Blog Carnival: November 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

November Topic:
"Business Success Secrets"

What does it mean to you to be "successful" in business as an artist? How do you walk the line between creativity and profitability? What is the best thing you've done for your business?

These were the question asked of us to talk about this month. Well this is another difficult one for me as I do not consider myself  "in business." So I will try and describe how I am successful emotionally which makes me feel successful in my heart.

Success for me is not measured in a monetary way at this point in my life. Success is being happy and productive with my artwork and home life, to achieve the feeling of accomplishing something I am proud of really is the bottom line for me right now. I do not consider my jewelry a "business" and to say it out loud right now it really kinda turns me off to think of it in that aspect. I am one of those people who does not make a production line at this time, although perhaps in the future I will take this road again.
I make a few of this and a few of that depending on what I am craving to make at the moment. I know it is not the best way to function by any means for finances sake, but I pay my bills, feed my pets and fill the fridge and I am able to keep my sanity and I am relatively very satisfied with my life.

I am still learning about myself and figuring out and what direction I want to go. I thought I would have it all figured out but I do not. So I am guessing my journey and success in life will be the never ending learning process of growing and learning everyday to become a better person.

"Success for me is having a happy passionate loving heart."

I wish oodles and oodles of success to everyone!

Thanks for visiting me!

Below are other EtsyMetal team members thoughts on this months interesting insights on how other jewelers view this topic!

2Roses

Jenny  
  Beth Cyr

Twigs and Heather

Purified Bill 

Nina Gibson

Nodeform

Gaby / India y a la Luna 
Norsola
Stacey Hansen
Elizabeth Scott

Blog Carnival: October 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

October Topic: "EtsyMetal & I"

Hi, my name is Victoria Takahashi and I am an addict. OK I'll admit it! I love my street team and what it has done for me. This month's blog carnival for EtsyMetal is in celebration of our 4th anniversary.

 Below are 3 questions we were asked to reflect upon and share our thoughts.

When/Why did you join?

I am a founding member of EtsyMetal, I was invited in by Chuck Domitrovich in October of 2006. He actually convinced me to join persuading me with the thought of having a support system within an Etsy based online community of other metalsmiths. He was also the one who convinced me to join Etsy in the first place too! 

Is it what you expected?

Both yes and no. I'd have to say it's better than I had expected, I have gotten so much from this group in terms of emotional and technical support, comradery, friendship, accountability, resources, challenges and so much more. We have grown as a group and have had normal growing pains and an innumerable amount of great wonderful moments. We are a work in progress and are learning as we grow and I am honored to be a part of this community.

What does it mean to you to be a part of the team?

It means a lot. For reasons I have mentioned above. To reiterate a little bit deeper, I have met many of our team members in person. If I had not gotten the chance to talk and interact and get to know them in our forum beforehand I would probably never of even crossed paths with most of these people and therefore missed out on meeting some pretty special folks. A very important personal aspect of being on the team for me is I use it as my place to share thoughts and to ask questions and to answer them and help where I can. I also ran the EtsyMetal team challenges committee and that was a very inspiring project to be involved with. Currently I am on a bit of a hiatus from running the challenges committee, as I am trying to work out some time organizations problems, hee hee, so thanks Nina Gibson & Inbar Bareket for taking that on!  I have one more thing to add, I personally am not on this team for publicity or advertising, I believe there is a misconstrued public image that that is what the team is about. In my personal experience I find for me that we are more of a personal social network of metalsmiths.

If you want to find out more about EtsyMetal or how to sign up for the bi-annual jury please go to this link!

And please see some more team members' response to this months topic!  "Thank You!"

catherine chandler

danielle miller jewelry
inbar bareket
wildflower designs
discomedusa
nina gibson designs
bcyr jewelry

Blog Carnival: September 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

September Topic: Back To School

Where did you go to school? "Seattle."
Are you still a student? "Always, I am a student of life."
What kind of student were/are you? "Excellent."
If you had the opportunity to go back to school, would you? "Eagerly"
Where would you study? "Wherever it took me."
What would you study? "One of my main passions and curiosities would lead me towards an artistic creative education like graphic design,  product development, painting, sculpting and fashion design. Other top choices would include archeology, astronomy, science, ethology and psychology. If you know me I am a question ask-er, constantly asking and wondering "why" things are, so I think this is why the science aspect is so interesting to me. There are  many more "art and creative" interests I have but these were the first that came to mind. 
Sorry this months blog carnival post is a bit short! I REALLY love what I do now and I feel secure that I would not have any problems finding another outlet if I felt the need to expand, but at the present I am happy and satisfied and not done exploring my current love.Thanks for checking in!

