8.25.2012

Face yo fears...

Well, maybe not fears, but apprehensions, or doubts...

As I mentioned before, I have had a hard time capturing my own image on camera.  I've been wanting to tackle the project of the self portrait, especially because I want to offer pictures of some of my necklaces being worn when I make my etsy listings.  This is no small feat, and with the taking pictures of myself comes the need for kindness, patience, and self-love...It's a crazy thing to look at so many pictures of your own face.  I'm experimenting, trying, practicing, and exploring this topic slowly... I offer up these few samples...









This was a fun batch to edit, the light at sunset was wonderful to play with and I found a new spot in the house for experimenting...

I'm off to the studio for a late night jam session with my hammers...
Take care...
S

8.23.2012

Family dinner, and new bling...

We are just about to embark on "project paella"... My parents are visiting us, and my mom brought saffron with her!  We have made it our mission to create the perfect summer dinner...complete with chilled bottles of Proseco.  My mom has always been an amazing cook, all of my kitchen talent comes directly from her.  I requested some mother and daughter bonding in the kitchen while they are here visiting, so we decided I needed to learn how to make Paella.  I'm beyond excited to get in there and down to business with my mom!  I have no idea what this has to do with showing you my latest creations but I felt like sharing...

These are a few items that I finished up before my trip to Seattle, I just now got around to photographing them, and am about to list them in the ETSY shop after typing away here...







Kingman turquoise, in my opinion THE "king" of the turqs...It's color is my favorite, it's smooth and cool surface, makes my eyes smile, it's energy, if you go in for that sort of thing, is said to offer protection and ward off negative energy.  Whatever you believe, it's hard to deny the beauty of this stone...




Exhibit # 5683 of my love for textures of all kinds.



This one came out of the "archives", aka the pile of unfinished bits and bobs on my bench.
There are a few of my New Mexico turquoise beads, purchased over ten years ago
while I was in massage school in Albuquerque.  They have intense blue color and lots of lovely
facets to catch the light. 




Teal green agates with stripey bands of colorful goodness.
Quite the random handful of jewels for this latest installment.  I've also been working on some very kooky necklaces, combining large silver links and pendants with beaded and knotted "chains".  The clasps I made are ready to be soldered, and I'm excited too see what they look like after the silver gets its oxidation.

Here's to family time in the kitchen, and a house full of love...We've got heaps of it flowing out of every window over here, I'll send some on over to you.

S

8.17.2012

OH NOOOOO!

This little blog seems to be experiencing some MAJOR issues right now...As in my pictures are all missing...

I did a bit of research and it seems that by editing my albums on google plus I may have deleted everything...I can't even describe how sad I am at the idea that I didn't know that the two were automatically linked!  Evidently even though they were all loaded to the blog from my files, once they are deleted from an album in Google plus, they are also deleted from the BLOG!!!!!

I havn't been able to find any forums about reversing this heinous situation, and trying to breathe deep, and hope that something can be done to restore everything, or that anyone out there has ideas or knows a magic keystroke to bring my blog back!!

Sadness and frustration to the MAXXX!  I'm so pissed I didn't know this could happen!

HELP!

S

8.06.2012

GLOW











The back porch was a thing of beauty this weekend...I hope you got some out there wherever you are.






8.01.2012

Chromatic bliss...in wearable forms.










I've been a beading and knotting fool lately...Before I left for vacation, I spent many, many hours in front of the computer with Jo, watching a marathon of Mad Men, and making these necklaces.  I've been layering them with my other favorite pieces, and wrapping them around my wrist as bracelets.  Quite a departure from the usual silver-smithed pieces I make, I felt a calling from the COLOR!!!!!

There are only two of these up for grabs at this point, I sold the rest while I was in Seattle, and have another pile of them in progress...Something about this color palette is so pleasing to my eye, the cool blue and grey with pops of chartreuse!  I can't get enough...I think one of my favorite parts about making these is the piles of color, the beads in dishes, all mingled together in front of me.  I get so much inspiration just from looking at my materials, and in the case of these and the following pieces, the color selections came totally randomly, by making a mess, and noticing the details, I love that...









Another ode to the lovely chromatic bliss pouring out of my brain...

Continuing in the theme of beaded, knotted, goodness, in eye pleasing colors...I offer up these to "weird" creations.  I love them, I think they're weird.  I don't know what came over me, but as I was knotting the strands I suddenly had a lightbulb go off in the "creation station" of my brain.  Again, the cool turquoise and gray mixed with the vibrant royal blue cord, this time mixed up with a bit of hand textured sterling, stamped with unique patterns, and cold-connected to the beaded strands.  They are finished off with sterling lobster clasps and measure a little bit longer than my usual necklaces at just about 19" long.  

I've got tiny dishes of colorful beads spread out on a bench in the living room, it's my beading "relaxation station".  I usually end up doing most of my beading while on the couch with Jo, watching movies or rather "listening" to whatever is on the screen.  This process has taken over the "zone out" time I used to have with knitting back in Seattle, it's just too damn hot here to think about knitting anything.  The rhythm of stringing one bead after another, knotting the string in between, and playing with the color, is a very zen moment for me...I can just BE.  Then, before I know it, my fingers are sore from making knots and I've got a pile of color in my lap.  More often than not, Jo heads to bed, and then calls from the other room, "Serioulsy?  Are you really still working on that?  Turn off your brain already and come to bed!"...What she doesn't know is that, this IS the purest form of my brain being turned off, one of the few times that I'm really not thinking about anything but what my fingers are doing...And let me just say, that it feels great!

I've just added this trio of necklaces to the SHOP, hopefully there will be more making there way over there soon...First up though, I've got to tackle the list of custom orders that await creation as soon as I receive my supplies!