Newly Discovered Shop Love

I've just discovered rubypearl.  Here's some eye candy.

Not only that, she has this amazing blog.  It has nothing at all to do w/her makings, it's just her writing.  Two separate entries MADE ME CRY.  It's been years since I cried, I think.  But mostly, she's crazy funny.  I've just been reading for the past couple hours.  It's been so long since anyone spoke so engagingly to me and not about making.

Yeah, I think I'm going to just say making from now on.  Art is too much, crafting too little, making jewelry is too little and too exclusionary.  Arts-and-crafts sound like summer camp.  When people ask me what I do and I have to say "art jewelry" I always let out an inner Ugh.   What if I went with "recycled art jewelry?"  Too much?  "Wearable art" needs to be shot.  "Recycled narrative jewelry" is fun in that it engages the idea of the story-mood a piece evokes, but it would only lead to the inevitable "What the hell is narrative jewelry, you pretentious ass?"

Before and After

I thought this gal might look better w/some stripes.  I suppose I was wondering why her sister:

Sold so much more quickly.  Or at all.  Really, these things are just mysteries most of the time.  I also switched the 1st photo to a full shot:

Since I guess it might be more engaging.

I also took a couple more shots of this wacky guy (it's definitely a guy):

Since I didn't have any good views of that damned chain I worked so hard on, and tortured my neighbors so much with.  Um, yes, she mentioned it.  Nicely.  This might be one of those you put crazy tons of work into and just doesn't quite work....  Maybe it's too busy, and I should take out the "charms" on either of the outer sides of the... place where all the junk falls off the spigot knob.  Those are the technical terms, try to keep up.  My eye is much better in terms of finding that critical bit that's making a piece un-pretty, that's keeping it from what it seems to want to be... Sheesh, what am I babbling on about?  Well, anyway, my point is that often I get enamored of all the little bits- like in the above, the outer 2 charm drops include modern, industrial objects, which play against the more traditional bone, crystal, pocket knife elements.  But less is more I guess, and that's a hard lesson to learn sometimes.  I think sparrow was having the exact same issue and when she had her breakthrough moment it was with this minimalist piece:

I just went to her shop to get this picture and lo and behold, the prettified version of this, that wasn't as successful to our sensibilities, has sold while this one hasn't!  Isn't that just the way!  Look at this glorious new image and piece she's just listed:

I've also discovered a few comments to my posts!  I honestly didn't think anyone looked in here!  I kept it more for me and my obsession w/my makings- because god knows I'm not spilling my guts about deep personal issues here!  I have no deep personal issues right now, and I'm too obsessed w/making to spend any time reporting on whatever else might be going on.  And too obsessed w/making to care about whatever else goes on!
My point was...?  Oh!  Thanks for the comments, they made my day.  Happy happy joy joy.

New things, questions.

Winterbirds- simple but quite sweet, I think.

Newly posted in my shop.  I found a way to take pictures in my bedroom which has no curtains right

now. Natural light falls right on the bed!  Oh joy.

Hippocampus (that means seahorse) - too much fun w/the stripped ribbon!

Dandyism. Another of my vintage tin bezels folded around a thick piece of glass.

Stolen from a Tooth Fairy.  Detail.

I may have gone way over the top w/this one, just carried away in the fun of it.  See:

Stolen from a Tooth Fairy.

Perhaps everything from the focal to the viewer's right should be done away with and massively simplified.  And then I'll have to take all new pictures!  Waaa!

Ever so slightly more subdued with a similar optical-lens-over-a-single-cup-of-a-muffin-tin-reliquary-focal:

Celestial Verses

I like how it cracked when I was torturing it into shape, and the fact that all the things inside are loose, so they shake around.  Oh, I should mention that in the description.

Cenerentola.

Alliteration. Found Object Choker. 

(see- knob+nail, bell+button, key+coin!  Alliteration.)

Hearken.

SUBTLE

I'm in this lovely treasury by kid giddy. My item is called I Died Then Rose Again, Mini Funeral Bouquet.  I reduced the price to $25 recently.

Sales have been so-so.  In part b/c my shop isn't very Christmas-y and I didn't do any Christmas specials.  I'm thinking of doing a giveaway for the buyer of the 300th item, since that's coming up pretty soon.  Can't think of what to give, though.  Maybe just a gift certificate for my shop.  Or refund, if preferred.   Hmm... how much, though?

          Since I'm on xmas break, I've been working away, though I still feel like I'm going in slo-mo... so many projects!!!  I just have to stop buying supplies.  I say that so many times every day, it's ridunkulous.   At the end February, I'm off to Uruguay w/husband for 2 wks, and I know I'll come back LOADED w/awesome bits you can't get here, and that's OK.  I plan on that.  Plus, things there are cheap and no one ever throws anything away, so you can find super cheap bits....  But so, no more bits.

        OH!  Plus my buddy sparrow salvage sent me a box of bits I can't even begin to describe.  I'm just trying to soak it in, it's amazing.  I haven't written to thank her b/c I can't even begin to put it into words.  And it smells just like this one incense from my past.  High school, when I was just starting to let my freak flag fly, as they say of late.  You know how smells can make it all rush back?  So that was crazy.  It was a time I wasn't super depressed and the joy I find now in making things, I found then in constructing a persona using outfits and bedroom decor.  There were some "new-wave" (as we used to say) witchy girls that really inspired me.  Well, more like 2.  I looked at them like "WOW"... like they were from another world.  Like now I feel w/good art/craft jewelry!  And now the bits, that are so sparrow salvage, are coming together in my mind w/those times and that feeling...  Weird.  Gotta try to write her now and put my gratitude/awe in words.

penny and pine

Lovely new treasury by love art works.

This piece was featured.

Useless Japanese Papers Lust

All this paper loveliness from uguisu.

Grunge Overload

I think I over did the grunge.  Then I tried to wash it off, and the dye from the leaves just rinsed away.

I re-colored some with sharpies.

 

Mind you, everything but the doll parts and buckle was brand-spankin'-new!  

Now, everything looks better in pictures, but I'm not sure if people will want to wear dirty boutinneieres in real life.

And here's a special necklace I made for a customer who wanted something custom.  It has a part that pins to your shirt.

I got the worst of the over-grunge off.

She loves the pictures!  I love you shessoweird!