Dreams and Jewelry
Posted by Leah on Jun 12, 2007
Andrea of Dreams and Jewelry made these beautiful earrings with a verdigris patina:
She was selling her beautiful enamel jewelry along with patinated metal creations like these earrings at the Southbay Soiree. I didn’t get a good picture of her enamel work, unfortunately, but you can see some of it on her dreams and jewelry website. Andrea is a metalsmith, so most of her jewelry is completely handmade from sheet metal, with either a patina or enamel adding color to her pieces.
Make a Scene Photography
Posted by Leah on Jun 11, 2007
This beautiful box was on display at the South Bay Soiree. Anni of Make a Scene Photography mounts her photographs on wood boxes like the one shown here. I think they would make great jewelry boxes! She also makes small books, and of course sells photographic prints. I believe she’s available for event photography too.
I tried to get a good shot of her table, but she was by a window which made all the pictures look dark. I did get this shot that shows a little bit more of the variety in her photographic work though:
New Jewelry Display
Posted by Leah on Jun 10, 2007
I found this great torso jewelry display at a local salvage store. “She” is modeling a braided/woven necklace I made a while ago with citrine, carnelian, peridot, and labradorite beads on fine silver wire.
RSS feed
Posted by Leah on Jun 8, 2007
I think something about my RSS feed changed when I upgraded my blog a few days ago. If you don’t know what RSS is, ignore this - but if you’ve subscribed to my feed & haven’t been getting updates, try re-subscribing with this URL:
http://www.michondesign.com/jewelry-blog/index.php/feed/
link
Villain Accessories
Posted by Leah on Jun 8, 2007
At last weekend’s South Bay Soiree, I got to meet Brandi of Villain Accessories. She makes lovely beaded jewelry, and loves cloisonne beads. I love her company slogan: Villain Accessories “Because being beautiful makes you the bad guy.”
Here is a shot of part of her display, a tree-like piece with lots of pretty chain necklaces hanging from the branches:
And here’s a shot of her whole table - as you can see, she does some really nice multistrand necklaces:
I especially love how she showcased a long necklace on a bust wearing a satiny top, so you can see how her jewelry would go with a dressy outfit.
Craft Links
Posted by Leah on Jun 7, 2007
Just a few links to some stuff I’ve been checking out around the web this week:
Crafty Daisies -
Learn to Crochet, Lesson 3. This lesson has links to videos demonstrating some common stitches, like shell stitch, that are slightly more complicated than the basic single and double crochet stitches.
Jeannine of Designs by a Hummingbird reviewed me. thanks Jeannine!
Andrea finds all kinds of great handcrafted work, and features it on the Anything Indie blog. She recently posted about a few of my fellow Pleasanton Craft Mafia members, as well as some very talented people I hadn’t heard of before.
Craft in America 3-part documentary - haven’t seen it, but it was shown nationally on PBS stations last week. I’m hoping to catch it in reruns and see what all the buzz is about!
Pleasanton Craft Mafia now has a blog, updated (almost) daily with fun features, like meet a member, local art/craft workshops, information about shows members are participating in, and more.
New Pendant
Posted by Leah on Jun 6, 2007
I’ve been working on a new pendant style, which is based on knots. I start by making a knot with wire, then permanently fuse the ends of the wire together, creating a knot that can’t be untied. This is the first finished knot pendant, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Recent events have reminded me how impermanent every aspect of life can be. One thing that I explore through my jewelry work is the contrast between the durability of metal and the open, airy, delicate look of many of my metal designs. I like to keep some negative space in my jewelry, using wire in a way that mimics vines, seaweed, or a curled lock of hair - delicate, impermanent, movable states that I try to capture with the wire, the same way a photograph preserves a moment in time. Some things are beautiful because they are temporary and fluid, like water. This is what inspires many of my wire jewelry designs.
If I can evoke movement in my designs, they feel more beautiful. I’m inspired by the state an object is in while it is moving or changing, the moment when something about it is perfect because in a few seconds it will have changed forever.
Ellie at the South Bay Soiree
Posted by Leah on Jun 5, 2007
I’ll post some pictures of my own from the south bay soiree eventually, but in the meantime, check out Chel’s adorable photo-journal of her doll, Ellie, checking out everyone’s goods!
Overwhelmed by Spam
Posted by Leah on Jun 4, 2007
I am overwhelmed by the amount of spam comments I’m getting. More than 900 were waiting in my moderation queue just between Friday and now! It is unbelievable.
To the real people reading: is there something you know of that I can install on wordpress to catch some of the obvious spams, so that I don’t have to read them all while I’m trying to find the legitimate comments to approve?
I originally logged on to post pictures from the craft mafia show I participated in yesterday, but now my eyes hurt from skimming nearly 1,000 spam comments, so the real posting & photos are going to have to wait.
