Progress and an Award

MissTasha has graciously awarded me with the....

Versatile Blogger Award! Thanks, Tasha! I'll answer the Random Things and all in later post....

As of Wednesday, April 11th, 2012, at 10:30 (ish) a.m., “Wild Irish Rose” arrived safe and sound! God be praised! 

This picture shows just how well they packed it:

Why does a Martyouschka come to mind?

Quoth Peter: “Every package should be able to survive a drop-kick....I am not kidding.”

LOL!

I just want to say a huge THANK YOU (again) to Laurie and Avo for all their hard work on this project. While the process of realizing this pendant has had its bumps in the road, I have been so blessed—not only by Laurie and Avo's patience with my moments of indecision and occasional hysterics, and their willingness to work with me to get my design as close to what I wanted as possible—but just by God's arranging it so that I'd have a cousin who designed jewelry, who married a professional jeweler, so that when He put this design into my mind, I'd have someone I know working on it. Awesome!!!

And here it is:

WIR with Amethyst

WIR with Rose Quartz

WIR with London Blue Topaz

WIR with Rainbow Moonstone

(The bluish coloring on the pendant is from the blouse I was wearing the day I took these pix. The metal is very shiny and reflective!)

The pendant is made (to my knowledge) entirely of Sterling silver, with the central flower being fine silver. The Celtic knots are charms I bought from Fire Mountain, and the “web” and “star” are Sterling silver wire and sheet, respectively. Originally, I had sent a “Turkish silver” (pewter) flower charm with the other materials, but when Avo tried to solder it to the sheet-silver, it ended up looking like this:

Icky...but still usable!

Apparently pewter melts when you try to solder it to Sterling silver. *Eek*

So he very kindly cast another one in fine silver. :-D

While there are some noticeable differences between the design and the real thing, it's still a beautiful pendant, and I'm thrilled that my dream has finally become a reality.

Four of the five stones I sent Laurie and Avo have been set in custom-made bezels and, as you can see in the photos, are interchangeable with one another. Avo put a brooch-pin in the back of the pendant, which slides through the holes in the bottom of each bezel and holds it in place.

Back view

The fifth stone—a genuine Ruby cabochon scored off eBay for only 11 bucks!—was too big to fit in the bezels, so now I get to find another project to work it into. Mwahaha.

And if it seems a little boring to have only four stones to choose from, Laurie sent me some extra bezels and said that if I got any more stones, to send them with the bezels, and Avo would set them for me. PTL!

But of course a pendant isn't much without a chain to hang it on, now is it?

Originally I was going to use the Figaro chain on the right, but the beaded chain looked way better, so I'll be going with that. The tiny crystal point is just for demonstration. I'm actually still debating whether to use this one (leaving its mate orphaned and me with no pretty quartz-point earrings), or see if I can find another crystal this size.

Bodiced Petticoat, minus zipper

On the sewing front, I installed the zipper in my Bodiced Petticoat, so now I'll need to take 2" off the whole neckline in order to keep it from peeking out above my dresses. It'll mean I won't be able to re-use the trim, but there are other projects in my sewing boxes....

Once all that's done, it's on to the easier stuff—hemming and lace!

The picture on the left is actually from last week, before I put in the zipper, but since the thing looks pretty much the same with the zipper, I didn't bother to take another pic.

The *creative* darts in back

I also finished altering my blue-grey capris. Yay!

These have a rather interesting story behind them, actually....

In June of 2008, Mom and I visited one of the local thrift stores back in Grass Valley—the Humane Society, or something like it—and picked up a pair of black twill, side-opening capris; a rare find in this world of fly-fronts (which is another rant entirely). After purchasing them, it crossed my mind that perhaps our next stop—Salvation Army Thrift—might have a pair in grey...and then put the thought out of my mind. After all, it was miraculous enough to find one pair of side-opening britches—two pairs would be just too much to hope for, doncha know.

Then I saw them!

They were just the right grey—medium-light, with a hint of blue, and they had a side zipper! “Don’t tell me lightning doesn’t strike twice!” I said.

Oh, you of little faith. :-P

Because I'm rather—shall we say—“tall in the saddle,” the capris rode a bit low for comfort. So, over the course of four years I unfolded the waist, removed the elastic (to reduce bulk) and added a facing in a thinner fabric, topstitching it all down to keep it in place...and to disguise the faded line and slight ridge left by the original fold. I also shortened them, as they were almost ankle-length before.

So PTL! I now have some grey trousers to wear with my lighter-colored blouses...as soon as I get them finished. *Halo*

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

Good night, and God bless,

~“Tom”~