New stuff from MAB

Paris When It Sizzles necklace

This focal pendant has lovely map detail, and the combination of beads is darkly romantic.
Security necklace
This vintage key is stamped "Security" on the back. I added a brass heart charm and some opaque red glass beads. Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Framed in Lace earrings

A wing-like pair of brass filigree dangles will frame your face in golden lace.

Luxor Steam steampunk necklace

I used a vintage black glass scarab link to add some extra charm to this one. Also, the crystals in the necklace are super sparkly.

New year, new stuff, all available in my etsy shop.

Oh, and I added a sale section too.

And some destash! With more to come.

This officially concludes my shameless self-promotion. . .

Steampunk earrings

My first attempt at steampunk earrings. I had these matching brass settings, so I set in a pair of shiny silver watch cogs. Kind of sublime. I may have to attempt more.

New stuff!

These two necklaces are my newest etsy listings, and I'm a little bit in love with both of them.

Silver Lining steampunk necklace

Gibson Girl's Secret necklace

It's a pin! It's a brooch! It's a pterodactyl!

Okay, it's not a pterodactyl. It's a steampunk brooch! Or pin! My first foray into broochdom.
Or pinland. Or something.

What exactly is the difference between a brooch and a pin, anyway?

Apparently, a brooch is always a pin, but a pin is not always a brooch.

A brooch is a decorative, ornamental piece of ladies' jewelry with a pin on the back, designed to be worn on a lapel, scarf, or hat.

A pin is. . . well, a pin.

It doesn't help that brooch is actually pronounced "broach."

This is a pterodactyl. The P is silent.

Come to think of it, he would make a pretty cool brooch.

Steampunk! At the Victoria's Secret fashion show? Kind of

Dig this! I was watching The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show last night, marvelling at the amazing, over the top designs, and the fierce walks on these ladies, not to mention Heidi Klum who had a baby five weeks before the show. I watch mainly to see the outlandish seven foot tall wings, and we didn't get quite enough of those this year. However, then these came down the runway, and I said, "Holy crow, that's steampunk!" Gears, cogs, clock hands, Roman numerals from a clock face--it's definitely steampunk. My favorite look of the evening.

Steampunk has hit mainstream. Well, with a push-up corset bra and butterflies, but still pretty steamy, huh?

Steampunk overload!

I took some pictures this morning to add a new banner to my shop.

This one was my fave. That's a bouquet of steampunk right there, my friends!

Yummy steampunk!

This is one of the pendants that I made in the steampunk tutorial. It's a gold setting with various vintage watch pieces glued in to form a one-of-a-kind collage. I added some light blue faceted glass cathedral beads, some little coppery crystals and some peacock blue long twisted bugle beads. Rich and striking. This one makes me happy.

Tutorial! How to make your own steampunk pendant or charm

Okay, guys, welcome to my first tutorial: How to make your own steampunk pendant or charm. It's not all that difficult. You just need the right stuff and a lot of creativity and patience. If you can make a collage, you can make one of these cool little guys.

So, you'll need some watch guts, parts and innards, including cogs, sprockets, gears, and other delightfully little shiny bits. Please see my giant pile of said guts pictured above. I know, I know, it's excessive, but I have an addiction, and I'm working through it. I didn't get all of them available in the free market, so they can still be found.

One tip: Do not smash open a modern watch. Most of the innards are plastic, unfortunately. I learned this the hard way. But you can still use the casing if it's pretty, as well as the clock face, from a dead modern watch.

Other stuff you'll need:

The blanks or settings that you'll use as the base of your pendant or charm. Here are four examples. You can pick these up anywhere anymore. Some metals do not like some brands of glue, and the metal will turn white upon contact with the glue. You won't know until you try it, unfortunately.

Some kind of serious glue--I use Gorilla Glue in the super glue tube. Trust me, it will glue anything to anything forever. Beware, it will glue watch parts to your fingers, and your fingers to anything, including your lip. Ouch.
A styrofoam plate and paper towels. It's just the easiest way to do it.

Toothpicks, to smear and smudge the glue around, and to move itty bitty pieces into the right spot, thus decreasing the chance of gluing those pieces to your own skin. I get mine for free from the restaurants I frequent. Thank you, restauranteurs!

One last important supply: Junior Mints, or the nom nom of your choice. Crafting is difficult and intense work. If you're like me, and sit hunched over for three hours at a time, it's good to preplan some kind of sustenance to keep your energy up. Cheetos are not so wise, as they tend to leave a bright, toxic orange film all over things. Also, make sure not to glue the Junior Mint to your hand. Seriously. It happens.

