Umm, is it still Friday?

I spent last night finishing up my projects and packing up the four necklaces to be shipped off to the respective publishers. By the time I finished it was about 2am, so I decided to weasel out of posting on the blog and went to bed instead. I can't imagine anyone really missed me on a late Friday night, but I do apologize, if so.

Two of the necklaces I packed up were pieces I made last summer. They will finally be published in July, a full year after they were accepted for publication. I hadn't even looked at them for several months, so it was sort of interesting to inspect them and see,what, if any, progress I've made since then. One of the pieces that will be published in a magazine gallery includes my very first fortune cookie bead. I still like the way the bead looks, but it's quite a bit heavier and thicker than the ones I make now. So, I feel that I have managed to refine that design over time, which is nice.

I also find it interesting how far in advance some of the magazines are planned out. As someone who has read beading magazines, on and off, since about 2000, I never really gave it much thought. I'm still surprised that some editors are looking at items a year or even longer out from publication. It does make me wonder a bit about how the magazines actually profile "current" fashion trends, etc.

Anyway, above is an older photo of the first necklace I made with PMC. It's not a great photo, but it's the only one I have (I gave the actual necklace to my mother-in-law for Christmas). This is the necklace that appeared in the January 2008 issue of BeadStyle. The magazine is no longer on the newstands, so I feel it's okay to go ahead and post this photo. As you may recall, if you're a longtime reader of the blog, I made this piece last May for an Art Bead Scene Challenge. As I think about it, I was just starting to try my hand at lampworking around this time last year. I had not yet even thought about metal clay. Ironically, I bought my initial packet of metal clay, because I was in the market for a kiln for my glass beads, and I wasn't sure whether to get a kiln that could also handle metal clay. I wanted to try the material out before I invested in a kiln. (I have a feeling I may have mentioned this before - sorry if I'm being a little repetitive.) As it stands, I haven't been lampworking for many months, although admittedly, this is partially because my torch is set up in an unheated garage, and it's been quite cold where I live for a while now. Although I still have quite a ways to go to become more skilled at working with this material, designing jewelry seems like such an integral part of each day now. It's hard to remember what life was life before. (Well, okay, I used to knit a lot more before. The yarn in my huge stash still looks at me reproachfully whenever I open the closet in our guest room.)

(Of course, it's hard to remember what life was like before the Short One arrived, too! If it's a contest between jewelry and the SO as to which one made a bigger impact, I suppose you wouldn't be too surprised to learn that the SO made a bigger impact, eh?)

Thanks for listening to my rambling and thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.