Bingeing on Earrings.....

When I began my "adventure in metalwork" last summer, I gravitated to pins and pendants because whenever I DID try to create earrings with this approach (to formed and forged wire), the results as earrings seemed clunky.  But I kept trying and about a month ago, I was finally creating some shapes and forms that seemed more promising....I was so excited!  I think it's just been taking a LOT of practice to get this approach to really work for the "precise" ends I want to achieve, so today, I'm so happy to show of few of these new pieces that I decided did work well enough to put into my shop on Etsy....happy day!

Black Pearl plant shapes.

I have resolved two different designs so far.  The "leaf" or "plant" shapes are like many of the pins that I made earlier, the materials are just finer and smaller.

I look forward to trying this dangle design with different beads, different materials, different colors and different colors of metal.

Digging through my stash of older pearls and stones to find ovals, which has been fun, and of course, round shaped stones and beads are plentiful.

White pearls and this pair has already sold, yay!

But I had another "break through" in forms that seem to work with my metalwork, too!  Yesterday, I wrote about my "hoop" obsession, and guess what?  Hoops don't HAVE to be round!

This idea took a lot of tries to get all the parts to be as they should and to land where they must, so I need to keep working with it.  But here are a couple of ideas that seem to be going in the right direction.  They aren't very heavy at all, they seem to be very sturdy, and, well, it's kind of exciting!

Silver gray peacock freshwater pearls on hoop earrings

So of course, I keep going back to pearls because pearls are right near the top of my favorite materials of all.

Feather dangle earrings with purple amethysts

And in honor of the "earrings" section in my Etsy shop, which today reached the 100 mark, I also added a new version of my very popular "feather earrings" for women to wear when they are feeling just a little bit hippie or bohemian (showing my age, I know.)  I did an earlier version of this design in shades of turquoise and greenish blues with all natural stones and they have been quite a hit....so I thought I'd try them in shades of purple--natural amethyst--highlighted by some pretty amazing labradorite marquis, which have some surprising "flash" to them.

Finally, it DID snow here all afternoon so I'm hoping to try some snow photos tomorrow, since the word is our temps will get a little bit warmer, perhaps as hot at 27F....everything is relative....

Thanks for dropping by!

How to Survive Winter.....or not?

I may have selective memory, but I don't recall this many days below freezing without a break.  We're into the zero and subzero realm again here, and the very basic tasks such as taking out recycling and garbage, or bringing in groceries, are a challenge, especially when the wind is blowing.  I'm impressed by how high the snow bank has gotten next to our walkway here-our little path to the garage and the dumpster.  I try to remind myself that February may be the longest month of all, because it follows the two before that were more of the same weather--we're talking about a full quarter of the year here!  No wonder it seems so long...

My spirits could be higher if I weren't facing these piles of accounting work, tax prep and other paperwork that's important, but oh so boring.  I need to knuckle down to be free of it (AKA get it finished already) so at least I can have a free mind and spirit to carry on with my new adventures in the studio.

I'm still experimenting with different shapes, colors and materials for my formed and forged metal pins and pendants.  I've just begun a new batch of earrings, rendered in this style, which should inspire me to clear the decks of all the "have to finish......" stuff so I can focus and keep this new thing going!!

Meanwhile, a peek at local coping mechanisms to survive the long winter:

Red Kitty believes he's a jungle cat!

Mariah loves to attack paper and shred it to bits

Purrmeister proves he's NOT afraid of that old vacuum cleaner, even if it is too loud

And Karen just keeps messing around with silver and copper and pretty beads.....we will all find a way to survive winter for a few more weeks.....

Thanks for dropping by and stay warm!

Orchids in the Winter

I've tended an orchid collection for around 8 or 9 years now, and as a long time gardener, this species of plant has the best, the very best, record for very lovely and welcomed flowers in the dead of winter.  Ironically, Pantone named "Radiant Orchid" as the 2014 "Color of the Year."  Lovers of shades of purple and fuchsia should be well served this year, when it comes to fashion and decor.....and I've always loved purple (I painted my room purple when I was old enough that Mom let ME choose, in grade school!) and using this color, in all its glorious shades and variations, has always suited me just fine.

