Back onto makin things!

I have been working on items while fussing over my cat so far I've made 2 lapel pins 1 pair of another one of a kind hair gear hair sticks and a really lovely unique pendant and a secret item that I shall not reveal until it's up in my shop! I also carved a hair stick so that I will no longer be dependant on the lack of the wooden ones in my area. I and perhaps with the help of others have managed to clean out all of the black lacquered hair sticks within my area so there won't be any new ones for a few weeks. The metal ones cast of course will be more expensive but that is to be expected.

Other good news I got more supplies today in the form of a beautiful desk clock that I got from ebay. Sadly it has been dismantled (insert scream of horror here) however, as beautiful as it was it did not work and was missing the pendulum at the bottom for it to tick and perhaps some other parts as well =/ So it will be getting new life in jewelry, accessories, and perhaps collages. I really hate destroying such lovely items of antiquity but I paid for it by not being smart and wearing gloves so the spring cut me on my finger and knuckle it's not bad at all but my harp lesson tonight will be painful =P

Max Update:
He's feeling well enough to resume his morning duties of waking Jason and I up in the morning. I still gave him fluids and of course the ever hated meds. I'm going to try to get a pic of his clavamox face tomorrow.

A very sick Max getting fluids through IV

A very sick Max getting fluids through IV
Originally uploaded by ye wenchie

Max has cholangiohepatitis poor boy is really sick but thankfully he is getting better. I have to administer fluids to him which involves sticking a needle in him =( Brings me back to over 10 years ago when I was practically doing vet stuff.

Jason and I were able to bring him home on Tuesday he's on five meds =/ and the fluids as pictured. He's been a little dizzy but he's getting around just fine and he even played with a peacock feather last night! So he has a few weeks of being on the meds and then a check up next week. I'm so thankful he's doing better

Max update

Well we just heard back that the blood tests have shown its an issue with his liver =(
Were getting an ultra sound done on him to see if they can find out if it is from some sort of infection, cancer or something else =( . As of now it looks as if he may be rivaling Brix ($3000 to $4000 dollar cat) for the most expensive cat of the household.

Max is a very special cat to me I partook in his recuse when he was 4 months old. He was a little kitten hanging around a car repair shop had his whiskers cut off and had grease stains all over him. After he was cleaned up I found out he was a pure breed chocolate point ragdoll which is a cat breed that I had admired at the cat show I worked as a steward at. He was the first cat that was actually mine (Jazz was a birthday gift for my brother but she declared herself my cat she's, been gone for a long time now), so he's been raised and taken care of by me for the past 10 years. When I moved out of my moms house of several cats I took Max with me but he was depressed because there were no other cats so that's when I got Ruby(Ru) as a friend for him.

V_V

I've had quite the day today well first I had to get up early 6:45 am early because Jason was working sound at Mosaic this morning. Then the highlights were a Dim Sum lunch and seeing Get Smart, which is excellent, an all around enjoyable movie, and sadly reminds me Mel Brooks, who created of Get Smart, is not going to be around much longer. And this brings me to the cause on my anxiety and worry is that my cat Max is not doing well right now. He's been vomiting since last night and today when I got home he was unresponsive to sound or sight he was acting disoriented and out right abnormal and has a fever. I'm thinking it my be slight heat stroke combined with something else, but I really don't know. I'm really worried about him he will be at the pet hospital over night and well get more info tomorrow.
As for tonight Valerian will be my bedfellow so I can get some rest and take care of things tomorrow.

