I’m talented!

I say that tongue in cheek. No, I’m not referring to my jewelry creations or anything else artistic like that.  Unfortunately.  No, I’m referrring to the type of talent no one really wants – extreme clutziness!  Yes, I am a clutz.  It often leads to interesting and amusing situations.  I’ve learned over the years that its better to just laugh at myself and move on.  Last night was one of the harder nights to find a reason to laugh.

The day started off fantastic.  I had all these great ideas for expanding the business and projects that I wanted to work on.  I got lot of errands run too!  Then, in the late afternoon as I was coming home from grocery shopping, it happened.  I did the classic old lady move (note: I’m only 25).  I fell walking up a small set of stairs.  Not entirely sure how I managed that.  I remember the grocery bag banging against the step and throwing me off balance – but after that I went down so fast that its all rather a blur.

My right arm took the brunt of the impact.  It hurt!  We ended up going into ER because icing it wasn’t really reducing the pain.  Several hours, and x-rays, later the verdict came back.  “You may have broken your wrist, it’s kinda iffy, but because of the level of pain and one area of tenderness that we are always extra careful with, you get to wear cast-like splint for a week and then you need to go into your local doctor and get more x-rays.”

Oh joy.

Did I mention I’m in a craft fair on Saturday?

The good news is that I’m semi-ambidextrous so I should be able to do some jewlery making – like stringing necklaces.  Also, one of my best friends is coming up and doing the show with me and staying for the weekend.  She can help me with set up and carrying things.

Still – I’m rather talented eh?

Tired and Happy

I did my second farmers market today – and it was a raging success!  I’m really tired…but not as sore and tired as I was after the last one!  Last time we nearly got blown away.  It was really exhausting!  This time we were in a better location in the market AND it wasn’t anywhere near as windy.  Great combination!  I’m still sore from tear down and set up and everything – but I’m counting that as the good muscle building sore.  I hope…

I’m out of school now so I’m scrambling to do all those business related projects that I just didn’t have time for around homework and all that.  Yesterday I took a whole TON of photos so that my entire inventory had at least ONE photo per item.  I’m sore from that too because my photo set up is on the floor…need to get it up on a table >_>  I’m planning on working on a new inventory system that will be easier when I do fairs and markets and I’ll label the photos to go with that.  *whew*

PLUS – the Ellensburg First Annual Etsy Fair is this Saturday!  I have a ton to do to get readdy for that too.  I think I’m going to be going non-stop business wise all week Should be fun   I’ll relax a little more after the show is over.

One awesome challange for preparing for the show next week is that I sold a lot in today’s market!  I trippled my sales from what I did in my first market!  I think having professionally designed earring cards and necklace strips really helped to attract attention.  The new display’s my friends Dad made me helped a TON too.

The beautiful thing about making so many sales is that I can afford to buy several things for the shop that I’ve been wanting to get.  The overwhelming thing is that I have to make a whole much more for Saturday than I had originally invisioned!  I’ve already started in on that making earrings and such.

Have a great week you all!

Friday’s Featured Artist – PiecesOfMePendants!

Ok, first of all, I sincerely apologize for missing last weeks feature.  Vacation was way crazier than I anticipated!  As was the week leading up to it…  I’m back in the swing of things now though   Finals are over and I can catch up on the rest of life again!

This weeks artist – PiecesOfMePendants – is a shop I stumbled upon one day while browsing etsy.  I instantly fell in love with her scrabble tile pendants!  It was the first time I had encountered them and I just HAD to have some!  I quickly sent her a conversation asking if she would mind if I featured some of her pendants in my jewelry – and she agreed!  I was so excited!  I’ve had a lot of fun creating the necklaces to go with the pendants and I thought it would only be appropriate for me to interview this wonderful lady as one of my featured artists.  I hope you enjoy meeting Lisa as much as I have

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your story! What’s your real name, where did come up with your shop name, where are you located?

Where to begin, what to say? My name is Lisa and I live in London, Ontario, Canada, which is located about 2 hours from Detroit. For the past 10 years I’ve been doing accounting, which usually is among the least creative things one can do (unless one worked for Enron) and decided I wanted a change.

I’ve been doing a variety of crafts just for fun since I was a little girl and have always enjoyed the creativity involved so when a friend told me about Etsy I thought I’d try selling some of my creations online and it’s been a bigger success than I ever could have initially imagined.

