shrine and soldering

Whew! Been working on this shrine for what seems like forever. Finally finished today and am glad to send it off to its new home. The theme was Alphabetica and meant to honor the alphabet, a letter, or word in whatever way each participant wanted. I chose the letter "P" which had many possibilities (groan, I know). After waffling back and forth on several words to put in the shrine, I opted for the single letter which is also my recipient's initial. Then I decided to make the pendant and chose the word "play" which seemed to fit the image of the two girls.

As you can see, the pendant is very Sally Jean-esque. More so than I intended, but oh well. I finally got her book recently, and even though several blogs have already mentioned it, I've been wanting to offer my two cents. I LOVE the projects that are featured in the book and thought it was extremely gracious and generous of Sally to provide so many, especially since she teaches several in her classes. I highly recommend the book for all of its beautiful eye candy and creative ideas, including a fun way to make collages. My only caveat is for people who have never picked up a soldering iron before - you will need to refer to a friend, class, or some other book for the fundamentals including detailed supplies, step-by-step instructions, and safety considerations. That last one is especially important because you're dealing with chemicals, fumes, and extremely hot tools. But once you've got the basics down, you will be off and running with Sally Jean's book!

On a related subject, I recently made a purchase from an online company called I.S.G.S. and was very pleased with their prices and customer service (which is so rare these days). I've had a few people ask me where to get soldering supplies and this is my new favorite. I've ordered from other places before but this one happened to have everything that I needed this time around and is on the West Coast which made the shipment much faster than usual. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just a satisfied customer. If you ever order from them, let me know if things go well for you, too.