His name is my name too.

Shape series earrings in progress

Someone apparently already has my name as their username on Etsy because apparently...they have the same name. (I'm trying to find the humor here and find myself humming "John Jacob Jinglehimmer Schmidt, His name is my name too!" Do you know it? Hum along...) So although there is no Etsy shop called Genevieve Williamson, I can't use it as a shop name either.

So for now the best solution seems to be to leave well enough alone, continue with Jibby and Juna on Etsy and just link from my new website. So my business name will be Genevieve Williamson, and Jibby and Juna will just be my Etsy shop. Does that make sense?   Sometime in the next couple weeks/month I'll be switching over to my new blog - you can head over there now and click to follow if you'd like. 

Securing post earrings - how I do it

Although I've never had a problem with backs coming off of post earrings, I know cyanoacrylate
 glue (Super Glue) can break down with time. So I decided to start covering/securing posts by enclosing them with another thin layer of polymer clay. This is the process I've come up with. 

(Sorry for the blue photos - dang this winter light!) 

First, I glue the earring back in place with cyanoacrylate glue and allow to dry. This will hold the post in place still while I work.

My materials are...the earrings, small piece of scrap computer paper, small lump of clay the same color as the back of the earrings, tiny needle, tiniest circle Kemper cutter, blade and Genesis medium (you could use liquid polymer but the Genesis is thicker and does ooze as much). 

 I roll the clay very thin (second to the thinest setting on my pasta machine) and cut 2 circles with the Kemper cutter. 

I put a small dot, just as a marker really, in each of the circles of clay using a small needle. And I put a hole in the paper using the same needle. 

Next I put a thin layer of Genesis medium on the back of the earring.

 I put one of the circles onto the earring back and push it all the way down to the base. 

Then I put the paper right over the post, all the way down to the clay circle. I've shown it here in one hand but I actually use both hands, pinching with thumb and forefinger, pushing the paper down, turning the earring as I go, making the clay circle flatter and flatter to the earring. Pull the paper up, check the clay, push flatter if you need to. Until it looks like this... 

This is what they look like when they're finished, just about perfect circles, no texture, smooth against the ear. (I've already darkened the earrings so that the circles that I just made show up but normally I would do my finial finish with acrylic after they are cured.) It really doesn't take very long at all to do this extra step and I think it will increase the strength and longevity of my earrings going forward.

And I'm all about going forward.  

What's in a name

After careful consideration, I've decided to change my business name. As important as using Jibby and Juna (the names of my childhood, imaginary friends) was to me when I opened my Etsy shop in 2008, using my full name for business purposes is, as one wise friend said, better for the long haul.

Willow carved necklace

Maybe I was short sighted,  maybe I needed to dream bigger. And I think now is the time to make the shift. I'm a little scared though.

I'll start the process sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The voices in my head

Back in my studio and it feels good.

Between filling orders I'm working on taking my carving in new directions, carving more like a linocut.  I carve, I wonder, I carve some more. This is what is sounds like in my head.
"Could I print with polymer plates?"
"Could the carved piece, which is also part of a necklace, first be used to make a print thus creating 2D and 3D art that is related?"
"Where could I go with this?"

I'll keep this conversation going. Hope you are having a good week too!

I've been working on some new earring shapes and custom wires to complement them. The last pair of earrings is my Lake design but with custom ear wires rather than with the pre-made hoops. This was at a customers request and despite the fact that they lose the movement, I'm thinking I might like them better this way. Let me know what you think.