Deeper Well

My GOD she's bloggin! Yes kids it's me, finally peeking my head out from under the blanket of midwinter. It's been cold and dark and miserable here, not just the weather but my mental state as well. My PTSD has finally arrived (I'm late for everything, even trauma!) and I've been weathering the storm by curling up into my shell and sitting as still as a car under a tarp on a council estate. 

I've had not much to blog about you see, not wanting to have post after post of misery and whining, not wanting to have entries where there aren't any photos. I haven't made much at all since I moved, certainly nothing worth taking pictures of. On top of that I've not been the most talkative egg in the carton, preferring to sit on my bed and do lots of thinking about art and where I want to go with my work (and life, to be a post-traumatic near-death cliche). And playing a shit ton of Mario Kart. 

But now I'm back! Because I've started to thaw in the creativity department, and because I missed you all terribly. For reals! And I shall prove it by showing you some perdy pictures.

Here are some amazing chevron amethyst beads from the local crystal shop- I though they were just your average new age shop, but it turns out the walls were covered with strings of gorgeous crystal beads, many of them in stones and cuts I'd not seen before. Serious A-grade stuff. I bought them about 3 weeks ago, and since then the shop has been gutted by fire which broke out in the shop next door. In a strange way I am more attracted to them because of this, they narrowly survived fatality- I guess I can relate. 

This is a necklace I bought from the thrift, then I wore it for a bit before I decided that wasn't my thing. Then I had a go at smashing them cause they're metal. The top one is smashed with the hole facing up, the bottom one is smashed with the hole on the side, so the bead splits halfway through and you start swearing and then think 'wait this is good' cause it ends up being this kewl Pac-man roadkill deal. I tried to burn it with my torch but my torch is a pathetic cigarette-lighter fuelled thing and it didn't do much. I plan to get a butane torch soon.

Here are some earrings I made and have since decided I don't like. The rose quartz stones are from the shop up the road. Amazing little inclusion in them, they don't look like pink glass like most rose quartz you get. Want more rock porn? From the same shop:

 astounding ginormous labradorite fatties- these are thumbnail sized- super chunky! Fab inclusions, colour variation and flash too. 

 Double terminated quartz beads, clear and strong.

These are the first earrings I made since I moved- I liked them okay till I got a little trigger-happy with the gold paint and put those stupid crosses on them. Why'd I do that?! Also this was the first time working with 18k gold wire. I don't know...real gold looks so cheap. Think I'll stick with bronze.

 Two focal pieces- both in hammered rusted steel wire I salvaged from a bin outside a thrift shop (I have heaps of it!) - again the stones are from up the road, an agate and a chevron quartz that I wrapped in copper solder tape and then coated in gold leaf in a lame attempt to avoid soldering it. I don't know why I'm so keen to avoid soldering, I have all the stuff and it's a guaranteed way to get a lot of the look I want. Weird brain.

 There's those smashed beads again- the middle thing is just random tinkering. The sticks on the left are facet-cut rings I got from the thrift shop: 

I just cut them open and hammered them. Dunno if you can tell on the photo but the light catches the cuts really well. Sparkly!

Ooh here's something fun- these beads were from the thrift as well- big chunky old macrame things. I carved one down to make it look more pod-shaped; the left bead is what the right bead used to look like.

After I carved it down, I stained it darker then drilled it across and hung it on some 14g wire:

I'm pretty happy with it, but I don't know if I'll use it in something. It might be too mechanical looking as it is. I like the wood part, I think the metal part needs more organic-ness.

Here are some chunky chaps I made up just because I wanted to make something. Picasso once said 'inspiration will come but she has to find you working' so every day I try to knock around with something, even if it's just stacking beads like this.

So that's my world right now. I'm still on the path, still strong, still upright. I don't know when I'll be listing new work again, whenever the Muse wakes. I can sense her stirring but there's still a lot to work out- I have certain ideas I want to explore and new skills to develop. I'm evolving again- and my pieces as a result are coming from a deeper well.

Incidentally enough, this was one of the songs I listened to over and over again in hospital; I found it an excellent counter to the morphine grip of my painkillers. That trip's another tale entirely.