Suzy's Basket

My Mom has a basket making friend named Suzy who shares knowledge and friendship with her. And my Mom shares knowledge with me.

Suzy has a collection of miniature baskets and I felt like adding to her collection so I made this little coiled basket as a gift for her.

It's only an 1.5" high by 1" wide, Really cute!!

I'm still adjusting to my life having my daughter home. It's hard to focus on jewelry right now. The living arrangements are working out very well so far. We pick up after each other and since we both do it, the house stays pretty clean. My daughter cooks us healthy food and grocery shops and I love that!

But it is a bit distracting having someone else in the house. We haven't found our routine yet.

TheAngstyArtist Anniversary

I started this blog just over a year ago. I set a goal to improve my wire skills for one year and blog about it.


So often when I start something new and unknown in my life, I suffer doubts and negative thinking that discourages me from applying myself. I have thoughts that say "You'll never be as good as so and so" "Why do you put so much time into this, you'll only be disappointed?" "You just don't have what it takes for this". "You don't have good style" "Your style will look stupid". "You're stupid".


My whole life I have been that way. I have gotten where I am today, mostly by ignoring these negative thoughts and having some guts to face my fears.


I had originally set a goal of one year in order to silence those negative thoughts. I told those negative thoughts that they could judge me in one year, that it's too early to make judgements when one is just starting out on a new adventure.


As the year has passed, I have become more fearless in embracing my own sense of style and trusting my own instincts. I'm more at peace with my creative self. My creative work has become more fulfilling. My skills have improved enormously.


This peace and creative flow did not come with out some low points. There were months or weeks of severe doubts and discouragement through out the year. Each low point ended with a sudden increase in creativity and also sudden improvement in skills. The lower the pit, the higher was the creative wave that followed it.


I hung in there. I'm proud of myself. I'm so happy with how this year has ended. I can look those negative judgemental voices in the eye and say "Well?" and they are silent.


My original goal last year, was to work on my skills for 2 years and see where I ended up. I find I want to carry on the original goal of 2 years. My first priority is still to continue to grow in my own nicely developing style and improve my wire skills. I want to make even more intricate and interesting wire work if I can.


Selling my work is still a secondary issue for me. Worries about money did come up from time to time throughout the year and I expect that will continue this year also. I do care about selling and will do what I can to improve sales, but marketing and selling is still a secondary goal and not top priority. You all know it's just so much more fun to make things without worry about money or what the customers will think! :))


But I do plan to start a Facebook page this year and make something exciting to give a way when I get that started. I am hoping that Facebook will encourage sales. Of course you will hear about it on my Blog when I do that.

Miniature Birdcage

Really busy at my house this week. My daughter has so much STUFF. We don't have a place for all her things in my tiny home and I am thinking up creative ways to store and organize.

My Mom has brought some basket projects for us to play with during her visit this week. We hope to learn new weaves, like Twining and Knotting. I want to try those weaves with wire after I learn them on a basket with her.

My Dad patiently endures 3 generations of women under one tiny roof!

This is an interesting free project which might interest my blog readers. It's a miniature birdcage woven from wire and thread. I don't think you have to use the thread at all to make it. Just use wire and make a pendant!
http://miniatures.about.com/od/weavingandbaskets/ss/whitebirdcage.htm

Morning Coffee

Saturday morning, my daughter is traveling home, due to arrive middle of the night or tomorrow sometime. The house is as clean as it's going to get before company arrives later this week.


The cat is fed and the coffee brewed. My pajama'd self drags coffee, wire and cutters back into bed with me to drink and think in quiet. And just to 'see what will happen' with the wire.
This basket weave coiled bead pendant is what happened:


Labradorite, black garnet, and fine silver:





Normally I use a 'lazy stitch' to connect my coils, but this time I tried the figure eight method. The figure eight stitch caused my wire to want to gap open where the stitch was made, rather than stay tightly coiled. But I still like it:)

I also tried some new tricks in my coiling inspired by Debora Muhl. A basket artist who uses coiling extensively. I could stare at this woman's gallery for hours!! Enjoy! http://www.deboramuhl.com/

Cleaning Up The Desk

Some pics of designs that never made it off my desk.

This heart was first of all, a failed cage design. Then it was turned into a pendant. After it was oxidized, the light blue sapphires didn't hold their color as well and I lost interested in it. I couldn't figure out how to finish it into a necklace either, so for now it just sits here with no love.




This trinket box was done recently, as an experiment in messy wire work. It is the exact same coiling weave that I always use, but done in an erratic and loose fashion. Doing it like this had the box completed very quickly.

One thing I love about this weave is that it is extremely strong. Even done messily, the box has a great deal of strength. You can drop it on the ground with no concern. Thrust it into the pocket of a pair of jeans and not worry about damaging it.

I don't know what I think about messy weaving. Many wire and fiber artists, far better than myself, use very messy and sloppy wire weaves. People seem to love it and it is considered art. I love looking at their messy weaves and find their work inspiring, but if I make a messy weave like that I feel horrified.

I think of this box as not as nice as my other work, and possibly a worthless trinket. But this messy box is just as good as the messy woven wire work that famous people sell and make books about. I'm thinking these strange and confusing thoughts about this box;)



This woman weaves beautifully with wire. I would really like to have some of her skill.

http://www.marilynmoore.net/gallery.htm

Sterling Iolite Necklace

I managed to get another trinket box set into a necklace. It's very hard for me to photograph long necklaces or show them off well in my light box. I didn't really do it justice.

It's really kind of a sexy necklace. If a sexy lady comes by my house, I'll be sure to show you what it looks like on:)

My daughter is coming home from college in a week to live with me and continue college here in town, where it's cheaper:) So I am cleaning up the back bedroom so she can at least sleep upon arrival.

My parents are visiting right behind her arrival and I have to remember how to cook and use a kitchen properly, not for soldering, oxidizing, pickling, and so forth:)

Oh yeah, and the kitchen table needs to be used for eating, not the pile of beaded wire mess it is currently:)

The next week or two will be slow and dull on my blog. However, I still have tons of weaving ideas I am eager to try out. I would love to make some earrings using some of the fringes I have been making for necklaces. June is also the one year anniversary of this blog and I want to talk about that.

I'll be back to it all as soon as I can.