Move over Sneaky Little Devils, Here Comes Squirrely Girlie!!!!

We proudly welcome a new member to the MisFit family!


She slips in unannounced, but not quietly. So here she is, for your entertainment:

Squirrely Girlie

I am a squirrely girlie

I am twisty turnie

Bendy whirlie...

I am over and under

and I love rain and thunder.

I am weathered and tethered

and never unfettered.

I am right where I

Am supposed to be

A set of gems, for you...

A gift from me.

After hand knotting a beautiful beaded necklace of these pretty faceted carnelian gems, each separated by 14k gold filled spacers, I was left with a small handfull of these sweeties.

What to do...what to do....

They were too pretty to toss (like I ever toss anything), and being the sole reason for this blog and my MisFit shop in the first place, I just had to use them. So I got out my spool of Sterling Silver wire, my pliers and accoutrements, and I started to play.....

Out of the depths of the spool she came: Squirrely Girlie was born.

See her listed at MisFits....now (psst, she sits right next the the other newcomer: Sneaky Little Devils)

This has been a MisFit production brought to you courtesy of Etsy MisFits

cbrittsimages.blogspot.com

carol britt clay

Please Welcome a new member to the "MisFits"

No one ever said that that these sweeties don’t “get around.”
They get around all right.

Round and round and round.

They are restless little sweethearts.

They are tricksters too,
They actually think they’re Cheerios, but they’re not, so don’t milk them.

They just want to be restless, and they won’t take NO for an answer.
They want boundaries placed, like a runaway rebellious child.

If you leave your gate open they will search for new boundaries, and as life is, there is always someone out there in the wings, waiting to be fooled into thinking that they really are Cheerios.

Don’t be fooled. And don’t leave your gate open. They will run.

Sneaky Little Devils.

Place your boundaries early and they will respect and treat you well.

They do have the ability to escape if one is not careful about closing the gate behind them.

Little copper matte silkies* were added as a brake, but they wouldn’t listen and are constantly trying to jump the gate.

♥

Lucky for me, it’s an inner gate so that when they jump, they jump into their own yard! Ha! Just don’t leave the gate open.

♥ Sneaky Little Devils
Copper hoops hammered from raw copper (18g, in other words sturdy) and shaped into hoop earrings with little ceramic donuts (they’re not real donuts) ~8 x 5mm, in varying earthtone shades.

♥Please join me in a hearty welcome to Sneaky Little Devils as she joins the MisFits family♥

Welcome our new addition: Headless In The Saddle

She's here at last. And her name? Well, it just came to me, so I used it as I often do when those first words come to mind. This is another of those names or groups of words, which I may never know the origin of, however, sometimes they prove to be quite profound and fitting in the end.

This necklace is made from yellow turquoise* tube beads that I collected several years ago, to go with another piece of my yellow turquoise*, but as usually happens, the shades were not cohesive, so I held on to the tube beads and then one day, there it was, a gorgeous piece of yellow turquoise* that appeared, mixed with its white matrix and actually stunning in its cut, a vertical freeform cut that appeared like a jib sail in full run. Then, while I was working with it, I accidently snapped off the top of the stone (a first for me) and with a crushed heart, I almost discarded the stone. Problem was, I had fallen for it, as I have with many of my precious "signature stones" that I have collected over the years. So discarding it was not an easy option for me to deal with. Looking at it lying there, I wondered "what can I do with this now?" Then it came to me: Lash it, yes! LASH IT! After spending many years is the Girl Scouts as a young person, I had learned how to lash many things, like tables, and chairs, you know simple everyday objects that would definitely get me voted off of "Survivor" for the mere fact that I can actually survive, if it were a real thing...which means death to a participant, on the TV show.

I lashed this stone horizontally, where I could get a grip on the stone, then added my collected tube beads (which, by the way, would have had to wait until I could find another perfect piece of yellow turquoise*, in the correct shade, which does not happen very often). I used my special waxed polycord (I have 2 sizes, and it took some real searching to find this cordage, like one place in the US, so far), and I lashed this stone into a necklace. The tube beads (I love tube beads) knotted, then looped back through and knotted at the other end, so they are now suspended, floating, and stable, since the tube beads have rather large holes, and there is nothing worse than knotting a piece of jewelry with matching stones, only to find some have larger holes and the knots then slip through, which is thoroughly unfitting in my view. Since I refuse to 'shim' just one stone in a matching bead necklace, and may not like the appearance of every stone being shimmed (the alternative to one shimmed stone); I decided to do the knotted looped method for stability.

That being said, This is the new necklace. A MisFit, in the very fitting piece for this venue.

I hope you like her. I certainly do.

*there really is no such stone named yellow turquoise, it cannot be yellow; and must have some form of blue in it to techincally be turquoise, so this might be howlite, though it doesn't look like howlite either. At Etsy, I have been calling it the bastard stone...bastard turquoise, since turquoise seems to be the name applied to any colored stone with veins these days.

Just For Fun - I've been tagged - 8 random things

MisFit's "Drama Queen"

I have been tagged by Wires 'n Pliers with 8 Random Things about myself:

1. I am excited about working on my most recent MisFit, the headless one, and as soon as I am done here, I plan to do that.

2. I live in a family of alter abled individuals that laugh alot.

3. I love coming home from work each day.

4. I have a very creative imagination and because of it, I need to have my notebook nearby for my ideas that come to me.

5. I enjoy hot fudge sundaes.

6. I completely agree that we are all part of the sum that make a whole, we are all alterabled, some show it on the outside, some carry it on the inside, but none of us are perfect.

