No Jewelry?

Nope - no jewelry today.  A different kind of post for me.  I hope you indulge me...

About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary  (PSAS)- a rescue organization specifically for farm animals.  I happened upon PSAS well over 10 years ago, and I have been a supporter ever since.

The sanctuary, located in Poolesville, Maryland, is located on 400 acres of land.  It is located about 60 miles from my home in Northern Virginia.  Anyone who lives in this area knows that 60 miles can mean a one hour drive - or a three plus hour commute.  I was blessed with an hour and half drive that day, and I rather enjoyed seeing the route up River Road in Potomac, Maryland (you know....where "the other half" lives)!  Man, those homes were HUGE!

According to Terry and Dave - two of the most wonderful and caring people I have ever met - some of the larger animals  (cows, horses, etc.) have  an open area that equates to one mile long by two miles wide.  It ends at the Potomac River, and the views of Virginia from PSAS at the river bank are beautiful.  I did not take photos of the scenery, though in hindsight I should have!  I only took photos of the beautiful residents, all of whom were saved from some awful sort of abuse: slaughter, physical beatings, starvation; several were going to be offered for sacrifice.  Breaks my heart...

I have said this before - it takes a special kind of person who devotes their lives to the care and treatment of others, be it animals or people.  Terry and Dave fall into that category.

The rest of this post is simply some of the pictures of the beautiful residents of PSAS.  Here is a link to their Face Book page: PSAS

Most of the animals are super friendly and LOVE to be petted!

Zachary - OMG so cute!  This little guy climbs trees to feed off the leaves!

This is LOKI - he was rescued from the Prince William County Animal Shelter.  This is where I adopted Sarge.  LOKI was found on a roadside near my house in the County, and spent a few weeks in a 3' x 5' area at the Shelter.  When I saw him at the Shelter and inquired as to why he was there, I was told they were waiting for someone to claim him.  I contacted PSAS and they rescued him the next day.  He was covered in sticky black tar, starving and so afraid of people - Terry believes he was abused.  He is SO BEAUTIFUL and SO HAPPY now!!

That little guy on the right has only 3 legs - the owners needed to have his leg amputated and told the Vet "do whatever with him - he is useless to us now".   As you can see from the next picture below, 3 legs suffice!

Terry gave us a HUGE jar of Animal Crackers to feed as treats to the goats.  I found it ironic that the treats were Animal Crackers! :)  Just like a dog, they corralled around us for their treats!

The horses were too busy eating....  :)

The oldest resident at PSAS - Gloria the mule.  She is 38 years old.  OMG she was so friendly, so beautiful, so content!  Gloria was with the pack of horses when we arrived in this field, left the horses to greet us, and then went back to her herd!  An Ambassador! 

I cannot remember this little (ha!) girl's name - but she is BLIND!  She arrived at PSAS at just a few weeks old and has been blind since birth.  She feel off a truck that was destined for slaughter.  

Look at that beautiful color!!

This is a Guernsey Cow - she is almost 7 feet tall!  And so gentle!

Terry sprayed the cows with Citronella to temporarily aid in getting rid of the flies.  Interestingly, "they" do not make fly masks for cows, like they do for horses.  Most cows are not pets, like horses, so the industry has not pursued creating pest control measures for these beautiful creatures.  The cows LOVED to be sprayed!

This is Wilbur - he has terrible arthritis, but manages to get up on his feet twice a day for feeding.  And boy, did he enjoy getting his tummy scratched!

There were tons more piggies in the mud field - but I did not get a chance to venture that way.

These are actual residents of PSAS - most of the fowl come "uninvited", though all are welcome.  These two were dropped off at PSAS the week before I visited - someone tried to raise them as pets.  Naturally, Terry and Dave welcomed them with open arms.

I left the Sanctuary with such a wonderful feeling - I cannot quite put it into words.  But, I am so grateful that the world has Terry and Dave.

Thank you for indulging me today in one my passions!  Have a great day!

Patti

Designing in Black and White - Blog Hop Challenge

The lovely Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime is hosting another challenge - design a piece of jewelry that uses only black and white in the design - the exception being any metal of choice is acceptable.  (I tried to copy Sally's B&W Badge for this hop, but Blogger is giving me fits)!

Personally, I would fill my entire closet to mimic the attire of Johnny Cash - I LOVE black and white!  So much so, that I did not even have to purchase new beads for this challenge - I just went to my stash and actually had CHOICES!  Yay me!

I purchased three beautiful lampwork cabochons made by the lovely Kerry Bogert a while ago - all with a black and white theme.  I am trying to practice my soldering skills, so I bezel set the cabochon in sterling.

I did not want a single bail at the top - I knew I was going to wire wrap some beads and chain to the sides and I wanted two separate connections.  After I was done setting the lampwork,  a flash of Mickey Mouse and those ears of his came to mind...oh well...it's done.

Source:  family.go.com

Anyhow, I paired this new focal with gorgeous corkscrew lampwork beads by Alisha White.  The beads are made with clear glass with white and/or black stripes added.  These have awesome texture as well.  However, no matter what surface I used as a background, my pictures of these beautiful beads do not show how pretty they are in person!

See?  You can barely see on the black bead above the clear base, but trust me, the artist did a beautiful job!

In my quest to continue to make each piece of jewelry created entirely by hand, I added some handmade chain in sterling.  Just love making this!

I am not happy with my pictures, but I am pleased with how the necklace turned out!.

