Inspiration Vacation

I am taking my cousin Leah on a vacation within her vacation. My husband needs a break from us. Haha.

First I am going to corrupt her the best I can by taking her to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Tucson. I performed in the Los Angeles cast for 4 years, and have not been in about 4 years. We are going to meet my good friend Bernie up there. It will be so good to see an old dear friend. The best part is that we are going to stay at the Hotel Congress which is super haunted. Yippie. I am sure I will be way too tired to even care if a ghost haunts us.

From Tucson we are headed to one of my favorite towns in the world! Jerome! Again staying at the Ghost City Inn which is super haunted. I requested one of their haunted rooms. What I love about Jerome is how easy it is to get inspired. There are so many artists that live there and work there that just seeing their works sparks creativity in my soul.

After Jerome we are going to the only aquarium in the state. Unfortunately it is going to be 110 degrees in Phoenix, but we will manage by staying at the Hilton with their built in water park, Hole in the Wall. I plan on staying in the lazy river until my sunscreen wears off! And shopping at H&M is on the list! So excited...new wardrobe! I can't afford one, but I don't care. That is what credit cards are for...right??

It will be very exciting to get out of town, out of the house, see old friends, and go on a mini vacation.

With that being said all orders made in my shop this week will be made/mailed next week.

Rain!

Next week Leah and I are heading out to Tucson, Jerome, and Phoenix and while on our trip I am going to pick up some etching supplies so she can make a hebrew ring.

I have been so lucky lately. I have made numerous sales in my etsy shop. Its been really neat because when an order comes in, my cousin Leah and I run to my studio to create. It has been fun teaching Leah how to solder. She is getting good at it too.

After an order comes in the really fun part is packaging it up to ship out. If the item fits I use these great little boxes intended to be used on desks to hold paperclips and other small office supplies. They have a little magnet on the back so you can stick them on a filing cabinet, or on the fridge. I put the jewelry in the box and carefully wrap it all up like a birthday gift. Who doesn't like to receive gifts that they carefully have to unwrap to find their little treasure inside?



This ring is being shipped to Rachel Krech from www.AssociatedContent.com in Des Plaines Illinois. She did an article on me for her site. Here is a link to the article. Its so exciting!

It is rainy and muggy here and I love it! Just the type of weather I live for! I really should move to Seattle where it is like this all the time.

teaching

My 15 year old cousin is staying with me until the end of July. She asked if I could teach her how to make a ring. She wants a spinner ring with hebrew going around the band. Thinking back to my metal smith classes I decided to start her off with copper.
As I filled an order for etsy, I taught her how to saw, file, sand, solder, and tumble copper. She made this adorable pendant which she has been carrying around with her all day. I have to go to my supplier in Tucson to get some etching materials so that we can actually make the ring she wants to make.
In the meantime, I am going to have her make a ring band in copper. Then we will try silver.
Its sort of refreshing to be teaching someone something new and its even more refreshing to have them respond in such a positive way to my teachings!

We are now off to watch the fireworks!

Busy as a bumble bee

I am so busy. My night job was exhausting these last few weeks. Now my 15 year old cousin is visiting me for a month.

Yesterday one of my pieces was on Etsy's main showcase, but did not result in any sales. I was very upset. I think my pieces are pretty with good quality, but I guess people are not buying.

I am debating if I should shut down my etsy shop and just sell my goods in town in the store where I work one day a week. My jewelry usually flies out the door there.

I am too busy right now to even contemplate these things. I have a few more showcases lined up for this month, I will await to see what happens afterwords.

I have been busy

These next two weeks are going to be super busy for me.

First off, tomorrow night I am opening a long time dream of mine, the Bisbee Mini Museum of the Bizarre. It is what it sounds like! A small (10 x 10 foot room) museum of all my weird stuff.
The Bisbee Mini Museum of the Bizarre...click here...you know you want too!

Then next weekend is our semi annual Paranormal and Ghost Hunting Weekend here in Bisbee. So I am trying hard to get ready for that.

My major malfunction when trying to pull off grand events like these is that I have to depend on other people to do their part of the work. Sometimes this is very frustrating since I am a major control freak!

Regardless of my work load at my day (night) job, I was able to produce a bunch of new jewelry designs this week since my etsy shop will be featured in the showcase on Friday!




I have a craving to go to the beach, but my work load makes that close to impossible. Therefore I started making ocean or beach themed pieces. I love this little whale ring.



Sometimes I sketch out a design before going into my studio, and sometimes I just take some silver and go at it, totally spontaneous. That is what happened with this pendant.



I bought this Mexican Jelly Opal at the Bisbee Gem & Mineral Show. It has fire and is super yummy.




Another ocean / beach themed necklace. My husband loves crabs. I mean LOVES crabs. He won't eat them because he considers them his friends. I thought he would get a kick out of this pendant. I kept this one and in my etsy shop have it listed as made to order. Of course I under estimated my husband because he didn't even notice me wearing it when he came home from work. :(




These little bunny foo foo earrings were inspired by my doggie Gizmo's love for the bunnies in our neighborhood. I swear they triple in number everyday! All Gizmo wants to do is chase after the bunnies on his morning walks. I do not know what he would do with it if he caught one though. Good thing he is always on a leash!


Click here to visit my etsy shop

Arizona in the Summer is AWFUL!

Ok. The title of this post is a lie. It isn't awful once the monsoons come. But the month leading up to monsoon season is just horrible! It is so hot and dry it is driving me nuts! My skin is dry and itchy! It is so hot that it is almost unbearable and I refuse to use the swamp cooler until the heat is a health risk.

I need water! Water water water, preferably the ocean!!

I long for the beach! Oh I miss the beach so much. I want to be there right now with my feet in the sand and the waves crashing on my legs. Walking up and down the beach looking for shells and treasures. Oh how I long for it. I need it, but unfortunately my day job (which is really a night job) prevents me from such luxuries as a mini vacation!

There are a few items on etsy.com which remind me of the beach and how much I love it and them!

This seahorse ring is so wonderful. Don't you just want to dive into the druzy stone and go swimming?







I love sea urchins and this necklace marries both sea urchins and star fish.




http://www.etsy.com/listing/45052374/sea-urchin-collection-starfish-necklace


Oh I love finding washed up pieces of coral on the beach. Its kind of a treasure the ocean gives to lucky people. I have tons of coral from my many adventures in Belize and Honduras and this necklace is really inspiring me to put some of those pieces to good use instead of keeping them in a zip lock bag.





http://www.etsy.com/listing/41732836/magdeleine-sterling-silver-ceramic-set?ref=sr_gallery_16&ga_search_query=coral+bezel+set&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

What to do with Silver Scraps??

For 7 years I have been collecting silver scraps. I had no idea what to do with them until last night. I couldn't sleep and it just came to me. Like a bolt of lightning!
I decided to take some of the scraps, melt them, and manipulate the molten silver before it cooled into the shape of a top of a tree. Then I used silver wire scraps to make the trunks, and fused the two pieces together.

I am really happy with how most of them came out. I personally thought it was a good use of otherwise unusable materials.

Woot for me!