This is an older piece from last year – reposting it because I think it’s fairly relevant for the day at hand.

Love.

Art.

Jump in.

It is all going to be okay.

I recognize that as a business owner it’s good practice to take advantage of these holidays and rather silly not to take every opportunity to drive sales to my shop. But as a person with Views On Things, a person who believes that we actively create the world we live in every moment of every day, I do feel weird about contributing to the marketing hysteria and pressure that gets built up around these days. That stuff is hard on people! All those expectations. I haven’t quite resolved that one yet. I had a similar issue around the winter holidays when every other email I got seemed to be screaming, “Hey buy this!” and by the 1st of December I’d totally just… tuned out… and was so clear that I did not want to be contributing to all that noise.

At any rate. My answer to that conundrum seems to be “take the day off and eat pie.” It’s working out so far.

It hasn’t all been days off with pie, though. I did a little show this past weekend at The Majestical Roof gallery and boutique in Old Pasadena with a couple of other fab jewelry artists, and we all had a fabulous time. It ended abruptly with a cloudburst and a lot of frantic packing and dashing for cars, but while the sun was out we sure had fun! There was a fine silver clay demo by Delia Marsellos Traister of Phoenix Magyk, live music all day and I might have even gotten my hands on someone’s baby for a brief spin and cuddle around the courtyard. Heaven.

Delia Marsellos Traister, my teacher, buddy and mentor, made this awesome little silver vessel for storing your shinies and tiny inspirations. I love the feather and the little spiral bow.

I’m such a fan of Delia’s work. It has a really unique structural quality to it, and it is filled with whimsy and also sometimes there are tiny Frozen Charlotte dolls. Delia’s work is like nifty architecture, you just want to look at it because it’s so ultimately cool.

IT’s also ultimately wearable. I’m such a fan of her chop pendants, I own two! Delia taught the first jewelry class I ever took. When I decided to fly with this creative biz of mine, Delia was one of the first people to cheer me on and she’s been amazesauce with the support and help all along. From walking me through bails to repair to buying my first kiln, I don’t know what I’d do without her.

Rachel of Hearts of Stone, also in attendance at the Roof this weekend. She was the featured artist and I can totally see why!!

Rachel’s work features carved stone hearts as focals. Sometimes they’re as simple as a choker. Sometimes, a little more elaborate.

I’m a fan. I’ve got one of her amazing necklaces, treated myself to it as a birthday gift this year. I can’t wait until summer/Indian summer so I can rock it with some linen blouses and bluejeans.

Loved this brilliant red with the silver. Rachel’s work really delights me.

My stuff didn’t look so bad either next to these fantastic ladies!

The new copper line seems to be making people pretty happy. I sold my copper Buddha locket with the bird charm. Hard to let it go but so delightful to know it was going to a happy home.

There was another gal there, Andie Danie Designs, with darling hair bobs and wire wrapped Tree of Life pendants to die for as well as some other gemstone pieces. She’s got a great eye. I didn’t get any pictures of her work (though I did steal a turn around the courtyard with her adorable little 5 month old son) but you can check out her shop here. I really wish that I’d had the chance to shoot some pics of her stuff. There was another woman there with crocheted metal designs and some knitwear (and you guys know how I love the knit wear) and I didn’t get a chance to shoot her table either. But if you hop down to the Majestical Roof, both of these ladies are also represented within.

So back to Valentine’s Day. I hope whatever you do tomorrow, be it with a loved one, some cats, or just yourself, is ultimately loving and positive. Have some chocolate. A nice cup of tea. Be good to yourself if no one else. If the advertising hysteria gets to you, turn it off. It’s okay. World won’t end. Remember. It’s always good to take the day off and have some pie.

Shop note:
Tomorrow and Wednesdays are the last days you can order One Word pendants for 2012, so if you’ve been sitting on your word or trying to decide, scoot on over to Etsy and let me know! I’ve had a great time making these, I’m on my last batch of orders and I would love to squeeze one in for you if you are so inclined!

