And The Winner Is....

Happy Spring, everyone!

The winner of my Spring Bling contest is:

Nancy Thompson!

(And, my sympathies go out to Anne and Mitzi, who tried unsuccessfully to stuff the ballot box. The odds were definitely in their favor.)

Nancy: please email me your snail mail address and I'll send the earrings right out to you. There's a link in the sidebar to the right. Congratulations!

I'm sorry I'm posting this late in the morning, but all of my electronics are acting wonky today. I'll be so glad when Mercury goes direct. Two more weeks....

Messy but Productive

If you remember, in a previous post, I said that I was going to stockpile pieces ready to be fired, so that I can include them each week when I fire student work and save wear an tear on my kiln. This is what I've done in the last couple of weeks. Our first two weeks of class we work with copper, so I guess I'd better put the silver away and make some more copper pieces. A new order of CopprClay arrived on Friday.

Mercury is retrograde, so of course I've been having problems with this 6-year-old laptop. *Knock wood!* It looks like I might be needing to replace it soon, which is a total bummer both financially and getting a new one set up the way I like it. Let's hope that it's only the planets affecting this poor thing, but lately my mantra is "BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP!"

It took me awhile, but I think I've got everything packed and ready to take to Main Street Gallery in Blowing Rock (our other co-op gallery) tomorrow. We're going to open for the season on Thursday and things need to be cleaned and arranged after being closed all winter. We have a member meeting that afternoon and a Hands Gallery member meeting that night so it will be a busy day. At least I'll only have to drive to town once.

Don't forget to make a comment on any blog post to win these earrings:

I've decided that the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. So, keep 'em coming! I love hearing from everyone, anyway.

Have a good week!

Friday Foto 3/9 and GIVEAWAY!

I haven't done this in awhile and I'm feeling like spreading a little love. I'll be giving away the earrings pictured above in a contest I'm calling Spring Bling! They're made from fine silver (metal clay) and have sterling silver ear wires. Even though we haven't had a bad winter, I'm still ready for warm breezes through open windows, birds chirping, and flowers blooming. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on any blog post between now and the day of the Vernal Equinox. Tell me what your favorite season of the year is and why. I'll draw a random name on the morning of March 20. Good luck!

A Bit of a Disappointment

The hype started at the end of last week: A big snow storm was coming. Meteorologists agreed that it would all depend on timing of moisture and cold air, but we were all getting excited by it. Our local economy depends on the ski slopes and we haven't had much natural snow this winter. With it coming on a holiday weekend it could be a really good thing if we got the 10 inches that was possible. Personally, I just wanted to sip hot chocolate or tea and watch it come down. I felt fortunate that I didn't have to go anywhere. 

This morning I woke to only about three or four inches, and as soon as the sun hit the snow in the trees, it looked like a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful and these pictures don't compare to the real thing. It's about 45 degrees this afternoon, so it's nearly gone now.



This is "get with it" time for me. I sure have enjoyed my hibernation, but it's time to cross stuff off the list and get ready for a new season. (And time to PUT DOWN Angry Birds!!) I have a new class starting in about a month and I want to re-design it so that it flows better and we can do a second week with the more inexpensive copper clay before progressing to the outrageously expensive silver clay. Taxes need to be completed. Main Street Gallery in Blowing Rock will be opening for the season soon. Lots to do and I'm actually looking forward to doing all of it.

While thinking about the changes I want to make to the class I had a brainstorm (did you hear the thunder where you are?). My repertoire of jewelry consists of things that need to be fired under vastly different conditions. Copper needs to go in a firing pan filled with carbon. Silver containing glass has to be fired at a lower temperature, etc. Since I need to fire my kiln every week for student's work (the University STILL will not buy me a kiln, but that's a whole 'nother subject), I like to include as much of my own work as possible. Call me crazy, but I just like to fire a full kiln rather than an empty one. Sometimes two or three shelves full. My idea is to make things and get them to the point that they're ready to be fired, then store them in flat snap-top dishes until the appropriate firing schedule comes around. Then I'm not scrambling and trying to fill a kiln in a week, pushing the firing to the end of the week. That makes me nervous because what if something happened to the kiln? (God forbid!) It just amazes me sometimes that I can still come up with a brilliant idea!



