Bead porn and cookie rhapsody.

I wish I could take credit for the term "bead porn" (no, it's not what you think!), alas, it is not mine. Contrariwise (don't know her real name, ahaha) used it to (aptly) describe her blog posts that involved pictures of new bead/gem loot. All us bead and gem enthusiasts really do just drool over that sort of thing :D.
Contrariwise has been a huge inspiration to me. Unfortunately, her etsy shop is no longer open, and I haven't seen a new blog post in quite some time. I don't know if she's still creating, or where she went in the world of the interweb, but I was sad to see her go.

I went to a Rings & Things wholesale bead show a few weekends ago. It was the first show I've been to that required a business license. I was so psyched about it; it made me feel pretty legit :D.
And I am, but I guess I experience owning a business in this sort of surreal way...I mean, I'm just ME. A person. That does things. And now I'm A Business. Recognized by the government. Getting paid to putter around with metal and gorgeous beads & gems. I'm like some sort of VIP with these wholesale-only bead shows. And here I am, just getting around to breakfast at 3:30 in the afternoon (I'm on a late-to-bed, late-to-rise schedule right now). You know what I'm having for breakfast? French fries. Not even good ones. The crappy premade frozen kind. That's my breakfast today. Can you see why I'm having a hard time identifying with the Business Woman persona :D? But I do nice work, I put myself into everything I do, and I make sure my customers are happy. I guess that's what really qualifies me as a proper business owner. Maybe everyone who starts their own business and hasn't been doing it for a million years feels this way sometimes.

So, yes. I went to this Rings & Things bead show. My boyfriend woke me up about an hour before it started and told me it was happening. I had no idea. He had been talking with a local artisan in the etsy chat rooms and she told us about it (much thanks!). Of course I was down for some spontaneous bead shopping. I always am. I didn't have a large budget that day, but I did get some lovely beads and I feel good about them. Here you are...bead porn. I shall share some inartistic photos of my loot with y'all. I would have spread them out on a table...but I don't have one, so I used what I could find; an ugly shipping box, ahaha.

These beads are showin' off what their mama (that'd be Mother Nature) gave them. Click on the photos to view them full size.

In other news, I am ready to report back on how the aforementioned chocolate chip cookie endeavor went; AMAZINGLY. They were fucking incredible. Like, I didn't have very high hopes for them because sometimes my gluten-free cookies come out pretty weird. Not necessarily bad, but not what I think of as "cookies." But these...THESE WERE SUPERB. Better than any wheat flour-based, dairy-laden chocolate chip cookie I've ever had. I put Tollhouse to shame. It's not even that my mouth has forgotten how good a traditional cookie tastes; my wheat-eating, cookie-loving boyfriend thought they were phenomenal, too.
I did a modified version of this recipe. I can never just follow a recipe, you know. I always have to change something. What can I say, it's in my high maintenance baking nature to do so. I used different flours, which are what I had on hand, and if you eat soy, a blend of millet, brown rice and soy flours gives gluten-free baked goods an excellent consistency. It didn't end up being vegan, because I didn't have enough palm sugar (I stay away from cane sugar when I can - it doesn't agree with me in the large doses you'd find in a cookie) on hand so I had to supplement with honey, but it could easily be made vegan.

I realize these photos are kind of awful...it was nighttime, and I knew these cookies weren't going to live to see the light of day, so I took some quick photos with my terrible indoor lighting. Don't worry - your cookies will not come out looking disgusting should you use this recipe. It's just bad lighting :).

Here's what I did:

* 3 tablespoons ground flax meal
* ¼ cup hot water
* 3/4 cup brown rice flour
* remaining 1 1/4 cup of flour was 50% millet flour and 50% soybean flour.
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
* 1/2 cup granulated palm sugar (cane sugar could be used if you like)
* 1/4 cup honey (could sub agave nectar for a vegan version)
* 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
* 10 ounces gluten-free vegan chocolate chips (I could have used the whole 12 oz bag...but I wanted some chocolate chips left over to snack on when the craving strikes :D)

A note on the chocolate chips: I think that the quality of the chocolate chips in a cookie is VERY important to the overall flavor of the finished product. I personally like Guittard semisweet chocolate chips. They're vegan, gluten-free, very reasonably priced and you can usually find them at a conventional grocery store. That's the brand I used in these cookies and I was extremely pleased with the flavor.

So, ya just follow the instructions for the original recipe I linked to, but add the liquid sweetener (honey or agave nectar) to the liquid ingredients. I also found that my modified recipe made quite a few more cookies than the amount projected by the original recipe. I ate a good amount of the dough (I really can't control myself with cookie dough around :D), and it still made 36 cookies (the original recipe says it yields about 24). They weren't too small, either. I think that's the first time I've ever ended up with MORE than what they say you'll get. Even taking into consideration the fact that I will inevitably eat some of the dough, I never come anywhere near getting the sort of yield a recipe says I'm going to have. So this was a really pleasant surprise.

Also, I baked mine for about 10 minutes and that was perfect. I mean, my oven might be fucked. I haven't checked the accuracy of the temperature. But I just thought I'd put that out there - check them after 10 minutes so they don't end up burning.

And, of course, I have some new work to share :D.

Geometric Hoops

Hand forged gunmetal/black oxidized Sterling Silver tall trapezoid hoop earrings with glittering 4mm crystal beads. These beads have a light AB (aurora borealis) coating on them, and sparkle in the light with glints of peach, purple, pink and yellow. I'm planning on doing them in other colors in the foreseeable future, too.

Robin's Egg Drops
Recognize the beads :D? Rounded rectangle cut natural Amazonite beads on hand forged antiqued sterling silver earwires. They have little hammered tapers peaking out the bottom, and I've brushed back parts of the black patina to reveal bright silver. They're kinda rustic and modern at the same time :). I like making this style and it will be a regular offering in my shop until I run out of Amazonite for it.

Here's a sneak peek of my new ring - Alexander.

When I was naming him, that's what came to mind, and I liked it, but I was feeling conflicted about it because this ring is rather feminine, and I had all this gender role nonsense telling me that it needed a "girl's name." Well, fuck that! So this is Alexander. I've been exploring hand forging beautiful sterling & fine silver bezel settings for vintage Swarovski glass gems and contemporary Swarovski crystal "fancy stones." I'm really loving it, so I've decided it'll be a new line for my shop. I'm going to continue to collect gorgeous vintage and contemporary Swarovski rhinestones and expand on this idea :D.

This particular ring features a contemporary Swarovski crystal "fancy stone" in Erinite, which changes from a warm tourmaline green to a cooler aqua blue-green depending on the light, with a gorgeous antique cushion cut. I LOVE this cut, and am going to be using stones like this in many more pieces. I've forged a sterling & fine silver bezel setting with a tiny silver orb border. This ring is a size 7, but I can make more in any size. Will be listed in my shop later tonight!

I also made a new banner for my etsy shop. My old one was pretty bad. This new one's definitely an improvement. I'm all nerdily excited about it.

I know in my last post, I said that I would have an announcement regarding my line of handmade stitch markers, but that is going to have to wait a bit longer. It's in the midst of something that needs...tweaking.

That's all for now :). 'Til next time, dear readers, I wish you well.