The robots are coming!

Lookie! Its the robots that I was glazing yesterday... all fired! Well, I fired all that I had, but found myself short on robots. AGAIN! I don't know what it is about these guys, but this is the second time that I miscounted them and have to make more to complete an order that I thought I was done with. Oh well, back to the grind again, I guess.

I am starting to think that maybe I should start to schedule creative time into my day in order to get the time I have been seeking. My default is to keep working until I get things done, and then get creative time as my reward. That used to work for me, but as my work schedule has become more busy, and I have added more personal time into my schedule, I find that I can just never catch up. So I guess I have to manage my time better. I am thinking again about getting some help in the studio, and making plans to start having someone assist me occasionally, so that should help too.

Anyway, talking about robots and creativity... last weekend I was pleased to find myself unexpectedly at the Mini Maker Faire in Ann Arbor to check things out. There were all sorts of fantastic machines and robots there, making all sorts of sounds and whirling around. It was quite magical, and even though I don't really have a science or computer background, it got me really excited to see creativity in another form than the art and craft materials that I usually associate with. I see great potential for artists, crafters, computer geeks, and hackers to join forces and make some really cool stuff. I met some guys from I3Detroit, who are creating a co-operative hacker space in Metro Detroit, which is really an exciting idea. I am really enjoying learning about these new ideas and possibilities! I hope to incorporate some of these things into the DIY programming track that I am helping with for Penguicon!

Working Through and Extra Links

Well the week has gone by and I haven't really had anything to blog about. I suppose I should post some of the pictures from ConStruct or talk a little bit about it before it fades into memory. It was a great time, but as usual, the days that follow a big event are filled with trying to catch up, especially if I took off time in order to participate in it. And ConStruct was four solid days of no working for me, so I and not complaining about not having personal time off. It was very relaxing and much fun! But I have been working hard since Monday. Here is a picture of a pile of robots that are freshly glazed. They are cooling in the kiln right now, and I may be able to ship them off tomorrow. I hope to spend the day catching up on work and then I have been promising myself some time to play with beads and resin and clay for a long time now, and I think if I don't make time for that VERY soon, I will explode! Hopefully I will have something new to blog about next week. Until then, here are this week's Extra Links:

A Bead A Day
Have you ever used sterling silver curly-Q tubes in your jewelry designs?? Lisa is searching for cool ideas for these adorable tubes.

About.com Jewelry Making
Do you use blogging to promote your jewelry business? Tammy has some thoughts for you on this.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene expands the editorial staff and welcomes Lorelei Eurto!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi uses shrink plastic to make a neat little bracelet.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Cindy unveils a new series of Art Nouveau inspired beads. In French it's known as "Stile Floreal" and in English it's the "Floral Style."

Jewelry & Beading
Looking ahead to the fall, Cyndi shows how to make a new necklace called "Autumn Arbor".

Katie's Beading Blog
Katie's mixing metals and a fun peyote bail with a giant crystal disk.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is hosting a Necklace Round Robin, but you have to leave a comment to be entered to win a spot!

The writing and art of Andrew thornton.
Beadfest Philadelphia was packed with talented artisans and bead-makers. See what Andrew picked out!

Fusion News and Extra Links

I have returned from ConStruct and had a wonderful time! I am so exhausted from so much relaxing and stuff though! *grin* So I am easing back into my work week tonight, with a big list of orders and deadlines, and I wanted to blog really quick about two things:

First an exciting announcement! Fusion Beads has started carrying Earthenwood beads and pendants! All the production I have been doing over the last few months has been to stock them up with my work. Fusion is one of my very favorite resources for all of my beading supplies and I am very proud to be working with them. It is quite a thrill to see my beads up on their website. Many of the designs that they are carrying are only available with them, so if you are looking for some of my beads, go check out what they have.

Secondly, I have a round of Extra links to share with you, so click and enjoy!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Come join the fun in Philadelphia this weekend at Beadfest! Stop by the Green Girl Studios booth to say hello to Andrew and check out all the great new things available!!!

