EtsyMetal Blog Carnival- 2016 Plans

Since we just looked back on our year we are now discussing what we see for our upcoming year for our businesses and personal.

I'm super excited to be signed up for 2 engraving classes this year at GRS Training in Emporia, Kansas. If you have an interest in engraving or stone setting I highly recommend attending classes there. I really look forward to spending a week with other metalsmiths/jewelers. This year I will be taking deep Relief and Western style engraving.

I bought my first little pieces of gold last year so I'm anxious to make a few higher end pieces this year(and work on that stone setting!)

Personally I need to get a hold of my weight! Gained ten pounds last year so I have got to watch my sweets and walk more. So far I've signed up for a yoga class as I also need to work on getting the blood pressure down!

It should be a fun year, I've already made two pieces that I am really pleased with.

 

 

Check out my fellow teammates and their thoughts on the upcoming year:

 

2Roses: http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/

 

 Beth Cyr: http://bethcyr.com/blog

 

 got another single earring made last night and used some 14k gold fill for the first time. Im loving the color next to the oxidized silver.

cat skull

                      A bit more progress with the cat/skull necklace.

New work

A few new pieces that are in the etsy shop now.

ideas

Working on some earring ideas for the Plaza art fair this fall. I was looking at my calendar yesterday and realized that I only have like 14 more weeks to prepare for this!! My inventory is pretty much nil right now other than a few brooches from last years Brooch A Day challenge.

I've still been working on trying to clean my studio and get old supplies packed and donated that I'm realizing I am just not going to touch. Managed to clear off a bit more space from my bench top last night which makes me feel sooo much better.

Bryan and I have been putting together an engraving area in the studio this week as well. I'm anxious to add this new element into my pieces(and get Bryan more involved with the jewelry!) He really took to the engraving well when we were at GRS 2 weeks ago for a week long intensive class on engraving.

Are you learning any new techniques or taking fun classes/workshops this summer?  I'd love to hear about them!

The making of a tiara

A couple of months back I was invited by Phoenix Gallery in Lawrence,Kansas to participate in a challenge to create accessories for a vintage gown. I always love a challenge like this and immediately accepted. I was given a photo of this cute 1950's party dress to design for and my first thought upon seeing it was rockabilly queen!

I knew that I would want to do a double bird necklace but had originally pictured it more like the Citybird necklaces that I've done in the past using the street signs. Im glad in the end that I went with sterling and brass, it really looked nice with the burnt orange dress color. The tiara was a definite challenge for me, I've never done a piece that large but Im planning on doing more headpieces for sure!

beads

I think it's time to make some more beads! Bryan and I had a good time last fall making these for the big squash blossom necklace. This time I'm going to add some stamping texture to them and go BIG! I'll get them started this weekend and share the progress next week.

branding

Been playing on the computer way more this year than I've been in the studio, very strange! I've been taking some computer classes for the last 2 years and it's time to put a small portfolio together. This is what I've been messing around with this week. Please ignore the photo quality on these they are just placeholders for now.

Brooches 15-19