Running With Scissors ~ Inspired By Reading - August 2017

Wow - Has it really been a year???

I have read many of the Inspired By Reading Book Club selections. I've even been inspired to create.
I just haven't posted.

Hopefully this is more than just a guest appearance.

For the month of August, we read Running With Scissors, by Augusten Burrows.
It took a little bit to get into the story, but then I was hooked. It amazes me that the book is actually a memoir.

Without giving too much away, I will say that Burrows' mother suffered from mental illness and when he was just a young boy, she gave his guardianship to her psychiatrist. Dr. Finch was also a bit unstable and the household quite chaotic.

I set about to create a pendant that represented the various and very different characters that came together in Augustus' life.

The pendant consists of leftover scraps of copper and silver. My interpretation of chaos coming together.

The three silver balls (melted down scraps) are actually covering holes in the copper .

I related to several of the cultural references, such as, Jean Nate and the polyester McDonald's uniform - both vivid memories from my teen years.

I'd like to read Burrows' more recent memoir.

The Drunken Botanist ~ Inspired By Reading

The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart is one of those books that I will need to buy. Stewart combines science, history, folklore and recipes to introduce us to “the plants that create the world’s great drinks”. It’s a book that I will continue to return to just to read a small snippet.  

For the Inspired By Reading Book Club I decided to try my hand, once again, at etching. Actually, I have successfully etched since I disintegrated my copper back in March. This time, I thought I’d try a copper cuff.  I chose copper because the old stills were made of copper. I rounded the ends of a 1”x6” copper strip from Impress Art/PJTools and used a leafy rubber stamp to represent the grain.     

This is my first cuff like this, and I have to say I'm pretty excited with the results!

As far as I know, the birds have no significance. Since I was etching I thought it would be fun to practice with the rubber stamps and try out my new disc cutter by making some 1”circles.

When I learned that gin is made from juniper berries, I knew I had found a use for the vintage German glass beads left over from October's book My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.…

I’m really into dangles these days, so I made a copper circle to hang the “berries” from. As you can see, this time I created a mixed metal piece, with a soldered copper ring and sterling silver dangles and chain. The chain is about 24” long, but if the wearer prefers shorter from time to time, my handcrafted hook will slip into any of the chain links.

 

Check out the other creative folks in our group.

And do consider joining us next month as we read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Mary K McGraw http://mkaymac.blogspot.com/2014/07/drunken-botanist-reveal.html

Sarajo Wentling https://www.facebook.com/groups/inspiredbyreading/

Eric Wentling http://jackofallbrews.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-drunken-botanist.html

Mary Harding http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/inspired-by-reading-book-club-drunken.html

Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Alison Herrington, Constance Vale and Karen Hiatt http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com

Bead Soup Blog Party

Party Time!!!
Lori Anderson's done it again ~ Today is the reveal for the the 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party!
Somehow she's managed to partner up a few hundred people to swap beads. We had to send a clasp, a focal and some coordinating beads.
This is my second time participating. It's great to meet jewelry desingers across the country and work with new and different components. You can check here to see what I did last year... BSBP 2013

This year my partner is Jayne Capps from Oklahoma. I had already "met" Jayne during one of Andrew Thornton's destash events. We had a great online chat and I learned more about Jayne through her blog. I especially related to the post about fixing up her workspace. Make sure you check out what she created with the beach glass I sent her. Jayne's Blog

It was so much fun to get find this package in my mailbox!

And look what I found inside...

Don't you love the way she tagged everything?!

I want to know how Jayne drilled the bakelite mahjong tile.

The group of glass beads told me they had to become a bracelet. I grabbed a few bead caps and spacers from my stash, whipped up a toggle clasp and wire wrapped it all together.













The mahjong tile has so much character on its own that I decided to keep it simple. Jayne's linked beads are now connected to chain and hang from the bottom of the tile. A few spacers, some sloppy wraps and an extra long chain ~ it's good to go!

I combined several different components for this final piece. The hammered tubing is really cool. (so cool that I almost picked some up from Home Depot last week. I love their plumbing and electrical aisles for supplies!)

My original plan was to hook the necklace in front in the smallest ring. When I headed outside for photos, I realized you could actually hook it in any one of the rings. I think I like the hook in the middle ring best.

Anyone who follows me know that whenever I participate in a challenge I have to try something new. My Artistic wire was too shiny, so I torched it to add color and age. (I'm not sure if that shows up in the photos.) It was also a bit tricky to solder the jump rings connecting the copper tubing and chain.

I still have plenty of turqoise nuggets to play with. Earrings!
Thank you so much Jayne for this really fun soup!

And.... huge thanks to Lori Anderson for organizing the group once again!


Please visit some of the other participants!!!
You can access the extensive list on Lori Anderson's post - Welcome to the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party