Final Words

  What shall I say to you? You wonder where I've been and what I have been doing I bet. And, just where do things stand today?

  I remember when this blog had only 15 followers for the first 1.5 years. A dead blog accept for me chugging away and trying to improve myself:) Then I started to grow in my wirework and people were excited. I was excited too!

  I remember why I started this blog. I wanted to write a blog that I would want to read. I've always been the type who would love to read someones diary. After they died of course;) What did they really think in their heart of hearts?

  I wanted to write a blog that would encourage others and build them up and give them hope for success. The way I wished other people's blogs would do for me. 

  Have you ever seen someones work and than felt hopeless afterwards? Like you could never be that good? That pretty? That smart? That talented? I never wanted my blog to ever make you feel that way... I hope it never did. If for any reason it did... be sure and go back to my first posts and have a look...

  I've dedicated myself to wire and I have suffered A LOT of frustration in learning. If you are frustrated too, it means you are on the right path. Congratulations your on the same road many other wireworkers have walked. Even this last month I have made some designs that displeased me and left me empty, confused or lost.

  If you were to look at the work of any artist over a long period, you will see some things you don't like. Some poor designs, some failed projects, some weird stuff.

 What these people do is they 'MAKE STUFF'. And after that they make 'MORE STUFF'. And in all that making something starts to happen. You find what you love and your own vision grows. Inspiration can catch you on fire and carry you to great heights. And when it doesn't, then you are making more stuff while you wait for it to return. Don't be afraid to make bad stuff. And don't be afraid to go the extra mile and do your best work. Both ends of the spectrum belong to you.

-----------------------------------------

  Like the post says...these are my final words for now. I love being a part of the online wire community. My heart wants to be back sharing with you all again and being active online, teaching, sharing and inspiring each other.

  My personal life and work in engineering is boring and drab to me compared to the breathlessness of wire. But I feel my responsibilities need me to be more devoted to them right now.

  I am still working wire and am committed to that, but it's going more slowly as I rethink my priorities and wonder about my future path.

  If am able to come back it won't be through this blog, but some new chapter completely.

  You can find me on Facebook. I will post there when I can.

Reflection

  Dear Friends,

  I need a change. I'm ready for a new life adventure. The original description of this blog  "The journey of one Angsty Artist, struggling to find her identity, her name and her own style"; no longer rings true for me.

  I'm questioning what more I have to say or give to the blogging community. I'm wondering what sort of new adventure I can get excited about going forward.

  The choices I've made for the last 3 years have been good for me. But, those same choices are not what is best for me going forward another year or 3.

  I'm going to take a big step back and allow some room for reflection in my life and remember what it was like to live a blogless life:)

  All of you readers have meant so much to me. Your encouragement and energy and excitement for my work has been an enormous force in getting me this far. I will miss you all terribly. Even you lurkers who faithfully read but don't comment are precious to me and have helped make this blog exciting.

  I'm not going to post again until mid June which is the 3 year anniversary of this blog. At that time I will either say goodbye or I will have found a fresh blogging voice.

  This doesn't mean I am quitting wire. If I post my work online it will be on my Facebook or my Flickr. Maybe I will work on my etsy shop. You can still find me one of those places.

  It's tempting to be sad about the loss of something that has become a regular part of my life and for some of you and my family it is also a regular part of your lives. My family can call me instead.

  For the rest of you, be brave and make something wonderful! Look inside yourselves and pull out what you find, draw it in wire. Express yourselves wildly, crazily, and beautifully. You don't have to be self confident, you don't have to be fearless, just be brave!!

- Miss Angsty

Some Inspirations

  Friends, Ive been terribly unproductive and even downright lazy about making things, But, that can't last forever right? It never does!!

  Here are a couple of cool things to look at until I wander back..

A wire starfish with cool air plants!!
http://missmegansullivan.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/things-i-cant-make-wire-art-by-carol-bellamy-air-plant-garden-tutorial/

Just in time for Easter, an adorable wire bunny with egg:)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrradionica/6899275502/in/contacts/

Oceana

 
  It's very freeing to my mind to go into my work space and know in advance what I am to be working on. Anything Oceana! All sorts of materials from high to low end and techniques can be used as long as they all follow the ocean theme. It's really quite fun to explore just how many ways I can express our bountiful seas.

Sterling and fine silver, pearls, hematite, and silk

   This necklace uses bronze wire purchased from Nancy Wickman's etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/wickwirejewelry?ref=pr_shop_more  This is terrific wire and the photo doesn't do it justice. It's everything I ever wished brass would be but wasn't. It's very warmly toned and when left unoxidized has the appearance of gold. When heavily oxidized it turns a deep rich brown rather than black. What you see here is an oxidized version that has been polished with steel wool and tumbled.

