Goodbye etsy - hello BigCartel!

Yep.  Slowly moving my work off etsy and onto a cleaner, more modern site.

I'll admit that I finally got tired of seeing the same things on the landing page day after day, week after week, year after year, in spite of all of the complaints and ideas proposed to make etsy more sleek.  What began as a site for handmade and unique has finally turned into a site where everything is welcome to the point where anything handmade can mean truly artisan work created from start to finish by a single artist to cheap charms hung on a cheap chain.  Don't get me started on the dishes from the garage sale next door.  I just can't compete.  Worse, I can't be found.

So I find BigCartel.  Sleek, modern, easy to use.  Gone are the teens and tweens and any mention of Hello Kitty.  If these people were craft and art show people, I would be proud to have my tent parked next to theirs.

Not sure my rant is over but do take a look and cruise through the BigCartel site - even my own shop site, if you have a few minutes to spare.  Tell me what you think.  I think it's a good fit.

Feeling a little schizophrenic . . .

Ocean Jasper + enamel on copper

I know, I know.  Can you not just settle on one thing already?

Here's the skinny, Minnie.

You've seen some of my watercolor lately and I'm not giving that up.

I need a bit of stimulation to get my creativity flowing.

Watercolor is doing that so that's not going away anytime soon.

Then I discover enamel and fall in love all over again.

I am reclaiming the artist I always thought I was.

I am.

Slowly learning that lesson . . .

Oh yes.  When last we visited I had taken an awful, absolutely horrible group shot of a collection of pieces going to a local gallery for sale there.  I take these pictures for reference only so that when something sells, I have that visual reminder.  My lesson?  Take better pictures.  One sold that I had not reeaaalllly planned on letting go of right yet.  My bad.

This time before it heads to Omaha - I present the Jasper I cut and polished Monday evening.  Set in sterling with a copper bail and copper ball chain.  The true name of the stone escapes me so I named the pendant "Unusual Attitude".

About me - I fly.  I judge competition aerobatics.  Unusual attitudes is typically anything 45 degrees bank angle, 25 degrees pitch up or 10 degrees pitch down.  As you can see in this stone, the ground is slightly banked, not quite to those degrees, but no matter.  The green earth is tilted and the purple skies are easing into sundown, a low bank of clouds on the horizon.  It's a gorgeous weighty stone and it will soon be for sale at the Dundee Gallery in Omaha.

Love it.

Off to Omaha.

How how how . . .

Persistence paid off for a lovely lady in South Wales who searched thru my flickr pictures until she found just the right bracelet.  I made a number of these linked Orbit Bangles five years ago when sterling silver was cheap(er) and I could make a whole armful of them for shows and galleries but I moved on after that armful and went in another direction.

Lo and behold, this darling woman emails me that she wants one special made for her Silver Anniversary!  Who am I to say no?  No, I never say no and this one is shipped off today.  I'm just glad I still had the materials to work with.

I am still a bit confused that she took time to go through all of my (MY!!!) flicker photos until she found what she wanted.  I mean, with all of the metalsmiths out there and all of the incredibly talented folks posting on flickr, ME!  Maybe it's the New Year but I'm still shaking my head that she found ME.

Enough.  To the post office.

Azurite Malachite . . .

Again, a stone that has been sitting on my bench and tossed around in my big box o' rocks for such a long time.  I'd get it out, play with it for a few days and put it back.  Not happy with any ideas and it wasn't speaking to me - in clear terms, anyway.  

My problem?  I judge myself by the work of others and think mine is too plain so I sometimes have a tendency to overwork pieces but this time, I resisted and let the beauty of the stone do its job.

Happy that the cutaway bezel worked to showcase the bubbly, rolling, drusy interior of  this beautiful stone.  Nothing could have been better.

Love this completely.

Simple.  Modern.

For a short time : Montana Agate . . .

