the evolution continues

It's been a week of experimenting, trials and triumphs.  A few pieces have come together almost instantly, others over days.  Each element is tested, assembled, taken apart, reassembled, hung on my in progress wall, where I leave it rest overnight and come back the next day to see if it still works.

Hanging against my inspiration and where I am as of this morning .........

And, of course, if you've been with me for a while, you'll know how I struggle with cordage and the vehicle for assembling my pieces.  This collection is no different, although it's been a much less painful road.  Remember, I had decided on my color palette, the starting point being my beautiful sweater's ochre and linen.  Black and dark brown are always an easy option and readily available in any fiber I might desire.  Ochre or antique gold, not so much.  Tuesday, I decided I needed ochre cord or thread or something.  So I trotted down to my local chi-chi yarn store and fancy fabric shop in search of my vision.  Zip, zero, nada, squat ... nothing at all.

I already had 'plan B' in mind ... purchase some white Habutai silk yardage, cut into ribbons and dye the fabric.  Head over to the cheapo fabric store to buy dye and they've got a very minimal selection of basic old Rit dye.  BTW, I could have gone downtown to the real fiber store and bought fancy dye, but I wasn't up for that much of an adventure.  Alchemist Kathy goes to work ...

It took a while, but after a couple of tries, I got from "golden yellow" mixed with varying amounts of "dark brown" to this ....

The cord on the right was my inspiration.  Recycled sari silk that was the perfect look and perfect color, but beware - that stuff has literally no strength and I easily ripped this cordage in two.  While I was at it, I chucked some taupe Habu silk in the pot to see what would happen.  I knew I was in for a big mess, but I secured the little bundle of yarn as best as I could and went for it. 

Not quite the mother of all tangles, but close ...

Side note ... I'm one of those people that actually likes to untangle things.  I can remember way back in my teens when I was working at a department store and the jewelry department got a shipment of chains that arrived in a big mess.  Everyone took turns trying to untangle the enormous pile.  Not so sure anyone else was enamored with the challenge, but I loved it.

Okay, back to my cord choices.

After much deliberation, I decided that, even after several washes with extra rinse cycles, I was still concerned about the stability of my dyeing efforts ... maybe I should have gone to the real fiber store after all.  All right, so it's not like I didn't already have a pretty decent assortment of options on hand.

Right now I'm okay with using several different fibers for the cord and so far they're all pendants.  I still want to do some 'not pendants', but I'm running out of components.  This is most of what's left and I've still got bracelets and earrings to consider ...

I've also been working on a lot of different ideas for closures.  One thing with the pendants, the cord will be long enough to just slip over the head, so there won't be a clasp.  Some of my test closures ...

I've decided to go with the waxed linen wrap, second from right.  One little detail I like is the way I can include my KVK tag when I make the cord - very clean and minimal solution.

So I need to finish up here and get back to work.  But, of course, I want to share two of my favorite pieces.  Every day that changes.  This one reminds me of an ancient stone henge ... the way the two center pieces of fossilized bone fit together so beautifully.

How is it that pieces that look so simple and minimal take so long to compose?  For me, it's all about editing.  I put pieces on, add on, subtract, change the size of the accent component.  There is asymmetry, but it is balanced.  Still, it always surprises me how long it takes to get to this point.

And then this piece ... oof!  I played around with those long curved steel elements all week and then yesterday this piece came together.  It took a good part of my afternoon, but I'm so very pleased with the result ... especially the way the fossils mirror the shape of the steel pieces and the way I wrapped the cord to secure the fossil in place.  This is steel, fossilized bones and Roman glass on hand plied nylon cord.

Rightio!  There's work to be done, more jewels to create and plots to be plotted ... all happening with my  evolving ambient/Stephan Micus Pandora station in the background.  One thing I love about Pandora is discovering new artists ... my new fave, Bonobo.

ttfn

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  apologies for the erratic spacing ... something going on with Blogger won't keep my edits ... annoying.

test driving

I've been in something like the doldrums ... pretty sure it has to do with Mercury in retrograde and I know I've just got to ride it out.  This doldrum thing has also affected my responding to email and blog comments.  So a big huge THANK YOU to Andrew and Hillary and Glitz and caRol and Janet and Sally for all your comments on the last couple of posts!  Times like this it might be hard to tell, but I really do love comments.

Mostly I've been putzing around, not accompishing much of anything.  I strained my knees last week getting too enthusiastic with my new workout DVD and took to swimming laps at the Rec Park in hopes of easing the pain.  They weren't any better after several days of that, so today I decided to not do anything ... well except I decided to go downtown and cruise around a bit.  Unfortunately, the stairs at the parking garage were no picnic.  I was really hoping to find some little treasures to share - some new magazine or tasty little something - but sadly I got skunked ... phooey!

But it's not been all awful.  I've taken some time to read, which I never do and, interestingly enough, I have had a couple of bursts of creative energy.  Mainly, I wanted to test drive the new nylon cord.  Here's my three trial pieces - two on the cocoa cord, one with all silver and one with silver and some of my stash of real live Roman glass beads and the other one on the indigo with my favorite 'elephant' beads - 'cause they look like the wrinkled skin of an elephant's legs. 

 
I've had those Roman glass beads for at least 10 years.  After doing a bit of online perusing this morning, I'm realizing I better hang on to them ... they were never cheap (I think I paid $50 per strand way back then!), but they've gotten really expensive.  As for the cord, it was feeling less than wonderful right at first.  But after wearing it for a bit, getting it wet and all that, it's not too bad.  Not as nice as silk, but I'm looking for durable and weatherproof here. 

It's been ages since I wore any jewelry 24/7.  I used to wear a slew of things ... rings, necklace, watch, teeny earrings in my second holes and most of all, my signature, seriously long beaded wrap bracelet ... I call it my armor... because it really does feel like protection when I don everything.  I think I've posted this before, but I'm pretty sure this was the longest version of my infamous wrap -  somewhere around 16 feet ... hmmmm, I wonder how much it weighed?

I think I took everything off about 3 years ago.  So, it's kind of strange to be wearing my little test pieces today.  The design still needs to be tweaked.  I'm liking the idea and the look of really long cords with just a few beads or doo-dahs, but I'm finding the spacing is crucial.  If the weight is too centrally located, it pulls the remaining cord tight and the beaded part just hangs and it gets pretty uncomfortable.  Since I'm not into S&M jewelry, I've got some work to do to get the balance right. 

But this break is a good thing.  Come to think of it, I tend to do this in August.  Funny, I hadn't realized that until just now.  The break will continue for another couple of weeks as we're heading to south FLA next week to visit Dave's family.  It's only for 4 nights and I know, we must be crazy to go to south Florida in August, but that's the only time Dave has off from school and work.  This time of year is also why we got a hotel on the beach for $64 a night.  Gotta say, I'm really really really looking forward to early morning beach swims.  It will be especially nice not to worry about Zoe ... I met a wonderful woman that is going to house sit for us.  Granted, she's getting paid, but it's so worth it to have a grown-up and not a semi-spacey college student looking after our little girl.

Speaking of my muffin ...
Little Zoe says HI!

with deep gratitude and bountiful blessings .........
l i g a - kvk