Week 33

I guess I let the craft show get me discouraged, because i just did not want to touch anything this week. An hour ago- the last hour in the week- i looked at the clock and thought "I haven't skipped a week yet, and there's no good reason to start now". I'm not the only one who will know if I skip a week... soooooo.... It's just 1 piece (well technically two but it's earrings so they're kind of one), but it's something. They're 100% sterling silver and made in the curlicue greek style I've been working with in copper. The gauge for the wire is the same as the copper, but i kind of feel like it should be thinner/daintier for this sort of thing or maybe because the silver reflects more light/looks bigger. eh, it's still pretty:

So...if I haven't been crafting, what have I been up to? well... I have been working these past few days- 14 hours yesterday (in a corset, what was i thinking? Anything for the love of halloween...lol) and when I left work at 1am, my car battery was dead so i got it jumped and drove around to charge it up. I think i need a new battery- they never did replace when i fried my car's computer this summer- it's probably damaged.

 Bob bought me a video game (fable III) which has kind of usurped my attention this week. I'm not a huge videogame player- i'm not very good at most videogames, and i get bored easily-if you didn't already know this about me ;p, but I like the fable games and the viva pinata games and they'll usually keep my attention for at least a week when they come out. Not to worry I'll be over it in another day or two, and back to my crafty ways.

My creativity hasn't been entirely wasted this week in that we get to dress up for halloween at work, and I put my own costumes together and I'm something different everyday. Yesterday I was a pirate, and today I was a wood nymph. I wasn't allowed to dress up earlier in the week, and I'm not entirely sure what I'll be tomorrow but fear not- I never fail to celebrate Halloween in style. It's my favorite day of the year.

I actually do know at least one thing you'll be seeing next week and that's a peacock pendant made by taking those half finished ear cuffs i made in an earler post and soldering them together back to back. I had them pushed together on my workbench and realized their greater purpose :) I also want to try a wire wrapped glass, but i'm out of copper wire so it may have to wait. I have quite a few half finished headbands in the studio and some fabric to make new too, so I've got work to do!

Week 32 -The Craft Show

Yes this post is a couple of days late, because I wanted to include the craft show...The craft show was a bit of a bust for me, I only sold 4 items. I had a lot of ogling with everyone telling me how beautiful and unique my stuff was, but not a whole lot of buying. I did have a lot of people ask about custom orders  and my website, and they took my card. One person asked about me doing a custom wedding gift set with initials and i traded cards with a vintner who just opened a winery in Hershey. In theory, my not so great craft show experience COULD turn into some great online orders. Let's cross our fingers. In the meantime, I think I'm finally going to take my inventory to the HodgePodgery and see how consignment treats me.

In preparation for the show, I did make a few things. I painted all those sets I said I would and made sure all the glasses were clean, clear coated, and washed. I also did my geekery glasses this week :) They were pretty much lost on the older crowd (a lot of people told me that 42 was their age or the year they were born), and the pi glass was my suffered casualty to the wind (though if a glass had to break, i'm kind of glad it was that one)

I also made about 4-5 more of those copper bracelets. I sold one. I took another apart to lengthen 2 of the others and used them as arm cuffs and bracelets for my goddess Halloween costume.

My Halloween party was also sort of a bust, but I ended up having a good time anyway. I said I wanted to have a party and at least 2 couples said they were definitely coming and several other singles said they might drop in. Then one couple caught the flu, several friends had visitors come in from other states this weekend, one couple had a family function, and i got a whole lot of "we have to get up early"s which I am not ashamed to say i think is a really lame excuse. All of my friends are in their 20s, and in college i'd party til 3am and be in class operating sewing machines and torches by 8am(which means i got up at 7am). I got out of bed at 8am today, took a shower and picked up the house, and then went back to bed for another hour, but I COULD have gone to work. It wouldn't have been fun, but for a once in a blue moon thing to hang out with friends, i could have done it.

However after much cajoling, one couple agreed to come play with me, and we had great fun. And since there were only 4 of us, I didn't mind using the good liquor. We played spoons,  cracked glowsticks, and threw confetti eggs (painted eggs that have been hollowed, filled with confetti and sealed back up) at both the inside and outside of the house which was a lot of fun. They live down the road and went home around 2:30am and I was glad that Bob got to meet them, because I've always hung out with them without Bob before. Honey actually took to them very quickly also, which she almost never does and made things easier- i prefer when she's kissing guests rather than barking at them.

Week 31

1 week til the craft show- I'm pretty excited about it. I've been pretty busy finishing up glasses and thinking of display stuff.


Glasses:
I told you I had 15 glasses left to paint. They became a set of polkadots, a set of pink roses, a set of flames, and some geekery glasses. I have more plans for "geekery glass" in the form of "42" with 2 little mice (hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference), the symbol pi, "I speak GEEK", and "This is my Zombie Plan". If you're not a geek, it's okay if you don't get any of these, but I assure you they target a demographic. My hand hurt, and I have started developing calluses, but I'm proud. Everything is clear coated now, and even prettier. I intend to wash them before the show, but i want to give them time to air cure.



see the little mice? I feel so clever. lol



This week's glasses

The martinis- you've seen them before



mostly lava and tree bark sets


What I'll be working on this week:
I finally bought some 20 gauge copper wire to play with and began my attempt at the artsfest bracelet i've been promising. It's a fun twist on a link bracelet though i'm still working on getting the links trully consistent. Bob said should make a collar for Honey (our dog) like this. maybe I will. I do want to make a few to take to the show. They take about an hour.

