Art Fire Updated, again!

Another new exciting development - I now have a load more items on Artfire. Why? Because they just came out with a new nifty tool to import items directly from Etsy to my Artfire shop. I cannot even imagine how their tech people managed that one. But it was pretty painless.

One thing that makes this oh so exciting is that I am working on redoing my website. I've been trying to decide if I wanted to attempt a shopping cart or just link to one of my shops. After weighing all my options, looking at how much I'm paying etc - I decided that linking directly to Artfire listings was my best bet and most economical. I was then looking to the fact that I would need to create all those new listings. And TA-DA! The Importer was made available. It was so much faster than having to create 50 new listings!! :)

So that is just a quick update. I'll be working on my Artfire page more in the next month or so. In addition - a new website change will be happening w/ in the next few months. It might be after the new year, but I've been putting it off for the past few years, so what's another couple of months??

And the photo... its just a moth - posts w/o any photos are a little boring...

On tap for today.... and a hint

Lots of new and fun things to photographs - this was a quick image I took yesterday - just on auto w/ flash - so it doesn't do them justice, but its just a hint of how fabulous they are. I'm thrilled w/ these and the batch of rings I'll be mailing out today! Hopefully I'll be finishing up several others and get them photographed as well.

EMJC-PR6.5 - Newspaper

I'm pretty happy with this week, although, I kind of wish I'd started on it earlier. This was my original idea and I kept procrastinating as I didn't feel it was very creative. I played around w/ some other things trying to get a different idea and when at the last minute, nothing - I went back to this one! My favorite part about it is the view from the back - how you can see the silhouetted tendrils through the paper.

The sun is shining.

Yup. Thats it. And it is beautiful.

Project Runway Challenge: This week's theme - NEWSPAPER!

From Vic on the Etsymetal blog: "OK designers! WOW, this weeks challenge is the most straight forward one yet! I am adding one element to this one, pre-printed book pages can be used as well for this one. So all we need to do is incorporate some newspaper in a piece of jewelry and voila! Can't wait to see all your crazy creative creations! Now, "Carry On!"

I'm actually way more excited about this one than I was last week. I don't really have any particular ideas yet, but its something I haven't done before, incorporate newspaper in to jewelry. Since we don't have to use ONLY newspaper for our challenge, I don't think it will be too difficult at all! We'll see though...

EMJC-PR6.4 - "The customater"

EMJC-PR6.4
Originally uploaded by bcyrjewelry

If you saw the post from yesterday, you got a bit of a hint of what I was supposed to be working on for my challenge this week. I was given: Ring, Aluminum, Victorian/Byzantine.

Part of my goal has been to create pieces that all work together and still look like me. When doing a little research on victorian or byzantine jewelry, I thought that my organic vine collection might work fine as 'Victorian" with the lacy and tendril-y look.

For the aluminum - we had been talking about how to treat the metal underneath clear stones and one suggestion was aluminum foil. I thought the textured effect of tightly crinkled foil would give an extra dimension to the ring. I was really happy with the effect.

I did two different photos since the one on the right focuses more on the texture underneath the moonstone (which happened to be the only stone I had that was clear enough to see the aluminum foil through!) You can see more photos on flickr.

I kind of feel like it was a little clumsy on execution (if I have to critique myself) Its kind of like a good design coming down the runway, but the hem isn't finished. Overall though I'm pretty happy with it and can see opportunities for the techniques I used in this ring. And THAT makes me really happy.

Make sure to check out the etsymetal blog later today for all the other entries. You will be blown away.

Project Runway Challenge.... haven't started yet!

wait didn't i just have this title last week?

yet again though - this week is a tough one for me.

you can read about the challenge on the etsymetal blog - but my 3 parameters are RING, ALUMINUM, VICTORIAN/BYZANTINE. I have an idea that is brewing though and I think it will be okay. hopefully it will be fabulous!

we were able to have a 'redraw' of one of the elements. at first i though, no.... I'll just stick w/ it and figure something out. and then I decided, why not try for something else. I couldn't decide whether to redraw on material or 'era/style' and went w/ material. and got leather/faux fur. which to me, doing a victorian ring w/ faux fur or leather was even more of a disaster, so I went back to my original aluminum idea. I'm going to work on it today so look for the finished project tomorrow when you will either say "what was she thinking" or "wow, great job" isn't that usually how it is?

and again - feel free to play along too!

Snake on my foot

photo by JD Wilson

I had a snake fall on my foot yesterday, in my studio, in the middle of investing. It was a baby, and oddly felt soft and warm. Then again, I'm not sure how much feeling is actually in the top of your foot. It apparently slid off of the cardboard box of investment, not the kind I had used just a few minutes earlier.

I was quite proud of myself. I didn't even scream, but a quick reaction of shaking it off my foot and then watched it slither lazily off in the corner behind some boxes and other stuff - I was much more concerned with my investing and making sure it didn't get messed up.

There is something instinctual about knowing if a snake is venomous or not. At least for me and the few times I've had close encounters of the snake kind. I'm not necessarily a snake lover, but there was just something cute and gentle about this little guy. Apparently it must have been an eastern kingsnake, although I can't find a photo of that was exactly like mine. My attention was divided a bit though and maybe they weren't spots, but more like a stripe? Little, black with yellow spots on its back was what I saw, and its little pink tongue. Aww, baby snake on my foot. (ps, the photo is NOT the snake I saw, but it is an eastern kingsnake.)

