Mini.masterpieces . . .

Are these the sweeting little things?

I have a pile of clipped edges from earlier works where I needed something

to fit into a particular size.

You know. Tailings.

Pieces that I usually use for testing colors and strokes when I paint.

So as if my work could not get any smaller,

I decided to paint some tiny scenes.

Cool.

What to do with them?

I asked my darling friend Rachel 'Two Dog Pond' to teach me

how to tin with solder and darling friend that she is, she did.

Now I can add truly 'wearable art' to my collection!

I am preparing for Art & Soup in Omaha in February and these should be a

wonderful addition to my landscape watercolors and oils.

Affordable and totally wearable.

On another note, it's time to update my etsy shop with my paintings.

I have decided that I would not set up another shop there

but add these paintings to it.

Others have been successful in blending two different media or more into one 

and I'm ready to give it a shot.

Mostly, I just need to get it all out there.

I've tried a couple of shows and it's going well so this is the time to get it really out there.

Time.

Goodbye etsy - hello BigCartel!

Yep.  Slowly moving my work off etsy and onto a cleaner, more modern site.

I'll admit that I finally got tired of seeing the same things on the landing page day after day, week after week, year after year, in spite of all of the complaints and ideas proposed to make etsy more sleek.  What began as a site for handmade and unique has finally turned into a site where everything is welcome to the point where anything handmade can mean truly artisan work created from start to finish by a single artist to cheap charms hung on a cheap chain.  Don't get me started on the dishes from the garage sale next door.  I just can't compete.  Worse, I can't be found.

So I find BigCartel.  Sleek, modern, easy to use.  Gone are the teens and tweens and any mention of Hello Kitty.  If these people were craft and art show people, I would be proud to have my tent parked next to theirs.

Not sure my rant is over but do take a look and cruise through the BigCartel site - even my own shop site, if you have a few minutes to spare.  Tell me what you think.  I think it's a good fit.

Montana Agate . . .

Ahem.  Now that I've gotten over my 'pique.ed.ness' from the last post, I'm ready to move on.  You must be so grateful.

Back to the bench!

Instead of doing a wholesale clean up of the whole mess that taunts greets me every day, I decided to simply work myself through it.  Sure, my little space to work gets smaller and smaller but as I turn out lovely work like this, space increases day by day.

I'm in love with Montana Agate, have I told you?

I cut and polished some for a friend last year and this slivver was part of an edge that didn't have much promise as a primo piece but see?  A little lovin' and it turned out great.

Certainly on the milky side, the inclusions and explosions tend to the rusty color and accenting it with copper rings just seemed right.

Sports a pierced and cut out back for no other reason than I love it that way.

Beautiful.

Bubbling Blue Agate . . .

Yep, delish.

This was a little bit of leftover agate from a previous cut - typical of my lapidary, there are all kinds and sizes of leftovers.  Piles, actually.  Baggies full.

(I think the crossword puzzle word for leftover is ort so I call these gems Orts.  I'm a word freak.)

The little thing had no flash and barely color and I came just this close to cleaning the bench and tossing it but, long story longer, Ed was in the workspace we share in the garage shop and it was warm and I was in the mood to share and play nicely so I picked up an Ort and started polishing.

Oh baby, what a sweet piece it turned out to be!

Simply set and accented with twisted and vined sterling bails, a dyed Soocho Jade bead that picks up tiny flashes of burned red.  The necklace is a go-to piece for that blue jean and white tee outfit.

Buy me here.

Slowly learning that lesson . . .

Oh yes.  When last we visited I had taken an awful, absolutely horrible group shot of a collection of pieces going to a local gallery for sale there.  I take these pictures for reference only so that when something sells, I have that visual reminder.  My lesson?  Take better pictures.  One sold that I had not reeaaalllly planned on letting go of right yet.  My bad.

This time before it heads to Omaha - I present the Jasper I cut and polished Monday evening.  Set in sterling with a copper bail and copper ball chain.  The true name of the stone escapes me so I named the pendant "Unusual Attitude".

About me - I fly.  I judge competition aerobatics.  Unusual attitudes is typically anything 45 degrees bank angle, 25 degrees pitch up or 10 degrees pitch down.  As you can see in this stone, the ground is slightly banked, not quite to those degrees, but no matter.  The green earth is tilted and the purple skies are easing into sundown, a low bank of clouds on the horizon.  It's a gorgeous weighty stone and it will soon be for sale at the Dundee Gallery in Omaha.

Love it.

Off to Omaha.

I should take a lesson . . .

I need to work smarter.

Here is the one and only and obviously the best picture I have of a piece I finished last week and decided at the last minute to take to a one evening trunk show at a local gallery.  

A gorgeous slice of Rocky Butte Jasper that I cut and polished and a stone I thought had a beautiful plains scene in it - grassy foreground, low Western Nebraska sandy buttes and a brooding spring sky.  I set it simply in sterling silver and accented it with a copper set loop and two copper rings, and finally pierced the Big Dipper on the back.  No picture of that because what happened was a surprise to me although my friends will tell you that it was no surprise to them.

It sold.

First buyer in the door made a bee line.
And hardly an inexpensive piece.

Lesson #1 - take better pictures of everything

Lesson #2 - I should be working on lapidary and more impressive pieces

I know.

duh.

Stinking Water Plume Agate . . .

Weird name

And a new leaf is turned - I'm finally getting my etsy shop back up and running.  I've ignored it for a long time and now that Summer is drawing down, I am bound and determined to get my new work listed.  

