Where did 2013 go?

Seems like yesterday I was bidding 2012 farewell. 2013 certainly zipped by... I suppose one of my resolutions could be to swing by here and post an update now and then! So there, I've put it in writing. I will try to do better this year with the blog. 

Until then, do have a wonderful, happy new year!

Adieu, 2012!

Well, it's been quite a while since I stopped by here. It has indeed been a wonderful, yet sometimes crazy year.  I figured it's an appropriate time to reflect on all that has happened and resolve to be more present here in 2013.

2012 started out to be relatively 'usual'. It quickly got rolling though, with applying to various local art shows and a couple a little further away from home. I decided to branch out to surrounding cities: Yellow Springs and Columbus. Both went well and I met some nice artists and shoppers and hope to be back there again this year. The drives were not bad, but it does make for a longer day driving 1-2 hours from home and then back after working my booth all day. Nothing I can't handle and it seemed worthwhile to get my brand out a little further.

May had my husband and I decide to purchase my in-laws' home across town and also had us taking a family trip with them to Hawaii, along with my husband's sisters, brother, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and grandma. (I think that's everyone, it was quite an organizational feat!)

We visited Honolulu with just my husband's sister for a couple days and then flew over to Kuaui to meet the rest of the family. We saw so many breathtaking places and sites! I will leave all that for another post...

July rolled around and one of the aforementioned shows. Turns out it was the Columbus one, 2 hours from home and the day before a trip to Las Vegas with two of my nieces. One had turned 21 in April, the other turned 21 at midnight the night we arrived. We did some shopping, some gambling, saw Cirque du Soleil's "O" at Bellagio, ate oh-so-much and just bummed around the strip sight seeing.

I also was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a 3-day PMC workshop/class through which I became a certified PMC artist. I am technically allowed to teach it now too, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing that any time soon. It's good to have the option though. I really enjoyed learning some new techniques.

Over the summer, we said goodbye to one of our darling cats, Zoey. She had been receiving subcutaneous fluids for about 3 years and on k/d food to maintain her failing kidneys. When we returned from Hawaii, I noticed she wasn't eating so well and she began losing weight and from there steadily declined. We didn't let it go on too long. I was just happy to get to spend an extra 3 years with her. She was such a sweetheart and I miss her dearly.

A month or so went by and my husband and I stopped in to Petsmart to get cat food for Lucy and dog food for Caesar. We stopped in to visit the adoptable cats like we always do and that is where we met Cheez-It. He was a little squirmy orange thing, just as cute and as playful as can be. We left and then turned around and went right back to apply for his adoption. Luckily for us, we got a call from the adoption place a few days later asking if we were still interested in him. Of course we were! I picked him up that Friday. He is now named Colby (like the cheese!) and he has brought such joy and happy energy to the house... Zoey would have loved him, I know it. Lucy is getting used to him and he and Caesar are the best of friends.

The first part of big move finally took place on Black Friday. So, we are currently in the house where my husband and his siblings grew up, but we still have a ton of stuff to clean out of our old house to get that on the market. I've been doing so much painting and settling... a little crazy! But, we are enjoying it here. The snowy scene is a view of our back yard. (Okay, it's really our neighbor's yard from our yard. They have fewer wires and no driveways behind them! lol)

In Etsy shop news, I set a goal to have 200 sales by December 31. As luck would have it, mixed with some hard work to get more pieces made and listed, I had an awesome November and an even better December and made my goal with time to spare. I am sitting at 207 sales right now!

So, as you can see, it has been quite an eventful year! Here is to a wonderful, busy, crazy 2013. Happy new year to everyone. May we all grow wiser, make new friends and realize our dreams.

What's new? Cockatoo blue!

Just checked out my Etsy activity to find that my new teal apatite bracelet has been included in this awesome cockatoo blue treasury! Thanks to LanaBetty for including me – you should stop by and check out her cute little shop.