Strands of Beads
Melissa reveals her Use the Muse II Entry, "Briar Rose"

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Take a peek into Lorelei's studio and see some cool bead storage solutions!

Katie's Beading Blog
Katie's project is a free, featured download on Beading Daily. Yay!

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi wants to know, what's the best thing you've made so far this summer?

Jean Campbell
Jean's whipped up a free vintage button brooch project for you to try.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
What do bronze and rawhide have in common? Cindy explains how she uses both in her studio.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a short demo on how she came up with a contest entry.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene gets green findings at the local re-use store.

About.com Jewelry Making
Check out my beautifully organized list of mixed-media book reviews and find the perfect book to help you mix up your jewelry making.

A Bead A Day
Creating a "tiara" for your wrist is easy using Jill MacKay beading components and bicone crystals.

Kicking Back at ConStruct

A belief in working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness.

--John Ruskin

I am getting my things packed and getting ready to head out to Ann Arbor for ConStruct! I am very excited! We have been working hard to have a chance to relax this weekend. My friends and I have a funny way of relaxing, which involves organizing big events, like this convention. Much of my social life these days revolves around meetings and gatherings to plan these events, and we are always talking about new ideas for upcoming events. Working, if you will. Good thing I love work, and subscribe to John Ruskin's thoughts above, which I introduced to the wording of Construct when I was helping to write up the about page.

I am planning two events for ConStruct. One is a Bead 'n' Bitch, which is basically two hours or so of casual bead crafting for beginners and advanced beaders alike. I will teach basic bracelet stringing and earrings to anyone who wants to learn, and I am cleaning out my craft closets to supply the beads for anyone who comes to play.

The other event is the Exquisite Adventure drawing game that I designed! This will be fun... We will roll out a long piece of paper, and set upon it with magic markers. I will be guiding the adventure, and there will be interaction between the players, and their drawing areas. This is sort of a mix between pictionary, musical chairs, and some of the Surrealist parlor games like "Exquisite Corpse" and "Eat Poop, You Cat!" It is intended for people with no drawing skills and accomplished artists alike. In fact, I think it may be harder for artists, but that is a theory I am going to test. My intention is that by introducing randomness and chaos into the act of drawing, the process itself will become less mystifying and precious, and less about Art and more about Process. It will be a lot of fun to run this adventure.

Also, as you may know, I have been working on my costume for the 80's prom dance tonight, which is the Steampunky Brewster costume. I will show pictures next week, but here is a sneak peek of one of the elements for the costume... my boots! You may remember these boots, as I painted them for my Clockwork Doll costume back in January. I haven't worn them since, so I figured I may as well paint them again! I painted in the brassy gears from before in Day-Glo paint! Its pretty much steampunk and gears, plus 80's neon colors. AND jelly bracelets! whee! I haven't tried it all on, actually, so I am wondering how it will come together tonight. We shall see... and I will try to remember to take pictures to show you. See you all next week!

Rings & Things Product Playtime: Risks

I want to finish my thoughts here on some recent experiments that have been happening around the studio with the copper blanks I got from Rings and Things. Today's examples were not done by me, they were done a few weeks ago by Alex, when one day I gave him a handful of the blanks and said "have fun!". We had the pewter and ceramic gear molds out from the experimentation we had been doing with casting pewter, so it seemed a natural move to blend the two. He used some of the copper discs, some with holes, and some without, and placed them into the ceramic molds. He then melted some pewter and poured it into the molds. It was really neat to see how the pewter flowed around the copper, sometimes to fill part of the mold below, sometimes oozing around the holes in the copper. I don't know if these experiments will lead into anything for me or for Alex in our works, but it was worthwhile for him to take a risk, just to see what would happen.

