honey & ollie

The studio is a disaster, there’s a man high pile of laundry on the sofa, dishes are unwashed, and we’re having cold cereal for dinner for the second time this week. It MUST be crunch time for the Chinese New Year event put on by LA Craft Experience in downtown LA’s Chinatown district!

I’ll be there, booth #10, closer to Hill Street than to Broadway. There are so many great vendors at this event, I really hope y’all who are local will come on out and say howdy!

I’ll be premiering the new urban tribal copper pieces at Chinese New Year on the 28th and 29th, and I’m pretty excited about what’s coming off the bench. Another sneak peek…

Copper, raku, turquoise, Tibetan silver and a little sparkle… yum!

These just went up in the shop. I’m a little sad about that. I kind of wanted to keep them! I may have to make myself a pair.

Captain Sexypants and I made the rounds of the Pasadena bead show yesterday and much fun was had. We were struck by the amazing rustic and artisan quality of the metalwork on these chandelier findings. Okay, actually what happened was, we were standing there at her table with our hands in the little bins of copper jewelry components, both going “OOOOh! Ooooh! Look at THESE! OMG! OooOOOOH!” and making a lot of happy noise. See, these copper components are not cheap and thin stampings, oh no! These are handmade, every one, at a small studio. Warm and substantial, they just feel so good. The patina is different on every piece. Someone obviously imbued them with a great deal of happy mojo during the making. And since my work is all about the happy mojo, of course I went a little crazy at her table. Over the next few weeks, I will be making a lot of pieces that incorporate this wonderful artisan’s copper jewelry findings. It makes me so happy to support another artist’s small business. I try really hard to get most of my beads, glass and metal pieces this way, frankly. Whenever possible, I try to buy directly from the artists. I’d rather buy my gems from someone’s small business on Etsy or at a bead show, than patronize a huge online retailer. Sometimes this costs more. But that’s okay. I think it makes a huge difference in the quality of the designs I can offer you. I also think that the individual components have a better feel to them.

My youngest child loves to tell me that I am full of “hippy yaya b*llsh*t” but ya know, I gotta be me and that includes the hippy yayas. My philosophy has always been that there’s enough pie for everyone, as long as we aren’t greedy about the pie. Directly supporting other artists is my way of ensuring they get enough pie too.

It was fun to sit at the bench last night and get out some beads and play. These simple but colorful chandeliers were the result. I’ve been wanting to add some chandelier earrings to the line for a while but, aside from the fine silver components I make myself in the studio, I don’t fabricate my own findings. Unwilling to offer y’all anything that I wouldn’t wear myself, I have been holding out for the right ones. Looks like these are clear winners.

But here’s something completely different. While the pieces above are rustic and bohemian, warm and bold, these are a little more delicate. Elegant. To me, these pieces feel like slipping into the silky cold waters of a mountain lake. Quiet and peaceful, with all the blue of the sky reflected around you in gentle waters.

Amazonite, Peruvian chalcedony, sparkling green amethyst, delicate celadon moss aquamarines. A little Swiss blue topaz, pale blue faceted aquamarine, the deep blue of tiny sapphires…

The idea for these pieces came out of my One Word exploration. I enjoyed the idea of exploring elemental looks and ideas. Over the next 12 months, I’ll be exploring each element, each Sacred Thing. Water. Earth. Air. Fire. Spirit. Heart.

These Water pieces will be coming to the shop soon.

I’m a little late with this update – I was away from my bench and away from the camera a little longer than anticipated this morning!!

I’ve been playing around with different media and exploring my One Word for 2012 all week now. Lots of fun making Zentangles and mandalas and wordplay, reacquainting myself with ink pencils, markers, fine liners… variations on a theme that I’ll likely continue throughout the year. I posted one a few days ago, in fact. Grateful for the inspiration to delve back into other media.

But when it came time to create my piece for the Fly Tribe word hop, I really wanted to make something that spoke of the creative business that I’m building, the whole reason I took KRR’s Flying Lessons class in the first place. I also wanted something I could enjoy frequently, rather than just making it once and hanging it up on my studio wall.

One more variation on a theme.

“Water”

I was diagnosed with clinical depression back in the late 90′s. Since then, I have had good times and bad times, but it has always been a struggle to stay on an even keel. One of the indicators for me that a depressive episode is encroaching is that all of my houseplants die. Take it a little further, well, a lot of other things suffer because I’m not “watering” them either. Relationships with family, loved ones, friends, dusty baseboards, neglected car maintenance, things just don’t get tended when I’m in a bad spot. And now I’ve got a thriving creative business to run on top of it all.

I’d really like to break the cycle of past neglect and learn to relate to the world a little differently.

There’s a lot to tend and I want to keep things thriving.

This beauty is hanging around my neck right now. I’ll probably alternate it with the fine silver charm necklace I made for my One Word pendants, but this way, I’ll always have something to remind me. A whole lot prettier than a string on my finger if I do say so myself…

Check out the rest of the Fly Tribe gals by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom! Many links to open and peruse! <3

My Fly Tribe gals are having another blog hop, this time with our Words for 2012. Gonna be cool…

My box of fine silver precious metal clay finally arrived, so for the next few days I’ll be crafting charms and filling One Word pendant orders, and I’ve got some amazing beads in stock (and more on the way) to use with these little beauties. We might have a little radio silence on the blog the next few days, because I’ve got a bit of a backlog to start with! There’s still plenty of time to order one, by the way, I won’t close sales of those until February 15th. Lots of folks out there are still figuring out their Words! I’d love to craft a unique piece of soulful jewelry for YOU, so check out the shop! To that end, I’ve got a few more fairy tale bamboo tiles going up tomorrow and then I need to focus on charms, so that’s it for new fairy tales until next week (when I’ll have some new pieces, new sizes, and different styles to share with you!).

I’m really in love with this stunner! Sterling silver, faceted smoky quartz, AAA rainbow moonstone with the most wonderful iridescent blue flash, microfaceted black spinel and a detail from a marvelous vintage illustration from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So much sparkle and shimmer. This one is a choker length piece, unlike most in this series which are around 20-22″ in length.

This Art Nouveau beauty, accented with amber, peach moonstone, carnelian and lampworked glass:

Another owl, who has been in the shop before, in a slightly different incarnation. Here he is accented with sparkling Czech glass and tiger’s eye. He’s such a handsome fellow I keep coming back to him.

Another Art Nouveau lady, no gemstones on this one, just sparkly Czech glass and copper chain:

One of my personal favorites.

So that’s it for a bit while I focus on your One Word charms!

Speaking of One Word, my Fly Tribe is doing a One Word blog hop on the 9th, and there will be all manner of amazing art focused around our themes and intentions for the year. I hope you check back then to see what everyone comes up with. These are some talented artists, y’all! I’ll be unveiling my mixed media art piece on the 9th and providing links to all the other participants.

So many fantastic things in store for 2012. I am kind of bubbling over with anticipation!

The newest incarnation of my Once Upon A Time collection. Vintage imagery decoupaged onto stained bamboo tile and accented with gemstones, mixed metals, and art glass.

The new collection will be out at the Chinese New Year show for their first foray into the world, but pieces are going up in the shop all week.

These are warm, textured and rustic. The bamboo has an almost silky feel. They’re really a pleasure to wear and to look at. Most of them are on 20 – 24 inch copper chains but a few come in sterling, or choker length or strung on waxed cotton or silk cord. The collection is ever evolving!

Snow White, Rapunzel, The Princess and her Frog, Bluebeard’s wife, and the Little Mermaid… watch for them in the shop this week!