I have a muse, you know, that creative voice in your head that tells you what to do sometimes.
My muse is tricky, like well, Tinker Bell.  Do you remember the movie "Hook"?  Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffmann and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell.

At the end of the movie when Peter (Robin Williams) returns home and is lying in the snow, Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) comes to him and says.."You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? ... that's where I will be waiting."

Well, that is mostly where my muse finds me....  half asleep, still remembering a dream and this muse pops into my head and I see an idea, a name, a mix of colors or something I just Have to create. And it wont let me rest until I do...  it whirs around in my head like a zooming fairy until I get up and go create it.

This morning, she popped in to tell me I had named a bead mix wrong, yup, wrong.  Yesterday I made an interesting green mix and named it Emerald Isle,  wrong!  My muse woke me up to tell me that mix should be Irish Spring,  and I needed to make a new darker green mix and call it Emerald Isle.   Can you believe the nerve of that cheeky little muse?

Well there you go, now I am off to make the new bead mix, just thought I would share with you.

Now what is this?  It's a Skull bracelet.  Made from a carved magnescite bead.

 

I have also made Skull earrings, other skull bracelets, skull wine bottle stoppers (very popular) and skull bottle openers and coffee scoops!

 

 

Call them Halloween or Dia de Muertos decorations.... they sell all year long.   Why are skulls so popular?  What is our fascination with skulls?  Or is it a fascination with death itself?

Wikipedia says; "
Humans can often recognize the buried fragments of an only partially revealed cranium even when other bones may look like shards of stone. The human brain has a specific region for recognizing faces, and is so attuned to finding them that it can see faces in a few dots and lines or punctuation marks; the human brain cannot separate the image of the human skull from the familiar human face. Because of this, both the death and the now past life of the skull are symbolized.
Moreover, a human skull with its large eye sockets displays a degree of neoteny, which humans often find visually appealing—yet a skull is also obviously dead. As such, human skulls often have a greater visual appeal than the other bones of the human skeleton, and can fascinate even as they repel. Our present society predominantly associates skulls with death and evil. However, to some ancient societies it is believed to have had the opposite association, where objects like crystal skulls represent "life": the honoring of humanity in the flesh and the embodiment of consciousness."

Either way.... makes me say "hmmmmmmm".

Turquoise in it's many forms

I was doing a little research tonight on a shopping site, and I did a search for Turquoise beads.

2290 items.... well that's too many. So I put in 'Natural Turquoise beads not Howlite', 2160 items returned. Sigh, so as I shuffled through the listings I noticed, Orange, Pink, White, Yellow, Purple, Bright Blue, Lime Green... awful ugly beads, crosses, skulls. Nothing like what I was looking for, which was natural, real turquoise beads in traditional turquoise color. I flagged a few, then realized that was fruitless, there were just too many.

Do people buy this stuff? Now I will be the first one to admit, I have purchased some dyed howlite or magnesite beads. But I knew what they were. And I certainly didn't try to pass them off as "real turquoise" to anyone. I bought a few of the carved skulls, in black and white, these wild orange, yellow and hot pink skulls are awful.

But what really yanks my chain are the listings for beads that look like turquoise, almost. You know they are not, but the seller merrily describes them as Turquoise, they don't say where it's from or what mine. How can they? They came from China.

to be continued....

Rum Raisin?

So...... I thought Rum Raisin would be a good name for a Bead Mix I thought up... A nice dark red mix sprinkled with black. Huh? How did I think that up? Bead mix colors often just come to me when my muse strikes, ( or hits me over the head with a rock). So I googled "Rum Raisin", and what did I get? Ice Cream! and Cake! Not RED at all.... I like confirmation that my name choice is appropriate for the colors.

Then I tried "Red Rum Raisin"..... Well that was a little better, I got Red lipsticks, a reddish brown horse, various food stuffs (none of which reminded me of rum raisin, and a brown goat! And this guy >>>>>

Although what he has to do with "Rum Raisin" I have yet to figure out! But he is kinda "wickedly handsome" isn't he?

I will post a picture of my Red Rum Raisin mix shortly and hope ya'll like it enough to buy some. I have been in a really creative mood lately with my bead mixes... several new ones have come to life as well as re-creating some of my old ones in the tiny size 11/0. Here are a few.....

Witch's Brew

Azurite-Malachite mix

how about Firey Sunset?

You can see them all at either of my online stores;

http://spiritbearbeads.etsy.com

or

http://Spiritbearbeads.artfire.com

Thanks for coming by!

Of Tools and Rocks...

Not Cabbages and Kings... I'm afraid.













So continuing from my last delinquent posting. Why did I build a 2 car garage and dub it the Flying Pig ?





I have acquired, besides a considerably quantity of BEADS, a CONSIDERABLE amount of tools, jewelry and lapidary tools, and I needed someplace to put them. The tack shed was a temporary site, but it did not begin to provide the space needed. Then I considered the old shed where we keep lawnmowers, tires and the ATV's, but then where would they live? Aside from the fact that it has a dirt floor, all the windows are broken and it is full of bugs and other nasty critters. Quite as 'sheds' often do....





So I decided to build a new one. Just for my and my beads and my tools and my growing collection of ROCKS. "Rocks?" you say? "Why do you have rocks?" Well, you use the tools to make Big rocks into little rocks. Pretty little polished rocks that you put into jewelry and other things.





Taa Daa!

OH Dear.... I am a bad bad blogger. It has been almost a year since I posted here.

Soooo busy. I have built a studio, it is called the Flying Pig Studio at Devils Den. Now isn't that pretentious. But there is a reason.... I kept saying it would be built, 'when pigs fly'. Then for Christmas my Brother and Sis sent me a metal pig, with wings! So it is, the Flying Pig Studio.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Lewis Carroll

Holidays

Why am I writing about holidays in the middle of June? No holidays here. Oh! But the 4th of July is just around the corner. Now why would I write about that? It's one of my favorite holidays. REALLY? Oh yeah. WHY? Because it and Halloween (my other favorite holiday) are much less stressful than the more traditional, end of the year, holidays. Thanksgiving is terrible, Turkey or Ham? One son likes turkey the other ham, if I have only one, the other complains, or DH complains, where is the _______? ( insert missing meat here). And who is going to go pickup Grandma, and will she make it up the stairs this year? Who will take her home? And then there is the menu planning, everyone gets in on that, this daughter will bring this, this daughter will bring that, Grandma will bring _____ but, it's not ready, just stop what you are doing and help her. Sigh... to much stress and way too much food. The leftovers wont even fit in the fridge.... see what I mean? And let's not even get started on Christmas!

So back the the 4th of July. Wanna shoot off some fireworks and grill a burger? Fine. Wanna sit by the pool and veg? Fine. Somebody is always having a block party. They don't mind if you crash, just byob and don't be obnoxious. And unless you are a total recluse, someone you know is always having a big feast, with all the kids running around with sparklers and the Mom's fussing over the potato salad. Wrangle yourself an invite, bring some imported beer, (be sure to offer your host one), your own lawn chair, and there ya go. Stress free holiday.

This year I have to work...........