saturday over there and the family just couldn't work out all the details for this year....next year for sure.

We did have a good time visiting with my step-brother and attending the local gem and mineral show over there. Driving over the passes was interesting as they were still getting snow. There are some pictures at the end of this post that I took as we were driving through.

One of the items on my wish list to look for at a show this year was a dapping block and other metal working tools....well there was an Oregon business vending at the show and they had just the right things, so I spent money. Well my business spent money but I have been playing a bit today with some copper sheet metal, cutting it into disks, pounding them, doming them, putting words on pieces, punching holes and you name it just causing all kinds of noise. So much noise that I made the house alarm go off this morning....LOL, note to self, turn alarm off before pounding on metal. The business is FeelingStone Gifts. It was a mother-daughter team and they do some wonderful wire work. I highly recommend checking out their website.

Funny thing about attending some of these shows is that you never know who you will see or what you will see. The same woman (Jackie) of FeelingStone Gifts, that I bought my tools from just happened to have purchased one of my gem tree tutorials a couple of months ago....now how do you like that. She and her daughter made several trees that were for sale as well as on display in a case. It was really nice to be able to see what someone else was able to do with one of my tutorials who did not attend a class. She had purchased the Pine Tree tutorial. I think she did a great job both her and her daughter.

Before I even when into the show, I stopped in to the meeting with my husband and a woman from the West Seattle Gem Club asked if both hubby and I would demonstrate at their upcoming show. Yes, I think it was a very productive weekend even if we didn't get to go to a ton of wineries and drink lots of wine.

So if you are in the Seattle area April 30th - May 1st, you may want to check out the West Seattle's Gem and Mineral show at the Alki Masonic Temple, 4736 40th Ave. SW., (W Seattle), WA. The hours are 10-5 both days. We will be demonstrating gem tree design. I will also be signing copies of my book for sale as well as finished gem trees and gem tree supplies.

Today I'll leave you with some of these photos of Snoqualime Pass from our weekend trip. They aren't the best photos as I was inside of a moving car taking them at the time.

Yes, those are skiers.