HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Mom and Dad at last year's Thanksgiving.

Wow, I haven't posted in a week! I didn't mean to do that. I got preoccupied with making bronze chains all week. My hands are so sore now from manipulating stiff bronze wire (which, I don't care how much you anneal it, it never seems to get soft!) that I'm not sure I'll be able to grip a fork during Thanksgiving dinner.....snort! I'll take some pictures this weekend and post them. I'm getting much better at soldering bronze. It's a lot trickier than silver, at least for me.

I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful family who I love more than I can say. I have a nice place to live with sweet Paul, filled with love and warmth and 2 sweet kitties and happy memories of another, Maxie who I loved so much. I have another precious family of friends, some here where I live and some scattered far and wide, who mean so much to me. I have a purpose in life and I hope a little skill and am lucky enough to be able to do the work that I want. I am healthy and strong. Most of all I am thankful that most of us in my little world are all still here and that we can be together, in spirit if not physically. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

LILY'S BIG GIRL TEETH

Paul and Lily hanging out in my studio.

Lily's getting her big girl teeth.

I can't believe that we've had Lily for almost 2 months already! She is such a sweetheart. She and Sophie get along so well, which makes me happy. They play like wild things. She weighed less than 2 pounds when we got her and last week at the vet she weighed in at 4.5 pounds! The vet doesn't think she'll be a very big cat though. She was growing like a weed, but that seems to have slowed a bit. She has really long legs and an extremely long tail and she talks a lot. Last week, she started chewing on everything, including us. The vet thought she was starting to get her adult teeth, and sure enough, this week they sprouted. In the second photo, if you look closely you can see her new canine teeth coming in in front of the baby canine. How cool is that? I wish I could find them when they fall out. They'd make cool earrings, don't you think?

RESIN HEART CLASS

Tonight I will be teaching a resin class at Bead Haven. We will making miniature paintings to embed into these cool pewter bezels. This is always a popular class and the results are really cool. There are still a couple of spots available, so if you are interested contact the store at 319-247-2323.

CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN

"I wear the chain I forged in life...I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girdled it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it".

Charles Dickens- A Christmas Carol

The last couple of days I've been working on making chains. I cut about a million jump rings of different inside diameters and then turned them into literally yards of fine silver chain. This winter, when things quiet down, I'm looking forward to assembling all of of this chain into necklaces and bracelets. I never seem to have enough time for assembly. I sell a lot of components and pendants at shows, for other jewelry makers to make into things. Whenever I make finished jewelry, it sells well, so I'm determined to spend my snowy quiet days doing just that. I have some amazing stones that I've been hoarding from the amazing Gary Wilson, a lapidary in Tucson as well as a lot of wonderful things I bought last year at the Gem Show. Heck, if I don't get these things made into pieces, how on earth can I justify going to the shows this year?

SILLY LILY

I just wanted to post this little piece of video of our new kitten for no other reason than it made me smile. It must be wonderful to have no other thought in your head than,"what's to play with?, what's to eat?, whatcha doing Cris?, can I play with that?, hey, where ya goin'?". I hope it makes you smile too.

A GOLDEN WINTER"S NIGHT

Keum Boo from tonight's class. The 2 rectangles on the left and the dragonfly are mine, the charms on the top center are Nancy's (who got great color with the liver of sulfur tonight), the bracelet links are Pam's (I love the way she highlighted the high spots with the gold), and the rich-looking paisley pendant was done by Alice. Good job ladies!

I drove to Bead Haven this afternoon for a class this evening and it was fall. When I drove home tonight after class it was sleety and blustery and seemed like winter. I don't actually mind. I sort of like winter. I love the snow, fires in the fireplace, soup, and the short days. I love to hole up in my studio with a cat or two sleeping on a chair in the corner and working without the distractions of warm weather. I'm looking forward to getting lots of work done this winter for the Bead Fest show that I'm doing in March in Santa Fe.

My class tonight was on Keum Boo, which is the Korean art of fusing gold to silver. A while back one of my students said she saw the class listed on Bead Haven's website and wanted to know "who's this Keum Boo dude and why is he teaching one of Cris' classes?". This made me laugh hard. Thanks for watching my back Nancy!

The class tonight was fun. This is one of my favorite classes. It's such a cool technique and pretty easy too. I love seeing what everyone comes up with.