Below are other EtsyMetal members thoughts about school!

Jenny Baughman

Beth Cyr

Thomasin Durgin

Danielle Miller

Kathryn Cole

Kostanze

Caitlyn Davey 

Stacey Hansen

Ann Hartley

Blog Carnival: August 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

*the picture below is from the Sockeye 2009 Salmon season, Sara and David of NakNek Seafood brought back this booty of roe for me and boy was my family in heaven, it will be a famous food year to remember for sure, thank you!

August Topic: Food for Thought...

...as the sun gently sets it illuminates the frozen soon to be delicious golden orbs...

...as I watch and wait anxiously for the thawing to end...

...alas! it is time to season to perfection!

...now waiting in anticipation for the golden orbs to orgasmically pop between my teeth ....

"What do you eat?"  I love most foods, I love salty-savory goodness and garlic. If I could eat just one thing every day and it was nutritionally complete, I would eat Salmon eggs, roe, Ikura, caviar every day all day! But being as it is all fatty oil, I think I would go into cardiac shock and look like a giant oily fish egg :) Homestyle recipe is simply to prepare it by just separating off skien, then adding lemon, shoyu and salt, marinate 1 day.  I will get my homestyle Ikura tutorial up soon on the Takasissies Blog. If you need the recipe info sooner just email me!

So moving along, hmm, I love almost all seafood, raw, cooked and sometimes even living, hence a lovely Kumamoto oyster now and then! I LOVE vegetables, mostly greens like kale, mustards, chard, I also love beans, sprouted Mung beans with black mustards seeds oh my! I am getting so excited thinking about all these yummies now its hard to define favorites, but I will go on. Excuse me for being a bit scattered but there are so many lovely foods to think about! The picture on the left is a home grown Shiso leaf with a pat of rice and a generous dollop of homestyle prepared Ikura.  So I love rich foods, but seafood and greens would have to top my list!

"What won't you eat?"

I will not eat Natto. Nope, never again, ew...

okay IF I was starving I might.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this Japanese food here is a "description of Natto."  Ok on the positive side I think it is kinda classified as a superfood, BUT what you cannot tell from the pictures is the smell, (sour-cheesy-slimy-putrid-feet-times 1000) you cannot feel the texture, did I mention the smell? ok enough, I apologize to the Natto lovers out there may you be forever healthy and strong. The picture on the left was ironically taken exactly 1 year ago when I first smelled and tasted it!?

I will not knowingly eat eyeballs, penis, balls, colons, stomachs, brains of any animal OR anything that is wiggling, I have to draw the line somewhere. The New Years Day fish, someone always eats the eyeball. Its supposed to be an honor. No thank you. Here is a not so funny at the time story. My cousin had the NYday party at her beautiful house as usual, and one of my second cousins prepared and endless supply of the best tasting chicken nuggets I have ever tasted, everyone was gobbling them up and havind a great old time, near the end of the evening it was revealed that these amazing nuggets were not chicken at all, hmmm. Well it was delicous at the time and knowing now what they were I prefer not to eat that part of a bull. Some people were definately angry, I was a bit of a nasty joke but, I can say now I've eaten "Rocky Mountain Oysters or Cowboy Caviar." Again, moving along now...another little factoid is that I do not eat sweets like cakes, cookies, pies and candy. I can/will eat it but if I have a choice I prefer not. Well let me rephrase,  I DO like some unique pieces of candy usually not your common american variety, and sometimes a slice of (salted) watermelon once in a while can be nice, but shoving a candy bar in my mouth is not even slightly appealing to me, and did I mention part of it has to do with the sticky factor..... I'm a bit sticky-phobic. :)

 

"Do you suggest any interesting pairings?"

It must be one of those weird taste-melding things, but I LOVE eating Sprouts and Fish, it mixes together and makes a unique almost metallic flavor, an unusual little flavor I found I liked.

Oh another I discovered last summer was to take a Tsukemono pickled Shiso leaf and wrap it around a cold piece of sweet corn on the cob, yum!

