Mostly Images

Only a fire-breathing dragon could warm that chilly night!

Not much to say today...Just sharing some photographs I took this past weekend.  I know a very special young man who is now into "Lion Dancing".  Because of him, I was able to get these great shots Saturday.  And as always, there are images of more jewelry.  Please share my blog if you  are willing and able!!

I made a bracelet for a friend.  Hope she likes it!!!! It is a series of paper beads, glass and plastic on wire with a magnetic clasp. It wraps around the wrist to create double strands.

More wire earrings with glass & wooden beads.

A tiny little bracelet made for a tiny little princess who misses the summer sun. I placed in on her wrist, so she can now see the sun whenever she likes.

Close up of hammered-wire earrings

Awkwardly taken self-portrait.  Me wearing my own goods!!!! Love wrapping wire with wire.  The thinner wire becomes your "glue".

Usually not into big hoops.  It makes a difference when you make them.

Pieceful Objects

Please check out my work and photos, Pieceful Objects, by visiting me at this Flickr link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40548552@N06/sets/72157628903633741/
     So I decided that I will work this winter toward a summer goal: to get a vendor's booth for my work at Madison's African Culture Fest.
     In the meantime, I want to share a series of photos of beads that were just given to me.  Yesterday, my brother-in-law returned from Cote d'Ivoire.  My sister-in-law purchased a large variety of bronze, glass and ceramic beads for me.  The beads are beautiful and I want to share a few photos of them with you as I received them, so you will be able to recognize them later as I work them into different pieces of jewelry.
     My husband, who has taken an interest in my new hobby, asked his sister to buy a variety of beads for me, and she made some lovely choices...wedding beads from Mali, ceramic beads, dramatic marbled glass and some gorgeous bronze pieces that you will see later as focal pieces:

Beads, beads, good for your heart!  The more you...Wait!  That's "beans".  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos.  These beads are extremely photogenic!  In these shots, I have the fans blowing, and we drove to an exotic location to get the lighting just right.


But seriously, I will write again with more info regarding how they were made and exactly where the different beads are from.  I do, however, know that the beads to the left are called "Mali wedding beads". 
     These beautiful merlot-colored glass pieces are slender and smooth.  Stacked, they are extremely dark in color.  I discovered their true colors in holding them up to the light.

These bronze beads are made using a technique called the "lost wax" process.  The shape and pattern of the bead are originally modeled in wax, then bronze is poured into the mold that forms around the finished product.  The hot bronze melts the wax and replaces it in a hardened, more permanent form.  This process is an African creation.  My father pays homage to his ancestry in using this technique in his work.

    Every one of these lovely glass beads is uniquely hand-painted. Now they will adorn a uniquely made piece of my own work.  

     These batik-bone pieces are also all uniquely patterned.   This "one-of-a-kind" theme will be echoed in my jewelry as I have yet to make one thing that I can currently duplicate....And I must repeat, "I will do my homework on the beads."  I want to make sure I can accurately speak of where they come from, what they are made of and in some cases, how they are made.

So what I am currently up to is METAL.  I have discovered twisting and hammering, and I have made some pretty cool wire earrings that I will be sharing soon.  The piece to the left, however, is what I want to close with.  I have found some great images online.  I am currently making transfers onto to wood--sometimes repainting and re-finishing the wood just to see what will happen.  For this piece, I started with a rough acrylic wash over the surface of the wood.  On top of the wood, I glued an image I transferred onto an adhesive.  I also fixed some very tiny pieces of wire--I first twisted and hammered--on top of everything.  The wood has holes drilled through its top and bottom, so I strung some wire through it, and attached a jump ring to the top and glass and wooden beads to the bottom.  The end of the piece is finished with another wire form I shaped with needle-nose pliers.  
     Soon--along with wire earrings--I will be sharing more of these image-items. I have some great old family photos that I plan to use.

More Jewelry

Yesterday I wrote about the necklace and choker featured in my Neck.e'djewelry photo.  Today I am posting photos of these two pieces.  

This is a two-strand necklace made of assorted beads--glass and wood--and, of course, featuring my paper beads.  After reading up on how to create them, I have become addicted to the process of making paper beads.


However, there are websites that make it possible to purchase these beads from women of various African countries (see below).  So if you are interested in wearing or working with paper beads, check these sites out.  If you are interested in purchasing any of my jewelry, let me know.  Drop me a line in the comments section.  :)
Purchasing African paper beads:
Bead for Life:
http://beadforlife.org/
Paper Beads from Africa:
http://web.me.com/thelatest/PAPER_BEADS_FROM_AFRICA/_..welcome.html
Beads of Hope Africa:
http://beadsofhopeafrica.com/?page_id=278&gclid=CL7RjY2rsq0CFQMDQAoddVOGnQ
If you are socially and environmentally conscious, then these sites will be of interest.  There are several out there.  These are just a few.   And now...more of my stuff...

Here's a closer look at the two strands.  I like the warm color combination.

Here is a photo of the choker.  I discovered it goes very well with the necklace pictured above.

I have zoomed in on the clasp, because I made it, and I want you to get a good look. It's very sturdy and adds to the earthy feel of the entire piece.  Currently, I am working on a series of jump rings, clasps and earring posts for pierced ears.  I'll share the end results soon.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work after a very peaceful and restful holiday break.  I ate some good food, spent some time with family and friends.  The close of 2011 was lovely.  I am hoping that 2012 brings peace of mind and peace in heart.  

