Snow Day

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Originally uploaded by The White House

We've had a record snow in Texas. I'm working on my own snow pictures, but I wanted to share this beautiful photo by White House photographer Pete Souza. Click on the photo to view it on Flickr.


I love this photo, especially the way the flag is framed by the tree limbs and the window with the light showing. The White House is a symbol of our country and government, but all too often I think we forget that it is also a home.

What Inspires You?

My friend Billye and I went to see Avatar recently. Avatar is an extremely visually rich film of breathtaking beauty. The exquisitely detailed beauty of Pandora, to say nothing of the 3D and the cutting edge technology, makes the movie a must see.   

Billye makes jewelry also, and we both paid particular attention to the jewelry this time.  The jewelry appears to utilize natural materials, fibers, leather, and feathers along with beads. The beads look like glass, ceramic, or maybe pearl or gemstone.  There are bone ornaments as well, and lots of feathers in the Na'vi clothing.  The fibers often appear to be woven into macrame.  Sigourney Weaver's character, Grace, wears an interesting assymetrical necklace that appeared to be made of stones and macrame.

I googled Avatar jewelry and found some on Etsy. This terrific necklace by serenasgifts (shown below) is inspired by Mo'at's tree necklace. She kindly allowed me to post this photo. Click HERE to go to the listing. This is my favorite of all the Avatar inspired jewelry I've seen. The purchase benefits Haiti relief.

Some designers made macrame necklaces that were very close to the necklace Neytiri wears in the photo at the top of the post.  Others were inspired by the rich blues and used those colors in their creations.

Of course, there are the inevitable pendants using photos from the movie.  I'm a little bothered by those (and others) because they use copyrighted images for profit. 

I also came across this review of the movie by jeweler James Allen that mentioned an increased interest in natural jewelry.

I don't usually do macrame or seed bead work but I'm really thinking about making something inspired by Avatar. Probably it will be wire jewelry, or clothing. If I can figure out how to put lights in it...I do have an Arduino kit. 

Jewelry designers and artists, what inspires you? 

Stephanie Rubiano Blog Giveaway

I found Stephanie Rubiano's blog today and she has a wonderful giveaway of an  enameled copper house pendant.  It's really cute.   Hopefully I'll be the lucky winner. 

I love her use of the antique photos.  I've been collecting tintypes that I want to use in pendants.

Stephanie is also teaching her Pixie Pins class at Adorn Me! in Houston this March.  I've signed up and am getting really excited about the workshop. Check out her website at Studio Rubiano.

When Customer Service Gets Personal

Not too long ago I started twittering. I have a three main motivations for this:

1. to connect with other people,
2. to connect with local people (technology isn't quite there on this one)
3. to promote my jewelry

I have two accounts: "lctodd" and "nostoneunstrung." 

I couple of days ago I found that Fire Mountain Gems had a new twitter account and I followed them on my @nostoneunstrung account. I've been a customer of Fire Mountain Gems for years.


I got this direct message from them:


FireMtnGems thanks for the follow & mention! Congrats on your new etsy store -- beautiful hand hammered wire jewelry!



My  account profiles linked to my blog. (I plan on linking my nostoneunstrung account to my etsy store soon.) I expect people to check out the link when I follow them but I didn't expect the personal message. Usually I can't tell if someone has even looked at the page.


I've gotten some nice direct messages from some people but this is the best example I've seen of good customer service using twitter. I appreciate the personal touch and the compliment. I already have a good opinion of the company (they've always had good customer service) but this little personal touch cements my feelings. The person behind the account looked at my link page enough to see the hand hammered earrings.

 I imagine that if I weren't already a customer I'd be just as pleased. 

Social media is new to me.  I'm no expert.  But I think this is a great example of how to use Twitter to promote your business.

No Stone Unstrung is Live at Etsy

I launched my new Etsy store, No Stone Unstrung, on New Year's Eve. The new store will feature my jewelry.



 My old store, Essential Adornment, is now a destash store.  I'll be posting beads, fibers, and fabric from my stash.



I haven't sold anything yet from the new store but I listed 4 sets of yarn in the old store and sold them immediately. Yipee! Guess I'll be taking photos of more of my yarn today.

Goals for 2010

It's the time to think about goals and plans for the upcoming year.

I was checking my last years "goals" post "Trying New Things-A New Year's Resolution".  I was relieved to find that I had actually done some of the things I set out to do.  I think this year I will post a list where I can see it every day. 

