Flower Obsession

My obsession with little glass flowers continues...

My Newest Obsession...

... little bitty glass flowers. Every-freaking-where.

What can I say? I guess I'm ready for spring.

Tiny Terrace Collection - Pocket Full of Pansies in Blue

Tiny Terrace Collection - Little Poppy Pendant in Copper and White

Tiny Terrace Collection - Little Poppy Pendant in Silver and White

I am the Vine... - Sterling Silver Necklace

I am the Vine... - Sterling Silver Earrings

Maybe I like them cause I can't kill them.

Oh wait. I guess that's not true. I did kill a few... apparently glass flowers do not like the 1400+ degree heat of a torch. They sort of explode. I don't recommend trying that.

I do recommend wearing them, however, as they are just darling. Dontcha think?

Out with the old...

I've been dreading this day for a while. The day I go and decide to completely change up the style of our product photography. See, I'm more comfortable with my neutral gray, doing the same old thing every time. But that's not what catches the eye of lots of people, at least not on Etsy. And since one of my marketing strategies this year is to tap better into Etsy, well, it was time to step out of my comfort zone.

I see lots of gorgeous artsy fartsy photos on Etsy and wonder to myself "hmm, could I do that?". I wasn't sure I could handle it. I mean, wow, SO much color... no gray? What? NO GRAY? A color theorist I am not. I mean, shoot... my couches have beige slip covers, my rug is beige, our chair and the accent walls are chocolate brown. (At least nothing is gray.)

A couple weeks ago Dustin and I ran around town, finding little things to use as props. We went to the used book store with the sole purpose of buying some hard cover books in pretty colors. I found the coolest old, old, OLD Winnie the Pooh book in a nice shade of red. I had to have it. I'll actually read that one to our kids. Then I saw The Yearling in a lovely teal. A couple others that I'm not sure of the titles... but their covers were pretty in their chocolate brown and purple-ish. Score!

Next I found some white vases, perfect for displaying hanging earrings. Finally I raided my mom's stash of scrapbook paper. People. The woman has a stash big enough to scrap for the entire state of Texas. Score!

I went home and got to work. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do a good job. I'm not sure why, because I have a fabulous camera and an even fabulous-er macro lens... but I was afraid they would suck.

They don't. In fact, I pretty much love them and am wondering why I was so afraid of color before. Hopefully you'll love them too, and they'll catch some spending eyes over at Etsy.

We're also planning some pretty big website changes this year, so stay tuned to see how that all pans out. I'm excited!

Here are a few new things.. photographed with no gray! Yay!

Mixed Metal Mania

I'm addicted, y'all.

Can't.Stop.With.The.Mixed.Metals.

They call out to me, begging me to make them all harmonize. The sterling tells me it can't stand to be alone, and the copper is all, "yo, I need a bright and shiny bud".

Seriously. My jewelry talks to me. Doesn't yours talk to you? No? Well, maybe you just aren't listening! (Or maybe you're just, you know, sane.)

I actually had a little creativity in the past few days. Not much, but a little. Mostly I've been bogged down with adoption stuff or filling orders for my handmade supplies shop for things that have long been designed (not that I'm complaining, mind you). I haven't gotten to actually design something in a few weeks.

I've been wanting to make a triple metal Jens Pind bracelet for a while. My Shaggy Loops bracelet was originally going to be a Jens Pind, but the aspect ratio was off just a touch, and Jens Pind is a very picky little weave. So picky, in fact, that it is apparently one of the hardest weaves to learn. But never fear, jewelry loving friends, for I have mastered it. I guess chain maille becomes me, because I actually found it fairly easy to learn. (Am I allowed to say that I'm dang proud of my mad chain maille skillz, yo? Cause I am. I have now mastered two of the so-called "hardest weaves". Go me! Woooo! I kick massive chain maille booty!)

(You do realize that I don't really say words like "mad skillz" and "yo" and "kick massive booty" and "fart in your general direction", right? It's all an online act. Sorry. It's true. In person I am quite eloquent and have mad speaking skillz, yo.)

(Stop laughing.)

(For real, Dustin. Stop laughing.)

My photo set up is packed away while my office is getting the new flooring, so these photos taken on my kitchen table (with a cool little wooden dish that came from Hawaii!) aren't the best.




Here is what I made today. Six gemstone pendants (from left to right, top row first: black water jasper, blue pearl, lapis lazuli, kiwi jasper, Russian charoite, and a wooden teardrop, all wrapped with sterling silver wire) and some mixed metal earrings. Copper flowers, hammered antiqued brass teardrops, and antiqued brass lotus flowers, all on sterling ear wires.




Oh, and just look at these little earrings! I did not make them. My parents brought them back from Maui (where they are handmade! Woo!) and gifted them to me (along with... *happy sigh*... handmade soap!! Do they love me or what?). These earrings are little sterling plumerias. I think they're just the most darling earrings ever, so I had to share.



What is your jewelry saying you to you these days? ;oP

Chaos

I named this piece "Chaos" because when it is being made, it is indeed an organized chaotic mess of rings until that last step when it all comes together into this gorgeous pendant. It's the kind of weave you're not sure you're doing right the whole time because surely it isn't supposed to look like that, but then all of a sudden, viola! (Yes, my blog pronounced "voila" properly in case you were wondering, thankyouverymuch.)




It is made with close to 100 copper rings, all hand cut and woven into this Oriental ball chain maille weave. A sterling silver box chain is threaded through the center, so it hangs oh so perfectly around the neck. The pendant is approximately 7/8" in diameter.

Do you love it? I think this weave is super cool. I see myself making it in brass and maybe even in sterling soon. Mixed metals would work well for it too.




Oooh, and I took these with my new lens. I didn't think I'd be able to use it at all with jewelry, but it doesn't do too badly. I have to move the tripod waaaay back for it to focus, so my next lens purchase will definitely be a macro (which is $$$$ so it might be a while!), but it surprised me that it sort of worked okay for this.

*Flutter, flutter* II

I'm sure some of you remember the butterfly necklace I entered into a contest early this year. I love butterflies. There's just something special about them. Maybe it's that they start life so ugly and end it so fantastically beautiful. Whatever it is, they always catch my eye.

The little guy I entered into the contest was very very much out of my box. I don't really do resin work. I just decided to give it a go because I had to work within a color palate and thought it would be an interesting way to get the bold colors needed. If you haven't noticed, I'm more of a minimalist metal maven, myself... with maybe a mite of multicolor morsels mixed in once in a blue moon. (Sorry. That was bad. Even I want to slap myself.)

So, enter little butterfly guy II. He's hand cut from solid copper with a sterling silver accent on a sterling silver chain. He's more my style. In fact, I sort of love him. I want to keep him and hold him and hug him and stare at him until the cows come home (and I don't have any cows, so this could take a while). But, I can't hold a flutterbye captive. He needs to flutter and flitter and fly. He also needs some little flutterbye earring buddies, which will arrive shortly.

Hopefully he and his little friends will all flutter and flitter and fly away to a new home really soon. *grin* Until then... enjoy!