Brita Addams BirthdayTreasure Hunt

It's time! It's time! Time for the lovely Brita Addams' birthday Treasure Hunt! First off, happiest of birthdays Brita my dear. Secondly... as part of her birthday bash I'm contributing some sterling silver/faceted iolite earring shinies :D

Now go forth and hunt. Somewhere on my blog is her special birthday badge. Find it, note the URL and report back to Brita and your in!

Happy hunting!

Citrine and Garnet Cluster Earrings

Faceted Citrine briolettes crowned with clusters of faceted garnet nuggets, wrapped in sterling silver and hung from lever back ear wires.

Earrings measure approx 1 1/2", including ear wires.

Learning New Shinies

Learning new shinies, yes, yes I am.

I've been trying to regroup over here and concentrate on advancing myself along this shiny making road, learn new things, go new ways, see what new things I could do. Set my mind to it, pulled out some books and tutorials I had stashed, bought some new ones, sat down and got to work.

None of them worked. Nothing. Nada. Grrrrr, Roar, Not a single one. I was getting more than a little frustrated. But, I kept trying. I took a couple days off, set those books and tutorials aside, came back to it and tried different ones. Finally, I found some I could manage. And I am soooooooo excited about it!!! WhooHOO! Finally some shinies worked out. 2 even. 2 whole new techniques of win.

2.

That rocks.

The first one was a picture only tutorial by Fradany. I'm stoked about it because I've been struggling with the concept of layering and this was quite helpful. I'm also stoked because... I totally screwed it up. My pendant went a bit awry, but that's even better because in my attempts to recover and save it, I pull from bits and pieces of past failed tutorial projects (yay) and what I came up with was this...

  

Not quite how it was suppose to look but I like it even better. It's a lot... swirlier. And I'm all kinds of proud of myself. :D Yay, go me.

The second project of win is from a tutorial I've been sitting on for a looooong while now. It's by one of my favorite wire artists, Iza Malczyk and...I was totally intimidated by it. Been looking at it for many many a month now. Chickened out each time. But, I figured if I couldn't pull it off, what was one more tutorial fail. I'd done one of hers before and rocked it so maybe I could rock this one too. If I could actually pull it off... omg the win. It's a major shiny goal to learn this style. Major, major, major. 

So, I held my breath, and went for it. Twice. Then, OMG lookie what I made!!!!!

I did it I did it I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All by myself. I learned how to solder it, file it, weave it, swirl it, curl it, whoopdy doo it and... I dunno, other stuff too. YAAAAAAAY!!

I learned it!! 

I am so stoked. These 2 shinies were huge for me. There are lots and LOTS of new techniques going on with these and I can't wait to see where they take me. My brain is all esplody with the possibilities.

I... did it.

Haven't been this excited in a long time. WhooHoo go me!

:D

Playing with photos: Finding a new look

Shiny photos is something that is so very important to shiny making. And something so very difficult to do. I've tried several different things, and was rather satisfied with the vintage looking brown and burgundy tree background I had going on. Mostly. Sadly, it wasn't the best for all shiny. Was ok, but... not great.

Lately, I've been looking into branching out with things like juried art shows, contests, publications maybe... I dunno exactly yet, but whatever I branch out into, it all requires photos be submitted. Fabulous photos that make an impact, look professional and make people take notice.  Easy peasy, no pressure....

*sigh* or not.

I figured the best way to start trying to figure out what I want things to look like was to just start playing. I went and got some plain neutral backgrounds that will hopefully go with /everything/, reset up the light box, grabbed a couple of my favorite pieces and set at it. What I came up with was this...

 Sonora Sunrise Cab Tree...

Garnet Medallion...

 Before they looked like this...

Whatch'ya guys think? Do the new photos look more professional? Have more impact? Show off the shiny better?

Or should I just leave well enough alone lol.

I'd love to know what you think :D

4 days of shiny

I took a few days off from the evol day job last week, trying to escape, regroup and ... shiny up. I managed to get caught up on a couple of orders, finish a couple pieces I'd set aside and even make a few new things for the Etsy or summer booth I'm trying to set up this year. All while trying not to kill myself and work in a few real life tasks as well.

I think it went pretty well. Yay.

So what's 4 days of shiny look like? It looks a little something like this...

It's a pile of shiny, that's for sure.

In the pile is... 2 woven bangles, one plain, one swirly, 2 copper writer's bracelets (tourmaline), a new silver writer's tree of life bracelet (tourmaline), and a plethora of trees. A Sonora Sunrise, labradorite and chrysoprase cabochon trees, a set of Lapis tree earrings and a Larimar scrolled chip tree.

Not to bad, if I do say so myself. I didn't actually make the woven bangles this weekend, but did manage to figure out how to finish them up. That was a big relief. With 20+ hours of weaving in those bad boys, it was silly to leave them sitting in the unfinished/what the hell do I do now pile.

Now I need to work on my listings and get back on some orders. Busy busy!