Tucson Day 1

We arrived in Tucson this afternoon.  Fortunately my mom is still doing well enough (she's in her 80's) to go with me and help me shop for beautiful gems!  We got out luggage and rental car and headed to the JGM Show.  It actually starts tomorrow but Toyo (Feng's Trading) lets me do some shopping while he's setting things up.  Of course he's continually tempting me with beauties that he's pulling out of boxes!  Here are some beautiful, double drilled pearls he has (and a peak at those maroon granulated pearls I'm getting).
       

I like these because they are a beautiful maroon color and look like they are granulated on top.  Very different!
    

And a shot of what I have in my basket so far :)  I'll be going back tomorrow to see what else needs to go home with me.  Aren't those amethyst leaves gorgeous?!!


After doing a bit of shopping with Toyo we headed north and east to find our condo.  We dumped our luggage, freshened up a bit and then went to the Blue Willow for dinner.  They have delicious food and a vegan vegetable stir fry which is quite tasty.  We both finished off the meal with desert - chocolate crepe with strawberries for my mom and a vegan coffee cake for me.  Quite delicious, but, unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures!

Weaving away!

I love turquoise and gold and that's the combination I went with for this Kumihimo weave necklace.  I wanted to incorporate some beads into this design and these Kazuri ceramic beads were perfect.  They have a base of turquoise with gold accents.  It takes a bit more work to include beads during the weave but adds such a nice little umph! to the design.  Here's a quick summary of what's involved in the process:

• Cut all the cords
• Thread the beads onto the cords.  Normally you thread on the beads for the entire necklace but since I was adding beads I only added the beads for the necklace section before the bead
• Set them up on the marudai (the wood weaving apparatus)
• Start weaving!

Here are some shots as I worked.

As you can see I had to add a bit more weight (my tools) to keep the weaving balanced :)

And here is an upclose shot of the necklace in its beginning.


And many hours later the beads are incorporated into the design and weaving continues.

At this point I have to add in the rest of the beads to complete the necklace.  So off I go to string them on and finish the weaving.  I'll be back when I'm done.

The weaving is done and now I just have to add the clasp.  I love this color combo!

The foot at week 15 and the jewelry

A lot has happened since my last blog post!  I'm walking and, as of today, I can rise up on my toes!  Yep I celebrate the simpler things in life as I'm able to do them now.  I spent 6 weeks without putting any weight on my right foot (scootering around on my knee scooter) and then started to transition from walking in the boot to walking in shoes with lifts and now I'm transitioning to shoes with no lifts and barefeet!  Each transition takes some time for the muscles and tendons to get used to the new position.  Once I can walk with no pain and a decent distance with no lifts I can start gentle jogging for small amounts of time each day.  That's a little way in the distance.  I did want to share a before and after picture.  The bone spur (bulge) was pretty big before surgery!

As my foot has healed I've gotten back to making jewelry.  It is taking me a while to get back in the groove.  My creative stints are not as frequent, yet, as before surgery.  Here are some of my recent creations.  They haven't yet made it into my Etsy shop so if you're interested just go to my cserpentDesigns Facebook page and send me a message.

The Purple and The Green - amethyst, peridot and sterling silver

Purple Rose - Artisan lampwork and sterling silver

Palette on Black - Artisan lampwork, my own enameled on copper drops, aquamarine, Swarovski crystals, Czech glass and sterling silver

I'm working on new designs with some of the Mexican Purple Opal drops I got in Tucson in February!  Can't wait to share those with you!

Tucson - Day 5

We've been busy for the past 4 days and I just haven't had the energy to blog about our days when we roll back to our condo.  We've visited many of my favorite vendors and found some wonderful beads and cabs.  Today's adventures took us to Holidome, Gem Mall and back to my favorite turquoise guys at the Howard Johnson show.  I didn't take a single shot of who we saw though I should have taken a picture of our barista at the Gem Mall food court.  She made a GREAT caffe mocha.  Here are some of the items we found today.   Have I mentioned how addicted I am to turquoise?  LOL!