   It's pleasurable to work with too, more malleable than brass but stronger than copper. It behaves well and does what it's told.

   I captured a glass marble to give the appearance of a glass float from the ocean. The necklace consists of bronze, glass marble, pearl, amethyst, and silk

  The only problem I am having is that I like everything I'm making and want to keep it all:)

Wire Starfish

  I've noticed something new happening in my 'design mind'. I've noticed that many elements I once considered separate ideas are beginning to flow together into one design pool. For example, architectural forms mixing with floral work. The work I did with Crayon Designs (mixing all sorts of materials together) http://www.theangstyartist.blogspot.com/2011/09/crayon-designs.html is now getting mixed with architectural forms and the ocean theme, as seen in the above necklace. It's not something I ever planned, it just seems to be happening on it's own. It's really neat to see these elements mixing and I'm excited about what I might produce in the near future.

  Above necklace is agate, vintage glass, millifiori, steel, seed beads, coral and hemp

  Another change for me, is that I think it is time I focused a bit more on the business side of wire. I would like to have some work available in a gallery. I'm trying to come up with a small collection I can haul around and proudly show off. I'm going to focus on making an ocean theme collection with different price ranges from high to low, depending on materials used and time spent on complexity of work. This is an entirely new pursuit for me and it feels a bit scary.

  I noticed to my surprised as I was going through my supplies that I have quite a lot of materials that work well for an ocean theme. It should keep me busy for a while:)


Here is a pile of 4-5 inch starfish all worked in steel. One has goldplate over brass beads, and the other showcases white beach glass.

Black Gold Hoops

  I couldn't be more pleased with myself this week. Finally after all these years, I am making some decent earrings:)

  I feel like I'm on the right track. Working designs that really express me; with the right amount of architectural forms and details to make me happy.

  Sterling and fine silver, gold fill, gold plate over sterling, gold plate over brass. 2 inches.

Ruby Floral Earrings

   I took a day off from work today and these earrings are what I did. They took me all day and some of last night.

  I like that my blog shows how I arrived at these earrings...working on florals all month... then a week of play and play with forms, and then ah ha!  Floral forms:))

  They are probably the best earrings I've ever made.

Sterling and fine silver, ruby, pearl and garnet

Playdoh Studio

  It's been a weird week in my studio.... errr.. I mean dining room. Like a kid with playdoh I have been playing with beads and wire with no real focus. I've made a really big mess which someone has to clean up:(

  Last week I made these sterling and fine silver earrings with sapphire:

  I started making a red agate necklace that turned into a turquoise necklace. How does it happen that there is no agate in it when I am done?
  I call it the Rock Stack necklace: a trail marker for those who've lost their way.
Steel, silverfill, dyed howlite I think, and peruvian opal stack.

  I reworked a bad old design into some earrings:

  It used to look like this atrocious thing:

  I reworked an old silver wire pendant and placed a vintage glass bead into it. I'm working on a steel and pearl necklace that doesn't know what it wants to be. I made various steel frames for more floral work.

  I began another floral vintage frame. See how tiny it is!

  Last week I had made a wire bead that I don't like. I am interested in making wire beads, especially if I can make them the same shape as whatever bead is used in the necklace. Still working on this concept. The wire bead looks better in photo than in real life. It's getting scrapped.

  I made forms with steel. Then I started to get excited. Mmmm I love forms:))

So then I got more serious about it, and made a very Kathy Frey looking pod. It's not neat enough for me, I need to work on this. Does anyone have her book Elegant Wire Jewelry? Does she teach how to make pods?

  I purchased a Bell Armoire Jewelry magazine this week and also pulled out a bunch of vintage jewelry components, but I wasn't very strong in that area. Here is my messy work desk:

The toothbrush is used for cleaning jewelry and also it's a useful way to apply renaissance wax to woven steel with alot of holes in it.

  Definitely some little kid has been running loose in the studio..err I mean the dining room:) I hope she's a mastermind! I love the pod she made:)

Vintage Floral Brooch

  This was one of those projects I started a year ago. Yeah, that long ago! But it had issues and I didn't stick with it.

  This is an old vintage brooch finding. Perhaps it once held a cameo. I've filled it with wirework:)

Vintage brass brooch finding, steel wire, fine silver, pearl, sapphire, and rhinestones.

