Week 24-Status Link Bracelet

I'm two weeks behind but I've had four shows in the last five weeks so I've been restocking but haven't had much time to create anything new. Last weekend was a three day show in Northville. It was beastly hot and humid but Northville is a pretty town and the people were extremely nice. Sunday was shaping up to be a really good day until the tornado sirens went off and many vendors started frantically packing up their wares. Since there is no way I can tear down in under an hour anyway, I decided to hang in for a while. No tornado materialized but we did get thunderstorms. By then most of the vendors were closed so I had to admit it was over. That's Michigan for you.

Anyway last week I decided to do extreme housekeeping, for a change. While sorting through old magazines, I ran across a picture of a Prada handbag in a 2008 issue of Elle. The strap on that bag was the inspiration for this bracelet.

Week 23-Silver Flower Necklaces

In working on a prototype for a new key tutorial, I ended up with several of these flower motifs in various sizes. The flower shape itself was inspired by Lisa Racine of Julida Designs, an artist whose work I really enjoy. I was trying to achieve one that was about an inch in diameter. Because the size of the flower is dependent on the diameter of the plier jaws where you form them, and there is no way to know in advance exactly how big they're going to turn out, I had to do some experimenting to get one the right size. Rather than consign the extras to the scrap box, I added beads and coiling and chains and ended up with two pretty cool necklaces. Even though I'm still not anywhere close to getting my key prototype done, at least I consider it was a productive day.