The Wigglebutt Blog

I actually posted this on the group  on time but I'm late posting it here☺ I haven't followed all of the weekly prompts (they are just suggested prompts to help give you a kick start if you are lost for ideas) but as luck would have it this weeks "theme" was "Simplicity" Thank goodness!☺  Torch fired enameled beads on balled copper wire with handmade copper ear wires  I have been a little busy working on this and having a blast☺ Still have a ways to go on the moose but progress is good~ And getting a good start on the bears and whales. And I've made some progress on a couple of these trying to decide between clear or blue cubes for last bead row fell in love with these colors almost immediately (please excuse the multi-colored straight pins☺) and this one was a bear, to put it nicely! I tried about a dozen color combinations and hated them all. I had almost decided to start from scratch when this ...

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☺ ...

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...

I had a lady in the shop the other day, she was admiring my polar bear pins and asked if I did anything with Whales. She had had a friend up visiting from the lower 48 and when they went on the 26 Glacier Cruise the lady apparently fell in love with the whales. So, I went on a mission to figure out how to EASILY make whale "stuff" Anything that's "Alaskana", I am trying to keep down in cost, and in turn, in price. There are so many Alaska Souvenirs that are "Made in China" or "Made in Taiwan", it is really hard to compete with the prices that stores charge for these items. I can't spend hours making them and set my prices according to mass produced, resin, made in china prices. So, after some (a lot) of experimenting I have come up with a whale that I like. The entire thing is made up of existing "cutter" shapes, two colors of clay and 3 shades of mica powders. Once I got down how to put them together, it took me ab...