Coin pearls - varying from not so great quality at the bottom to pretty decent quality at the top

Black onyx and fossil corral

More pearls!

Poppy jasper, red creek jasper and Montana moss agate

Royal beauty turquoise

Nevada blue turquoise and sleeping beauty turquoise

Tucson Day 2 - beads, beautiful beads!!!

Day 2 started out wet and just got wetter. In fact it was absolutely pouring rain at several points during the day.  Not to worry - the rain didn't stop me from visiting some of my favorite vendors. Our first visit was with Toyo Feng (Feng's Trading). Toyo always has wonderful beads in some different stones and cool shapes. I always come home with gorgeous, unique beads for me designs. Here is a picture of Toyo and I at this booth and pictures of some of the beauties I'm taking home :)
 

Toyo and me!

Green pyrite, burmese jade, angelite weed grass agate, yellow (dyed) agate, yellow calcite

 and yellow opal

Turquoise hearts, gorgeous carved turquoise rounds, turquoise barrels and amazonite (leaves and faceted twisted ovales)

Carved mother of pearl, dyed jade, dyed terra jasper, fossil coral and brown opal

Beautiful turquoise, including some sleeping beauty!

Hematite, eagle eye tiger eye (grey), dumorterite

After lunch at El Minuto Cafe we drove over to the Howard Johnson GIGM show, slogged through the mud and puddles and visited our favorite vendors over there - Nevada Turquoise Co.  Here we both are with them.

Dad, me and Shellbone

Dad, my mom and Shellbone

Royal Beauty Mine turquoise and some Sleeping Beauty cabs

More turquoise :)

And that was the extent of our day.  The plans for tomorrow aren't cast in stone but we'll probably go to Gem Mall and JOGS.  If some of my designer friends send requests I may visit with Shellbone and his dad on the way home tomorrow. And, if you're wondering, it's still raining.  According to the evening news the airport got over 1" of rain (at 6:30PM) which broke a record from the 80's.  Since it hasn't stopped raining I'm sure the airport total is probably closer to 2" now.

New things to show!

Yowza! I haven't updated my blog in way to long. It's November already! OK - so I've been making new designs, selling them at online trunk shows and I'm getting ready to take some things up to the Fallbrook Art Museum for their Art of the Holiday show. I love making things for this show! I get to share my designs with a local audience and a portion of everything that sells goes to support the museum! Here are some of my recent creations ....

Blue Linen - Artisan lampwork, blue lace agate and sterling silver

Scarlet Lantern - Artisan lampwork, hematite and black rhodium plated sterling silver

Chocolate Wispies - Artisan lampwork, chocolate quartz and sterling silver

Dino-Mite - Dinosaur bone, etched glass and sterling silver

Vines and Flowers - Artisan lampwork, Swarovski crystals and gold filled

Sea Swirls - Artisan lampwork, Venetian glass, Swarovski crystals and sterling silver

    

Gorgeous color!

I've been having fun with color in my earring designs.  Enjoy!

Earring kick!

What can I say - I'm on an earring kick and, apparently, a blue kick.  I didn't notice until I gathered all my recent creations together that more than half are in blue.  Well - here are my recent creations - enjoy!

Aqua Venetian glass and sterling silver earrings

     Lava and hand forged argentium sterling silver earrings

AAA blue chalcedony, AAA pearls and argentium sterling silver earrings

Aqua and teal artisan lampwork, sea glass rings and sterling silver earrings

Golden pyrite and sterling silver earrings

I'll try to make something besides earrings in my next creative frenzy!

It's World Cup time!

OK - I admit it - I love soccer, I play soccer and I'm watching the first World Cup as I write (1-1 Brazil/Croatia right now if you're wondering what the score is).  I'll be rooting for the US as long as they last - hopefully into the next round but they are in a tough group!  And, since I also make jewelry I just have to share some of my soccer designs as well as some others - so enjoy!

Pink furnace glass soccer (futbol) bookmark

Soccer ball earrings - ceramic, Swarovski crystals and sterling silver

Soccer ball Iphone charm

Soccer peace crane

Hand crocheted soccer ball