Speaking of risks, yesterday I was feeling a little scared and unsure about all the changes that I know I want to make in my business and life. But I was also feeling strong and knew that it was time to start taking these risks. Fear can be good, when it protects you from danger, but sometimes, to be too fearful of change that you stay the same to avoid it can be more destructive. I have learned this lesson the hard way, and too often. So I started to move past it and get to work. I listed a bunch of things in my Etsy store, which is a tool that I am planning to use more in my desire to make more one of a kind pieces instead of so much production work. It was a very successful choice yesterday, and I think it was my best selling day on Etsy ever. This gives me some confidence that this is a good choice, and that my customers will follow me there and be supportive. I am feeling very pleased today, with a sense that I am moving in the right direction, and I thank all of you for supporting me through this time of change!

Rings & Things Product Playtime: Moving Along

As I mentioned yesterday, I had some fun experimenting with fire and metal. I am trying to spend a little time each day working on new ideas and materials, to keep me sane from all the production work I have been doing. The pictures here are works in progress, the results of just playing with the materials, and they are certainly not finished pieces at all. They might be made into finished pieces at some point, but now they are just pieces of information. What happens when I do *this* to *that*. In the top picture, various enamels and glass chunks melted to copper blanks from Rings & Things. In the middle, more of the same, and some lovely "heat painted" copper that will soon find their way into resin pendants. And the last picture is a grouping of heat painted brass pendants too. Overall, some good information here, and some parts that will go on to become other things.

I listened to a podcast at Crafty Pod the other day... an interview with Ryan Mc Abery, who is a top selling Etsy seller who recently downsized. Sometimes, success can be difficult, especially for a very small business, and particularly when it has to do with a creative product and process. I really related to this interview. Not that I am a top Etsy seller or a single mom, or any of the other specifics that Mc Acbery mentions about her life, but I really related to her thoughts about over-working and burning out. She had the courage to make a major change in her business, because she needed to change her life, and I was very impressed with her story. I have had major life changes recently too, and have been dealing with them very well. But I have been feeling like my business needs to change too, and I am ready to start doing it, so I can make the other changes I want to make in my life.

In fact, I have felt like this for a long time, but haven't had the courage or the energy to do it. Or maybe I haven't really known how to do it... that's part of it too. It is extremely hard to make changes to my product line and discontinue things and to have customers routinely come to me asking for old work. I have had a lot of press over the past 5 years, and that press keeps people coming back looking for the pieces that were published. It is very hard to say no, and in this economy, its a little crazy to turn down work. But it continues a cycle that prevents me from growing and leads me closer to burn out. That is part of what these recent experiments and playing with new materials is all about... switching gears so I can start to think differently and be creative again. I need to be firm about needing to do these things and not giving in to making old work over and over again. Because I want to keep working, and I want to make exciting new work. So I am continuing to move along, and I thank you all for your support and encouragement...

Fun with Fire and Metal

This morning, before it got too hot out, I went outside to play with fire! I started with the rather monotonous work of annealing all the Vintaj brass disc pendants that I had, as I plan to dome them all for making Collage pendants. I love working with fire and metal. It's very relaxing to hear the hiss of the torch, and to watch the metal changing color as it gets hot. There is a beautiful display of rapidly morphing rainbows that occur as the torch moves over each piece. Sadly, it is only momentary, and the color doesn't usually stay, but it is wonderful to watch.

I also love the hiss of the water as the hot metal pieces are quenched. Sometimes new patterns develop in the metal at that point, too. Some of the new patterns and colors will stay a part of the metal, and I can use them for inspiration when I am working on a collage. But mostly, I am doing the heating and quenching just to anneal them so the metal is softer and the hammering is easier.
After the annealing, I spent some time playing with more fire, this time just for the coloration and special effects on the metal. I started with these long raw brass pendants from Rings & Things. I got some lovely color on them! They are very bright and brassy out of the package, so the heat makes them at least blackened, and sometimes a more coppery brassy color with a bit of color and variation. After all of this, I played a little with the copper blanks I have been wanting to use from Rings and Things. I also found a box of enamel and glass chunks, and I really enjoyed melting the bits of glass and powders onto the copper. I will show pictures of these next time!

