Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Today's mail contains a charming postcard with a recipe for she-crab soup on the back, and a nice sketch next to my address on the back.

The other thing that arrived today was my May Beads of the Month order ("Oh, Shiny," the Big Magpie version): it was sitting on our mat this evening. I have no idea where that box has been for the past three months; the shipping label is dated 5/31/08, and while the address is somewhat faded (I think it got rained on), even if the name is murky, the street address, including apartment number, city, and state are clear. That combination is unique even if they can't make out the zip code (and the P.O. has generally been pretty good at looking up zip codes in the past). The package was missing long enough that elisem had her faithful assistant send me a replacement package.

elisem, I owe you a bunch of beads; the replacement box that arrived a few days ago doesn't look much like the ones that just showed up. (My hunch is that what was sent as a replacement was a duplicate* set of June. They arrived just after I got home from Montreal and I just went "oh, good, I'll look at these later when there's daylight" and got distracted by life, work, catching up with the cat, and so on. Now I need to look at all my nice dichroic beads in daylight, which may take a few days.

*I did order and pay for June, so the confusion is entirely understandable.

I took out most of my bead collection, and the small supply of tools, for the first time in months.

I now have a pair of earrings that I'm happy with, except that I clearly need more practice, or maybe teaching and practice, in metal-bending stuff, on the basic level of making smooth loops in silver wire. I also have a wandering wire pendant or maybe tree ornament that I'm less sure of--too many of the beads wander to the bottom, because of gravity and how open the pattern still is. I may need more wire per unit area, or per bead. (If I actually wanted to make tree ornaments, I'd probably be going more into three dimensions, and using more bright colors: the darks here would, I think, get lost in the dark green of the tree. )

The earrings basically show off two very shiny beads I picked up at a shop somewhere; the wandering wire piece is a mix of Bead of the Month beads and Swarovski crystals; it's centered on a squarish black shiny bead, with some other black beads, and some shiny dark gray ones, in with the Swarovski.

Now I can consider year 5 BotMo, which I haven't signed up for because I wasn't using the beads I had. This isn't a "use them up before you buy more," it's that if I'm not using any, from elisem or elsewhere, it seemed silly to get more.

Not yet documented, but I have a fine package of mermaid treasure beads, including lots of tiny fishes, some fine scallop-shell shaped iridescence, more of what I think are cultured mother-of-pearl cubes, and one brave mermaid.

Addendum: the documentation has now been posted, and apparently the iridescent shell beads are real shells, coated with plastic.

My latest botmo package arrived Thursday, and this afternoon I took a good look at it under natural light. This month is full of interesting inclusions (in quartz), and lapis lazuli and such. I sprung for the Mother of All Magpies package this time; apparently I was the lucky person who got three of the really cool Persian lapis beads. I was going to say that my favorite were the shiny black squares, but then I remembered the translucent beads with the long thin black inclusions. Now I need to think about what to do with all these shinies, and with last month's ("blood and roses") garnets.

The first crocuses in my neighborhood are blooming: deep yellow (almost orange) dwarf crocuses, next to one of the nearby buildings. (The patch of light purple ones in this userpic, which are usually first locally, aren't showing buds yet.)

The weather this evening didn't match any of the recent forecasts (which included snow, rain, cloudiness, and thunderstorms). Instead, we got a good look at the lunar eclipse, or as good a look as is possible when the Moon rises already eclipsed, and totality is past by the time it's above the nearby hills and buildings. (It was still pretty close to total when we went outside, just over half-eclipsed when we went back inside. There was nice red color on the eclipsed part.

I went to the gym this morning, despite feeling slightly unsteady on my feet (I seem to have a one-side sinus infection, and one clogged sinus equals some balance difficulties). I got there a little earlier than usual, because cattitude had to be at work early and we try to travel together.

I cut one exercise short because the free weight area was warmer than I found comfortable; overall, though, it was a good workout. Then I went down to Chinatown for lunch. On the way home, I stopped at a bead store that nellorat mentioned, where I got snowflake obsidian and freshwater pearls. One string of each; I'd have liked slightly larger, round obsidian beads, but they didn't have any. What I bought are fairly small, cut with lots of facets (not a Platonic solid, but enough points that they're more spherical than cubical). There were lots of dyed pearls, but none I quite liked; I'll work with the goodies from the June Bead of the Month selection, and these creamy pearls (though I'm not sure what they'll go with/into).

( gym numbers )

I picked up my latest package from elisem today, including my artists' challenge branch, which I'm torn between wanting to put in easy view from my normal position at my desk, and wanting to keep safe from julian_tiger; the Big Magpie package of Beads of the Month pearls (which I will look at again in better daylight, and spread out and play with and see how it goes with my other beads and whether paired earrings are sensibly doable here); a gorgeous blue dichroic glass pendant, which may push me into wearing a shirt with a collar so I can show it off (it's heavy for me to wear right againt my neck); and my "wishmelon" earrings, all shiny and green.

[I suppose that didn't have to all be one sentence, but it started that way, and went on until I reached the end.]

I got myself over to Metalliferous today. I now have a couple of simple silver necklace chains, suited for wearing pendants and such on. I have some sterling silver ear wires and pins. And I have beads.

I have a half dozen pretty glass beads, selected individually from a large tray of different sorts. I have a string of amethysts. I have a string of malachite, and one of green aventurine. I have two strings of garnets (they were the last each of two slightly different styles, and she gave me a discount to avoid having to hang a single string.

I have spent quite a bit of money, and suspect that when I sit down to earring-making (which may wait until the June BotMo arrive) it's going to be heavy on green and purple. (The garnets are quite small.) I'll have spares, because I don't want everything I make to look the same, but I wanted these colors and shapes.

While doing stuff with beads after elisem left yesterday, I realized that Beads of the Month, while informative and delightful, doesn't leave me with lots of things that want to go together into pairs of earrings. Also, the few beads I picked up at Toho Shoji a while ago don't go well with what I got from Elise.

So, I want more beads. (Also more French hook style findings, but that should be easier.) Do any of you know good bead stores in New York City? Manhattan (especially downtown or the West Side), the West Bronx, or downtown Brooklyn by preference--basically, reachable easily starting in Upstate Manhattan, meaning by the A, 1, or a small selection of buses.

Google finds me lots of listings for bead stores in New York, and I have no quick way of telling the good from the bad.

My September Beads of the Month package (lampwork) came today. Perhaps inevitably, the one I like best, a clear bead with just a bit of pure green, is a singleton, and I tend to wear my earrings matched.

I want to start doing things with the beads and related material I'm collecting.