It's really happening

Cross your fingers for me that the sun comes out today! We're packing the U-haul, it all feels surreal. I'm moving from Baltimore to Cleveland this weekend. I'm very excited to get there and try to relax a little. This month has been crazy busy and crazy fun. I am also really excited to start designing some new fantastic jewelry.

Packing up!

It's been a crazy month, and in two days I'll be driving a Uhaul from Baltimore to Cleveland!

Here is a picture of my apartment, for the most part all packed up. I just made a trip to the Goodwill with a car full of donations! I know I'll miss MD and all the friends I have here but I do look forward to time with my fiance, exploring a new area, and making new friends! Oh yeah and making fantastic jewelry!

Bracelet in process

Here is a picture of the resin bracelet after my Grandfather helped me grind it down. Because the transparency paper walls wouldn't peel off of the bracelet we had to do some serious sanding. I've decided my next step will be to paint a thin layer of resin on the entire bracelet to give it the shiny finish I am going for.

What a great weekend!

I found out yesterday that I'm in the Gallery of Art Jewelry Magazine (May 2009) on page 41! I've been featured in other magazines but this is the first one that I've not known the editor at all. Very exciting. My friends from Flying Anvil are on page 40.

I also had my bridal shower yesterday, it was so much fun! My Mom, Great Aunt, Grandma, and Sister Kelly did such a wonderful job organizing it! Kelly had great games for us to play. Thank you everyone!

Resin Jewelry Class

Last weekend I took a Resin Jewelry class at the Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore instructed by Velina Glass. It was fantastic! The first image above is a form I made for a bangle bracelet. We used transparency paper, super glue, resin, and silly putty. The bottom picture is of our hot box (speeds up set time of the resin). My bracelet is on the bottom left, the green one. Hopefully I'll have the bracelet finished soon to show you. This is definitely a technique I will pursue further! (I highly reccomend taking a class taught by Velina, she was a great instructor!)

Spring is here!

A beautiful picture of flowers in my Mom's yard that I took the other day!

I won!

I just won a $500 Women's Jewelry Association Grant that will go towards my Jewelry Education! I've been applying for grants and scholarships and this is the first one I applied for. I'm soooo excited!

Good News!

Fantastic news! I am now using my new Dell laptop. Posting on this blog takes a quarter of the time it did using my old computer. Now I can really enjoy using the computer rather than having to wait several minutes for everything I click. This is great news for you, expect many more posts. I need to post some pictures from my resin jewelry class, I'm very excited about the resin!

A wonderful gift

My good friends from Flying Anvil Designs sent me a present of silver/granite/blue diamond earrings. Aren't they gorgeous! I love them! I hope I will be as creative and kind as they are.

Artist Business Bootcamp!

Two weeks ago I attended the Arts Business Institute Arts Business Bootcamp. It was two full days of class on various topics: Merchandising, Pricing, Relationships with Galleries, Creativity, Getting by in rough economic times, and more. On the second day there was a panel discussion on Marketing. Where Elijah of Figs & Ginger spoke up and explained how he runs his business. The older generation doesn't use the blogging, facebook, myspace, twittering, so much and Elijah really gets some serious advertising out of it.
I got to have dinner with Meghan who runs the Arts Business Institute and all of the faculty: Wendy Rosen who owns the Rosen Group (where I was working not to long ago). Nancy Markoe the owner of Nancy Markoe Gallery in Florida. Milon Towsend the owner of Milon Towsend Art Glass Sculpture. All three of the faculty had so much great information to share. I know I learned some things so there is no reason not to attend a Bootcamp.
I really had a great time, I got to go to Grovewood Gallery and it was beautiful! I loved the outdoor sculpture of Lyman Whitaker. Everything moved in the wind, it was mesmerizing!
As you can tell I had a great time and can't recommend the ABI seminars enough. You are never done learning!

Lovely Weather

I've returned from Asheville North Carolina! I went to the Arts Business Institute Boot Camp over the weekend and had a great time. I'll post more about it on another day. I also visited my friend Tripp of Trippworx while in NC. Overall I really packed a lot of fun into a short amount of time. The weather was also spectacular. I'll post more over the next several days.

first spirograph pattern

Here is my first spirograph pattern, I can't wait to play with this further, there are lots of cool shapes to be made!

Belated Merry Christmas to me!

I received one last Christmas present from a friend. A spirograph! She even got me an old one with the cute/dorky picture of the kids on the front. I can't wait to show you what I make!

500 Found-Object Works

Don't forget to enter your work in the 500 Found-Object Works Book, deadline March 15, 2009!

I'm entering my Reflection necklace with a found bicycle reflector and recycled black plastic swirls.

ACC Show

Today is the last day to visit ACC Baltimore! Check out Jennaca Davies cool enamel work!