A long absence...

I've been absent from my blog for a long time. I have some excuses, which I will go into, but I do understand that there's really NO excuse, lol. So, my feeble excuse is that I no longer have high speed internet. I have an air card from my cell company, which they CLAIMED was high speed, but their idea of high speed and mine are obviously greatly different. Consequently, loading pictures onto the internet takes FOREVER. I feel like a very large part of blogging is the pictures, so therefore just decided to stop blogging until I got faster internet. I've now come to the conclusion that it just won't happen for a long long long time, so I'm just going to grin and bear it, and just add pictures when I can, from someone Else's computer that DOES have high speed internet.

While I was gone I made a lot of jewelry. I'm still as obsessed with jewelry as I ever was. Maybe more so. I tend to create original jewelry in spurts. In between bouts of creativity, I just make basic chains and earrings and etc, but I'm always making something.

I've not been doing very well in keeping up with the theme challenges of the Wire Artisan's Guild, even though they dropped the challenges to monthly instead of weekly. I just got too busy with the Holidays. I have started back in, though...the last few challenges have been VERY inspiring.

The most recent one was "Affair of the Hearts". I was lucky enough to go to my local bead store (Jack of All Beads on 3rd Street in McMinnville, OR) and find some lovely Valentine themed lampwork beads made by a local artist, Cincy Campbell. Haha, I say lucky, but the bead store actually calls me now, whenever Cindy brings more stuff in...in this case, I feel like a junkie, and they're definitely my dealer, lol. So, inspired by the heart them from WAG, and the beautiful hearts by Cindy, I've so far created two winged heart necklaces: A Clockwork Heart and Don't Fly Away with my Heart (I'll post a link to the etsy listing when I get to a better computer to list it). I'm really happy with both of those pieces, and I have at least one more original piece planned, as well as another version of A Clockwork Heart, using a different bead.

For the WAG store re-opening, the theme is "Stardust", which I've also found particularly inspiring. I've got a necklace drawn out, and I can't wait to get started on it, but I need to finish these heart themed pieces, first, since Valentine's Day is right around the corner.

To that end, I will be at Honest Chocolates this coming Friday (2/6/09) from 5-8pm for Newberg's First Friday Art and Wine Walk. I am one of the featured artists, along with my sister, Jessica (Alternative Rose) and a wood artist that I haven't met, yet. Dana (my boss) will be there with wine tasting chocolates to sample, and her husband, Byron (of Seven of Hearts Wine) will be there pouring his awesome wine to taste. Make sure to stop in and see me if you're in the area...I will have a great selection of jewelry!

I'll follow with a post later with links to recent pieces I've completed. If you don't want to wait, just go look at my Flickr Photostream, or my Etsy Shop.

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