Phew. I finally feel like me again. I’m still coughing a little, still can’t run, and the foot still hurts now and then, but I can do stuff again. Yesterday before work, I erged 5km without having to stop to cough or blow my nose. Today, we got out on the water for the first time (the high school coach let me use one of their boats – too big for me, but quite a nice boat) and I rowed 5 km. This evening I sang as I did dishes – I haven’t been able to sing for months. I wasn’t exactly in full voice, but at least it was recognizable.
I also did something new. For the first time, I made earrings specifically to put away to sell someday. (Which is not to say I wouldn’t wear them or give them away if the perfect outfit or perfect person happens by.)
Top: phone charm, base metal and glass. Each fish has aurora borealis finish on one side and is green on the other.
Leftmost: base metal, sterling, bone, wood skulls.
(I didn’t bother putting the next three pair of earrings on earwires, because I don’t have many to spare at the moment. I would do that before selling them – I usually use sterling French hook wires.)
2nd from left: sterling, dyed shell, glass
3rd from left: sterling, not sure of the stones but they’re mineral rather than glass
Rightmost: Sterling.
I’d be curious to get some opinions, if you saw these earrings for sale and you had the money to spend, would you consider buying them? How much would you pay? (I want to make it clear that these are “someday” questions; I will not take a yes answer as any intent or commitment to buy – just a sign that someone someday might feel that way.) I would have made this a Livejournal poll, too, but they dn’t seem to be working.
As lagniappe, here are some Chinese New Year ornaments I attempted. I don’t think these are entirely successful, but they were educational.
(The firecrackers hanging from the bottom of the right one were Rudder’s contribution – I think they actually improved it a lot.)
Wire and nice bead earrings like that sell for around $18 here. I usually won’t go higher than $25 unless the stones are really something special or there’s a lot of filigree work. The sterling wire is nice, but I prefer stainless myself for ear wires because of nickel problems. Most sterling is fine, but occasionally I have trouble with swelling and itching. Your latest crop is very nice. I especially like the long blue glass ones. (I think I o.d.-ed on skulls during a goth phase in the early 90’s.) ~LA