Crocheted Purse and a WIP
Posted by Administrator on Jun 29, 2007
I know it isn’t jewelry, but I made this cute crocheted purse while following along with the learn to crochet lessons at Crafty Daisies. There was a link to a purse pattern in lesson #4, which I altered slightly, mostly by making it bigger and winging it on the ruffle part since I didn’t write it down (but ruffles are easy enough to crochet without a pattern).
And since this is supposed to be a jewelry blog, here’s a picture of my latest in-progress resin piece, using the top of an altoid tin as a bezel:
Changes afoot
Posted by Administrator on Jun 28, 2007
The Pleasanton Craft Mafia is now the Pacific Coast Mestieri, and will represent artists and crafters all over California. We will still be hosting fabulous shows full of handmade art and craft throughout the greater bay area, so it’s really just the name that’s changed. Hope to see some of you at the Summer Splash in August in Pleasanton!
Guerilla Fashionista
Posted by Administrator on Jun 26, 2007
My next show is coming up in just a couple weeks: Guerilla Fashionista, hosted at Foreign Cinema on Mission St. in San Francisco. This show is going to be *SO* much fun. Fabulous locally made clothing, jewelry, and accessories, plus champagne to sip while shopping, a DJ, and every purchase you make benefits a charity that is working to end human trafficking.
So please come, have fun, shop, and remember to be safe getting home if you plan on drinking a lot of the champagne. It’s all for good cause, after all. 
New Jewelry at ProArts gallery
Posted by Administrator on Jun 20, 2007
I dropped off a bunch of jewelry at the ProArts gallery in Oakland, CA last Friday - earrings, resin necklaces, freeform silver & pearl necklaces, and even a few rings!
ProArts is located on 2nd street at Clay in Oakland, close to Jack London Square. In the gallery store they sell jewelry, pottery, clothing, handbags, wood boxes, and all kinds of art and craft work by local bay area artists.
While I was there dropping off my jewelry, I got to see some fabulous painted pottery that is definitely worth checking out. Also, they have a brand new exhibit up that I’m told was to be installed over the weekend, so if you’re familiar with the gallery but haven’t been by recently, definitely go see what’s new there (and make sure to look in the jewelry cases to see some of my creations).
Crochet Carnival
Posted by Administrator on Jun 18, 2007
The latest edition of the Crochet Carnival is up!
If you aren’t familiar with blog carnivals, they are fun collections of blog articles related to a given topic - in this case, crochet. My bobble cuff is included along with a bunch of articles that I definitely plan on reading as soon as I’m done posting this.
Check out the blog carnival homepage to find carnivals on topics that interest you - a couple I like are Carnival of the Creators and Make it from Scratch.
Pleasanton Craft Mafia Summer Splash
Posted by Administrator on Jun 18, 2007
I’m very excited to announce that the Pleasanton Craft Mafia is doing a late summer show in Pleasanton on August 25th. This show is going to be a blast, as all PCM shows are, and will feature art and craft work by many of the very talented craft mafiosas I’ve featured on my blog over the last couple of weeks.
Details are on the Pleasanton Craft Mafia website.
You won’t want to miss it!
One more Southbay Soiree artist
Posted by Administrator on Jun 17, 2007
Joanna, another craft mafiosa, showed her original drawings and paintings at the southbay soiree.
Here’s a shot of her booth:
I wish I had gotten a good close-up of some of her work, because it’s really hard to see all the detail in her drawings from this shot. You can see her work on her website though, www.joannacrawshaw.com.
Designs by a Hummingbird
Posted by Administrator on Jun 14, 2007
Here’s some fun jewelry from another Pleasanton Craft Mafia member, Jeannine of Designs by a Hummingbird:
Jeannine’s work is colorful, fun, and often intricately beaded as you can see in the photo. She also does metalwork combining different metals, such as copper with silver.
Here’s a shot of her booth from the show:
Scrap Pendant
Posted by Administrator on Jun 14, 2007
I made this pendant from scrap sterling silver, with a few freshwater pearls added. One thing that is really nice about working with metal is that it is easy to reuse scraps. In this case, I had some half-round sterling silver wire in a size that I just don’t use. I’m not really sure why I bought it originally, but it had been sitting around my studio for quite a while. So, I sculpted it & fused it with my torch until I was mostly happy with the look, then added pearls to contrast with the rough look of the semi-melted silver.
This piece took a while to complete because there wasn’t an obvious place to attach a bail, but with some small alterations, I was able to add the wire bezel shown in the picture.
Chel’s mixed media art
Posted by Administrator on Jun 13, 2007
This photo shows a sampling of Chel’s mixed media art (and one of her dolls). In addition to creating art, Chel founded the Pleasanton Craft Mafia and a large organization for mixed media artists called ZNE. She is definitely multi-talented! Scroll down a few posts for a link to her doll-blog story about the Southbay Soiree a few weeks ago….