Here are my goals for last year and how I did:

Try new jewelry techniques, especially more wire work and Art Clay.  Alas, I didn't get much art clay done.  But I did do new techniques.  I learned to anneal heavy copper wire, I did some hammering and forging, I made some of my own findings, expecially ear wires, and I did some wire weaving with iron wire.  I plan to do more of all this plus other new things this in 2010.  To that end I'm taking several classes at Adorn Me! in Houston in March. 

Post at least once a week on Etsy.  Not even close. 

Submit some of my written works for publication.  I already have several short stories.  This one, plus Write some more, particularly fiction weren't done at all. I think I did go so far as to buy a new Writer's Marketplace and to look at a couple of magazines to see if they would be a good fit for one of my stories. The Writer's Market is completely out of date by now.

Make at least one component for jewelry everyday.  Usually I just buy my findings, but I want to start making them.  I did make some of my own findings, but I didn't work on  jewelry everyday.

Submit jewelry works for publication.  A photo of one of my twisted wire bracelets was published in the gallery section of Step by Step Wire Jewelry. 

I'm keeping all of these things on my list for 2010.  I'm adding this one:

• Get my studio up and running.

I've picked out a room and started cleaning it out.  It's not going very fast but I figure if I work on it a little at a time eventually it will be done.  Right now my jewelry stuff is in nearly every room in the house.  It's driving me crazy.

There are lots more things that I need to do.  I don't want too long a list though; it's overwhelming.  All this has to be done around homeschooling my son.  We just started this last April so has been a new experience for both of us. 

My personal goals are to get the house in  better shape (I'm not much into housework) and to do a good job with the homeschooling.  I'll be sitting down with my son and we'll be doing our own goals list with the homeschooling and other factors in his life. 

Feel free to comment and/or share any of your goals.  

Hand Forged Earrings

Lately I'm obsessed with hammering.  I did some prototype earrings for my new "green" line.  They're green because upcycled parts are used.  In this case, the large rings started out as aluminum spacers in computer hard drives.  I textured them with my hammer. The aluminum makes the earrings ultra lightweight and easy to wear. 



They debuted at Red River Revel and sold well.  I'm going to keep making them as long as I can get the spacers. 

Next I moved on to some sterling silver wire.  These feature hand forged earwires, along with the hand forged earring drop.



I played around and made several different styles of drops as well as several styles of earwires.  Some were antiqued with liver of sulphur and some I left shiny.  These debuted at the Friends and Family show at the Calico Cat and happily sold well.




Above are some of the new forged wire earrings and findings.  The leverbacks and headpins at 1-2 o'clock are commercial.  Everything else was made by me.  These have been antiqued but not yet polished.

Here's a group of the earrings at the Friends and Family show at the Calico Cat.



These aren't hand forged but they do have some wire wrap.  I love making the wrapped donut earrings.  It's hard to find the small earring sized donuts that match, and so far the colors and type of stone I've been able to find is very limited.  The pea pod earrings were wrapped by me using a Hilltribe silver leaf as the pod.  I had to bend the leaf a little and file some notches in it to keep the wire from slipping. 



I'm working on my goals/resolutions post for 2010.  What are your goals?

It's almost time to turn on the TV and watch the ball drop.  Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Holidays & Thinking Ahead to Next Year

I'm back.  I hope everyone is having a merry Christmas, bright Yule, happy Hannukah, blessed Ashura, and joyous Kwanza. 

It's the day after Christmas and we're actually only partway through our Christmas celebration. 

It's been a weird season for me.  For one thing, I did a major amount of my shopping on the 23rd.  Usually I have it done much earlier.  Due to homeschooling this year I couldn't take off and go shopping as I did last year.  I've been feeling really unorganized and am just now beginning to feel relaxed. 

Stefan and I were out of town for a week and didn't get back until the 22nd.  Dad had some surgery and we went to my parents' to help out.  Dad's recovering quickly.

Christmas we went to my brother's for a get-together.  Five of his six kids made it, with the sixth coming later on (after we left). Luckily the snow on Christmas Eve melted at dawn or before.  We don't get much snow here.  Our relatives in Oklahoma City had 14 inches! Whoa!

We have a couple more day trips to make between now and the 1st so we can visit with family.

I've been thinking about my new year's resolutions and reviewing last year's.  I'm working on my list.  

 Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the vintage illustration above.  Check out her awesome copyright free graphics.