A Fresh New Voice

So I'm super excited to share with y'all the shake ups I've been shaking up here at fanfuldevices. (Right after we take a moment to admire this juicy-ass necklace right here. Damn.)

Luminous Night.
If you go to my shop's about page, shop announcement and listings, you're going to hear a whole new voice from what I used before. Basically, my girl Penny of SparrowSalvage is helping me meld together the spaz I am here with the pretentious, autistic, minimalist, I-don't-know-what voice I was using in my shop.

Even my section names are just straight forwards now. And instead of coming up with clever quotes and stuff for the listings, I'm focused more on describing each element in detail, much more like I sometimes do here, really letting out my excitement for each piece. Telling its story and showing it off more.

Bluebell’s Ring. 
Like here, that ring is torch enamel from RomAntiqueSoul- isn't it awesome? The dangle on the left I made in collaboration with shipwreckdandy, isn't that awesome? All the links are soldered together and everything glows- isn't it awesome?


Basically streamlined everything to be more SEO friendly (like she specifically told me which tags to use) and just more... me.  
Sister Moon.
And the photos! She's been helping me a lot with those too. As you can see- sexy new background. I had an old printer's tray that I washed in black acrylic and voila, problem solved. (Although thank you Kirsten Jakobsen for suggesting slate in the comments section. I actually had a big slab of slate somewhere and that would be a really good background.)



Also been learning from Sparrow not to obsess over tiny little flecks and stuff. Like here, above, that big scratch mark in the middle of the necklace would've driven me crazy before and I would've spent ten minutes getting rid of it. Now I'm letting it be. Though I still obsess over tiny white flecks that appear everywhere I photograph but I'm trying to get over it.

←Check it, I used one of my faux druzies here and idk, I think it looks awesome.
Chronos.
She's also advised me to take bigger pictures, which meant getting a memory card for my camera for the first time ever, like a grown up.

And now my images are big enough to print into a book or pamphlet or portfolio if I ever wanted to do that.


Tectonic. 
[Check out this freaking bracelet though. Kuchi between two crocheted connectors by shipwreckdandy, wow. Also, vintage button solder-pinned (I made up that term) to textured copper. Double wow. Ancient archeological find button clasp. I really like how this turned out I don't know if you can tell.]


Golden Roses.
I even got a mouse after struggling with that damned track pad for months, and I purchased the latest version of Photoshop Elements. Not that I think 14 is a huge improvement over the version 6 I was using, but my version wasn't very happy in the new computer and kept shutting down.

Addendum.
PHEW! Like, this is my career and I'm not poor so it's time to loosen the immigrant-raised-by-socialists pursestrings and buy some basic stuff, sheesh.

Clay Underfoot.
In that vein, I'm going to be making all sterling silver ear wires now cuz why not. L'oreal tells me I'm worth it. I got a load of 21 gauge sterling eye pins to give myself a head start on that.

Sky Fire.
Though I haven't set it up yet, I'm going to make an option using the etsy 'variations' feature where you can switch out the lever backs to sterling hooks for an additional maybe $4 or so.
Havisham.
Should I just oxidize everything or make oxidizing an option?

Frostfell.
Nah, screw it. You come to fanci D's, you be ready for some oxidized metals, son. (I'd like to see the day when I address potential buyers as "son" in my listing descriptions.*guffaw*)

Blazing Unnatural Light.
Oh so another thing I did is to re-take a lot of pictures using the new background and more help from Sparrow.

Crepuscule.
Cuz people need to know how freakin' pretty my makies are.

Brume.
Especically the stuff in my last batch with that awful rubber mat background. I need to retake all of those.

Euphonia.
So far I have some done and already my shop is looking way sexier.

Sundrops.
Like, look at the dimension in these images.

Mask of Divinity.
Looks like you could reach right in and pick them up.

Tartarus.
I sold this one already right after updating the images. Look at this odd little creation, this little character I made. Great googly moogly I love making things.

So the first step in this shop facelift was a report Sparrow made for me in which she explained exactly what I was doing right and what needed fixing and WHY. Like, why her solutions made sense. And she held my hand through the whole process.
It was so cool to have someone just tell me specifically what needed doing to take my online presence to the next level in a way that was tailored to me, to where I was, and not just general advice you get from, say, the etsy seller handbook or even courses and ebooks which you can find out there for $300-900.
Anyways, she's selling this service right here. No she hasn't asked me to promote it here, I just wanted to share, like I share everything. Now, my cheap self, this is exactly the kind of thing I would never have bought if I just saw this listing. My choice came after I realized I was so burnt out writing descriptions and she said yeah you could tell that. In the descriptions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Today in honor of Wee Wee, the piglet that was saved from a blizzard in Maryland by this nice family over the weekend, we're doing pig gifs.


Did I ever tell you guys I have a neighbor nearby who owns a pixie pig and walks it around like a dog?

And he grunts all happily and snuffles its crazy snout into your hand. He wags his tail like a dog and 
tries to make friends with the other dogs which are sometimes terrified and sometimes don't even notice.

And every time I've seen him- which have been heartbreakingly few- I just sit on the ground with this stupid expression on my face as he does his grunting and snuffling and tail wagging at me, the ground, and other dogs. Just sit there until the woman is all awkwardly, "Ok, time to go back home..."