Birds on a Wire

 Blessed with a handful of little slabs of Montana Agate this summer and I finally got the chance to sit down and polish a few and o.m.g.  Gorgeous stuff.  So gorgeous that it's hard to decide where to cut to maximize the beauty.

Love the minimalist designs in each slab - they really speak.  Above is 'Birds on a Wire' and below is 'Lightning Strike'.

Lightning Strike

Reaching

The little lozenge with a tube of Montana Agate swinging underneath is simply 'Reaching'.

These pieces are intended for a gallery show in late November but for a short time they will be on sale in my etsy shop beginning Sunday morning, 27 October and will be removed if not sold by 27 November.

I would love to see these little gems off to a good home where their beauty will be appreciated for the glowing goodness and worn each and every day.  They only get better with time.

I will be cutting and polishing more of the little slabs of Montana Agate but for now, I offer you these.

Post and run . . .

Just to let you know I'm still alive.

Chinese Turquoise and Golden Chalcedony.

Wearable.  Wonderful.

Back to gardening and tending the early flowers.

Mine, all mine . . .

Rosella Opal.  It finally has a name.  I saw that my blog-friend Evie, had set a gorgeous pendant and called the stone by name when I realized that I had a little sackful of this material and all I knew was that it was from Australia and it was an opal.  Sweet!  It has a real name!  I cut and polished a few for her then these for me.  I know I've posted this stone before but I have to say it again - it positively glows!

I love this simple setting for earrings and whenever in doubt, this is the way i go.  Easy hooks, so plain and unfussy.  My new 'go to' earrings while the turquoise earrings take a break.

These are mine, all mine.  Selfishly keeping them for myself.

Tres Amigos . . .

Well, this was fun!  In the midst of the 'making frenzy' that is preparing for a biggish show the end of February, stocking galleries and preparing for the summer shows, I took yesterday afternoon to build three beads.  I call them beads because they're open and (duh) not solid.

Punched, drilled, pierced and roughly sanded, these three little guys are fun little pendants - unique, simple and complicated all at once.  They're 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter, hollow, of course, and a treat to make when you're feeling sort of 'challenge-y' and not so 'bent wire and a bead earring-y'.  They are capped with three aquamarine beads for accent - still trying to decide if I like that.  Pretty sure I'll be making more so I'll have my chance to leave the bead off, of course.

No more - no less.  Fun at the bench.

Crafting for me . . .

I have been busting my fanny getting work ready for a big show coming up the end of February and late yesterday I decided it was time to do something for myself.  I deserve it.

I dug around in my old cases of stones that I purchased at the very first Gem and Mineral Show I went to - I say that because the two little turquoise stones I picked up I had taped together and written "27 cents/pair".  Yikes!  A pair!  Must have been a loooooooooong time ago!  Tiny cabs - tiny bezels.  My fingers felt like sausages trying to craft the small bezels, I swear.

These little guys are not even 1/2" making the drop about 1" - swingy and the right touch of color for late winter.  (Spring's coming!)

I seriously love these and will wear them until they fall off my body.  Seriously.

January sunset . . .

Skinny gold orange sliver of the barely-set sun, darkening evening grey January sky, striped bands of layering clouds and jet contrails.

All at once in this banded agate.

I'm committed to getting back to what I love working on most of all : lapidary and setting the stones I cut and polish.  I have so many delicious cabs on my bench and I have spent the weeks leading up to Christmas working on the 'quick work'.  Not particularly satisfying for me but results oriented work.
With this new year : new work
Simple
Direct
Clean
Fresh
Oh, and my New Year's Resolution every year is to make contact with at least one old friend who has dropped off my radar screen.  This has been my Resolution every year for at least a decade and it has been so rewarding.
Completely doable.  
So if you've dropped off my radar, expect a call.

Loose ends . . .

The Cricket Cage

I'll admit it - a lot of stuff (a LOT) has gotten pushed to the back of my bench for far too long and getting caught up in the rush of the Christmas with the looooong to-do list is just claustrophobic for me.  Now that things are getting back to some semblance of normal, I'm trying to take each project that got set aside and give the attention to those things that really satisfy my creative itch and not simply fill a spot on my show display.

