I’m working on a 12 Days of Christmas gift guide, which will be posted right here on my blog for 12 days in a row, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Want to be featured? Keep reading for entry details!

*Items must be handmade, hand assembled, or hand-altered, although I will accept photographs and reproductions of original artwork
*items must be for sale online, ideally though a major handmade venue (such as etsy).
*you must tell me which theme you think your piece fits
*themes are mainly visual – if you made a food painting, it could fit the food theme despite not actually being edible
*if you enter, you give me permission to save a photo from your listing and post it on my blog. I will give you credit and a link to your item along with the photo if I decide to use it
*to enter, post a comment including a direct link to your product, or tweet me a link to @leahmichon on twitter
*comments must include: the day number you want to be featured in, a clickable link to your product listing
*tweets should look like this: @leahmichon 12 days promo day #_ http://yourlink.com

SO….here are my themes for each day:
1. recycled/upcycled
2. food
3. clothing
4. silver
5. shoes and accessories
6. home decor
7. gold
8. bath/body/beauty
9. trees/branches/birds
10. jewel tones
11. snow/ice/cold weather
12. art and photography

If I don’t feature your item in the gift guide, I will consider it for a future handmade shopping promotion or for inclusion in at etsy treasury – feel free to send me a link for as many themes as you’d like, just be sure to include the day number to make it easier for me to compile the items. Then come back the day after Thanksgiving and check out all the handmade goodness!

With the holiday season upon us, many people are thinking about wrapping up end of the year projects, finding the perfect gift for everyone on their list, and avoiding gaining five pounds while being surrounded by tempting food and drinks.

What a lot of people won’t think about until after December 25th are their goals for next year, and most people have likely forgotten last years’ goals completely by now (which is why I write mine down – I didn’t accomplish all of them, but at least I know what I need to keep working on).

One of my goals every year is to continue being creative, and ideally, to be creative every day. I’ve thought on and off about writing myself a creativity calendar, with a quote or quick idea for each day, to keep me inspired — but that’s a pretty huge project, given there are 365 days in a year. As it turns out, more than one person has written a book with this exact concept, and because it’s something I’ve thought a lot about (and even started writing my own version, in my journals) I couldn’t resist reading a couple.

The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky and The Crafters Devotional by Barbara R. Call are the two on my bookshelf so far. If you know of another book with daily prompts, projects, etc please let me know in the comments – I’d love to read it!

Anyway, although these books are loosely based on the same concept, there are significant differences between the two. The Crafters Devotional is specifically for crafters – although I’d go as far as to say it’s equally good for mixed media artists. There are tips and projects on a variety of crafty topics like journaling, jewelry making, crochet, photography, and altering books. There are also interviews with artists and crafters, inspiring quotes to think about, and exercises to try to get your creative mind working. It is set up with 52 weeks, and there is an entry for each weekday plus one per weekend. The days of the week have different themes, so you get a variety each week.

The Awe-Manac, on the other hand, is geared more toward writers, and each day has some kind of journal prompt, along with a quote or two and a few “just for fun” things like the “toast of the day”. It is set up by months with an entry for each day of the month. One of my favorite parts of the book is the intro to each month, which sets the tone for the month and includes fun tidbits of information, such as a list of holidays (including things like national peanut butter day, which you might not be aware of…). It’s a play on an almanac, so expect a lot of puns related to the kinds of trivia you’d find in an old copy of the Farmer’s Almanac.

I think it would be really fun, (though not particularly practical for me this year, given that I have a baby due about two months in) to start on January 1st and work through one of these books day by day for an entire year. So, although I won’t add be adding that to my goals for 2010, I do plan to refer to each of these books frequently when I need a spark for an idea. Amazon links below, in case you want to check out more reviews or order one for yourself. (No pressure, my affiliate cut is very minimal).

Succulents and Spokes

This is a little photo collage I made from pictures of a bike tire & some succulents in my back yard. I’ve been taking photos in my back yard as well as my parents’ back yard over the past year as a reminder that inspiration for creative projects is everywhere. It’s easy to forget sometimes – I get wrapped up in my life of taking care of my son, working, paying bills, cleaning my house – but there’s a whole world of really beautiful images right in my back yard. I don’t have to take a Hawaiian vacation to stay inspired (although, yeah, I’d like to!).

If you have a digital camera, take advantage of the fact that you can take as many photos as you want, and only print the ones you like. I’ve found that the more pictures I take, the more creative I am with my jewelry, my jewelry photography, and even ideas to entertain my kid or what to have for dinner. Taking pictures trains me to look at things more closely, and that in turn gives me ideas for new shapes and color combinations to use in my jewelry designs.

Carnelian and Citrine Choker

I’m really, really happy with how this new choker turned out. I’ve had the chunky carnelian and citrine beads in my stash for quite a while, and had strung the main part of the necklace several months ago but couldn’t decide how to finish it. Over the weekend, I came up with the idea for the chain, and lucky for me, it turned out great!

The beads in this piece are carnelian (both color treated and natural), quartz with yellow inclusions, and citrine. I made the chain using fused argentium silver rings along with tiny citrine and carnelian beads wire wrapped on my handmade fine silver head pins.

It’s a one of a kind necklace, since many of the beads used have unique color patterns – you can buy it for yourself or as a gift from my etsy shop.

I have a new featured artist today, Marianne of Mae Bee Jewelry:

How did you pick your shop name?

My best friend gave me the nickname “Mae” which is also my initials. The play on words “Mae Bee” was kinda cute and also was a state of mind at the time I opened my shop…”maybe” this’ll work!

