Sunday, December 18, 2011

jewelry Open Studio and Christmas Sale

I had an open studio last spring that I actually wrote about here, and foolish me, I decided that I needed to do another one. I had forgotten how much work is involved.  It has taken me at least a day and 1/2 to get everything out.  I've sent out 3 emails with pictures and for techno tard me, that's a big job.

My house keeper (John, my husband) has been cleaning for 2 days and has dish pan hands and on top of that, I made him take me out for a late lunch/early dinner, because there was no where to eat, let alone cook.  Every counter top and table is weighted down with jewelry.  I have to admit, it looks great, but I won't know til tomorrow if anyone is coming - it could be a whole lot of work, down the old draino - I hope not, but for something like this, you don't know until your door bell rings.

I have tried everything to get the post before this one with the same title removed - Once again, a technological problem has me stumped.  So it's going to stay there as a testament to my techno-tard status..because I have no other choice in the matter and I will continue what I started here! ! 

Okay -back to my open studio.  This one was not as busy as the one that I held in the spring, but there has been continuing business from it.  I had the sale on Wednesday  and today is Sunday and I had another sale today. I used all of my dining room, most of my kitchen and parts of my great room to display product...so it's a great activity if you claim part of your home as business space.
As you can see - it's really nice to have unlimited space to display your product.  I have allot of product   cuz I am way too prolific and I never know when to stop when I get a good idea and one thing leads to another - and I'm not happy unless I follow those shots all the way to the end and make everything along the way.

I will definitely do another one of these - all my sales are in boutiques about 50 miles from my home, so it is nice that my neighbors in my subdivision know what I do and what is available to them that I can supply.  Since we live in Arizona and many people go north for the summer, I will do an open studio in March before everyone leaves and this one that is closer to Christmas will be earlier.  There's allot of stuff going on now most of which was not on the community calendar.  I think that I will do it as soon after Thanksgiving weekend as I am able to and I may get a few more people wandering in.

Both of these Open Studios have been good for me.  I have sold enough to make it very worthwhile - more than any single show I ever did when I was doing shows.  I have met new people that like my work and reconnected with old customers.  All in all, it has been worth the effort - it would be fantastic if I didn't have to get everything out and then put  it all                away again :)

If any of this product, catches your eye - it is all available in my shop - Come visit.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Global Warming - Not in Arizona! !

Okay - I've had it - This is the fourth day in a row that I have had to wear one of my "northern" winter fleeces.  We live in the Phoenix area - the "Valley of the Sun" as it is also known...it is supposed to be hot here in the summer and comfortably warm in the winter...and it most definitely isn't - warm that is.

We spent Thanksgiving in Chicago and other than being with our children, I was most thankful for the fact that it wasn't freezing and snowing. I get back to Arizona and it precedes to snow in Scottsdale...it didn't snow in Chicago....Why here ????

I am no longer a winter fan - did you pick that feeling up??? I would much rather deal with 120 degrees here in the summer than have to lift one shovel of snow in a northern winter.  I grew up in New England and then lived in Northern Ohio for 30 something years and I  figuered that I had done my wintery penance.  We had a home in Colorado for skiing, so I really did enjoy the winter scene for quite some time....BUT, I am totally over those feelings now and I no longer want to have to wear my long green wool coat, gloves, boots, scarfs, all that stuff that you need just to walk down the driveway to get your mail.  I have no problem with long pants and long sleeves for winter in Arizona, but that's as far as I am willing to go without complaining about it. Needing my fleeces, indoors even, is almost more than I can bear.

You hear all this craziness about global warming - well it sure as h..l isn't happening here.  I can see snow on all the mountain tops around our home - the only good thing about it is that we are severely short on rain this year. So maybe this will help the water table.

We were driving home from northern Arizona last week, and it had snowed up there that day.  The snow was all the way down to Wikieup, "the rattlesnake capitol of the world".  Those snakes better have had their winter dens deep, or they won't be doing much rattling next year.  I must admit that that doesn't bother me a whole lot though.

Time to get back to work - think I'll make some snowflake earrings or an icicle necklace - look for them in my shop....Have a great day and I sincerely hope that it is warm where you are! ! !

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Resin Jewelry and Do These RESINate With You???



I am a jewelry artisan.  I love to make jewelry and I use pricey stones, pearls and metals to achieve my goals.  Because of the time, effort and the cost of my materials, I am very serious about what I make.  I spend allot of time planning my piece and putting it together exactly right....But once in a while we have to jump out of our rut - and I did that today, and boy, did I have fun! ! !



My jewelry is in a marvelous little boutique in the artisan section of Phoenix, called Made Art Boutique, and it is certainly worth your while to do some browsing there if you are in the area of Roosevelt and 7th.  This shop is very different from most of the boutiques that I am in and the demographics especially are quite different from my other shops.  They have many college students and people with limited pocketbooks shopping there, but the owner likes my work and I like her shop - so we work at finding the right things at the right price for her.


I found these great pieces of resin at one of the web stores that I buy from and the owner of Made liked them as much as I did...so I ordered them and today I created earrings...all for $40.00 or less.  I am very excited about them and think that they came our great.  Some have Swarovski crystals and all of them have silver filled ear wires so I didn't cut too many corners.  The majority of them are 3 to 4 inches long so they really make a statement and if I could wear earrings that are that long, I would wear them in a heartbeat.



I must admit - I had allot of fun today.  It's fun to do something different.  It's fun to work with bright colors.  It's fun to do things that I consider retro, like the pink and black that I used allot of.





It was also fun to use a material, resin, that I hardly ever use - it's light, very reasonably priced and takes great colors and I will definitely be using it again...It would be a great way to cut the weight on a heavy stone necklace.  I'd also like to try a really long necklace in resin because it would not be too heavy - but that's for another day and another blog.

I do not have these earrings in my Artfire shop, but I do have the materials to make them.  If anyone is interested in purchasing them...please go to my shop and contact me.  I will send more pictures of the ones that you are interested in and the cost. Here's a few more of today's creations...and remember, to keep yourself and your creative muse fresh...try something utterly different once in a while.









Edited to add - Have no idea why that one image is so large and even less of an idea of how to correct it - please see other blogs about my techno-tardness