Summer's almost here!

Today was SO hot! About 85 degrees here. It made me realize that we're gonna be miserable when it gets really hot, lol. The new house that we moved into is actually quite old. Part of it was built around the early 1900s, and the rest probably in the 30s or 40s. Most of the windows, consequently, are basically just there so that it's not pitch black inside of the house. They weren't made to open. We have the huge windows that don't open. That means, no air conditioner. We DO have three doors in our house, so I'm trying to figure out some way to have the doors open without our animals getting out. Unfortunately, one of our chihuahua/mix dogs is a freakin' stunt dog, and can almost jump over me. Admittedly, I'm not very tall, but 5'2" is still pretty high for a 12" tall dog to jump, lol. So, with Terra the trick dog living here, we can't just use basic baby gates to keep her in, because she just jumps over the darn things. I'm hoping that the oak grove right next to our house will get leafy pretty soon and shade the house more so that it's cooler. I'm crossing my fingers for that!



So, today I created a ton of handmade business cards and jewelry tags to use when I go to The Gathering next weekend. Then I took a couple of pictures, organized a little, and then worked on a necklace that I've had planned for a little while. My friend, Alyssa, is a glass bead artist, and I have one of her gorgeous vessels to work around. It's nowhere near done, but this is what I got accomplished today

...basically, I did a lot of twisting wire to make the chain with, then pounding to strengthen said chain. Hopefully I'll get it done maybe tomorrow.

Circles and Squares 5/5/08

This bracelet was very fun, and included TONS of sterling silver wire...almost 300 inches of it! It highlights a beautiful lampwork bead. The etsy listing can be seen at http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11523763

Celtic Chic 5/5/08

I realized today that there are only 18 days left until The Gathering! Wow, gotta start getting mine and the husband's garb ready! Also, gotta finish a BUNCH of jewelry that I have planned! I've got some great pirate-y lampwork beads that I have plans for! So, I've been pretty busy lately. I've listed two pieces in my etsy shop since I last posted. The first one was for the Celtic Chic theme. The second one was for the Circles and Squares theme. I guess I will post twice, so that I can include a picture of each. First, the Celtic Chic piece. This is a pair of Celtic not-quite-a-knot earrings with amethyst dangles. Gorgeous! Update: These earrings have SOLD!!!

Au Naturale 4/15/08

I finished another piece of jewelry today. My entry for the Etsy Wire Artisan's Guild Street Team special challenge: Earth Day-Au Naturale. Wow. It's so frickin' awesome! I started out knowing that I wanted to create something "beachy", using some of the shells and rocks and fossils that I have picked up through the years on the Oregon Coast. I didn't know exactly how I was going to use these items. And I sure didn't know how the heck they were going to attach to whatever piece of jewelry I ended up making. I thought maybe a charm bracelet? But I really wanted to use one of the nice snail fossils that I had, and I thought they would be too big to dangle from a bracelet, or earrings. So, I was basically boxing myself into another necklace/pendant. Last night, I went to bed with the snail fossil, wire, and pliers, to play with it for a while before falling asleep. I often find that this is my most creative time, but I'm usually too tired to have it be of any use for anything but dreaming, lol. I ended up securely spiralling some silver wire around the snail fossil, forming a pendant. I put it away and went to bed to sleep on it. While I slept, I dreamt of a necklace formed of spirals of silver wire that formed waves, and hanging from the waves were charms of the sea. It was the perfect beach necklace! Of course, when I woke up, I remembered that I had dreamed of making the perfect beach necklace, known exactly how to do it, but couldn't REMEMBER lol. So, I spent about an hour trying out different spirals until I found one that looked JUST right. Everything went fairly fast from there. The necklace is formed of sterling wave-ish spirals. Heavy duty sterling chain attaches to that, and fastens with a heavy duty artisan clasp. Dangling from the waves are: two wire wrapped orange agates, and two wire wrapped green pieces of sea glass. The center focal piece is the fossilized snail, of which the fossil is also mainly comprised of agate (VERY cool!), and dangling from the top of the snail is a teeny tiny perfectly round agate, encased in a silver cage. All of these items are exactly as I found them at the beach, minus the sand, lol. They haven't been tumbled or polished or anything fancy like that. I trusted the sea's perfectionist nature to get it right, without my intervention. This necklace makes me think of something that a mermaid princess would wear to entice sailors, just in case her own charms weren't enough. ;-) What do you all think? This piece is listed for sale, not in my own etsy store, but in my guild's special store, which is opening with a bang on Earth Day, therefore the Earth Day theme. You can see this piece listed on April 22 at www. WireArtisansGuild.etsy.com OK, I'm exhausted, I'm off to bed!

