torn, torn, torn

I think I've reached critical mass.

That is I can't possibly spend anymore time on the computer and I'm stret--c---h----e-----d in a few too many directions.

So I'm thinking of cutting out a few things. I have accounts that I rarely to never use and shops that don't seem to go anywhere or do anything.

I'm afraid of missing something though-- I might miss the chance to be seen by that one customer who wants to buy Hamunaptra . . .

On the other hand, my customers find me via Google and on Etsy and 1000Markets. I've never had anyone say-- oh yeah I fell in love your profile on Indiepublic or DeviantART.(Which is probably why it's been months since I logged on.) And I've had stores open for what seems like forever on some venues and they get zero attention. (But I faithfully update them.) So if they're not working what would I lose by taking the time I spend updating those sites and spending it on the places that do garner me some love?

How and when do you  make the choice to let some things go and just retrench? Rethink? Rework? As in work smarter, not harder? What is a fair amount of time to try something that you really want to work before you just admit that for some unknown reason-- it won't?

Hamunaptra

No, those aren't rhetorical questions! Share your wisdom people!!!

monday's picture post

BAO Items of the Week (March 30 - April 4)

We haven't had this many Items of the Week for you in a while. Take a look at the individual items and the specials associated with each on the BAO blog. Enjoy!

And take a look at this weeks offerings my Treasury Curators!!

Green Batik Butterfly Bag by bagsandbuds

Quiet by artandangelsbyrose

Magpie Cuff by nemeton

Cup of Coffee with Cream Necklace by ShannaMichele

Golden Spiral Pendant by LavenderCottage

proposals

Couldn't resist sharing this wry litany. I love the opening-- who could resist reading on-- especially if you've felt the same way!

Then there are the fabulous phrases, like 'sloe-eyed and slinking out of his grief' and 'like some glittering, tattered scarf'.

And the end-- how fabulous! I'm no 'angel of home and hearth', but don't we all have fire in our hands?

Proposals
by Cecilia Woloch

Mistaking me for someone else, he asked me to marry him. This has
happened more than once. The first time, I was eighteen and the boy had
a diamond ring in a box. It was the Fourth of July, it was dark, he said, Happy
Independence Day. Of course, the ring was too large and slipped right off
my finger into the grass. (It belonged to someone else: the woman he
married, eventually.) And when I was twenty-one, that redhead, sloe-eyed
and slinking out of his grief, said he'd imagined I'd be his wife. But he was
mistaken. It wasn't me. Then a drunk who drove too fast, who threw the
proposal over his shoulder like some glittering, tattered scarf. I staggered
out of his car, saying, No thanks, No thanks, No thanks. And the man over
eggs one morning, in the midst of an argument, saying he planned to wait
for spring to ask for my hand, then he never asked. (So of course, I married
that one for a while; spent years convincing him I was not his cup of coffee,
not his girl.) And in Prague, on a bridge called the Karlův Most, a stranger,
a refugee, who mistook the way I stared at the river for thinking of suicide.
Who mistook my American passport for his ticket out of there. And
others-the man whose children grabbed the food off my plate, called me
her; the man in Chartres Cathedral humming the wedding march into my
ear. And tonight, at dinner with friends, happy, discussing their wedding
plans, a man I've known for a couple of hours turning to ask me to marry
him. I don't know who they think I am. Do I look like a bride in these rags
of wind? Do I look like the angel of home and hearth with this strange green
fire in my hands?

"Proposals" by Cecilia Woloch, from Late.

don't blame me

World, meet Rip. Rip, thankfully doesn't have to meet the world-- he's a bit nuerotic . . .

It's really not my fault that I can never get anything done! I've got one hand for coffee and one for the computer right? Not!

And it is supposedly a laptop-- I can sometimes perch it on the edge of my knees . . . otherwise it's kind of off to the side and I have to twist to reach it . . .

The good thing, I guess, is that when I'm actually trying to make something he usually can't stand all the moving around and leaves. Usually . . .

