EtsyMetal Blog Carnival- 2015 Inspiration

This month we are looking back on 2015 and what inspired us and how it came through in our work this year.

Back in January I visited Prague, Czech Republic and it really influenced my colors usage. Normally my work is full of bright primary colors but I did a 360 turnaround this year and mostly worked with brass, silver and bronze. I became a bit obsessed with gold and gemstones as well and have finally bought my first piece of 14KY. As far as the stones I was able to take a week long intensive course on stone setting during May. I've yet to incorporate this skill but have been sketching and designing with this in mind(as well as purchasing stones in preparation).

I look forward to carrying over this inspiration into 2016.

 

 

 

Please check out my fellow EtsyMetal teammates and what inspired them this year.

 

2Roses: http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr: http://BethCyr.com/blog
Victoria Takahashi: http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
Cynthia Del Giudice: http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com/
Gracebourne Design: http://gracebourne.blogspot.ca/

 

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival- Studio Tours

This month we are taking a visit through several EtsyMetal team members studios. I always find it so interesting to see where other artists work, don't you? Here's a glimpse into mine and Bryan's workspace. We've been doing some re-arranging and everything is not quite in place yet. We recently bought a second workbench just for stonesetting and engraving.

just recently scored this anvil from my father in law. Makes the studio look official I think!

Stone setting and engraving space. One of these days I'll get all the bits and bobs put into these drawers.

enameling and soldering to the right and forming to the left.

 A jumbled mess of tools, buffing and pickling area.

Beads and do-dads fill this old vintage cabinet. Eventually I'll label all the drawers so that I don't have to pull out 6 drawers before finding the one I actually want.

I like to leave parts and scraps on the top of this cutting bench, it helps give me ideas for future pieces.

 

To check out some more studio space click on each of the following links, enjoy!

1. Laura jane Bouton http://laurajanebouton.blogspot.it/
2. 2Roses http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/
3. Fenton Design http://www.fentondesign.ca/whats-happening
4. Beth Cyr http://BethCyr.com/blog

EtsyMetal Blog carnival- Halloween

Hi All!  This month we are talking about Halloween which is my favorite holiday of the year. What's not to love about this holiday, you get to dress up as anyone you want to be, there's candy, the weather is getting cooler and the trees turn gorgeous colors!

 Its always an extra special time of year for Bryan and I since it's also around our anniversary. We got married as close to Halloween as we could then went down to New Orleans for our honeymoon. I'm so excited this year because we are going to New York to check out the Village Halloween parade( check back here for fun photos later this month).

I do love to decorate my mantle with loads of spooky goodness and a big pot of chili and cinnamon rolls on Halloween night is just perfect!

Check out what my fellow EtsyMetal teammates like to do for Halloween:

 Lou Hunter, Peculiar Forest, http://peculiarforest.blogspot.com

 Beth Cyr - http://bethcyr.com/blog

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival- "Favorite Things"

This month we are showing in photos some of our favorite things. I like all things witchy, skull and batty. Hanging out at the coffee shop, eating donuts and visiting New York

Check out my other teammates fav things here:

 Rebecca Bogan: https://adobesol.wordpress.com
2. Anne Walker: http://creativeinclinations.blogspot.com/
3.Andrea Ring: http://amuckdesign.blogspot.com
4. Debbie Ritchie http://www.fentondesign.ca/whats-happening
5. Laura Jane Bouton http://laurajanebouton.blogspot.it/
6. Peggy Foy http://peggyfoy.com/wp/studio-log/
7. 2Roses: http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
8. Cynthia Del Giudice: http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com/
9. Beth Cyr: http://bethcyr.com/blog

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival- Additional Interests

This month a few us will share some additional interests we have outside of metalsmithing. I have several and they tend to take over the house! But mostly I thought I'd share my new love of bread making. My husband and I spent the holidays in Germany, Poland and Czech this past winter and I just fell in love with all the fresh breads we were eating over there that I decided when we returned home I was going to start baking all our bread from scratch. Nothing like a polish sausage on a fresh baguette! So now my new Sunday routine is baking bread for the weeks lunches. So far I've done white sandwich bread and yesterday was my first attempt at baguettes.

