Today in the Studio

There is nothing quite as exciting as getting something in the mail! Letters are the very best, but a close second is a box with art supplies.

A box arrived today from Rio Grande. I only placed the order a few days ago, and just paid for regular shipping, so it arrived super fast.

I ordered some new cabochons (red carnelian and green aventurine) some Sterling silver gallery bezels, and some pretty patterned wire for ring shanks.

Here's one of today's creations--

April's Resolutions (I'm a Little Bit Slow...)

I have been falling down on the job. The truth is, in a dream world I would just make art, and all the business and social aspects of my business would take care of themselves. And I'm not sure why that it--I am a social person and I like talking to people, but I've been diligently avoiding both blogging and selling my art.

One of my friends actually told me that she was worried about me turning into a hermit! I didn't drive much following the back surgery, and by the time I was completely off the vicodin, I was just out of practice at making the twenty minute drive down to town. It was no longer a habit in my life. Not good.

So one of my new April resolutions is that I will get out of the house at least once a week. I've had a couple of exciting things happen on my trips to town (more on that later), and I'm pretty sure I'm over that.

Another resolution is that I will try to post something new in my Etsy shop every day. When I started on Etsy in 2006, it was nowhere as ginormous as it is now. People could find me on Etsy. Now, even when I am posting regularly, I feel like I just get lost in the shuffle. I can't fix the enormity of Etsy, but I've really been working on posting every day. I work in the studio in the morning, bring things up to the house to take pictures at lunch, and edit and post in the afternoon or evening.

Finally, there's the blog. I am going to try to write every day, at least for awhile. If I don't do something EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I seem to quit doing it entirely.

How often do you post to your blog? I suppose I could write every day and only post two or three times a week, but I would definitely have to schedule it and have my phone remind me on days when I was supposed to post. (I'm fifty-one; I can't even remember an every day word like "plate.")

Here's the bracelet I made yesterday--lots of shades of purple with oxidized brass wire and findings.

P.S. I forgot, there's one more thing I'm going to do every day: comment on and visit other blogs. I got so much encouragement and inspiration and friendship from fellow bloggers, and I know I need to get that back into my life.

It Was a Most Excellent Day

Had my neighbor, Kathleen, over one day last week to look at my new work--mostly jewelry and my assemblage "Gilies" (more about those later).

She loved my stuff, and on Thursday I got an email from her at work--she's an interior designer, and she'd showed my Etsy site to the women she works with. They loved it, and she came over Friday morning to remind me again that they wanted her to bring some of my work in so they could see it in person and perhaps make some purchases.

So I spent a good part of Friday making sure things were priced. I took the stuff over to her house and thought about it a couple of times during the day on Saturday, wondering if I'd make any sales.

She came over after she got home from work on Saturday evening, and told me that she'd sold over $500 dollars worth of my merchandise!

Over. Five. Hundred. Dollars.

It truly was a most excellent day!

I'm Ba-a-ack

Things have been kind of hectic and discombobulated around here for the last six months or so, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of making (and selling) art.  I've posted some of my new metalwork in my etsy shop, along with some new paintings and some packages of vintage papers from 19th century books, and Katie reminded me that I need to start blogging again, as well as revamp my website... so there's lots to do (not to mention the two kids at home, the one kid in college, the hubby, and my 85-year-old dad, who lives with us now. Plus five dogs, six cats, six chickens, and the three horses that are boarding in our pasture. BUT NO GOATS!!! I knew there was a bright spot there somewhere! Some of my goat adventures are chronicled here and here and here and here)

Cold and cloudy here today. I finally dragged out the heater in the studio and it's happily heating right next to my legs. I never can get it what I would call warm in here during the winter, but it's a vast improvement over my old studio in the garage, so I can't complain.

Here's a picture of one of the jewelry pieces I've been making. I love that the image is from one of my collages!

Back to work--I haven't been out here as much as I'd like, so there's lots to choose from!

Some Jewelry Experiments

Beach glass charms

Finally getting the hang of soldering!

Ooooh a secret!

All rolled up in a soldered glass vial! The page is from a 1869 dictionary page, but I won't tell you what it says because--it's a secret!

Soldered Charms

Etched brass

Created the resist using a rubber stamp and solvent ink--I think the unique background texture is because the ink didn't completely cover the brass...

Etched Metal Sheet

Etched nickel-silver--first experiment with etching!

More from Asilomar

My first day's class was with Nina Bagley. I love her! She's a wonderful teacher with a dry sense of humor and loads of patience. We made tiny copper books that hang from a necklace, thus the name "booklace". The pages were small pieces of mica sandwiched around teeny tiny collages. My booklace seems to be a potent vessel of magic, and I know that sounds corny, but that's how I feel. Each page was a small collage that used pictures of my mom when she was a tiny girl. Maybe becauseI waited for four years after my mom died for my sister to share scans of these pictures with me--maybe because my mom is gone--who knows? But my booklace contains something very special.