This is my Max cat

Crazyness

I will begin with the bad news one of my pieces that a customer purchased broke V_V which makes me sad because that is a hassle for them and it makes me feel really bad because I really take pride in my work. Needless to say, I am researching other methods for adhering the item together so this doesn't happen again, and I'm kinda going into insane research mode which is forcing me to do more metal work. It's a good thing but I don't have the space or the money to invest in the necessary supplies or supervised instruction to really do it correctly. However the instructor of my lost wax technique class is a Blacksmith (with a studio space in Venice Beach) so I'm going to talk with him today and see what he has to say and if he also teaches classes on Blacksmithing (I wanna make swords and sharp pointy spiky things =D )

Well I have a ton of things to take care of this week (or month)and this is the list!
-Finish the Actors Reps resume and get that in on Thurs
-Buy a dremel tool and bits to drill through metal
-Flush out and finish the pieces that have been sitting around for a bit (Mr Dremel will help with that)
-Prep pics and do the write ups for the items I need to list (most are done so there's only a few left to go)
-My mom's birthday is tomorrow and the gift will have to wait(funds are at a critical low)
-Finish sorting buttons
-Continue on the organization of the living room/workshop (the never ending battle)
-Work on paintings
-Work on art nouveau clock project
-Work on "D-Grey Man" Munny (I'm an anime nerd)
-Chores and more chores <---intentionally last on the list =P

Voting Season is Open

The first Etsy Steamteam contest is now in full effect! The voting is well underway Click Here to place your vote!

On The D.L.(Down Low)

I've been out for a bit but that does not mean I've been flaking on creating new wonderious things!
I shall keep this short as I need to take care of my semi-neglected shops, but click on the pic below to be magically transported to my Flicker acct so you get the full scoop on the noobs(new items which are yet to be listed that is)

Time Flies...when you are having fun

Time Flies...when you are having fun
Originally uploaded by ye wenchie

This is my entry into the first Etsy SteamTeam contest which was create something around the phrase "time flies."

Originally this was going to just be the painting but then yesterday I got a little ambitious and decided to step up my game and make this an actual desk clock. My ambitions proved successful as the pieces I had on hand and the clock mechanism fit perfectly, as if they belonged together ( there's that phenomenon again). This was created out of my acrylic painting on canvas, a brand new clock mechanism, a vase holder from this handmade wooden clock I found at the thrift store. (there's a hole in the back that leaves perfect access for the battery and time adjustment of the clock ) There are a total of 8 gears on this guy one is sectioned into four pieces as corner embellishments with watch gears set in the centers, then the three at the top with the centers still in.

On to a description of the depiction! I wanted to convey the concept behind the phrase "Time Flies" but without the cliche of adding wings, for me that's just too easy I needed a challenge. So i decided to depict a clock face with the passage of time (based 12 hours) all at once, which has been displayed in my typical radial fashion, and then with the ghostly clock hands falling in the background. I added the gears to add more of a frame at the top for the piece, where as the wood piece was a little low for my likes, and I had to add the gear corner embellishment to tie in the gears at the top.

Fantastic!

I have accomplished 5 pieces in my lost wax class all of which will be sent off for casting tomorrow! Yeay!
One is a spike thing two are of shells one is a shell and then the signet ring. I'm getting two of the pieces cast in silver the spike thing and the shell! With my class I have mastered getting a smooth surface with the x-acto blade which is a great thing but I can't seem to be able to carve shapes with rounded or complex edges yet so I will have to work on it and waste lots of wax in the process V_V
In other news I have nearly completed my entry for the Etsy SteamTeam challenge! and It became more complex then what I had first imagined it to be. I must say it has become one of my insanely unique pieces much like the infamous winged chair. I am curious to see how it goes with people as I feel like a very mad mad crafter Mua ha ha...hahahaha...ha!

un-named pendant or necklace

un-named pendant or necklace
Originally uploaded by ye wenchie

I just finished this piece and I may add a silk ribbon for it to be a necklace. This is yet another one of those pieces that sorta built it's self. I had the filigree part at the bottom on but then I had to find the perfect pieces to tie in with it. When I first started working on this it was not intended to be of the lolita style it just happened to piece together that way.
A lot of work went into this pendant as well where I had to clip and bend the filigree then clip a slim brass strip (a clicky thing on the large gears I have) then remove th back of the Victorian button and flip the background piece so it looks brand spanking new.
(Tangent Safari: I've had a delima with these stunning Victorian buttons I have and using them with in my jewelry because I have to destroy the historical integrity of them which makes me so friggin sad. However, the back of this button used was loose already and the back, before I flipped it, was pretty gummed up so it found a home on this pendant. End Tangent Safari) Beneath the button is a gear and beneath that is a full filigree piece of which the section at the bottom originates from. The bail on the clock hand is another random clock piece and in the hole of the clock hand on the back is a little watch gear that fit perfectly. Then I was farting around with these awesome raw brass bows that I got from Epoch Beads and it went great as the top of this piece except there are no loops at the top so I had to figure that out and my bails that I got a while ago happened to fit perfectly over the bow I had to contour it to the shape of the bow a little too. But seriously those pieces belong together they were meant to be.

