Tangible Tidbits 2010 #13: I Used My Muse!

Hey, all! Tomorrow is the deadline for Artbeads.com's Use The Muse IV contest, so I spent most of today making my piece for it. I decided a while ago what I wanted to do, but I just never got around to it. This morning, I realized today was my last shot if I wanted to enter...and since I paid $40 for the kit, I figured I'd better get my butt in gear and do it! :p

I can't post a photo of my piece until "the big reveal" of the Muse on Artbeads.com in a few weeks, as the muse is supposed to be kept secret. It's a cuff bracelet, but a bit different than what you've seen me do before. The kit contained walnut wood components, Swarovski(R) crystals, Hybrid TOHO™ and other seed beads, brown Tiger's Eye, and blue turquoise Picasso Czech glass roundelle beads, plus I mixed gold-colored aluminum wire with bronze wire and added my own Lava Stone, some faded rose/gold square seed beads, and some large faceted round AB finish black beads. It all came together quite nicely, if I do say so myself! ;)

Aside from that, I've got one school project basically done and two others pretty close to completion. You'll be seeing a sterling silver pendant made from a cuttlebone cast very soon. I just have to decide what to hang it on and find the right bail for it. The silver that leaked out of the bottom of the cast and fused itself to some stones in the pan below will become a pin. It looks pretty kewl...I just have to figure out how to affix a back to it. And I have a brass bangle bracelet that needs some finishing touches added to it. I haven't decided just what they are yet, so that's still "in progress." Two other pendants will be done, hopefully, during next week's class. They have to be cleaned up and have stones set in them. One will have the stone set in a gear steampunk-style. The other will be set in a bezel cup made by me. As I am not such a master with the torch and solder, it's a challenge. :p The last project I am required to complete is to make a container. I've decided to make a brass box with steampunk gears, watch faces, and keys affixed to the outside with rivets. I ordered some watch faces and antique keys from eBay today. :)

Still working on earrings for a coworker and I have a couple of bracelets to do. I've ordered a few DVDs to help me advance my wire-working skills over the summer. In particular, I want to learn wire-wrapping stones, as I have a couple of stones (well, rocks, really!) here a friend sent to me months ago and I've been trying to figure out what to do with them. She said she wasn't in a hurry, but I think I should probably get them back to her before the seasons change again! LOL

BSNJ has its monthly meeting on Thursday and I'm attending an all-day workshop with Linda Gettings on Saturday. I'll be learning how to make a St. Petersburg chain as a circular medallion. I believe there's sewing and seed beads involved. :o LOL

Enjoy the spring weather! I know I am! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #12: Welcome Back Spring!

Happy Easter and a belated Happy Passover to those who celebrate; Happy Spring to everyone else! :D

I've been busy working on a project for Bead & Button magazine's Bead Dreams 2010 contest, which has an entry deadline of Monday, April 5 (tomorrow). I got inspired by some Crazy Lace Agate round beads I bought earlier this week in ruby and larimar blue, paired them up with lavender and royal blue irregular Mother of Pearl squares I already had, added some of my own handcrafted wire "spring" beads in sapphire blue and pink, plus 1mm azure and merlot WireLace(R) accents to create a two-strand Welcome Back Spring necklace for the contest. I also made two pairs of earrings -- I liked the idea of a mis-matched set, one blue and one ruby...but decided to make a pair of each color in case some people didn't "get" that concept -- and a bracelet to match. Pictures will most likely be posted tomorrow, since I have to upload the photos of the necklace for the contest application. ;) I can't sell the necklace until after the contest is over, since they may want the original for the next round of judging, but I'll add it to the Facebook Fan Page and the Something Tangible website GALLERY so you can see it. :)

Still working on earrings for a colleague at my office. One pair of clip earrings has turned into four so far. :D I've come up with a kewl design with 6mm WireLace(R), seed beads and one larger focal bead that looks like a flower. You may have seen the pink version on the Facebook Fan Page or in the GALLERY this past week. I'll be making another pair in blue and possibly yellow [the WireLace(R) colors marigold and pale gold aren't very "yellow," so I'm not sure about that pair yet...we may go in a different direction altogether]. I like the design a lot, and I want to find a way to make it more versatile.