Okay, poke through your watch guts and find some larger pieces that you want to use. It's easier to get the larger bits glued on first, and then go from there. Put a small amount (yes, I always get a little carried away) of your glue on the setting in the spot where you want the watch bit to go. Smudge it around with the end of a toothpick, to get a fairly even layer of glue.
This will help you get even adherence, and also help to keep glue from globbing out around the sides of the watch piece in an unsightly way.
Be careful where you place the gluey toothpick. It will stick to the carpet, your bead board or the cat. Honestly.

Put the watch bit on top of the glue and press down firmly. It will stick. This glue is no joke. A friend of mine fixed her roof shingles with this glue.

Glue the larger pieces on where they fit on your setting in a design that pleases you. I just kind of wing it.

After you get the larger parts glued on, add some medium-sized parts wherever you want them.
I sometimes layer the medium-sized ones in over the larger ones, and always mix gold and silver, shiny and matte. Just glue on whatever makes you happy however it makes you happy. There are no rules, and that's why this is wonderful.
Remember, Gorilla Glue is pretty unforgiving, so, if you let something set on it for more than a few seconds, you'll have a heck of a time scooting it.

Now, fill in empty spaces with the teeny tiny, itsy bitsy pieces. Use a toothpick to move these little bits into the desired spaces. It's also fun to drop miniscule pieces into the carpet so your vacuum will have something to do the next time you run it.
Add where you want to. It's easier to glue pieces with flat backs or bottoms. Leave blank space where you want blank space. When it reaches the point where you're happy with it, you're finished. The hardest part for me is knowing when I'm done and not just gluing five pounds of stuff to the setting. Usually, it just looks complete.
I leave the pieces to dry overnight, on top of the entertainment center, because that's the only place the cat will not jump. Then, string them with beads, hang them from chain, do what you do.
As for the Junior Mints, you can eat them throughout this activity, or save them until the end, as a reward for your creativity and hard work.
So, making your own steampunk pendant--it's that easy.

Vintage! More yummy shiny watch guts

I started out with the whole steampunk idea of making collages of watch parts--cogs and gears and bits of one kind or another. Then I hit upon the entire watch movement. I tell you, there are few things more gorgeously shiny and mechanical than a vintage winding watch movement. It's an art that's more or less lost at this point in time.

So, I've found a few complete watches to rip apart! Here is one of my latest. It's from a gentleman's Waltham watch, circa 1930s. I was able to keep the stem intact, so you can wind it. The gears still work. How cool is that! And the little gold cogs will spin and move, as well. I set it on a simple silver bail, and kept the beading fairly minimal. It's so gorgeous and impressive on its own that it didn't need a lot of extra ornamentation.

You know that feeling--when you find a supply or medium in your art or craft that really speaks to you? And you want to make gorgeous things worthy of it? That's what this one is. Hopefully, it will speak to someone else and find a good home with someone who loves it as much as I do. . .

Vintage! The magnificence of skeleton keys

One of my newer designs involves lovely vintage skeleton keys. Many of them are either brass or pewter, and they all date to pre-1940's. A skeleton key could open a variety of locks, and wasn't filed or cut to work with one specific lock. They have wonderful weight to them and a sense of intrigue that suggests keyhole peeking and drawing room mystery. Compare that to our keys of today--a plastic fob where you push a button and pop the trunk or a plastic chesse card. Yes, the newer versions are a lot handier and more secure, but we've lost the beauty. I'm sure there are steampunk cheese cards out there somewhere, where some magnificently creative person has added hardware to the plastic to make something magical.

I'm not one of those people who romanticizes the idea living in the past, and wishes it were still Dickensian Victorian times. Believe me, I am way too fond of microwaves, DVD's and reliable indoor plumbing. And I certainly could not wear hoops skirts or corsets every day, in August especially. Plus, I really like antibiotics and the notion of women voting. . . However, even the most seemingly mudane objects were made with more care and detail a hundred years ago. They lasted and aged beautifully. It overjoys me to be able to use something as typical as a key to make a one-of-a-kind necklace. And I wonder where that key has travelled and what doors it unlocked and locked along the way.

Vintage! Mmmmm, watch guts. . .

I have a serious obsession with all things vintage--repurposing, remaking, recreating from old stuff that might be discarded or forgotten. Over the last year or so, I've started making some steampunk stuff. A lot of what I make involves loose watch bits that I've picked up, using them to create collages on pendant blanks. It's the kind of itty bitty detail work that I really love, and, when I'm done, I have a unique piece of art. There's no way that I could ever make that exact same piece again.

That's exactly what makes handcrafted, artisan jewelry special. If you have a piece, no one else has it, or can ever have it. It's yours alone. And that's why I do what I do. And I think that's one of the reason why customers buy these pieces.

