big changes in my etsy shop!

so, i bit the bullet and made the transition from "made to order" items to "ready to ship" items in my shop. i am a bit nervous, but i felt i had to do it. i am still really trying to find a sense of balance in my life and this seems like a good start. i have lately found myself feeling so overwhelmed with the big stack of orders sitting on my bench! at the same time i have been so very inspired with all these new deisgn ideas that i can't wait to make. i decided to allow myself some breathing room and to try it for a little while and see how it goes. i am going to give myself until after the holidays to just make the pieces i feel inspired to make and (hopefully) sell them. i am going to continue to make custom guitar picks and wedding bands for the time being, but those may have to go too, depending on how things flow.

what do you think?

maven soul

my friend's wife is pregnant with twins. i wanted to make her a necklace with moonstone because one of its' many properties is that it helps with pregnancy and childbirth. he liked the design of the maven soul ring (below), so i tweaked it a bit for her. the labradorites are to represent the twins...

this here "maven soul" ring is available in my etsy shop (if you can convince me to take it off my finger). while i was making it the word "maven" kept popping into my head. so i looked it up; it means "one who understands". i do believe i will be using that word again.

so, as you may have read in my etsy shop announcement, i spilled water in to my BRAND NEW macbook pro (apple just upgraded and replaced it about a month ago!). i feared the worst. to make a long story short, i took it in to the apple repair center in durango on monday. the very sweet guy who works there called yesterday to say that he knew i needed to replace the "topcase" which would be $400, and he was pretty sure i needed a new "motherboard" too, which would be $750. however, when he was trying to remove said motherboard, he stripped a screw and basically broke it. sooo, to make up for it, he was going to split the cost of a new one with me, which would still mean that i owed about $800 before i'd have my computer back. (i bought the computer in december for about $1100 and wrote it off on my taxes.) OR, because he messed up, he would be willing to give me a "refurbished" macbook for free, with my original hard drive in it! well, i did not have to think twice. i get to go pick it up on tuesday. he said that once you spill water into one of these babies, they often just continue to fall apart and corrosion messes things up, so i am actually coming out ahead.

maybe i will see if he can fix my ipod...

my new studio muse (mews?)

so i am trying, yet again, to try to find a good match for my studio/ barn kitty. what i need is an employee, or i guess maybe an indentured servant? if i could create a personal ad for the perfect feline match for me it would read something like this:

wanted: someone who will work for room and board and love. someone whose presence alone will deter those rude rodents who leave droppings all over my studio, and who may even occasionally catch one or two. (and then discreetly dispose of the body, so i never have to see it or smell it or deal with it in any way...) someone who is playful and sweet, yet independent and polite. someone who will keep me company while i am in my studio, but not get under my feet and make me fall and play with my wire and cause to become all jumbled and tangled. someone who will not jump onto my back and dig his claws into me while my torch is going. someone who knows where to poop. someone who will stay...

i think i may have found her.

this here is jasper. (hazel wanted to call her "jasmine" but i just couldn't. we compromised. ) she is a tortoise shell, and is evidently less than 2 years old. she is sooooo sweet! at the shelter, where she had been for 8 weeks, they told me she was also a houdini. apparently she was opening her cage each evening and each morning they would find her, free. look at those prehnite eyes.

when i picked her up after her spay, i commented on how stinky she was. i was informed that as soon as she felt comfortable in her new surroundings, she would start grooming and preening herself. i've had her for just about a week now and today she was a little grooming storm. i hope that means she is happy here.

first there was "maybe" (remember him?), an 8 month old orange male kitty from the shelter who disappeared after the first snow. then last spring i got "sue & lou", two tiny little orange fluff balls (who both turned out to be boys) that promptly vanished 2 weeks after we rescued them from certain death down the street. but jasper, she's different. she's a girl for one thing (the women are smarter, that's right) and a bit older. also, i kept her in the studio for 3 days before ever even letting her venture out into the rest of the crazy old barn. now i am going to keep her in the barn for a few weeks before she goes outside. hopefully she will know her place better that way and be more likely to return should she wander. i'd also like to make her a tag so that she could be returned to me, but so far she will not leave her collar on. maybe the third time really is a charm? i hope so.

new stuff

after i spend a late night out in the studio, i like to leave the fruits of my labor out for glenn to see in the morning so he knows what i was doing when i wasn't snuggled up to him in bed. i usually leave them by the coffee maker. i like to picture him picking each piece up, turning it around, admiring it. in actuality, he probably just glances at them and can't really appreciate them yet because he hasn't actually had his coffee.

this piece was very fun. the chain is comprised of nine pieces of five different kinds of chain.

i love love love love love these.

hazel's first day

so hazel started preschool today! on the way there this morning, i asked her if she wanted me to stick around for a bit or just drop her off and let her do her own thing. she replied, "just drop me off please. i want to start learning right away." surely no learning was going to take place if i was hanging around. she did great though, and had an awesome day. i can't believe she is in school...



evidently june (who, a true artist, likes to create in the buff) was a whole different little person at day care today without her big sister around. i guess she was showing all the new kids around and waving good-bye to all of the moms, trying to make everyone feel comfortable. wish i could have seen it.

some rain must fall...

every once in a while, an idea will come to me and then pretty much make itself come to life. when that happens, i am so excited and frantic to get it out of the realm of my head and into the real world that i almost can't contain myself. i work in a frenzy, but a very focused, calm, directed frenzy. i am only the hands and the vehicle for the piece to become.

in this case, it started with the cover of the blind pilot cd. after seeing them, i was inspired to do some sort of raincloud piece.

at the same time, i was becoming very fascinated with the properties of laguna agate, particularly in relation to depression. in her book love is in the earth, melody says this about laguna agate:

"... it can be used to increase flexibility in ones life and ones body and mind. in addition, it assists in decreasing the shallowness of ones character. it enhances precision and provides stimulus to intellectual pursuits... laguna agate has been used to help one return from the depths of depression to a state of openness and acceptance of what IS.

in addition to those properties, this particular laguna agate has a "self-healed fracture", which means that it broke while it was forming and then repaired itself. when i learned that, i had to have it. that is very symbolic to me, as someone who has battled depression my entire life.

when the stone arrived, i looked at it and it all came together. i realized this was what would make the raincloud piece possible. how could i look at that gorgeous stone and see anything but rainclouds? stormy skies? turbulence mixed with calm?

then i had to find the just right words to put on the back. in the end, it was henry wadsworth longfellow who got it just right. (the runner up, also his words, was "the best thing to do when it is raining is to let it rain.")

i felt compelled to put my sparrow stamp and initials on a raindrop. i worked straight through on this piece, from start to finish. it turned out exactly how i had envisioned it. every last detail happened how i hoped it would. so there it is. "some rain must fall". i am so very very pleased with how it turned out.

winner!

and the winner is.... shannon! yippee! the universe was smiling on shannon today. it just so happens that she was watching the girls this afternoon so i could get out to the studio. hazel must have had good shannon vibes on her hands when she picked the name out of the basket. ;~) what are the chances? well, i am so glad. as much as i really wanted all of you to win, shannon is a friend and i know she deserves this piece and will wear it well.

thank you so very much to everyone who entered and left such encouraging comments. you are all so sweet. i hope that you will continue to come visit me here and i look forward to getting to know you all better!