Do you want to see my awesome mail day?

 

Well, I'm gonna show you anyway!

First of all, before you get jealous of my super spectacular mail day, you should know that my mail is mostly the kind that makes you feel as if you have failed at adulthood. 

Overdue bills, creditors, doctors bills, insurance forms, insurance denials, attorney correspondence and even letters from the IRS (that's the last year Mike ever does our taxes). In short, our mail sucks.

But today, oh, today was magnificent! Not one bill!

It has been so long since I could afford a nice package, but this was a splurge I could not resist; a package of vintage brass elements from Paris, France! She even wrote "Merci!"

 

Then  I got a check! Not a bill but actual money! It's a good one too!

In addition to the check I received a notice from one of my consignment stores that my product was featured in one of their local magazines, how cool is that!?!

Okay, as if that was enough to make me cry tears of joy, I received a copy of Belle Armoire and discovered to my delight, that there is not just one of my submissions but two! I didn't know, I thought perhaps they had been cut from this issue because I never received the articles to proof read. But they are there, both of them!

My mama was so proud.

The first article they changed a bit, which is fine, I totally trust Belle Armoire. I had originally titled the article Color Me Spring, because I used a metal coloring technique that looks wonderful on embossed brass.

I'm not really a "romping" kind of girl and the jewelry isn't really about resin. But whatever.

This article not only explains how to add a bit of color to raw brass but how to create monograms on polymer clay cabochons. They elected not to go with the stepped out photos but I feel you can still get a good enough idea from the text instructions.

Aren't their photos phenomenal!?! They made me look gorgeous!

The second article is stepped out with photos and explains how to combine crystal points with sari silk and seed beads.

Again, loving the photos! I really should start utilizing props in my own photos for my work, it really adds something, don't you think?

Okay, you must get the magazine to see more. There is so much packed into this issue, you are sure to find inspiration. I think my favorite was Nancy Schindler' s A Winter Wedding, but I loved the cuff bracelet by Diane Frey.

Thank you for letting me share my AWESOME mail day with you.

Positively Bubbling Over

This is going to be a long full post!

But I have good news to share; first, Mike has not come out of remission, his blood count is still good. For a normal person oxygenated red blood cell counts are usually above 15.0, Aplastic Anemia sufferers can be brought up to this through the use of anabolic steroids. Although this is good, steroids are steroids and the damage they can do to your liver, immunity, and cardiovascular system can be terrible. This was our 2nd fear, that the medication keeping Mike alive and functioning was also starting to destroy him. While this fear has been relieved it is still something that will need to be dealt with in the future, hopefully by then, they will have found a better, more gentle way for keeping Aplastic Anemia patients at a healthy level.

I can't stop hugging him, I am so darn grateful. This emotion will soon be gone after dealing with him being unemployed, home, hogging the t.v. for hours on end. lol. He is immersing his sorrows for being wrongfully fired in wii ping pong.

The other good news is;Holy Mother of All Things Near Impossible! I actually made it to the cover of Belle Armoire! This is such an awesome honor! While I can't afford a subscription, I have been able to go to bookstores on occasion and flip through their past editions. This is a very inspiring magazine for mixed media jewelers and the encouragement I have received from them has been touching. Please pick up a copy the next time you are in a book store and if anyone would like help in submitting their own jewelry, please contact me, I would love to help.

I hope to continue submitting articles on the current jewelry obsessions that take over my little studio. Thank you to all of you who took the time to vote on my previous post, I am so grateful for your support.

And now introducing the newest members of our family...... Powder and Donut!

Our little allergy boy who LOVES animals did a little research and found that most dander allergy suffers do not react to guinea pigs. So he seriously approached us with the sound logic that he could enjoy the responsibilities of learning to care for a pet by owning guinea pigs without having break outs. So we started to visit pet stores that sold them and had Rex hold them and found he was right, he had no reactions at all!

We priced all the items it would take to purchase the guinea pigs and their various equipment then planned to set aside approx. $100. Rex had saved about $44 from collecting change and allowance. In the mean time, Rex took over the trash, dishes and folding/putting away his own laundry to show us he was responsible enough to take care of the pets. He also did a ton of reading from both books and online to learn as much as he could about caring for guinea pigs. We wanted this so bad for our son, it was excruciating to have to wait until we could afford this new expense. His grandmas offered help, but we were still worried that we would get these little fellas (we found out it was better to have 2 to keep each other company) and not be able to keep up with the money necessary to maintain them properly.

Mike went on craigs list and found an incredible deal; with the father - Donut, 11 mo. the brown, white and black piggie, and son - Powder, 3mo. the black with powdered white nose, their whole pen, igloo, tube, chew log, toys and even a bag of food for $40! It was like one of those Christmas miracles. We went and met the guinies, Rex approved, they moved in and have quite happily adjusted to life with us.

