So this is the new year...

"And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions"

So I mentioned a new blogging project that I will be doing in 2010. One of the things that helps me creatively is giving myself structure and deadlines to follow. I think it holds me accountable and motivates me to do spend the time to do the things I need and want to do. And doing this via blog makes it public, so that adds accountability. So I have chosen to start a new project called Song Lore this year, to give me some guidance in my creativity.

The Song Lore Project will be a collection of handcrafted items inspired by some of the most meaningful music in my life. I am a lover of music, and the stories and imagery that can be found in great songwriting. Music creates a soundtrack to my life, and I find that there are songs and albums that follow me and give me comfort and inspiration. I am always seeking out new music to add to this soundtrack, and I often rediscover music from my younger years that seems to reappear and inspire me again. I have always wanted to do a series of work inspired by music, and I have decided that this is a perfect time to start this series. I used to post a lot of music to my blog, and I really enjoyed the multi-media experience that it created. But other than a necklace here or there, I never really focused on using music as direct inspiration.

My goal is to post a new song every week, probably on Saturdays (you know, so I can call it Song Lore Saturday... because I am a sucker for alliteration). I want to make at least two pieces inspired by the songs every month, in some way. It might be a bead or pendant, or a necklace, or something totally different... I don't want to put limits on the form. Since my process takes so long, I will have to revisit the Song Lore posts when I finish pieces, so I hope you will be patient. My ultimate goal is to have this endless source of musical inspiration that I hope will help me bring to life many new artworks!

So the first song is "New Year" by Deathcab for Cutie. I am sure that seems like an obvious choice, but it is a great song that inspires me, and I have been a Deathcab junkie over the last few months, with the album Narrow Stairs playing almost non-stop in my car over the holidays.



In particular, these lyrics have inspired me:

"i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that can hold us back."

I think of my word of the year, *journey* and my upcoming travels, and this makes me want to create some safe travel amulets. I have collected my materials, and have started squishing clay for these pieces, and I will tell you more soon!

Counting Down the Hours

One of the new Clockpunk Ornaments I made this holiday season

I tend to get introspective this time of year, when the old year is ending and a new one is just beginning. While I don't really do the *resolution* thing, I do tend to make my plans and goals. It is the end of a business year, so I reflect on what worked and what didn't work for me in my business, as well as creatively/artistically and in my personal life.

In my personal life, it was a year of great change and growth. While it was often difficult, there is so much happiness. I knew that this year would be difficult as I tried to balance my new life with work and my career, but it was important for me to spend time and energy on the relationships in my life and to let them grow and become important to me. I even found love again, which was unexpected and scary at first, but is very welcome and makes me feel content now.

Artistically, this was a bit of a frustrating year. While I feel like I came up with some new ideas and implemented them, there were many more things I was not able to do. Business was good, and I knew it could have been better if I worked harder, but I needed to not work as hard and crazy as I had in the past. And since most of my business has been production focused, when I was busy, I was not really indulging my creative side. This has always been a difficult part of my business, and I think I was successful with the start of transitioning away from so much production and into more unique works. I plan to continue this transition into the new year.

I plan to use this blog space in a more fulfilling way. I feel like I have neglected it and haven't used it to its full potential. I have planned some new blog projects to keep me going, and want to push myself to work on other projects for it. My blog is such a great tool for my creativity and my business, and I really need to respect it more. Hopefully, my plans will integrate my business, writing, blogging, and creative projects together in unison! That's one of the New Year goals, anyway!

Tick Tock, time is getting away from me today. Have a great New Year's Eve tomorrow! I will be back soon with lots of exciting new ideas and will share them with you!

Post Holiday Disorder and Extra Links

A scattering of Steam Bits that I made for Fusion Beads

I had a wonderful Christmas! There was much time with family and friends and good food and lots and lots of delightful gifts! I feel really spoiled this year, with all the great presents I got from my parents and brother and Alex and his family. Wow! There was a lot of celebrating and fun, but I needed to return to work today. It has been hard doing this today... I am pretty deeply in a vacation momentum, even though it was a short one. I feel pretty disorganized, with the studio in shambles from the cleaning I did to make way for entertaining, and along with the addition of the aforementioned new gifts to find homes for, and I am left feeling rather scattered. But I made a start, and got out the clay, and am feeling more motivated tonight. I have been making the clay bits that I need for my kits for the Bead Cruise, which is coming up very soon! It's good to have a specific goal with a deadline to get my butt moving. Anyway, this post is mostly a bit of rambling of what is in my scatter-brain, but I needed to post it to get back into the swing of it.

Also, I missed posting this week's Extra links yesterday, so here they are!

A Bead A Day
There is still plenty of time to make some New Year's Eve jewelry! Lisa shares an eye catching bracelet using velvety hearts and chandelier-like egyptian crystals.

About.com Jewelry Making
Yellow faceted CZ fan pendants become gorgeous earrings with just a little chain.

Art Bead Scene
It's the ABS annual 12 days of Christmas free projects. Twelve days of last minute holiday gifts!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Eco Friendly Gift Wrap

Beading Arts
Sweet, simple, and silly! Make a barrette that will delight a young girl in your life.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi makes huge resin baubles from an ice tray.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Cindy shares her favorite things this week. You might be surprised to find out what they are!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie makes a chunky, funky necklace with some unusual wooden chain and findings

Jean Campbell
Jean shares a free sparkly necklace project, just in time to whip up for your New Year's Evening wear

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei goes back in time to remind fellow Etsy sellers about Heart-o-Matic!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean offers a project called Supercool which features a great focal by Dustin Tabor!

