Aw Nuts!

So I have been talking about soldering nuts for about a week now and FINALLY took some pictures! Shall I give you the history of the nuts? Why not! While walking through Lowe's with my contractor husband I found myself completely bored. In the interest of turning a negative into a positive I started wandering up and down the isle and found myself in HARDWARE and drawn to the nuts and washers. Industrial + pretty = jewelry. I think the end result is very antique spanish catholic church. No?

New TV Appearance Coming Up and Super Sweet Card....

Being given the chance to appear on TV is great exposure for my jewelry and upcoming shows. It's such an amazing opportunity and I am thrilled to do it anytime I am asked. That being said, and this is not a compliment fishing expedition, I HATE seeing myself of TV. So the fact that I posting this link is crazy.

http://www.wtvr.com/videobeta/fdcd414c-45fb-41f6-a740-b9e9e310e80c/Community/Handcrafted-Jewelry

I tried to watch it again and got a couple of seconds into it before putting my hands over my ears and humming "Mary had a little lamb". I was SO nervous and self conscious that I am determined to enjoy myself next time. As a regular gym routine with yoga usually relaxes me and make me feel like Wonder Woman I will begin today for my next appearance on April 25th. It's ON!!!

Enough about that.

I recieved the sweetest card from my friend Marilyn. She is a fellow jewelry designer

who makes GORGEOUS pieces so I was super flattered when she bought my owl piece.

She is now following me on this blog (not stalking she said....following;) thanks Marilyn!!!!

I will post later with Nuts pictures. Curious?

SNOW DAY!!!!

Kind of. I woke up this morning to a sifting of snow covering our roof and a smattering falling from the sky. After the past 2 weeks of schizophrenic Virginia weather where we have experienced high 70's this was unexpected. But kinda nice. It's nice to have one last cold snowy day because before you know it we'll be sweating through a sweltering southern July and August!(nice alliteration eh?) I am taking advantage of the chilly weather by staying in my flannel, snowflake printed pj's, enjoying the last fire of the season and of course, making jewelry. I've been a slacker these last few months, churning out some new pieces but not enough for the THREE shows and 3 stores I need to stock in April. I know that may not seem like much, and I have friends that have a billion more stores and show than that, but as I have discussed in prior posts, I don't have people.(yet) Just me. Alas, it's batten down the hatches time, so it will be all jewelry ALL the time for the next 2 weeks. Pictures to come...maybe later today!

Rise and Shine!

My most productive days begin when I jump right out of bed and into work. This morning I was awake, coffee-ed up and watching Gilmore Girl reruns while soldering in my attic studio. I soldered chain and brass nuts for 2 hours and will now begin putting it all together. Some mornings it's hard to peel myself out of bed and tackle jewelry making with the degree of enthusiasm needed to sustain a full day. If I sit down at my computer and start reading pop culture blogs, my friend's blogs and checking email I can easily loose an hour or 2 and then I drift into other non-jewelry making things and just get mired down in the molasses swamp of ADD related activities. I thought I would share a photo from the studio this morning:

You may call this lousy house keeping, I call it respect for the creativity of one of God's little creatures. Honestly? I am afraid of retaliation, I have this image of spider's repelling down from the ceiling yelling,"Kamikaze". The wasps don't fair as well as evidenced by the large white bottle in the left hand corner. As much as I hate the wasp-o-cide that takes place in that attic, and I apologize profusely to the wasps as I spray, it's a very survival of the fittest place up there. If it's stung or be stung. I will be the one doing the stinging. Now I have to go soak up all this caffeine with some breakfast! Have a great day!

It's ON....

I am on fire! I don't know if it's the gorgeous sunny weather, my new haircut or the Diet Coke but I am full of inspiration and on a new creation tear today. Sometimes I just have these days filled with ideas and not enough time to get them all out. A "list" you say? Pffftttttt.....for amateurs (and by amateurs I mean highly organized, successful people:)! Although I do love the bird's nests, I was getting tired of the same old/ same old. Inspired by SL (stephanie lee's new moniker in this blog) I sunk the the tired old nest in resin and funked it up by layering it. One necklace is hand chained labordorite with a little bird charm and the other is hand soldered chain and bezel with a hand made bird's nest sunk in it. The little charm says fly! You can wear them as one necklace or detach and wear them separately! As my new friend Stella would say...WHAT?

And now I have to go solder brass nuts. Pictures coming soon:)

Into each life a little rejection must fall...

It's inevitable. You put together your application filled with pretty pictures, witty words, links to your website and blog, tie it up with a big old sparkly bow and it's not accepted. It's going to happen. It's going to suck. It's going to feel as if you're back on the playground and no one wants you on their team. It's especially going to happen if your a jewelry artist vying for the small amount of open spots when there is so much talent out there. In the interest of honesty, here is what I did when I got mine today:

1. I had a teeny, tiny pity party.

2. Then I reminded myself of the shows that I did get into.

3. I thought about all the new skills I have learned and how excited I am about showing all my new stuff

4. Not to be all Oprah, but I counted my blessings

5. I looked again at the number of vendors that would be in the show (small show) and looked at the show's website to see that they already had a bunch of really amazing jewelry people. You can only have so many in one show before people get irritated that a show is "all jewelry".

6. I went and sat with my husband by our peaceful, little koi pond and felt a thousand times better!

7. I wrote them an email thanking them for their consideration and wishing them a great show and sat back down to make more jewelry.

The show must go on!

Father Knows Best.....

Actual email from my dad who maybe looks at my site once a year:

Why isn't your web site updated? You still have November dates. Do you have a new web site?

Dad

I have taken actions to prevent further parental chastising by updating the first page today....I will be updating throughout the day so please check the site for new pieces that are actually for sale. (the wonder!) Here is the link to the website just in case you wanted to check it out:

http://www.kshonkdesigns17.com/