Last Fall, my friend Linda gave me a little silk bag with old rings and pieces that held jade beads and cabs and she gave me free reign to create whatever I saw in them.  Removing them from their settings really freed them up and these are the pieces I'm sending her.

These little beads of jade were post-drilled and needed to be free yet somehow constrained so I created a Cricket Cage for them from wire and a hand-forged half-dome cap.  Now they can move freely inside their little cage pendant.

Lily Pads

The two jade cabochons are just a millimeter or two different in size so they really couldn't be matching earrings, I thought.  Earlier in the season, I had created a Peace Jade necklace for her to give her 11 year old granddaughter and I thought that perhaps down the road a ways, she might like to have matching charms.  So here you have two Lily Pad charms with watery, reflective, textured and curled edges.  What is wonderful about charms is that they don't necessarily belong on a necklace or a bracelet.  They are sweet accents on a watch, a little bag or anywhere that some color and flash is needed.  Love these.

I'm so satisfied.  Why again don't I do this more often?

Dragonfly wings . . .

It was a revelation of sorts.  

My darling friend Rachel 'Two Dog Pond' dropped by last week to take a look at my torch and haul off my wrought iron outdoor bench and table (okay, you didn't really need that information) and she had on the most interesting and lovely necklace that I'd seen in a while.  She had found a dragonfly wing down by the pond (yes, there really is a pond) and sandwiched it between two pieces of glass, worked her magic by soldering it between the glass pieces and made a pendant.  My comment to her was that it looked so much like the Montana Agate that I've been working with that I begged her to let me copy it.  So here you have the first in a series of Dragonfly Wings.

My first pendant is not set with an open back - rather, it's been pierced with two cattails that are only visible from the front when held to the light.  Still, I like having hidden elements in my jewelry so that when one comments on the piece, it opens a conversation to show them the back and start a little info sharing about the jewelry.  Maybe it's just me - I can talk to anyone and don't always need an excuse.

I digress.  This is a nice, simple pendant and I'm absolutely itching to dig deeper into the pile of Montana Agate and recreate the Dragonfly Wings in stone.  Lovely.

Stinking Water Plume Agate . . .

Weird name

And a new leaf is turned - I'm finally getting my etsy shop back up and running.  I've ignored it for a long time and now that Summer is drawing down, I am bound and determined to get my new work listed.  

Gorgeous stone

I also will be listing the stones I've cut and polished and generally just thinning the herd.  Why?  Well, I attended the auction for my friend, Roger Pabian, who passed away this Spring.  A world-class published author and authority on agates, Captain Agate's house was full to the brim with agates in all shapes and sizes, in slabs, rough and polished stones.  

Roger taught me lapidary and I believe that's why I'm so picky about my cabs and how they are finished.  One scratch and it's all the way back to the beginning wheels for me.

His auction showed me just how much a person can accumulate - and I mean that in a nice way - and how little a person can actually use on their own no matter their intent.  Now that I've polished and loved on these little stones, it's time for someone to create something of beauty with each one.  I'll never get to them all.

I'll look at them this way : I don't own any of these stones.  I'm only the caretaker and when I've enjoyed them and taken pride in their beauty, it will be time for them to move on to the next caretaker.  Just promise me that if you buy one, you'll send me pictures of your finished product.  And then you'll be the new caretaker.

I love trades . . .

In exchange for a 'naughty' pendant that I had Rachel Two Dog make for me, I made her these stacking rings.

As always, they're sterling silver and I found the tiniest ruby cabochon that I bezel set into the top of one to offset the silver nugget that she asked for.

Love the way these looked on her finger. These are the kinds of trades I love - both of us were winners.

Buttermilk sky . . .