Of course, I made matching earrings!

I have made this style once before - I finished all ends of the wire by balling it in a flame - I "messy wrapped" intentionally to mimic the stripe in the pretty beads.

Thank you so much Sally - I have not been joining Blog Hops lately and I most certainly needed a push!

Please be sure to visit the blogs of all of the participants listed below.

Sally Russick

Monique Urquhart

Patti Vanderbloemen <----- That's me!

Veralynne Malone

Duane Clark

D Lynne Bowland

Michelle Buettner

Pam Sears

Therese Frank

Dawn Doucette

Nicole Rennell

Cynthia Machata

Alice Peterson

Carolyn Lawson

Evelyn Shelby

Ailsa Cordner

Michelle Escano

Mischelle Fanucchi

Jess Green

Adrienne Berry

Lynsey Brooks

Kashmira Patel

Ann Schroeder

Marlene Cupo

Susan F.

Susan Kennedy

Kathy Lindemer

Paula Kramer

Lisa Johnson

Sandi Volpe

Donna Bradley

Karin Slaton

Jasvanti Patel

Stefanie Teufel

Liz Engriser

Christine Altmiller

I love to read your comments!  Thank you so much for stopping by today!

--Patti

And the winner is....

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment/share my post! :)

The winner of these awesome earrings - inspired by Artist/Teacher Stacie Florer is....

Susan Marling!

Susan - please contact me via email (pattivan@comcast.net) with your snail mail address and I will get these out to you right away!

Even though it is Monday ... have a great day!

Patti

New stuff....and a Giveaway!

I have been trying new things lately...and I am LOVING it!  Like this toggle clasp..

Stone Rust Charcoal 

The gorgeous beads above are made by Jody Brimhall (Inspire Glass Studio on Etsy) . I am going to make more of these toggles...in copper and silver.  They have more punch than a wire clasp - which I still love to make!

I made a necklace this week and posted progress photos on Facebook.  I bought a set of "orphan lampwork beads" from Jody as well - each bead was different from the next - but each was a piece of art in my mind's eye so I could not justify breaking up the set.  I envisioned a double strand necklace, but I only had 20 lampwork beads.  I also did not want an extremely heavy necklace.  I had recently finished a DVD from Cassie Donlen - "Metal Jewelry Making with a Micro Torch".  Now, I have taken a soldering class (bad teacher...remember? I won't even link to that blog post because memories of the teacher give me a headache)!  I also have a few other DVD's...I watch these videos for the TIPS!  Each artist has different tips on doing this...or doing that.  And that's what makes the video worth the money to me!  Cassie did an excellent job!

Anyway, one of her projects was a toggle clasp made from fused silver - I digressed a bit and instead made these connectors for my double strand necklace:

I soldered some links from 14 gauge wire.  Now, I have copper solder, but I don't like the color I achieve.  So, I used silver solder and in an effort to cover up the silver, I simply coiled some copper wire on top- I love how these turned out!  It gave the piece incredible texture...which I cannot get enough of!

I made a smaller version of the connectors for the clasp.  And there is that "ladder chain" again!!

Can you see why I did not want to separate these beads?  So pretty!  

I love how this turned out - and it sold already....always a plus!

I loved these connectors so much, that I ventured into making some bangles.  So, I got out my 10 gauge copper (thick!!) and made a set of three bangles.

I will be making more of these - so much fun!

So, Stacie Florer had a tutorial in Bel Armoire Jewelry using thin gauge sheet metal to make earrings.  Stacie is an awesome teacher and I cannot wait until September, as I will be taking another class from her at artBLISS.  Anyway, these are the earrings I made from her tutorial:

SO LIGHTWEIGHT!!  The bottom disc is sterling silver - the top disc is copper, which has been fold-formed.  There is incredible texture on these earrings!  I placed an eyelet at the top, and two rivets on each earring.

Thanks for the tut Stacie!  

Would you like to win these earrings?  Very simple - 

Just do one (or all) of the following and LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT ON MY BLOG for each:

1) Leave a comment

2) Become a follower of my blog - or leave a separate comment telling me you are already a follower

3) Post a link to my blog to Face Book about the giveaway.

I will pick a winner on Monday - July 1st.

Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend!

Patti

Echo Creative Club - July 2013

I am so very excited!  Jeannie asked me to be a participant in her July hop for the Echo Creative Club!  Jeannie sends the participant one of her art beads, hopefully a beautiful design will be made, and the participants post the design to their blog on July 25th.

I asked Jeannie to send me some of her Fractured Art Beads - any color, because quite frankly, each color is fabulous!  

Now, if you have never received beads from Jeannie - you are in for a treat...because her packaging is art within art!  This is what was inside the envelope...

Jeannie is not only a polymer clay bead artist and fabulous jewelry designer - but she also a Mixed Media Artist.  I am NOT Mixed Media artist, so my terminology is limited, but, she "made" that box above!

My beads were wrapped in this most awesome tissue paper, I mean, it says CHOCOLAT people!!!   How appropriate!  My two favorite things...beads and chocolate!

These are the beads Jeannie sent me and they are so beautiful!  I already have an idea  in mind...

I am not a stranger to Jeannie's art beads....I have made several pieces of jewelry in the past,  some off which I remembered to take a picture!

Please visit Jeannie's website to view her most awesome jewelry designs, words of wisdom from her blog, and her of course, her glorious beads!  I will post my final design on July 25th!

Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!

Patti