So it's the dead of winter here, and one rather interesting discovery I've found about my new place is this:

 Yes, that's a skylight.  In fact, it's the skylight that I depend on for my photography here in my new set up.  And I've learned it's not actually very reliable when it snows too much, something that's been a simple fact of life here this winter.  I'm very happy when the snow melts...I wait it out when it's really dark up there (more on that at a later time...like how a plant collection that's also dependent on the skylight is faring up there....)

 Yes, it's been a long winter.  I wish I could send some of our precipitation to my friends in California....

 My orchids have their own little humidity area, tented shelving and trays of rocks and water, except when I bring them out to do their blooming.  They are in one of the brightest north windows here, at the patio door.

In fact, the orchids, in winter, enjoy this view!!  Except today, I think the snow is at least a foot deeper than in the photo here.

But the orchids seem happy enough to be blooming for me, and the show is just beginning for Winter, 2014!

It's my experience in growing orchids, that the flowers actually come in a pretty wide range of colors, besides purple.  But yes, there are plenty of variations on the pinky-purple, fuchsia, purply pink range, such as is close to the Pantone color....

So, naturally, I'm happy to oblige.  I have a fairly big collection of pearls and other gems in this color range so as my adventures with wire proceed....

...it's as good an excuse as any to use it!

If you'd like a closer look at this series, visit my studio here.  If you'd like to examine any of the pieces I'm including here, click on the image to go to their page in my Etsy studio.

Hope you are all finding ways and means to keep warm and happy this winter!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Taking the Wire a Little Further.....

As a working artist, I would explain my process as some mystical (tortured?!) fusion between a basic concept (idea or direction) and using the chosen materials.  Both sides of this equation tend to pull apart as often as they pull together.  So my current work with wire and mixed materials is a good example of this process.

On one hand, I started with the wire and a specific "need" in mind for a finished form...but this original impetus was abandoned as the wire itself, as a material, took its' own lead. 

As I began to see what might be possible, I began to see how I could gain more control and get the metal to conform more to what I'd like.  So while it's still give and take, there are two possibilities that are worth examining.  One is where the materials gain the upper hand and really do dictate the outcomes, sometimes pieces emerge that are nicely surprising.  The other is when I insist on getting to a certain outcome--sometimes it takes a few tries, but this is where persistence pays.

On another topic, the weather is a major current issue up here in the Midwest this winter, and in particular this week where we are below zero, again.  In my new place, I have a strange phenomena where what SHOULD be one of the warmest areas of this place....has skylights overhead!  So when temperatures are so far below freezing, all that heated air that floats up to the second floor is negated by the interior air that is cooled up in the skylights, is heavier, so floats downward, and so right now, it's kind of chilly up there.  Which explains the cats, all tangled together on their cat chair (which is under the skylight) doing what they must to keep warm. 

Thanks for stopping in and wherever you are, do keep warm!

Drawing With Wire

One of the first ones, 2013

Actually, maybe these started more as "doodles with wire" as I was preparing to begin to learn Copper Enameling, had no idea what I'd be doing WITH the enameled pieces I was hoping to create.  I got this brainstorm about some kind of "pin-thing" that I could sort of dangle pieces from.....

Ha!  I never got close to doing this (yet.)  Instead, I got hypnotized with this act of bending  and moving the wire, and bending it more, and hammering on it, and on and on.....So as I mentioned in the post before this, I was caring for Dakota, prepping to leave for Maine, and running the campground even as I was fooling around with copper in preparation for my trip to Haystack.  And from the start, I was enamoured with this sort of zig-zag pattern.  As it evolved, I've come to call some of these pieces "rustic filigree" because of the lacy quality they can get, once there are a lot of loops.

But really, for some of these, I really think there was something about drawing (or doodling) with the wire.  I started to add pearls and other beads pretty early so eventually, I was making the "doodles" with an eye on fitting certain beads or other materials into some of the "loops."

I'm putting some images of the early efforts here....later, I'll show where this has gone since I've started this detour (or is it?  Hard to say when you're in the middle of something....) If a piece happens to be available, it will link to the listing.  If not available, please visit here to see what is new!

Not finished or resolved yet.  Kind of a break out piece but future unknown.

Thanks for stopping in and have a great day!