Thinking spring & The Bloom

It's that time of year...  The holidays are over, there are pockets of warm days surrounded by blustery cold, and I'm yearning for spring.  This is the time of year I start on my spring line, and especially now that I have a little one it's important to start early or it becomes summer before I know it. 

I'm experimenting with "new" media like doming resin and polymer clay.  Oh, I'm no stranger to polyclay, but it's come a long way since I was working with it as a teenager.  While cleaning out the storage room in my parents' basement I came across my old box of Sculpey.  So I experimented with some simple textured pendants and bird eggs and it's still good after 10+ years.  And mixing 2-part epoxy reminds me of helping my dad with his model train layout when I was a kid.  We didn't get the mixing quite right, so part of the river was sticky after curing.  This time around I'm aware of tricks like using a flame to encourage air bubbles to pop, and testing the leftover epoxy in the cup (instead of on my pendants) to see if it's cured. 

Here are some of the components I have gathered to make into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings for spring.

Along with spring in the Shenandoah Valley comes the Bloom.  Everyone wears pink and green to celebrate the apple blossoms, so here is the start of my collection for Simply Charming Boutique.  Fortunately in recent years the rest of the country has had a love affair with that color combination, so there is some wonderful lampwork to be had. 

If you see something you like in either photo, just email me for pricing and availability.

Free tickets to Sugarloaf Crafts Festival

I have the unique and fun opportunity to give away tickets to the Chantilly Sugarloaf Crafts Festival!  It's January 29-31, there are 300 designers/craftsmen/artists showing their wares, and it's warm and cozy indoors at the Dulles Expo Center.  Tickets are worth $8 each and I'm giving them away in pairs to the first four people who email me with their mailing address.  anne@annemade-jewelry.com

Sugarloaf Craft Festival January 29-31

One of my favorite things to do is walk around a craft fair.  They're usually outdoors in the summer, and I love to talk to other craftsmen about what they do.  Right now it's the dead of winter, but I just wanted to put the word out about Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, which are some of the best craft shows I've been to AND they're indoors so there's no mud.  They have artists demonstrating their trades, activities for children, high-quality artisans selling everything from quilted items to homemade food mixes to really great jewelry.  I'm particularly fond of Eugene B. Smith, a local watercolor artist who paints everything from the Shenandoah Valley to coastal regions to Japanese irises. 

The weekend of January 29-31 the Sugarloaf show will be at Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA.  Steve and I went last year and were impressed by the quality and variety of artists, and even met a relative we'd never known.  (I thought, "What are the odds I'm related to a band box maker named Richardson from Suffolk, VA?  So I walked right up and started comparing family trees with him.)  For more info about vendors and hours, you can check out the Sugarloaf Chantilly website.  And if you don't live in the DC area, check out the schedule for a show closer to you.

Christmas Rest

It worked!  Making an order deadline (and subsequently enforcing it) has created a distinct lack of stress this year, for the first time since I started my business in 2004.  I finally get to enjoy December, to hang out with my family and friends at will, and not get burnt out doing custom orders at the last minute.  We figured we won't bother getting a Christmas tree until Olivia "gets" it (and wouldn't want to eat it), though.

I've been sitting on a set of Twelve Days of Christmas sterling silver charms for a few years now, every year forgetting about them until January.  I hung them from a simple chain bracelet and they, along with the following set of Christmas lampwork jewelry, are at Simply Charming Boutique in downtown Winchester, VA.  If you don't live locally and you must have something, just drop me an email and I can see what's left.  Not pictured is another pair of earrings with the green Swarovski crystals from the necklace.  (Peridot Satin for those Swarovski fans out there.) 

The thing I love about these beads is the gold swirls and holly that resemble Lenox china instead of cutesy reindeer or snowmen.  The necklace is actually a bracelet with an extender that hooks into the other end. You can wear it as either, depending on your outfit or taste.



Have a Merry Christmas!

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Heading into the holiday season

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I actually take great pleasure in finding that perfect something for each of my loved ones.  But, I've learned to do my shopping early because I inevitably get swamped with orders at this time of year.

On my Personalized Pieces page I've added a deadline...

...and a surcharge for orders finalized December 2-7.  So if you're thinking about ordering personalized jewelry, please let me know soon!

