Tutorials, repairs and custom jobs done! Time to create!

I had a busy week of repairs and finalizing my first custom ring, as well as writing a tutorial for my "Cold Forged Hammered Copper Cuff with Braided Trim". It has been posted to http://www.jewelrylessons.com/. Now it is time for me to create again! Fun!

I have been playing with some Prismacolor paintings and working on a good way to wire wrap them. I think I saw a wrap today that might be just the ticket -- I hope, as the perfect wrap for rectangular stones has been eluding me.

My mother wants some Prismacolor pieces in black and white so I have been working on those (they are actually in greyscale). I will post photos when I get them finished.

I had a really good day on Monday, when the traffic was stopped for over 30 minutes at a time while they put the beams on the bridge over the highway and I made some sales. Yesterday I had another sale! Yeah! I still need more to make the loan payment, plus pay for the phone, internet and electricity. Yikes!

Time for supper -- fresh corn from the garden and pork chops on the grill! Yum!

Happy Creating!

Waterlogged, but back from vacation

I'm back from a week-long vacation with family and friends at Merritt Reservoir near Valentine, NE.

We had fun, but returned totally waterlogged, as it rained nearly every day. We caught lots of fish, enjoyed fresh air and enjoyed camaraderie with friends, but I am glad to be home where there is no sand in my bed, no spiders on the walls, and no threat of ticks in my hair.

The scenery was beautiful and I took a bunch of photographs.

It continues to rain here, so even though we have solid walls and a solid ceiling, the world is still drenched and full of puddles. At least we now have dry clothes.

Today I work at the gallery and continue work on my business plan, which needs refining.

I also plan to do a prismacolor painting from one of the photos I took of the lake.

Off to work I go! :)

Thinking Colored Pencil today

I have been thinking about the colored pencil portrait I did of my son,"Boy With A Rock," and how most of it came out pretty good, but the water in the background didn't turn out as well and detracts from the overall portrait. I have been wracking my brain to come up with a way to make it better and I haven't figured it out. I did another one of my daughter that came out really well, but I left the background out of it.

I know my colored pencil guru, Ann Kullberg, would know what to do. I have been anxiously awaiting her new book that has a colored pencil drawing of mine in it -- "Tomatoes and Old Colander". The book is a critique of various colored pencil paintings, and I know she will have lots of excellent constructive criticism in it. It is slated to come out sometime this month and is titled "Colored Pencil Secrets to Success."

She has a sale going on right now and I wish I had the money to order a bunch of things. She has this sale only twice a year. Bummer! I haven't even been able to order a copy of the book with my own artwork in it! Check out the book and the sale at http://www.annkullberg.com/. She has awesome colored pencil kits that really teach you how to layer the color to get depth and fullness to your drawings.

I really owe Ann a lot, because she is almost solely responsible for any skill I have with colored pencils. I wouldn't be able to do my colored pencil shrink art jewelry if it wasn't for Ann!

I had better eat lunch and head out to do my newspaper story this afternoon.

Happy Designing!

The Waiting Game

I turned in my information to the loan board, and now I get to wait, which is very hard for an impatient person like me. Of course, the fact that I have never wanted anything so badly in my life makes this whole process exceptionally hard for me.

I've been mulling this idea since last July and have been actively pursuing a loan for three months now, so I guess I have already been pretty patient. OOOhhh, ulcers are growing!

Sigh, I guess all I can do is continue waiting -- no news is good news, I guess. At least it isn't a phone call saying I was turned down (yet). :)

In the meantime, I did some Prismacolor paintings on shrink plastic today while I worked at the art gallery, so tonight I will shrink those and get them ready to use in jewelry. I did one of a stormy sky with a lone tree silhouetted against it, another of a soapweed at sunrise and a third one of a sunset at the lake. Hopefully they will come out okay -- sometimes the shrink plastic comes out a bit cockeyed after it shrinks.

Time to make supper!

Got creative and used up supplies

I've been creating, creating, creating lately and I used up all my supplies! There are more on order, but I am sort of at a standstill until they arrive.

I had custom orders for two necklaces last week with handmade chains, which used up a lot of wire (they were originally ordered with satin cords instead of chain, so I hadn't ordered wire).

I have some beautiful mini prismacolor paintings that I would like to wire wrap and make into jewelry, but lack of wire precludes that.

Hmmm, need to make some sales so I can place a BULK wire order -- then I wouldn't have this problem!

I've got lots of gorgeous focal beads that I need to do something with too -- where do I start? Guess I'll throw a load of laundry in until my muse hits me.

Have a good day everyone! :)