Recently, I've started exploring using all the parts of a vintage watch--the movement, the casing, the face and even the band sometimes. The workmanship that went into these old wind up watches is amazing, and the movements are incredibly beautiful little masterpieces all on their own. All of the little gears and cogs and bits. . . wow. Some of them are jewelled, too, with little dots of ruby or sapphire. Most of the faces are metal and gorgeous in their own right. The casings and crystals are often banged up a tad, but that gives them a wonderful, unique aged quality. Many of them are plated in 10k gold, and the ladies' watches often have great art deco details.

The other day I picked up a few at a yard sale, and last night I spent the better part of two hours taking them apart and seeing what I had. Here's what I ended up with, along with some seriously shredded thumb nails. Yummy. I can't wait to see what they turn into. As one of my old professors used to say, "Bells are ringing ringing in my head!"

Vintage! Yard sale victory!

I've been stopping at yard sales occasionally over the past few weeks, and had decided that all they sell in my neck of the woods is scarred end tables and bicycle parts and tires. However, I was out and about on Friday, and stopped at a sale on the way home. This fellow had a bunch of old watches, one of my current passions, as well as some other vintage jewelry. Somehow, for $7.00, I ended up with a whole box of great stuff, including four lovely old watches that I can make groovy steampunk jewelry from. One is from the twenties, and is so gorgeous that I'm not sure I can take it apart. I wound the large square-faced man's watch, and it runs. We'll see if it keeps time.

These small joys in life keep us going, don't they?

Oh, and he also had a bunch of scarred end tables and some bicycle parts.

Happy hunting!

My Favorite Etsy Artists, RichterFineArts

Come on, everybody. Let's check out the wonderfully surreal and hyper-real art of Jeffrey Richter over at RichterFineArt on etsy. If you haven't guessed by now, I am not a drawer or painter or traditional artist of any type. I think that's part of the reason why I'm so in awe of these fine artists working and selling on etsy. In addition, you can buy this amazing original art for very low prices, and have something so unusually beautiful and unique in your home. How great is that!




This is the first piece I ever noticed from Jeff's shop, titled Love Song. I adore several things about this charcoal drawing. First, the vintage, antique sense of it, with the period clothing and the sort of murky, shadowy setting. So lovely. It seems like it's a portrait of a couple from Victorian England, until you look a little closer. Then, you get his beautifully surreal vision of love captured here with the mixture of object or machine with the human body. That whole notion of the huge changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, combined with old-fashioned romance. And it is quite romantic, actually.





Here's Jeff's description from the shop:

"This is an original drawing of a woman with a ball of string for a head playing the string like a violin which is being fed through her husbands sewing machine head as he sews a handkerchief. "



An utterly original view of a love song. While the drawing reminds me of both Victorian-era art and the later surrealists like Duchamp or Dali, I've never seen anything quite like it. It inspires me to want to make a strange and lovely piece of steampunk jewelry to go with it, you know? The fascinating combination of love and music and machine. And that's the true test for me--if a piece awes and inspires, and also stays with me, then it must be a great work of art.





At the other end of the art spectrum, more tradition realisim, here is Jeff's Chimpunk. Delightfully realistic, with an interesting point of view on the little critter. Look at how beautifully it's drawn. Ah, I wish I could do that. Nothing surrealistic or odd, just so well done, right down to his tense toes, and completely charming. You can almost feel the skittish movement of the little guy just by the way he's drawn it. Amazing.





Any artist who can move from something as common and universally adorable as a chipmunk drawn in almost hyper-realistic style, to something as unusual and hauntingly romantic as his surreal couple from Love Song. . . well, for me, that's an artist of amazing talent.


Check out his shop for more fascinating stuff:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5988655

Vintage! We all love vintage!

Let's talk vintage! I've been collecting vintage jewelry forever. I love old books, the way they feel compared to books printed today. Plus, they're just gorgeous to have around the house. I also have a weakness for little cat figurines (suprise), small white vases and footed compote bowls. I went through a phase where I only carried vintage handbags, especially frame bags from the fifties. A friend of mine in college came to pick me up one day, and I had this two foot long gold clutch bag. I was probably wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but that was my handbag of the day. He said, "We're not going to the opera, darling." Ah, well. . .

One of the great things about making jewelry is that you can take broken or abandoned jewelry and make it into something new and useable and beautiful. The little shamrock coat of arms in the picture above was in a bag of vintage chain that I bought. The poor thing was hanging from a broken key ring, and, at one time, had something adhered there in the center shield-shaped area. Well, whatever that was came unstuck, and it was a sad looking bit of junk when I unearthed it, let me tell you. So, I added some vintage watch parts and gears, strung it with some lovely Czech crystals, and made a one-of-a-kind pendant. It's kind of beautiful now, if I must say so myself. And I saved it from going to the landfill to boot.

