Necklace Contest Winner, New Blog, and Old Movies

SO…. WHAT DO I DO WITHOUT MY EMAIL NOW?

ProStores did a migration. I go into my email today and see that over 500 emails are no longer there. Phft!


OLD MOVIES

Gabe and I watched Goldfinger the other night. We were laughing about some of the stuff… like how they really had a doctor on the set during the scene where the girl was cover in gold paint... and how they actually left a patch on her abdomen free of paint to make sure her skin could breathe… just in case.

We realized the movie was quite old, but I thought he should watch it so that he could understand a lot of current references. He said watching it helped him understand some of the things he saw in Austin Powers.

Speaking of old things, while I was photographing yesterday I had the tv on and the movie that was playing (Just Between Friends) was a really old one with Mary Tyler Moore and it wasn’t until more than halfway through that I realized that the friend (who she ends up with at the end of the movie) is Sam Waterston from Law and Order. Wow… I didn’t even know he was an actor when he was younger.

But then… this is how Gabe felt when he realized the James Bond we were watching was “that old guy from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.


WEIRD JEWELRY THINGS (IMO)

I was flipping through a beading magazine from a year ago and in it was a “how to” article with the advice to use 24 gauge wire to connect Lampwork beads on a bracelet. What?! That seems irresponsible if you ask me. Please people, if you’re making OR buying something that is connected with wire, be aware of the gauge in use and make sure it’s appropriate to the task. For the record, 24 gauge wire will bend quite easily (which is the first problem) and wire that bends and then is rebent to be put back into shape will eventually just break.

I saw something the other day, I’m thinking it was probably on Etsy… it was a bracelet (or maybe a necklace, I don’t recall) for sale and the photo was the piece of jewelry draped over a naked female rear-end as said female lay naked face down. I’m no prude… have nothing against nudity, but I’m not sure it’s good form to have a prettier background than foreground. Ha! But who knows, maybe it’s a great selling tactic.


NEW BLOG

For those who don’t know yet, I’ve started a year-long project called “Going Green Jewelry”. Here’s the blog. I don’t need to talk much about it here since the blog itself is pretty self-explanatory. Wish me luck!


HOCKEY

This weekend Gabe will tryout for TriValley 18AA. It’d be nice if there are one or two open goalie positions. Fingers crossed.

Mon just got back from Las Vegas. She had a fab time (and was talking 100mph when I picked her up… and on into the night). I heard through the grapevine that some of the coaches were pretty impressed with her. Yay! It was great to hear they worked on mental training at the camp. Personally, I think that is Monica’s main weak point. Her technique on the ice seems really good.


CONTEST

Sorry for forgetting that I was going to Hadar’s last night. I will now announce the answers to the Boston Museum of Fine Art contest as well as the winner of the necklace.



This painting is “Hope” by Sir Edward Burne-Jones





This is “La Japonaise” by Claude Monet.




This is “Dance at the Bougival” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.




And the final one is “Ravine” by Vincent Van Gogh.

I’d like to thank all those who played the game with me. The winner, chosen randomly from all the correct entries, is Vanessa from New Zealand. Vanessa, please email me your mailing address so I can pop the necklace in the mail to you soon. Thanks again for playing!!!

That was fun… I should do more contests.


MORE FROM THE BOSTON MUSEUM OF FINE ART

This next thing (sorry, I forgot what it was… hey, anyone wanna tell me and I’ll come up with another piece of jewelry to give away… ha ha ha) is fabulous…




Here’s a beautiful vase with a dragon on it. The second photo was Gabe’s camera putting a red light on the vase just as I was snapping the pic…hmph!







Okay, I’ll show more tomorrow.

We’ll end now on our usual note of frivolity…


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Day 2... or 364 to go...

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, you want to know why.

I’m a big believer in intuition… following it, that is. Sometimes I feel the intuition before I understand it, though.

For a while now (years, actually), I’ve had a little feeling in the back of my creative spirit that I wasn’t following the exact right path. Close, but not exact.

