More Poetry and Daggers

As promised, the third poem or stanza - third written but would be the first if it becomes all one. There may be more yet, I thought it was finished but now am not so sure. There may be a dragon to slay yet.

She talked to him into the night

and helped him fight the tears

She fueled his anger and his lust

she made him forget the fears

She handed him a dagger 

 and whispered in his ear

They created a wave of destruction

 smashed his marriage like tiny mirrors

She smiled as she thought she’d won

and began her reign of terror

This nightmare was his error

~~Dana 2016

Speaking of  daggers. Remember that cool little box from Endless Leather  It had some great black cord  and some beautiful sterling cord ends in it. 

You know I’m a member of the Artisan Group  and one of the things we do is supply various costume stylists with accessories they can use on the tv shows or movies they’re working on. I created this dagger piece, largely inspired by the poem and sent it off the stylist for the Originals  tv show on the CW. I’m very hopeful it will get used and you can say you saw it here first!

Black Velvet Choker and Silver Scimitar

So there you have it, what’s been going on in my world. Like I said before, Smoke and Mirrors and ....more swords and daggers! 

Thanks for stopping by!

We’ll see you next time!

Dana

Poetry and Daggers

Her broken heart never mended, the shattered pieces were stored.

She went about her life but her spirit never soared

She pulled the dagger from her heart so many years ignored.

She kept it to remind herself, of how her love was torn.

Drawing her last breath, her heart battered and forlorn. 

I love you still, she whispers, though her heart has been outworn.

~~ Dana 2016

Sometimes you need to dabble a little in other art forms. It’s been years ahem decades since I’ve written any poetry and this one started out much much darker. The kiddo didn’t like the way it flowed, so I’ve been working on it tweaking words here and there. I’m not sure if I’m done with it yet, I think I’m happy with the way it reads and I may write a sister poem of him, how empty his life was without her, the regret he felt at not stopping her, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll add some artwork, watercolor maybe or just a drawing. hmm I dunno. But it has been kinda nice to switch gears for a little bit.

This is week 14 of the  Year of Jewelry project. I missed last week - life happened and I kept thinking I’d get a post written all the way until it was time to write this weeks, and I just had to admit it wasn’t getting written.

Lima Beads had these really cool looking Tibetan horns  in their newsletter and they inspired the brass dagger I made this week. Originally I had thought I’d make up an arrowhead or a sharks tooth in brass and or copper  to hang from the stingray leather I got in that awesome box from Endless Leather but somehow this dagger (could be a claw now that I look at it lol) and its matching beads seemed perfectly suited.

I drew out the shape on some brass sheet, cut it out, annealed it, ran it through the embosser and then started dapping and forging the curves. And of course all edges have been filed smooth as well. I actually had a lot of fun creating the dagger and it allowed me to take a breather from all the tax stuffs and deep serious conversations with the hubs. We've needed to have them and it feels so good to really talk with him again. He has always been my rock and I'm so grateful to have him. 

Thanks for stopping by!

We'll see you next time!

Me and the Boy - a Little Family Time

US Golden Dollar  & Quarter  Dollar Coin Rings

I've been busy but my muse has been quiet. I can make while not entirely "woohoo I so want to do this", but I prefer the woohoo. It keeps everything fun, which is why I do this. My stress levels have been higher than I thought they were I guess, I pushed hard at the beginning of the year and I enjoyed that, but I underestimated the amount of down time my muse was going to require afterwards.

So you can understand how happy I was when I told my son I was planning to make some rings over the weekend and he piped up with, "Can I make some too? I still want to learn to make some coin rings. "

And that is just what we did!

First we picked out some coins to use. He has wanted to turn his golden presidential dollar coins into rings for quite some time now. We also picked up a Quarter and a Mexican Peso. I have a Casino token around here somewhere I had planned on using, but somehow it got missed. Maybe next time!

Then we gathered up the tools needed, he went downstairs and picked up a drill and I pulled out my punch set. Marked the centers of the coins and got our holes started. Not without casualty though, I apparently opened my punch set upside down so Alex used it that way and mushroomed one of my punches. oops, ah well that's how you learn ....

Forming the ring on the mandrel.

We used a hammer on the quarter and gave it a textured finish that is really pretty and then switched over to wood and leather mallets for the Peso and the Dollar so we wouldn't destroy the details of the coins.

Peso Ring

We only set out to make them to fit his fingers so there are things we would probably do differently if we needed to size for a specific size smaller than that but it was a great learning experience for us both. And he hasn't taken any of them off, except for washing hands etc, since we made them.

Wearin o' the rings, just sounds good doesn't it :)  Looks good too.

That's how we spent our weekend. How'd you spend yours? Feel free to tell me in the comments or on my page on FB. I'd love to hear from you!

Til next time!

Thanks for stoppin by!