ArtBeads Crystal Pendants and Extra Links

I recently had the opportunity to pick out some Swarovski crystals from the wide selection over at ArtBeads. I have been really interested in some of the newer shapes of Swarovski pendants that have been coming out, and also the great new colors! So this was a good opportunity to try out some new things. I chose the five pendants above: a Sprig Coral pendant in Golden Shadow,
a Lily pendant in Silver Shade, an Orchid pendant in Olivine, a Dragonfly pendant in Crystal Satin, and a Rock pendant in Topaz. I am very pleased with all of these and am looking forward to working with them. I think I will make 4 or 5 necklaces with them, and I am thinking of making some resin links from which to hang them from in complimentary colors and themes. Sounds like fun, huh?
I am going to continue my weekend of fun and friends, and try not to overheat (whew, its steamy out there!) I shall leave you with this week's Extra links:

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
There are a couple of new bead and blog books on the shelves at Barnes & Noble! Lorelei's got the scoop!

A Bead A Day
A Crystallized "Square Ring"! If you have never seen a "square ring", stop by A Bead A Day to see how it has been incorporated into a bracelet.

Jean Campbell
Jean helped deliver two babies this week: a new nephew and a new bracelet design

About.com Jewelry Making
Too Much Jewelry Business Success? Is it really possible? And if so, what do you do about it?

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi explains how she made her glue gun leather brooch.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene announces the August monthly challenge theme - a beautiful woodcut print.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Looking to create a pendant from one of her antique button treasures, Cindy tries her hand at mold making.

Beading Arts
The simple spiral square stitch can add pizazz to your projects. Learn this easy stitch with an easy-to-follow tutorial!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
The BIG REVEAL is here! Check out Andrew's submission to the Use the Muse II contest!

Surreal Saturday

Untitled (Tilly Losch) c. 1935 by Joseph Cornell

I am having a little quiet time right now, resting for a bit between doing errands and cleaning, and waiting for company to come in a few hours. I had a nice salad for lunch, and spent some time browsing through a used art book that I bought about Joseph Cornell. I have always been mesmerized and intrigued by the works I have seen of Cornell's, but never spent a lot of time researching him. This book was perfect, and I find myself very calmed by looking at his assemblages and collages. I also recently bought a novel by Max Ernst, which is made entirely of collage images, mostly made from old engravings.

I find myself wondering why I keep coming back to the Surrealists, for years and years, and why I am so fascinated by them. I also wonder why surrealism does not play a role in my own artwork, which is surprising considering how much I am drawn to it. Perhaps this explains some of my recent restlessness with not having much time for "play" or for making new art. There is a disconnect somehow, and I am very curious about exploring it.

Website Changes

After a white knuckled afternoon fighting with my website program which was acting wonky, I finally got my retail website up and running again. I do not like when my website is not functioning for a prolonged period of time, and I was rather frustrated with it not co-operating with me, but I was able to get it done somehow, and I am feeling good about the changes.

I have been wanting to make these changes for some time now, drastically reducing the options on the site in favor of a streamlined selection of best sellers. I will actually be streamlining even more in the next month or so. The reasoning for this is because my wholesale production schedule is so demanding, I haven't been able to work on new designs, and that is really creatively stifling for me. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have the work, but I sometimes end up feeling like a one person factory. The streamlining will bring some efficiency to my process, I hope, which will free up some of my time for developing new things. And while I know my customers love to be able to buy the same things from me, year after year, I hope that they will understand this need to eliminate some old work so I can work on new and exciting things.

That said, I did include a few additions to the site, along with the many subtractions. I added the black and red hearts above to the Steam Stone page. I also added 4 new (well, old) face cabachon designs (see below)to the Face Stone page. And I brought back the Moon Face beads and combined them with the Fairy Face beads, as people seem to be asking for them again and Google has led many visitors to me to find them.

The wholesale site is remaining the same for now, but that may see some streamlining too. Some of the items that I have removed will not be gone forever, but they will be offered in limited quantites when I have them in stock. My intention is to list more things in the Etsy Shop when I build up inventory.

I am curious to hear your thoughts about these changes, particularly if you have shopped the retail website before. Good or bad, I am interested in your comments.