Check out my fellow teammates below:

 
 Anne Walker: http://creativeinclinations.blogspot.com/
 Beth Cyr: http://BethCyr.com/blog
 Debbie Ritchie http://www.fentondesign.ca/whats-happening

Blog Carnival- March

The theme for this months EtsyMetal blog carnival is "What's In your jewelry box".  I have a really large jewelry box!! Next to purses jewelry is my favorite thing to shop for.

My great aunt and uncle have sold native american jewelry for probably over 40 years. It was the first jewelry I owned and the largest of my collection.

My mom bought me these at a little gallery in Memphis.

While in college I worked at a wonderful little gallery in Memphis called Metalwerks. It was downtown right across from the Peabody hotel. I had so much fun during my days there and definitely added to my collection in huge way. These are my fav's from the gallery. They are made from sculpey clay and painted by Andrea Szekelyhidi in 1988.

More from Metalwerks gallery. Painted aluminum and coated with resin.

A couple of polymer clay pieces purchased on trips. The fish I bought from an artist set up on the streets in San Francisco.

A vintage necklace that my grandpa gave me and an awesome vintage biker ring that Bryan and I picked up on our last trip to New York City. We had sought out a coffee shop that a friend recommended and this shop Vintage Stock was across the street so we wandered over for a look. Well, we were in there for I think 3 hours talking with the owner! This ring wasn't even out yet, it was still in her apartment that was across the street. She ran over and got it to show us. The shank was bent in but we loved it and brought it home with us and hammered it back out.

And an awesome beaded Thor by my friend and co-worker Cindy Ross. She beads the cutest character brooches. I definitely love fun jewelry that makes me smile and am drawn to images and symbols. Hope you enjoyed this brief snippet of my jewelry box. You can check out a few of my fellow EtsyMetal teammates boxes as well on this blog carnival.

1.Laney Clark - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
2. Danielle Miller - http://www.daniellemillerjewelry.com/blog/
3. Amuckdesign- http://amuckdesign.blogspot.com
4. Rebecca Bogan http://AdobeSol.wordpress.com
5. Anne Walker: http://creativeinclinations.blogspot.com/
6. LjBjewelry http://laurajanebouton.blogspot.it/
7. Fenton Design: http://www.fentondesign.ca/whats-happening
8. 2Roses:  http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/

 Picked up some inspiration over the weekend at Noir arts and Oddities here in Kansas City. I'm going to have this print framed for my studio when its all cleaned and organized again. I did get down there to work on the cleaning this weekend and its coming along slowly but every little bit is making me feel better.

I've been wanting to work with some old tintypes for awhile now and decided to get going on that this week as well. When I was sketching I was thinking about stringing black crystals for the necklace but now I'm leaning towards pyrite beads to bring out the tiny bit of gold fill that Iwill put on the frame.

I've always had a love for victorian mourning jewelry and reliquaries. What inspires you?

Interfering with my productivity...

I am seriously having trouble wanting to be in my studio lately, the mess has just overwhelmed me. Went down yesterday to start cleaning and just seeing the little bit of tabletop in the last photo in front of the buffing machine is making me feel better already! Figured I'd post this cause if I show you my mess I need to show you the clean-up/after photos right!!!? Thats the plan anyway. :)

Plus signs on my mind….

http://lollyquiltz.blogspot.ca/2011/05/more-modern-cross-quilts.html

http://woky-shoten.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/03/index.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/107734616061868935/

http://freeyork.org/art/jewelry-joji-kojima

                                         gate inside of Union Station Kansas City, Missouri

sidewalk in Czech Republic

As I'm looking through my vacation photos I am really loving the colors that I saw repeatedly in the Czech Republic. Ive never been a fan of neutral colors but I guess just seeing the numerous variations have intrigued me. Im hoping to play around with these colors in my enamel work this year.

 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.