The Wigglebutt Blog

Just a quick YOJ post today☺ I cheated just a little. I made the bears a few weeks ago but just got around to making them into earrings this week, so technically it counts☺ And since this weeks prompt was ~ Multiples ~ they fit right in.  Polar Bears with Northern Lights I've been working on my first order for the gallery , (I still can't get over how exciting that is to me☺)  a small intial order due this week, with an 80 piece order that has to be ready by the end of March. So far production is going well except that every time I work with clay  I get distracted by ideas of things to make or experiments to try☺ So, to maintain focus, I am just keeping a notebook handy to write down ideas I want to try after the orders are filled☺

Ok... I admit that I am a couple of days late with this week's (last week's) piece but I have a good reason☺ More on that in a minute~ Anyway... this is actually a re~do. The first one I made was literally the first micro-macrame bracelet I had ever made. You can see why the re-do was needed here I had meant to re-do it in the exact same pattern but changes were made (I can't help myself☺) Now it's a  little longer than I wanted but still totally wearable☺ Now for the news! It's official.... I'm going to have some of my goodies in a Gallery / Gift shop in Anchorage and this summer I will have same said goodies in a Gallery / Gift shop in Skagway . Apparently in the summer there are quite a few people in Skagway☺ With just under 800 year round residents, you wouldn't think Skagway would be a great place for a Gallery but more than 800,000 people pass through this town every summer, so this is very exciting☺ ...

My BSBP partner Sheryl Stephens received the beads I sent to her so now I can show you what was in the box... Lori said that if we were nervous about figurung out what to send we should send what we would send to our bestfriend or send what we would love to receive ourselves. So thats what I did, cuz I was nervous... always am☺ I LOVE handmade and I think Sheryl does too and I love organic and semi-precious and pearls and stone chips, (love, love, love chips! I don't know why, maybe it's a sickness of some kind☺) I have heard from Sheryl and she is happy with what I sent ~phew☺~ (I don't know why I make myself crazy) And now I just have to come up with a fabulous design worthy of what she sent to me and wait "patiently" to see what gorgeousness she makes with my offering☺ And the exciting news may involve a sorta large wholesale (new to me) order  for a gallery but it's still in the early stages. Wish me luck! I hop...

And it is so PUUURRRTY☺ Look at those colors! There is magnesite and fresh water pearls and just look at that pink jade! I really love working with gemstones and pearls, but I am always drawn to the more subtle earth tones. When I opened Sheryl's package I was a little intimidated☺ I mean just get a look at this focal! The color is amazing and I love the shape. Everything about it is awesome. How the heck am I going to do this thing justice?! The color really is amazing in person, much better than my photos. Not going to be easy deciding which side to use as the front, but I am leaning towards the second one☺ Thank you Sheryl! I love my soup! And for the rest of you out there~ you should really check out Sheryl's shop . Not only does she have some great jewelry, but she has some really awesome beads too☺

 This project took me waaaay outside my comfort zone. I haven't really done any masculine jewelry. So when a fellow asked me to take this medallion and add a stamped copper bail, put it on a beefier braided "something" and add the two bears teeth,  one on either side,  attached somehow..... Oh and could I make the braid red and black... And it needed to be really tough cuz he is going to wear it pretty much all the time..... I was a little nervous☺ I decided we needed to go with leather, so I pulled out the Kumihimo disk that I had to have a while back because it looked like  it would be fun to learn, and up to this point  had never been used and  found a tutorial on youtube and made a couple different sized braid samples for him to choose from. (All I had was brown leather so I had to order the red and black. Only proving that I obviously don't have enough supplies) He went with a 12 strand s...

is the lovely and talented Sheryl Stephens of  Cool Moon Creations & Beads . Sheryl is a seed beader AND a stringer, so much talent☺ She sells her jewelry and some pretty awesome beads in her etsy shop And you can check out her blog at The Babbling Beader ☺ It was seriously crunch time this morning! I was determined to meet the deadline for sending out beads to our partners and apparently my time management skills are on vacation (I can only hope that they are enjoying sandy beaches and sunshine) Well, I finished the last of the components that I wanted to make myself LAST NIGHT! (Nothing like waiting until the last minute, I work better under pressure, yada yada yada☺) Which meant I was photographing, bagging, labeling and boxing everything this morning and I have to tell you that I realized just then, that I make Bead Soup the same way I make real soup. I start out with a small pot (there's only the two of us) and I add...

I am really loving this project (so far anyway). It is giving me the incentive that I need to create something new  every week AND it gives me at least one interesting thing to blog about at least once a week☺ I finally got to break out the clay (I really miss it when I don't have time to play with it) I had a request for a small earring version of some "Alaskana" pins and magnets I made a while ago. So I made a couple sets of each... Then I made a few more Bears.....  and I think I will make a few more whales... just because☺ I also signed up for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party I'm supposed to have the beads I'm sending to my partner mailed by Feb. 10 and I have no idea what I want to send!! I'm also working on re-doing a man's necklace. I've never really done "masculine" jewelry, so this should be really interesting. I am taking the medallion from an existing 'choker...