We are in again....

Hello All...... Well Cindy and I are in again for first friday. We are very excited but nervous too because now we have to create! And it is this friday.....so i will be working very hard this week because of course i still have not really done anything. I have been learning to cut glass for some charms and have learned that you really need the correct tools. Sometimes i just do things the hard way!
On a sad note one of my favorite aunts in Honduras died today in a car accident. My dad has been gone for about a month and a half now too so this has been a hard past few months for my family and especially my mom. I usually dont post this kind of thing so i do apologize but i just felt that i needed to remember those that have meant so much to us.

Whats in my studio.....

This is what is in my studio for the question posted by Candice, http://www.thesparrowspost.blogspot.com/. I am so happy to see her blog up and running, she is such a wonderful person and i am very blessed to have been able to spend time with her at Art Nest. You will have to check out her blog and say hello! So here is a few things going on in my studio......

Hello All!!!!

Hello again everyone :) I know it has been a long time since i posted and i do apologize, i am really going to try to keep this updated! It has been quite a month for me, to start off exactly a month ago today my sweet daddy passed away. It has been hard on all of us but we are grateful that he is not in pain and suffering anymore. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and thoughts during this time. It has definitley helped to ease the pain knowing that we have great friends out there. I am not really sure that i have fully accepted this all yet but i have been really cranky this week and i think that it has something to do with it. I feel like i have not had anytime to just be alone to cry and process all this. To be honest, i think i really just dont want to and keep putting it off by being "busy".

I set up my new "studio" a few weeks ago too, i have used it a few times and i love it. Now that i have it and have enjoyed it i dont know what took me so long! I used to sit on the floor and work at the coffee table.

This was an unused entertainment center alcove in my living room. I would have a lot more room if i set it up in a spare bedroom but i have found that when i work on pieces i want to be in the middle of it all so this has worked out well. Most of my stuff is neatly organized in this cabinet.

Cindy and I set up at First Friday this past weekend and sold a few things each. I was actually surprised that i sold anything because i only had a few things and wasnt sure what the trend is down there. We had a lot of fun and met some other really cool artists. They were all very welcoming and made us feel right at home. There are also a lot of different people that attend and it is very fun to "people watch",

The cutest thing was a little girl that came up and told her daddy that when she had pierced ears she was coming back here. I will definitley have to create a little girls line of jewels. I remember being a little girl and just wanting something sparkly so bad that i would settle for anything even if i didnt like it that much or it was too big.

I have been starting to do more soldered pieces and have been trying to incorporate more vintage elements into my jewelry as well. It has been fun and it has definitely made me look a little harder at things to try to come up with something different. That is my challenge to myself, to use what i have and to be different. The next couple pieces were made with some old bits of things i had laying around and some new art collage pieces. The travel necklace was a gift for Cindy's birthday. Of course my sweet baby had to inspect it before it left the house,

This next one is a piece that i made for first friday and it sold right away to one of the other vendors. I was very honored that she like my jewelry enough to actually buy it. She is also a jewelry vendor there, and had some very beautiful pieces of her own. We are our own worst critics i know and i am very hard on myself sometimes so having her want to buy that and compliment it really gave me a boost of confidence that maybe my stuff really is cool and will sell. I am already starting to get a lot more ideas, i feel like my mind is a rusty old wheel and it needs a lot to get it going after these last couple years of shutting jewelry and art out of it.

This weekend i will be working on my charm swap pieces so i will post pictures of those when i am done. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend :)

NESTING

This past week i have been in a nesting mood, maybe because it was raining and cloudy all week. I just cant stop looking a decorating books and shows. I even cleaned out my closet this weekend! I have been promising my bestfriend i would finish it for about a year now (she did the main part of it while she was here on her last visit). But today it was so gorgeous outside i just had to open the windows and putter around dreaming. I tried doing my heartbook swap project friday night and i am just at a loss. It has acutally made me realize that i am a jewelry artist and that is what just what naturally comes out. I get so frustrated and think whatever collage or painting i make it just bad. Here is what i was working on, it needs tweaking but it is not to bad overall i suppose,

For a long time i basically just worked with gemstone beads etc since i was going to school to be a gemologist and worked in a diamond sorting room in CA. Then all of a sudden i just wanted to work in swarovski crystals and make simple sparking jewelry, Here are some of my pieces from earlier this year,
The gemstones are calling my name again though so i am transitioning back into doing mainly that. I am actually excited to get back to "my true love". I have to go buy some new stones though, and when i see them that is when i will really get inspired. It is weird, sometimes i just dream of something and then buy the stones to make it but most of the time it is the stones that tell me what to do. I am very grateful to have Cindy http://cindydean.blogspot.com/ to push me along, i had given up for a few years. She is my mentor :) We are doing a show at first friday and i have to busy if i am going to keep up with her!

Vintage finds from San Diego

Well i am back home and missing the cool ocean breezes of San Diego. At least we got some rain today so i could kind of feel cozy. I have to say thank you to my dear sweet little brother and sister in law. They took us all over San Diego and my little brother even went antique shopping all day with me on friday. I found a huge vintage dictionary that i think is just beautiful. Of course my husband was not impressed,especially when he had to carry it on the plane! I am think it is from 1957. Here it is,

I already cut a little piece out of it although i felt kind of bad at first but after seeing what you can create from all those pieces i changed my mind! Here is a pair of earrings i made out of the vintage chandlier crystals that i found this weekend as well. You cant see too well in the picture but they say Art on them,

I also found a huge selection of old postcards, i got about 20 of them but i was standing there for a long time trying to just pick a few. I bought clear chandlier crystals like the ones above too,

We also went to old town San Diego, if you havent been there and get a chance i highly recommend it....it was so quaint and you can take an hour long history walking tour for free. I just love that type of thing. Did i mention the food down there is delicious?! I also bought a beautiful sterling silver and amber ring from a shop in old town no bigger than a small bedroom from the jeweler who personally made it. I also got a few odds and ends from garage sale shopping but nothing too big. So now it is time to start creating, no more excuses! I will post new art soon :)

Junk shopping weekend

I am very excited to say that this is my junk shopping weekend....i cant wait!!! Who knows, i might actually get some inspiration for that elusive heartswap idea....hopefully!! So i will be posting pictures of all my treasures in a couple days. I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

To collage or not to collage

Here are this weekends projects, i have to admit that there is only one that i really like. I just couldnt get the others right. I will be doing a Fatbook swap and the theme is Hearts but i am having a really hard time finding my theme, i just cant seem to get it together this weekend! So here was my attempt, but these are nothing like i had in mind so i suppose the search continues.........