On another note, show season is just about upon us once more. I just received notification of acceptance into my first one this year, the Trillium Art Fair on June 10 at Glenwood Gardens. This will be my 4th year at this lovely annual art fair, and I'm really looking forward to it again this year! Stay tuned for more shows soon!

Lots of pink for spring!

I have been keeping busy around here lately, between work and getting more pieces made and listed. Not so busy that I couldn't snap a couple photos of one of my magnolia trees while it was in bloom! It came very early this year. The buds were on the tree for about a week and then one (unusually) warm March morning I left for work. When I returned home, the entire tree was just covered with large pink blossoms. It was spectacular!

Below is a custom PMC order I recently completed. My customer, Ashley, was just lovely, and so easy to work with. It was the first time I've done a double-sided pendant in one piece, so it was a bit of a challenge. The front was a floral pattern that I have used a few times for earrings and pendants. The reverse featured an inscription and her husband's and children's first initials. It was a family birthday gift to her from them. Very sweet!

I oxidized all the sterling silver and the fine silver pendant, and then hand-buffed it to a soft gray with a high shine. It is paired with a soft powdery pink rose quartz briolette, which is perfect with the gray. It took a bit longer than anticipated as I had to wait on the stone to arrive, but she insisted she was not in a hurry. In the end, she was just thrilled with the result, which makes me very happy!

Look up!

Every once in a while the winter sky does something so gorgeous, you can't help but run for your camera. I was sitting here at my desk, not paying attention to anything but what was in front of me on my screen, when I heard some Canada geese passing through the neighborhood. I looked up and out the window and that sunset is what I saw. My only regret is that I didn't capture the silhouettes of the geese too. So very stunning!

Happy (belated) year of the dragon!

Every year we talk about heading out to Las Vegas for Chinese New Year because of all the celebrations and decorations. This year we finally made it! Fitting since it is the Year of the Dragon and my half Chinese husband happens to have been born under that sign.

While we didn't make it out there in time for the kick-off with the traditional dragon dance, we did go around to various casinos collecting commemorative $8 Year of the Dragon casino chips. Of course along the way, we saw some really impressive dragon displays!

These first three (above and below) were at the Wynn. So cool!

This one at Palazzo breathed 'smoke' throughout the day. It was enormous, as you can see! Around the back was a small pond with koi.

The next three photos are from the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. They really do it up, but then, they have this space that is dedicated to decorating for the various seasons of the year, which is different from most of the other resorts there. It really sets them apart though.

They had dragons representing each element; wood, fire, earth, metal and water. They also had a pagoda, larger than life Chinese coins and firecrackers, and of course, copious amounts of flowers!

Aria's lobby display with beautiful lanterns lining the entire ceiling. The photo doesn't do this justice!

And, although MGM Grand did not have a dragon display, they did get their stately lion into the spirit with butterflies, gold coins and firecrackers. It's one of my favorite casino resorts, so I thought it deserved a mention!

A very colorful, very paisley treasury.

Love the pop of color here. And thank you to StampShackLady (who has an adorable shop, by the way) for including my paisley and pink quartz PMC necklace! Stop by and check it out!

Tying up loose ends and a last minute trip.

First the business: I have been a complete blog slacker for the last several months. I don't know what my problem is. I could say I've been busy or distracted, but I think mostly I've just hit a blog rut and haven't felt I've had much to say here lately. I will try to do better this year!

Well, I really have been pretty busy with work (not making excuses!) and trying to make my goal of 100 pieces in my Etsy shop by the end of 2011. I ended up with 82. I'm not terribly upset with this, as I had a last minute show in early December, and November and December found me a nice amount of sales from the shop too, so, all is well. I think I'll reach my goal of 100 pieces very soon and then set the next listing milestone for myself.

I hit my first sales milestone — 50 sales — on Etsy at the end of October. 60 wasn't far behind and hopefully things keep rolling now that the holidays are past.

In other news, my husband started a new job back in September which has him doing a fair amount of traveling. So far he is really enjoying his new endeavors, and he is home on the weekends and some weekdays in between engagements, so I am ending up with plenty of time to work on new jewelry and listings.

