Flowers, Glass and Destiny

Tonight I'm sharing some beautiful surprises with you.

First is an awesome heart bead by Payton Jett. When I saw the photos I just had to have this bead. I turned Payton onto Diane Setterfield's book, The Thirteenth Tale, and after reading about fire and cool grass, Payton was inspired to put that into glass...and Destiny was born.

Payton was destined to make the bead, and I was destined to wear

as a sign of an special connection to this story and to each other.

The second photo reflects my discovery of glass painted porcelain bead work by Joan Miller. Click on her name to be linked to her website and just be in awe of the incredible finite detail she pours into her work. I've not seen anything like it. Some of you might know her work as the heads and bodies for Penny Michelle's silver art pieces.



I have to learn more about this process so if you have info to share, books to suggest, tutorials to show me, please do!

Next are spectacular custom lotus beads I requested from Aimee Milan at PolyChromeBeads. The silver plum she used for the glass flower caps is my favorite. And the layers you see here? Beautiful, yes, but to see the true depth of them in person is simply jaw dropping. These beads are big and fat and luscious.

Lastly, my spirit friend has been telling me of her moonflower which blooms under moonlight...well, they can bloom from late afternoon to morning, but HERS bloom under moonlight which is so much more romantic! I didn't have one of her photos, but Amy J. Clark Haden was kind enough to allow me to use hers.

These flowers are the size of your open hand! Like a morning glory, they grow on vines. You can read more at Amy's site by clicking her name.

I'd love to hear any comments you have on the topics I've hoped to have entertained you with tonight. The more the merrier!

**UPDATE on October 16th: "Destiny" necklace is now complete and will be displayed in a future blog post.**

Star Girls and White Punks

The white punks to the left by Payton Jett are the basis of my custom request for all cream ones that are on their way to me. Just envision these already pretty punkins, but completely in cream...vines, stem, everything. I expect them to look quite sophisticated.

Black and white birds are in the same box and I can hardly wait to hold them! I have several in exotic glass color mixes, but these are purely black birds and totally white birds. I'm thinking....ribbon would work with these.

Marianna Boylan of StarGirlJoolz on Etsy is one of my most loyal commenters on my blog and has been
kind enough to award me the Brillante Weblog award, which I must honor by passing on to my favorite blogs.

So, here goes:

1. Of course, being a faithful cupcake lover, I have to keep in touch with the daily entries of Cupcakes Take the Cake blog. Allison, Nichelle and Rachel scour the cupcake world in every category possible to keep us all aware of worldwide cupcake events and new products related in any form or fashion to real, edible cuppies.

2. Bella Sinclair Doodlespot. Bella is an illustrator who claims she is "just a girl with a pencil" but every week she displays the sweetest works that in an instant
pull me out of my everyday world and into a whimsical one that just relaxes me and brings a smile.

3. The Cookie Sheet. More drawings from Donna Childree Gotlib aka CookieSunshine on Etsy. Donna's art feels very free to me and light and sweet. Some are in pencil, others in color and are accompanied by lovely original poems.

4. Building A Bakery from Kari Haskell of the Retro Bakery cupcake shop in Las Vegas. Kari's sassy wit and her USE of capital LETters for emphasis in entries regarding the constant juggle of family and business life just crack me up, keep me laughing and keep me coming back for more!

5. My Lily Eden. Sweet photos of the lovely little Lily often grace these pages leading to LemonTreeStudio paper goodies on Etsy and has a weekly Friday freebie! This is a great place for featuring loads of fellow artists so it's not only fun reading but shopping as well.

6. The above led me to On The Dot Creations an Etsy seller of computer wallpaper designs whose blog has daily displays of all kinds of finds from Etsy (mostly), has contests quite often along with brain puzzlers that are fun challenges and just about anything you can think of that has dots!

7. All Things Cupcake has near daily cupcake related finds. She really digs deep to find the good stuff!

Thanks to all of you for the news and entertainment and thanks again to you, Marianna.