What's gonna be? Guess we'll just wait and see...

So I may have mentioned that next week at Construct, we are having an 80's themed Prom. I am very much looking forward to this, because I love 80's music and pop culture. Some of us are dressing up in costumes or 80's style clothing. I plan to do this all weekend at the con, just because its so fun. I am planning a costume based on Punky Brewster, one of my favorite shows from when I was a kid. I wanted to be just like Punky...I loved her style! But I am giving it a little twist...

My idea is to dress as "Steampunky Brewster"! I am not going to spend a lot of time on it, but there will be a few key accessories that will blend my love of steampunk with my love of bad eighties fashion and Punky Brewster. This is not the first time I have pondered mixing these cultures. Anyway, I started with the signature Punky ponytail holders. She wore the cute bright colored smily sunshines in her hair. I am making smily gears that will be painted in the same colors. I carved them out of clay last night! I also spray painted my goggles with dayglo green paint! This is going to be fun...
Here is a video clip of the opening theme song of the show, in case you have no idea what I am talking about! Do you have any ideas of how I can blend steampunk with this brightly colored kid's clothing?

Shino!

I recently got a sampler set of Shino glazes that I have been wanting to try! For the ceramic purists out there, these are not *really* real shino, since I am firing in an electric kiln, with no reduction, or potential for carbon trapping, blah blah blah. But, they look like shino, and there were some really great glazes in this sampler! I am impressed. My favorites are in the picture on top, with the ones I like somewhat less in the picture on bottom. All are on my white porcelain bead body, and I just glazed a variety of leftover bisque that I had sitting around. I think I will retest all of them on the same form, perhaps something a bit more appropriate. A voluptuous form of some sort seems to be a good choice for shino, for some reason. I would also like to test the whole series on a clay body with some iron in it, like my tile glaze. I think it would be fun to make some stoneware beads for a change! What do you think of these glazes?

Playing around the Studio

Well, I have not been able to play in the studio too much lately, but others have! So I thought I would show some of the things that are going on around here! Above is a group of pendants made by my buddy Sheryl's two kids, Little B and Big B! They did a great job, and loved playing with the glitter and paper and stuff. I did the messy work of the resin while they weren't here, but otherwise, they did all the work themselves, including the hammering and dapping of the metal!

Sheryl made three things that day too! In between keeping the girls busy and chatting with me, she made these three cool pendants. They look even cooler in reality, because the resin amplifies the glitter. I love the one on the left, a cut out bit of a map, with a little gear and shiny stone where Detroit is! I didn't notice this until they left and I was pouring the resin, but I love it! What a great way to celebrate our hometown in a subtle sort of way. The bunny with the gear is really cute too!

And something a little bit different here... Alex just poured this pewter medallion tonight for his costume for ConStruct. Within about an hour, he roughly carved the design into a piece of wood, and then melted the pewter and poured it right into the wood. He called it Neanderthal Casting. Which is perfect for the costume that he is working on, a replica of the 1980's Conan the Barbarian movie costume. I hope to work on my silly little costume soon, too.
Even if I can't do fun new crafty stuff myself right now, I do love seeing it happen all around me. It's fun to know so many crafty people who will share their time with me!

New Treasures and Extra Links

I have been meaning to post this picture of some delightful gifts I have received recently! When I visited with Heather of Humblebeads, she gave me some of her new beads that have come out of her recent play sessions! One is a polymer link with her classic designs set into a brass bezel, another is a charm made from a hand domed disc set with her polymer, and the other is a copper plate with a key etched into it! I love them all! The fourth item in the picture is a borosilicate marble that my brother's friend Robbie gave me when he was visiting. It's a tiny little treasure.

I sort of envy the materials that Heather works in sometimes. Polymer seems so direct and intstantly satisfying. It takes me so long to make new stuff in ceramic clay. Don't get me wrong, I love porcelain, but I just get frustrated sometimes with how long the process takes. I have many ideas but just don't seem to have the time to work on them.