Now the pleasure part of this post: The afore mentioned new job found hubby in Phoenix, AZ for about 4 weeks. Rather than coming home for one of those weekends, I found pretty decent airfare out of Dayton, OH and so I flew out there to meet him. We planned to drive up to Sedona for a weekend, which is just a couple hours away. It was my first time flying solo, which at first was a bit frightening to me, but I got over my fear and then ended up at the conclusion that it's just a little boring.

We booked a jeep tour with A Day In The West. It was originally supposed to be a photographic tour (smooth trail, panoramic views), but that trail was closed by Forestry the day before my arrival due to ice. We switched to a sunset tour instead. Well, this was not a smooth trail. It was quite rocky. Bumpy is an understatement! It was so much fun and so interesting to hear our guide's stories and he was very knowledgeable about the plant life, which was very cool, and about Sedona in general. This is the sunset over the mountains:

The next day, we didn't really have any plans, so my husband mapped out a route to drive around to some of the well-known vantage points. We stopped at one of the visitors' centers too, and found the lady there to be quite helpful, providing advice and maps. She recommended Weber's IGA's deli counter for great sandwiches made to order, so we stopped there for sandwiches, snacks and drinks. So pretty much what we did is take advantage of the gorgeous day and we drove up around the red rock mountains, stopping here and there for photos. We ate our picnic lunch at the overlook at the Sedona Airport. The sandwiches were awesome and the view too, of course.

One place the visitors' center lady recommended was Boynton Canyon. You can drive through it yourself without being on a Jeep tour. We were in a regular car, but I guess they have to warn you about the road being unpaved. We didn't have any issues getting around, but it was definitely bumpy!

At one point in Boynton Canyon, we started to see these cactuses along the side of the road and we pulled over to snap a couple pics. Then we looked up and realized they were scattered all along the mountainside. I guess it was a particularly favorable spot for them to grow. There must be some water run-off or something on that side. They look like something out of a movie. I made it out without being injured by one!

So that was our little taste of the Southwest. I would go back there in a heartbeat. It is something to see! I made it back home safe and sound too, wrapping up my first solo flight. I have a feeling I may get to have a few more little weekend trips this year if my husband goes somewhere interesting. I will fly solo again for more great photo opportunities!

Where has November gone?

Seems like yesterday I was talking about September and shows and such. Now, here it is less than a week before Thanksgiving. I'm not sure where the time went!

In October, I was a participant again this year in Art Off Pike, which went very well. They seemed to do more advertising this year and it paid off with a steady stream of shoppers throughout the day. Sales were good and I gave out lots of business cards that will hopefully yield some more Etsy sales. After that, the first weekend in November was the Autumn Air Art Fair. It was my first year there and it was a nice break doing an inside show. No tent to lug around! There was also a steady crowd there and sales were very good!

Speaking of Etsy, I made my 50th (and then 51st) sale just recently! Exciting stuff there. I have been constantly working to create more pieces and get them listed, increasing my inventory, but with the number of successful shows I did over the summer (a great problem to have, I know!), it has been difficult. My goal at the beginning of the year was to reach 100 pieces in my shop and keep it above that number. I have about a month left and currently 71 pieces listed. I think I can do it.

My husband and I just returned earlier this week from a short trip to our favorite place: Las Vegas. This time, we were fortunate enough to stay at the new Cosmopolitan. My husband worked his magic at the front desk and managed to get us onto the 67th floor. The view was astounding! We were able to walk out onto the balcony, which was overlooking the Bellagio fountains. See the night time photo above. The other photo is of the sunrise over the mountains and Planet Hollywood, also from the balcony.

September waning, show season tapering.

Seems like I've been away from my blog for months. It's funny, it's towards the end of show season and I have been busier than ever. September has been an exceptional month for me. It has been a record-setting month for me in sales at shows and my Etsy shop certainly helped the numbers, my husband started a new job, we welcomed a new niece into the family, and somewhere in there I celebrated another birthday with a fabulous meal with aforementioned wonderful husband at a steakhouse we had never tried.