Then there is Tobitoes (my friend Carter came up w/this cute name) It is a dish that is usually served at my families potluck parties. It is mashed Potatoes, Cucumber, cooled and add BestFoods mayo, splash of seasoned rice wine vinegar and Tobiko, if it is around the holidays you can make it festive and buy red and green Tobiko! Otherwise I just use the normal orange. Creamy, slightly sweet and salty goodness!

I could go on but I must stop now! You can find some recipes on the Takasissies Blog, and I will be adding recipes there hopefully this summer I have been saving up lots of pics as I learn to make new foods!

Personal favorites:

Also I need to add this, it may be a tad  bit wierd and strong for most, but if you love garlic then this might be for you! I just love it and cannot get enough when I make it, it is fried Elephant Garlic slices! Slice and fry in oil with salt until golden brown, note that they will stiffen up like bacon after you pull them out of the pan and stick onto a paper towel to soak up the extra oil, then voila eat like potato chips! yum!

OK! ok ok ok, just one more favorite,  "Shishamo!"

You can order it in a variety of ways but my personal favorite is deep fried, no batter added. Shishamo is a little fish(smelt?) that is heavy with eggs, as you can see in the picture. As far as I know they usually are thrown in the fryer frozen. And they always have eggs in them.

Latest discoveries:

Takana Roll @ Sushiland, it is pickled Mustard Greens maki sushi roll. I just bought a little can of pickled mustard greens to try out I hope they are good!

Kale chips: dehydrated with red bell pepper, garlic, cashews, nutri-yeast and other goodness. If you get the opportunity to try these somehow I highly reccomend it!

Double D Meats: has this incredible Brie, it comes in at random to my butcher and is cut from a giant wheel, it is packaged there in house, there is no info on the label, very inexpensive, and it is the most amazing brie I have had locally yet! Sadly is that they are always out! Its probably best they are always running out. :)

 

"What is your favorite studio snack?"

This is a hard one because while I work I cannot be touching greasy foods, I really do not like to eat with my hands because of obvious reasons. So usually I pick at dried pickled ginger and salted dried plum we call sourballs. It is kind of considered a candy maybe, but it is not really sweet, more of a snack, but really too salty to be considered a food snack. Something you can pick on tiny bites with very strong flavor. Which reminds me, I am out of both right now!  Natural Style Beef Jerky is also an easy studio snack for me. I love to eat Vlasic Dill Pickle Sunflower seeds while walking the dogs, but I have not mastered the "mouth only" technique and cannot eat them in the studio, maybe someday!

So I do not eat in my studio much. My favorite drinks are an Italian soda without cream. I make it with a splash of Monin syrup, and Club Soda with a tiny drop of Peppermint extract over ice with a straw! These are my current favorite flavors, Lavender, Jasmin and Rose. If you have a Cash & Carry in your area they have wide selection and cost right under $5 a bottle.

Ok this is all I have time for I could go on forever and ever, tee hee hee :) Here is a link to my Flickr Yummy Food File if you want to take a peek at more (tr)eats!
Thanks for reading I hope you had fun here, below are some team members that have blogged on the same subject this month, thanks for reading and have a great day and eat lots of great food!

 

nina gibson 

stacey hansen

thomasin durgin

inbar bareket

lauren anabela beaudoin

maria whetman

beth cyr
cynthia delgiudice

ann hartley

caitlyn davey

 

Blog Carnival: July 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is a group of EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

July Topic:

"If I couldn't make jewelry, what would I be doing instead?"

("If I wasn't making jewelry, what would I want to do instead?")

I noticed there was the word "couldn't" in there. So this would probably mean I was broken in some way and I don't think this was the exercise intended. So I will think, "If I wasn't making jewelry, what would I want to do instead?"
Ok, so if I had to make a career change now for whatever reason, it would depend on the reason, but lets say its a midlife job/passion change? Well after walking away from my computer just now to think a bit, I've thought about what I was interested in before I started creating jewelry. I was very interested in Graphic Arts. I think ultimately I just want to be a designer. Of what? I do not know. But the fun addicting part to me is coming up with the ideas. When I was around 12 I wanted to use my art to get into possibly the advertising or product development aspect, I was young but thought this might be a way to love what I did for a living. I felt so much pressure and had no idea what I really wanted to do when I grew up, it was actually a really hard place for me to be at and was a big internal battle... Then instead of getting the guidance I should have I became a teenager, everything as I knew it flipped-upside-down-inside-out-and-all-around and here I am now, here I am thinking and reminiscing about where my life might of gone, and where it still can!

