Steampunk Dragonfly Pendant

Finally, after having pieces laying on my work table, then put away in a drawer for about six months, I got everything out and worked it up!  I hate to finish things.  I love starting things and am happiest when I have a half dozen projects going so I can switch off, back and forth throughout the day.
My routine is: work on the computer (hah, work) listing etsy stuff, checking wholesalecrafts.com discussion boards, working on www.advancetogoartglass.com web page or the new wedding line with my friend Mickey, www.simplepleasureshandmade.com.  Checking site statistics to see if anybody found any of these sites, checking email to see if please please are there any orders (2 wholesale last week thank goodness).... then take the dogs for a walk.. my baby Shar-pei Lilli can be kinda hard on the ol' man Bear with rough puppy play unless they get their legs stretched... then go feed cows at the ranch.
Then it's lunch, where I'm currently eating a sandwich in front of the iMac while watching Brothers and Sisters on Netflix.  It's not that great, but I ran out of Dexter and Weeds episodes until the new season is released.
THEN I FINALLY MAKE SOMETHING IN THE STUDIO!  What a slacker.  It seems to take until about 2-3 pm before I get the wheels turning and work in my shop.  Even then, I'm happiest with my mp3 player in the background with an audiobook.  Right now I'm on the last few hours of Pat Conroy's "The Prince of Tides".  I'd read the book years ago and loved it.... saw the movie and hated it.  The audiobook is very good.  The fella reading is excellent, and doesn't overdo the southern accents of the characters.  I downloaded it from www.audible.com and have been pretty happy with their service.  I used NetLibrary, but it's difficult to search for books that you really want so I've gotten away from using it.
SO, the reason for this post is that not only did I finish something, but I'm pretty happy with it and learned how to do riveting, or cold connections.  I'd bought the rivets last fall and wasn't sure how to do the process.  I got on YouTube and found several helpful videos.  Youtube is a great teacher for any technique you want, for instance I didn't know what grafting was for a project I was knitting, and there was a video on Youtube! Excellent!

So, I gathered my different bits of metal together.... an embossed copper piece, a brass background that I drilled and hammered for texture, a dragonfly charm and vintage watch parts.  Oh, and the rivets.  I practiced a couple of times on a scrap and ruined the rivets, but when I put them into this piece with the brass tube hinge (for making boxes) that I used as spacers, it went pretty well.  Into the space went the rivets that held the watch pieces on. I added some chain and a "Wander" token and a vintage key.  I think it's done.  I want to enter it into a competition so won't be listing it on either website for awhile to see how that goes...

Friday night in King Hill

I haven't posted in six months!  Where does the time go?  Right now the time just seems to crawl.  For a crafter, this is the Dead Zone.  The time after Christmas and before summer when nobody has money, or needs to buy anything because they too, are just trying to get through winter.
I guess on the up side, is it means there is time to go for drives.  Just 15 miles from our home starts a sagebrush wilderness with large ranches scattered about.  There is a loop we drive on where hundreds of deer and antelope play and winter forage.

This big buck watched us the whole time we sat in the car watching the herd.  That is a wheel line behind them so they're in someone's farm grazing. There were at least 150 head in this bunch.

We also walked by one of our favorite spots, a railroad trestle near King Hill.  This photo is looking up at it and on an angle (learned that from daughter August)... it looks like art doesn't it?

We had Bear and our new puppy Lilli.  Spending a lot of time with your pups is a good way to pass the time too during the Dead Zone.  Lilli the Shar-Pei has been with us only about 60 days now and we've already got a million memories with her.  She is a total character.  She talks when you make a funny face and say "What"?  She'll do a Sit and a Down on command if you're bribing her with dried blueberries.  She has brought our elderly Bear doggy back to his puppy-hood again with rambunctious bouts of play.  We love her and she loves us unconditionally.  She doesn't care if Mom isn't selling anything :)  unless the kibbles run low of course!
On our walk by the river and railroad tracks, we ran across what we're pretty sure are wolf prints.  They were HUGE!  My tennis shoe is about 4" across, so that gives you an idea of the size.  The long nails seemed to say wild animal rather than large dog as well.  There have been wolves sighted in nearby areas, so it's not that big a reach to cry wolf.  With all the livestock and the wild game, there is plenty to eat too.