This weekend I’ve been doing some demolition.

I’ve been making jewelry for a long time, and I’ve accumulated a lot of finished work that isn’t “good enough” for one reason or another. Some of it isn’t my style, so I don’t want to show it to galleries. Some of it isn’t made well, or the design didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. A lot of it is stuff I made while working through slumps, and it shows.

Pre-demolition

I’m not sure why I’ve held on to this stuff so long, since I can’t stand looking at it.

So I started demolition.

My fugly pieces are being transformed back into raw materials: bits of silver and gold filled metal, pearls, gemstone and glass beads.

Some of them just needed tweaking: a few pairs of earrings that now look just fine with reshaped earwires, and freeform pendants that had flaws or tool marks, which I removed and was able to then reshape into new pendants, which are now awaiting embellishments.

Reclaimed Pendants

So instead of a pile of jewelry I was never going to wear or sell, I now have several new pendants and earrings, including one matching set, and a couple baggies of beads.

And I still have lots more jewelry to demolish!

As for the metal scraps, the beauty of metal is that it’s completely recyclable. My gold filled scraps go into a jar and when it starts to get full, I’ll trade the scrap in to a refiner for money or new wire and sheet. My silver scraps go into one of several jars: scraps that are sterling silver, scraps that are fine silver, scraps that are Argentium silver, and mixed silver scrap (which could be any of these three - sometimes they get mixed up). I can re-use the silver scrap by soldering, fusing, or melting it, or I can send it back to a refiner with the gold filled scrap.

But I think the best part of this demolition is that it gets the creative side of my brain working. As I started dismantling things, I might accidentally make a shape that is interesting that I want to play with later. I might notice some beads next to each other that I wouldn’t have thought of combining, but look great together.

If you have craft projects lying around that turned out badly, you might want to try recycling the parts into new projects - really nothing beats finding essentially free supplies & getting some decluttering done at the same time.

I have a confession to make. I have a really hard time picking people to nominate for blog awards.

So this post is LONG overdue.

In the last month, a few people have been kind enough to nominate me for the Arte y Pico award and the Brillante award, so I really want to thank all of them, and I encourage anyone reading to go check out their blogs. It really is an honor to be nominated by people whose blogs I read regularly & truly enjoy! All of you deserve an award, but I can’t give it to you since you already

Thank you so much to Silver Canyons, Jael’s Jewels, Dashery, Macaroni and Glue, and Ink Stains for the nominations! I truly am flattered to be nominated by such fantastic blogs! You all deserve awards too for your blogs, and I’d love to nominate each of you (but you don’t need to do anything this time since you already won).

And, thanks to Simply Shiny and Unique You for tagging me, which is a fun game. The way it works is this:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird (or 6 quirks, depending on the version we’re playing).
3. Tag 7 people (or 6) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I’ll do seven:

1. This one’s inspired by Kristi - I’ve eaten bear. It wasn’t very good, and had to be stewed all day to be tender enough to be edible. It’s illegal to shoot bears here unless they are posing a direct threat to humans, which this bear unfortunately was, apparently. I wasn’t actually there at the time, but the shooter decided it was a shame for an animal to be wasted, and butchered the bear and froze a bunch of bear steaks.

2. I’m terrified of insects and spiders if they are bigger than about a centimeter long. I know it’s irrational but I can’t help it.

3. Squishing the bug doesn’t help because I’m afraid of touching their guts. They need to be trapped and released outdoors, where, for whatever reason, they aren’t as scary to me.

4. One of my favorite things to do is plan my dream studio. I’d love to have a studio at home, that I could customize with storage, display walls, workbench areas, and a comfy place to sit and read or work on fiber projects or bead/wirework that doesn’t require a lot of tools or a workbench. In my dream studio, I’d also have a dedicated space for photographing finished work, a computer desk, and a sewing machine (even though I don’t really know how to use one - I really want to learn).

5. If money wasn’t an issue, I’d have a vacation home in the desert in Southern California, Arizona, or New Mexico. My husband would have a painting studio in our vacation home since he’s very inspired by the desert.

6. I wish I could play a musical instrument really well. I can play the piano, but not all that well, because I didn’t practice enough as a kid.

7. Sometimes when my son wakes up and cries, I can’t believe how much I love him, and wish that I could guarantee he’ll grow up to be happy and successful in whatever he wants to do.

