FAE Street Team Fairy Contest Entry

I'm so excited that I finally got something done! All of my time for the past month or so has been dedicated to the moving experience: cleaning, repairing, packing boxes, unpacking boxes, you get the idea. Unfortunately, I don't have my office/studio/workshop (weeeeee!) set up yet either. I know it should take a priority, but I might be getting a real jeweler's workbench so I've been putting off setting things up until I know where I want it to go.

In any event, I'm a member of the FAE (Fantasy Artists of Etsy) Street Team and we're having a member contest right now based on fairies. Kathryn of Interior Glass Designs is hosting this contest and offering a prize for the winner. Her work is just gorgeous, so I can't wait to see what she's giving away! Even though she's not entering it herself, she designed a gorgeous fairy, too.

I'm so excited to have been able to participate because it gave me an excuse to play with my pliers again. I designed this Fairy Lariat Necklace:


There is an adorably whimsical flower fairy pendant featured on this necklace. She's sterling silver with a small garnet towards the bottom. She measures 1 1/2" long and 3/4" wide. There are three beads wire wrapped and connecting her to the byzantine chain. These beads represent the flowers she dwells among: the bottom bead is wood for the stems, the middle bead is an emerald green Swarovski crystal for the leaves, and the top bead is garnet for the petals and to match the stone on the pendant.


The byzantine chain is one of the oldest chain maille weaves in existence. All of the jump rings that the chain is comprised of, were coiled, cut, and woven by me. There are approximately 1100 bright aluminum rings in this chain, measuring 36" long (including the fairy pendant).


It can be worn double wrapped around your neck, as a super long necklace, or even as a multi-strand bracelet. She is available for purchase through my Etsy shop.

WE & Women's Equality Day

WE Etsy: Women's Empowerment Street Team

Recently, there was much discussion on the Etsy forums of starting a Women's Empowerment Street Team and I, of course, immediately jumped on board. We are not yet recognized by Etsy as being an official team yet, but there is already so much good stuff going on. You can check out our mission statement at our official blog. I am so excited about this team and look forward to all of the good that will come of it.

As a member of WE, I have volunteered to do a once monthly (probably mid-month) blog profile of a notable woman (either historical or contemporary) who has made contributions to the lives of women. You can look for the first installment mid September at the WE Blog.

Sunday, August 26 is Women's Equality Day

It took women 72 years of ceaseless campaigning to finally win the right to vote in 1920. This Sunday, August 26, Women's Equality Day, marks that anniversary.

I am forever grateful to our foremothers and suffrage leaders such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Victoria Woodhull, Frances Wright, Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Margaret Fuller, Virginia Minor, Paulina Kellog Wright Davis, and so many others. Through much hardship, these amazing women led the way to secure our right to vote and gave us our voice in our democracy today.

The WE blog will feature these women who gave so much of themselves to secure our freedoms as well as many others who have made enormous contributions to many other aspects of women's lives. I look forward to exploring these women and their lives with all of you as a source of inspiration and, of course, empowerment.

We're Homeowners!

I know I've been fairly MIA as of late, but for a good reason! Things have been insane for the past few weeks with this whole house buying process. I must say, dealing with the banks and finding out your net worth is a very humbling experience. And then looking at your bank balance after your have them cut the cashier's check for closing is just damn depressing.

The weeks leading up to closing was spent like so: eat, sleep, work, pack, repeat. And not just packing up the apartment, but packing up tools to be brought over for repairs and such. We're big kids now, we even have a lawn mower.

Then immediately after closing the fun began: cleaning. I swear, I got into every crack, crevice, and surface that existed in this place. Some situations required yoga poses to reach. It was a little insane. I never thought I would be so sore from cleaning.

After a full week of cleaning, repairing, and painting, we finally got a bunch of Scott's absolutely amazing friends together to help us move furniture and boxes over.

And even had one special guest to help us move. ====>>

Needless to say, we're living out of boxes right now. The kitchen and bathrooms were the very first rooms I cleaned and moved in and once our furniture was in, we moved into the bedroom. But, aside from that. . . cleaning, repairs, and unpacking will continue. Oh, well. It will all be there tomorrow.

In close, here's a pic of me being super happy after closing in our very own pool!

Check out more pic's at flickr.

My Work Space, AKA My Dining Room Table

There are as many unique work spaces out there as there are unique artists who occupy them. Some use their kitchen/dining room table (like me), some their couch and coffee table, some a tray on their lap, some are even lucky enough to have a work bench or even a studio. I love getting a sneak peek into everyone's "studio." I know it's kind of voyeuristic, but I truly love to see how everyone works, get ideas for my own space (if I'm ever lucky enough), see their tools and materials.

For now, my work space is my dining room table. As many of you in a similar situation knows, sometimes you're lucky enough to be able to leave your materials and tools out and set up mid-project. Then there are those times that your boyfriend wants to have his friends over for a full day of gaming. Well, maybe not exactly that situation, but I think you get the idea. Mid-project or not, you have to clean everything up.

The above photo is of my kitchen table which in actuality is in my dining room, aka my work space. The plain wood table top you see is something that Scott (the boyfriend) built to give us a bigger table space: it's basically a piece of plywood that sits on top of the actual table with a frame so it doesn' t move; it also folds in half for storage. On the bottom left is Scott's Dremel tool which I have kind of pirated away from him to use with my Koil Kutter for cutting jump rings. You can see a batch of freshly cut rings as well as a strainer in which I rinse all of the lube off of them. My Craftsman pliers are out (this pic is obviously from before Scott gave me my beautiful Lindstroms) as well as some mandrels used for coiling. In the background, you can see my light box. This was not one of my more organized days, but then it's always difficult to stay organized in a temporary space.

Here's another shot of my work space. You can see in the background the storage cabinet that Scott and I share and a set of plastic drawers that contain some more jewelry making supplies; my tackle box with even more supplies and tools is on the floor between the two.

On top of the cabinet are two projects: one belonging to me and one belonging to Scott. The grey box laying down is his: it's a dice tower that he built from scratch with wood and felt. You throw dice in and it tumbles them up and then they come pouring out the bottom. It's really quite neat.

The other project is mine, of course: a work in progress coif. In this photo it looks kind of like a wig and I'm thinking of making more like this except in fun colors for all of those punk girls out there. Since this picture has been taken, I've finished it off and must admit, I've been slow to get pictures posted of her all done up.

Scott and I are in the process of trying to buy a house and if any of you have not been through that experience, imagine the most stressful time of your life and multiply it by a thousand. In any event, if all goes well, our new house will have three bedrooms. One of course is for us to sleep, and we were originally planning on having an office for us both in one and a guest bedroom in the other. Recently, we've been playing with a new idea that I think we've both fallen in love with: we're each going to get a room to do with as we please. If we decide to go this route, I'm going to have my own office/studio/workspace!! And then, of course, I'll have to add a new post with more pic's!