Dreaming Those Impossible Dreams

There are jewelry projects that grab my mind and won't let go. They re-occur frequently even though I know that it would be close to impossible to execute. Another bunch of Lotto dreams, except for one which I'm sure is physically impossible.

The first is Birthday Boxes. See, I also love to do boxes. Boxes should be a thing, like scrapbooking or knitting. Anyway, a birthday box incorporates it's birthstone in the decoration and holds a pair of birthstone earrings. I even made a couple.

This is June and those are pearls. Pearls are very doable. What is not doable is April, May and July. Heck, December is beyond my economical reach right now. But one day. . . one day.



Then there is my full line of World of Warcraft Jewelrymaker jewelry. You'd think this would be about as doable as birthday boxes only many, many more pieces of jewelry. If you'd think that, you'd be wrong. It is virtually impossible to make all the jewelry a jewelcrafter in WoW can make because many of the elements don't really exist. Go ahead, try to find some draenite or Fel iron. By the way, I have thought of taking some iron, dropping it out of a window and calling if Fel.



The Solar System Necklace. The most undoable of my impossible dreams. This solar system necklace would have the all the planets with your head representing the sun. The beads and distances would be true relative to our solar system. The problem? If Mars is 1mm in circumference, then Jupiter would have to be 21.5 mm-- impractical but not impossible. However, relative distance from you head would be a problem. If Mercury is one inch from your head, Neptune would have to be a 75 inches from your head. You'd have to be 7 feet tall to pull it off. Still, I dream on. I'll follow that star. No matter how hopeless, no matter how far!


Yeah, no.

Kinda Precious. Agate Edition

If there is one stone I love to death, it's agate. It can be a little more pricey than quartz, with the price escalating with how "fancy" the stone looks. I have purchased moss agate for 3 dollars a strand (16" 6mm) and have seen other agates priced as high as 20 dollars a strand.

Agates can be found in single colors: white, black, amber, red. . . the list goes on. But agates are mostly classified by where they are found and/or the patterns on the stones.

Moss agates are usually the cheapest of the patterned agates.

Turritella agate has little fossils in it.


Brazilian agate. So named because they can be found in Russia or thereabouts. I may be off by a few thousand miles.


Mexican agate. Found in Brazil.


Crazy lace agate. Found in Crazylacia. Or maybe it's the pattern. Probably the pattern.



Fire agate. So named because it is hot to the touch. No it's not but doesn't it look like it should be?



So go ahead rich jewelry makers, pay a hundred dollars a strand for rubies. I'll take agates any day!

4 Stupid Crazes I've Thankfully Only Seen On The Internet

People do stupid things. Put them in a group and the stupidity gets multiplied exponentially. Add the anonymity of the internet and, Whoa Nellie!, things get so stupid it needs a helmet and extra supervision. Here, then, are the five stupidest things I've seen lately on the internet.



4. The Shuffle. It's just a dance that started in Australia and when white people find out that they have rhythm, you gotta let them celebrate as much as possible. But the guys in this video:



are Berry Gordy's son and grandson, which makes them neither white nor Australian. There is no excuse.





3.Ghost Riding. This was apparently so popular, it had it's own song and grandma was doing it.







2. Whistles for your car. Why, oh why would anyone want to annoy friends and strangers alike with a car that makes so much noise? Perhaps it was the excellent salesmanship of Bubb Rub and Lil Sis.





1. Planking. WTF?



Seriously, WT fucking F?


What does this have to do with jewelry making and/or selling? Go to my Etsy and see! WARNING!!!! There is no explanation as to what any of this has to do with jewelry on my Etsy.

Precious? Kinda. Quartz edition

How does an unemployed person get the supplies to make jewelry, you may wonder. Well, wonder no more! An unemployed person may take the mass-produced plastics route. This way gets you bags and bags of beads for very little money. There is no problem with this, I've found. No problem at all except. . . they're not at all pretty. That may have been harsh. Some of the mass produced plastic beads are very lovely. Some of them don't have a seam, even. Mass produced glass is better. Mostly. However, those beads may not be properly annealed and, damnit, are just not as lovely as artisan glass beads. Plus, I'm not going to use one thousand of the same bead as my earrings are made one at a time and are on-of-a-kind.

The trick is to go semi-precious. Depending on the stone, semi-precious can be very affordable (all prices based on 16" strand of 6mm round, unfaceted beads) and always quite beautiful. Take quartz for example.



