When all else fails...trees.

I've noticed that when I'm having trouble with shinies, I tend to fall back on trees. Caught myself doing it again. Behind the scenes I've been trying and trying and TRYING to get weaving under control. Sometimes I do ok with it, most times... not so much. Oh, I can get the weave part, but by the time I'm done ... some is tight, some ... too tight and I end up with wonky wire. Thou shalt not have wonky wire.

Start again.

When I get too frustrated, I set it aside. And end up busting out another tree. Or four.

Four is where I'm at this week. 

I finished up an order of a couple the other day. An Aurora Borealis Tree and a mini Writer's Tree...

Then went back to the weaving. Turned out it wasn't working because I had the wrong weave. So... I tried a new one. It's kind of a mess. So, back to the trees.

The two I did are slightly different. I've been working on new bails. So far I think I like the way they're turning out. Last night I finished up a new Rose Quartz Tree, this one has a nifty little swirly bail on it...

Cute little swirly thing I think. *nodnod* I like it.

I also finished up a new Aurora Borealis. Pretty excited about this one actually. A couple/few weeks ago I bought a bunch of new Labradorite. Labradorite cabochons are something I have a very hard time getting my hands on. Mostly because I'm so darn picky. It's one of the stones I refuse to buy online. Sight unseen doesn't really work for me with this one. The flash is just too darn important. Labradorite without flash is just... unimpressive. With the right flash... full of WOW.

So, being almost totally out, and desperately wanting more, what I bought was not plain cabs but... pendants. The local bead store got some beautiful labradorite stones set in some horrible silver plated settings. Almost all the stones were set in these awful settings... upside down. Bad for the pendants, good for me.

I snatched them all up and started cutting the frames away. What I ended up with were some beautiful stones of all kinds of different sizes and shapes. I went to wrap one and realized... holymoly were they thick! Gotz me some hunka-chunka stones there!

Last week I ordered some new square copper wire to try to wrap them with and started twisting away. What I ended up with is...

... a new square, or rather diamond shaped, Aurora Borealis. My first antique copper version. Complete with new bail style.

W00T!

Am having a lot of fun playing with trees. Will play more with weaving today since they say practice makes perfect, then crank out a few more trees I think. I have another big rectangle Amethyst tree I'm working on that I may finish up. If I can get it to work it may bust open many more new trees, made on beads instead of cabochons. I think it's finally coming together. Fingers crossed.

New trees, new bails and tomorrow... the rock show starts so hopefully... new rocks too.

Adventures in shinies.

W00T W00T!!