Gothic Bride 4/14/08

I took Friday off of work, since it was the hubby's birthday. We had a good time, most of the night. We went out to dinner at Orchard's Bistro, which as STUPENDOUS food. If you are ever in McMinnville, looking for good food, that's the place to go. They share space with Honest Chocolates (my day job), so stop and get chocolates while you're there, you won't regret it, lol. Today, Jason had to be to work at 7pm, and before he went, we took the kids to DQ. Unfortunately, the one near us RAN OUT OF ICE CREAM. How does an ice cream place run out of ice cream? I don't know, either, lol. I did make a little headway on the Earth Day theme challene the wire artisan's guild is doing...the actual title of the theme is "au naturelle" or something like that. I'm making a fossilized seashell the focal point of my piece. Got that done, don't know where to go from there, lol. Oh, I finished the Gothic Bride theme piece last night, got it listed today. I LOVELOVELOVE it. I hope it sells soon, or I may have to keep it for myself, and where the hell would I wear something that nice? I just stay home with kids, lol. Anyway, a description. It's a 4 in 1 pendant set. There is a Celtic Cross focal pendant, highly oxidized, and decorated with many, many teeny tiny garnets. The cross comes with a beautiful necklace with a pendant holder (also highly oxidized) which can be worn on it's own, and a black, hand dyed silk ribbon, which can also be worn on it's own. It's very versatile, and very pretty, and really epitomizes the theme "gothic bride", I think. My pictures totally don't do this piece the justice that it deserves. As I mentioned, it is listed for sale, and you can see more pictures at http://www.followtheredbrickrd.etsy.com/.

So, I've been so busy making jewelry lately. I've been fascinated with the wire wrapping, and have been listing lots of stuff on my etsy shop. I joined an etsy guild...the Wire Artisan's Guild. I feel so honored to be included amongst that group of amazingly talented women, and I've learned so much from them. We've been doing weekly theme challenges, and they have really pushed me to my limits. I hope that I can continue to keep up with it. Let's see. The first item I created was for the "spring" theme, and I made an elegant little pair of leaf earrings, with genuine peridot beads. The next theme that I participated in was "nocturnal". I made a beautiful bat necklace. It is truly stunning, and I can't believe that I made it. All of the beads in it are genuine gemstones...there's carnelian, amethyst, mother-of-pearl, onyx, labradorite, quartz crystal, and garnet. I think that's all, lol. The last thing I did was for the "whirligig" theme. That was hard. I tried several designs, nothing seemed to work, so I fell back on the tried and true triskele, and they (earrings) turned out AWESOME. They're highlighted with genuine carnelian gemstone beads. Right now I'm working on a piece for the "gothic bride" theme. That's a secret, but I'll post a picture when I'm done. I'm including a picture of my bat pendant, so y'all can see what I'm talking about. It's shown being modelled by my daughter, who is only 11...I love her, but I think it would look a lot better on a pair of breasts, lol. I'll have to see about getting a more endowed model! If you want to see more of my jewelry, feel free to go browse my etsy shop, the web address is listed above.

Transferring some old posts...

I posted a couple of blogs on tribe.net, all pertaining to my jewelry. So, I think that I will just transfer them to here. Hopefully that isn't a faux pas or anything. I'm new to the whole blogging thing, so I'm sure to do lots of stuff wrong! Yay!

Another jewelry blog...

So, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a jewelry blog, highlighting the jewelry that I make. Right now I'm making wire wrapped jewelry. Mainly out of sterling silver, but sometimes also out of copper. I generally only use gemstone or other natural beads. Recently, I've discovered a love for artisan made lampwork beads, so don't be surprised to see a lot of my jewelry made with it!

Etsy is my friend. I heart Etsy! Currently, with the exception of some local craft shows, Etsy is the only place that I sell my jewelry. You can find my stuff at www.followtheredbrickrd.etsy.com. Come heart me today!

I am open to trading. If you are an artisan, and you would like some of my jewelry, please, email me and let me know what you have. I love trading!