Okay, I’m tagging these seven blogs, which I’ve discovered through entrecard:

Altered Events
Kerrie Slade
Shopperista
Three Fates Design
Five Oclock Somewhere
Coconut Palm Designs
In Shadows

If you want to play, feel free, and if not, I won’t be offended. Just wanted to thank a few of the people I exchange drops with.

I just came across a post about making found poetry over at Lucky Girl Trading Co’s blog. Sounds like a fun way to jump-start your creativity!

Also - I could see this being the start of a collage project, if you cut out the words and phrases. I see collage artists using text all the time, and maybe the found poem could inspire the visual elements of a cool piece of art!

This ring isn’t new, it’s been listed in my etsy shop for a while - but this photo of it on a hand is new.

Green Ring

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on my photography. I think it’s helpful for people to see jewelry on a model so they can picture how it might look on them, but getting pictures on a model that still show details of a piece of jewelry is tough. At least when photographing rings, I can use my own hands to model them, which makes it easier to experiment with lighting, backgrounds, etc that work for this type of photo.

For necklaces, taking photos on a bust can be almost as effective as a live model, so I plan to try that rather than look for a model. I’m not sure what I’ll do for earrings though - I don’t think most people want to buy earrings that have been worn, even if only for a few moments to snap a picture, and I don’t know of a realistic-looking display for them. Suggestions welcome!

I just dropped off a few necklaces at Worthington Gallery West in Pleasanton, CA. I’m so excited to have my work at this gallery alongside beautiful paintings, sculptures, textiles, and jewelry. Main Street in Pleasanton is a great place to shop, eat, and look at art - so check out Worthington Gallery West and see my jewelry if you are there, including this new pendant on an 18″ gold filled chain:

Freeform Pendant, Gold Filled with Amethyst

Being a mom, working a part time job, and trying to run a business sometimes adds up to me being so busy I feel like I don’t have time to stop and think. This is one of those weeks.

Later today I’m taking some jewelry to a potential new gallery - wish me luck!

That’s it for now.

Have a craft business? Go to craftypod.com right now & listen to the marketing interview with Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club.

Jennifer is one of the most successful craft business owners I know of, so I think she knows what she’s talking about. (She makes fun, kitschy style jewelry using vintage and vintage-look components, which she sells at very affordable prices, and she seems to be everywhere on the web, hosts a show for the DIY network, and now has a book coming out.) One thing that stuck with me from the interview is that she talks about not being afraid of rejection. If you want to get press, you have to contact everyone you can think of about your product and not worry about it when a lot of them aren’t interested.

After you finish listening to this, go listen to etsy.com’s interview with Bruce Metcalf. (I found the etsy podcast on I-tunes.) Bruce is a studio jeweler, whose work sells for thousands of dollars per piece. His point of view on craft is really worth listening to, and I was inspired to hear him tell his personal story. I think he is very brave to try to survive selling only a few very high-end pieces per year. But he’s been successful at it, since before many of the people in the new, young crafts movement were even born. I think we can learn a lot from someone who has made a living at their craft for decades.

The Art of Jewelry: Paper Jewelry by Marthe Le Van is a beautiful book loaded with pictures of jewelry made using paper.

Some of the projects use paper as the primary material, while others combine it with more traditional jewelry materials such as precious metals and beads. Many reinforce the paper by coating it with lacquer or making paper mache, or decoupaging the paper to a sturdier material. Some projects look like they would wear well, while others designs may not stand up to repeated wear. Some projects transform paper so you’d never know what it was, and others are more literal and obviously paper jewels. One designer even spins paper into yarn, then knits with it.

I really enjoyed this book. As someone who enjoys experimenting with non-traditional materials, I found the variety of projects and gallery images inspiring. I got some new ideas on how to possibly use paper in my own work. Thus far, my only use of paper has been to embed it under resin, such as when I make photo pendants or pendants with prints of my husband’s paintings in them, and my recent experiments with decoupage and making resin collages. Reading this book made me want to play with other methods of incorporating paper into my work, particularly the projects that mixed paper with wire structures - a very cool effect with lots of potential uses in jewelry making.

Remember my black pearl ring? It’s for sale in the Michon etsy shop…if you wear a 6 or 6 1/2 ring, this could be for you!

Found this fun crocheted bracelet tutorial via craftypod.com (it’s by Sister Diane, the host of Craftypod).

I don’t think I’m going to make a bracelet, but this looks like an easy way to make all kinds of cute crocheted accessories.