Punkies and pinkies

Punkies are in season...that's what I call lampwork glass pumpkins. These earrings are up for sale at RockerJewlz on Etsy and feature Lezlie Belanger's torch work. The punkie set below is from Payton Jett that I'm working with right now. Check back to see what they become. The update from "My 1ooth post" on August 19th is that the bird jewelry mentioned is awaiting one final piece...a custom glass toggle clasp!


I love how the necklace turned out...it has 3 glass birds in it and no silver so it just ripped my heart to add a sterling clasp. I used only stones and glass in the makeup so in a flash of brilliance from an artist, I am going to try a handmade glass toggle clasp that is soon on its way to me. I'll be sure to update you when I receive it and place it on its new home.


Visited Target store yesterday and the end caps feature pink goodies for breast cancer awareness. Whomever is heading marketing for this campaign has really stepped it up the past couple of years. I mean, when Dyson announced a pink vacuum cleaner, I thought how could anyone top THAT???

I need to replace my Brita water pitcher. Brita and Vitapur each have pink ones...wow, that would be wild, but I highly doubt it's appropriate in a household with me and 2 men!

So I might have to steer towards the pink garden tool set as I KNOW they won't be using them OR doing the gardening. Ha ha. Oh, I didn't say "Chihuly" yet today, so there you go. Gotta get those bloggers here, you know.

I'm getting bolder in ordering larger quantities of bead and component supplies. I just got a big batch of Bali sterling toggle clasps for all the cupcake beads that are being made for me so it feels good to trust that it's not just a big bill facing me, but greater sales.

So with that, I invite you to visit me at www.RockerJewlz.com and www.RockerJewlz.Etsy.com for your jewelry viewing pleasure.

When next you return, my goal is to talk about Paris and Stoned Birds...did I get your attention?

Locked and loaded

Do you recognize these beads? They were featured in my blog entry titled "I know I know" from August 13th.

Well, they have been transformed into a full 3 piece set of jewelry titled Treasure based on the focal that reminds me of a find in a treasure chest. It's chock full of color...thanks to my friend telling me to get more light flowing through it for better photographs!

I'm finishing the photography today and should list this on Etsy by tomorrow so be sure to visit me there to see the end result. I'm still surprised at the range of depth and color from light to dark that all work together. Quite spectacular, or "delicious" my friend tells me.

So I'm beginning to think that with all the traffic that has come to this blog since I posted my previous entry regarding Chihuly that I should just say Chihuly in every other post as that seems to be what gets people here! 42 visitors in one day...uh...people, from 5 a day to 42...that's quite a jump!

Hey, locked and loaded...moving on from the jewelry world and into our real little world of every day life I have to share something with you that just blew my mind. How many of you know that on foil and plastic wrap boxes there is a little lock on each end to keep the product from rolling out of the box???

I did NOT know this...neither did my sis when I asked her and I just couldn't beLIEVE it! I've included close-up shots for you and have to say that "press" as instructed just doesn't work: you have to get in there with a knife to slice two sides of the tab to get it to pressing state....so simple and unbelievable that it's been there all this time.

I mean, come on, who hasn't had a roll slip out and onto the floor. Now, what's the rule on THAT? 2 second rule? 5 second rule?

So it just goes to show you that you never know what you'll learn when you visit this blog. Gosh I'm just full of important knowledge...LOL.

Okay, gang, I want to hear your comments. I should take a poll on this box lock situation just to see how many of you were in the dark with me!

By the way, the day AFTER we visited the (I'll say it again:) Chihuly exhibit there was a gigantic 3 day concert in Golden Gate Park called Outside Lands...just below the museum we had visited. I didn't find out about it until its first day was completed. I don't know how I missed that when checking the area activities to decide what day to visit Chihuly. I only knew that I didn't want to go into San Francisco on a Friday or into a weekend....and this is why!