I bought a handful of tumbled Blue Lace Agate tumbled stones at the Farmer's Market last summer thinking they would surely be good for something, sitting prettily in a glass tumbler on the windowsill for several months. On a whim, I took one to the lapidary bench, flattened the back and rounded and smoothed and polished until I had the sweetest little bit of sky blue agate ever.  The dotty patterns emerged so perfectly!

This stone has the pale, faraway look of a Spring sky, dotted with high puffy clouds, what we call around here a buttermilk sky. I set it in sterling silver with soft lines, a cloudlike line surrounding the scalloped bezel and hung it with a softly rounded pinned bail so it swings gently hung around your neck.

This lovely little pendant is just another of my developing series of work inspired by the Nebraska Prairie landscape. More to come and certainly more of the Blue Lace Agates. I have a windowsill full.

A Triumph of Lichen revisited . . .

Maybe lichen isn't the word I'm looking for here. Maybe fungus is the word but that makes for an icky title for such a lovely stone.

Ocean Jasper is always gorgeous and I blogged about this little bit last week when I was finally able to get back to the lapidary bench for a few hours.  I turned out this stone and a handful of others that will slowly make their debut here in the next few days.

The patterns in the stone remind me so much of the roundish mold or some sort of fungus that grows on fallen logs and sometimes the side of the barn.  You people who read this and know what I'm talking about, please straighten me out as to what this is called.

This stone begged to be set with circle accents and it turned out particularly well, I think.  Okay, I had some issues with it but in the end, I like it.

Oh yeah . . .

And a handful of 'scrappy' charm necklaces.

Now I'm done. For today.

Bluebell Earrings . . .

For Lorraine.

Sweet little pair of faceted lapis and sterling silver earrings.

Copper box pendant . . .

Special orders are an intimidating challenge and, as I've said before, I do not challenge myself enough so this project I took on after the customer and I exchanged emails and drawings until we came up with something I felt comfortable attempting. I've made lift-off box lids before and since she wanted this to open, it was the best and most logical choice. So here we go.

The idea begins as a sketch - lots of ideas get tossed out at this point and, quite frankly, some I'll just file away to use later.

Beginning with sheet copper, I first cut the sides 1/4" tall in one long strip in the total length and bent them to the basic box shape and I soldered the ends. This rectangle shape is filed and sanded until the 'bezel' sides are perfectly flat when laid on top of the copper sheet to become the front and back of the pendant.

You can see in the photo with fire that the box obviously has to be closed and this can get tricky on several levels. One, I didn't want the silver solder to flow on the outside of the copper box and show on the copper sides so I scratched the outline of the box on the backside of the pendant and placed the solder inside that line so I could fit the box on top with the solder inside the box during the soldering process. The second issue is that there must be a vent in the box so that the gas can escape - otherwise you run the risk of the box exploding. Not good.

Another note of caution here: if you're trying to photograph your soldering process, have someone else take the photos. If you try to hold both the torch and your camera, you may burn your camera . . . like I did. With a little sanding, the lens once again retracts into the camera. And that's all I'm sayin'.

Whew! Soldered!

Now comes lots of cleaning, sanding, filing. Not exactly the fun part but it is satisfying to hold this little box in your hand and turn it as you sand and love on it.

The top gets cut off very carefully around the scribed line so that it's as even as possible. A thin strip of sterling silver bezel wire is formed to fit exactly inside the rim of the cut off top so that when it is filed and sanded smooth, it will make a sweet fitting lid for the box.

Copper tubing is soldered onto the sides for the loop that will hold the chain. Everything is cleaned and sanded smooth and all file marks removed with the finest sandpaper. A sterling silver chain is oxidized and added to the loops through the tubing on the sides.

I like to finish oxidized sterling silver with a coat of Renaissance Wax just to give the black silver a bit of sheen. I buff it with an old shoe brush and I think it's ready to go. I give it the 'wear test' and wear it around my neck for a few hours to make sure the top is going to stay on and it feels nice and sturdy. I think I love it.

I email my customer with the pictures. She likes it. I'm happy and relieved. *whew*