2. What first got you started working with making scrabble pendants?

A bit of creative inspiration got me working with scrabble tile pendants. They’re easier to work with than dichroic/fused glass and allow for a wider range of design and expression.

3. Do you do any other crafts?

Over the years I’ve done a variety of crafts and creative things. Every Christmas for a number of years I’d make up elegant Christmas wreaths for friends and family and every once in a while would have people ask me to make one for them.

I love painting, mostly with oils, though I also do acrylic and watercolour painting as well. My favourite artists are Turner, Macke, Cezeanne, and other impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Sisley, etc.

4. Where do you find your inspiration?

This is perhaps one of the most difficult question for any artist to answer. I find creative energy in many of the things around me. Some of my pendants use high quality chiyogami and other art papers and I simply see a finished design in my head when I’m out looking for new supplies.

Others are my own designs. These designs are mostly experimentation; I start out with a rough idea and play with it until I have something I like. Often they’re simply a result of how I’m feeling at the time. I often listen to music while creating and I think I frequently draw inspiration from the lyrics and melody of song, which influences the design.

5. What are some of your favorite pieces you have up on etsy right now?

I tend to like the simpler, cleaner, more minimalist designs that I have. Among my favourites right now are Charmed, Green, Red Daisy, and Blue Tree but I also like the owl pendants as well; actually almost everyone does.

Charmed

Green

Red Daisy

Blue Tree

6. Where do you do your work?

I have a home studio that I work out of .

7. Tell the readers one random, fun, thing about yourself

I once had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ingong hills … oh wait that’s not my story but I kind of wish it was. Actually I love old movies and vintage/antique things. I like the history of things, knowing that they had a history before me and wonder who owned them and what they’re story is. I love that my pendants are part of that now. I’ve sold pendants all over the planet and love the idea that someone in Australia or Russia or Sweden, or Idaho is wearing one of my creations.

Here’s a few of my favorite pendants that she currently has for sale.  It was hard to pick – I wanted to start shopping!

This one is in honor of one of my best friends who said she LOVES it!

Believe it or not – I actually learned to type on a typewriter!

And this last one is in honor of another of my best friends who loves giraffes!

Ok – now a fun extra bit for this interview   Remember how I said that I made some jewelry using Lisa’s pendants?  Well – here they are!

Sorry – this one’s not for sale – It’s all MINE.

The story behind this is that my Grandfather is an immigrant from Cuba.

Lisa has a listing where she offers to make a pendant with a specific location.

Of course I had to pounce on it!

I’ve always been fascinated by other languages – so I thought it would be a lot of fun to use Chinese characters in some of my jewelry!  This one says “Wisdom.”

And this one says “Hope.”  I love the bright cats eyes beads I found for this one!

Remember those owl pendants mentioned earlier?  I loved them too!

In fact – I rather had to buy this one, my first business dealt with Owls.

Of course I couldn’t resist doing a purple necklace

And last but not least – who can resist Tinkerbell?

It’s a giveaway!

Thanks to cozysisters I’m in a giveaway showcase!  Go check it out – enter to win – and be sure to check back to her blog for other giveaways you can participate in!

Back – but really busy!

I’m back!!!  It was an insane trip (more will be posted in my other blog as time and energy allow), but I made it home safe and sound!  So much to do in the next few days with school and life and all – but I’m sure I’ll catch up eventually!

I have a couple of great new pieces that I can’t wait to photograph and share with you guys!  I worked some while talking with my family, some on the bus (very difficult!), AND I have some new beads and toys to play with!  Can you imagine how exciting that all is?  It’ll be a day or two before any of it gets up here though…finals are calling my name!

I’m continuing my vacation sale a couple more days in honor of the craziness of finals – be sure to check it out!

A wee bit of a delay…

So travel plans, being what travel plans usually are, have been much more hectic than expected.  This weeks feature will be a wee bit late.  I think I should have it by the end of the day tomorrow – but I definately won’t have it up in the morning.  Sorry for the delay folks!

Going on an Adventure!

That’s write folks – I’m going to be gone on a trip to LA for my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. I’m really excited! It’s going to be a packed weekend with lots of travel and lots of family time. I WILL be posting my Friday Featured Artist anyway – because I’m going to have it pre-set up so all I have to do is hit publish – but I’ll probably be pretty absent from the blogging and etsy world other than that. I am going to try to get on-line once a day to check messages and such – but who knows how successful that will be?

