I make stuff. Also, ponies.

I'm feeling very fired up about making things. Jewelry things. Collagey things. Photo things.

My mom and one of her friends had an art sale of their paintings on Black Friday - oils, watercolors, pastels. It was inspiring to see her doing this. It was inspiring to see what they've done. My mom has only been painting for 8? 9? years, and I am in awe of her work and her dedication.

I was so inspired I pulled out all of my paints and sketched out some canvases. Then I got frustrated because I don't really know what I'm doing and I haven't quite decided what to do about that. I'm in this really folksy kind of mood. I want to make folk paintings and paintings of these weird little lumpy animals and people I've been drawing. I can draw these things and picture how I want the final product to look, but that's where it ends. I'm working on it. I am also really impatient and want immediate results. Dear brain, work with the hands please.

To update on the last post: I'm just extremely burned out on the selling end of things. Making things for these imaginary deadlines I set for myself. Trying to do too many things at once for the opportunity of more sales. Sometimes I really feel like I'm jumping up and down, waving my hands, yelling about my work, but someone hit the mute button.

Und so, I can be frustrated over the lack of time I have until the world ends or I can work with my lack of time.

Art has always been about a need to make things, not sell them. So I'm going to focus on the former and if the latter comes I'll do a little dance.

The world needs more dance parties.

This post has completely veered off course. I was actually going to write about how much I love my pony and when everything else seems pear-shaped she makes sense. Maybe tomorrow.

(cuddling with Steph)

worn through.

I've known for awhile now that I probably do too much.

I have a "regular" job that takes up 40 hours of my week.
I take care of the barn and horses 12-14 hours per week.
I work on jewelry in all bits of in between, anywhere between 12 and 20+ hours, weekly. That is strictly bench time and does not include photo-taking, editing, description writing, listing, etc.
With winter here, the process of riding/cooling out/drying Cholula takes about 3 hours. I try to ride her at least 3-4 times per week.

Having a cup of tea and just sitting is a luxury I only experience about once per week. I have horrible guilt if I take a nap and "waste" a few hours of my remaining day...nevermind I only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night.

Suffice it to say, I am busy, and busy has been chipping away at me steadily for 3 years.

I am worn out and worn through. Don't get me wrong - I'm not sick of creating things. Conversely, I have more ideas spilling out of me than ever before. I'm trying to get a small portfolio of my photographs put together. I have sketches and pages of ideas for mixed media paintings.

I want a room full of tiny metal spoons hanging from the ceiling.


But, I don't have the time. And while I would love for this to be a grand post about how I am quitting my day job and jumping in feet first, I have bills to pay and horses to feed.

I'm not really sure what this post is about. I just want you to know that I really loathe the business end of things and I feel as though I'm spinning my wheels. I hate marketing. I haven't had anything to say or any photos to share so I've taken a bit of a break from blogging. Not intentionally - but no sense in forcing things that aren't there, right?

Suffice it to say that there is very little balance in my life and I haven't the faintest as to how to remedy that. As of right now, all of this doesn't really mean anything for my customers/etsy shop. However, the idea of continuing to push and try to become a self-employed artist is falling to the wayside.

This is my favorite David Bowie video ever:



And this is my favorite cover of said song. And perhaps my favorite version ever. Also, I was at this performance.



That is all.

10 things that I like right now.

1. Umba sapphires. Oh, my.

2. Mares. Specifically a big black one named Cholula. I am having one hell of a time with her under saddle right now, but it almost makes me love her more. I appreciate her female sass.

3. Salted caramel everything, but especially ice cream.

4. Visual candy:

(ok, and I rather like the song quite a bit as well. There is a lot of passion there.)

5. What feels like a metric ton of custom orders.

6. ALREADY being more or less on top of my holiday shopping!

7. That winter seems to be holding off/holding back, just for a little longer.

8. The 4:30 hour, when I walk home from work. I like the light then, but mostly I like these birds:

Hundreds of crows filling the skies and lining the tree tops as far as the eye can see. I don't think I've ever seen so many in person - this photo doesn't do the numbers justice. It makes me feel like I live in the coolest Alfred Hitchcock themed neighborhood ever. Except without the violence.

9. My new laptop!

10. My massive scarf collection.

Hammering & Melting

So, jewelry. Jewelry lately has involved making a hellofalotta earrings. Much to my excitement, this is because a lot of them are selling. After the open house my selection was looking a little slim, so I sat down and made a few more pairs for the home show I did on Saturday. I threw in a ring (I can't resist, I love them too much!) and a few necklaces as well.