7. I don't care for SuperBowl Sunday, and I will hide from it, plus get a lot of work
done during it, but I will sneak in for the chips and dip and stuff to eat.

8. I have been known to get out of bed in the middle of the night in order to bid and win on
an ebay auction.

Another MisFit has come to light!

We have a new MisFit coming to join the others. She just broke her neck and lost her head; so rather than trying to put a new head on her (and we all know how well a head transplant works, right?), we have opted to leave her in her present condition: headless.

She is now a hanger-on as you shall soon see. She has her own sling to carry her around, and she is also always with or near her support group, because anyone who is alter-abled (and headless IS alter-abled) usually benefits by having a support group being close at hand. She has not been named yet, as I am seeking the best fitting name I can find for a headless being. Even though she is a completely disfigured (especially in a semi precious state of being) she still rings of pure beauty if one can get past her initial woe-begone appearance.

Watch for her, in yellow, black and white,
to come your way in the middle of the night.
She's lost her head, and now; what a sight,
But Her beauty will last if you treat her right.

Introducing The MisFits - My cul de sac earrings

Finally, the Unnamed Earrings
got their tag! One night recently, I was just sitting there, looking around the room, watching the American Idol tryouts, and in between the drying of my eyes from my tears of laughter, it came to me. My copper earrings remind me of directions to get to that one friend's house. You know the friend I speak of, everyone has one in their circle. It's the friend that always holds the party, and writes the directions on a piece of laser jet printer paper tacked to the wall in the lunchroom. Turn left, go one block, turn right, follow it around...well, you know... So here they are:

My cul de sac earrings

Copper bent, twirled, folded, tweaked, rolled, then hammer hardened, hammered again and then little turquoise disks of 16mm (or so) were wire wrapped and lashed to the bottom of the copper. Brown niobium ear wires with copper balls were used at the tops, and these earring are long and pretty... hanging a full 3 inches.

They are very fun. You can read the fun listing at this location:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20053628

Happy January!

Also, The Drama Queen is now listed at Etsy too! YaY!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19614068

Happy New Year 2009 !

Welcome to 2009. And this year we are starting off with several new listings.
We opened the shop on December 9th, with 2 items, added a third, sold our first, added 2 more, then sold our second. That's pretty nice. That's 33.3% sold.

Our tribute to Frank Zappa and his song "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes" is still listed, and one of my first barbed wire series. This piece is not the traditional barbed wire that I usually create which has been double and triple oxidized to a gunmetal shade with a very matte finish, this one is in brass which has not been oxidized and will patina on its own. The chain, however is in 14kt gold fill, completely handmade, with wrapped and beaded wire, which compliments the inverted barbed heart hanging below a carved onyx bead.

Our next piece, is a new addition to MisFits, and will find its position in the MisFits shop very soon, please welcome:

"An Orphan In Disguise"

This cute little necklace has been added to cold forged copper to set off a beautiful little boro bead, that has been left all alone, untouched. The cold forged charm that holds the bead is suspended on approximately 1 inch of copper rolo chain on a hand forged link dangling from a snake chain, also in copper. It is a nice addition to our little family of MisFits.

Another of our listed items is "My WallFlower" a jasper donut, drilled through with Swarovski crystals hanging above, mid way, (in the center of the donut) and dangling from below, and sparkles up the almost but not quite sleepy, scenic picture jasper. This pendant is connected to a copper slide which is connected to 4 strand black leather cordage which has been lashed at the handmade clasp (partially visible in the background).

(read each listing's story at http://misfits.etsy.com )

Now onward to our completely new necklace, and still warm from my hands and all I am going to say about it is its name:

"The Virgin"

Made from hand wound glass, hand forged copper, multi textured, partitioned chains, and a little extra for the steampunk addicts. This piece also features a handmade clasp and wound loop, all in copper.

This piece is to be listed very soon, within a day or two, along with "An Orphan in Disguise."

Our next creation has not been named yet, but as time passes, it will all come to fruition. So be it. Its name, its story, all of it will just happen at the right time. The situation is already present, just
getting it into the right context will be part the creation to come. (unnamed as of yet)
This pair of earrings have been bent and cold forged then wired onto genuine turquoise disk squatties. Hanging long at almost 3 inches, they have been attached to brown niobium earwires which have been adorned with shiny little copper balls.

Our final piece tonight, has already had a rough life. A particularly beautiful necklace that is consistantly overlooked and never seems to stand out in a crowd. Like "My Wallflower," it seems to blend in to everything it stands next to...until it is isolated from the others, allowing it to be viewed up close. Like a high strung drama queen, it always seems to cry out for center stage. That being said, this time around, it is now known as:

"Drama Queen"

Either way, it will be a fun item to list at Etsy, along with the others (Assholes (for short) and My Wallflower) and to join with the original "Red Stone Family" already listed there, in the next couple of days. Please stop by and visit.

Our first two pieces sold were:

• To review the stories from these first sold items, click here: http://www.etsy.com/shop_sold.php?user_id=6606646
  
  

1) "The Puzzle Stone Necklace" a howlite (puzzle stone) necklace in coldforged sterling silver, on a sterling flat chain.

2) "My Tortured Soul" a stressed vintage rosy gold chain, with freshwater creamy white pearls periodically added, tin cup style, and a new 14 kt gf lobster claw clasp. She was beautiful.

Well, that's about it for the first day of January, in 2009. We're looking forward to our new shop in the coming year, and hope it finds its place in Etsyland.

Goodnight.

Happy New Year 2009

Here's hoping that everyone's New Year starts off with a bang!

Cheers! from the MisFits.