Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention

Last week when I was without any of my soldering irons, I decided it was time to learn to drill through glass. I had ordered some tiny diamond bit drill bits before I went on vacation, so I got those out. I grabbed a spare dog bowl and a piece of scrap wood and a bottle of water and went to it. That's all I'll say about that since my husband works for the power company and we all know that drills and water don't mix.... BUT - look at the results! I love the new style of "Drink It*Break It*Wear It" earrings made from upcycled wine bottles! I've been wearing mine to test drive them and they are fabulous! (shameless self promotion) I also finished up some of these fine silver weeping willow leaf earrings:

Now I have two soldering irons again, so yesterday was able to finish up this necklace (it's a custom order for my beautiful niece)

AND - on Sunday, Sweatshop Baby (look how she is growing) brought her brother over to make hand-print stepping stones. We had him wearing a mask so he wouldn't breathe in any plaster dust...he thought he was a doctor....

the end.

Necklace Contest - The Horror of It

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest Image was chosen because I love Halloween (and it's all about me...) but since it's not quite September, it just seemed a bit early to pull out the witches and dancing gourd-ghouls. The necklace contest is simple: submit a comment (or 5 or 6) on what you think would be a good caption for the backside of this image once it's made into a soldered glass pendant. Just what is it that creeps you out? that makes you feel like you're in a vault of horror? that scares the bee-jeebers out of you? Me? (again, because it's all about me...) it's trying to find something to make for dinner when 6 people are coming over. That just looks like a cookbook to me! anyway - on Friday a winner will be chosen and presented with a fabulous soldered glass pendant hanging on a 24" ball chain.

The Nice Things People Do!

"Now don't you laugh when a hearse goes by..."

Miss ElizabethMD was kind enough to feature my "Hearse" necklace from my etsy shop on her blog today! She has a fun blog - ElizabethMD Jewelery Design. Pretty things - great jewelry - a video of Leonid the Magnificent that is so worth watching. (I think I dreamt about him last night...) Thank you Miss Elizabeth!

This Week's Winner - Times Two!

This week's winner is Deb of Posted From Home!

She is an amazing photographer and is probably cringing at how blurry this photo is....I'm sorry, Deb... Deb has been published, she's that good. Go look at her blog!

Anyway - her entry of "She thinks, therefore, she inks." is perfect. It's true. If you're going to get a tattoo, then think it through - make it your own - make it something that is really meaningful to you. That's the advice my sweet son gave me when I told him I wanted one.

...:::~*~:::...

What's with all of you thinking of Dorothy when you saw this picture? The gingham? You're cracking me up.

BUT - nothing cracked me up more than Jenny's entry. I don't think she meant it as an entry, but rather was making a comment on why she doesn't have a tattoo yet. Here's what Jenny S said "My hubby threatens he will not sleep with me again if I get one...I am thinking of a flying pig!" Miss Jenny S - once you hit menopause, if that's all it takes, you'll have that flying pig.

Deb. Jenny. Send me your mailing addresses and I'll send you your soldered glass pendants on 24" chains. Jenny - tell us what your husband says when he sees your necklace.
...:::~*~:::...

New soldering iron arrived this afternoon. It doesn't feel as good as the last one...not as heavy and smooth, but it does a nice job of soldering. I feel whole again.

Necklace Winner Announcement Delayed

...I still don't have a soldering iron. This makes it impossible to make this week's necklace. I should have one in a day or two and will announce the winner then. Meanwhile.... here's a picture or two of Buff Daddy for you to enjoy. Turns out that Buff Daddy and Shizzle Frizzle are both crowing making them ROOSTERS. The chicks are growing fast and in a couple of months should be laying eggs!

Sara's Grandmother's Jewelry Upcycled

Sara is a beautiful young teacher at Seward Elementary. She recently was given some of her grandmother's jewelry. Things her grandmother didn't wear much and no longer wanted. Sara has a good eye. She brought them over with an idea of what she would like made from some of the pieces...I have the tools and the chain, the wire and other findings, so was able to do the assembling....this pin and earrings (not from the same set) look beautiful together....
The finished necklace. Beautiful.

Ouch!

I love my Weller 100 soldering irons. Recently though, there was a recall on them. I called the company and was told that one of them qualified for the recall, the other one didn't. I packed up the 'bad' one (which worked great) and kept the 'good' one (which I explained didn't work well anymore). Yesterday I was soldering my head off when POP! I got a huge shock through my hand and up my elbow....

Meanwhile - since I was told that the replacement iron for the 'good' one I sent back will take 4 weeks, I ordered a different brand that should be here in a few days.... don't worry if you have an order in with me. It will just be delayed a couple of days. Thanks for understanding!

Today seems like a safe day to work with cement... I think I'll make some "babbling bricks".

Monday's Projects

Here's a "typical day at Two Dog Pond" in the sweatshop....

Delivered this Custom ornament. It's a new design. back side:
finished my sister's necklace... she was inspired in Galena by all the Vintaj jewelry and designed her own piece. I just did the assembly and some resin work.

Custom pendants:

Custom Wine Bangle:

Finished up a tumbled stained glass bracelet.

Pounded some copper and riveted it to this old key:

Made a necklace out of it:

Started drawing out a stained glass window that is due in a month.

Monday was a good day!

