Think Different

How about a little inspiration to start your Friday?

In Honor of Earth Day

This isn't entirely about saving the planet in the way usually thought of for Earth Day.  It's about sharing wealth, peace, helping your fellow man, saving the environment, and more.  This little girl is brave, intelligent, and inspiring.  Please watch and see what she has to say on behalf of the children of the world; and although this is from 1992, it still holds true today.

New in Shop: Wolf Hunter Chain Maille Necklace

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team's 2010 monthly challenge is based on each month's name of the Full Moon. There are multiple names that the moon can go by according to different cultures and mythologies. For January, I chose to work with the Native American name: Wolf Moon.

I thought it would be easy to find lupine inspiration, if nothing else surely I could create something involving werewolves. A few weeks of no inspiration and mounting frustration, I approached my teammates with the question of what they do when they have a creative block. At the suggestion of one teammate I waded through a bag of supplies that I forgot I had. It was full of pendants, findings, gemstones, and a couple of Mahogany Obsidian arrowheads. In my wolf research, I read about Wolf's Bane which is an herb and one of the common names for Aconite. Several species of aconite are poisonous and have been used as arrow poisons to hunt ibex and bear as well as in warfare. It is also historically correct that Native Americans used Mahogany Obsidian for arrowheads. So my Wolf Moon chain maille piece is actually inspired by my herbal research (it's all connected).


I did a very simple wire wrap on an arrowhead and suspended it on a length of copper chain maille. This chain maille weave is most commonly known as Full Persian, but as with so many maille weaves goes by a few different names: one of them is Foxtail. I chose to work in copper because of how earthy a metal it is. It was turning out to be quite a substantial piece, so I didn't think just any clasp would do. I wanted to make something that could carry the bulk and toughness of the piece. I also wanted it to feel like the hunter made it himself to carry the prized arrowhead that caught the wolf that tormented his village. I wanted it to feel rustic.

The Wolf Hunter Chain Maille Necklace is available both in my Artfire Studio and Etsy Shop.

Inspiration: where it comes from, what it influences, where it goes

I recently purchased 52 weeks of blogging your passion by Tara Gentile (editor of Scoutie Girl) and the very first project is to figure out your mission statement. She asks a couple of questions to get you started:

What fuels your passion for craft, art, or design? What’s your inspiration?
How does that passion manifest? What do you create?

I'm inspired by the wonders of nature, strong women accomplishing their dreams, the arts & performing arts... But rarely, do these things inform my creations. Yes, it makes sense that I want to equip warrior women and it makes sense that I want to protect the environment by working with Earth friendly ingredients that are straight from nature and good for people. I almost never think: that Amelia Earhart was one amazing chick, maybe I should make some aviation inspired chain maille. Huh... maybe I should think things like that. That would certainly solve the problem I was just about to discuss.

In the past, I would have moments of inspiration, but felt like it would never manifest itself in a creative way. Inspiration would come, make me all warm and fuzzy, and then go away. The areas that I like to work in make sense based on what inspires me, but shouldn't inspiration also inform what I'm making in these areas?

What inspires you? How do you find it being made manifest in your own work?

Friday Finds - Herbal Inspiration

I've always been fascinated by herbs and all of their uses whether it be medicinal, spiritual, or culinary. My recent success in growing them in the Florida heat has been very encouraging. For this Friday Finds blog post, I'd like to share my love of nature and these amazing plants, with some items inspired by or created with herbs.

Rosemary Necklace by Hightower Botanicals

Custom Wellness Collection Including Vitex Tincture & Nutritive Tea by Flying Bird Botanicals

The Herbalist - 1/12 Scale Diorama by Vintage Arts

Set of 3 Fragrant Homegrown Handmade Lavender Wands by Bittersweet Design Studio

BusyBusyBusy: Stock, Storage, Tent, and Inspiration to Boot!

I have been so incredibly busy lately stocking up my inventory as I get ready to vend at the Handmade Holiday Bazaar in a month! One of the many new items that will be available at the fair will be these adorable (if I may say so myself) little Christmas Tree Ornaments:


They are made using the Japanese 12-2 weave in anodized aluminum. I still have to add a handmade ornament hook and then they are all done. They'll make their debut in my Etsy shop after the fair!

Last weekend, I spent about eight hours one day and another two the next coiling and cutting rings. There were quite literally thousands of various gauges and sizes by the time I was done and my wrists were a little sore, too.

All of this prep work has had me digging through all of the little plastic baggies that I keep my rings in quite a bit. And getting a bit frustrated when I couldn't find what I was looking for only to cut some new rings and then go back to find that I already had some. The plastic baggie system was not working for me. I've known this for quite some time, but just couldn't find a happy alternative. I had been avoiding using tackle boxes for a few reasons: the compartments are rarely big enough for the amount of rings that I usually have on hand in any given size, the separators are usually removable which means that the rings slip under them and get all mixed up, the whole lid opens and thus doesn't seal each compartment well (mixing rings again), plus when the whole lid opens instead of each individual one, a klutz like me can easily spill a few thousand rings all over the place (not fun).

I found these boxes at Joann's yesterday for 40% for their Columbus Day weekend sale. Yeah, the compartments are still a bit small, but each individual compartment opens by itself and they all lock shut! Its so easy to search through my sizes now: they are organized by gauge and increasing ring size in both imperial and metric. Sure, I still have my large baggies full of the rings I use for large projects, but this is sooooooo much easier and more organized.

I only got three to see if I like them (it was hardly enough to organize my stock of bright aluminum rings). . . I may have to get some more.

I also got the makings of my tent weights today. Since this is the first fair I'm using my tent at and it happens to be taking place in a parking lot (no stakes in the ground here!), I found I had to deal with this sooner rather than later. I had been absorbing ideas from various forum threads on Etsy for a while and finally decided to go with sand filled PVC tubes. I thought that this was a great, low-profile way since they will be attached to the legs of the tent and not protrude too terribly much: I was concerned that someone might trip on a water filled milk jug. I still have to cut the PVC, attach the end caps, and fill them but that's a job for another day.

I was talking with a woman I work with the other day about the power of positive thinking. She firmly believes that if you put it out there (not "I wish" or "I want", but rather "I will") it will happen. I thought it strange that while wondering around Joann's I happened upon this vinyl wall art and immediately thought of our conversation. I though the universe was telling me something.