Had my first client offer to keep me "on retainer" today! :D I repaired a charm bracelet for an old friend that she's had since she was a child. She adds a charm whenever she travels somewhere new. I replaced all of the jump rings for her because the ones she had didn't close properly, most likely due to years of repositioning the charms. So, she's decided she wants me to maintain the bracelet for her, since it's such a prized possession! How kewl is that? It may not ever be a very lucrative project, but loyalty definitely counts for something! ;)

Have a great week everybody! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #11: Once A Good Girl, Always A Good Girl...

It seems my "good girl" status has remained intact, even after being out of school for nearly two decades (I got my master's degree in 1993)! I got an A- for my mid-term grade and a 13.5 out of 17 on the quiz in my class at MSU! :D Mom's response was that I "never liked those minuses." I told her anything with an "A" was fine by me. My father always said anything lower than a "B" may as well be a "Q." :p

We had our demo and studio time on cuttlebone casting this week. It took me two tries to get mine to turn out right...at least I wasn't the only one. It will eventually be a sterling silver pendant, although right now it looks like, as the teacher said, "a sculpture...silver with rocks!" There are small stones in the bottom of the pan where we pour the molten metal into the cast, and the silver leaked through my cast into the stones. There was more than enough to make my piece, so the excess metal that leaked out the bottom kind of formed a base for the "sculpture" and also hardened on some of the stones. It actually looks pretty kewl, so I took a picture with my cell phone camera to preserve it before I cut the "base" off. It's now the wallpaper on my phone. ;)

On the techy side of things, I traded in the HP Deskjet I had here at home for a shiny, new HP Officejet 6500 all-in-one printer/copier/scanner/fax. I'm so excited! I got a $50 rebate for the trade-in, plus I had something like $78 in Staples Rewards dollars accrued from recycling used printer cartridges and previous purchases -- I got my business cards and letterhead there, plus other miscellaneous office supplies -- so the machine ended up costing me $108 WITH the 2-year warranty! :D PLUS, I returned four ink cartridges I had bought for the old printer and didn't use, for which I was refunded more than $140! So, in effect, the printer was FREE! LOL Only in America, folks! :p ;)

Been busy with requests for earrings lately. I still have a bunch of projects "in the wings" that haven't had time limits on them and/or are especially challenging for one reason or another. Don't worry (you know who you are if any of them belong to you), I haven't forgotten any of them! I have a notebook with everything written down -- one of my purchases at Staples ;) -- so nothing gets lost in the shuffle. :) There are also a number of jewelry-making contests coming up in the next couple of months that I want to enter, but I have to create items especially for them. Hopefully, I won't miss any opportunities due to time constraints. :\

Have a good week, one and all! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #10: New Custom Order/Deposit Policy

Due to financial and time management concerns, I have decided to adopt a new policy that will appear on Something Tangible's website next month and in all of the company's written materials going forward. Any previously discussed projects will be "grandfathered in" and, therefore, not affected by the new policy. However, effective immediately, any new custom orders will be subject to the following requirements:

A deposit will be required for all custom orders, the amount to be determined based on the scope of the project. The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it will help defray the upfront cost of materials to be purchased for use in the piece(s). Second, it will enable me to maximize my time and energy in terms of determining which projects will generate income and which ones may not. Serious buyers will be more likely to put down a deposit than "window shoppers." As my schedule is busy and my time limited, I have to concentrate on allocating my resources to projects that will generate income for the company.

Naturally, once the project is completed to the client's satisfaction, the amount of the deposit will be deducted from the final cost of the item. If, however, the purchaser decides not to buy the item after it is completed for any reason -- change of mind, change of circumstance, etc. -- Something Tangible LLC will keep the deposit as partial compensation for materials purchased and time spent on the project.

In addition, merchandise will not, under any circumstances, change hands or be delivered until payment is made in full. There will be no exceptions.

I appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Thank you.