What is your medium? What kinds of materials and tools do you use?

I use leather, waxed linen, sterling silver and other metals. Tools are pliers, clippers, basic jewelry tools and a standing magnifying glass.

Tell me a little bit about your process.

Usually when I’ve made something it’s because I want something, I have it in my head, but can’t find it to buy! So I make it. I’ve done this all my life. 15 years ago, I wanted cooler Christmas cards, so I made them. Couldn’t find invites I liked, so I made them. Couldn’t afford fancy painted furniture for my kids, so I made it. And in the last 16 months, couldn’t find affordable casual jewelry…so I made it! I do get inspiration from looking in magazines at celeb wrists and also from Sundance, Me & Ro and Dog Eared jewelry sites and catalogs.

Mae Bee Jewelry

Any advice for aspiring artists/crafters in your medium?

Go for it! But go sort of slow at first. It is quite an investment to get started in terms of supplies and time, so don’t go buying bulk everything right off the bat. Also, make what YOU like, so you stay true to your craft.

Any business advice for artists/crafters just starting to sell their work?

Get on Etsy, quick! Be organized from the start so you don’t waste time trying to undo messes. This includes everything from finances, to correspondences, to photos, to your work space. Also, provide amazing customer service including incredibly adorable packaging. This can be done very inexpensively and makes a huge difference to your customers. Most importantly, learn how to take great photos.

You can connect with Marianne on twitter and facebook:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mpaperarts
Facebook: username MaeBee Jewelry

A little gift, from Artbeads to me to you!

Artbeads.com sent me a discount code to share with my blog readers. The following code is good for 10% off your order, from now through December 31st 2009.

According to the little card, you also get free shipping in the US, or $1 shipping to Canada!

So if you’d like to take advantage of the discount, use this code at checkout: SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424.

Disclaimer: I occasionally review products sold by artbeads.com and am not compensated except that I get to keep the items I review. So no pressure – I don’t actually get paid for referring sales there. I will say they have a nice selection of Swarovski crystals though…..

Copper is a beautiful metal for jewelry, but it oxidizes (tarnishes) more quickly than silver, so it requires a bit of extra care if you want it to stay shiny.

I recommend cleaning your copper jewelry after every time you wear it. Use a mild soap and water, rinse completely, and dry with a soft cloth. Store your clean jewelry in an air-tight container, such as a plastic ziplock bag, since contact with air and chemicals in the air contribute to oxidation.

Copper Earrings

If your copper is looking dull or tarnished, try soaking it in lemon juice diluted with water. When the tarnish is gone, rinse the jewelry and dry it, and it should be shiny and clean again. I love this method since it’s eco-friendly and doesn’t use any toxic chemicals.

You can also polish copper with a jewelry polishing cloth. Some people like to leave the polishing residue on the jewelry because it can keep it shiny longer, while others prefer to clean it off, since it can irritate sensitive skin.

If you like copper with a little bit of a patina, go ahead and let it oxidize! Just keep earwires and other parts that have a lot of contact with your skin clean.

Copper is a very safe metal for jewelry, but if your skin gets itchy here are a few tips:

• Keep the jewelry very clean.
• Try coating earwires with clear nail polish – I have a friend who does this to all of her metal earwires – when it starts to come off, she removes the rest with nail polish remover & then coats them again.
• Remove earrings at night, rather than sleeping in them. And don’t forget to clean them – a lot of people who think they have a metal allergy are actually reacting to dirt and oils that build up on the jewelry.

T Bar Studs

These studs, currently in two sizes (7-8 mm and 1.5 cm) are handcrafted from argentium sterling silver. As you can see in the pictures, when worn, all that is visible is the textured silver bar, but when not being worn, these earrings look like the letter T. Both styles are up for sale in the Michon etsy shop. More sizes, finishes, and other variations are in the works – I will post them if I like how they turn out!

The small size looks great on its own or worn with other studs for people with multiple piercings. The larger size is better, in my opinion, on its own worn horizontally across the ear.

Update: found my large t-bar studs in a treasury curated by Ovgillliesdesigns. Here’s a screenshot!

Etsy Treasury with my earrings in it

This blog is way overdue for some housecleaning – over the next months, I’ll be deleting some older posts and combining bits and pieces of others into topical articles. I hope this makes it easier to find information, and I sincerely doubt anyone will miss announcements about my open studios from four years ago (although I did enjoy hosting open studios, and it’s something I hope to do again in the future).

So you’ve been warned – if you link to some of my older content, the page may move or completely disappear.

However, I hope that the result will be a more cohesive blog with some much more useful, informative articles. For instance, posts with link love will be combined into lists of links by topic, to make it easier for you (and me!) to find the good stuff.

Decluttering is a good thing! I’m purging blurry photos and all kinds of other things that are taking up space on my computer, and I know that in the process I’ll uncover some hidden gems of things I meant to share but forgot about since they got buried under 1000s of photos, emails, and other files.

The most complete list of etsy tools I’ve ever seen – if you sell on etsy, you should definitely check it out. A few sites on the list I use all the time: etsyhacks, craftopolis, and craftcult.

Etsyhacks has a bunch of tools you can use in your etsy shop. My favorite is the one for the forums, so you can skip to the last page you read in a thread.

Craftcult has the super-addictive view counter – check how many new views your shop has, in real time.

Craftopolis has a clock showing how much time is left til treasuries open, as well as a tool that finds if you are featured in any current treasuries – I check once a day to make sure I don’t miss any treasuries I’m in.