And despite appearences he's really not into guilt trips-- quite forgiving actually-- and he fortunately likes everyone else's lap too. When I annoy him too much he'll go find someplace more comfortable.

But that frequently results in someone more comfortable saying, "Sarah, why don't you pet your cat?" You can tell that he's really starved for attention, poor thing.

what's in a bead?

Aside from history, potential, and pleasure?

Depending on the bead, it could be allot of hard work, a few hopes and dreams, maybe even a play for independance . . .

Lately I've been working a fair amount with beads from the Soul of Somanya project. They're beautiful pieces-- unique, high quality and easy to work with.

Some of you may remember when the Soul of Somanya project was cover in Bead&Button and in Beadwork. I remember finding the articles interesting, but I never suspected that I'd wind up working with those beads one day!

On a recent search for African glass beads on Etsy (As I failed to procure them in Arizona) I found  that Melody MacDuffee was selling the beads on Etsy for Soul of Somanya. Today I found that she's on ArtFire too!

After an exchange last night with Melody MacDuffee regarding my mentions of the project in the listings where I use beads made by these artists, I started thinking about a blog post. I always try to mention the artists who create the beads I work with. I see us as partners, working together to create objects of beauty to adorn people who appreciate connecting with art, artists and the thread of personal adornment that is as old as humanity itself and that stretches accross all our differences.

So this is me, talking about my latest 'partners'!

Soul of Somanya is made up of a group of coming-of-age orphans in the town of Somanya in Ghana, West Africa. Melody and Helen help them to design, produce and market their jewelry and beads in the U.S.

This group would otherwise have very limited prospects due to their lack of family support and/or limited levels of education. It is a population that is commonly overlooked. But these nine young people now have marketable skills and an ongoing means of making a living. All proceeds go back into the Soul of Somanya bead workers' self-empowerment project to pay for wages and materials needed to create the distinctive, colorful products for which they are gradually becoming known.

There are a lot of pictures and project information, as well as updates on Soul of Somanya's progress on SoulofSomanya.net

the adventuress earrings

guess my favorite flower?

I've never been much into gardening or botany. I have a few plants that do okay when I remember to water them. I probably prefer grass and trees to anything because they're just there-- you don't have to do much with them to enjoy them.

Always loved animals-- not so into flowers. That said, who doesn't think they're pretty? And my favorite?

The inspiration for this one came from Triz's Pink Flower, gypsyeyjewelry's Ornate Moth and theeye's Canada Geese Quartet.

They look so pretty together and have been sitting in my favorites for ages waiting on this!

Etsy has an incredible amount of peony art. I found myself drawn especially to shots where the light was almost surreal. peoniesandpolaroids, loreca, and anneclark all had brilliant offerings.

hadleyhutton's above and beyond is pretty irresistable and the lighting on Gingeroni1's The Peony And The Swallow is killer.

I round out everything with a few Bead Art Original Team selections and SandFiber's Soft Raku Dreams, time2cre8's Raspberry Lemonade and AKDlampwork's misty mauve disks were perfect color and presence-wise.

fashionidea's scarf was a great tie it all together piece!

You can see everything closer HERE.

and so it grows

I had a nice surprise last night.

I was contacted on Etsy by someone looking to purchase some of my Primitive Series pieces for wholesale purposes.

We concluded the deal today and now I have a bunch of wirework pieces to complete and get out by the end of the week.

It's exciting. It was just a small order, but still, exciting.

infinite choker-- primitive series

kaleidoscopic confetti

kaleidoscopic confetti

You can get a better look HERE.

I fell in love with therainbowroom's

Kaleidoscopic Confetti the other day.

It was an easy choice to flank it with the oh, so memorable

Bois Peint by time2cre8

and the Tropical Dream Cuff by arosebyname.

dumauvobleu's pendant

was also a no brainer-- perfect match!

I searched EBW to add BeadazzledofOregon's

Rainbow Sheath and beadsforever's

Kaleidoscope.