The Only Thing I Melted This Week....

was something I meant to! Yay Me!! I finally got my earrings finished, plan B came along quite nicely. Good thing too, melting those earrings really hurt my feelings and my confidence. I didn't realize how much until I finally finished them. Thankfully Plan B actually came out much cuter than the original.

I've always thought of these types of happenings to be fortuitous. If I hadn't melted the first pair, they might not have been quite as cute. I really do prefer the copper background over the brass. But it sure can make you feel a little "less than" and cause a little struggle while you push through. But persist, you must, in the end it's always worth it.

Commissioned Tree of Life Earrings

A jewelry acquaintance of mine Heidi Kingman decided it was time to declutter her supplies. A little make room for more of what I want kind of thing. She had quite a few really pretty stones up for grabs and I managed to pick up a couple. 

My son was sitting at the table as I opened the package. He picks up one of the stones, holds it for a moment, turns it over and holds it again. Finally stating, this one is mine. When the stone speaks to you in this house, you listen lol

Last night I sat down and turned that stone into a little something for him. Now, I'm a Virgo and I really like nice and neat and symmetrical, it is hard for me to leave a wonky wrap or an unbalanced anything. I wince and cringe when I notice something in a photo that you will not see in the hand. 

I had created these nice, neat, wonderfully matched little loops as I netted around that stone. Then my fingers started cramping and it got hard to hold the stone as I worked. I flipped it and dropped it, muttered something under my breath. Stretched my fingers, straightened the netting and started again. 

Again my fingers cramped up and then locked, the stone went flying through the air and I smashed the netted bezel in my hand. Flustered I might have muttered something a little stronger this time. 

I stretched the netting back around the stone. I stretched my fingers. I started again, one more time. I felt my fingers start to cramp, stopped before they locked. I thought that might save the stone but no, fingers locked and stone flew.

I only needed two more loops to finish the round and I'm fighting back the tears of frustration. Stretch my fingers, make two loops, bind off. Stretch the bezel around the stone, it's not as neat as it was - BUT it looks appropriate. It looks as if I planned it. It's asymmetrical and organic and somehow looks so much better than those neat little rows of perfect loops. Whats more, I like it! My hands hurt too much to do anymore though so I put it aside until this morning.

Alex's Feathered Stone

This morning I cut a piece of copper into a feather and fused some fine silver into it for the finishing touch. He's quite happy with it and already has it hanging up next to the dagger pendant and his cross.

I'm this month's host for our small group giveaway so I'd better get busy choosing a prize. Considering making a pendant if my fingers will let me o_O if not I'll take a peek into that stash of glass and rocks I have right over there.

Thanks for taking a peek and for visiting with me!

We'll see you next time!

Torn and Tattered

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t have TV. Well, I have a TV but I don’t have cable or satellite. I have a pair of rabbit ears and I live in a pretty rural area surrounded by mountains so reception is iffy at best. Signals going digital actually killed the reception I had. Before they went digital I could pick up nearly as many channels as our local cable company offered so when I got fed up with paying money for a lack of service there was very little pain involved. We watched more movies than TV anyway so when the signals themselves went kaput that wasn’t even a big loss. Then I installed NetFlix, originally for the movies but soon learned we could catch up on those shows we actually missed. Shortly after discovered one or two new ones. Followed by the realization the ones we really liked that still air can be viewed online!

I WAS working on one of my UFOs, I had coiled up some brass to make up some jump rings and my blade got dull while I was cutting them. Thrilled I had dulled a blade before breaking it I put a new one on the saw. Then applied way too much pressure. The old blade was very dull and I didn’t realize how much pressure I had been using to get it to cut the rings… and then the saw slipped and found my fingertip. Ouch! After a second time and actually managing to draw blood I knew I needed to take a break. I only had a couple rings left to cut so I used my cutters to finish off the coil and decided to watch a little SuperNatural while I closed all those rings I just cut. The angels have fallen to Earth so the opening credits now feature some very tattered wings, the graphics of which I find beautiful.

Once I finished closing up all those rings and had them in the tumbler the kiddo and I had a Once Upon a Time mini marathon - I promised I wouldn’t watch without her and she’s been busy so we had a couple episodes to catch up on. Thoroughly in a fantasy set of mind after all that and a saw just sitting there with a brand new blade in it I quickly sketched up a tattered feather. Pulling a piece of scrap from the jar I got to work using my sketch as a reference. One of these days I may actually lay a pattern on the metal itself :) but so far I like free handing and I’m starting to get a good feel for the saw and what it can do.

This is the result, one tattered and torched feather. I loved the coloring I achieved when I annealed the quill to make the self bale so I left it and just burnished the edges so they wouldn’t be sharp. Measuring 2 inches tip to tip and just 1/2 inch at its widest, I’m pretty happy with it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
We'll see you next time!

PS First image belongs to the photographer Philip Bonneau
and can be purchased here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/97495704/heroesvillains-issue-1-print-1