Hot Off the Bench!

Hi everyone! Here are pictures of some new jewelry I've been making. Both items are spoken for. The first is a large, chunky turquoise ring. I LOVE IT!!! It is so comfortable, which is surprising since it's so large.


This is a very unique and quite expensive stone. It is called Rock Butte Jasper. I got it at the last gem show and intended to keep it for myself, but like always I fall out of love quickly with such things. My good friends mother saw it a few months ago and laid claim. I set it in a very simple pendant as to not compete with the stone itself. I am very pleased with the turn out!


I thought it was funny how you can see the reflection of the light in the stone! Whoops!

Well, I am soon off to spend the afternoon with a girlfriend of mine. Chipotle here we come! Our plan was to go bum around charming downtown Hudson, WI but it's pouring rain so we'll see. I love cool rainy days like this every now and then though. It's just too bad that they seem to come on the days I can't just curl up in some sweats and read or watch a movie. Oh well.

Happy Autumn!

Summer is over and it's time to welcome in my favorite season of the year! I had a fantastic Summer full of fun adventures with my husband. But I am always glad to see Summer go by this time of the year. I am ready for sweaters, hot apple cider and taking car rides just to look at the changing colors of the leaves. There are too many things I love about this short season. To name a few: the beautiful and inspiring colors in nature, mulled cider, fluffy down comforters, cozy thick socks, homemade soups/chili, the crisp breeze, and finally, shorter days which equals more time to cuddle up on the couch and be lazy with my husband at the end of the day. Of course there are many more things I love about Fall. One of the most important for my little business is that the gem show comes to town every Fall!!! I get so excited to go. It has become a tradition for my sister Emily to come with me. We spend the entire day there together walking around trying to find treasures. We always get lunch at the hotel restaurant and spread our finds out on the table to assess what we still need to shop for. It's such a good time! Yes I am fully aware of how much of a dork I must sound like to the non-jewelry-makers who read my blog...but that's okay, I embrace it ; )


Here is a picture of my stash! White pearls, colorful pearls, turquoise, silver...you name it and it's probably in here somewhere!



This picture is almost embarrassing... Like I said, I have a bit of an obsession with white freshwater pearls of many shapes and sizes. I don't know what my problem is? I suppose I could be obsessed with worse things! In my defense not that you are accusing this is about 6 years worth of finds!


Now that I am caught up on orders and other business responsibilities I am devoting the rest of my week to getting ready for the gem show. Today I am going to start going through my supplies and see what I'll need (and not need...I always always buy too many green and white freshwater pearls, it's a sickness I swear...we'll see if I can stop myself this time). Then I am going to do some browsing online to check out new trends and get inspired. I must say that this is one of my most favorite parts of owning a jewelry business! I love to see what other jewelry artists are doing and creative ways they are using classic materials. I always find some kind of new trick to add to my design process.

Well, it's time to move on with my day. I hope you're all well and enjoying this first day of Fall as much as I am. I'm thinking I'll make chicken/wild rice soup for dinner...mmmmmmm

A New Look

It always seems to take me a long time and several attempts to finally find a "look" I like. Like many of you I am very particular about aesthetics; especially when it comes to the presentation of my work. I've been playing around with different styling techniques since I opened up my etsy shop but I think I finally found one that I really like. There needs to be some tweaking in the photography but I like the general idea. Below are images of some of my new work that I will be posting in my shop this weekend. Enjoy the sneak peak!

These sweet little hoops will become a staple in my shop. I hope they sell well!
This turquoise stone used to be on the cuff bracelet at the end of this entry. It was way to big for the band so I sawed it off, drilled some holes and turned it into a pendant. I like it better now that it's a pendant but I wish I would have embellished the bezel differently.


I started making a new style of hoops and am loving the results. This particular pair is embellished with handmade fine silver leaves. I have a feeling they will start popping up in my work here and there.


Drum roll please....................
















This might be one of my favorite things I have made to date!!! Okay, so it's tied with my moldovite wrap ring, but still!

This is the band that I sawed that turquoise stone/bezel off of and replaced with this sweet white oval freshwater pearl. I cannot believe how comfortable this cuff is! It has not left my wrist since I made it on Wednesday. Except for when sleeping and showering...but it's so comfy I could probably sleep with it on.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to in the studio lately. I am slowly but surely starting to absorb how busy I am going to be the Autumn/Holiday season. The panic hasn't hit yet and I am hoping I can stick to my list and avoid all the stress of last minute preparations. I hope I can start blogging more often. I really want to figure out how to personalize my blog more with cute back drops and fonts etc. How do you do that??? I see that many of you have made your blogs so cute, any helpful hints?
Take care!

