brain storm

I was thinking over the weekend (surprise!) and am mulling over a couple of things. First, I'm thinking of marketing handmade books for wedding albums and guest books, baby books, keepsake books, etc. You may remember the guest book I made for my brother Brad and his new wife last summer:

I would have some in stock but would be able to do custom work as well.

Also, I'm considering setting up shop on the 'net selling accessories for larger ladies (of which I am one). It is often difficult to find jewelry, especially, sized for larger wrists, and tiny delicate things can get lost on generous bosoms. I'd probably limit this to jewelry and scarves at first. I'm also trying to figure out the best venue for marketing these things.

Tell me what you think.

coming up for air

Between working, wedding preparations, and studio work I haven't had much time to blog lately. However, I did manage to take a few photos of some of my recent jewelry. I always forget it's hard to shoot a good photo in my very pink studio--somehow everything has a rosy cast. Anyway, here they are:

Strands of mixed size and color pearls, with a fine silver and CZ pendant made by me.

This is odds and ends of various green beads with a large fine silver pendant bead I made. Whenever I can string a pendant I made myself along with the beads it makes the finished piece feel more like my own.

A nice dichroic pendant with strands of carnelian, pineapple quartz, and jasper.

This is the necklace I made to wear at Adam & Emily's wedding. Cultured biwa and button pearls in a glowing off-white with tiny crystals strung between.

Tomorrow is my day to work at the VAAM Gallery downtown. I always enjoy a studio day but I've been so busy I haven't any idea what I'll take to work on. Better get to it!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

boring

I've actually accomplished quite a bit lately but haven't photographed anything. I made some rather nice jewelry over the weekend, plus finalized some wedding plans and sent out more invitations/announcements. Since we've had a short time frame to get all this accomplished, it has seemed that everything has happened in kind of a rush. However, it is all getting done, which is the main thing.

I hope you are all well. I will return soon with photos.

happy birthday to adam

Today is my oldest son's birthday--22 years. I always thought it was funny when older people would say, "It seems like only yesterday" that something had happened, but now I know what they meant. It surely can't have been all that long ago, but it was.

This is Adam in my husband's arms, just a few minutes old. I was in no shape to be photographed. What must be going through a newborn's mind at this point, I wonder?

This is Adam in the 4th grade, age 9. Wasn't he handsome!

And here he is now, with his fiancee Emily. They make a very nice looking couple.

Happy birthday, Adam. We love you, we're proud of you, and we pray God's blessing on you always.

bridal jewelry

Just a brief post before bed to show off the wedding jewelry I made for my soon-to-be daughter-in-law Emily. Tiny cream button pearls, champagne colored crystals, and 2mm sterling beads. I think it will be lovely with her gown. She's going to be a beautiful bride.

cyberfyber

Do visit the long-awaited cyberfyber exhibit at

http://cyberfyberexhibitjournal.blogspot.com/

This was an incredible amount of work for Susan Lenz, whose brainchild the exhibit is. If you click on the "postcards" link on the right and scroll down to #123, you'll see my contribution!

resume programming

Life resumes today after a couple of weeks off after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. In many ways it is a relief to get back to a normal schedule, especially as regards the kids going back to school.

I finished and delivered the long-awaited commissioned piece over the weekend. The couple who had requested it were very happy with it, I'm pleased with the outcome and frankly glad it is finished. It was a challenge, in a good way, but as with a lot of large projects was not without it's panicky moments. Of course I have no photographs of the finished projects (I just never remember that step, for some reason) but have been invited to take photos of it in situ any time I want, so I probably will. Even with the project finished, I feel that there are a couple of "spinoff" pieces still in my head that will need to come out fairly soon. Probably have to cook awhile yet though.

In the meantime, I'm going to clear the decks--clean up my studio, in other words--and get down to some serious jewelry making. I'm seeing ads for this cropping up:

I've done quite a bit of work with silver PMC, but hadn't seen the bronze version. Main plus: it's much less expensive than silver. Main drawback: an actual kiln is required for firing. Rats. I cannot afford that expense at the moment. However, I do have some silver PMC on hand so I can get on with making silver jewelry. Here are a couple of previous pieces:

I kept this one for myself.

This one I sold. Actually I also sold a couple of similar pieces, so maybe I'll make some more since they seem popular.

I certainly hope 2009 is off to a good start for all of you.

a new year's birthday (almost)

Happy birthday today to my brother Brad. Here he is with my niece Brooke. He is a loving, thoughtful, and gentle man.

And here are a few photos of the commissioned work in progress. It's coming along and I'm pretty OK with it so far, although I feel I have a ways to go as far as finishing touches. This started with a base of fabric paper a la Beryl Taylor (my hero) and is actually three 20" x 20" panels. This one is the final panel. The little door opens, too, to show a little vignette within.

This is the first panel in the series, not finished obviously. I've enjoyed adding 3-D and interactive bits to these pieces.

This is a gothic arch made for this project by my very talented uncle out of wood and embellished by moi. The name of the piece in toto is "Through Open Doors", hence all the references to doors and door-related things. The panels will be mounted on artist boards for ease in hanging.

And since it is Friday, and since I haven't posted a cat photo lately, here is Romeo in a box that originally held a shipment of Christmas packages.

Have a great day, everyone.