Chainmaille
Every piece of chainmaille is woven with two pairs of pliers, one ring at a time. Every single ring must be opened and closed, and of course the smaller the ring and the more intricate the weave, the more time-consuming and patience-sapping it is. I find that it gets into a rhythm, like needlework or crochet, and is relaxing.
Wirework
It was a natural extension of chainmaille. Wirework is done using a handful of different pliers and wire cutters, masking tape to keep the wires cooperating, and my hands. Mostly my hands - the less you have to squeeze soft wire with metal instruments, the better. It's extremely rare for me to use glue in a piece (chainmaille wrapped pendants are secured with epoxy), so all stones are held in with the Force. I mean, with the wires.
Bead Weaving
I don't do a lot of bead stringing, meaning beads on a flexible wire you wear around your neck or wrist. What I do enjoy is bead weaving. This involves a needle, thread, and one to five beads at a time. And reading glasses, I'm finding as I age. The beads involved are, for the most part, small enough to fit about 5 on a grain of rice, although I cannot resist the sparkle of Swarovski crystals in a lot of my bead-woven creations. This is really, seriously time consuming.
Henna & Body Art
There's a lot more about this on the henna page. I'm still perfecting my henna concoction, but it's basically the plant ground powdered-sugar fine, lemon juice as an acidic activator, sugar and essential oils. This mixture will stain skin for anywhere from a week to well over a month, depending on pH, where it is on the body, and some other factors.
I have recently started doing temporary tattoo body art using Temptu body paint, which is the same stuff they use for fake tats on Hollywood actors. This will last around a week with care (seems to not like shampoo on it).
Oil Painting
A relatively new love, but I am obsessed. At some point I will offer prints on this site, but for now you can peruse and potentially buy over at deviantArt.