Friday Foto 2/3, Miscellaneous

• This is to remind us all of what it looked like in February of last year. Yesterday was Groundhog Day and it doesn't really matter if the rodent saw his shadow or not. If we get six more weeks of winter like we've had so far, it's fine with me! We've had a few little snows, none more than 3", and none recently. Both last winter and the year before I was constantly checking the weather reports and comparing with my schedule. It's been nice knowing that I can get out any time I want to!
• If you've been reading for awhile, you know that I've been on sabattical from jewelry making since the beginning of the year, and that's been just what I needed. I'm enjoying "piddling" (Which I read in this month's Southern Living Magazine is a cause well worth a lifetime of study.) and not feeling pushed to do anything that I don't want to do. It's described as "The act of passing time, without waste or regret". All the art supplies have been living on the dining room table and I've been dabbling with that whenever I feel like it. I don't have anything to show for it, as most of what I do is Art Journaling and therefore I'm not willing to share. However, I do have a large blank canvas that's been taunting me for some time, and I may start laying paint on it any day now. I'll share when/if that's ever done.
• The yearly house/studio purge has been going well. I have two closets and most of the studio sorted. I got rid of lots of stuff - some to Goodwill, some to other people and quite a bit to the dump. I finally went through my Mother's jewelry box and decided to sell some of her pieces. I put all of her Wedgwood jewelry up in my Etsy Shop and sold some gold pieces at a local gold buyer for a very good price. This is all to help finance my trip to the PMC Conference in Cincinnati next June where I'm looking forward to meeting some of my "imaginary" friends in person!
• I do have jewelry ideas that are knocking at the edges of my brain trying to get out and I've sketched some so that they don't get forgotten. I don't think it will be too long before I'm back to working with some metal because I'm starting to get excited by that prospect instead of thinking of it as "work" or a "chore". This is good.
• The next big thing to work on is taxes. Ugh. Not my favorite thing, but I can usually have everything ready to go to the accountant in just a few days once I get going. I just need to move all the paints and brushes off the dining room table first... or maybe just bring in another table temporarily?

Whatever's going on in your world this week, I hope you have a good one and I'll be here just piddling along!

New Work, New Gallery!

I delivered some new work to Artwalk Gallery here in Boone today and we're going to see if this works for both of us. These pieces are different than anything I have in other places, so that they can have an exclusive product.

These are made from pieces of glass that have been tumbled in the sea. They've been wrapped in silver metal clay and fired in the kiln. Because there's no way to tell what type of glass it is or where it came from, there's no telling what it will look like after it's been heated to high temperatures and has been fumed by the silver. Opening the kiln is like Christmas morning! Then I drill holes in them, add a wire wrapped bail, some beads and a black rubber cord. Voila!

Each one is unique because each piece of glass is different. I try to use different beads on each one and add a few hand made silver charms.

One reason that I decided to create a whole new line of jewelry for this gallery is that it's right up the street from Hands Gallery, one of the co-op galleries that I belong to. I didn't want there to be any competition or comparison. It also stretched me a bit, which is always uncomfortable, but well worth it. I'm pleased with what I came up with and I hope Artwalk's customers are, too.

Black Friday Foto (Edited)

Click here to go directly to the listing for this necklace.

Jumping on the shopping bandwagon, here. This piece is available in my Etsy Shop and you can get a 10% discount if you enter the coupon code BLOGREADER. Sorry! This one has sold, but there are a lot more new listings! And the coupon code works on any of them.

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and got to spend time with friends and/or family. Mine was quiet. I went to a buffet restaurant with a friend and ate way too much, but that's part of the holiday experience, right? I'll be nibbling on baby carrots today while I work at Hands Gallery. I hope that people will shop in our small co-op today instead of the big box stores! Happy holiday weekend to you.

Gem Show Goodies

I drove down to Asheville yesterday to the gem show at the civic center. One of only a few opportunities I have each year to buy supplies in person versus through a catalog. It's time to stock up so that I have enough supplies this winter, when I produce most of my work.

I bought a lot of silver chain. Some by the foot and some finished snake and rope chains. I was extremely low on chain due to the high silver prices recently, but it's come down a little in the last few weeks and I was desperate for chain. That's an expensive pile of loot you're looking at!

Which makes this pile of copper things I bought all that much more appealing. I've been increasing my copper stock recently since people seem to be a little more interested in purchasing copper jewelry than they used to be. I've been enjoying working with this rich, warm metal more, too. I made several things from copper clay during the first two weeks of my recently finished class, as I had to fire student copper pieces anyway. I've also done some things with 16 gauge wire that I'll show you soon.

I also got this little pile of beads. From top to bottom, some lapis, rainbow moonstone, some gorgeous faceted aquamarine and some pearls. I just wasn't into buying many beads after I spent so much money on metal.

Now that shows are over and my schedule has eased up a little I'm starting to think about next month. I'll be gone for about half of November and, since I'm mostly a hermit, there's a lot of planning to do around that. Again, more on that coming up, so stay tuned.

