November...zooom

 November is here and almost gone. My awesome sister visited us from Seattle to celebrate an early Thanksgiving and her Birthday! Yes it is November and we are at the beach and yes my sister went for a dip and no we aren't crazy.

So.. epic yet short sister visit, flowers and fixins bought for Turkey day at my place, daughter helping with decorations, the feast, and consumption of the feast! I am a happy girl, and super duper thankful for the bounty that surrounds me. Wow! Not ready for the Christmas stuff yet, although I should have all this list of stuff made by now to put up for sale. Dang! I never did find time to photo my stuff for Etsy like I had hoped.

It felt decodent to get a quick sketch in, but I did stay up till 2 AM making some paper clay and paper mache stuff after that. I had 5 days off  which was super nice! I had thought that baby and me would get out and about more, instead we kept it local and that was nice too.

 These will be paper mache' birds at some point ;)  I have since formed their bodies and have left them at the Art Clinic to be mache-ed on Thursday. I cannot wait to have them at home and start designing their plumage. This time I will include a photo of the real bird I used as inspiration. There will be 8 or 9 of them arriving at the Art Hus in December, so go check it out!

I also have almost 2 dozen paper clay tag/ornaments in the works that will be there soon as well. I made more milagro hearts for those interested. Keep an eye here, I will be updating with progress photos as I go. I have a crazy busy weekend comming up, so I am not sure when My Etsy shop will get updated. I will post more info when I get there. I am excited to be doing some paper goods and take a small break from all the jewelry work.

Even made some time to make Percimmon cookies (a seasonal family favorite). I guess I should try and be easier on myself, I did get something done. Especially a ton of mother daughter fun. These stickers all came with individual messages from my pretty baby girl. It is so nice to be loved and to love! Hope everyone else in the world can feel so special!

October is over and November has begun

Total chaos on the bench as my studio time ticks down. I feel pretty good about the variety that I made, but wish I had got the rings done. Actually finished 5 necklaces that day and had some me time at a coffee shop to finish 8 pairs of earrings. Next I had only 2 nights at home to finish the rest. I did pretty good I think.

 Here are some of those first necklaces I finished, and a bracelet.

Halloween came before our show and we had a great time! My daughter can be a real wild one :)  She drew the faces for all the pumpkins and Grandpa carved them all. They were so cool!! Some of the best Jack'O Lanterns I have ever seen. Her favorite part was handing out candy.

The Queen of Arts has come and gone. I am glad the deadlines are over. I think I have enough silver work and jewelry in stock now, that I can focus on the paper goods again. I have a big list :)  I did not get to mingle at the show much, but my baby wanted to be there both days and stay the whole time, so I got some very sweet me and her time. So stay tuned for a bunch of paper clay and paper mache work. Fall is here and the skies are gorgeous!

Harvest Skech Day and stuff

Had another wonderful October sketch with the Vally Sketchers at Summerset Farms in Santa Ynez. I really enjoyed every doodle that day. Here are some highlights.

Loved the flowers! If I had an ounce of outdoor space/property, I would have bought them all up! Every year Summerset looks more and more beautiful. Always a delight. Here are most of the sketches I did. Wish I had more time for color.

I hope baby has fun when she goes there for her school field trip.

Here is a local gray fox from Zoo to You at the Wilding Museum. I really enjoyed it, but baby was a bit distracted. "roooooaaarrrrr!!"

 I did get to the studio today. It worked out pretty well. I got most of my pieces right where I wanted them. I am just nervous about having them done on time and that I spent all (what very little I had) my free time on these and had nothing left for any of my other projects. I am trying hard to work past this. I always think this, but maybe next year I will find the time to get all my ideas made.

So Little Time Left

 I've had a lot of requests for this stone, so here it is! The Blue glow is very nice.

 Here are the bezels all soldered down and getting a double check on their fit. I love to see the process, but I am sure these look very rough and nothing like silver at this stage.Some bezels are too tall and need to be shaved down, two or 3 need some extra embellishments soldered on, and they all need a bit of shaping. I think they will be looking pretty close by the 21st (the next chance I get in the studio) I have a lot of finishing touches and chain to work on.

 I think these two are my favorite, so fiery and pretty. I hope they will find a happy home.

 I cut out the back tight so this moonstone can really shine.

I really like these tension bracelets. I like the touch of color to the wrist, the snug fit and how it will not flop to the bottom. I had hoped to have 5 new ones, but so far it looks like 3.

The rings are coming along too. I think all of these will get a small stone setting. Again, I am left with a lot of homework to prepare for my next studio visit. Time is flying by and I am sad that I have not started the birds and tag ornaments yet. Still so much to do and no time to do it.

More Jewelry

I love the red of this glass enamel. It is the only enamel I have. I cannot wait to get the hand made earrwires on these. These will be earrings for the Queen of Arts and maybe they will make it to the Art Hus in Solvang. I still have a lot more work on these square wire rings. I have not made them for a while, but I am almost completely out. Still need texture, bezel, clean up and the stone.

Earrings are ready to put together. there might be like 20 pairs here. These I can finish at home in my "spare" time. The 2 coral necklaces are closer, not sure they are looking like I hoped. Any feed back will be appreciated.

These are my favorites. I need to peirce the backs and solder all the components. Then I need to decide what stones to match with them and weather to hand make the chain or not.

These will be on chain and I am hoping they will be a good pricepoint. The house has been on the backburned too long and I hope this is the year it gets finished. I have only made 1 other like it. There is a bird cage necklace it has been sitting with. The bird cage will have to be later.

Whie I was out working on the silver, my daughter was making shrinky-dinks with grandma. I love them!! Next jewelry work day will be October 4th. I have quite the to do list forming for that day. I hope to knock out a few things here and there before that.....homework!

A Little Jewelry a Little Sketching

 This is my large moonstone getting a custom fit bezel. I will be getting this piece all fixed up and ready to solder. I have another 3-4 hours of work time tomorrow in the studio set aside and I want all the pieces worked and ready to solder on the 4th of October. The moonstone and the Labradorite are my favorites and I am the most behind on them, so time to step it up.

This is one of two coral pieces I hope to make. I love these forms, but the wire holes are always in the wrong spot. I hope I am not the only one who loves the way this coral looks.

Vintage Trailer Show in Buellton was the location for our sketch group. It was so very hot. I loved all the cute little trailers. I sure wish it had been cooler and I had a bit more free time to work on sketching them. My daughter came along for this one. I had hopes that she might join in....she did! I love what she added to my sketch.

She seemed pretty happy with it too. I hope she will come sketching with me all the time, even if it is just to give my sketches some color.  I hope to have something more to post from the jewelry studio tomorrow. I might get to add some enamel to my heart pieces...we'll see...