Blog-o-sphere Think Tank - favorite quotes / sayings/ music lines

Ooh, I have lots!! But as a time saver, I narrowed it down to two of my faves... I've been on a Mumford and Sons kick recently and find many of their lyrics to be really fabulous.

This video has the lyrics for the whole song if you want (you have to view it on youtube)! I really like it all, but these 3 lines are why I picked to share:

And I'll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I'll know my name as it's called again




which is actually kind of related to the next song I picked called "Be" by the Tossers - it's basically what I wrote for a speech I gave at my high school graduation (which is kind of funny... only... it wasn't out then)

You can be what you want to be.
You can be whatever you see.
Whatever in this world makes you happy.
Don't listen to them listen to me.




Make sure to  check out everyone else's favorites!!


Andes cruz: http://www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Christine: http://sistinachapel.blogspot.ca/
Robyn: http://flyviewsandreviews.blogspot.com/
Tosca Teran: http://nanopod.me/
pencilfox. www.pencilfox.com
WATTO Distinctive Metal Wear: http://www.wattoonline.com/news
Kathleen Krucoff http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Barbara Donovan:  http://barbaradonovan.blogspot.com/

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival - May 7, 2012 - Unconventional tools

This month's EtsyMetal blog carnival topic is unconventional tools! What a fun topic! 

My most unconventional tools are some of my wax working tools. In terms of being a tool made from wax work... many of them are not. But most likely, many other wax workers have similar pieces in their arsenal.

The one farthest to the left I think is some sort of embossing tool? or clay tool? I think I got a couple different ones at Hobby Lobby or Michaels many many years ago... I can't remember!

The next one over, I think you'll recognize as a pencil. :) with a needle in the end. I actually use the soft graphite end sometimes, both for waxes and for actually writing - but mostly the needle in the end. It has a tiny little crook in the end after years of constant heating. It is so perfect and probably couldn't be easily duplicated if I tried. The short little stub of a pencil is the prefect size for my hands too.

The 3rd is... a stick! With a slightly smaller needle point. I don't use it as much as the pencil. Even though the smaller needle is good for some things, just not as comfy in my hand as the little pencil.

The 4th is another of those tools I have NO idea what it was or where I got it. I have 3 different sizes - one side is kind of serrated, many little parallel grooves. I use it for doing the vine texture. The other side is a smooth convex surface - perfect for smoothing out the inside of rings.

You'll also notice a small handmade q-tip - toothpick with a tiny bit of something... tp most likely! or paper towel... If I'm casting stones in place they often get a bit of wax on them (go figure) so I like to clean them off a little after all is ready to go.

and of course, ye ol' razor blade.... which I would be lost with out. The nice marble surface I work on get cleaned off every few minutes so it is perfectly smooth. It probably isn't that unconventional, but there is no substitute for what it does.

Make sure to check out other unconventional tools from our other participants this month:

Mary Anne Karren - http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/
Laney ~ http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
Inbar Bareket - http://www.inbarbareket.info/blog
2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Theresa Kwong - http://tkmetalarts.blogspot.com

Danielle and Phill

As I have mentioned before... I love getting photos of weddings!

Danielle and Phill had an amazing wedding in Thailand and kindly sent some gorgeous photos. So fun to think of the journey Danielle's ring has made from a blob of wax to being given in a beautiful ceremony around the world! So lovely! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to provide something meaningful and symbolic for such a lovely couple.

And the winners are.....

 
Source: Hubblesite.org

 Thank you all so much for entering my give away! I am super excited to announce the winners! I was waiting to hear back from both... and I still haven't, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post anyway!

The winner of the galaxy ring is Jenna G! Yay! Congrats Jenna! (We've been working on details for her ring - I'll post photos when it is all done!)

and the winner of the $50 gift certificate is Larc.! Congrats congrats!!!

A very big thank you to everyone who entered and gave feedback. I'll be adding some new designs to my collection over the next couple of months.