I started the month out with the West Chester Art Market, where a lady visited my booth and bought a pair of earrings then said she may be back. About 10 minutes before closing, she came running back to my booth, credit card in hand, and purchased another pair of earrings and 3 necklaces! Hers were my only sales all day that day. Already behind in designing and producing more pieces, I had about a week to get ready for a big show - the Mason Arts Festival.

Naturally, that happened to be the week that I was stuck at work late (like 9 and 10:30pm late) almost every night and I was out of PMC. I put in an order for the clay and had to schedule 2-day delivery and then. Upon its arrival, I had to figure out when to work with it, dry it and fire it, leaving myself time to complete the pieces! Somehow that all worked out and I had several new pieces ready for Mason.

Although the morning had drizzle and cool temperatures, the organizers still managed to get a ton of people to attend. (That show is top notch!) I had a great spot for this my second year, right inside the first row of booths. I had my first sale within the first hour and 2 more almost immediately following. It was amazing! I even had a few repeat customers from the previous weekend's Art Market. Very cool. Sales were good that entire day and the weather pretty much held out for us. All of the pieces I scrambled to complete the night before sold that day. I can't wait for next year!

This is a view from my booth towards the stage, where various musical and dance groups performed throughout the day. They did a really nice job lining up entertainment for the festival.

View to the left. Pretty early on in the day and a decent start on the crowd.

This is my most recent show in Milford, OH, at the 6th Annual Art Affaire at the Promont House Museum. This show did not have the benefit of the weather holding off, nor did it have sufficient parking or a big crowd and my sales were decent, but I really like the way my booth is shaping up here. I'm starting to try to achieve more of a boutique feel. I think it's getting there!

I have only 3 shows left at this point: one more West Chester Art Market, Art Off Pike and the Autumn Air Art Fair, which will be a new one for me. Hopefully October and November continue the upward trend. It will be a busy couple of weeks for me getting ready!

The basement just got a lot hotter.

Meet my new friend: the Paragon SC-3 kiln.

Ever since I started working with PMC a couple years ago, I've tossed around the idea of owning my own kiln. Previously, I would have to form my pieces, prep them for firing and then drop them off at a local bead store and pay to have them fired. After running into some, let's call them scheduling issues with firings, I swore them off and pretty much stopped working with PMC. (Heck, I pretty much stopped shopping there. Anyway...)

Back in June I received an email from a nice lady over at Metal Clay Supply who informed me that they had received a few factory reconditioned SC-2 kilns at a discounted price and that it was first come, first served to buy them. Well, I responded quickly, but didn't get one, but I was kept on the list in case they received any others. I didn't give it much more thought until I got another email saying they got a few SC-3 kilns instead for just a bit more. Well, I jumped on that offer! It is likely more kiln than I need, but then it gives me room to expand into other areas if I want to get into fusing glass or things like that later.

I won't lie, I was a bit scared to use it at first. I mean, these things get into 1000's of degrees. Well I read the manual and did some online research for the best way to safely set-up and operate it. I ended up buying a couple 18 inch square ceramic tiles to set it on, on top of a sturdy cabinet in our basement. I had to do some much needed tidying up too, while I was at it, so there was a clear safety area of non-combustibles around it. (See, using words like combustibles makes me nervous!) We had been experiencing some severe storms all week too, and I didn't want to start a batch and then lose power. Naturally when I turned on the kiln, the lightning started. But it made it through, thankfully!

Programming it was a breeze, basically like using an oven. You set the speed, temperature and hold time. Easy! Somehow I got the idea that it would take hours to fire a batch of silver PMC. This is incorrect. In fact, my PMC3 took a mere 25 minutes of the kiln being used - from start up to completion of firing. I did leave it in idle overnight to cool. I didn't even open it until the morning, but the temperature continued to decline the rest of the evening.