More Miscellaneous Stuff

• I'm continuing to clean out the studio and list things at bargain prices in my Etsy Shop. I have so many things there now that I realize I should have opened a separate shop for this stuff. Oh well. If they don't sell by time to renew the listing I'll take them down. It will be obvious by then that no one wants them. I can always scrap the silver.
• I had to do an emergency house cleaning yesterday morning. I had asked a friend of mine to give me an estimate on pressure washing my house and sealing all the wood and his wife called to say they were coming over so he could look at things. If it was just an ordinary contractor I wouldn't even let him inside the house. But these are friends and I couldn't let them see how I normally live! That's OK - my sister is coming to visit and I would have had to do it eventually anyway. It's not that I live in squalor or anything, but housecleaning is not at the top of my list of things to do. It's usually just me around here, so who cares?
• I've actually spent a little time in my studio over the past week. (Gasp!) I've had a couple of ideas I want to try out and sales in the co-op galleries have finally started to pick up for the season. I realized that I have a "mini show" next month, then rather large ones in September and October. Better crack that whip and get back to work. 
• My garden is getting ready to burst into all it's beautiful awesomeness. Too bad I haven't felt like keeping up with it this spring because the weeds are pretty impressive, too. There's so much that needs to be dug and divided and I just don't have the energy for it. We've had a rain storm nearly every day for the past month, so everything is lush and green and gorgeous. THIS is why I endure the harsh winters here!
• My hives are still around for no reason. They get better, then they get worse. Today they're pretty bad and I feel a little sick. It may be time to check out a local homeopathic practitioner. It's about the only thing I haven't tried yet.
• It seems like I've had to deal with a lot of idiots giving me the run around lately. It makes me feel like an old curmudgeon. I don't have a lot of patience, especially because this is an issue that's been hanging around for several years. Every time I think it's resolved it rears its ugly head again. So frustrating.

Well, that's about all the news from the lane. I hear thunder in the distance so I'd better get this posted and unplug the computer. What have you been up to?

Listed So Far

Here's some of what I've put in the shop so far. (I just realized that the Etsy Mini above will change every time I add a new item! How cool is that?) Click on any item to be taken directly to the listing. I hate that it takes so long to list each one! I have so many more to go. Keep watching!

The Great Studio Clean Out and Stash Purge

I got up early this morning and started going through boxes and drawers in my studio. I'm really excited about this and I found SO MANY things that I'm going to put in my shop to share with you. So far I've found and cataloged nearly 50 items that will be included - some of them individually and some in groups - and I'm not done yet. A small sample is shown above, just to get you started. It was raining this morning and I had to wait for some light before I could take photos. I'll start listing them tonight and continue until they're all up there. I created a new Shop Section called "Components, Studio Stash" and everything will be there. There will be something for everyone - pieces and parts for those that want to make their own jewelry as well as some finished jewelry and pendants that you can put on your own chain or cord. And, you won't believe the bargains! Let's get this party started!

Etsy Sale!!

I just finished uploading the last of the sale items into my Etsy Shop. Lots of goodies, lots of bargains, so check it out.

It's time to let go of some of these and let them find good homes. It's time to make some money so I can buy more metal clay and make new things. These pieces have been a burden on my inventory for too long now and I need to clean house so that I can let my creativity flow without my inner voice saying "you already have enough inventory". Help me out, won't you?

Click here to go directly to my shop, or click on the scrolling widget to the right if you see one that you like.

Etsy Shop Overhaul

I've had Google Analytics going on my Etsy Shop for a couple of weeks, so I can see who, and when people are visiting. And perhaps get a glimpse of why they go there, so I can hopefully keep doing things that will attract customers. I'm a little bit of a data freak, so it's interesting to see all the tidbits of traffic on the site. So far, I've had visitors from the following countries: Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Poland, Austrailia, France, South Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, Finalnd, Romania, Italy, Chile, Russia and, of course, the United States. WOW! That alone makes the geekiness of Google Analytics interesting to me. I check it each day and when a new country lights up on the map I think about world domination... Some of the other data is not too helpful yet, like "Return  Visitors". It makes me wonder how many of those return visitors are ME. I've been tweaking some of the item descriptions and have been on and off the website several times. But they also show me "Absolute Unique Visitors" and that shows a better picture. Pie charts and bar charts and graphs, OH MY!

Knotted necklace of black beads on white thread.

I'm preparing for a complete overhaul of the shop. The necklaces made of glass beads knotted on silk thread will be taken off. I put them up there about a year ago because many of my in-person customers wanted a place to buy them online. Since then I've only sold one, so, sorry folks.  I think they take attention away from my silver jewelry. (And, I'm getting really tired of making them. I make them in 8 colors, 3 sizes, on either black or white thread, so that's 48 different combinations.) If you're a glass beads on silk thread customer you'll just have to get them from me at one of my shows or at Hands Gallery or Main Street Gallery. Or, you can contact me directly to purchase them. (See my contact information to the right.)

As part of this overhaul there will be a big sale going on. Some of the things that are already in the Sale Items secion of my shop will be marked down further and many current listings will be reduced and added to that section.  Starting next month, just in time for Mother's Day and Graduation!