Today I..........

Made These..........


                                                             

A Bit of Horse Gear.....

     Remember this?

The bit of brass reads.............

David P. Cosc.

Malden Mas.

no. 60

(as near as we can make out)

I found this chain complete with the two metal pieces at

an estate sale. I am guessing that since it was

near a box of old horse tack that 

it was also horse gear.

Could No. 60 be the number of the horse?

AND......

The view outside my window.........a little bird feeder I made from an old light fixture

and some prisms.

It's seen a lot of action this week!!

                                                                        

ODDFELLOWS......."on my bench"

Bits and pieces of Oddfellow medals,

Old shoebutton

 Lourdes medal,

Watch/clock key

Antique agate bead

Oddfellow medallion

Clay beads from Steph

Old tapemeasure 

Jasper with fossils in it (Steph)

Antique agate bead

I have wanted to use this old tapemeasure in a piece of jewelry for a long time.

I have seen a lot of gals out there doing some wrapping with strips of saris

and other fabric but this old dingy tape 

just happened to suit my color palette .

The fraternal organization Oddfellows

dates back to the 18th century.

You can easily find their history online if you are at all interested.

I just really like their OLD medals and jewelry.

Something about that big funky eye??

I have a few more pieces of old broken Oddfellow ribbon holders that I have picked up.......

So will probably make a couple more pieces.

Ivory and Teeth

Plays with Teeth.....and bones......

Ivory, Bone, Brass beads,

Tooth........ 

( I don't know what kind of tooth, it was found by my sister Marilyn)

 Ivory piece.......... estate sale

 Turquoise.......old coin,

Yellow Opal............................lots of different shades,

(I really like the variations this opal has.)

Religious medal.....................

Just starting to settle in for the winter.

Opening up little sacks that have been tossed

here and there over the last few months

as I found little bits and pieces

but didn't have time to do anything with them.

Some I had forgotten!!!

It's time to play audio books and get busy.

And "yes" to those of you that I am sure are tired of waiting,

SOON, I promise!!!

                                                                                                                          

Dia de los Muertos

Talisman earring.................................................

Working on some

Day Of The Dead jewelry.

I know, rather subdued .

This is a single earring because I find that's

all I seem to be wearing these days.

I will probably make a very short one with 

just a bead and skull to wear with it occasionally.

SO.....................................

I am standing at the jewelry counter at my local Goodwill,

waiting for a "lady"

to get through looking at EVERY single

piece in the counter.

(I go every couple of weeks looking for pieces to take apart)

Finally, realizing she's going to be a very long time,

I asked if I could look with her, after her.

Before long I see her pick up a necklace, and immediately put it down.

I asked the clerk if I could please have a look at it.

I start looking at it, and the lady says VERY loudly, 

"Oh, I could never wear that I am a Christian". 

I realized she thought it had skulls on it. 

I told her....."It's not skulls, it's elephants".

Not listening, not hearing, not caring,

she still went on and on about how she was a Christian and could not wear "it".

I am starting to feel like I have a blinking light

 over my head  flashing HEATHEN!!!!

I turned to the clerk and said "I'll take it please".

                                                                    

This is my new necklace that I am pretty sure is Ivory,

even down to the tiny clasp.

 I now happily own it because she "could never wear that".

I quickly realized that lady had far more problems than I could ever hope to address over

the jewelry counter at the Goodwill.

Cute huh!!

This is my favorite rosary.

It came from a nuns estate in Montreal.

It hangs on my bedpost and when I am particularily

troubled I hold  it in my hands to just feel it.

I am not Catholic but it still comforts me.

I like to think about all the prayers it has heard, and

feel how worn all the many medals are from those prayers.

Oh look..... 

what's that I see at the bottom of the crucifex?

A skull??

I'm pretty sure the nun whose fingers

wore these metals almost smooth was a

CHRISTIAN

  

Just Hanging....

Where it lives....................................

Just hanging...........

                                                               

On a tiny old door.......like art

Easy to grab....wear.... put away.....

New necklace made by Steph.........

Where do you keep your favorite pieces...........

the ones you wear most often...............

do you keep them out...........

so you can enjoy them..........

even when not wearing them............

I hope so..............

                                                                             

On my bench.....

                             

bone, jasper, and  brass beads...................

different rosary parts...........

Vintaj necklace parts..............

I made these earrings to go with this necklace................

It took me a couple of hours this morning to get them light enough that they were

wearable.

I always tend to start with too big...too many....too much....and have to edit down.

Finally... I am happy with these..........

Repeating a lot of the same elements, but still very comfortable to wear.

                                                         
                                                         

Turquoise and Fossil

FIRE OPAL AMMONITE.............

I love these........

Fire Opal Cleoniceras Ammonite .

So smooth, like glass ......and iridescent like an opal.

But these were once alive and became extinct with the dinosaurs.

Now a fossil.

