A mind of its own

I had a yarn in mind..
I spun up a thin single from a soft, fluffy and sparkley batt on the antique wheel.  That little bugger likes to spin fast and furious.  I treadled slowly, but it still flew like the wind.  It's a double drive that I have yet to learn how to control completely.  But I did get a consistent thin yarn.  I started to ply it on my Traddy-but it just refused to spin decently.  So I figured the country spinner can handle anything-and it can.  But, what I was going for and what actually happened are two different things.  I just wanted to kind of core ply the single onto a brushed mohair core.  There was so much twist in the single that it just kept twisting onto itself no matter what I tried.  So I gave in and let it do its own thing.  I'm not sure I could purposely repeat what happened-but boy do I love it.  I'm not sure I even did it-the yarn took over and did its own thing-I was just along for the ride.
This is not the yarn I had in mind.

 

Mixed media jewelry

A while back I tried my hand at making some paper jewelry and was pleased with how it turned out.  I finally got a whole necklace finished and I love it!

The necklace part is some hand spun art yarn, then the pendant is a blend of paper (for the large oval) and a metal washer, a copper domed disk and a bead.  I fashioned a bail from some copper colored flat wire and made spirals for end caps with a clasp.  I wore it to a bead show and was thrilled to get some very nice compliments, one being that it looked like Raku pottery.  I just added some embossing powder on the top of the paper.  I'm trying to make more, but that dang old full time job just keeps taking up all my time.