Floral Ring

  Finally finished the floral ring. Every time I do this type of detail work in a small space I struggle with it. The ring is only 2 inches high, so each side has only a 1 inch space to work in. Very challenging to make it look attractive and I had to rework this ring 4-5 times. Each time I tried out different stones and colors and shapes until I found the right combo.

I was so sick of looking at it!

Copper, amazonite, and pearl

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Also I have pictures of my client, Wanda Wen, wearing the Violet Armband. She also sent me some links that describe the event that she curates and is named after her.

http://www.fox17online.com/videogallery/68489364/News/KTLA-A-Soolip-Wedding-5am

http://www.ktla.com/videogallery/68489625/News/KTLA-A-Soolip-Wedding-6am

http://www.fox40.com/videogallery/68490349/News/KTLA-A-Soolip-Wedding-7am

  Normally I would never expose or brag about a client in this way but I do have Wanda's permission and she herself sent me these links. The videos are all talking about the Los Angeles event, but there was a similar event in San Francisco where she wore the armband. I don't think she is wearing the same thing to Los Angeles event; 
not as artsy I think;)

  It was incredibly exciting that she let me be a part of this event:) She was a really kind and down to earth woman; and that is not something I say often.

Interview In Russian

  A new wire friend has done an interview about me in Russian. I'm very grateful to Oksana Truhan for taking my work somewhere I could not go on my own.

If you want to read it, you can find it here. You'll need to use the translator though;)

http://www.livemaster.ru/topic/95651-meri-taker-tvorchestvo-srodni-volshebstvu?&inside=0&wf

Violet Arm Band

 

   I took on a custom order this week and revisited my floral series. I've been meaning to develop that series, but I get distracted easily by other design ideas.

  So finally back on the series, the client and I developed this concept together. I enjoyed the collaboration and I think the final design is better for it.

  These faceted gemstones, amethsyt, spinel, and sapphire really sparkle and catch the light beautifully, bringing the band to life.

  While I was working on this upper arm band, I realized it would make an excellent ring if I could miniaturize it. The ring would be a perfectly sellable design due to the fact that it would be adjustable and built just like this band. Woohoo!!

  So the ring post should follow as soon as I can make up my mind about the tiny beads to weave on.

Witch's Broom

  Experimenting with tubular twining. A practice piece I would normally throw away but found some redeeming charm by turning it into a broomstick:) It's kind of adorable and the messiness lends itself well to a witch's broom:) If only I could redeem all my practice pieces as well as this:)

Another ring effort of fine silver and amethyst

Mary Lee Hu

  I'm not sure if any blog readers are interested in this; maybe it's just me.

However there is an exhibition of Mary Lee Hu's work at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington.

You can see 8 pieces from the exhibition online here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/current/mary_lee_hu/index.html

But here is the important part: They are producing a catalogue of the exhibition that is due out in March or April. It is available for pre-order from the museum here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/store/catalogues/index.html

It is very difficult to get a quality look at Marys work online. All the online images are very small and don't allow close examination. I've excitedly placed my preorder for the catalogue already.

The way it works is, you call them and give them your name and phone number or email adress and they will inform you when the catalogue is out and contact you. At that time you can purchase it, or they will sell it to someone else.

Silver Pearl Rings

  I'm running out of ideas to title my blog posts. Every post is the same subject matter:)

These rings really had my daughter excited, which is very rare. She hardly notices what I do anymore:)

Fine silver, coin pearl and sapphire

Fine silver, pearl, and zircon

Nicole Hanna

  Nicole Hanna wants 50 people signed up on her blog. And if she gets 50 people by end of the month she will give all 50 people a free tutorial.

I want a free tutorial, so go sign up and enjoy her beautiful wirework while your at it!

http://nicolehannajewelry.blogspot.com/

Rings Again

  I am really enjoying this very narrow focus on rings. My job continues to be high pressure and I enjoy coming home to the repetitive labor and tiny world of one ring at a time. I challenge myself by making each one different and seeing how many ideas I can come up with.

Iolite, aquamarine, peridot, fine silver

chrysoprase, fine silver, gold fill


Some of my rings I would make again exactly the same, and some I would never make again, some I would make again with improvements.

I expect most of them will go into the Etsy shop in the coming weeks. Soon as I find time. If your interested keep an eye out.

More Rings

  Here is the fixed ring. Adding the beads made a big difference for the design to feel complete.

Also, copper, sapphire, and garnet ring. The design was influenced by Iza's ring tutorial http://www.etsy.com/listing/17455310/ethnic-ring-step-by-step-tutorial