Purchase directly from my Facebook page!

My Etsy shop is currently on hiatus as I revamp and rework how I interact with the site in light of some changes in their policies and categories and such as well as to maximize some of the great information I learned at some workshops last fall.

But in the meantime, head over to my Facebook page where I'm listing all my current inventory in albums up there for sale. All you have to do is be the first to comment on an image with "sold" and I'll message you with payment information. As always, thanks for looking and especially thanks for sharing!

Crafts and Drafts at the Farmer's Market, 10am-6pm Saturday!

I'll be at Crafts and Drafts tomorrow. It's a free event at the Farmer's Market with tons of local artisans, food vendors, and beer. Come say hi!

The Spectrum Required.

I'm working on a lot of elvish inspired pieces lately, getting items ready for a Middle-earth themed event at the end of September. As I looked at the first piece off my bench in what is to be a long string of pieces between now and then, I was thinking about the delicacy of the lines in nouveau and elvish pieces. But I was also thinking about the six grits of polishing papers I just had to work through in order to get all those hard hammering marks and plier marks off the finished piece. Since I'm still learning, I wasn't actually able to get them all off. There are a few I'll just call characteristics of the piece where I was afraid I'd polish away too much metal if I managed to get them completely flat. I appreciate a nice hammered look, too, so that helps when my inner perfectionist wants to come out and say it's not a perfect mirror surface.

I was thinking about that hammering process. It's brute and violent and raw. I rearrange the molecular structure of the metal when I slam it between a steel bench block and a hammer over and over until round wire spreads out into a thin sheet. Once that is done, I go over it with a file to round off any harsh edges. Again, that's a pretty brutal action of tiny teeth tearing away bits of metal. And then there are the polishing papers. They're softer, more like fabric than sandpaper, but they subtly chew off yet more metal. It starts with a brushed metal look with the 30 micron paper, where I appear to have made more scratches than I've removed. A couple of grits later, it's down to a more satin finish. And finally that high mirror shine appears once I hit the 1.0 micron paper. I don't even need to buff the piece after that, usually. The papers are very effective at refining the results of that brutal hammering and filing process. What I'm left with is this lovely, feminine, delicate form onto which I wrap various beads or gems, depending on the piece.

I live through my pieces. I breathe into them and they teach me as they come to life. I know the feeling of being caught between anvil and hammer. I know the feeling of being struck over and over and reformed into something different than what I was when I started. I know the feeling of being filed down to have harsh edges removed. And I know what it's like to be polished and refined into a mirror. I know what it's like to be simultaneously strong and delicate like my pieces in their final state. When I look at a final piece, I see myself and not just because of that shiny finish reflecting back at me. I see myself because I'm pouring my experiences and my life lessons into each piece.

It takes both the hard hammering and the final delicacy and everything in between to move through this life. I'm so grateful I'm able to create and learn like this at my bench every day.

Fear and Failure: A Parable.

I'm working on this bracelet design today that incorporates chips of tourmaline and copper wire into chain links. I'm making each link and threading them together as I'm wrapping them, not with jumprings. My thought is that the structural integrity of such a design would be superior to one that might be slightly easier to put together (i.e. one using jumprings or eyepins to join the links). It's a bit tricky in the fabrication, but I feel like that will be rewarded with the longevity of the piece. Not to mention that it just looks cooler with all those copper coils framing each chip of tourmaline.

Perhaps inevitably, with 13 links and 12 dangling "charms" made the similarly (custom headpins with beads that are threaded into the links of the bracelet rather than being attached by jumprings), something was bound to go wrong along the way. Either a work hardened wire would snap at an inopportune moment or a bead would shatter or something. Well, one of those things went wrong about halfway through the links. As I was cutting the coil around one bead, with the next link already attached, my wire cutters slipped and I shattered a bead. There was no unwinding the wire to string a new bead on and try again. I had to cut that link off, scrap that wire and figure out what to do next as I stared at this piece of beaded chain with two ends of closed loops.

My "oh shit" moment was just that, a moment, and then I cut a fresh piece of wire and made a fresh loop to hook into one end and get the links going again. But during that "oh shit" moment, I thought all was lost. I thought of the hour I spent last night making the beginnings of these links and the cost of the wire wasted and tried to think how else I could salvage it or if I could just attach some chain and make it just sort of half beaded bracelet or something. But I was in the throes of despair for a moment. It was only a moment, but the despair was very real and very heavy, even crushing. But as I opened myself to the solution, it seemed so very obvious and probably would have come to me instantly had I not taken that moment to despair.

Then, I had a bit of an epiphany moment. I realized that most moments of despair are just like this one was: unnecessary obstacles in the path of success. And I started to think about fear as a particular brand of despair. Fear is often irrational, based on some hypothetical situation that may or may not come to fruition. Fearing something, even something that may likely happen doesn't help you to overcome that situation when it actually presents itself. Fear can sometimes save your life. It's an evolutionary response for a reason. But there's an evolutionary step that's often missing, to push past the fear into the solution.

Fear of failure, and the even more irrational fear of success, have been obstacles in my path for far too long. They've kept me stagnant when I should have been active. Kept me distracted when I should have been focused. With this minor hiccup which caused such intense, momentary panic behind me, I was able to see that I sort of manifested this little challenge to help me practice setting aside my fear-based despair in order to find a solution to a problem that presented itself. And as soon as I start looking at things as challenges instead of seeing them as yet another thing that's going to knock me down or hold me back, the solutions materialize just as instantly as the problem and the subsequent despair did.

As soon as I start seeing failures as the little things they actually are instead of the huge monsters I've made them out to be, I can conquer anything that comes my way.

And that's my little nugget of wisdom from the jewelry bench today.

Extended Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion

Since I don't want to forget to turn it on, I'm just going ahead and setting up both shops for holiday orders next week.

All orders placed in either my Etsy or Artfire* stores between 11/19 and 11/28 will receive free standard shipping to the United States (expedited and International rates will still apply).

Also, all pendants purchased during that time will receive a free matching chain or copper neckwire (please state preference on the order).

Also, also, I'm offering free gift wrapping upon request.

I know these aren't the deep discounts you'll see at the big box stores next week. But the good news is, I'm not a big box store! Plus, you can purchase gifts from me in your pajamas.



Happy Holidays!





*As a note, Artfire does not require you to have an account to purchase, in case you're wondering what the appeal to buying there is and why I'm in both places.