Paua and Silver Necklace

Just made this tonight. It is a beautiful paua shell and sterling silver necklace. The textured silver bars I made with 14 gauge wire, hammering it flat and using one of my texture hammers to give the hammered effect. It looks better in real life as I don't have a very professional camera set-up at the moment, but the silver bars really glimmer and the paua shell flashes all sorts of blues and greens.

I've spent this rainy cold day inside watching the Olympics and making jewelery. Fun!

Here is what it looked like all day today...cold, icy rain on the window.

Shoulds vs. Want To's

I titled this entry to pay homage to the struggle between what I want to do and what I should do. So many times the shoulds win. I should finish my book (Antz is my biggest literary fan and very encouraging), I should exercise today, I should go to bed. But what I WANTED to do tonight was sit in front of the TV with a jar of peanut butter, a bag of chocolate chips and a spoon...and that is what I did. And you know, it felt GREAT.

Well, great, but a little lonesome in this quiet house with the rain falling gently on the roof.

Maybe it is because the butterfly left me today. I know he had to go and I would be selfish to want him to stay, so I wished him well as he fluttered away on his new, perfect wings. This was taken moments before first flight. It all happened so fast...


I wonder if parents feel the same way with their kids after 18 years, even though my flutter-bye child was only with me one week.

Catching up on creative stuff...I visited a friend (also named Christine) yesterday who lives in Lincoln, a 40 minute drive from my house. I've only ever met her once, but she is a fellow crafter and has recently relocated to Christchurch. We met in Hawera, in the North Island, in Anthony's home town. She hosted a weekly quilters group that I had the opportunity to be a part of a couple times while we were visiting. Christine is a gifted and prolific quilter and also does gorgeous paintings of stylized seed pods (sorry I didn't get a photo).

So I brought my unfinished quilt to show her and to try and get some feedback and inspiration to finish it. We layed it on her floor and decided it really is quite a lovely quilt and I really should finish it (there we go again with the 'shoulds').


I only need to make 14 more blocks just like these, then spend the rest of my life quilting it.

I also picked up one of my PMC pieces I made. It is a 'fold over pendant' and I added a little square crystal to it. Not bad for a beginner, I reckon.

Still, it is soooo dang easy to want to criticize my work...but I will not, I refuse. Take a lesson from the butterfly (that makes sense to me, hope it does to you too).

So, guess I SHOULD get into bed.