girlinworld

Cleaning Out the Attic...Cuffs Rock!

It is time to brush the dust off my cuffs so-to-speak, and bring them back into the mix. I must admit, I have let my cuffs wither away into the background. For one, they take so long to make, that I haven't had time to make any new ones. And two, I've been so hyped up about working with metal and learning new things, that I've let go of the weaving for a while in order to put my time into the metal. I happen to love my cuffs, so it wasn't my intention to let them fade away. I decided to re-photograph them to really make the stand out. With all the colors in them, initially I had to decide whether to use a light background or a dark background to really make those colors pop. I took some photos of them against both light and dark, and the dark background made a huge difference! The colors just go POW! The only problem is, now my shop is all helter-skelter, with light backgrounds, dark backgrounds, organic backgrounds, clean backgrounds. Yep, in a state of disarray, kind of like the shop owner, so I guess it's consistent. Anyway, back to the real point of this subject - my cuffs are back in action! Now I just need people to realize how freakin' awesome they are, and not just cuz I made them, but because cuffs are just plain cool! I love them! I love wide cuffs, skinny cuffs, skinny-mini cuffs, and all cuffs in between. I like to mix them with skinny bangles, and I love to wear a bunch of skinny cuffs at a time. I am so excited, I think I am going to go make one right now!

Tap Tap Tap....Repeat 5,000 times

Hurry up already, would you supplies?! I've been tapping my fingers for 4 days now, and according to UPS tracking, I've got another 3 days to go (or 15,000 more taps). I've got my new store all set up and now I want to fill it with goodies. I ordered a bunch more secret potions/chemicals to cook up all kinds of amazing colors and I can't waaaaaait to get them in. Yes, I am growing very impatient. I think about this poor gorilla, sitting around all day in a zoo, waiting for something to happen and then I don't feel I've got it so bad, because at least I am free to wander.

Painted Metal

I have really been loving using patinas lately. I love variety and I don't like to be limited to one style in my jewelry, because my mood changes right along with the weather . Some days I want to work strictly with silver (sterling or fine), some days I like to add glass or stones to designs, and other days I want to experiment with colorful patinas, on brass or copper. I've found that I want to photograph my "patina pieces" against bold, bright backdrops, and for all my other pieces, I tend to like a toned-down or neutral backdrop. At the same time, I also want the overall look of my store to have an ambiance that suits the jewelry well. With the different types of background for my photos, I thought my original store may become disjointed, so to avoid that I opened a second store called Painted Metal, where I could go bold, colorful, and crazy photographing my patina pieces, without worrying about those photos not really "going with the flow" of the rest of my store. I would really love to showcase the patina pieces on their own! I've had lots of fun getting this store together and I love the ambiance of it.

Living in Florida

 
I grew up in Western New York, and moved to Florida in 1995. I still feel like I am on an eternal vacation here. I really think that is because I used to come to Florida growing up for summer vacations, so I associate Florida with vacation. There are so many things I love about Florida, and one of those things is that every time the space shuttle goes up, I can walk right outside my door and see it going up. Kennedy Space center is 37 miles from me. I can also hear the awesome sonic boom upon its return, as it comes back into the atmosphere! Yesterday, I didn't realize the shuttle was going up, until I walked outside to my car, preparing to leave, and saw everyone standing in the streets with their eyes skyward. I had my camera on me so I snapped a shot of it. I was able to see the shuttle with my own eyes, but by the time I pulled out my camera, it had disappeared into the distance and all that was left was the trail of smoke.

Peek at Petra process

Hi there...thought I'd share a few photos of designs as they are in progress! These are a pair of earrings in the Petra collection that I worked on today. My extremely abridged account of the process I use to make these is as follows: after a rough sketch on paper, I draw my petal shapes onto a sheet of sterling with a scribe, then I use my trusty jeweler's saw to cut out the shapes. Next, I fine-tune the pieces, adding the lines, filing and smoothing the edges, doming the shapes, and then I solder my petals to hand-formed hoops. I clean up the pieces some more, add some earwires, oxidize the metal, lightly sand it, clean it up some more and then polish it. And finally, I photograph them for all to see!

Gypsy Girl

I reeeeaaaally love this necklace. I found a bunch of these ceramic beads in a bead shop in Texas, five years ago. I was visiting my mother, and of course I have to hunt down all bead shops within a 30 mile radius of all places I visit. I found quite a few in Houston. The shop that I found these in, had a gigantic wooden barrel just full of these handmade ceramic beads, and EVERY bead was unique. I went crazy. I had no idea how I would use them, but still felt the need to scarf up as many as I could, if only just to keep them around to look at for five years!

Front page!

This is actually the first time that I, myself, found my jewelry on the front page of Etsy. In the past, someone usually ends up sending me a message telling me that it is on the front page! : )

Loving Patinas

I love surprises and I love experiments, so I suppose that's why I love painting with patinas so much. Like Forrest's mama always said, "you never know what yer gonna get." On this particular pair of earrings I cut out my shapes and then did some funky things to the edges, and hammered the metal to give some texture. Once I cleaned the metal, I painted on a layer of green patina and then put the earrings outside in the sun to dry - usually I don't use the sun when drying, I am sure the sun had something to do with the neat effect I got on these. After the first layer dried I painted a few more layers, letting them dry in the sun again in between each layer. I love these earrings....just had to make myself a pair! I named these "Abandoned." You can find them in my shop.

Find my jewelry here soon!

I am very excited to be creating a new collection for Moca Shop, "a high-end online retailer dedicated to unique, organic - often, one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories." Please stop by this fantastic store and check out some of the work from some very talented artist/designers. You can read about some of the artists, including myself here.

Inspiring Grounds

Okay, I haven't written in a while, but it's only because I've been busy. Ha! It seems that is my eternal excuse. But reaaaalllly, I have been. I've been taking a class on Saturdays, which takes up a better part of my Saturday, but I absolutely love it. I love it so much that I've reenlisted. Yep, signed up for another, which I will begin next week. The time and day of the class is perfect. It starts at 10 am and goes 'til 2 pm. There is nothing like waking up on a beautiful, sunny Saturday (yeah, the sun is usually always shining down here - which is why I moved here) and going to class to learn more about something I love to do, and to work with interesting people that I meet along the way. It really helps that the place where I take classes, Maitland Art Center, happens to be an extremely breathtaking place. I brought my camera along one day and thought I'd share some photos of the place. I've recently learned a bit of history about the place which makes it all the more interesting to me. It is a historic site, named so by the National Register of Historic Places, which just means that it is a place deemed worthy of preservation. It was founded as an Art Colony in 1938 and the architecture of the entire site is worth seeing. If you want to read more about the center, check it out. Here are some photos! The place is very inspiring.

Main entrance of the Art Center. The entire Center is actually on both sides of the brick road you see. Across the brick road from the main entrance is where they hold wedding ceremonies and such.

Here is the building for my metalsmithing class. It is a tiny little building - reminds me of the old school houses. Each class has it's own little building.

Inside my classroom:

Working on my ring:

Here is the Sculpture classroom:

I just liked the trees here (too bad that truck is in the picture). This is the other side of the brick road, where the wedding ceremonies take place: