New location

I've been busy and have moved over to my new blog. Hope to see you there soon!

New Cypher Necklace

This blog has moved to a new home. Click HERE to be re-directed. Hope to see you there!  

Loop dangle earrings in silvery blue

Small is good too

I learned last year that a lot of folks purchase my tiny earrings as stocking stuffers so I've tried to stuff the shop with them this year. Some are even one of a kind - specialness in a tiny package.

Someone asked me not long ago why I don't stop making the tiny earrings and focus on larger pieces. Good question - I don't mind being questioned. Its me think about what I am doing. But my answer was simple - I have short hair and like to wear tiny earrings.

Sprout in aqua

So...tiny earrings will continue but many designs that I've had for a while will be gone after the New Year. Out with the old and in with the new.

Winding down

Filling the shop with the rest of the new finished work that I have. The shipping continues but the making is winding down. As always there is so much "in the works" but it will have to wait until after the holidays.

If you have the chance visit my Etsy team's blog post today. I researched and wrote a short piece about freedom, shopping, fingerless gloves (?) and the power of purchasing from artists and small business owners.

Back in the swing

My Etsy shop is open again and I am slowly posting some of my new work. I've been working on construction, kinetic pieces and incorporating non-traditional elements (yarn, rope, antler...)into my work. (and polymer clay IS traditional? what?)

On another note, if you're new to Etsy or selling online in general, I really recommend checking out the new series on the Artisans Gallery Team blog - The Don't Do List. Part one was posted today and covers some important points about shipping.

Too many irons in the fire

I feel like I'm being pulled in a lot of different directions lately. So I'm gathering supplies in preparation of taking 1o days off from Etsy to concentrate on some of the (many) projects I have started. My shop will close Friday...but I'll be back :-)

Landscapes and beyond

I have several more landscapes almost complete. The even newer ones seem to be escaping their bezels. Hmmm...no photos of that tangent yet.

This piece has no added acrylic paint. Its a stretch for me.

I'm re-working an earlier piece because I'm just not satisfied with it yet. So its sits here partially finished. I realized it would be very convenient for me to have about 4 huge tables on which to lay out partially finished work for weeks and weeks just so I could look at it, play with it, try it on then walk away for days. Come back, insert bead, take out bead, insert different bead and so on. I think I just need to live with things for a while before I can finish them.

The end result

The large custom Sediment necklace is finished and on its way across the country!


Stainless steel strung through a short length of hollow rubber cord creates the loop for a toggle clasp. (my left thumbnail almost permanently has black paint under it - sorry to everyone except Claire :-)



The beads graduate as they get close to necklace for comfort and to cut some of the weight. (it has about 275 beads!) I was a little sad to say good bye to this piece. I truly labored over it.

Onward

What is the missing element on this Landscape necklace?
Idea one: middle of the road approach, a swirled layer of dark blues, a landmass at the horizon.


Idea two: discordant, craggy layers. Sometimes this kind of thing really works for me.


I think the winner is idea three: minimal. I did some nighttime landscape drawing in charcoal in college and this reminds me of that.


Kyle bought a thermometer with a probe and an alarm and I'll be testing the oven with that today to find out if I am having any temperature spikes.

Time out

Beware the bareness of a busy life. - Socrates

Now...time to re-group because between school, household and my wholesale order from terrain I've been going 8am-8pm straight through every day.


Friday night was decidedly, deliciously, slow. Kyle and I practiced Christmas carols on guitar, mandolin and melodica, occasionally stirring a big pot of homemade applesauce that simmered on the stove. Saturday I played at making "magic stones" among other things.


If you are in Philadelphia stop by terrain at Styers in Glen Mills, PA and check out my jewelry!

Post Fest Post

Mostly visuals this time...shots of new and in progress work taken as I prepared for New Freedom Fest last Saturday and one photo of my booth. Whew. Exhausted.

(considering doing a tutorial of how I make those stripe-y eggplant colored beads in this first bracelet)

Order! Order!

I have a show coming up in 10 days. The fact of the matter is that this is the state of affairs.



I promise that the rest of my house is much cleaner. REALLY! My polymer clay work area is much cleaner and comparatively boring. But this is the "put it all together" table and so things get a little out of control. I will eventually get to the point that the mayhem starts making me cranky (like when you've over mixed paint and have ended up with some sort of muddy grey/brown) and my husband will say "clean your work table - you'll feel better".

Order is actually coming from chaos at this point and I am producing a steady stream of finished pieces, hoping not to pull an all-nighter before the show.

The Muse has left the building!

I set aside the entire day today to work on pieces for the show next weekend. This was the last day I had decided to give myself leeway (ok don't quote me on that) to start any new work.


Got up early. Excited to get started and then...nothing. I just felt muddled, uninterested. How incredibly inconvenient!

Oh well. I refused to just sit there in that puddle and instead finished pieces that were already in progress. In the long run this was probably a good idea anyway. Many of these parts have been sitting around for weeks (or in the case of those round, white beads, months) while I considered how they would be used. The last photo shows a bracelet with its umbilical cord still attached. I might re-string it.

Countdown

Seven days until my "meet the artist" day at the PA State Museum. I am feeling under the weather probably because I have been working like crazy and haven't gotten the rest I need.


Here is a look at some of the pieces I delivered to The Radius Gallery on Friday .


I am still a bit nervous about having to demonstrate. I'll spend time this week researching the history of polymer because I want to be able to talk intelligently about the material. Anybody have some advice about good online sources?

Let there be light

My husband has always known the way to my heart. This was my Christmas gift!


And with the addition of a 35mm 1.8 lens I can now take photos any time of day (or night). Gosh, no more perching close to a southern facing window waiting for clouds to clear. What will I do with all the time I'll save?

I guess I can work on four new necklaces that are partially underway.