Big chunky turquoise beads with lots of brown,

More of those antique agate beads,

I only have a few left, I love the color varigations.

I need to find more of them!

On one side a piece of a trade bead, still nice even though broke,

on the other a bead with similar color.

I put the closure on the side and made it so it is adjustable.

It can be worn as a choker, with extra chain hanging down

or longer if you wanted to wear it with other pieces.

  

Turquoise and Fossils.........two of my favorite things!

                                                         

KIng GeorgeV and Queen Mary

King of United Kingdom and the British Dominions,
Emperor of India , etc. (1910-1936)
                             

The same day I went junking at Bernies I also stopped by Bayside Antiques.

I found this old royal commemorative pin featuring King George V and Queen Mary.

Having just bought the saber tooth at Bernies, my mind started playing around

with the idea of the British Empire.

When George V was king (1910-1936)

The Empire included South Africa among many other countries and continents.

So thinking along those lines, using some of the new things I had picked up,

this is what I came up with: 

This started out much different, but as usual lots of editing happens during the actual construction.

I had to make changes in order to get it to hang right.

I really like the way it turned out.

When you are wearing it it stays nicely balanced and has a great

feel with a very slight sense of movement.

Components: Vintage commemorative pin (back removed and flattened)

Mammoth tusk

Bone beads

Jasper beads

African trade beads 

Saber tooth

Roman Catholic medal-St. Ghislain

(with what seems to be a protective eye on it?)

Strangely enough, I don't seem to have any earrings

that go with this, LOL,

Guess that's next?

What do you think? Would you wear this?

Well, if I never have an occasion to wear it, I think

it looks good on this dress form. :)

 

                                                                                 

ON MY BENCH.....

A Little Playing Going On Here...............
                                               

A silver "dinner" ring

A sterling salt shaker wrapped with a bit of tiny sterling chain

that still has part of it's closure.

The holes in the shaker offer lots of opportunities for embellishment,

but in this case I chose to keep it simple and let the tiny closure take center stage.

It  has just enough movement that it sometimes makes a faint  sound 

as it moves against the shaker. 

The ring bezel is from The Industrial Chic line. That line has a lot of fun

things in it.................and sometimes........ you just want to have fun!!!

(You can find The Industrial Chic Line by

Susan Lenart Kazmer

at Michaels.)

          

Next Up.....................................................

Still in the planning stages, I need new blades for my saw.

I am thinking 1900's British Empire...........................

                                                                         

INSPIRITU JEWELRY, by Marie French

SPEAKING OF TALISMANS...(ok, it was just me......)                                                                  
                           

Yesterday I decided to sit out the rain at my local Barnes and Noble book store.

Loaded up with all my favorite magazines, a few books and a cup of coffee,

I found a big ol' chair in a back corner and settled in. 

This is the one that caught my eye and had to come home with me...........................

Inspiritu Jewelry by Marie French.

Here's a brief quote from the book:

(when coming upon a home where a curandera, or healing woman

was once thought to have lived)

........."I came to an old adobe house that was quite dilapidated, but I could tell it had been 

loved long ago. I decided to go in and take a look through the cobwebs and dust. It was there that I spotted the old prescription book. Leather-bound, with the names of her patients, illnesses and the how-to information to make her healing jewelry"......................................  

NO, this isn't a novel, it is an actual book on making jewelry .

There is for example directions for......"believe-in-myself "bracelet, and French tells why she chose the components she did and what properties each is believed to possess.

It's a fun read as well as giving very detailed and complete directions for making 

the different jewelry projects. 

Frenchs' bio says she is a "curandera" (healing woman)

from a small Texas town. If you like a little folklore and herbs

mixed in with your jewelry making this might be a good book for you.

It's also available at Amazon, but I didn't want to wait..............

  

You can also find French at:

http://inspiritustudios.blogspot.com/

 

The Little Bighorn, an earring

TALISMAN:

"Something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects....

an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and

bring good fortune."

I don't expect this long single earring to do all that,  

but I am hoping that when I wear it I remember and recapture

the sense of history, spiritualism, and yes..sadness...

I felt when we visited

The little Big Horn Battlefield,(National park)

You obviously and with good reason are not allowed to remove anything from the park.

But I was able to find a person (Jason Pitsch) whose family owns and lives 

on private land that was the site of Major marcus A. Reno's fight in the valley against the Lakota and Cheyenne Tribes. (June 25th-27th, 1876)

The blue Russian trade bead and the brass trade ring

were from Custer's Last Stand, on the Reno Battlefield

around Sitting Bulls Camp (Hunkpapa camp) 

( found in 1998) These are legal and authentic artifacts.

I cleaned them very little, they are pretty much as they were when I bought them.

Dirt on and in the bead, and the brass ring is green and (c)rusty.

At first I wasn't going to use the little Black Hills gold cross, I didn't think it "looked right"'

but then I started thinking about all the Indian Wars that came after 

Little Big horn, and how some if not all of them were related (in my opinion) to 

the gold found in The Black Hills.  So on it went.

