Spring Cleaning - It Just Might Kill Me

So, I've spent the last three days feverishly attempting to bring order to the chaos in my house and studio space.  Spring Cleaning sounds so optimistic and bright...yeah, right.  My back is killing me, I've hauled three giant lawn and leaf bags of junk to the curb and I still haven't touched my cave of a closet.

On the bright side I did tackle my work bench with damn good results.  It was such a complete disaster--looked like a bomb went off--and I had given up actually working in the space.  The upside, besides re-discovering the actual surface of the table, was finding all the stuff I forgot I had buried in the mess.  Sort of like a shopping spree in my garage.

I know the new-found organization won't last, we creative types aren't known for our neatness.  But I will enjoy the open space while I can...Now, on to the closet!

Web Shop Shout-Out...

Ornamentea, hurry up and go there. Really, just put the name in Google or click the link and go there! I discovered this shop a while ago and have been so pleased with the fun bits of this and that I have found there. It's a grab bag of a place, with everything from tools, to base metal findings, to super cool 3-D cast pewter twigs, to lace inset plexyglass sheets. The tutorial pages are also very nice, with great tips about coloring metals like brass (rip some paper towels into strips, put in a lidded plastic container with a few drops of ammonia, add your brass, close the container and shake for a few minutes--voila--aged brass). Don't skip the "Micellaneous" tab, that's where the odd bits live, from brass bullet casings to tiny acrylic leaves.  Oh, and did I mention that the prices are FANTASTIC?   Enjoy...

A pendant I made using a bullet casing and heart charm from Ornamentea, along with pewter wings and a rutilated quartz bullet.