Foggy Inspiration

Okay, I'll admit that sometimes I actually enjoy living by the beach. Like today, when a fog as thick as pea soup rolls in, and I get to bike my commute home down a beach path completely swallowed up by a surreal otherworld. Fuzzy shapes slowly emerge out of nothingness, and the sounds of the city are replaced by the deep voice of a foghorn.


Have I mentioned that I'm an Oregonian at heart and that grey weather is more inspirational to me than sunshine?

Scattered...

Lately, I've been feeling a little bit scattered. Nothing serious, I just don't have one main thing to focus on at the moment. Rather than fight it, I thought I'd just let you into my funny little world right now.

I've been doing a bit of baking (mmm, banana bread)...


Reading a lovely new book...


Wading through all the propositions on this year's ballot...


And trying to figure out what sorts of jewelry to make next...


So, forgive the lack of posts. Oh, but I did manage to update my flickr.

Adventures in photo-taking

With the holidays looming and a large stock of jewelry sitting in my studio waiting for a new home, I decided it was time to shoot some more photos. Plus, I've been wanting to update the photos in my etsy shop and on my website.

So I spent my weekend testing the limits of my camera. I'm calling it the little camera that could, because Russ is convinced that it won't do what I want, and I'm determined to prove him wrong. :)

I went to our local arts store and picked up some nice big sheets of paper to use as backgrounds. And I rolled them out on the desk in my studio, next to the nice big windows that bring in lots of natural light.

In all, I think I'm pretty happy with the photos. Okay, so they're not exactly slide-worthy, high-art photos, but I think they show off the jewelry well (which is really the whole point). There are still other shots rumbling around my head that I want to try to capture, so stay tuned for more new photos. But, in the meantime, I've updated my website and my etsy shop. I hope to have my flickr page updated in the next day or two as well.



P.S. The update in my etsy shop means NEW pieces, so scurry on over!

Braving my studio again

As it turns out, it was a good thing that I didn't sell out at Fall Festival. I so completely burnt myself out prepping for the show that I'm still avoiding getting back to work in my studio. Which has meant that I've been able to fulfill orders out of the "leftover" stock and give myself a nice long break from creating new work.

And I would continue to procrastinate on getting back to work, except that I have an order for a head badge that I need to make and get in the mail. So, today, I am officially braving my studio again.

Meet Reynard the Fox...

Winterlight

I left my day job early today (since I worked late for an event the other night) and I spent this afternoon packing up jewelry to send off to the Art Center in Corvallis for their Winterlight event.


Since this is the first time that I've sent off a large quantity of jewelry to one location, I had fun creating a method for packaging and labeling everything. And let me just say that clear mailing labels rock!


I don't think I'm going to make it to the post office this afternoon as I had hoped, so I'll be dropping this off first thing tomorrow morning. Fun, fun!


For those of you who are in the Corvallis area, Winterlight opens on November 8 and runs daily (except for Thanksgiving) through December 24. I'm also plotting some great Long Beach area events, and I'll post more when we get more of the details hammered out. You can also skip on over to my website and sign up for my mailing list.

Happy weekend everyone!

Enough lounging around

I put together a fancy new ad tonight to run on the Scoutie Girl site. I even learned how to create an animated gif! Of course, I can't figure out how to get Blogger to let it play through, but here's the first slide...


And an update for folks in Oregon - I'll be a part of Winterlight at The Arts Center in Corvallis.

Reintegrating

Wow, I totally disappeared from the world this past week. Sorry about that. I caught a really gnarly cold last weekend that just knocked me out. Considering how hard I worked to get ready for Fall Festival, I was totally expecting to get sick when it was all over. However, I didn't expect it to wipe out my ability to think for a week straight. But, so is life on occassion.

Is anyone else amazed that it's October? My summer disappeared in a blur while I was hunched over my workbench. I guess every day is summer in Southern California, but I'm still amazed at how much time just flew right past me (and I didn't even notice). And now it's starting to get dark earlier in the evenings, reminding me that we really are inching our way up to "the holidays." Hmmm.

The Show & Sell was great. Despite the grey and dreary weather that day (yes, it does happen on occasion), we had a great turnout and I had a great time meeting the other artists. Many thanks to everyone who came out!

Due to the fuzzy headedness this week, we've cancelled the biking plans that we had for this weekend. Which means that I have some time to open my case of jewelry and take stock of everything. I'm really feeling like I want to refine some of my designs and figure out ways to assuage some of the concerns that I've heard recently. I think this is a longer-than-just-the-weekend process, but this is a good time to get started.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Back to Long Beach

After a very very long train trip (we rolled in almost 6 hours late and in the wee hours of the morning last night), I am trying to make sense of coming back to reality.

Fall Festival was an amazing experience on so many levels. There was the article that ran in the newspaper that drew hundreds of people to my website and to my booth over the weekend ("You're the one that was in the paper!"). There were conversations with other artists at the show that provided some amazing leads for me. There was a parade of people that I haven't seen in years (including some that I haven't seen since I graduated high school over 11 years ago!). And, of course, there were the priceless comments about my work (what people were most drawn to, what people were most concerned about) and the sales.


And, while I may have been a little stir crazy by the end of our 34 hour train trip, it was certainly a valuable chunk of time to just sit and make sense of everything. I am so grateful to so many people who came out to support me! It was such a fantastic whirlwind of an experience and I am so thrilled to have been a part of the festival.

One of the best things that came out of the show, for me, was solidifying a display that I like that I can use again and again...



And now it's time to get ready for the next show. (Although I'm tired, I'm glad to just roll right into the next event and try to keep some of the momentum going.) If you're in the Southern California area, come out and say hi! (There will be live music, wine and some yummy snacks - along with many very talented artists.)

Artisan Show & Sell
hosted by the Friends of Signal Hill Cultural Arts
located at the Signal Hill Community Center
1780 East Hill Street (off Cherry Avenue)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
3:00 - 8:00pm

* P.S. For anyone who's interested in traveling by train and might now be scared off because of our crazy delay, let me just say that, in all of the muck of being late, I was so impressed by Amtrak's customer service. We were continually treated like actual people (unlike how you are often shuffled around like cattle by the airlines), and our connection to Long Beach was honored even though we had missed the bus (they gave us an incredibly generous taxi voucher).

Etsy Front Page

My seedlets earrings (which were such a huge hit at Fall Festival) graced the front page of Etsy sometime this morning. What a great welcome home present! Thanks to Teamzvonik for curating and Iomiss for alerting me.