Interlude: Haul

Hi girlies! I am here in frigid Chicago, trying to loosen cold-stiffened limbs with hot bubble baths, scalding tea and sauna sessions. Then that heat makes me all dizzy and loopy. Is it just me? I'm very lucky to have access to a sauna in any case.

Busy as always, but I wanted to share a haul, which I haven't done in forever. These were all gifts recently sent to me by the ridiculously generous Linda of TeapotsandTelephones. She even makes the box pretty what with the fancy tissue paper.

 My act of gratitude was to line everything up neatly so I could take pix. Look at all the rhinestone chains! I literally said, "Well, if you have a few broken bits of rs chain you can send some along."
Look at this! This isn't the cheapo Kuchi I normally use- this is extremely well made. Girl coulda just listed this in her shop for a pretty penny. Well, that also goes for everything she sent.

Little ruler for part of a cuff? And look at that amazing brooch- the base is a wacky plastic tree and these huge silky pearl acorns dangle off it. Shell mermaid, gorgeous bullion appliqué from India, two sets of clip-on earrings, these beads you could describe as the intersection of trade and wedding cake beads. Even a great big heavy teapot knick knack that's too big for a necklace but I have an empty place on my mantle downstairs... Horn star and drop charms with metal inlay, pearly celluloid grape cabs...

Squeeeee! Cabochons! The green gloriousness are actually sew on! They have a glass bit on the bottom with two width-wise holes. Look at the abalone waffle sunflowers! And the big-ass white rhinestone rondelles. Just exclamation points everywhere.

Big lovely caps, filigree tubes, rhinestone earrings/brooch/buckle, filigree scarab all dapped and more of those gorgeous space-aged stones. What do you call that shape? Diamond? Cuz that's a terrible name for them, that's not at all how diamonds are cut. It's like harlequin-pattern shaped. Rhombus! It's a rhombus.

Set rhinestones in bezels, upper left you can see a king and queen stamping! What! They're kinda big but you know I'll think of something for them. Right next to the queen, these lovely silver Indian charms, abalone triangles for inlay, big-ass mop buttons... a heavy teapot in pendant size.

Too many things to name! One of these long purple glass rectangles broke but you know that don't do me no nevermind. How does that expression go? That don't make me no nevermind? Weird expression. 

Look at dem big fat cabs. The sew on ones- I think they'd layer well. With what? Who knows!

The most gorgeous ostrich leather. I think that's what it is from the dimpling. A variety of beautiful bangles, little rhinestone chain ends- indispensable, leetle mali clay seeds. Two gorgeous black glass...buckles? I didn't really capture the detail on them. A pile of teeeeny nailheads.
Little pot!

A whole sheet of GORGEOUS floral decals. Vintage of course cuz you know how my girl do. And! Look at these stickers she made herself from her vintage paper collection. ZOMG. So gorgeous. Embossed even. She sells these in her shop at a just $8 for FIFTY. I've extensively scolded her about this and ordered a price hike, so if you want some jump up on that before they're gone or much more expensive. Also, what a great idea for something to do with a collection of ephemera.

Check it out she even made one with the shield of arms of Uruguay! Just for me! It now lives on the bottom right corner of the cover of one of my Uruguay travel journals, see? Mr. Devices and I almost had a tussle over it.

Then there was this mysterious bundle. I was wondering if it was fabric or crepe paper... It was just packaging swaddle to protect the lovelies below. Look at those! I think I'm gonna use it for polybaby texture though. The swaddling paper, not the flower stems. Look at those AB petals though!!!

As I catch my breath from all the panting...

My Kuchi supplier was selling wholesale pendant lots so I had to stock up even though I keep promising I won't make more work for myself and will just focus on using up what I have. When has that ever worked? When you're sitting back on the couch with the TV on, you get so many ideas and it all seems so easy. Plus, you can't pass up whatever deal you stumble upon. So that image above is after I'd taken them all apart. Already hammered and used a bunch of the s-hooks above left for various things, as well as the chains. I stupidly ordered the flat ones on purpose thinking to set some of my faux druzy on it using my Cosmic Rocks technique. But like, wtf. I have regular bezels coming in the mail, why make things more difficult? And so yeah, now I have all these to texture or something cuz they're too plain as is. And here's my faux druzy. Again, had to order it cuz it was so freaking pretty and such a deal and if I can't see the difference between that and the real stuff...? I mean? What matters is how it looks after all- it's jewelry not rocket science. I dunno.So when you remove the cheap glass cabs that come with, there's some dusty paper that is packed beneath to give them height. Then when you pull that out, you get a little bit of the desert released into your studio, it's lovely. I wish I knew exactly who made these so I could give them a big kiss. So there's one above right all cleaned up. And left, here I'm experimenting with some faux druzy. Cuz it's plastic so you don't feel bad sanding the sides down and breaking off a bit of another one to get it to fit somewhere. I also added some large grit glass glitter to maybe blend it all together. I'm thinking they might need a bit of leafing or something but to do that I'd have to clean them and I really like the patina they have... so maybe not? How about coloring them with pencils and acrylics to make the patina more complex looking? But dang gold leaf would really do the trick in that triangle...Ok. enough babble. I did nothing productive today, spent it all taking pictures of supplies. Which is why I don't ever show anything other than finished work. Also cuz the lazy.

 

Now look at this amazingly egalitarian squirrel orgy: