Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Metal & Lace

Another day, another long day. Started education for the 5 year old. Though that's not entirely accurate as I've been teaching her informally, you know like a mom should, since she cared to learn anything. This was a bit different and the challenges tot he process began to reveal themselves. First, her sister...who would like to do everything her sister does. No, that's not a bad thing really, but means I need to get two of everything so she can have the same stuff as sissy. Other challenges include, the household chores that still need to be done, sorry kids, I have to change the litter now, keep writing. You get the idea. Then there's the simple issue of keeping both myself and her motivated for such a large chunk of time. I'm sure we'll ease into it, but I don't get how it's possible with one adult and 30 of these small kids...what brave people kindergarten teachers must be.

During nap time, I got to again work on my challenge piece for the steam team. I guess I was particularly excited because I actually finished the piece already. I ended up choosing to modify the same pattern as the "chain" for the center section. I then decided it needed something to hand from the bottom. This meant a search through my bin of supplies. After much digging, I opted for a couple of gray swarovski rounds for the sides and did my best impression of a wire wrapper to add them. It still needed something at this point, so i dug some more and found a large clear crystal drop. I did an awful, but utilitarian impression of a wire wrapper and added it to the center flower.

I was going to stop there, but decided to go ahead, iron up the sucker, get a clasp on it and get a few real pictures. It might sound weird given the huge and elaborate collars I make, but I was afraid this one was a bit much. It's bold, long and a bit heavy, but I really do like the way it turned out. My husband still thinks I ought to add crystals to the divots in the filigree piece, but that's another skill set, like wire wrapping, that I don't yet really possess. I think it looks fine the way it is honestly.

The necklace has put me in a pricing quandary, which is why it's not listed for sale yet. I rarely make pieces with so many components. Hell, I don't even remember where I got that crystal let alone how much the thing cost me. It took a couple of days to make, but that was more design time than actual tatting. So, I have no idea when I'll work that out and get it in the etsy store. There are a couple more pictures of the piece on my flickr if you'd like to see more of the piece until it gets to etsy.

Not sure what I'll work on today. I sold a mask that need remaking, but I also need to run a few errands. I can't remember how long it took for me to settle after I moved the last time, but I'm ready for all this address changing and home improvement store tripping to fade away. Yeah, I know, it's gonna be a while.

9 comments:

Sarah said...

I love the big crystal, I'll remember this for halloween!

Sara said...

It's gorgeous! I think it's perfect the way it is; it doesn't need any more crystals. Your wire wrapping isn't that bad- it's way better than mine.

TheClayMuse said...

wow that is positively gorgeous!
I'm always so floored by your talent!

Gina said...

I'm always buying those filigree things to tat on but unlike you, I rarely manage to follow through. Very nice job!

Kim said...

Oh, that's lovely! Nice job. And don't worry about the homeschool thing - it will be old hat after a while. Before we started, people would tell me that "homeschool only takes 'x' number of hours, instead of all day at school". Somehow it never occurred to me that it would be 'x' hours out of MY day. But it's all worth it.

Artsnark said...

Came out great! The elements really play off each other nicely

Unknown said...

It's beautiful! Love the mix of metal and lace and the chunky lace design plays off the metal nicely!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous work! I really like the combination of materials.

Emi

Kate8085 said...

Looks awesome! I like the spin ith the crystal.