Chinese New Year was fabulous and the folks at LA Craft Experience are really to be commended for their hard work. Everything went so well for the artists, it was mostly well organized, security, electric, everything we needed. Even food trucks! Y’all, I found kosher egg rolls. It was pretty nifty. I’m very excited about possibly doing their next event this summer.

This is not kosher egg rolls, however. This is dogwood.

We got a family membership to Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge and you can find me there once or twice a week now, walking and playing with the camera. It’s really good to get outside. We’ve had ridiculous weather here, sunny and in the 70′s. I am not sure what happened to winter.

This young lady doesn’t really care about what happened to winter. SHe’s just enjoying the sunshine and being a fairy in a garden.

These little buds? They don’t much care either.

You can find me out in the sunshine this weekend at The Majestical Roof gallery and boutique, for their Valentine’s Day art show! Loads of new pieces for sale. New copper, new fairy tales, glass, bamboo and mixed media pieces as well as some of the prettiest gemstones you ever saw…

Have a little preview… or go check out the Etsy shop, as there is a massive update in progress over the next day or three!

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!

like new Etsy shop listings in lovely spring colors.

I’m still anxiously awaiting some rain, or winter, or something though. Don’t let these soft flower garden palettes fool you. It’s January and I’m officially putting in my request for a bit of proper winter weather instead of the 70-80 degree temps and dry, dry, dry skies. Our reservoirs need water and the snow pack needs a boost!

All manner of new stones from the Pasadena Gem Show are now making their way into the shop, like these stunning crystal clear smooth moss aquamarine teardrops. I really love how they look with multicolored topaz…

Huge store update today. Many copper pieces, spring garden pieces, some of the new Water line… oh my gosh I’m excited for the amazing stuff the coming year has in store for us!

These and the new copper urban tribal line are going to be out at the Chinese New Year show next weekend (not this one, next!) January 28th/29th. The folks at LACE are putting together an amazing lineup of artists for you! I hope you mark your calendars, save the date, come out for some dim sum and a truly stellar kick off to the Year of the Dragon!

So I’m gonna say this instead.

A lot of folks are talking about going “dark” today, signing petitions, fightings SOPA and PIPA. That’s great! Here’s the question… how many of y’all who are going “dark” and signing petitions then turn around and watch entertainment on “perfectly legitimate servers” when you know they aren’t actually legal?

How many of you have illegally downloaded music?

How many of you have watched BBC productions a week before they were set to be released here, or cable series when they were still in first run on their pay channels and NOT available to the general public.

Come on. Don’t pretend you haven’t. Just about everyone does it. “It’s no big deal!” right? I’ve certainly been no saint on that front in years past.

Well it is a big deal. Sorry. It’s stealing copyrighted content. Mea culpa. And if you can’t culpa too, then you’re probably deluding yourself and that’s dangerous.

There’s a reason why I now buy a season pass to watch my favorite cable shows via iTunes. Because NOT to buy the pass is stealing and stealing is wrong. No, I don’t like having to pay iTunes 30-something bucks to watch Sons of Anarchy, but I don’t want to pay for cable, so that’s what I have to do if I want to see the latest season. Yeah, the ad content on HULU sucks but they have free content, so I’ll put up with some ads. YES it sucks that the BBC America shows are later than the regular Beeb, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. A lot of cable channels stream content for free. Network channels show current episodes. And sometimes, yeah, sometimes you just have to wait. Good thing you’re a grownup and realize that you aren’t actually entitled to gratify every whim RIGHT NOW.

If you’re going to sign a petition, make a noise, great. Do that.

Then? Put your money where your mouth is and don’t steal content, period. Even if it means you don’t get to watch Reichenbach Falls/Sherlock or the next Game of Thrones series until it’s legally available in America or properly out on DVD.

We are the creators of this situation. We the people who stream content illegally “just this once” or rip a CD “just one time” are responsible for crappy legislation like SOPA and PIPA.

Protection of copyright is good, but not at the expense of liberty. It’s just that everyone is going to have to behave like an ethical adult if they want that to work. So go out there and behave, please.

And take a minute to sign this petition.

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

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’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