Yesterday's Listings

Here's the new items up on etsy

Pirate's Pike Earrings
They are a bit pricey because I had to remove the loop at the top of the skull and crossbones charm. Then carve out the back portion of and widen the skull charms so they would sit correctly on the spikes. All of that paid off to make a wickedly good pair of pirate earrings.


Elegant Deco - Chandelier Earrings
I've made several pairs of these before I started my etsy store but I've had to update the design with doing actual wire wrapped loops pricey again because of the wrapping work, sterling silver wire, and the fact that swarovski's are a b*tch to deal with I cracked one on this pair and had to discard it and redo one of the dangling bars.


Lately I've been in a wire wrapping mood and I'm planning a bracelet with some faceted turquoise beads and I have a matching bracelet for the Elegant Deco set but for some odd reason I just haven't put it up yet. On the flip side I'm working hard on the steamteam competition piece which is an acrylic on canvas painting! The contest is titled "Time Flies" but I decided to do my piece without the use of wings as a challenge to myself so far it looks pretty good and pics will be posted when it's finished.
I've got 5 jewelry pieces that need to be assembled and a horde of items to list in my destash/supply shop. On top of that I need to turn in more headshots and reformat my resume for the acting stuff and get that done by tues then I'm eager to see what I learn next in the lost wax class I should take pics of the ring before I send it off too!

Success!

I've got myself a casting agency! I've just gotta spruce up my resume and then I'm set for some real work. (side note: in LA when you say you're an actor people ask you, "So whats your real job?" heh) So I still have things to take care of with that and I will have more time for plotting things and wire-wrapping but less for listing so I really don't know if my shops will suffer a bit...but I pray they do not.
On to my next order of business, I now have over 80 items in my shop! Here's the two new steampunk items listed today:
The Gear Heart Locket Ring


Industrial Grape Leaves Earrings


More items Elegant Deco earrings (I've made these, and sold them) even before I had the etsy account but I just got around to making more)I will also be getting the Pirates Pike earrings up as well.

The first class

The first class of the lost wax technique went pretty well we started with a sand paper technique although I feel better working with an x-acto knife. So the first item I made was an iron cross signet ring ^_^ it's lovely and I have plans for it, fun plans for it muaha ha ha ha!
I just uploaded two pairs of earrings up on etsy Ephemere's Earrings and the LAPD Bling earrings. And I am to antsy about the casting company audition tomorrow to get anything done today, it's making me all scatter-brained and such. V_V

Slacker!

Or not...I've been posting pics of these wonderful military inspired pieces but they are not up on etsy yet (The Empyreal Pendant and the Esteemed General's Emblem and a new one pictured on my flickr account)So why am I stalling on getting these guys up? First off I love the Empyreal Pendant so it's mine, for now! Also I'm figuring on doing something different and much more then just a military themed line of jewelry and I may need to do a collaboration on this as well. I'm working out the details and I need to get some feedback from my trusted sources before I move forward and get people's hopes up with bs which I've sorta done so far with saying I'm going to post these items =/. So it shall be a while before those go up and if this project goes through It will be very exciting. I honestly ave been a slacker in one thing though and that is making my official shop logo =/ which I will try to get done this week as well as a half finished painting for the SteamTeam competition. Other things I'm excited about is my lost wax technique class starts this evening, and I have an audition for a casting company on Thursday afternoon! Please wish me luck send happy thoughts or prayers with these things!