Etsy Metal Challenge

This month's Etsy Metal challenge was to design a piece inspired by Alexander Calder. We were all so excited by this project that we decided there had to be another month this year that we do this theme again. After doing several sketches I finally decided on making this pair of earrings.

In this photo I show the necklace that inspired my design. I'd never really spent a lot of time looking at Calder's jewelry before and really enjoyed doing the research for this project. I could see his influence on many jewelry designers of today.

We had several members play along with this challenge. You can see their pieces on our Etsy Metal blog.

Fall 2011 trends

I am looking forward to cooler weather as I love fall/winter clothing so much more than summer clothing. One of the big trends to be seen this fall will be fur and I especially love it in these bright colors! They are a very inspiring mix of color,pattern and texture. These photos are from the August issue of Vogue Russia and taken by Ben Toms. Click here to see more pics from this photoshoot.

Trunk show next weekend!

I'll be at Stick Sisters next saturday July 23rd for an Amuck trunk show from noon-3:00, if you're in the Kansas City area pop on by and say hello! I'll have my portable workbench with me doing a few demos so you can see a bit of the process I go through to make a piece of jewelry.
These are a couple of new additions to the Lucky 7 line that I'll have with me next weekend. If you can't make it out on Saturday the jewelry will stay at the shop through the end of July.

Happy 4th of July

This brooch titled "Boom" was made for the july Etsy Metal monthly challenge, our theme was independence day. This is the first time that I've ever laid two types of street signs next to each other, I like the way it came out. Seven other teammates made pieces for this challenge, you can check them out here on the Etsy Metal blog. Our next challenge is to make a piece inspired by Alexander Calder. That should produce some interesting work for sure!!

Punch Gallery in Seattle

I've just returned from Seattle where the Ring A Day exhibit is being held. The show runs through May 29th if you happen to be in the area. Bryan and I flew out last thursday for the opening night, what a great time we had.


These are just a couple of the cases. I've posted more images of the rings on my Flickr site. What an honor it is to be part of this, it's such a beautiful and exciting show. Seattle is gearing up for the SNAG(Society of North American Goldsmiths) conference at the end of the month so many of the galleries were exhibiting metal artworks. I can't tell you how inspiring and thrilling it was to see jewelry and metal objects in the galleries rather than just gallery after gallery of paintings.


We took lots of pics of our time in Seattle so I'll be posting throughout the week.