What does this translate into for my business? I’m doing a special sale! That’s right! Starting today and running a few days after my trip (I’m coming home to finals week) I’m going do to a special NO SHIPPING offer in my store.  PLUS, I’m going to have a rewards scale.  Here’s how it works.

Spend $10 get $2 off

Spend $20 get $5 off

Spend $35 get $7 off

Spend $50 get $10 off

I won’t be blogging much about my trip on here (unless of course I get some jewelry made ) so if you want more details check out my personal blog.

See you when I get back!

A villanelle

Ok – so I’m taking a creative writing class this summer. Our assignment for today was to write a poem on one of three formats.  I chose the villanelle – because it just formed the easiest in my head!  It has as a strict repetative pattern – as you shall see!  I’m posting it here because, well, it’s appropriate

I take my needle and thread, and string on a bead,
The pattern forms as my hands go flying,
I must create, it’s an obsessive need.

I pick up a new pattern and start to read,
I want to try it, I’m not lying,
I take my needle and thread, and string on a bead,

An idea forms in my head – a tiny seed,
“Make me!” its voice seems to be crying,
I must create, it’s an obsessive need.

“There’s other things to do,” the thought grows like a weed,
But to stop here would leave my fingers aching and crying,
I take my needle and thread, and string on a bead.

I pick up my text book and try to read,
But soon I realize there’s no use in trying,
I must create, it’s an obsessive need.

Whether it’s in my thought, or word, or deed,
It’s a compulsion there’s no use denying,
I take my needle and thread, and string on a bead.
I must create, it’s an obsessive need.

My Mother’s Influence

Growing up I spent many hours watching my mother cook and do other creative activities.  One thing she did over and over was say “Oh!  This looks great!  Especially if I change this and this…”  Just ask her, she rarely cooks a recipe exactly how its written and many of her crafting projects end up individualized as well!  I have inherited this trait from  my mother.  There are some craft projects and techniques where I end up following the exact pattern the first time, but I usually change at least the colors involved!

My mother-in-law has long term loaned me this book.

There are a lot of projects in here that I’ve been dying to try – but I’ve been trying REALLY hard to be a good girl and not spend the money on them.  Well – I realized the other day that for some of the projects I just needed the write diameter of wire – so I picked up a spool when I was buying some seed beads.  Last night, I sat down to create!

I was learning how to make a closed spiral.  Now none of these patterns are designed to be used in earrings, but when has that ever stopped me?  I saw these and I was instantly like “ooo…if I added some crystal and put it on an earring wire….”

Here’s the results :

Here’s the links to them in my shop.  Blue & Purple!

I also started playing around, just trying to get the feel for the wire, and came up with this!

Julys Featured Artist for EtsyBloggers – A Keeper’s Jackpot!

As I’ve mentioned in some of my recent posts – I’m now a member of the Etsy Bloggers Street Team!  One of the fun things that the team does is they have a few monthly blog theme’s that they ask us, the members, to particpate in.  Since I love to blog I’m more than happy to do so!  This is my first one   Every month the team will feature a different artist – and July is A Keeper’s Jackpot!

A Keeper’s Jackpot is a jewelry artist like myself – but she does the type of designs I aspire to do when I have more money for supplies!  I had a lot of fun browsing her shop

I’m always interested in why people chose the names they do, and what got them started, and this artist obligingly tells us right in her profile!  In her own words (copied from store profile): “A Keeper’s Jackpot is an anagram using the nicknames of my husband, myself, and our two cats. I got into beading after my sister gave me a handmade beaded necklace as a gift a couple years ago. I’ve expanded my interests to wire wrapping, wire crochet, and polymer clay. My newest endeavor is decoupage, so look for some pendants in the future! It has become a hobby, and hopefully a way to make a little money on the side.”

Being a fellow EtsyBlogger -she of course has her own blog!  Check it out

And now my favorite part of featuring an artist – showcasing their work!  Here’s a couple of my favorite pieces

Crocheted Pearl Necklace – I have NO CLUE how she makes this – but it’s gorgeous!

You have to check out the listing for this necklace!

A Mood Swing Jasper Necklace and Bracelet Set

Why? Well she created a new meaning for mood swing!  And it’s genius!

And of course I have to feature my favorite purple piece!

Peter Picked a Peck of Purple Pewter Seashells by the Seashore Choker

There are sooo many great pieces in her shop that it was hard to narrow it down to just a few to share with you guys!  I highly recommend you go check out her shop yourself to see the rest