I always say half seriously that I would have fully devoted my life to the humane treatment of animals. I feel that my life has taken many turns which did not lead me down that path, but I know in my heart it is something that brings up an emotion that rips my soul out. I think for me it is about all the unnecessary suffering and pain caused by the greed of some humans. I eat meat, I wear leather. I am just as lazy as the next person. I am not perfect by any means. But it still hurts. So I guess I am a bit of a hypocrite, this exercise was the simple question and if I could start over (or had to) I could probably sacrifice my life for this cause.....

Thanks for reading, and please do not comment and debate about animal rights and write any negativity in my post, it will be deleted. I am not writing to open any can of worms on the subject, thanks.

Also please see more blog carnival entries from my fellow EtsyMetal team members below!

Thomasin Durgin/MetalRiot

Ann Hartley/HartleyStudio

Brooke Medlin

Maria/Fluxplay

Stacey Hansen/WildflowerDesigns

Inbar Bareket

Beth Cyr

Blog Carnival: June 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is a group of Etsy Metal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. 

 

June Topic: "Studio Mascots"  

"I am pleased to intoroduce you to some of my closest friends and confidants!"

This months topic wanted us to describe who if we had any studio mascots. Well of course I do...Doesn't everyone? The collection you see above is my view from my bench where I sit, they are on my window sill. There are more scattered about but these little ones I like to keep together as they can be a handful when they get in one of thier moods. They seem to get really excited if I am hammering alot and then they start to cliff dive. It is kinda funny but really annoying as they always get stuck and I have to stop what I'm doing and retrieve them or else they sit and cry! I think they like the attention, sigh.... Now the monkey on the left, boy is he a stinker. He was supposed to be adopted to a friend of mine but they never came to get him so he stayed with me and now I am kind of sorry  that I just didn't go and drop his bannana butt off on thier doorstep late at night. We have come to a manageable relationship now, but sometimes I swear!....

I seem to aquire alot of little friends, they find me when I go on walks, gifts from friends and strangers, and on my travels I always try and bring a new member home with me and many other mysterious ways they DO come into my like often and I welcome them always with open arms.

They watch over me when I work, they tell me stories, sometimes they even beg to be included in a piece I am working on, who am I to say no to one of my little friends. Sometimes I send them off to a friend in need of a little cheering up, or if they are really bad I will leave them possibly in a bathroom to be picked up by some naughty child at some random business , that will show em! This is thier purpose for me. Inspiration, secrets, smiles and companionship.

Have a great day and if your interested in reading more please see the EtsyMetal members blogs below!

Ann Hartley

2 Roses

Nina Gibson

Blog Carnival: May 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”
It is a group of Etsy Metal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month.

May Topic: "Motivation"
This is a huge topic. Not as innocent as it seemed to be when I said, oh, this will be an easy one... not.
I will be attacking this with a who what and where approach.
Ok, let the soul searching begin!

1. Who:  I think about the question of who, I come to the realization it is not only me and my inner need to make things, conquer design puzzles and to find an appealing solution to find visual balance. It is also to receive validation from my family and friends from a job well done; the people who's opinions mean so much to me. This is "the who” that I work for besides myself.

2. Why: Because it is the only thing that I love to actually do, my art. I love to make things, to create. It is my only real passion. The feeling when I make something I love is priceless to me, and then to have someone else love it too is just an amazing feeling and emotion to experience.

3. Where: I used to think I needed to be alone, the quiet, no drama, and perhaps I was tired of driving back and forth to my former studios.... And maybe the grass is greener on the other side. However, this year I am feeling reminiscent and I think I miss being around other creative spirits. I miss the unusual energy in my soul it used to give me... maybe it was a subtle form of being accountable, I cannot really explain, but I can compare, being in both situations on and off for many years I can appreciate "BOTH" situations. Today I long for the company of other artists physically around me. Working online only now changes the atmosphere a lot and it is a brand new playing field, I am slowly adapting and reevaluating my new life and my current needs.