Here was the first batch when I opened up the kiln. As you can see, I have plenty of room in there.

I love how pearlescent the pieces look when they come out of the kiln.

Some polishing and burnishing (my next purchase might just be a tumbler/polisher!)

And a little patina added to most of the pieces.

This is the first piece I've listed in my etsy shop. It's called Tapestry and you can find it here. I'm thrilled with the results and I'm sure this is just the first of many new PMC creations to come.

A fabulous time.

Ahh... Las Vegas... Absolutely my favorite place to visit. We just returned from a little 4 night trip late last Thursday night. We had plans for my niece and her friend to join us and that fell through. Then we had plans for friends to join us and that also fell through. Well, of course we decided to just go it alone!

This, our 10th visit, finally found us at that landmark sign! I have been bugging my husband to take me there for, oh, I don't know, 9 trips? I realize it's touristy and cheesy, but I just wanted to see it in person and get a few photos. Our flight arrived late (11:15 pm) and my husband surprised me with a hired car pick up, instead of the usual cab ride to the hotel.

Vic, our driver, first took us to In-N-Out Burger at Dean Martin and Tropicana (which, at 11:30 pm, was absolutely packed!), and then on to the famous sign for some photos. I apologize as I'm not quite sure how to operate the camera successfully at night, but here we are at the sign!

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood this time, a first for us. At check-in, we tried the $20 tip trick, and we got upgraded to a Resort Room with a strip view of the Bellagio fountains! Fools that we are, we were never in the room a single time when the fountains were going. Nice. lol This is the fantastic view from our room of Paris and Caesars Palace. The Bellagio is off to the left behind the balloon.

The trip highlights this time included making our way to the new Cosmopolitan, which is absolutely beautiful and finding their secret hidden pizza place, which was phenomenal -- I had the white pizza, my husband had the meatball, sausage and pepperoni. We took in the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE at the Mirage, the Beatles themed one. That was great, not my favorite Cirque show, but awesome none the less. We checked out Encore, which we hadn't seen last May and had dinner at the award-winning Steakhouse at Circus Circus. As much as I enjoyed dinner there, our steaks were not cooked correctly and, well, we had to go to Circus Circus to eat. Not something I'd really recommend, but I'm glad we tried it. All-in-all, not a great gambling trip for us, but we had a good time and enjoyed some good food.

Our trip wouldn't be complete without a whacky non-sequitur photo, so here are Vic (our driver) and myself at the sign, pretending like we go way back. Silly.

New pieces, new treasuries.

Lucky me! Two of my newer pieces are in treasuries! Check them out:

The first one "Meet me at midnight party..." was put together by BrotherWorks, which features my Bordeaux ruby necklace and is quite lovely. Really great color scheme with the pops of red against the subtle grays.

Next we have "Mmmm… Earthy", a beautiful bright and colorful one put together by CandiceChetta. She included my Rivulet turquoise earrings. It feels so cheerful and summery!

Please stop by and visit the treasuries and the two shops! One of these days, I may end up on the front page... :)

Adventures in metal.

Last year around this time I was searching for a class in metalsmithing. I actually found one that I wanted to take, but it was full and registration was closed. I put it on my trusty google calendar to look for this year.

When January rolled around, I was on it like a hawk! I registered and paid for my 3-day workshop, Basic Metalsmithing Techniques, the day it opened up. I was so excited. Then the waiting started. Waiting for confirmation that there were enough interested students. Then waiting for the supply list to be released in April. And, of course, waiting for June 24. Waiting, waiting, waiting!

Well, I'm not one to wish away spring, that's for sure, but I was happy when my weekend finally came up. It was Friday evening, all day Saturday, and most of the day Sunday. I was nervous too. I've never used a torch, a belt sander, a rolling mill... I could go on. That's why I was taking the class though. There were 12 students total, a couple of them were in the same newbie boat as me. Our instructor was a gem, no pun intended. She is an awesome artist and just an awesome person! Her name is Ginger Seiple, you can google her to see her gorgeous jewelry.

