Stick Pins

I've been looking at art nouveau jewelry online, and I'm loving the sweeping curvy lines mixed with tiny details of leaves, insects or animals.
This stick pin is inspired by this art nouveau hair comb http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/gallery/17nouveau?pg=4

The stick pin was so much fun to make! They can be as detailed or as simple as I feel like and they don't take all day to make either.

I made a second one and practiced doing a free form design. I'm not confident doing free form playful styles, but I really like how it turned out.

These will go into my Etsy Shop this weekend. It's way over due for me to get my shop in order!

Still caging..

Still practicing new skills. This charoite stone is in there real good!

Here is the back.

Cages

When I was 10 years old, I painted my first piece of white ceramic. It was a little kitty about 4 inches tall and I had big plans for her! When I saw how awful my creation looked compared to what I had in my head I was devastated and inconsolable.

In time I learned to drag a nice bead of paint along with my brush and I painted many more ceramics at a later date, some of them I still have.

Now - I am finally matured and no longer have this overly dramatic response to failures! Hehe, just kidding! Ok, I don't fall apart over the first failed attempt...but if I apply myself to learn something and practice it over and over and still don't get results, a deep and unshakeable discouragement tends to set into my soul.

I've been going through this discouragement for several weeks now. When I sit to work with the wire, the smallest amount of discouragement or frustration is too much for me and I walk away. So nothing is getting done:(

So last night I came home and ate Pop Tarts for dinner. For those who don't know what Pop Tarts are, it is a breakfast pastry, with icing and fruit filling, warmed in the toaster. NOT a healthy dinner choice, or a healthy breakfast choice either!

Than I sat on the couch with some wire and said to myself "I think I will try to cage something". And I said back "Yeah right, for about 10 minutes you will".

Caging undrilled stones is my current nemesis. I worked at it some 6 months ago. And than several weeks ago I spent an entire week struggling with cages and had only yucky twisted wire for the trash bin at the end of that struggle.

So it was a big surprise to me that I actually made a tolerable cage and stuck with it for several hours. It has some flaws in the wrap, but I know I can smooth out my wrapping next time around:)

This cage was partially influenced by this Iza Malzcyk design http://www.izamalczyk.com/en/gallery-346-2295.html and also by researching through Dawn Blairs cages in order to understand the basics and beyond http://www.dawnblairjewelry.com/

Copper Wire Jeweler Magazine Issue 2 is Out

Gorgeous second issue of CWJ magazine is out today. You can see my kinda cool/monster project (still undecided) in the issue, along with tons of gorgeous jewelry and some useful articles too!

http://copperwirejewelers.ning.com/

Here is a larger picture of it in order to see more details;)

Reworked Necklace

I reworked it;)

Blah Blah Blah!!

I've been quite unenthusiastic about all my jewelry creations recently and I have had nothing exciting to post about. Blah, blah , blah is my mood!

On my mind has been the subject of 'money and jewelry'. How to sell it? Who to sell it to? I have often wished to have both high and low end jewelry lines. But having enough time for both is a problem.

It's not uncommon for friends to recommend ideas for selling, and last week I decided to invest some time into one of the those ideas. The idea was to have all the letters of the alphabet offered as pins. They were to be in a certain price range. They had to take only so long to make. They also had to be attractive and something I myself would wear.

Well so far I have spent 8 hours working on the alphabet and experimenting and I have these awful looking pins to show for it. So much for that idea for now!

I did make this necklace and earring set. It is sort of OK. But the two amethyst drops on the sides of the necklace seem unfinished to me and I think I will rework it.




Then I started these earrings and decided I didn't like them half way through, or at least I don't like them in copper!




When it comes to jewelry lately, I'm moody, critical and easily frustrated. I hear my self talk being about more what I 'should' be doing with my jewelry, rather than just letting myself 'be'.


Today I finally got my taxes completed and mailed out. Hopefully my spirit will throw off all this dead weight soon and I'll fly into Spring! I've never waited this late to get taxes done before, but they were more complicated this year.

Yesterday I attended a business lunch, and on the way into the restaurant I walked by a store called 'Unique Handmade Jewelry". I didn't think any of the jewelry was nearly as nice as mine. I am going to go back soon and talk to the owner about consignment and see how the store is managed. Maybe that will be something new to try so people can see my work.