I enjoy them quite a bit myself, snuggling them against my chest and listening to them chatter away, cutting fresh fruit and veggies for the kids and the guinies, helping Rex dry them after their baths. Mike has been peed on, which is hysterically funny to our kids.

Rex is keeping his end of the bargin, feeding and watering them daily, cleaning their pen, giving them baths, brushing their hair, spreading hay, teaching his younger sister how to hold them. Even setting up excersize runs outside when it isn't too cold. He loves them so much. I often go into his room and find one of them on the desk, contentedly being petted while Rex does his work.
He is getting ambitous. Trying to get his poppy to build him hutches so he can get a female and breed them. He wants 4 hutches, one for the males, one for the females and one for the babies. The fourth he has stated will be "The Love Room". We will make a special "Do Not Disturb" sign and hang it in front of the hutch. I just died when he told me this. I suggested we play Barry White for these special meetings. Hahahahahaha!

Belle Armoire Cover

I need your help!

I was shocked to see my work is being considered for the cover of Belle Armoire's Winter edition!

Not only that, but they have a survey where you can vote;

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB229QXP4HBZF

My work is on cover B. The dried and pressed flower petals preserved under resin represent seasons past, forever in memory and hopes for the future.

I am honored to be considered and would really appreciate your support.

Thank you!

Hammered Sterling Silver Frames

These have been made since June!

When some money came in from the book, I started planning my next batch of hand forged jewelry pieces. I searched for unique stone focal points, searched for freshwater pearls that matched them, ordered the leather, calculated and purchased all the wire I would need to create the frames, clasps, and wrapping, measured out the wire for each focal stone, shaped each frame to its unique stone, soldered, hammered, and oxidized each sterling frame, sketched out designs for the one of a kind necklaces and sorted everything into baggies for easy finding.

And there they have sat!

So my goal, while business is slow, is to have each one of the 23 necklaces finished in 2 weeks. maybe I will get them listed by 2011. You all hold me accountable, okay?

An aside, I was able to access my former flickr account and I uploaded some of the pieces I will be listing soon to coincide with the Turning Leaves article for Belle Armoire Jewelry Magazine winter edition. You can check those out on my blog side bar, along with my new Astore from Amazon. There's all sorts of items I like, including metal smith tools I personally use, music I listen to fanatically, and inspirational books to spark your creative muse!

Embossed Brass, Polymer Clay Cuff

First, I saw a monogram cuff at Anthropologie. It was cute and very expensive. Like $168.00.
I know, I know. It's not that bad, but I couldn't afford it so let me break it down for you.
If you were interested in making your own monogram cuff that is.

First I searched 'brass cuff' in etsy. The ones by urbanrose were not there yet, but that would save you a couple steps. I choose this one by mermaidsdowry. It was just the right width for me, but she has wider cuffs also, if you like a lot of FLARE. I also purchased one of these circle findings, which is just a bit larger then the width of the cuff. Don't you love when you find what you need at 1 store!!!

I put a drop of turquoise breeze acrylic paint on a paper towel and rubbed it over the brass embossing. You want the paint to go into the imprinted spaces of the embossed design.
Let that set for a few seconds, it dries very quickly. Now take a dry section of the paper towel and rub again over the surface, this takes the paint off the surface of the brass, but leaves it in the imprinted areas. I swiftly buffed the surface with the paper towell to bring up the shine of the brass.

Next I rolled out a bit of pearl white clay, cut a little circle that would fit inside the brass circle finding, baked, buffed and stamped the white circle with an "S" from making memories magnetic letter kit, Vintage Type. This letter measures only 1/4" long and fit perfectly!

I coated the letter cabochon with 3d crystal lacquer, available here at Sun and Moon crafts.
(she's the fastest shipper, with the best price and spectacular customer service.) and let that set.

Now all you have to do is place a drop of E6000 epoxy onto the center of the colored brass cuff and press the brass circle into it, hold for 30 seconds or so so the epoxy sets. Add a second drop of epoxy to the back of the clay cabochon and set this into the center of the brass filigree circle.
Let the decorated cuff set up over night.

You're done!

The price of your new cuff? Well, let's see that's approx. $9 plus shipping for the brass cuff and filigree circle., $8 for the glaze and epoxy, then $2 for the block of clay. Ink is just pennies and letter stamps can be found pretty inexpensively at any arts and crafts store. You would probably spend around $25 if you needed to buy everything.

Most importantly you made it yourself!

p.s. This technique is soon to be released in Belle Armoire's Jewelry Magazine with stepped out photos, variations and a more in depth explanation for Spring 2010!