I'm also going to be working on getting my website up and running - with a shopping cart and everything!

xoxo

Blog-o-sphere Think Tank - April Edition - Favorite Tool

I do have many favorites... tools that I couldn't live without, that I use every day, that I would recommend to any jeweler... but I do have one tool I just simply love. I do have a thing for hammers. My Peddinghaus "planishing/grooving" hammer is the one I don't think I could live with out. You know how you always look for the perfect tshirt or the perfect pair of jeans, often never really finding it. This is my perfect hammer. Even though I have another 20 or so, this will always be my favorite.

 

Other tools that come close - my flex shafts - I have one w/ just a quick change handpiece and one w/ a hammer handpiece... love them both. My torches - without which I would not be able to work! I also have a few favorite wax working tools (stay tuned for etsymetal blog carnival first Monday in May for those). Make sure to check out everyone else's favorites!!

Andes Cruz: http://www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Shannon Koochin: http://thebassplayersdaughter.blogspot.ca
Barbara Donovan: http://barbaradonovan.blogspot.com/
Robyn Hawk: http://flyviewsandreviews.blogspot.com/
Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Christine: http://sistinachapel.blogspot.ca/
WATTO (Mary): http://www.wattoonline.com/news
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com
 Stephanie Clark: http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com

Last Chance to Enter Spring 2012 Giveaway!

In a little over 24 hours, my giveaway will end! The giveaway will close Tuesday, April 17th at 5:00pm EST. I will organize all of the entries and run the random picker. The winners will be announced by Wednesday the 18th (may depend on how quickly I can get in touch with them)

I'm giving one last chance to enter!

Order anything from either of my shops (ring sizers not included) and use the coupon code SPRING2012 to receive free shipping. For each item purchased, your name will be entered TWICE in the drawing. You do not need to post here, simply using the coupon code will let me know who's name to enter. I just added a couple new pairs of earrings to my regular jewelry shop. Two styles - each with two sizes. Very sweet and simple, but matching my sands of time and love rocks texture I use for my rings.

Purchases made before 5:00pm EST will qualify for the drawing. Any orders or comments made after 5:00pm EST will not be entered in to the drawing.

 One more dayyy!!!

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival - 3.2.12 - Nobody's Perfect

This month's EtsyMetal blog carnival is "Nobody's Perfect" - Care to share a piece of your work that did not turn out quite as beautiful as you had planned?
Perhaps you have an interesting experience that went awry...
Do tell!

What a fun topic!
I used to do so much experimenting... and then often just kept my messed up experiments! I know a lot of jewelers have scrap boxes. It is part of the great thing about working with metal - even when you mess up, the metal is still good and can either be melted down or turned in to something else.

Here are a few of my favorite disasters:
(sorry for the horribly fuzzy photos this morning)

The top two photos were when I was working on setting stones from the back of a piece as opposed to on top in a normal bezel... apparently you can see how well that was working for me! haha!




Make sure to check out the other participants this month!

Silentgoddess
Gracebourne
2Roses
Inbar Bareket
Anne Walker
wildflowerdesigns
Michele Grady Designs
TK Metal Arts
Evelyn Markasky

Spring 2012 Giveaway! New Design - Galaxy Ring

Source: Hubblesite.org

Finally! It is here! For those of you that don't follow me on facebook, I've been giving hints all week for a big giveaway that I am announcing today!

The details:

I am giving away one custom ring in my new galaxy ring design. It is 5mm wide with stars and optional diamonds in my new palladium/silver alloy. The sample ring in the photos has one large star and 3 smaller stars and 3 2mm diamonds. Number of stars and diamonds is totally up to the winner (though, no more than 3 diamonds). My plan for making it more "manly" when I do the full set, will be less stars and less diamonds, a little more simple and with just the texture and possibly one star... It also include optional engraving.



The value of this ring is $480.

And as a special surprise, I decided to also do a 2nd prize of a $50 gift certificate towards anything jewelry in either of my shops.

and now the important info!

How to Enter

1. You must follow me on my facebook page or my blog

Your name will be entered in the drawing once for each of the following

*follow on facebook
*follow on blog
*follow on twitter
*repost on facebook
*repost on blog
*repost on twitter
*join my mailing list
*pin one of these ring photo on pinterest

(your name could be entered a total of 8 times)

2. Leave a comment on this blog post letting me know

a. where you follow me, if you reposted or joined my mailing list
(if you are currently on the mailing list, you don't need to sign up again)

b. let me know what nature theme you would like to see in a ring set
OR let me know your current favorite design

Winners will be chosen on April 17th.

