Real Quick

Real quick. I flew on down to Yorktown early this morning to stock Lucy up on prescription dog food. She also had a quick checkup to look at a lump on her stomach. Thankfully she got the all clear and she was very ready to head home. We drove the Colonial Parkway, pit-stopped at the bead shop in Williamsburg where I couldn't resist some new large Swarofski crystal beads. And since the yarn shop was right there, well, it would have been rude not to have stopped in to say hi. And rubber stamp shop is a skip up the road, on the way back to 64 west and home, I had to say hello to the good folks there. Starbucks called my name, too. Hey, Happy Valentine's Day to me, you know? Lest anyone think I am a fibber from my post yesterday, all this was accomplished before noon and I was on my way back to the salt mines, where I am currently rubbing out metals for etching preparation.

The photo above is of some beads I made recently, just some whimsical one of a kinds from leftover scraps. I love the swirls and stripes on them. For a closer look, check out www.jenniferstumpf.etsy.com

Back to work, now. Happy Valentine's Day!

a fiendish weekend in progress...

I have no photos today! But just a heads up to anyone of you out there who ordered the BeadStyle pendant or versions of it from me on etsy.  I am working like a fiend, although with mindful care so your piece is beautiful, to get orders created, completed and mailed over the weekend, so the last batch since february 11 will go out tomorrow evening.  unfortunately for the mail, monday is a holiday.  fortunately for me, monday is a holiday so i have more time to make things and experiment with new designs.  in advance, i thank everyone who is waiting for their patience!  

pictures soon, i promise!  

French Script Etched Brass Pendants

A version of the BeadStyle magazine French Script Pendant is now available for purchase in my etsy shop www.jenniferstumpf.etsy.com in a rich high sheen brass. The etchings really POP in brass and it's also a bit lighter weight than the copper version.


Also I finally made it home from work at sunset today and managed to snap a few lovely outside shots of the BeadStyle magazine etched copper pendant. The patina really varies on these pieces and I was really pleased with how the last batch turned out. I've listed four new photos on this piece.

Still at work on the tree etching. I doused it in patina several times last night and polished, polished, polished, trying to get exactly the right dark and light spaces inbetween limb and sky. Since I worked on pendant orders until 3 a.m. last night (oh yes...) and slept for two hours before getting ready for work, I am taking tonight off from all creative pursuits and am vegging in front of the television with some DVD's (Atonement & Vicky Cristina Barcelona), tomato soup and crackers, diet coke and a warm comforter.

I'll get back to my other list tomorrow evening...

If nothing else, a pretty view...

Florence, Italy. *sigh* Isn't it beautiful? 7 January, 2009. I can still feel myself standing there, right in this moment....

Since the entire weekend was swallowed up by errands, cleaning, laundry, animals, more errands and yet more jewelry orders, I had not a moment to create anything new in the way of jewelry to post, although along with a stack of prepared pendants, there are new and lovely things coming that just need doused with acid and a little rub, and presto, voila! Etchings a-new.... coming soon although not as soon as I would have liked.

Tomorrow I am back in my office, which is not such a bad thing. In this economy, I drag myself up and out of bed at 5:30 and am glad for it.

A Mother Of a Load, A Mother Of a Bead

Thanks to Lorelei Eurto www.lorelei1141.etsy.com and her lovely spread in the current BeadStyle magazine (page 48!), I am selling etched pendants like hotcakes. The above are but a few of those already shipped, on their way to their new homes and eventually featured dangling around someone's lovely neck. I made most in copper with French script etching as seen in BeadStyle. Due to lack of time (I leave for work when it's dark and get home when it's dark) a few orders were delayed. These folks got an extra goodie as a thank you for waiting, in the form of a brass version of the Starry Night necklace pendant. Also you will spy an etched Chaffinch bird pendant and some etchings in Italian (imagine that... I'm still stuck on Italy). For all of these pendants and connectors, beads and other goodies, they are listed on my etsy site www.jenniferstumpf.etsy.com.


This Mother of a Bead is one I created last weekend prior to leaving to go to my parents. I felt in the mood for a big huge bead and this is it. I think it's about four inches long. A mokume flower is wrapped in the middle. I can see it on a shorter multiple chain with lots of charms dangling from the bottom. Maybe. Not sure yet. Should I put it on Etsy or make something with it myself? hmmm...

Opposite side of Mother Bead.