There's a thin line between vintage and garbage, I suppose. I set up at an antique farm toy show every April. I know, it sounds like a strange place to hustle jewelry, but I always make a mint there. These farm fellows come in and drop $800.00 on an antique John Deere toy tractor. The toys are interesting, but way expensive. I don't get it. However, they can't exactly object when their patient wives linger at my table and want to spend $30.00. I never knew how valuable or collectible these tractor toys were. If I had somehow ended up with some, I don't know that I wouldn't have just given them to the neighbor boy or set them out by the curb. To me, they wouldn't be desirable. To these farm fellows, they're worth hundreds of dollars. If they saw the vintage and antique stuff that I have, they would probably just shake their heads and call the auctioneer.

The same with broken vintage jewelry, or any broken jewelry. There's almost always a finding or beads or chain that can be salvaged and repurposed. Very seldom does it turn out to be a total loss. Vintage handcut crystals are a joy to behold. Nothing sparkles like them. Vintage lucite beads and bakelite. Lovely old skeleton keys. Sweet little charms. Rhinestone pins with broken closures. The pieces and parts of vintage watches are one of the key elements of steampunk. Most old watches are not worth much in their entirety, but those pieces are too wonderful to just throw away.

There's something wonderful about taking these little shiny discarded bits that look worthless to most people, and were probably destined for the dumpster, and pairing them with new beads and findings to make an entirely new necklace or bracelet. Just as it's fun to wonder who might have owned the jewelry before, where the lady went while wearing the crystal necklace. The history of the piece.

Maybe my vintage gold purse has been to the opera. Or Madrid. Or who knows where. Just like the antique toy tractors brought joy to knows how many little ones. And the broken crystal necklace, or the lovely length of vintage silver oval chain, or the little shamrock coat of arms that used to be a lucky keychain? Their timelines almost came to an end. Then, I scooped them up, cleaned them off, and used them for something new. A history and a future.

Steampunk and Strangers on a Train

So, I've been on an Alfred Hitchcock binge lately, and, thanks to Netflix, I'm about a dozen movies into the entire process. I have to say, after seeing many of the portly fellow's films, that Strangers on a Train remains my favorite. There is something so enchanting about the anti-hero in that film, Bruno Anthony. Yes, he's a delusional sociopath, but he can be so charming, and he has a tie with lobsters emblazoned across it. He speaks French. He has a Great Dane. He wins the strongman contest at the carnival to get a kewpie doll for the lady. And he's a hoot at parties.

If you have not seen the movie, please, stop reading, go now and find it and watch it. It's deliciously funny, wonderfully suspenseful and smarter than most movies you will ever see. The focus on chance, on the impact that every meeting can have on your life, is a compelling theme. Farley Granger is wonderfully bland as the hero, Guy. The cinematography is gorgeous. The ending satisfies. And, oh, yes, there's the train.

The train becomes almost another character in the film. Our main characters meet on the train. Bruno is the dangerous stranger on the train in the film's title. The train figures singularly in most of the important plot developments in the film. It talks, it impacts, and it causes all of the action that occurs.

Which brings me to steampunk. You knew I would get there sooner or later. I love the gothic to Victorian nature of steampunk. The slightly skewed vision of the past and the present melded together. Steampunk objects are so lovely. If you have not seen any, head on over to the etsy website and type in steampunk, and prepare to be amazed. It covers a rather broad range of objects and views--everything from redesigned computer keyboards that have been altered to look like manual typewriters, to unusual vintage clothing (corsets, headdresses, footwear) that are part Dickensian and part new millenium, to some of the most gorgeous jewelry you will ever see.

The steam train epitomizes steampunk for me. Something about a time when people travelled so exclusively by train is both romantic and terrifying. I can't imagine not being able to hop in the car, or jump a plane, and reach my destination with the speed we have all become so accustomed to. I can't imagine actually meeting a stranger on a train, and talking to him long enough that it would impact my life on such a grand scale.

And the dark hilarity of Strangers on a Train also plays heavily into the underlying themes of steampunk. So much of what is created in the name of steampunk--outlandish goggles, wonderful writing instruments--has its feet planted firmly in humor, smart and dark humor. And the care used to create steampunk pieces, the precise and unbeliveable attention to detail, is akin to Hitchcock's precision in the creating of the film. A dark joy of minutae, if you will. Even with re-watching, re-looking at, you always find bits that you never noticed before.

So, Strangers on a Train has become, for me, more than a classic film. It's part of my inspiration, another spark that fires a necklace. And Hitchcock's creative legacy lives on.

I wonder what he would make of my entire idea!

imdb link to Strangers on a Train: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044079/