Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Puppy in the Pond!

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest image is from a vintage postcard. It's cute, right? And the contest? Easy Peasy! Make a comment as to what you think would be a good caption/quote/saying for this image. On Friday a winner will be chosen and rewarded with a soldered glass pendant on a chain. Whoo Hoo!
I realize that contest pics are all I've been posting lately. It doesn't mean I haven't been doing other things too - I have! Quick trip to Kansas with siblings, taking pontoon rides on the pond, perfecting my martini making skills, and sitting on the phone with my website host (dotster) trying to resolve issues... my apologies to anyone who tried to contact me through e-mail and couldn't the last few days...
Anyway - The contest is on - Life is Good.

This Week's Winner - Flies With Her Own Wings

Congratulations to this week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest, Miss T Lee!!! Her winning entry is "Seek Advice But Fly With Your Own Wings". At first I thought that meant to ignore the advice and do what you want. Then I contemplated the saying and kept coming back to it. I like it. We all have the ability to "fly with our own wings". We should seek advice and take the advice (when appropriate) and then not rely on someone else to do the 'flying', but Fly With Our Own Wings. Hopefully that's sort of what T Lee meant. Sometimes I over analyze.

Anway - TLee, Congratulations and please send me your mailing list so I can send you your winning pendant!

This Week's Winner - Flies With Her Own Wings

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Prayer of the Butterfly

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest features a sweet little Victorian girl dressed like a butterfly and looking like she's in a world of trouble and trying to pray her way out of it. Maybe not. She might be innocent... Anyway - here's where you dear readers come in. Make a comment as to what you think would be a perfect thought, quote, caption, phrase, passage etc. for this image. On Friday a winner will be chosen, a pendant created, added to a 24" ball chain and sent to the winning poster. (Postee?) Enter as often as you like - it makes us all giggle!

Remember - if you ever want to design your own pendants, I live to make them for you. Go to my website www.twodogpond.com and take a look around. You design it, I'll fabricate it.

My Obsessive Behavior

Last year a friend of mine sent me a link to some fingerprints done in silver. She knew that I had done some with the fingerprints of little children for young moms in fine silver. The problem was that her daughter lost her life in a tragic car accident a few years ago. I knew there had to be a way to do this from a fingerprint on paper. I read about it - too hard. I asked other artists about it - Blah blah blah - fast forward to me buying an imagemaker, then realizing my printer wouldn't print black enough... then buying another printer - this one does. Yesterday I got it to all come together. That's my fingerprint (don't tell James Bond that it's so readily accessible - he'll be all over that) and my new word "uniquity" done in copper. I also experimented with some new LOS...love it! It's called XL Gel in case you too are looking for an easier to use LOS with a longer shelf life... I also had to set up a new work space:

Dangerous? Who Cares! There is so much potential here for etching unique designs in metal, I can hardly sit still my mind is spinning so fast!!

(Confession - that's a bunch of canvas bags and onesies under the table waiting for me to get all silk-screen obsessive on... my obsessions don't always last very long...)

This Week's Winner - Good Karma To All

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Winner is JAS! It's always a good idea to have Good Karma, send Good Karma, share Good Karma, so - here it is... Good Karma for JAS.

Please e-mail me your mailing address and I will send you your soldered glass pendant on a 24" ball chain. I really like the way this one turned out - the circus influence comes from seeing 'Water For Elephants' last night. Great movie!

Thanks to everyone who played this week - it's always nice to have you here. Have a wonderful weekend! I'm off to scoop water out of the paddle boat before it sinks from all the rain water in it while wearing my husbands big giant boots...Hopefully I won't get sucked into the mud.

More On The Window

A couple months ago I posted a photo of the installed window I had fabricated for the Lutheran
Center for Mission and Learning in Santa Ana, California. The Pacifica Synod wrote an article about the window in their recent newsletter which I would like to share with you if you're interested. It's a really nice article - it was a project done out of love which provided the opportunity for me to honor the One that gave me the desire and skills to create.

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Charming

The image for this week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest is from an old postcard. I'm not really sure what this woman does professionally, but I admire that she allowed someone to take her picture doing it and then have them sent all over the world! Think how proud she would be to know that she even ended up in this contest! This is where you come in - leave a comment as to what you think would be the perfect quote or caption or phrase for this image. A winner will be chosen on Friday and rewarded with a soldered glass pendant on a 24" chain.

