Cellini Explosion, or The Saga Of Too Much Tension

See this nice little Cellini spiral I was working on?

Apparently, I was channeling all the stress of whatever was going on at the time into my thread tension, because about two inches into the spiral, this happened.

Boom! Exploded in the middle.

Arghhhh!!! (Although my language at the time was, I admit, far more colorful).

I have put this one away for another, calmer day.

Hat Week Friday -- The Kentucky Oaks

Happy Friday, everyone!  While you're reading this, I will either be at Churchill Downs, enjoying the festivities of the Kentucky Oaks, or somewhere quiet, recuperating from the festivities of the Oaks and letting someone else cook dinner.

Today's hat inspiration is what I'll be wearing at the Oaks -- it's a beautiful fascinator I won at a silent auction last Derby season.  It's completely appropriate for the Oaks, which has pink as its signature color and is called the Run for the Lilies.

Now, you may wonder why the necklace is not pink on pink, with a little pink thrown in for good measure. The green is the exact color of my Oaks dress, the bronze pearls match a tiny stripe on the dress, and the rose quartz is a soft reflection of the lily. I decided to be somewhat subtle at my neck, since there's no way having big ol' fuchsia flowers on your head can be considered subtle!

I'll be at the track today with my camera at the ready, prepared to capture all the hat wonderfulness that's roaming around (at least until someone smacks me for taking their picture)!  Since the reveal for BSBP has been postponed, I hope to have some pictures to share with you tomorrow. And since we lucked into seats right on the rail of the track (!), I might even have some closeups of some jockey silks!

Hat Week Hump Day

Midweek, and I'm feeling a bit frantic -- we have house guests coming in to town for Kentucky Oaks, so there is laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, and general logistical planning going on. Not a lot of time for inspired jewelry making, so I hope you'll forgive me if today's post includes a necklace I made for a ZNet Shows challenge.

One of the coolest things about the Kentucky Oaks, other than the fact that it's the day before Derby and attracts more of a hometown crowd (although that doesn't make it any calmer, smaller, or less fun), is that Churchill Downs has started using it as an occasion to promote breast cancer awareness.  Everyone is encouraged to wear pink, there is a parade of breast cancer survivors on the track before the Oaks stakes race that day, and the flower blanket for the winner is made of gorgeous stargazer lilies.

So with that in mind, today's theme is pink.  Here's my inspiration hat, found in a local department store.

What caught my eye with this hat was the great contrast of the black against the pink, which helps the hat be more sophisticated than girly. And those thin feathers swooping out of the flower are like a little exclamation of "yeah, I know I'm fabulous".

I suppose that pink/black contrast is one that resonates for me, because I made this necklace recently for ZNet Shows. Also a feminine, but not too cutesy, take on pink.

And because just one hat per day is not nearly enough, here are a few more ways people interpreted the "pink" theme:

Why, yes, that is a hat with Barbie on it. And yes, Barbie is wearing a hat also.

Even the bird has a hat on this hat!