500 Silver Jewelry Designs

Don't forget to submit your jewelry for Lark Books, 500 Silver Jewelry Designs. Submissions need to be postmarked by December 4. I will be entering my spiculum anticlastic necklace. Though I need a name for it the rolls off the tongue better! Any ideas?

Studio Protector: An Artist's Guide to Emergencies

CERF, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund has just created the Studio Protector: An Artist's Guide to Emergencies. This is an information kit to help you protect your 3 A's in the event of a disaster. The three A's being: Art, Assets, and Archives.
I highly recommend purchasing this, I will as soon as my studio is set up.

It's a really good idea to be prepared in case something happens. I've had two friends whose studio burned down, they lost their work, all the photos, history, customer records, orders. They had nothing. My other friend lost her house and studio in a CA wildfire, it's good to prepare in case of emergency and know what you most need to grab when getting out of your studio and house. Being prepared will help you rebuild much better and faster when something does happen.

Also when purchasing this guide the money spent will be donated to CERF to help artists in need. We artists are one big family and we need to take care of each other!

Juha Koskela

I saw his work on facebook the other day and fell in love... Juha Koskela is a Finnish Goldsmith and Designer. Yum!

Bazaar Bizarre

If you are in the Cleveland Ohio area the Bazaar Bizarre is going on today from 10am to 8pm. There will be about 50 vendors selling their art work. I hope to go today and I'll let you know if I make it there!

Volunteering

The symbol above stands for, The Society of North American Goldsmiths. I'm a member of this group and am working on a volunteer project. The project is to build a jewelry/metalsmithing book resource list. I'm a book hog! I love love love books, that doesn't mean I've read all the books I've bought (still working on that!).

Right now I'm also volunteering for another organization, The Ohio Jewelry and Metal Arts Guild. I'm working on the newsletter and it's an exciting project for me! This guild is almost a year old and we're working hard on having great topics and demos at every meeting. We also meet in different places so that we all learn where the art centers, bead shops and fun places are!

My point being, please volunteer and help an organization you love. I know many people are out of work and things are tough, but if we all volunteered just a little what a wonderful thing that would be. When you help others in some way it's good for everyone! It gives you more to be Thankful for. Have a great time with family and friends!

Oh the Holidays!

I came across this adorable ring by Kate Spade. (I love kate spade, my dishes and silverware are her design!) I hope you all are excited for the Holidays, I want to put lights up on the outside of our house. But I also want to buy lights after Christmas when they'll be cheaper. Maybe I'll create a new Holiday in January for myself. Enjoy and take time to relax!

Jewels of the Urban Night

This piece was created by Jessica McCormack and reflects the dramatic silhouette of the New York skyline. I love the piece and the phot, nice reflection.

So where have I been? Well trying to figure out ventillation, you'd think someone would sell a ventillation unit for artists in general but they don't. I've been to several hard ware stores and everyone is having a hard time helping me. I just want to make jewelry and stay healthy!

Also been looking into flooring options for the studio, the blue must go.

If you have any ideas for ventillation let me know! I'm not going to just open a window (why heat the house), I want to run something out the wall that draws air out only when I'm using it.

Great Calendars

For several years now I've been using Whomi Pocket Planners to keep up with my schedule, I highly recommend them. You can keep them in your purse and easily add things to your schedule on the go. Unlike electronic calendars there is no battery that can go dead!

My Bench has arrived!

My Grandparents came up from Maryland and delivered my lovingly hand made bench! My Grandfather made if for me as my Birthday/Christmas present. This is the best present ever! I cannot wait to start working on it.
The bench came in many pieces due to the fact that it is very heavy and 7 feet long. So I got to help screw things together and level it.
Thank you so much for my bench and coming to visit!

The floor saga...

So I got the walls painted in my studio and wanted to do something different with the floor. Well Joe found this neat method of staining a floor at Smith Paints. So I figured out what I would need to do.

First I had to strip the paint off of the floor but it turned out there was glue under the paint. (the black stuff is the glue) So then I bought a glue remover and it didn't work. This went on over 4 or 5 back breaking days. I'm not sure if the chemicals I used weren't great or if the stuff on the floor was tar.

This is the floor after two days of grinding. I rented a grinder with a vacuum attachment and filled our house with dust. This was an insane amount of work and I told the man working at home depot to never use this piece of machinery, just hire someone.

This is after the stain with several coats of sealer. I was going for a turquoise blue and that didn't work out obviously. It's been 4 days and floor is still a little sticky so I'm waiting on someone to call me back and tell me what to do.

What did I learn with this project? Well if you need to rent equipment to do something, you might just want to hire a professional. Also don't be insane like I am and make projects far harder than they should be!

All in all this is the first house project I've gotten into that hasn't gone well, considering I've been working on the house for over three months I guess that's good.

Puppy Love

Yesterday I got to play with 10 adorable puppies! The poor mom dog is getting attacked by her babies. I felt bad for her.

This puppy was my favorite, she had the bluest eyes and freckles on her nose! She was a little bit shy and not as adventurous as some of her siblings.

Here I am holding her. I'm not sure if we'll end up taking a puppy home, it's a hard decision! I'll be away for three months (jewelry school) and it's hard enough to leave Joe and Bentley.

By the way if you live in the Canton Ohio area and are interested in a puppy just leave me a comment and I'll pass it on. Two of the puppies have been adopted so 8 to go!

I love funky clocks

I found this clock online and just love it, though when you look at the price you'll be shocked!

I'm still working on the studio floor, I know, when will I get to the jewelry making? I'm working on it and I'll keep you updated!

Working on the studio space

I wanted to show you the before of my studio space, It was painted red and since it's a basement room that just seemed too dark for me. Also it was mentioned a more neutral color was probably better for examining the jewelry I'll be making.

So here are the new walls!

I really love the yellow on the walls! My friend Melissa was a big help, she painted with me! Thank you!

This week I've been working on the floor, Joe found this really cool idea of staining the floor. Turns out it's been way more work than previously thought (and more money). It better turn out great! Here's hoping! I'll show you photos and explain what I did in another post...

Recycled Jewelry

I saw this artists' jewelry at The Carrotbox and loved it. Gulnur Ozdaglar uses recycled plastic liquid containers to make these beautiful flowers. To see more go to her blog.
Also for great inspiration go to the Carrotbox, I love what she finds and shares!

Bezel Setting Class

I got to take a great class last week, the focus was stone setting from my friend Melissa. (Sorry the image isn't so great, I haven't photographed stones before!) Their were four of us in the class and it was really fun! We all played with some wire and made a shaped, created a bezel out of tubing and then soldered it to our wire shape. After tumbling the piece we then set a CZ! I highly recommend Melissa's classes if you're in the area! You can also check out her blog here.

Roses still blooming!

I couldn't believe that I had a rose blooming and a couple of buds still coming! It's been cold here in Ohio and the deer have been hard on the roses, I was happy to see flowers.