Uh Oh!

Does this freak anyone out but me?!?!? I remember a couple summers ago silver prices soared over $19/oz...OUCH! When I started ordering silver in bulk over 5 years ago it was a $7 market. What happened?! This is definitely hard on business. It's hard to afford to buy the needed supplies and it's harder to sell the finished product because you've got raise prices to compensate. What's a jeweler to do? Thankfully I don't work in gold (yet)!

It's been a busy month. Unfortunately my BRAND NEW computer has been acting up. Have you ever heard of the "blue screen of death"? Well, it has become my arch enemy. After several troubleshooting tests, many many hours of my studio time, and some cuss words we found out that the problem was in the memory. So Dell sent us brand new memory cards and a prepaid box to send the computer out for repair incase the new memory didn't fix the problem. The new memory seemed to fix the problem. All the diagnostic tests passed and we were in the clear...until this morning. My husband went to start the computer and there was that damned blue screen again! GRRRR. So, now it's back to doing hardware diagnostic tests and crossing fingers that everything passes. So far so good, we'll see. We may have to use that prepaid box afterall. What a pain!

Other than that life has been pretty good. I struggled through the entire design/creation process for my early fall line but it's done and delivered. To be completely honest I haven't been that impressed with my past two lines. I always try to make things that I would love to have and that's not the case with late summer or early fall. So all weekend long I pondered the design rut I've been in. I was prompted to go back and look at all of my old inventory pictures. I figured I've had a lot of success with all of those designs and maybe it's time to try and stop reinventing the wheel with every new seasonal line. I'm so glad I did that because I realized that I've been trying to fix something that isn't broken. My old designs are still some of my personal favorites and they've all sold very well. With a little tweeking they are fresh and lively! This will sound very cheesy but I feel alive again! Working in the studio has been the pleasure it used to be. So, lesson learned: stick with what works and build off it as you go. Sooner or later those time-tested designs will naturally transform into something new and exciting. I just think I was trying too hard.

Anyway, I suppose it's time to go check the progress of diagnostic tests. This last one takes a couple of hours but it should be done soon. I am anxious to try to restart my little "green machine" my computer is a lovely green color and she if she's in working order again. Wish me luck!

What's on the Bench?

I am currently working on my Fall 2009 line. So far I only have 2 earring designs and one necklace design. I don't know what's wrong with me but I CANNOT think of anything for this season. That rarely happens to me; usually I can sketch and sketch and sketch. So, even though I don't have the complete line designed I started with what I had and will go from there. DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN TO YOU?

This is my new studio space. It's not very exciting at all. I'm tucked away in a small area of my dad's garage, which is dirty, dusty and not very inspiring. But I am very grateful to have a space he so generously allows me to use.

Mike and I are currently discussing the idea of buying my parents house next summer. They were planning on putting it on the market around that time. It's a really great house. I grew up here and would love to raise a family here. This is a picture of the potting shed/greenhouse that my dad built for my mom. It is located right off the back yard. If we buy the house this will become my studio! I can't believe how perfect it would be. It has lots of room and even more potential. I have been thinking about what I'd do to make it "me". I have way too many ideas to list. But some of them would be a bright, fun paint job, window planter boxes full of gorgeous flowers, and some pretty landscaping of course. I can't let myself get too excited about it right now since we're not sure about buying the place yet. Lots to think about!

Anyway, I am really in the mood to organize and clean etc. I am going to clean our room, do some decorating and then try to figure out how to transfer pictures to my new computer. After that I'll be back in the studio working on Fall 09. I hope your having a great day!

Eloping

My sister Emily is eloping tomorrow (me, my parents, the grooms parents and Em's son will all be at the wedding) and this is the outfit she is going to wear. We are throwing her a surprise bridal shower tonight and the theme is "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue". My sister Sam is going to loan Emily the jewelry I made her for her wedding (something borrowed) and I made her this new jewelry to pull her outfit together(something new). The crystals in the set I made are from my husbands grandmother and are from around 1940 so they are vintage (something old). Emily is absolutely gorgeous but now she'll really sparkle on her very-last-minute wedding day!

Truly a Treasure

I made this ring for my dad's massage therapist. She found the pearl while she was eating oysters! How cool is that?!? We are going to barter so I'll get a massage out of the deal. Yes! Anyway - enjoy the pictures.