But you know how it is… if you don’t know what it is you’re supposed to be doing, how can you do it?

I have huge respect for beaders. I laugh at those who think beaded jewelry is synonymous with assembly jewelry. Beading requires the ability to recognize quality components, to design visually appealing creations, and to craft a long-lasting, comfortable, balanced piece of jewelry.

I love beading. I truly enjoy it with a deep passion and enthusiasm. But over the past few years I’ve begun to feel dissatisfied with my direction. Something seemed to be lacking in the process of buying beads (even if by other self-representing artists) and stringing them into artistic creations.

I had my first hint of a solution to this gnawing dissatisfaction when I realized how much happier I was if “I” had made the components in the piece of jewelry. Although I haven’t taken making my own components to an extreme (yet), I knew it was important but it wasn’t quite all.

I continued to think about many things, but it wasn’t until recently that one of those things “clicked”… felt right… felt like it’s something I’m supposed to be doing.

I’m not sure I can put it into exact words, though. But I can at least say it has something to do with recycling… or reusing… or otherwise trying to decrease my carbon footprint.

Sometimes when a problem is overwhelming, it’s easy to have the idea that whatever you do, it won’t be enough… it won’t make one bit of difference. We all know that’s wrong thinking in pretty much every instance, but I think big things tend to overwhelm individual human beings. We don’t think collectively. We are groomed to think ego-centrically. “If I can’t fix the whole problem, I don’t want to even try.”

But I am going to think collectively. I’m going to think that if I can do a little to help reduce waste, then I’m helping rather than causing more problem. I am responsible for myself.

I’m not big on bandwagon-jumping, but this is a trend I’m not only embracing… I’m also promoting.

I know I’m not the first, won’t be the last and I’ll never be the best… but I can do MY PART to reduce the carbon footprint.

A couple weeks ago, I caught an episode of one of those cooking, reality shows where chefs’ creations are judged by a panel of experts. Prior to the tasting, each chef was to give a little spiel about the dish they had prepared and served. When one chef talked about the “healthy” aspects of her meal there was much frowning. The experts said (paraphrasing), “Don’t tell me how nutritious this is for me as though that’s the selling point. The selling point should be what I think as I taste it, the flavors of the food. If the dish happens to be healthy, and that’s something that interests me, then that’s a bonus, but it’s NOT the selling point.”

I want to make jewelry the way I feel I must, but I don’t people to buy or be interested in it BECAUSE it’s an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint. I want people to be attracted to my creations as art, first and foremost. And for the record, when I say “art”, I don’t mean it in any kind of hugely important or esoteric way. Just art… like all creations. Not “artiste”… just artist.

Aside from thinking about working with recycled components, aside from thinking about the quality and strength of my piece, aside from thinking about how balanced my piece will be on the neck or wrist, aside from all of that, I MUST remember that art is art and if my creations don’t speak to others on some level then it’s all for nothing.

Can a beader go for a year without buying any beads? How would I make jewelry?

1) I can work my way through my gluttonous, already existent stash
2) I can make beads and components from polymer clay that I have and I would continue to buy Hadar’s metal clays
3) I can use recycled components from around the house, including jewelry from my extensive personal collection

While I was thinking about this, I saw a new beading component in a magazine and I thought to myself, “Oh, I should stock up on this before I begin my adventure”. Then I realized that would be like “starting my diet tomorrow”. There is no tomorrow. There is only now. I am starting now.

I even went to a bead store today… didn’t buy one single bead (even though Rubies were 30% off… Aaaaaaaaaa!!!). I bought liver of sulfur.

I haven’t made any jewelry since this started (yesterday), so I have nothing to show you yet… but I’m doubting it’ll be anything too weird to start with. Like I said, I have a ton of beads here.

Okay, talk to you later!

Welcome to "Going Green Jewelry"

I'm actually kind of tired tonight (long day), so this won't be a very auspicious first post.

The bare bones of what I'm doing here is the following project: I, notorious beader and ho of all things bead-related, am going to try to go for one year without purchasing any beads.

