This ring turned out pretty nice, didn't it? It's a custom order in a style I do every so often. I love this style- super simple, super comfortable, and a little out of the ordinary. Hope my customer likes it.
Oh, and the center stone is an opal if you're curious.
Finally!
So, remember way back in the day I showed you guys a photo of a couple of projects that were sitting on my bench? Well here's how the bracelet turned out...
Pretty cool, huh? The stone's called a Sunset Jasper and it's from the hills in Eastern Oregon. So I've started making my own chain too - definitely adds that funky flair to the piece. Not so store-bought now.
Of course the necklace that goes with it is still sitting on my bench. I'm actually going to take some of the pieces apart - I'm not happy with a couple things. But stay tuned, it will be equally cool.
And eventually they'll make it up on my site. If you're interested in them now, shoot me an email.
And lives to tell the tale (barely!). I counted...it's been like 3 years since we've gone out late - how incredibly sad is that? Anyway, we went to Cirque du Soleil on Saturday to see Varekai. It was really fun - some cool acrobats as usual, but the clowns weren't as endearing as they usually are (note - we've seen every cirque show known to mankind!). Grabbed dinner dinner at Montage, a late night hot spot here in Portland. It's under a bridge in the industrial area of town. The waiters are beyond surly, and they make incredibly elaborate tinfoil sculpture for your doggie bags. Everyone's "uber-hip" there - I think we were the oldest gang there. Pretty funny - parts of it I miss, but then parts of it I don't.
Devera's in her crib, singing herself to sleep. Dave's taking a nap, and I've got the house to myself for a couple of hours. Aaaahhhh. Time to go down and start up some new projects. I've got a ring commission to start up, I need to put together some new stuff for my show in April, and I've got a couple other half-done projects that need looking after. Fun fun. Oh, and tonight we're going to see Cirque du Soleil. I'll report back.
Well, I'll have a perfect opportunity for you coming up next month.
I've joined the gang over at Seek Indie and I'm going to be in their next contest. It's a pretty fun concept...a whole bunch of sites will have a hidden flower like this
hidden somewhere on their site. Find 5 flowers and you're entered to win one of like 20 gift boxes.
Here's what will be in the gift box I'm contributing to:
Fun stuff, huh?
So, April 17th...get ready. (I'll remind you too if you're forgetful like me!)
So I read a really interesting article over lunch and I thought I'd share it. It was talking about early childhood development and its' effects on later success. It was pretty amazing the statistics they were showing. Here's the cruxt of the article:
Here in Portland, they've started handing out "micro grants" for small daycare providers to help pay for books and learning materials to get them away from parking their kids in front of the TV all day. They give out like $500 and the results from what I've read are pretty impressive. What a cool concept and a great way to simply attack a problem on a small scale. Ok...back to the regularly scheduled programming...Researchers who study early brain development say the best time to improve a child's prospects in school and life probably is from birth to age 5, when the brain is rapidly making and losing connections.
In the 1960s, the landmark High/Scope Perry Preschool Study began tracking low-income children who received high-quality, preschool in the 1960s, compared with a control group that received none. Over the next three and a half decades, researchers found that every dollar invested in preschool saved $12.90 in public money.
Multiple studies have found that children who attend high-quality preschool programs do better academically, are more likely to graduate from high school and earn more money. They also are less likely to have babies as teenagers, commit crimes or depend on social welfare.
No, just the coolest tool you could possibly own if you get into this stuff. This is a super cool clamp that attaches to my bench. You can see it's holding a component of the bracelet that I just finished. (I have to post some photos - it turned out awesome!!!) Anyway, it holds things steady while I file them or sand them or various and sundry other things I do to my pieces. It's got a little arm rest -which is completely worthless to me since it's on the right hand side. I wonder if they make a left handed one?
The beyond coolest thing is that it comes off my bench completely and I can swap out for another tool - like the little wooden bench block you can kind of see in the background. It's like those little transformer toys for your workbench. It's a bug, no it's a robot, no it's a dinosaur.
Whatever it is, it's beyond cool.
If you don't hear from me over the next couple of days it's because we've headed out to the beach for the weekend.