Stamped Bird and Branch

Fresh snow blankets the ground.  A sparrow perches nearby on a crab apple branch, waiting for the blue jay to leave so she can have a turn at the feeder.

I love twigs.  I love berries.  I love birds.  Is it any surprise that my newest option in stamped jewelry is a combination of those things? 

These bird & branch tags can be personalized with your children's names along the edge, and I can apply the design to most of the shapes and materials listed on this page.

Wedding Invitation Pendant

When I get a really cool custom order, I like to share the story.  I was asked by a wedding guest to take the scrollwork from the invitation and make it into a pendant with the bride and groom's monogram and a bead drop to match the wedding color.

Some of the scrollwork ran off the page, so I had to do a little Photoshopping before I had an image I liked.  Originally the customer wanted me to stamp block letters into the pendant for the monogram, but because I'm working in Photoshop I can use whatever font I want.  Customer liked the chiseled monogram.

From that image I created a custom texture sheet to use with silver clay (PMC) to create the pendant.  How?  Special polymer, transparency film, UV light, and a toothbrush.  Got that?  Sounds like MacGyver?  Perhaps a tutorial is in order. 

I love coming up with the logistics to create a piece, but I have to give credit to my customer for coming up with such a beautiful and meaningful idea. 

On my bench

Okay, it's been a month since my last confession post and I'm the first to admit I am a delinquent jewelry blogger.  I have so much going on I don't even post to my family blog all that much.  When all else fails, throw some pictures up there and tell a story or two, right? 

Here's a piece that graced my pliers yesterday.  A crazy-beautiful Tom Boylan focal, purchased from him in his California studio.  Right now it is sitting on my bench, wired to amethyst and pearl links, 11 inches in total.  Well that's not long enough for a necklace, is it?  No.  I intend to fasten the ends to lengths of chain, but before I can do that I need to make more of my signature spiral hook clasps so that I can get an accurate length before I cut the chain.  I have the wire & pliers I use to make the clasps all in a bag waiting for the next football game or car ride so I can sit down and make a bunch at once while I'm a captive audience.  The thing is, that hasn't happened much lately so this project sits, unfinished, until the stars align.

Meanwhile I have been hoarding some Patti Cahill lampwork I purchased a year ago, and finally broke up the set rather than put all the gorgeous eggs into one basket-necklace.  First of all, putting all the special beads into one piece makes it pretty expensive (Patti is one person who has great talent and charges what it is worth).  Secondly, when I break it up it makes for a nice grouping at the shop downtown. 

This fall I am in love with peacock blue, plum purple, and olive green....  TOGETHER!!!  And it's everywhere, so I figure I'm not the only one who does, so I made a necklace with different shapes of Swarovski crystals in those colors. 

Speaking of following fashion trends, I can't tell you how many times I have been advised by well-meaning friends to scour fashion magazines to see what "the latest" is and make jewelry like I see in there.  If you've met me you'll know that I don't necessarily wear what is in style, I wear what I like.  I tend to make jewelry the same way, not chasing trends and being left with dozens of ear threads when the fad fades, and so far that has worked out for me.  If I like what's in, so be it, but I'm not going to make something just because it's in.

Up next for this lazy jewelry blogger?  Jewelry tweeting, since I think a lot of my followers found me because of jewelry.  Follow me @annemade or over on my blog sidebar.

Disc Sale

For those of you looking for discs to use in your Spinning Wheels, check out Serena's Beadery.  The color pictured here is called Dirty Copper Green, and the pendant in my tutorial features a Silver Dark Plum disc. 

Serena is offering 10% off discs right now.  I just noticed there are now some with dots around the edges - fun!  

New Tutorial

Steve and I just visited the Outer Banks, and for a couple days it poured down rain. So I was on the sofa with my laptop, doing a little web surfing and, more notably, writing the Spinning Wheel Pendant Tutorial.

Riveting is fun, especially tube-riveting (because I find it easier than wire-riveting). It may seem like a long list of tools and supplies, but many of them are basic jeweler's tools or items you can find at a hardware store, and you can buy the kit ($20 including the tutorial) if you want to skip the drill, saw, and file steps. It's a great way to dress up a basic stamped name necklace for a new level of cool Mom Jewelry.

I have other *riveting* tutorial projects up my sleeve, including one with PMC and another that covers wire rivets, so stay tuned!