Gorgeous stone

I also will be listing the stones I've cut and polished and generally just thinning the herd.  Why?  Well, I attended the auction for my friend, Roger Pabian, who passed away this Spring.  A world-class published author and authority on agates, Captain Agate's house was full to the brim with agates in all shapes and sizes, in slabs, rough and polished stones.  

Roger taught me lapidary and I believe that's why I'm so picky about my cabs and how they are finished.  One scratch and it's all the way back to the beginning wheels for me.

His auction showed me just how much a person can accumulate - and I mean that in a nice way - and how little a person can actually use on their own no matter their intent.  Now that I've polished and loved on these little stones, it's time for someone to create something of beauty with each one.  I'll never get to them all.

I'll look at them this way : I don't own any of these stones.  I'm only the caretaker and when I've enjoyed them and taken pride in their beauty, it will be time for them to move on to the next caretaker.  Just promise me that if you buy one, you'll send me pictures of your finished product.  And then you'll be the new caretaker.

Copperlicious . . .

I'm seriously hooked on copper right now.  Maybe it's the way it accents the stones I've been working with or maybe it's the warmth of the metal.  Either way, it's been fun to make my own bezel strips with copper flashing and use up some of the copper wire I've had leftover from the building of our house.  (I just couldn't resist following the electrician around and picking up pieces of coated wire.  He thought I was nuts).

This is the second piece going to Lil Fish Lisa for her niece who found the Lake Superior agates on her trip to Lisa's this summer.  I pierced the Loon on the Lake on the back of the piece as the loon is the State Bird of Minnesota - and you thought it was the mosquito.

Lovely mementos.

Today's cache . . .

Bitter.  Sweet.  

Some of you remember my relating to you that my lapidary instructor and dear friend, Professor Roger Pabian passed away before Thanksgiving of last year.  As it is with serendipity in a bitter sweet way, the woman who spent 41 years going on rock hunting expeditions with him was the Lincoln Gem and Mineral Show this weekend and was selling some of Captain Agate's work (his wonderful nickname).  

I spent the better part of an hour there with my friend Jan and we combed and picked over dozens of Roger's beautiful cabs, mostly agates, and there we found the best and most beautiful bits and pieces of Captain Agate's passion.  He could coax wonderful scenes from an agate!

I just couldn't resist buying a whole handful of Roger's beautiful stones and I celebrated Captain Agate by taking one of the lovely little pieces of Montana Agate this morning and turning it into a pendant.

I think it's gorgeous.  I do love this little cab and the patterns in it are wonderful made even better with the sliver of burnt orange running through the top.  The three little carnelian beads make a perfect accent.

A little bit of Roger.

And sometimes it's all about me . . .

I've been really, really busy working on new pieces for two upcoming shows and galleries and replenishing things ever since the beginning of January. Quite honestly with all of the snow and ice we've gotten recently, staying inside in my cozy little shop has been pretty easy. However, I find that working on production stock is not always artistically satisfying so creating something for myself today was all about lynn.

I've wanted to make a 3-d piece for some time, a box shape or a bead - I wasn't quite sure what. So today I got out my 26ga sheet and punched two 5/8 disks then punched two disks out of those making little doughnuts (mmmm . . . doughnuts) I cut a strip of heavy gauge bezel wire and made a ring a bit smaller than the disks, soldered the three pieces together so that I had my little open bead and I drilled two holes in the top and the bottom of the sides. I oxidized the doughnut (mmmm . . . doughnuts), brush-finished it with an old emery board and hung an imperfect smoky bead of Aquamarine that I had cracked earlier this week.

I really like the whole aspect of this pendant and I think it will only get better with age and wearing against my skin. It's an everyday piece just for me.

And even more chalcedony . . . . .

Is there really more to say since I believe I've already outted myself as a Chalcedony Addict and who can blame me?

Swingy. Simple. Modern.

Glowing. Juicy.

Chalcedony addiction . . .

Hi. My name is Lynn and I'm a chalcedony addict.

The translucency of this material, no matter the color, is something I cannot resist. It has a warm, waxy, soft feel in your hand and is generally creamy to brown in color - the sweet colors like aqua, pink, blue and green are dyed, but who cares? They're gorgeous.

While I'm not nearly educated enough to understand the geological makeup of chalcedony, I do know that agate is a form of chalcedony as well as carnelian and chrysoprase. Purists, paleontologists and real lapidarists will debate the fine points until our eyes roll back in our heads so I don't even go there. I just love the stuff and do what little I can to make it pretty.

This itty bitty collection is what I whipped out last night. Had so much fun that I'm considering a trip back to the bead store today to see what's come in since my last expensive trip. I wish this was the sort of material I could buy online but, sadly - no. Gotta hold the beads in my hand and feel the weight and warmth.

Love the stuff. It's a wonderful problem to have.

I'm too excited . . . .

I was going to try to post blog entries that were organized, followed a chronological order of my metalworking journey, attempt to be informative and probably just plain boring. {{yawn}} But today I took a little sliver of agate that I bought at the Lincoln Gem and Mineral Show last Sunday and I'm so excited about how the little guy turned out that I had to post it.

I usually cut and polish all of my own stones (you can find those sweet gems on my flickr site) but I came across a handful of Holley Blue Agate and this little sliver was calling to me. I swear, this piece absolutely glows. Sweet, huh?

It measures about an inch long and I've accented it with a 4mm peridot bead. (I know, I hate mixing millimeters and inches, but . . . . ). Love it. Can't wait to wear it. I have three other pieces that I think will be set and sold. I can't keep everthing.