Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Monthly Challenge: January 2010

This months theme was "Haiku!"
The Etsy Metal Team January Challenge was to make a piece that is inspired by the Haiku below, and to then write your own Haiku that was inspired from the piece you just made!

"metamorphosis
of a fallen leaf saddened
in springs warm embrace"



"anticipation
new growth with scents of changes
yet to come our way"

"I fabricated this piece from Sterling Silver, some dried little plants and some faux grass clippings. When I oxidized the Sterling Silver it ended up having this beautiful greenish luminescent hue to it, which was also then enhanced by the Resin.
It reminds me of a tiny little dream scape scene of a place in time where you could sit quietly and think, I imagine a gentle crisp breeze that carries the scents of the freshness of Spring coming..."

The next Etsy Metal Monthly Challenge is:
February: "Garnet & Valentines!"

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Blog Carnival: January 2010

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival
"So what is a blog carnival you ask?"

It is group of Etsy Metal members who will collectively write a article on the monthly subject. We will be blogging this the first Monday of each month.

Topic: "My Favorite Object"

One of my many jobs was to clean the railings of this 6 floor building, it had railings on every floor with an open atrium than runs all the way to the top with a skylight. It was beautiful. I just tried to find pictures of it and nothing, zip, zero. Maybe it was not as gorgeous as I remembered!? Better off I suppose not tarnishing my so fond memories....

I would take my rubber gloves, a toothbrush, strips of rag and a bucket of water with Simple Green mixed in it. I would start at the top floor and by the time I finished months down the road it was time to start at the top again. Did I mention I had to dry it as I went because we did not want the ornate iron railings to rust. It was mind numbingly painful. I of course only would be on that project for just part of my day, and yes I tried to avoid it as much as possible after awhile, all of a sudden painting offices, cleaning spots off the carpets, snaking the sewer in the Old Seattle Underground became way more fun than breaking my back on the railings!

So this locket was born. I gave it to my sister for a thank you present because she gave me all the basic tools I needed to be able to feed my new fire and also her husband created this job customized just for me. They were nurturing me. If she hadn't given me those tools I probably would not be making jewelry today. It allowed me to work from home and to be able to explore it with out any boundries. It would of been nearly impossible for me to afford to buy the those basic tools as the cost of start up is very 'spensive, and at the time just using class time my growth would of been slow and maybe non-existent, as I am a all or nothing type of person. I do not know how my locket came back to me, but she gave it back to me for some reason I will have to ask her why now again, hmmm.... I believe I am just holding on to it for her, so it really is not mine, but I will forge ahead with my memories anyway.

Many more are arising from that time now. I had dreadlocks, piercings, I played guitar in a band, and I was taking jewelry classes. I met a creative social wizard named Maia on the front porch of the building, as I was a smoker back then and you know how all the smokees hang out on their breaks and she introduced me to my now friend Nakisha (aka Bluedogrose), and to this day we still get to hang out once in a while, these two are some of my oldest and dearest friends I am still in contact with on a regular basis.

So this is my favorite object today and these are the memories it captures for me... I am now realizing how a special object can hold so many different collections of thoughts.....
This was really nice for me to reflect upon, thanks for reading!

This is so hard to pick just ONE item, so I will need to put it in a desperate situation of a scenario of what would be important to me, as there are too many to even count. Some with more significance and others less but all have meaning to some degree... what OBJECT would I mourn over if lost.... If there was a fire and all my humans and fur babies were safe and I could run back in to grab a keepsake.

My first instinct to say is my jewelry dresser (box) or my computer and camera, my wallet. But those are too practical for the intensive purposes of this topic.

So this is a super duper hard thing for me to decide, but if I had to pick something for TODAY as my mind changes like the weather around here, it would be....

...my first piece of jewelry I made that I was actually proud of. It is the foundation piece that made me feel I was on the right track as to finding my passion. I made this window locket when I was working as a janitor for a beautiful historic building in downtown Seattle called the

2010 RAD: Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year!

Day 1 of 365 days begins now.
I am starting my creative new year with a project called "Ring a Day." The goal is to make one ring a day for 365 days, yes one entire year! This is pretty much the only rule, you have to make it on that day, no sooner nor any later. You can use ANY material you like, from a simple rubber band to a all day masterpiece. Your choice! And I suspect that on many days I will have to resort to a twist tie or another simple object if I have to, and I will do it with no shame! I am going to try my absolute hardest to complete this challenge.
My personal goal is to use this as a motivational tool to inspire my creativity and give me that push to get me into my studio every day and do what I love to do best.
I am going to try and make "similar related pieces" and list them on Etsy, but the originals from this project I will be keeping for awhile. I will be consolidating my progress through out each week and posting here about once a week, so please check back!
Also please check out the links below to see some really fabulous designs of all the participants in this worldwide project!
Etsy Metal Ring-a-Day Blog AND Flickr Ring-a-Day Group

July 17, 2010
 here is an overdue progress update,
I made it to ring #100
Monday July 19, 2010 will be day 200 on the RAD calendar.
I am tempted to begin again, oh so tempted. I wrote this post earlier determined to start again, but after a few phone calls and a few realistic thoughts I think I need to hold off. I am a all or nothing type of personality and it pains me to start in the middle, so as of today I am not jumping back in. I want to play and I miss you dearly my sweet RAD. But today I will trust my instinct and decline your offer.

You can see all previous 100 RAD rings here.