Now that my big order is done, and my other ones are nearing completion, I feel a sense of relief. And also some excitment that I have a little time to work on new things. But there is this window of time that I fight with motivation. I want to rest for a day or two, to re-energize, but that makes it harder to jump into the next thing. Also, I have so many ideas, I get a little frazzled with what to do first, when I have a little time to play. It can be so overwhelming that I end up not really doing anything! That's one of the drawbacks to being a production bead maker, for me...how to spend my time between production and coming up with new things. I have been wondering lately about these things, and how to change my business so the extremes are not so intense and production and playtime and idea development are more balanced in my work. I don't really have the answer yet, but I keep thinking about it...

For now, I leave you with this week's Extra Extra links:

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew reveals ten new jewelry designs.

Strands of Beads
Melissa creates a simple but stunning necklace with goodies from Rings & Things

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei shares some links to another really cool blog beading challenge.

Katie's Beading Blog
Check out Katie's upcoming workshops!

Jean Campbell
Jean whips up a pair of funky Steampunky earrings; you can make them, too!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Summer heat getting to you? Cindy has a wrist full of Frost Links in Pear to keep her cool.

Carmi's Art/Life World
A little Friendly Plastic, a charm and resin makes for an amazing pendant.

Beading Arts
Beautiful Swarovski components from ArtBeads.com inspired Cyndi...right over the moon!

Barbe Saint John - New Treasures from Forgotten Artifacts
Join in the fun of the Objects & Elements Reader Challenge!

Art Bead Scene
Looking for some new earring ideas? The Art Bead Scene reviews 101 Wire Earrings.

About.com Jewelry Making
Is the under 20 crowd crafting more or less these days? Take the quick poll & see the results of what other crafters are thinking about this issue.

A Bead A Day
Do you use buttons in your jewelry designs? Stop by A Bead A Day to share your experiences and ideas.

Steamy Idea-ology

A couple of weeks ago when I was having my resin playdate with Rosanne and Heather, Rosanne had some really cool gears and she let me use them in my pendants. I loved them (you have probably noticed I have a thing for gears) and I used them to make a couple of my favorite pendants from that work session! I had asked her where she got them, and then I looked for them at Hobby Lobby, but didn't find them.
About a week later, I was working on a super secret project, and came across a project's materials list with an item that looked similar. Upon further investigation, I found that the gear from that project and the ones I used at Rosanne's place are from Tim Holtz's Ideology embellishments line. I found a source for them online, a stamping store called Blockheads, and ordered several different items from the line. I love this line! It looks like it is made for scrapbooking and altered art, but can be used for jewelry too! They are really sturdy and well designed, with an aged steampunky and architectural edge. I am really excited to work with them!
My really big order is complete now (celebrate!) and I need to finish up a couple of other orders, but I am looking forward to taking some time to play with these items and other stuff! My buddy Sheryl and her girls came over to play with collage stuff yesterday, and I am going to be pouring the resin for those tonight. I will be sure to take some pictures of the results after I pour the resin. I hope this weekend I can take some time to play again!

These Resin Collage pendants, along with other new ones, are listed in the Earthenwood Etsy shop

Mission Accomplished!

I woke up this morning with the strong urge to finish up the wet work for my big order. Yesterday was a great day of fun and relaxation, so today I was all fired up to get to work and get it done! No small task, though. I had 200 beads to make! I am very proud to say that I did it! I made 222 beads, actually... a few extra of each style, just in case.

It really helped that it was a beautiful day out. I made all but the last 40 while sitting outside, under my umbrella, chilling out with the doggie. I had 40 Voodie charms and 160 Steam Accents to make. Here they are, all lined up to dry in trays on the kitchen table.

And strangely, after every 10 or 20 beads, I took a break to work on cleaning the garage and getting garbage and recycling together. What kind of way is that to take a break? *laugh* Whew! I feel very accomplished, but also very tired now. I think a good night's sleep is in order tonight. Tomorrow, I am going to have to work on glazing. The end is in sight! *yippie!*