Rock quartz is the one most are familiar with. It is clear in color and transparent. They average about $6.50 and I have seen them with out-of-country wholesalers for as little as 4 bucks a strand.



Smoky quartz is, well, smoky looking quartz. These'll run you about $6.70 at the regular outlets and $4.00 if you are willing to risk the exporters.



Rose quartz tends to be less transparent. Perhaps this is why it runs cheaper than other quartz. $3.70 at the usual outlets and about $2.50 at the foreign wholesalers.



Rutilated quartz has golden or red looking inclusions which makes for some spectacular looking beads. These inclusions can happen in any color quartz. These beauties will run you at least 10 bucks a strand at the usual suspects and $6.00 wholesale.



Tourmalinated quartz has inclusions of tormaline. These inclusions are usually black. Clear quartz with black inclusions will be on the more pricey side at over ten dollars a strand retail and $7.50 wholesale.



There are many more colored quartz: lemon, milky, rainbow. . . and on and on. I've found that the more transparent the quartz, the more it costs. Inclusions are also sold at a premium.


P.S. Did you know that both citrine and amethyst are really colored quartz? I didn't include them here because the jewelry people don't treat them as such. Also, and, plus, notwithstanding-- the above prices are my own personal experience prices. If anybody can find these things cheaper-- tell me!

It's Sunday, the day of rest.

And not the day of trying to think of things to write. Instead, here is some encouragement for those of you trying to sell your wares: Regretsy items that sold.




Sure hope nothing from my Etsy ends up on Regretsy.

Good Food, Good Beer, Good People

Not necessarily in that order. That's where I'm headed today. In honor of all that, I'll leave this here:


In a tall stock pot, pour 3 or 4 Killian's Red (that's cheap Irish red beer, in case you were wondering). Add a palmful of peppercorns and cloves, some salt and pepper (eyeball it) and rack of ribs, cut to fit in the pot. Add water until ribs are covered. Set fire at medium high to get simmering, then lower heat to keep it at a simmer.

While the ribs are simmering, get a small saucepan out. Put in about 3/4th cup of vinager and two or three big tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix until sugar is dissolved. To this slowly add and mix: a tablespoon of molasses, two tablespoons of honey, a half a small jar of habanero hot sauce, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke. Stir and stir while simmering.

While you are preparing the ribs and sauce, have you husband start the grill. If you do not have a husband, you cannot make this dish. Sorry, dems the rules.

I like my ribs falling off the bone, so I simmer them for a good long time. Over an hour. My husband thinks barbeque ribs needs to be torn off in hunks with teeth like the cavemen did, so I'll take out a few sections from the boil much earlier. How long they simmer is up to you. But whenever you take them out, dry them off as much as possible, then hand them to your husband along with the sauce. Make sure he turns and bastes a lot.

Bye now. If you're not going to a barbeque today, it sucks to be you!

Full of Fail

Do you ever get an idea in your head and when you try to transfer the idea into reality, well, you just fail? Happens to me all the time. Here are a few of my crafty failures.


The idea: Braid silver, gold and brass wire and, like Outkast says in The Whole World, throw a shell in it. Sounds great!

The fail:

Up close, not too bad. A bit more fragile than I'd envisioned.

Ah, now it is clear. It is much more than 'a bit fragile'. Overworked wire turned brittle and snapped, braiding was all kinds of uneven and, from far away, it doesn't look braided at all.
















The idea: Use a figure 8 knot link as a base for a bracelet.

The knot is held together by wrapping 26 gauge wire around the end.
















The fail:

Hard to tell from the picture but. . . that bracelet is almost impossible to wear. There is very little movement between the links since they are pretty much tied together. That stiff shape you see is pretty much the stiff shape you get. Good luck putting your hand in it.













The idea: Post earrings. What could go wrong?



The fail:

Whose ear are those stubby little posts gonna fit through and reach the other side? They would be so non-fail if I could find someone with really, really, really skinny ears.













The idea: A white box with 'S' embellishments.


The fail:

If you're gonna use epoxy glue, make sure it is evenly mixed.












A good place to visit after one of my disasters is CraftFail. A fail blog for crafters. It's so full of fail it turns right around and explodes with win. Another good place to visit is my Etsy. Good for me, that is. And good for you too, if you like earrings.