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #9: Frustrated with Facebook

Gotta vent today. For almost a week, I've had trouble accessing the Something Tangible application on Facebook. Not the Fan Page, but the game in which you send pieces of gemstone jewelry to your friends. Not a big deal, really, in the overall scheme of things. I know that. That's not the real problem...although it does obviously put a kink in my outreach/company name recognition efforts on Facebook, as the application provides a really good vehicle for doing that. I presume that since I'm getting an error message that says, "Errors while loading page from application The URL http://174.37.50.154/app/620805/?link=dashboard did not respond. Please try again later. We appreciate your patience as the developers of Something Tangible and Facebook resolve this issue. Thanks!" I am not the only one having problems gaining access to it. The problem is that message, in a nutshell. I AM the developer of that application. I used Gift Creator to generate it, so I contacted the developers of THAT application to see if they could help me. Twice. No response. I tried in vain today for a few HOURS to find a contact link for the Facebook developers to reach out for assistance, but all I could find were repeated notices that they are not responsible for problems with applications created by "outside developers." I FINALLY found a link to report bugs regarding gift-giving applications, so I tried that one. I explained that I contacted Gift Creator twice and that the problem is a page loading error. Somehow, I doubt that is something they can fix, either. I received an automatic email response stating -- you guessed it -- "Facebook is not responsible..." Blah...blah...blah. If the application is hosted in Facebook's network, how can they basically wash their hands of anything that they didn't create themselves? My application is just some pictures and words. No complicated graphics. No moving animation. Anything more complicated than my pictures and words is placed there by FACEBOOK, with their larger-than-life pop-up ads for the application-of-the-moment jumping in my face every time I open up the page. So, how can they refer players to the developer with problems and complaints, when we have NO CONTROL over web page loading issues on THEIR network? And how can they DARE to claim that "the developers and Facebook" are working to "resolve this issue?" At least I never claimed to be resolving it! I know my limitations and I KNOW I'm impotent in this situation! So, if I'M not resolving it...and Facebook is disavowing all liability for any applications created by "outside developers," where does that leave us? Perpetually disconnected?

Rant over. Have a good week! :)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #8: Email-hijacking Gremlins?

Just wanted to post/send a quick note (really quick this time, I promise! LOL) to let you know that the new Focal Piece of the Month is FINALLY up! Sorry it took so long to get it up this time around. I usually shoot for the updates around the 23rd-25th of the month, since the site first went up around Christmas, but due to personal issues on my end, AND the webmaster's end, AND some mysterious email-hijacking gremlins -- is Mercury in retrograde, by any chance? Just checked...no, it's not :o -- this project was just NOT destined to happen in a timely fashion! :p Therefore, this version of the Focal Piece of the Month will probably stay up through the middle of April, rather than change it again in a week or two.

Anyway, I've been super busy this weekend working on my PowerPoint presentation on Steampunk/steampunk jewelry for next Friday night's mid-term critique. Check THAT off the list of things to do! :D Cleaning up my class projects currently for the teacher to review. I felt pretty bleak after class on Friday night with everything I had to get done this week and I didn't feel my work was progressing as it should. Still have the readings to do for the quiz and my 10 weekly drawings. Everything will get done on time, as always. Hopefully, my grades and work will be to my father's standards...anything lower than a "B" may as well have been a "Q" as far as he was concerned. ;)

Back to work! Have a good week!

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #7: Short & Sweet...Well, Not That Short!

Sorry I'm a bit late this week, but Mom had her surgery on Tuesday and that kind of took center stage focus since the end of last week. She did well, although it was a long night, since the surgery started and ended later than expected, and we are now waiting to find out when she can be released from the hospital -- in the middle of the third snow storm this month! :p I'm trying to keep up with everything the best I can, but the next 4-6 weeks of her recovery will increase the level of chaos in my life.

I attended the Bead Society of NJ meeting last week. Nice party. Check out the Swarovski(R) Crystal earrings I made for the exchange in the GALLERY section of the Store if you get a chance. ;)

Still working hard on my class at Montclair State. The new Focal Piece of the Month helped me jumpstart my research for the five-minute oral presentation I have to do in a few weeks for the mid-term critique...mid-terms already? :o The new Focal Piece should be up on the site in the next week or so. Sorry, that's a little late, too. **hides**

As always, please feel free to pop in and leave a message or comment for me on the website blog. It would be nice to get some activity going here (or there, if you are reading this via the email newsletter or the Facebook Fan Page). For those of you who know me from my message board days, remember "The Sharing Threads" at MR/ARD/5LYF? I was hoping the blog would evolve into something similar to that, only maybe a little less "heavy." KG is back...tell all your friends! LOL ;)

Until next time, "TTFN...ta ta for now!" (Gotta love Tigger!)