Strands of Beads
Melissa shares some whimsical lampwork artistry by Debi Cogwell.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Using a drilled resin piece from Lynn Davis and some filigree, Andrew creates a necklace paying homage to the faeryworld sanctuaries.

Tis the Season!

I have had a great holiday sales season, thanks to all of you! I feel like I worked really hard and I am looking forward to taking a break for a little while to enjoy the holidays. I am planning to close the Etsy shops tonight until just after Christmas. I'll have some new things to show after the first of the year, and plan to have a big sale in the New Year before I close up again for a week or so for the Bead Cruise!

Before I settle into my bed for a short winter's nap, I wanted to show you one of the pieces I made for a great new book that is making its way to bookstores. I recently received my copy of Four Seasons of Beading by Barb Switzer and it looks like a really great book, full of great projects to reflect the seasons. The earrings above are in the book, in addition to a few more pieces using my beads!

Happy Holidays, everyone! It's time for my vacation to start...

Lookie what's under the Christmas Tree!

I am feeling full of holiday spirit this year, the likes of which I have not felt in many, many years! I have set up a Christmas tree for the first time, and decorated my fireplace with garland and lights and a wreath that I made. It is very twinkly here, and it makes me happy! I thought I might like to share the holiday love today.

I recently received this set of adorable lampworked glass beads from Rings and Things! I think they are really sweet, and I could see them being used for some fun holiday jewelry. I think they would be great for other holiday crafts too, like embellishing ornaments, or to decorate a little mini Christmas tree. They make me smile, and I think you will like them too!

I am going to give away the whole set of the lampworked beads above, along with the Christmas Tree Candy ornament that I made, which is also in the picture! I think I will do things a little differently this time... instead of a blog giveaway, I am going to ask you to go and comment at my Facebook page. If we are not Facebook friends yet, please go to http://www.facebook.com/earthenwood and add me! I would love to see you there.

I have a few pairs of these Candy Ornaments in the Etsy Galleria along with a bunch of the very popular Queen ornaments in solid colors. And finally, here are this week's Extra Links:

A Bead A Day
If you find yourself in need of a quick holiday gift, don't overlook memory wire! With this simple design, you can make one for all your friends.

About.com Jewelry Making
Thinking of making some beaded ornament covers? Then you'll need to know the size bulb to use too.

Art Bead Scene
It's the first day of Art Bead Scene's annual Twelve Days of Free Projects!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe gets all steamy over the new Steampunk Style book!

Beading Arts
Cyndi shares a new tutorial featuring one of Earthenwood Studio's fabulous new pendants!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi wonders if anyone else is working on Spring.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Inspired by Grandma's necklace, Cindy creates an edgey look with CZ's.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows a sneak peek of a pair of earrings she made for the upcoming book Steampunk Style by Jean Campbell

Jean Campbell
Jean shares 3 easy tips for making holiday gift production a little less stressful.

Katie's Beading Blog
Katie's making tons of earrings this season. Here are a few fun ideas for your own last-minute gifts!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is saying Thank you and Merry Christmas by giving away a gift certificate to artbeads.com!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
When you check out this ornament kit which is available for you to make, it will REALLY put you in the spirit!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Each representing a different spectrum of lampwork glass, Andrew shares the new additions to his bead collection from two different artists.


The holiday themed glass beads used in the previous post, specifically referenced as from Rings and Things, were provided as promotional gifts by for review or design partnership purposes.

After Show Wrap Up

It has been a crazy few days. The Potters Market was a huge success both in general for the Market and for me personally! While I was working, I had come up with a dollar amount that I was striving for, and my actual sales DOUBLED that number! So I am quite thrilled and very happy that all my work paid off. Having help from my assistants KT and Brendan really helped, along with the moral support of Jeremy, *the awesome-est roommate/brother evar* and of course my sweetie Alex. It was a success, it was a ton of work, it was a lot of fun, and whew! I am glad it is over for another year.

I am starting to wind down and am looking forward to spending time at home and with friends for the holidays. I have a just a few days left before the end of the holiday rush to get a few more things listed on Etsy, in particular... I have some new ornaments and tiles listed in the Galleria, and will add a few more soon.

Preview of Steampunk Style Jewelry

I am interrupting my crazy-flail-getting ready for the Potters Market madness to blog about this cool preview of a cool new book coming out soon. It's Jean Campbell's Steampunk Style Jewerly! This is going to be an amazing book! It is available for preorder now (I recommend going to Ornamentea to order it... you get a free steampunk starter kit with your order!) I was scrolling through my Facebook and saw Jean post about this preview, which was blogged over on Craftside. It just happens to be a pair of earrings I designed for the book, using clock hands and a pair of my porcelain gear links. ooh this is exciting!

heh. I am also amused that in the midst of my flailing/working tonight, I will be tearing my studio apart to look for a bag of the very clock hands that I used in the earrings above, in order to complete my new clockwork/steampunky ornaments. Whee! I know there are here somewhere!!! Back to work...