The sterling feather came from frostcreek Etsy Shop,

everything else from here and there. 

Visiting The Little Big Horn Battlefield is an amazing  experience,

if you haven't and are able you should go, you wouldn't regret it.

It was on my "bucket list", so glad I got to cross it off!!

Do you have talisman jewelry, something made from special things?

Something that you wear when you need courage, comfort ,

or to remember? 

ROSARY & BONES....mixing it up!

New Necklace...........

A little Bone, a little Rosary,

a little Indian,

a little Smaller......

                                                                          

                                                                     

LAMP PIECE GOES TRIBAL

I have been researching primitive, tribal jewelry, trying to get that feel in my own work while still using recycled pieces and using  some of the bits and pieces I have picked up over the years while out junking around.  I have been studying the work of Ramona Solberg and going thru photos from  last years vacation to Wyoming and Montana.  In Cody at The Buffalo Bill Museum, they were having a special exhibit on Plains Indians. The clothes, the beadwork, all amazing. I couldn't take any photos in there, but I could sketch. And I made notes of color combinations, patterns, anything I could think of that could be used as inspiration when I got back home and was working on something.

When I found this lamp piece a couple of weeks ago in Phoenix I bought it knowing I was going to try to use it in a necklace. From studying things at the museums, I have no doubt that if a Native had found this piece laying on the prairie some where, it would have been used for something. Maybe a handle , maybe to decorate a weapon, but for something. So I tried to keep that in mind as I worked on this piece. I also made this a bit longer than I usually do, thinking more 'breastplate". Suprisingly, although it felt heavy and awkward while working on it, it isn't heavy to wear.  But it is big, and is definitely not for everyday wear.

I remember thinking while in the museum that the Native Americans were the original recyclers. They didn't waste anything . Two things that I saw that were my favorite examples of that were.........a warpaint kit that had been made out of a small shaving bag. (I think we can figure out that story) and the other thing that stuck with me was a beautiful deerskin shirt, painted, quill work, beadwork, and what at first glance I thought were small round mirrors.They  were actually pieces of tin cans that had been cut into small circles and sewn onto the shirt. It was stunning.  I am quessing that a can  was just something that was not to be wasted. Boy do we have a lot to learn!

  

Besides the lamp piece, I used some old steel cut links from my stash, two Tibetan prayer beads, and two carved Himalayan beads. ( at least I was told that's what they were) My sister Terri (an amazing bead artist ) gave me a huge stash of glass beads, silver beads, all kinds of fun stuff when she decided her eyes were done beading. The white beads are from her, made of bone. The closure is once again from  Industrial Chic.

OK, what do you think? Go ahead, I can take it.........Tribal? Primitive? Too Bulky? Sick of the Industrial Chic closures? Weird? Can't figure out my reasoning?????................. ( Keep in mind , I COULD take this apart and make a weapon :)   The beauty of this is I COULD take this apart and redo, or rethink the whole idea. So I welcome your comments and critique.

AND THE  MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL:  My grandson, Matthew........who will go junking with me at the drop of a hat, loves art, loves The beatles, and plays the drums, just turned 8 this past week.  Anyone that wants to wish him a Happy Birthday can do so in the comments at The Tin Palace Project.

Thanks!!

ARIZONA ROADSIDE SHRINES......AND JUNKING FINDS!!.

ALONG HIWAY 85................................

A roadside shrine along Hiway 85, heading back to phoenix from Tucson.

We made a big loop on the way home because I had read that there were several shrines right alongside the road on that route. There were, but some that were supposed to be there weren't any longer. It made for a loooooong ride back, but here are some of the shrines we saw:

This was actually in a small cemetary that was right next to the road.

In memory of a 14 year old boy

Not a grave,  a memorial

Shrine to St. Jude

Altar of St. Jude Shrine 

And finally.............................

Phoenix has no stortage of good vintage shopping. Thanks to Dawn, I had a very nice list of good places to go!  She has done such a good job of profiling and listing them on her blog that I am not even going to attempt it. If you are interested I hope you will hop over to her blog and check them out . I didn't buy a lot.............had the suitcase issue to contend with, but I did manage to find a few things.

An old photo albumn for art projects, one baby shoe (I couldn't resist)

old pocket watch, garnets, crucifix, and 2 tintypes ...all for jewelry  projects.

That brass piece is a lamp part....pat. 1888.

Ammonites, Trilobites.

Labradorite........my favorite!!

Saw lots to inspire jewelry design on this trip. I am thinking......

BOLD...........CHUNKY

SIMPLE.........BASIC.

ETHNIC.....TRIBAL

Stay tuned!!!!!!!!

FYI.......If  I could have fit them in my suitcase.......there were some hauntingly beautiful old Mexican doors, shutters, simple hand hewn furniture,  etc, that would have made the trip home with me!! 

.