Mother Bead and a few other tubes and rounds. The darker color didn't turn up well, but it is a dark purple, in between the yellow stripes and swirls. I thought all week I would get home in time to get some good daylight photos but it never happened so these are the flash under the kitchen light versions.

For Lynn, who asked about my trip journal, this is the one I made for myself. I got a bag of small art and handmade papers from an artist in California a few months ago and just picked and chose bits I liked for front, inside and back covers of this small square coptic journal. Art = Love. Don't you agree?

First page was written on the flight over, when I was still gripping the pen with fear of plunging into the ocean... Oh, wait. I did that the entire fright, I mean flight... :D

I wrote in the journal and also collected lots of tickets, scraps of interesting papers, maps and business cards to glue in. It is a work in progress still.

Somehow I had to capture the moment of standing where ancient Romans stood at the Colosseum. In my bag of supplies were some fat colored pencils. Leaning against the outside wall of the Colosseum, I placed a single sheet against the heavily pocked surface and made a rubbing of it. Also filled pages with green, black, yellow and blue pencil rubbings from other spots at the Colosseum.

Inside back cover. Giraffe, anyone? In it's own weird eclectic way, all the pages seem to go together in my mind.

The whole sha-bang. I'm off for the next three days. YES! I will be, as Heather Powers put it, a busy little copper etching making bee for a good part of the time. Also some new etchings are coming soon to my etsy shop so check back over the latter weekend. Right now I'm off to an art openhouse where my husband has his paintings. Happy weekend, everyone!

Tribal Dance

Tribal Dance with Inclusions. I worked with paints on this one, mixing paints, layering and then sanding, then painting some more. I like the ancient look of it, almost aboriginal. Makes me want to take the same paint and put my hand print on the wall but I doubt our landlord would appreciate it.

Reverse side. This is a larger pendant, with copper inclusion at hand of figure on the right, brass inclusion on top left.

Gold swirl tube beads. I'm going to start making more finished works to submit to magazines since it's been two issues since I've been in Belle Armoire Jewelry and I've long wanted to submit to Stringing and other jewelry magazines. One of my pieces will be seen in BeadStyle March issue on Lorelei's design so be sure to check it out. The component she used will be in stock on my Etsy shop within the next few weeks.

Still using up clay from previous projects. This was a lentil bead gone wonky, so it stayed in this shape with bronze bead inclusions on both sides. Sanding to 2000 grit, then polished with a soft buffing cloth for finishing.

Heather Powers' tutorial on shell logs helped these tube beads along. Seen here with metallic teal base. An infinite combination of colors combined makes these patterns particularly interesting and fun to make.




And finally, for more color inspiration... gelato, anyone? Florence, Italy, January 2009.

Back In the Beading Groove

After a lengthy sabbatical, the clay finally came back out into the open last night. I have alot of leftover bits and pieces of this and that for polymer projects, so it got put into these tube beads and some others. I felt totally discombobulated making beads again after such a long time trying to make other things work and working on other art projects, had to think a bit to figure it out again.

This bead of dancing figures seemed plain, even after picturing it all painted, so I added some brass and copper inclusions and put a sterling bail on top, plus poked holes and put other little marks on it. Now it has a more celebratory look to it to match the little figures. It's cookin' right now...

"In the Pink" beads. These mokume beads remind me of poodles with little pink bones.

I was glued to this spot on the Ponte Vecchio for a while, admiring all the incredibly beautiful necklaces. I didn't buy anything, though. So expensive.

I didn't buy anything here either but just look at that display! Amazing... Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

Another photo from Italy. I am a huge fan of all of Frances Mayes' books (Under The Tuscan Sun) and have long wanted to see her restored house in Cortona, so we took a day trip from Florence and walked from one end of Cortona to the other without finding the house. Finally we nabbed a taxi and it took us right to the front gate. Isn't it lovely?? The colors were much prettier in person. I can imagine this house in summertime overflowing with flowers and sunshine. Of course what you read in the book and what is in person was slightly different in my mind. The house was fabulous but in my mind it was more of a giant that in person. It seemed a pretty typical country home, albeit a famous one. No, we didn't see Frances or Ed Mayes. I read after we returned to the US that they had been there for the olive harvest about two months before. *sigh* I don't know if they were there while we were or not but the house looked pretty shut tight and also, I know they have another restored property that is more remote, away from prying tourist eyes like mine. Too bad. They have terrific olive oil, though. Go to her website and look into ordering some Bramasole extra virgin oil. Yum!

Finished beads to come tomorrow...