*I will be using random.org to choose the winners. Each name will be assigned a number. Let's say Christina enters 7 times, she'll have numbers 1 - 7 assigned to her. The first number chosen will be the winner of the ring, the 2nd number chosen will be the winner of the $50 gift certificate. If I'm not able to contact the winner through a message on facebook or email, I will announce their name here on the blog.

More photos can be seen on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcyrjewelry/
or on my facebook page.

Thanks for participating! :)

Blog-o-sphere Think Tank - March Topic - a photo / image that inspires you..(or favourite image) and to what?

The March topic for the blog-o-sphere think tank is: a photo / image that inspires you..(or favourite image) and to what?

This was going to be really easy for me b/c recently I was very inspired by an image of a light echo from a star (photo taken by hubble - the site is awesome)

Source: Hubblesite.org

I am so inspired by a lot of photos of stars, nebulae, galaxies, molecular clouds, and distant planets and moons. I'm completely fascinated by the images and the fact that they are captured the way they are! Sometimes the photos evoke more of a feeling, though this one was quite literal in it's translation... and color.

This was the ring I create from the photo inspiration -





Make sure to check out other inspiring images from this month's participants:

Andes cruz: http://www.andescruz.wordpress.com

Thomasin Durgin: http://metalriot.blogspot.com/

pencilfox: www.astorynontheless.blogspot.com

Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/

Renée Dolling: www.floatinglightsphotography.com/blog

Shannon Koochin: http://thebassplayersdaughter.blogspot.com

EtsyMetal Book Club - The Passage by Justin Cronin

I love to read, though I've never been in a book club until we started the EtsyMetal book club. The idea was to read the book and make a piece inspired by the book. A couple books I've ready and just didn't feel inspired. And I missed a couple of books, as... they didn't sound very interesting. The most recent book sounded great and I found very inspiring.

It was The Passage by Justin Cronin.

I thought it was well written and moved along pretty quickly, especially for a complicated story line/character list.

It is really interesting as an artist to be inspired by written text - and particularly transforming it in to a 3-dimensional, metal piece. There were lots of ideas I had that could have translated well in to drawings or paintings. One in particular jumped out at me in terms of a metal piece. The teeth. This paragraph in particular really stuck with me:

For instance: Subject Zero glowed. In the infrared any heat source would do that. But the image of Subject Zero flared on the screen like a lit match, almost too bright to look at. Even his crap glowed. His hairless body, smooth and shiny as glass, looked coiled - that was the word Grey thought of, like the skin was stretched over lengths of coiled rope - and his eyes were the orange of highway cones. But the teeth were the worse. Every once in a while Grey would hear a little tinkling sound on the audio, and know it was the sound of one more tooth dropped from Zero's mouth to the cement. They rained down at the rate of half a dozen a day. These went into the incinerator, like everything else; it was one of Grey's jobs to sweep them up and it gave him the shivers to see them, long as little swords' you'd get in a fancy drink. Just the thing if, say, you wanted to unzip a rabbit and empty it out in two seconds flat.

The creatures were horrifying enough, but to imagine finding their teeth lying around everywhere, scary. I did take a bit of artistic license in creating what I would imagine their teeth to have looked like - not quite little swords... When I was playing around in the waxes - the longer pointer teeth didn't look as good, so I scaled them down and widened them out. I imagined the look of the teeth as they glinted in the light while coming out of the darkness. So I wanted them dark, but shiny, and utterly creepy. Oh... and the skull actually is not real - but amazingly realistic "movie quality" prop. I was fortunate enough to find one w/o most of it's teeth - perfect for what I wanted - making scary dentures.

It was a really fun project to work on - an art piece w/ no intention other than to create it.

I thought about making a necklace out of teeth - the way a hunter would string the teeth of their kills. I might at some point, but taking time away from making wedding rings was limited. So at some point, I might string them up to make an actual jewelry pieces. Or string each tooth individually as little pendants...

The etsymetal post will be up tomorrow on the blog, I think with the other members' pieces. Make sure to check it out - and read the book if you like post-apocalytic type stories.