What I'm taking to the show:

-Roughly 50-60 glasses including wine glasses, martini glasses, and shotglasses displayed on neon end tables and some white tables my neighbor tossed when he moved out this week.

-Roughly 50 headbands which i'm going to display on a pretty curtain rod.

-Random pieces of jewelry including chains, link bracelets, pendants, and earcuffs

-maybe some hairflowers

-maybe some copper quill pens

Wish me luck!

Week 30

Ok, so I'll start by fessing up- not all 40 are done, I have 15 to go. Why? In a nutshell, i had distractions (said in a russian vampiric accent because it's fun- dis- trauk-shuns) (books to read, long work days, angry work days, more books to read, new roof keeping us from getting any real semblance of sleep...)

Progress shot: There's 16 on the top and middle shelves each (so 32) and then a handful of martini glasses and random wine goblets on the bottom (let's say a dozen all together) so i have painted more than 40 glasses...just not THE 40 glasses. lol

Here's the randoms for the week: flames polkadots, a greenman face, and another rose. Obviously i haven't done the clean-up phase on these. I'm actually planning on using these designs as sets for the part of the 15 i have left, making a flame set, a polkadot set, and set of roses. The additional 3 will probably be something random.

To tell the truth- I'm all cupped out. I'm sick to death of painting glasses. It's pretty reminiscent of when i embarked on my 100 headbands. I haven't made a headband since. (though i did buy a pretty green batik with a coupon today specifically for some headbands...)I'm ready for a new project- i bought wire today to play with the link bracelet Bob wanted me to make.

On a side note, since the roofers pretty much destroyed my flowers, i took the broken stems of the ones that got most trully squashed and put them in a vase. I LOVE these flowers and fully intend to plant them every year of forever. The one's i have now are a "kimono mix" of celosia so a nic conglomerate in the flowerbed of burgundy, red, purple, orange, and yellow, but mostly it was reds that got smushed. They're an annual so they don't come back, and i so enjoy them and am just a little heartbroken that they got smashed under half a rooftop's worth of shingles that i decided they should at least be appreciated before they trully die.

Part me mentally giggles at how appropriate this picture is for me what with the flowers and the fairy and the sketchbook, and the sewing scissors, and the box (i kind of collect pretty boxes) and BAND-AIDS. thehehee...um...i get hurt a lot... :)

Featured on Etsy

I don't know why I didn't bother to mention this but...my headbands were featured on etsy in the treasury section!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c8ba4f4ed9e6d91f6709606/solids-v-patterns?index=34

I just thought it was kind of cool...

Week 29

Alright, the craft show is at the end of the month so it's time to kick my glass-painting butt into gear. My shipment of glasses came in today and I have 40 glasses to paint. The plan is to paint at least 5 glasses everyday for the next week- duplicating a set of 4 and 1 random glass each day. Within 8 days, I will have painted all 40 glasses- giving me time(roughly 2 weeks) to go back and perfect/clean each one, seal them, and have the paint cured before the show.

There's no point in posting pictures of the duplicate sets (you've already seen them), but I will post the random glasses that I make for your enjoyment. Today I painted a set of lava glasses and a black rose glass.

You can't really tell in these pictures, but I painted the center of the rose on the bottom of the glass so the rose actually IS complete when you look down into the goblet.

While picking up my shipment of glasses, I also happened upon these tables for $9.99 each that i think are perfect for taking to the craft show. The legs screw on and off, so they'll transport really well too. Normally lime and hot pink aren't really my thing, but almost all of my glasses are black, and it really pops on these tables.



 This picture doesn't really demonstrate how awesome the glasses look when you're walking near the table, but i was trying to get the whole setup in one picture. I photographed the rose goblet on these tables- so basically it looks like that only zoomed out... with more glasses... I don't really intend to overcrowd it like that either, i just have a lot of glasses that were dominating my kitchen table. Bob suggested i stack them in a pyramid instead of an L. I'll have to play with it.

Ultimately I should have roughly 4 lava sets- one in silver, 2-3 treebark sets, a couple of polkadot sets, and a hodge podge of individuals including a wedding henna wine set, a couple different greenman glasses, a couple of roses, a fingerprint, and about a dozen martini glasses. I'll also be bringing my headbands (I sold 5 this week!), and some assorted silver pendants and ear cuffs, as well as a handful of copper quill pens. 



To those who read my blog, offering critique and support, as well as those who purchase from my etsy store: thank you for keeping me going. There are days when I really hate my job, and you're the ones that make me believe that someday I won't have to wait tables for a living. There are days when I watch my art pieces piling up in my studio and wonder what the point of it all is, and then I get a notification that someone shopped at my etsy store and even when it's just a headband, I feel just a little bit proud that somebody wants something that I made. There are days when I would really rather be lazy and do nothing at all, but posting here makes sure I make something every week- whether it's 100 headbands or 50 handpainted glasses, dozens of hairflowers or intricately twisted silver jewelry- I make and meet those goals because of you. I don't know how many of you there are- I know it's more than the 5 followers I have on blogspot- but I cherish you.