4. When: I think I am most motivated to work in the evening. BUT. I am currently trying to change this habit. See ramblings here...

5. How: The obvious is personal fulfillment and then you have the ol’ pesky financial needs, the need to survive really makes a great motivator to work at times!

Below are more member's thoughts on motivation!

Nina Gibson

Stacey Hansen
Danielle Miller-Gilliam
Maria Whetman
Ann Hartley / HartleyStudio
Beth Cyr
 2Roses
 Brooke Medllin

Blog Carnival: April 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is a group of Etsy Metal members who will collectively write an article on a monthly subject. Blog Carnival happens the first Monday of each month.

April's topic:

 The Creative Process:
"How do you plan and organize for design?”

I think this month’s topic is closely related to last months for my particular style of creative process. I am highly influenced visually by shape and overall feel. I do not think I organize in any particular way.

I can share with you what I’ve been thinking about for this last week’s project and how it is manifesting. Last week I wanted to design a crab claw ring. My muse is this beautiful crab claw in the picture above, and forgive me if one of you my dear friends have given this to me and I do not mention you, please speak up as I have misplaced where it came from, but I do know it is the only specimen I have of this crab breed. And perhaps I even ATE this particular claw myself.

OK, so for starters, I will mention I am a little bit of a pack rat. I collect it’s and bits constantly just like a little Bower bird. I collect them not to attract a mate but to create! So moving on, I just love-love-love this particular claw. I love its shape, its being. This is where it starts. I usually will not cut cardboard models out unless I cannot solve a problem with a function I want it to have.
So as I was making a mock up for the movement of this piece I saw how beautiful again the simple silhouette of this form would make for my 365 Ring-a-Day (RAD) project. I thought I could catch 2 birds with one net. And use the progress of building these rings in steps for my RAD project and Blog Carnival. SO for this project ultimately I will be making the pinchers pinch, 2 versions to come hopefully for this Tuesday and Wednesdays RAD rings. I will post them here when finished.

So this is pretty much how it is for me. I live in the moment with my designs and I more than always will sketch it out if it’s a little more intricate than normal. Sketching helps me take ideas and work them into wear ability regarding comfort, balance, functionality and feel. I figure if I am going to put effort into something I want to make sure I am on the right path of my desired outcome. As I’m sure it is with all my metalsmith and artistic friends, things can change at any given point and that’s the magnificent part of creating. So I am open to looking for new ideas while I create and may stray from the original concept to find something that catches my fancy, I am very in the moment spontaneous creativity. I cannot say I am organized in the least bit, in fact I am severely scattered and have a secret wish to be a little bit better organized someday.

*we were also asked for a studio shot of our work area, so here it is in its messy glory!

Thank you for reading tidbits of my brain thoughts, I hope you could relate or get something useful from it!

 Below are the participating EtsyMetal bloggers, and see how they tackled the question!

 Thomasin Durgin/metalriot

Su Trindle/QuercusSilver

Inbar Bareket

Stacey Hansen

Nina Gibson

Danielle Miller

Corliss & John Rose/2Roses Maria Whetman

Beth Cyr

Blog Carnival: March 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 a monthly subject.

We will be blogging this the first Monday of each month.

This months question was:

"Create an inspirational 20 things to do,

to kick start creativity."

1. Clean and organize your work area.
2. Sit in the middle of a "clean" room with your sketchbook. (and your favorite snack of course)
3. Go on vacation. (with sketchbook)
4. Write a list of techniques you want to learn and start at the top.
5. Take a class or ten!
6. Do something not jewelry related at all, like cooking new recipes, gardening is a lovely one, even if it is only pulling weeds which I actually like doing, go figure....
7. I go to the beach, and find treasures. This will almost always evoke new ideas for me.
8. Take yourself to coffee, alone is the key for me, with sketchbook of course!
9. Work on taxes, organize something or clean the house or the worst, pick up pup-poo.
When I have to do things I dislike, it makes me appreciate being in the studio again very quickly.
10. Buy a NEW sketchbook! AND a new mechanical pencil!!!  This is always a good day :)
11. Go thrift shopping, shoe shopping, or get a haircut. (any excuse will do for these things)
12. Join a Ring-a-Day project for a year. (warning: potentially hazardous to your mental health)
13. If you are involved with an online community, I highly reccomend joining in on a group challenge. Or even challenging a Flickr friend to a "Duel." I swear it is perfect motivation to cure a slump.
14. Buy a Creative Whack a Pack. I LOVE this deck. And read Sark Inspiration Sandwich series.
15. Think of things to make and sell, then give proceeds to a favorite charity.
16. Go to a friends house and try a new craft of some sort together!
17. Try to experience as many new things you are comfortable with, new things = new ideas.
18. Sleep late every day for a week, then you will feel behind and have to work! Or simpler just leave everything to the last minute and you will hopefully get alot done quickly!
19. Challenge yourself to create/design with unconventional materials. It is more difficult than you'd think!
20. Last but not least, Unplug!