Our favorite stretch of coast in Oregon is called Nye Beach in Newport. It's this cute little 1930's beach bungalow neighborhood about 2.5 hours from us here in Portland. I can't wait. I promise I'll take lots of pictures for you.
Just finalizing the details for a group show Dave and I are going to be participating in here in Portland at the end of April. The group calls itself The Moss Street Studios. It's a group of something like 8 super talented artists and craftsmen that get togther to display there work. We did our first shin-dig over Christmas and it was a lot of fun. The host's house is a really nice comfortable place to view work (Tracy is also the fused glass artist), and the quality of work is really nice. When we were invited to do this little group event the first time, I was a little hesitant. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a bunch of people stringing macaroni beads and calling it fine craft...but I was pleasantly surprised. If you'd like more info, shoot me an email and I'll send you a reminder with the times and directions. Hope we see you there.
Ok, I'm dipping my little pinky toe in the advertisement pond. Here's my first published piece of anything:
I'm on the bottom row, 3rd from the left. Whoopee!
So the concept of this is really neat. There's a group of independant designers that I "hang" with online. They're super talented and come from all walks of life. But like me, they're pretty small potatoes. But, pool 40 small potatoes money together and we were able to buy 2 pages of advertising in Bust Magazine. One of the members is a super talented graphic designer and she laid everything out for us and made us all look purty.
I'm so impressed with how everything came out. If you want to check out some of the other designers (who are super talented too) check out our Indie Finds site.
So, we'll see how my little teeny tiny foray into advertising pays off. Cross your fingers for me.
Here's this weeks little goofball update. It's another shot from the snow. I think Devera liked looking at it instead of being in it. It sure was pretty. It's gone now, but at least we have photos.
I've had to take about a week away from the bench...between life and working behind the scenes on Dave's site, my projects have just been sitting lonely on my bench waiting for me to play with them. But now, a-ha my other commitments are slowing down, and I can start working again. The good thing about taking time away is it really gets your creative juices flowing. Just because I wasn't sitting at my bench didn't mean I wasn't daydreaming about it. I'm ready to get back into it again. Whoopee.
Not spring wonderland...it is March, right? We don't get a whole lot of snow here in Portland, but this is the view off the front porch this morning. It's pretty fun for a change. I know this isn't as exciting for all you guys living inMichigan. But it's pretty cool for us.
It seems I've gotten into the barter system with my friends these days. I've found out I prefer money to coffee, and that's how I've been getting payment. It works great in the late winter when I can barely drag my butt out of bed. Actually, I'm a huge fan of bartering - I got most of my christmas shopping last year done that way. Dave and I have gotten all kinds of random things from bartering - woodworking, portraits, clothes for Devera, it's really kind of fun - you meet all kinds of interesting people that way. And you feel like you got a deal - 'cause hey, all you had to do was something you like or were good at anyway. What do you have to barter?
Some people have a thing for shoes, some for fancy cars, me, I have a thing for rocks.
I just can't help adding more and more to my collection. There's the baggie of petrified wood chunks sitting on my window sill, the way too many picture jaspers I just can't help but add to my collection because the scene in them is too stupendous.
Here's the latest addition to my collection:
These are called marra mamba tiger iron. They're from Australia (marra mamba would sound great with an australian accent wouldn't it?). And they've got this great sparkly glow.
Ah my rock fetish.
Sorry it's been a couple of days. I wrote half of a rant about horrible children tearing toys away from Devera at the book store...and then slept on it and realized that's going to happen all the time. She's even going to be the horrible child doing the ripping some times too. Oh well. I will write about how fun it is to get follow up emails from customers. First of all, they're usually so happy they just had to write. That's a big ego boost right there. And then to learn a little more about everyone besides a name an address and a credit card number. Fun fun!
It's interesting that February and March are always bridal time for me. I guess everyone's planning a spring or summer wedding. It's fun though - I love working with brides. They're always so happy and excited (ok so a couple of them are stressed out) but they're fun to talk to. I get to see wedding dresses and hair do's and bridesmaids, and learn about all kinds of interesting places. Some of the excitement rubs off on me. Probably the neatest was a bride (actually it was a groom) from Norway that I created some pieces for. It was really fun - he sent me photos of his city and told me about all kinds of neat stuff. If you've got stories to share about where you're fun, I'd love to hear them.
