Wednesday's Worktable

Guess what! It appears that I've successfully gotten out of my creative rut! 

Hurray!

And, wouldn't you know it, inspiration struck from a rather unexpected source:

...Namely, sorting Magic cards.

Some background: my husband and I have played Magic: the Gathering, on and off, for several years now. Recently, though, we've been playing it quite a lot... and while he is certainly better at it than I am (it appeals to the pattern/synergy/interaction logic part of his computer programming brain), I definitely still enjoy it.

...Heh. Yep, we're nerds. You can even see part of our binary welcome mat up in the top left corner.

I also really enjoy organizing the cards--which is a good thing, considering our collection is quite extensive. 

In fact, I've recently taken on the massive undertaking of re-organizing the cards (read: bringing order to chaos), which is why they are in piles on our table.

Oh, and what you see here? Isn't even a third of our collection.

Now, what does that have to do with my beading worktable? How did sorting Magic cards serve as the spark for jewelry inspiration?

Well, Magic is a trading card game. That means it is very easy to get multiples of the more common cards--especially basic land cards. 

...We have so many basic land cards.

So! Last night, with the help of a friend who lent me some cabochons and bezels, I took four of those duplicate land cards and turned them into these:

Ta-da! Oh, and don't worry...
no super expensive cards were harmed in the making of this project.

That's right... I made pendants!

...Granted, I didn't do the best job making them--there are little imperfect spots where the image separated from the glass and then smudged back together. That's all right, though... I'm allowing them to be imperfect, and am just happy to be making something. It's all part of the learning process, after all.

I even have some necklaces already in the works:

And! I also made a pendant from my current favorite card, from the most recent Magic expansion: the Tasseled Dromedary.

Why do I like this card? Because I was the precocious first grader who knew what a dromedary was. Because I like tassels. Because it's just so bright and cheery. 

...And because it's a common card (we have more than 15 copies of it!), which means that I could cut it up without feeling too guilty. (Honestly--it costs less than $0.25... Definitely not a $125,000 original high quality Black Lotus!)

I have a really fun necklace idea for my dromedary... Now to start gathering the beads for it. :)

So, there you go! That is what is currently on my worktable this week... Being geeky, and finding inspiration from an unlikely source!

Thanks so much for stopping by today... Happy Wednesday, everyone!