MIA Again?

Yes, I failed at home and was re-admitted back into the hospital, but am now back at home again and hope that I get to stay here this time. I do not have a lot of hope that it will work out that way, but a small kernel is still alive deep within me and I am going to hold on to that.

I am working hard on repairing my "Orange Princess" necklace for the last and final time.

It, and my bracelet "Spring Flowers"

made it into the finals at the Fire Mountain Gems beading contest (Orange Lady in the seed bead contest; Spring Flowers into the glass bead category). As some of you may know, the Orange Lady has had problems since I made it. It was the very first large piece I ever made using Fireline, and at the time, I did not know how to properly tie off the threads. It has ripped and had to be repaired constantly since I made it.  That's not going to happen any more after this encompassing repair job is complete.  Ever.

It's just a shame that I did not complete my Medicine Pouch in time to enter too, because it is a piece to behold, but I will find something else to promote it in.  I'm extremely confident in what I have produced there, and know that it is different than anything I've seen.  Somebody is going to be interested, either in a magazine or in another Juried competition.

Well, both pieces chosen need to be sent to Fire Mountain Gems now for judging in person, and one of the things they will be looking at is craftsmanship. The competition is very stiff and it's a long way from here to winning even an honorable mention, but I am NOT going to lose over craftsmanship. So I've been working on the necklace for days now, resewing and reinforcing weak parts, and adding fire polished faceted beads and fresh water pearls where warranted to increase it's strength. The difference should not be noticeable between the pictures submitted prior and the finished piece now, but will be critical not so much for appearance, but for strength. It's weird; I am not worried about being judged down based on the actual appearance of my finished work. I know that part of the competition is very subjective depending on what the judge likes, how well the piece will photograph, and what they are looking for as far as advertising goes. I'm strangely confident in my beaded work unlike anything I've ever created in other mediums in the past. But again, I am not allowing myself to lose a contest based on less than perfect work.

I figure it will take another day or two to get the piece to where I want it by the naked eye, but have learned through photographing my work to post on Etsy that a lot of issues (like loose threads) show up in the pictures once the piece is enlarged on my computer screen. So after I "complete" the project, I will put it aside for a day or two just to take a break, then I will take a series of close up photos simply to look for issues that I might not have noticed with my naked and over-50 year old eyesight.  Fortunately, it is not due up north until April 27, so I have time to get all this work done.

There are a lot of health issues here, and some of them may delay my entrance into the clinical trial, but all of my doctors understand my desire to be enrolled and they are doing their best not to give me medications that would immediately clear up what is wrong but would disqualify me. I truly hope that I can get going in 30 days from now.

I finally figured out how to adjust the brightness feature in my camera after all this time.  I'm flabbergasted  at how much closer the colors are in the photographs now to the original piece with a minimum of adjustment than they were before finding this simple setting.

Knowing this new piece of information is going to make the photographic experience way less painful for me, and maybe i will start getting my work listed onto Etsy faster now.  I have so much jewelry made and sitting in piles here that it would be nice to have it listed in my stores so that it might be available to go to homes where it will be loved and worn.