Searching rainbow brought fabulous quilts from Quiltsbybarb

and Thelittlequiltshop,

stained glass by asmdesigns,

paper art by LeeGainer

and QuietMind

and

one of the tackiest things I've ever seen--

I say that in comfortable knowledge that the artist's intention wasn't really to create a thing of beauty, but rather a memorable, attention grabbing piece-- which annakimviolette's

rainbow pan certainly is.

monday's picture post

We're welcoming the first full week of Spring 2009 with 13 wonderful BAO Items of the Week. Check out the details HERE!

And a big thank you to all the Treasury Curators who featured my work this week. Take a look at all these pretties and visit their shops too!

TURQUOISE SKY JOURNEY NECKLACE by JAVA723

The Beach Rose by stringmealong

Spring Daisy Pearl Necklace by la01shelle

Suspended in Blue abstract acrylic painting 12x12 by mistflowerstudio

Spring Silhouette Pillow Boxes by MariaSoleil

true blue and you ... equestrian ... Vintage Vocabulary Necklace by joonwalk

Voodoo - Beaded Fringed Necklace by TotallyTwisted

the body as canvas

As I consider branching into the beaded object-- as opposed beading the wearable-- I find myself contemplating wearable art as opposed to other forms of art.

It's going to be an ongoing process . . . I think, sometimes deeply, rarely swiftly.

There are schools of thought that contend that if an item is useful, it's not art. I'm not of that school. In fact, I prefer my art to be functional. I'm more comfortable buying something that's going to get use. Not to say I don't have a bit of wall art-- I do-- and it has it's place, I love it, am thankful for it and am not knocking it. I also love my handcrafted cups, clothes, blankets, rugs etc.

Sometimes those things are more craft than art-- that's good too. I love craft. I love how Wikipedia differentiates the two-- art, it says is "intended to be accepted as a serious and unique artistic creation or statement." Sounds good to me!

Enter WOW-- the World of Wearable Art. It 'takes art off the wall and onto the moving body.'

WOW consists of 10 2-hour shows held annually in New Zealand since 1987. It's a worldwide competition with international acclaim. It's been described as "Mardi Gras meets Haute Couture at a Peter Gabriele concert directed by Salvadore Dali."

It gives me one more reason to want to fly half way around the world. Are you in?

2008 Winner Montana Supreme WOW Award & Winner Air NZ Sth Pacific Section
Ornitho Maia, Nadine Jaggi, Wellington

another primitive series offering

The Primitive Series is a bit of an odd duck.



I got the basic idea from visiting museums-- gotta love the jewelry in them!! You see all these amazing pieces that are 4000 years old and and you think, "This should not be behind glass. I should be wearing this. We should *all* be wearing this!"



I scratched some designs out in eyeliner (back when I wore the stuff) when we went to the Met.



When sistermine got married I actually made my very first pair of Primitive Series earrings for her second holes-- two years later and she hasn't taken them out-- then I started selling them on Etsy and they whole series has grown from there.



Much of it in response to customer needs and requests.

This is the latest offering-- the kumah bangle. This is the second one and it's in my shops. The proto-type was made for a friend who likes blue and green and travelling. I hope she likes her bangle!

I never got the point of those little coiling gizmos till today-- if kumah sells and I make more I may have to invest in one because that is alot of wear and tear on the wrists!

I love the simplicity of it and the African beads and they'd be great piled in fives on each wrist!

pointless and arbitrary

How many words before it becomes more than a mini-rant?

I'm not a subscriber to Stringing. I think I may have subscribed the 1st year it came out, but I decided it wasn't my thing. I picked up a copy recently for free to see if it (or I?) has/have changed.

I've been obsessing over the Jewelry Rules article for days now.

The Rule of FIVE . . . (think Darth Vader voiceover) Never wear more than five pieces of jewelry at once. Count every piece of jewelry, but a pair of earrings counts as one. Your watch counts.

(end Darth Vader voiceover)

I'm not a rebel, really. I'm a rule follower-- when they make a modicum of sense.

