A productive three-day weekend

It's been a busy and productive 3-day weekend (I took Friday off from work) -- jewelry, knitting, and spinning. Nothing finished in the knitting category, so no photos there. But here's what I've been spinning:


4 ounces of merino and bamboo top, spun into a 2-ply yarn. Handdyed by Miss Babs, purchased at Fiber Space. I haven't skeined it yet, so I don't know what the yardage is. I've got another entire 4-ounce braid of fiber left to spin. I hadn't done any spinning in quite a while, and my spinning muscles are really aching now! I'll have to give my back a rest for a few days before I tackle that other braid.

Now, the jewelry.

I started out with a beading project, using some of the brass findings that I got at BeadFest.


This is made with a brass bird charm, brass chain, aquamarine beads, and oxidized sterling silver wire.


After the necklace, I started playing with some polymer clay, inspired by a new book that I picked up at BeadFest. It's called Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry, by Ronna Sarves Weltman. Ronna stopped by class last Sunday with some polymer clay pieces that she had made using Objects and Elements bezels, and they were so gorgeous that I couldn't resist buying her book.

Here's my first piece -- a polymer pendant with silver wire, strung (for now) on a silk cord.

I'm not sure about this one yet -- maybe a glaze coat to bring up the color would make me like it more. I think I blended the clay a little too much, so that the colors ran together and lost their vividness.

The next piece combines metal with more polymer clay, in the same color scheme, held together with a brass screw. This one's on a silk ribbon for now, as well, but I haven't really decided how to finish it off. Also, while I like the basic idea, I may redo the polymer pieces.


The final piece of finished jewelry for the weekend is a bracelet, using rubber cord, sterling silver, a brass bezel with glass bead, and sari silk. I can't really claim credit for this design, as it was published in the Handcrafted Jewelry magazine that I bought at -- BeadFest, of course. So it's not original, but it's a great design, and I already had all of the components on hand.


It's Sunday night now, and I've started in on one last piece -- but this one involves resin, so it's going to take a couple of days to get all of the layers poured and cured. Hopefully, I'll have photos for my next post.

...and finally, here are a couple of pairs of cufflinks that I actually made a couple of weeks ago, as a birthday present for my husband. One pair made with NY subway tokens, and the other with 10 franc coins -- neither of which is in circulation any more.