Now, before you think I may end up in a loony bin from the effects of withdrawal, let me assure you there are several ways to get my hands on beads without purchasing any.

1) I have a stash. Maybe not huge, but one that definitely needs whittling down.

2) I will continue to trade and barter (I often trade finished jewelry for lampwork).

3) I can make beads (some anyway).

4) I am allowing myself to buy the supplies I may need to make my own beads (wire, metal or polymer clay, etc.)


I'm thinking I may allow myself spacer beads... ONLY. No decorate beads... just my usual "staple" spacer beads.

Clasps, I'm unsure about. I will post my thoughts on clasps at a later date, but I'm leaning toward... not buying.

The only beads I will purchase in the coming 12 months are Swarovski beads for a custom order I do on a monthly basis for someone. I've been doing this for years and see no reason to stop. I will not use any of THOSE beads in my own work for sale. I have a stash I can take from for that.... and if my stash doesn't last the year, c'est la vie.

Things I will definitely not buy include:
Lampwork beads
Polymer Clay beads
Metal Clay beads
Gemstone beads
Swarovski beads (for my own use)
Glass beads
Wooden beads
Seed beads
Other beads

Wow... really?

Sigh...

If you want to know the "why" of this project, stay tuned. I'll be back (maybe tomorrow) with the reasoning that led me to this decision.

Pretty risky for someone with bills to pay and mouths to feed, but apparently it's something I feel strongly about.

Wish me luck!

Snarky Forum Posts, Necklace Giveaway, Lovely Art

I love lasagna pan kitty!


HUMAN NATURE

Have you ever noticed that a nasty, snarky, drama-laden thread will be at 20 pages before noon, while a positive, peaceful thread takes about three days to become two pages long? What is it in human nature that magnetizes us to drama and pain?


THE VACTION

So, I'm just starting to get some of our photos online. Here are the first ones.

These buildings are in Boston, over by the wharf.






Gabe took a bunch of shots at the aquarium (our first stop on the east coast). I'll get those later this week hopefully (need a cord).

After the aquarium, we went to the museum of fine art. Here are some paintings we saw.



Gonna have some fun now. Whoever emails me with the names of these four paintings gets entered into a contest for this necklace. On Friday, I will select randomly from all correct responses.




COMMENTS

I'd like to thank my friends who are trying to keep me grounded in reality (those pointing out how COLD the east coast is in winter). Bet you didn't even know I'm completely cold-intolerant. Yeah, these rose-tinted glasses get me in a lot of trouble now and again… sigh…


Cindy Gimbrone: Love the LOL Cats - the upside down crow is cute too!. I had a heck of a time photographing my "Muse" piece - mostly because I can't figure out how to take a nice shot of a long necklace. I'll look forward to seeing your piece. I'm sure it's a winner!

Whoa! You're in the contest too?! Awesome. I can't wait to see everyone's designs. I didn't know about the first Use the Muse contest, but it was great fun looking over the diverse entries. I have always been interested in that concept (people creating different things from similar components).

I couldn't agree more about how difficult it is to photograph a long necklace. I found this one (my entry is also a long necklace) to be particularly painful and I ended up with no results that make me happy. Oh well, when I get ready to list the piece I'll try shooting it again. Maybe I can use my cute little model and make the piece look better.

BTW folks… Cindy has a contest on her blog too… check it out!!!



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Back in the Saddle

Or back in Oakland, anyway. And tomorrow, I head back to the office.

Got to have a nice, cool drink with a couple of lovely lady friends this evening. It was a short visit, but hopefully we'll get together again soon.

Also had a fabulous visit with Alex and Monica on Saturday.

Gabe did the San Jose 18AAA tryouts and didn't make the first cut. We'll try Dublin next weekend.

Mon's in Vegas at the moment.

Last night (around midnight, I think... which was the deadline) I got my entry in for the Use the Muse contest. I need to get my photo cube out and do more pictures... maybe tomorrow.

That will result in new listings. I also have another tray to send out to Texas.

Okay, now some levity... I need to relax...


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