Enter as often as you would like - check back to see what other people say - it's all great fun!

Thanks for your patience on last week's contest. Seems blogger went down for a bit and then I got busy watching my great-nephew do adorable baby things for a couple days...

This Week's Winner and A Guest Blogger

'Sup dudes and dudettes?! Rachel's California nephew Josh here. We're visiting 2DP this weekend so Auntie Rachel asked me to pick this week's winner and write a guest post. I'm a sucker for a bad pun, so watermelonmom's entry "I will love you for heifer" was just too good to pass up.

My family has been loving our time here at the Pond. My 19-month-old son (a total city boy, just like his dad) has discovered that eggs come from chickens, not the refrigerator. He is simultaneously fascinated with, and terrified of, Uncle Tim's riding lawnmower. And he giggles with glee when Rumple and Scootch run circles around him. I wonder what he'll think when we show him where milk comes from...

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

Rachel here - it's so much fun having Josh and family here!! We are in heaven!!

Mis watermelonmom - please e-mail me (rachel@twodogpond.com) your mailing address and I will send you your winning pendant on a 24" chain.

Sometimes It Doesn't Work

When I make the "Drink It~Break It~Wear It" earrings and bracelets from upcycled wine bottles I always have lots of glass left over... parts that are too small or too curved to fit my plans. So - I thought it would be cool to make some pyramid shaped paperweights out of wine bottles. (It's sad how there are so many empty wine bottles here...how does that happen?)
I smashed some merlot bottles...
...added some chardonnay bottles....

...fired and annealed...

...and ended up with more of a weapon than a paperweight...

Back to the Drawing Board!

There's No Place Like Home

My friend Patty and her sisters grew up in the best world. I love hearing their stories! They lived in an old bank complete with tin ceilings - their parents were both entrepreneurs and raised the girls on a shoestring. They say their mom could make anything out of anything... Recently Patty showed me a piece of crumpled tin ceiling she had discovered in the pile of the now demolished bank building. I was honored when she asked me to make earrings for her and her sisters. I kept the design simple by cutting and polishing the tin and adding different colors of faceted rutilated quartz. Thank you for trusting me with this project, Patty!

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Babies Are So Cute

Welcome to the Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest! This week's image is Adorable. Look at that sweet baby. The image is from a vintage postcard from Texas. The contest is simple: make a comment with a suggestion for what would be the perfect caption for this image. On Friday a winner will be chosen and rewarded with a soldered glass pendant on a 24" chain. For complete information on this contest using more words than you would normally like to read, scroll about over there >>>

I hope all of you that are Mothers had a lovely day yesterday. I did! We went fishing on the pond and caught a ton of fish. It was all catch and release... a nice way to spend the afternoon.

This Week's Winner - Don't Judge

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest Winner is Natalie! She wins with her suggestion of "Don't Judge a Fairy By The Size of Her Wings". I love it!! Natalie - e-mail me with your mailing address and I'll get your necklace right out to you.

The background of the picture above is one of Paula Kesselring (Deviant Scrap). I'm addicted to buying their products....

It's still really windy here - keeps blowing the internet out.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Taking Over The World

This custom necklace was made as a gift for an adult confirmation. Her Patron Saint is St. Terese of Lisieux, Little Flower of Jesus.

Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest - Rated N (Nakedy)

This week's Two Dog Pond Necklace Contest image is a nakedy fairy. If you are opposed to what's under your clothes, please stop before you burn your retinas. If not - the contest is simple and fun. You make a comment (as many times as you want) as to what you think would be a good caption for this image. On Friday a winner will be chosen and rewarded with a soldered glass pendant on a 24" chain. I believe that this image is a Graphics Fairy image, but am not certain.... it is a lovely image that makes one want to come up with all sorts of snarky comments.

HEY! I had a great time at the Tents on the Fence Art Event yesterday!! I got to meet some blog readers, some customers that I've only met through e-mails and hang out with Lynnie from ::Silverwork:: and Jan, the amazing Fine Silver Artist, and catchup with Leah From Plainview. There were tons of other people that stopped through too! Thank you thank you thank you! Even Sweatshop Baby brought her parents and brother along!!