Still Working at Home and Loving It!

It's been a little over a month now since I was laid off from my Administrative job and I've been working on jewelry the entire time. Of course the first two weeks were taken up with getting my taxes organized, but the last two weeks have been nothing but jewelry. It's been wonderful and I can really tell a difference in the way I think (creatively). My mind has opened up like never before and all of these ideas have just flooded in.

For the past few weeks, I've been incorporating leather in my chainmaille pieces. Actually it's more the other way around... lots of leather with chainmaille accents. I've completed two pieces with great results. I finished the third piece last night, but unfortunately, it didn't make the cut. It wasn't up to my standards and it pretty much looked like crap. LOL The leather cuff itself turned out great, but the chainmaille accent wasn't working right. Because of the way it was all tied together, I ended up having to trash the whole thing except for the maille. Here are the first two pieces.

(Lace) Upcycled black leather pieces with black leather cord used for the stitching.

The chainmaille piece is a Stainless Steel Japanese 12-in-2 weave. All metal is covered with leather, so there's no need to worry about any allergies you may have.

(Tiger Lilly) Upcycled orange leather pieces for the front and back with black leather cord used for the stitching. Black leather inlaid dots accent the piece and break up the orange nicely.

The chainmaille piece is a Stainless Steel Helm (or Parallel) weave. Once again, all metal is covered on the back of the piece, so only soft leather comes in contact with your skin.

I'm really proud of these two pieces, since it's a first (and second) for me and leather. I just wish my third piece had turned out. I'll have to give it another go to see if I can make it work. I don't give up on things that easily. I keep at it until it works. =)

On the job front, I just started getting my resume out there. I applied to 4 jobs by email and one through the mail this week. It sure is different since the last time I was forced to job hunt (yet another lay-off back in 1990). Now, just about everything is done electronically instead of by the good old US Postal Service. The four jobs I applied for the other night, I actually FORGOT to attach my resume on the email. LOL How stupid is that!?!?! Yep... I resent them with resume attached, but I don't expect to get any replies on that batch. LOL

As I type this, I just got a response from one of them. Go figure... The sucky economy strikes again. The position I applied for is no longer available due to unexpected cut backs at the company. It just goes to show you that no job is safe. Oh well!

Today I'll be finishing up a "regular" maille piece that's been sitting in my work-in-progress box. It's a Stainless Steel Dragonscale weave that's massive. It's 1-1/2" wide and it's fabulous! I can't wait to get it finished and listed.

I guess that's enough blogging for the day. I'm off to finish me some maille. =)

Peace, Love and Happy Mailling!!!