Adorn Me! 2010-- Day One

March 1-8th I was in Houston for Adorn Me!  I had a blast and learned a lot during the workshops.  I'll be posting for the next several days on my classes and experiences. 

One of the hardest things was deciding what workshops to take. I'm mostly self taught or I've learned from books and magazines. I made my final selections by picking the things I wanted to learn that I thought would be very difficult to learn without an instructor. 

Monday was meet the artists night.  I also met my roomies for the event: Bren and Julie.  They were the best roommates and I am so glad I got to know them. From left to right here's Bren, me, and Julie:



Bren is wearing her trades necklace.  Participants brought charms to trade and Bren put hers on a chain necklace.  It looked good and garnered lots of attention. Julie is wearing her Window pendant. 

DAY ONE: Tuesday

Bren and I both had Richard Salley's "Caught in a Trap" class. We cut our metal with tin snips, learned to foldform copper, then dapped it (domed for your non-jewelry people) and filed an opening for our cabachons.  The copper was riveted to a brass backplate. 

Richard Salley is a terrific instructor.  He's annealing a copper plate here:



 I was able to get the pendant finished and got the earrings half done.  Bren finished a pendant and earrings.  Several of the students got three or four pieces done.  Check out the fan photos on Richard's facebook page.  There are a lot of photos from this class and some from the Shield class later in the week. 




I textured the brass backplate with a hammer and a center punch.  I hit the brass with the torch to darken it a little.  All of the antique color on the brass and the copper is from the torch.  The cabachon is a vintage Czech glass cab from the 1940's. 

I left this class with my head spinning with ideas and wanting to get my hands on more cabachons. 

EVENING:

I had Thomas Mann's "Learn to Saw" class in the evening.  I had never used a jewelry saw before. This was a technical class and we learned how the saw works, not just how to manipulate the saw. Understanding how the saw works is particularly valuable when turning corners. I didn't take any pictures of the little parts I sawed because they looked terrible. My straight lines weren't straight and my curved lines zig-zagged. I sawed very slowly.  On the plus side, I only broke one blade.

At the end of the class I figured sawing was something that would  take about six weeks of practice before I would end up with something I would want to wear.  I had signed up for Mann's two day Found Object Sandwich workshop and was now worried about how bad my FOS might look after I sawed it out.  I reminded myself that it was better to have problems when there was an instructor available to help you correct them versus having problems when you're on your own.

Back in the room Julie, Bren, and I finished the evening with show and tell. Getting to see what they made and talking about the classes and what we had learned became a daily ritual and one of my favorite parts of the week.

Next post: my Found Object Sandwich.

Sherri Haab Jewelry Inspirations

Jewelry Inspirations differs from Haab’s other books because it focuses not just on techniques and projects, but on the inspiration for those projects. The book is very well illustrated with color photographs. A wide variety of materials, techniques, and mediums are used to make the projects.


I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate a mixed-media approach to my jewelry line and this book is a perfect starting place.


The first section, In the Studio, starts with development of creativity and inspiration, and ends with basic jewelry techniques needed for the projects. Haab urges artists not to let fear of imperfection get in the way of creativity and to enjoy the process of creating as much as the end result. She touches on studio organization and discusses her use of “inspiration files” of magazine clippings, sketchbooks, and notebooks. Basic techniques detailed in this section include wirework, epoxy resin clay, image transfers, making silicone molds, resin, firing metal clay, patinas, and knots.


The following sections are arranged by inspirations and projects. I counted 26 projects, not counting the variations on the earring projects. I was especially interested in the Seasons section which included a very interesting button and resin project. Another favorite is The Blast from the Past section which includes several projects involving fiber, including two that use spool knitting and Viking knit with wire. These two projects are probably the most advanced projects.


Other techniques used in projects include etching, molding by hand and making and using molds, precious metal clay, and polymer clay.


The book concludes with a listing of contributors, resources, and the index.


The wide variety of materials and techniques make this a good book not only for the beginning jewelry artist who wants to try different things, but also for experienced artists who want to add new techniques to their repertoires. The book reminds me of the reason I started making jewelry--it’s fun.


PS: The rings on the cover aren’t lampwork; they’re epoxy resin clay. Cool, huh?

Snow Day

P020310PS-0033
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.