Who decided that we should never wear more than five pieces of jewelry at once--- I sleep in more than that. When I go out I wear about twice that, unless I'm piling it on for some reason.

Jewelry Nazi!

Seriously-- your wedding ring would count-- so if you wore 4 skinny bangles you're not supposed to wear earrings? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Who decided that gold and silver are a no-no together and what color you should wear when and *why* in the world in this 21st century have we not gotten past the point where they're telling me (us?) how to dress?

My mother did a fine job of that, thanks, and now she's over it.

Who decided that that kind of silliness belongs in a magazine about jewelry?

I'm not picking up another one and hopefully now that I've gotten it off my chest I won't think about it anymore-- but what a waste of ink. It's just so pointless and arbitrary. Things like this give rules a bad name.

I'm going to shut up now and hope this is still mini-- believe me I could go on, and on, and on . . .

Feel free to tell me I'm wrong . . . or right . . .

grrr

a blip on the radar

That's kind of how I feel today.

First I opened up a link on my blog roll to LLYYNN's Eye Popping Gorgeous and guess what the article was about? You won't guess so I'll tell you-- my Time Machine Cuff!

I'm still in a bit of shock. I enjoy peering into Lynn's world so much! And now she's included me in that world!

Then I logged onto 1000Markets and saw that i dream i can fly has opened there. I've admired her work on Etsy before, but since 1KM has that little 'Wall' feature I just poked in long enough to tell her that I love her Curls (pictured below).

They're simple, but ingenious, original and beautifully made. She responded by saying that she didn't know I was on 1KM, but had always loved my Primitive Series.

Whoa! Meaning she'd noticed me! Who knew?

One of the awesome things about the online artisan community-- you're there admiring all of these fantastic pieces and then sometimes you find out that the artists you admire so much are sitting in their studios or livingrooms or what have you admiring your fantastic pieces.

It's a lot of fun!

awards, awards, awards

The Seductress by RachelesOriginals took the Temptation Challenge by storm:

My special mentions this mont goes to CharmingThings for her Mirage in the Desert:

Also it's past time to thank Anna at A Rose By Name for her Friends Award:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thank you Anna:)

Passing it on, finally, to a few of the bloggers that are newer to my roll:

Lisa at It's a Lovely Life

Corey at Tongue In Cheek

Nancy at The Rabbit Muse

Sue at Art Ravings

Lorelei at Lorelei's Blog

And some that I've been following for awhile:

Lynn at LLYYNN

Nina at Ornamental

Alison at The Explorer's Notebook

All of these women excel in sharing their passions, inspirations and joys with their readers and are a pleasure to spend a few minutes with.

And finally an invitation of sorts. If you're on Facebook and you'd like to participate in a Craft it Forward and nab up something handmade by me for you can check it out here!

time machine cuff complete

The challenge was issued by Mariya:

I guess everybody once in a while has had that thought "What if?" Yes, what if
you were given a once in a life time chance to travel through time and space; to
travel into past or future; to travel into a real or imagined world? Where would
you go? What would you see there? Just think about it. Take the trip and share
it with us in the form of beading art with its unlimited possibilities!

Is it about the destination or the journey?

Time Machine features a wondrous selection of metallic beads woven in freeform peyote and encrusted with vintage time machine parts.

monday's picture post

The BAO Items of the Week!

This week we present another beautiful BAO dozen: twelve Bead Art Originals items with great specials associated with them. Check out the details HERE!

And some fabulous finds from the shops of this weeks Treasury Curators!

Steel Medallions Peyote Cuff Bracelet by SandFibers

Temperature Rising by mistflowerstudio

Scarf by LinenMe

Beach Pebble Gathering by JAVA723

Sunrise Temptation by njema

time travel report

I've been working on my Time Travel project today.

Another freeform bracelet.

Dark.

Metallic.

Surprise component?

teal, turquoise and otherness

teal, turquoise and otherness

Go ahead and take a peek at these fabulous shops!