Basically I think my approach is drawing, so I try to carry my sketchbook everywhere, and I rely heavily on it as my creative tool. I love to draw, so this might not be as fun for everyone as it is for me. I think keeping your creativity active and being able to design new things takes a bit of practice. I feel its like training your brain to always be open to recieving it. And always in the background it is working. But after awhile it is just part of who you are I think. I also think that it is very personal and your motivation for being creative/artist whatever also takes a role on how you create. Ok I better stop, I feel a long ramble beginning.

Oh, I almost forgot about this! Now mind you it doesn't happen every day like this, only when I can tap into that state and have some conciousness and realize I am there. This method is in the morning right before I am waking up. When you are in that state where you can kind of hear the outside world but you haven't opened your eyes yet and you haven't realized ya gots to pee. It is this perfect mindset and time I can be quiet enough to focus and think of new designs. Then when I get a good idea I want to test out, it gets me excited enough to get out of bed! I have to get up so I can remember the ideas. It’s been a productive creative time for me, and I'll take it however I can get it!

Have a good day and thank you for stopping by and reading my thoughts!
I can't wait to read my fellow metalsmiths creativity tricks, I do not let myself read thier Blog Carnivals until I finish mine, It's like my dessert!
So please join me below in reading others' March’s Blog Carnivals!

Chris Parry

Sara Westermark

Katie Miess Kohlhagen

Ann Hartley

Amanda Conley

Stacey Hansen

Esther Eve

2Roses

Maria W

CosmosMoonJewelry

Berenice Schaltegger

Brooke Arin Medlin

Thomasin Durgin/Metalriot

Beth Cyr

Catherine Chandler

Blog Carnival: February 2010

"So what is a blog carnival you ask? "

It is group of Etsy Metal members who will collectively write a article on a monthly subject.

We will be blogging this the first Monday of each month.

1. MetalRiot, 2. Danielle Miller, 3. Mike Stromberg, 4. Nina Gibson, 5. Laurie Brown, 6. Laurie Brown

February Topic:

"What is your favorite Ring a Day ring"

I interpreted this as to pick my favorite of "other participants" rings they made so far!

Well I could not just pick one ring so out of 3,150 photos of rings, I painfully narrowed it down to 5 which was very hard, as there were so many fantastic rings made so far in this crazy challenge.  You can see all the rings here.

Thomasin Durgin: Kite ring

When I saw this whimsical beauty and It just made me smile.

See more of Tomi's rings here.

Danielle Miller: Growth

Now this piece has such a beautiful elegant form.

 It is just breath taking to me, a definate sculpture for the hand.

See more of Danielle's rings  here.

Mike Stromberg: Kitty Fishin'

I love this. I love love love kinetic pieces.

I think Mike made such a fine fun ring and it is surely one of my favorites!
See a video he made of his ring in action here.

Nina Gibson: Bubble Wrapped

I just love this image.

If I were to wear her ring of bubble wrap I would not be able to resist popping it.

See more of Nina's rings  here.

Laurie Brown: Walnut Box with Secret Trap Door

This is such a wonderful piece.
It has a secret trap door on the bottom that opens when you take it off. This ring is pure magic! See more of Laurie's rings here.

Please check out these EtsyMetal member's blogs below to see who thier favorites were!

Alisa Miller

Colleen Baran

Danielle Miller 

Stacey Hansen 

Chris Parry

Kerin Rose

Sara Westermark

Su Trindle

Nina Dinoff

Maureen "Cosmo's Moon" BZ

Thomasin Durgin

Beth Cyr

Caitlyn Davey/discomedusa

Catherine Chandler

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