EMJC-PR6.3 - "Surfwear" - Sea Goddess

This piece was so fun to make. Again, I had a general idea but wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. I really love big fan coral - they are like the trees of the sea! I also had kelp in mind. I was making earrings at first and then realized it needed to be a little bigger and as a necklace. The coral bits can be taken off as well if you prefer just the metal look. I put a light liver of sulfur patina in yellow and orange hues, w/ some deeper colors towards the bottom. I didn't want the straight up black, but it also wasn't quite right without the patina.



The chain is segments of fused argentium sterling as well that look like little sticks of coral, (or just sticks!). Minus the coral and it looks rather like branches! Make sure to check later today for the entry on the EtsyMetal blog - our members have been really inspired and created some amazing pieces!

Project Runway Challenge.... haven't started yet!

This week's project runway challenge... I need to get to work!!

*Season 6 - Week 3:
"Surf Wear"
Blog
Official show channel
Due: Friday 12pm PST

"OK Designers" this weeks challenge is a bout Surf Wear. The actual challenge is:
"to create a fun and fashionable Surf Wear look".
Tim says, "it's critical to infuse your point of view and personal style into this challenge."
Also, if you are feeling super motivated, there was an extra added bit to their challenge,
it was to design a Avant Garde interpreted Surf Wear piece.
OR maybe you'd rather just make the Avant Garde piece,
make one OR perhaps both!?
It's all up to you designers!
So, here are some ideas that were thrown out to help design a piece around this weeks episode.
"sun, surf, beach, color, california surf icons, water, sand, bathing suits, surf culture,youth..."

"Carry on designers!"

My first metalsmithed... item

This month's installation of EtsyMetal's Blog Carnival is: My First Piece of Metalsmithed Jewelry. However, my first metalsmited item wasn't a piece of jewelry, but it really shaped how I work, and I still have it. So here it is!



It was a married metal container. My very first jewelry and metalsmithing class was an Intro to Jewelry and Metals and was open to all art majors.

This piece I can honestly say, scarred me in terms of what aspects of metalsmithing I enjoy. Since I'd never done any sawing, I didn't have a concept of what might be easy or difficult. Not to mention that doing married metal for your first piercing project is no easy task. After it was all said and done, piercing and sawing were now in my list of things I liked least. And seriously, to this day - they are my least favorite things! The dislike of soldering led me to fusing - which if you ready my blog, know that a huge majority of my work is fused, not soldered. I also found ways around sawing when possible, large cutters, metal shears, using the flexshaft, etc.

Often the best learning experiences are the ones that lead you away from something, not necessarily towards! I don't remember doing any kind of practice piece - if I had, I probably wouldn't have chosen this design!

At the time, I thought it turned out pretty well, looking at it now - oh my goodness. And I do look at it just about every day - I use it as a little scrap container! When sawing off little bits of sprues or little ends of wire snips or sheet scraps, I just throw them in there. When I cast, I sprinkle some of the bits out to be recycled. I don't actually use the lid, so I had to hunt for it this morning.



So that is it! My first piece. I think you could say it was a 'doozy'. Married metal - soldered brass and copper, formed in to a sealed container. it was supposed to be water tight - though recently I found where you can see light through one little missed hole. (from the front it looks like there are more than one, but thats just b/c I didn't know how to solder well - who does on their first piece?)

Make sure to check out my other EtsyMetal friends that are participating in this month's blog carnival:

1. Sara Westermark http://sarawestermark.blogspot.com/
2. Nina Gibson http://ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com/
3. Danielle Miller-Gilliam http://daniellemillerjewelry.blogspot.com/
4. Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com - thats me!
5. duckduckGoose http://duckduckgoosestuff.co.uk/duckduckBLOG
6. Caitlyn Davey http://discomedusa.typepad.com
7. Laura Crawford http://tangerinetreehouse.blogspot.com
8. Tamra Gentry http://gentrydesignco.typepad.com/
9. andes cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/
10. Cynthia Del Giudice: http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com/
11. libby Rosas http://elizabethrosasjewelry.blogspot.com
12. Nina Dinoff http://ninadinoff.blogspot.com
13. Clare Stoker http://clarestoker.blogspot.com
14. kerin rose http://kerinrose.blogspot.com
15.Quercus SIlver http://quercussilver.blogspot.com
16. Delias Thompson http://deliasstudioinc.blogspot.com

EMJC-PR6.2 - "Pregnancy"

EMJC-PR6.2
Originally uploaded by bcyrjewelry

All finished finally w/ the 2nd challenge.
This one was rather interesting - a pregnancy challenge. For the show - designing clothes for a pregnant belly is much different - so the interpretation really opened up a lot more for jewelry. A lot of us were really inspired by Malvin's interpretation, which though he got kicked off, was the most artistic interpretation of the theme.

My piece is fused sterling silver - my organic vine pattern that I created a 'ball' out of. It also reminds me of a birdcage. I filled it with these gorgeous yellow flowers - 4 o'clocks. They don't bloom during most of the day and when they are closed up, the rather look like scrambled eggs - or just plain scrambled egg yolks.

The chain is all handmade fused argentium sterling silver also. There is no clasp - so it is super easy to just slide right over your head! A little symbolism w/ a little practicality.

Comparison - sterling, 14k palladium white gold, 14k yellow gold

comparison
Originally uploaded by bcyrjewelry

I've been meaning to post this here for awhile, and today is the day!
Just wanted to show the comparison in color of the 3 metals I use most. These are shown without the patina, but give for better comparison of the true colors.