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Show Us Your Tattoo

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest celebrates the art of tattoos. I'm guessing that since this is from a vintage photo, it's of the Tattood Lady from the Circus...There have to be some really great ideas for captions for this necklace. You are definitely the group to come up with them!! The contest is simple - just make a comment with what you think would be the perfect backside for this necklace image. On Friday a winner will be chosen and rewarded with a soldered glass pendant on a 24" chain - OR - a 10" tattoo of my wild dog, Scootch on your back. Your choice.

Here's your other choice.... do you like her in this pink dress better?

Do you have a tattoo?

The Amazing World of Junk

On Monday, my Hooker friend, Judy (rug hooker) and I went on a field trip. My main purpose was to be a navigator - more on that later.... also to deliver a load of necklaces to Cammie Metheny of Daffadowndillies for an upcoming show in Oronoca, Minnesota.

Cammie is also a professional auction shopper and has a fabulous article in the new Flea Market Style Magazine. If you want to be totally TOTALLY inspired and see junk in a new light - go get this magazine. Simply amazing. Ki Nassauer and Matthew Mead are Geniuses.... my head is still spinning .

The Oronoca Show is going on this weekend, and if you live in Minnesota - you're probably there (or else should be!!) I would if it wasn't 10 hours away....

Cammie opened her warehouses and let us go searching for treasures. I was experiencing such grand episode of sensory overload that I forgot to take photos until we were in the last one! Here are some projects and treasures that Cammie is collecting/repurposing/reselling in all different phases. Just thought you would enjoy seeing these....

...so here's where my navigation skills failed us. I was relying on my Nuvi to get us to the other antique dealers that Cammie called and told we were coming by. I'm terrible at 'hearing' directions and following them. I'm a visual person, right? So we end up on this road that probably hasn't been used since the pioneers left to go look for gold....

We did make it to the next town, but not without multiple cardiac episodes...

Judy knows every antique dealer/hoarder in Nebraska, and we ended up with a van full of stuff for her upcoming Fall Shed Sale (Sept. 3-6) at Gatherings on the Blue.

This is where I became totally overwhelmed.
This shed was PACKED. There were three more just like it.

Cammie's next big show (HUGE SHOW) is the Junk Bonanza
It's in Shakopee, MN September 16-18. It's produced by Junk Revolution.

Go. Tell them Rachel at Two Dog Pond sent you.

They'll say "Who?"
You say "That's right."

This Week's Winner - Takes It ALL!

This week's winner is Therese with her entry of "The Winner Takes It All".

Don't ask me why, I just really like that.

Is the pig the winner? Did the pig win a clown child?

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Therese, please e-mail me with your mailing address and I will send you your winning pendant!

Thanks to everyone who played!

Spider Writing Tutorial

I am by no means an expert at Photoshop Elements, but I have figured out a few basics... Here's how to write like a spider... First add a layer to your open photo. You don't have to do this, but if you make a mistake on your original and then try to erase it, you'll erase the photo too. Use the eyedropper tool and pick up the color of the web...

Use the brush tool (you can change it to a pencil - and - you can change the size of the tip)

Write like a spider. If you don't like it, use the eraser and erase it and start over. Easy Peasy. Save it as a jpeg and then send me a copy and I'll post it.

That's Some Pig, Charlotte

Look at the size of this spider... the picture was taken 1 second before she jumped and scared the living daylights out of me...
...closer inspection shows she's quite the clever spider and in the spirit of the County Fair!!

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - It's County Fair Time!

This week's necklace image celebrates (among many other things - like take your pet to work day) The County Fair. The Seward County Fair just ended, but there are many other counties having theirs this week. The contest is simple - even a pig can do it.

Make a comment on what you think would be quite clever for the back side of this image and on Friday a winner will be chosen and rewarded with, not a blue ribbon, but a lovely soldered glass pendant on a 24" chain.

Enter often! Tell your friends! Eat a fried twinkie while you're thinking of clever sayings!

This Week's Winner - Bumpy or Not

This week's winner is Miss Vintage Revamped. She came up with this very sweet message: "No matter how bumpy the road gets, we can always count on each other." I read it to my sister and she almost cried. That is sweet. Speaking of my sister - there just aren't many people in the world that I could spend eight solid days in a car or hotel room with and not want to kill them or myself by the end of the third day. She is one of those few that I can honestly say that about. We had a great time - even when I told her the Tom Sawyer Cruise was at 3:30 and it was really at 3:00 and we had to dink around until 6:15.... Thank you, Bonnie!

AND - thank you Miss Vintage Revamped!! Please e-mail me (rachel@twodogpond.com) with your mailing address and I will send your necklace right out.

...:::~*~:::...

Things just went right on growing while I was gone....

Through The Ozarks and Back Home

For some crazy reason, my sister and I decided to go straight down to the Ozarks. Partly because our mother was raised in Cole Camp and we used to spend time there every summer, partly because it was closer to home than the Upper Penninsula of Michigan... we visited this new winery - Seven Springs.......met some interesting characters....

(had ZERO access to the internet)
...Testie was the only one brave enough to go swimming in the Lake of the Ozarks....

It's good to be back home!
Everything is peaceful and quiet.

(except Scootch - still naughty)

A necklace winner will be chosen tomorrow - and then we'll get back on track!!
I missed you guys!!

More From On The Road

Testy keeps playing in the traffic.... I had the privilege of growing up on the campus of Concordia Senior College in Ft Wayne, IN. This mural is part of the Te Deum series.
Below is a shot of the campus chapel. This wonderful place and the people who were our campus family influenced many aspects of my life.