Blog Carnival- April

This month on Blog carnival we are remembering those first pieces of jewelry that made us think that jewelry was our path.

 My great aunt Julia and uncle Francis sold Native American jewelry so that was my first introduction into jewelry and began my love for it( and influences my style now) but it was a trip to New Mexico when I was about 13 that really started me in physically making jewelry. I walked into a gallery called Mariposa and that was it, I was hooked. My mom and I bought this wooden brooch that was made up of many layered craft wood pieces then painted brightly and with tiny patterns on each layer( I'll try to locate it and post a pic later). I went home and played with wood and paint for quite awhile then I discovered Sculpey a few years later after going into Metalwerks gallery in Memphis where I would eventually sell my own pieces and work. These little sculpey sandwich earrings were probably my first purchase before launching into years of polymer clay jewelry making.

Check out my teammates Debbie and Beth and see what was their influence to start making jewelry.

 Debbie Ritchie http://www.fentondesign.ca/blog
 Beth Cyr: http://BethCyr.com/blog

Etsy Metal Blog carnival

                  This month's topic is:

    "Art That inspires us outside of jewelry"


Awhile back I looked up at my inspiration board and realized that I am really inspired by artists working with paper, I was a bit shocked at how many items I adored were paper. My second love appeared to be plushies and toys. Its hard to hold myself back from purchasing doll after doll or tiny little artist designed munnies. Here are just a few pics of some of my favs, including some illustrations that just get my mind ticking.

Just pulling these pics has me excited to get home and grab some paperclay and play!

Paper mache sculptures from Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao

Paper bug specimens from Kasasagi- Kate Kato

Monster Dolls from Junker Jane- Catherine Zacchino

Illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli

Illustrator Sergio Mora

 

 

Check out my fellow EtsyMetal teammate Laura Bracken and see what art works inspire her.

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival-"Inside our Sketchbooks"

This month we are peeking inside each others sketchbooks to see what might be on the horizon for our work or what has been in our books and maybe started, never started, etc. I have so many sketchbooks lying around my house and I find it really fun to look back into them every once in awhile. Two of the pics I grabbed today I believe were from 2011 and the bead idea was from this past week.

seeing this one again makes me excited, why didn't I ever do this one! Well, I bought myself a bracelet former for Christmas this past year so I think I'd better take another look at this design and try it.

Had forgotten about this little owl idea(which is why I love to scribble down all ideas because I'd never remember them all).

Someone please keep on me to work on this one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my fellow EtsyMetal teammates and their sketchbooks:

 

Cynthia Del Giudice: http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com

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

Beth Cyr: http://BethCyr.com/blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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. :)