So, here they are! The remaining necklace will eventually make its way over to the shop.

one:

rustic poppy necklace (yeah, I've made this before, it's true):

with rustic poppy earrings:

My mother purchased both of these things. She also has a rustic poppy ring with a carnelian in the center. She's quite pleased with her set!

I wasn't done melting/almost melting (reticulation!) stuff after these were made, but I didn't want to remake another item. I wanted to go into something with no expectations of how it would turn out. I wanted it crinkled and worn and as organic as I could make something. I have a feeling I'm not done here, but this is what I made:

Organic

(that was the only photo I managed to capture where the citrine was showing off it's golden hue.)

And then we moved onto these earrings. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a game called "how many variations of these can we make?" I have a feeling I'm no where near finished with said game.

Windows:

And then I played a slightly different version of said game, but this time in a lulas/sticks kind of way:

Sticks & Stones

Sticks:

Lastly, we have the sole remainder of the bunch.

I've been dreaming up all sorts of things. Charm necklaces and I go way back. I wish I still had my first one, because it was fantastic.

I'm constructing these in such a way that you can add/remove charms at your will, and I hope to offer charms separately and options to build your own necklace from scratch. The chains are made a bit differently so the charms can fit over the jump ring at the end. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and that each charm is entirely handmade.

I need to retake these photos, as my light wasn't great at the time of my attempts. Daylight savings time is throwing one hell of a wrench in photographing my work and it seems it's time to reserve that process for weekends only, when I have spots of time in the middle of the day.

Some thoughts.

1. I have an interview! I have an interview!

2. I am really bad at keeping exciting things to myself. When I find a really good present for someone it takes all of my willpower to not tell them what I got them and how exciting it is.

3. I loathe daylight savings time. Extra hour of sleep? Oh, don't mind if I wake up at 7:30 (formerly known as 6:30) on Sunday morning. Stupid.

4. I would LOVE to spend this wonderfully beautiful and nice day galloping beastmare around the fields, but because of #3 it will likely be too dark to do that by the time I get off of work.

5. GIDDY OVER INTERVIEW.

6. Really excited about applying to some galleries and boutiques to show my work!

7. OMG! I have a bunch of photos to show you of all of my new stuff. Well, all of it sold on Saturday save for one necklace. This means a TWO POST blog day. Whew. I better save my energy.

8. Is silver going to keep going up? Should I just place my order now? :(

Custom.

This is a custom order I finished for my coworker - she wanted a stamped pendant with the names of her grandchildren stamped on it. I was going to do a layered stampy deal with one name on each, but then her 4th was born and I thought it would get too bulky!

This worked out quite nicely, and the stone is such that it'll go with everything. I oxidized first, sanded most of it off, (I just wanted it to highlight the names, mostly), and tumbled it til it shined.

She loves it! Yay!

Last day for the birthday sale!

Hello, hello.

Just a quick little reminder that today is your last day to take advantage of my birthday sale! I thought I'd throw in free shipping today as well :)


20% off everything! This includes 20% off already marked down prices AND made to order items. Hot damn.


PS. Girls always need more earrings. It's a fact in the book of life facts. For serious.

Custom crazy.

I finished up a custom order last night, which I will share pictures of later.

I have so many more. I finally wrote down my list because things were getting forgotten and then this little panic would settle in my brain going "you have something to maaaake...yes you doooo."

The total right now is something like 5 earrings, 4 rings, and 7 necklaces. Something like that. Many of those are for Christmas, so it's not a huge rush and I have plenty of time. But...I hate having a list staring back at me, so I'm on mission finish custom orders. I'll feel guilty working on anything else until they are complete!

In other news, I just discovered some of my photos may not actually be gone with the dead hard drive. YAY. YAYAYAYAY. YEAH.

In other other news, I'm eagerly anticipating this necklace's arrival:

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/36834454

It was my birthday/day of the dead present to myself. LOVE.

BIRTHDAY SALE. STAT.

1. It's my birthday!

2. I'm 26!

3. It is taking everything in my willpower to forge ahead. Yesterday was a mess of horrible things including a fried hard drive and lost photos and hours of work and everyone shaking their heads, telling me "you should've put it on the shared drive..." followed by lots of crying and stomping around and overall discontent.

I was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Through and through.

HOWEVER. Today, I'm not even going to think about everything that could potentially be lost forever and how I can't seem to find a single soul to assist me in data recovery. Because it's my goddamn birthday and I'm going to have an amazing day.

And to celebrate my birthday I'm hosting a really big sale in the etsy shop! This includes everything listed in there - even made to order items!

ALL OF IT IS 20% OFF.

For serious. Make your purchase as usual and I will refund 20% to your paypal account! Otherwise, contact me first and I'll adjust the listing for you.

Sale runs through this Friday, 11/5!

love to you.