We spent the weekend watching Ginger's demos, learning to properly handle and use various tools and completing some of our very own projects. It was really a ton of fun. I'm really glad I put my fears aside (those of setting myself on fire with the torch, cutting myself with the saw or hammering my fingers... lol) because I got so much out of the class!

This is what my workbench looked like towards the beginning of the class. We worked mostly in copper and brass as it is simply cheaper than sterling silver at the moment and not as painful if you mess something up. Not a problem to me, I'm a copper fan. Brass, not so much, but it was good to have the mixture at times.

This is my first soldered piece! A pendant. I believe it will eventually live on a leather cord, just have to make a clasp. This one is textured brass (palm) on top of copper, which I textured with the rolling mill, and a hammered piece of bronze wire that I drilled to serve as the bail.

My first ring! We were given the option to work in sterling silver for the rings, and, well, I am a silver girl, so I did opt for it. I love the mixed metals here as well. I textured the cup with one hammer and gave the band a different hammered finish. This one is not perfectly round, but, what can I say, it was my first attempt!

This is probably my favorite piece. I had the half drilled pearl from one of our Vegas trips where I stopped at the Pearl Factory. I thought of it on Saturday night as I was driving home, and I thought I'd take it in Sunday for our ring projects. I really love the way it turned out and I've gotten several compliments on it and the other ring. I would look for some rings in my Etsy shop in the near future. Yes, they will be round. :)

In the end, I faced one of my all-time biggest fears: public speaking. Since I was new to Craftsummer, Ginger asked if I would address the group of all of the classes taking place that weekend, telling them about my experience. I guess it was around 48 people. I couldn't tell her no, so I sucked it up and made it through okay. It really wasn't so bad, I guess. Wouldn't want to do that for a living though!

On top of all of that, I ordered a kiln on Friday before class! More to come later on that lucky deal!

Two shows in a row.

Well, that was brave. Maybe bordering on crazy. In my wisdom, I decided this year it would be a good idea (for some reason) to do back to back shows. One on Sunday, the next on the following Saturday. It's not that it turned out poorly, it just added a little bit of stress to my week in between. After the previous week's successful show, I was down 11 pieces, so I was scurrying around all week like a mad woman trying to get some new ones made!

This time around it was the 7th Annual Village Green Fine Art Fair in Fairfield, Ohio. It was my first time at this venue. Again, great organizer, lots of help unloading and setting up. One little snag: it was raining when I left the house and it didn't stop until about an hour or so in, and then really just tapered off to a drizzle. Now, it wasn't pouring or anything and, thankfully, not storming. Just enough to be kind of a pain for setting up the tent. Once the tent was up, thanks to the help of Mike, one of the awesome volunteers, it really wasn't too bad.

Then there was some waiting for shoppers. And more waiting. Finally the weather started to break and it cleared up somewhat. At least it stopped raining. By mid afternoon, the sun was shining and all was well. I had decent sales, although my first was a pair of earrings around 11:30 and then I didn't have another until about the last 45 minutes or so. Two lovely ladies came by on recommendation of their daughters who told me earlier "they would love your stuff!" Thank you, daughters, for sending me your moms! They purchased six pieces between the two of them. And then another browser from earlier came back to purchase a pair of earrings she had convinced herself she had to have! Love it!

A rainy view from my booth. The park was very pretty... look at those lush hostas! They didn't mind the rain.

This is the lady's booth from next door to mine, Jan West. She made these incredible sculptures out of used bailing twine (used to bail hay). Upcycling at it's best, I'd say. Kids were delighted that they were allowed to touch and pet these creatures. Jan says they are made to go outside and that they elements won't hurt them. Very cool garden art!

This is their adorable pup, Maggie, who was best in show. Okay, okay, Jan's booth won best in show, but Maggie's pretty darn cute!

Jan ended up taking home best in show as well as the people's choice award. She was so surprised. It was very cool and she and her husband and dear little Maggie made nice neighbors!