The Birth of a Blog

I started making jewelry--again--in November (2011) after putting it aside for quite sometime.  I'd taken a class at a small craft store in Milwaukee, was very excited, bought all the little tools; however, like many of my hobbies, I soon set jewelry-making aside.

Two years ago I purchased a beautiful necklace in a market in Abidjan.  My now-husband-then-fiance had taken me to Cote d'Ivoire.  In the market, we met this vendor who took a liking to us when he discovered we were attracted to and interested in particular pieces in his collections.  Suddenly, he pulled the "better" items out for us--real art not tourist stuff--and was open to negotiating prices. The necklace was actually made in Kenya and it consists of several lovely and colorful African beads.  Just recently I noticed the clasp had worn and was malfunctioning.  It's one of my favorite necklaces, so I feared losing this gorgeous piece in having it fall from my neck somewhere on the street. I dug into the grab-bag of hobbies I've dabbled in over the years, recovered jewelry tools from the back of my closet and sat down one evening to re-string the necklace--bead by bead.  In taking it apart, I discovered there were more beads then I realized.  However, instead of frustrating me, I found the task a soothing challenge that got me to slow down and focus on something other then the hectic day swirling around in my head.  I found great satisfaction in re-stringing this necklace and attaching a new, solid clasp to this treasured item.  The end result was a necklace that looked exactly like the one I started out with--a very zen-like experience.  Restringing the necklace took almost 2 hours.  Only I know this.  People who have seen me wear the necklace before will notice nothing different.  But in those 2 hours, I found a bit of inner-peace.

I have always been a creative person, but I never share anything--not my paintings, not my poetry, not my photographs.  So I plan to use this blog as a means of sharing.  Along the way, I hope to share some thoughts, some stories and some ideas with you.  

Today is January 1, 2012, and I don't know if I am committing to a new year's resolution, but I know it feels good to sit and create.  It has had a calming effect on me, and I have been pretty proud of some of my early attempts.   I have given my creations a name--Neck.e'djewelry.   (btw--I made the necklace in the photo above.  It is a two-strand necklace with a choker.  All three strands contain some of my hand-made paper beads.  I will post photos of the necklace and choker soon!)

Below are some photos of my other pieces. So please enjoy and return and visit often! 

A necklace I made for my grandmother.  I made all of the white beads by hand--paper beads.  She loved it!!!

Simple wire earrings made with beads--wooden and my paper beads.  Extremely lightweight.

 Earrings made of plywood and photo-image transfer, decorated with tiny wooden beads.

I Like It When You Are Quiet

I Like It When You Are Quiet

By Pablo Neruda


I like you when you are quiet because it is as though you are absent,
and you hear me from far away, and my voice does not touch you.
It looks as though your eyes had flown away
and it looks as if a kiss had sealed your mouth.

Like all things are full of my soul
You emerge from the things, full of my soul.
Dream butterfly, you look like my soul,
and you look like a melancholy word.

I like you when you are quiet and it is as though you are distant.
It is as though you are complaining, butterfly in lullaby.
And you hear me from far away, and my voice does not reach you:
let me fall quiet with your own silence.

Let me also speak to you with your silence
Clear like a lamp, simple like a ring.
You are like the night, quiet and constellated.
Your silence is of a star, so far away and solitary.

I like you when you are quiet because it is as though you are absent.
Distant and painful as if you had died.
A word then, a smile is enough.
And I am happy, happy that it is not true.

At night when we both are supposed to be sleeping  but I am not, I look over at you.  Now is the time I have you completely to myself, but you are somewhere in your head dreaming.  And snoring loudly sometimes.  And I am thinking of my solitary bed where I once slept to the sound of nothing and no one.  When you are sleep sometimes I look over at you, and I studying the landscape of your profile.  I think how odd it is to meet someone in the middle of your life and come to think that life would not mean much now in the absence of this person. Now that I have found you, I'd be lost without you.  How could you come to mean so much in the span of so little time?  I take your hand under the covers, Baba, and you squeeze back gently like you know it is me.  

In the morning, you go from zero to 90.  Your phone rings, the first thing that will take you from me.  Someone from back home needs you, and you do not hesitate to lend a hand. You rush from our bed to get your son from his and move farther away. I am new to mothering and don't quite know how to wedge myself into you and your son's morning routine.  On your knees, you face the east in prayer as I drain my second cup of coffee.  I say a prayer, standing at the mirror, just having finished brushing my teeth or applying mascara.  You have reminded me to pray--not in words but in action.  Although I am standing, I am acknowledging blessings.  While at times I feel lost, I feel so blessed to have this new family and this new energy swirling around.  We speed off in separate directions.  You will not slow down until way after midnight.  After work, you continue to receive calls, texts, emails. So many people need you.  I have become your protector, not in the possessive way--but in a way that someone will protect someone else who cannot say "no".   I often tell you how important it is to rest and be still and to take care of self.  My words sound selfish in your selfless world. We recognize that we are different--that I need to take breaks from the world, and that you will give it your all until you have nothing more to give.  We are different this way.

Neruda's poem is my voice speaking softly to you when you are sleeping and I am still wake, looking at your face and holding your hand, pleased to have you, for this moment, all to myself.