Tucson 2017 - Larimar

Oh, larimar! Such an unusual gem, found in only one locale in all the world (the Dominican Republic), seducing everyone with what I call that "summer sky blue" coloring, you are a beautiful and yet willful gem.

Every year, it seems, the prices for acquiring larimar rise. I hunt and peck and dig and search to get my hands on some. And most years...I do. But it does not always happen at a budget-friendly number. Supply and demand...

Larimar is a pectolite, which is usually a combination of calcium and sodium. Pectolites are found throughout the world. The difference here is that in larimar, the combination is sodium and copper, which gives this gem its distinctive blue hue.

Most people become aware of it on a trip to the Carribean. It's often made into relatively simple jewelry designs and often sold rather inexpensively (compared to what I pay as an American gem buyer). Of course, "inexpensive" is relative; once you add in the costs of a Dominican vacation, it might all balance out. But then you'll have larimar *and* the photos and memories... ;)

As the vein is being ever more deeply penetrated, what's coming up from its depths is changing dramatically. It used to be just a pure, baby blue:

and now, it's not just a blue gem anymore. It's got patches of white, daubs of green, some black, even, occasionally, a hint of red:

as seen in the top stone above. That is the largest larimar cab it's been my pleasure to purchase. Notice how it's also a more soft blue, aqua-y color, as opposed to the gem below it, which is more indicative of traditional larimar coloring.

Here's a great example of the interesting patterns that show up:

and here's one of my favorite larimar gems of all time:

I never see this kind of translucency (at the bottom of the square) in larimar. It's like the waves crashing up onto the beach. And the coloring is just lovely. And well and interestingly cut. Someday I'll decide what I'm going to do with it...

Where to Go from Here?

I haven't been regularly keeping up with the blog...some of you would say, "Well, when *were* you, Jill?" ~wry smile~ I never seemed to have enough time for it. And now, suddenly, it seems a somewhat old and clunky format to share with you, friends and followers. I've been much more active on Facebook and Instagram than I have here, posting photos of new designs (almost) as soon as they're created.

And I've struggled with keeping up with making new designs - not for lack of designs, but for lack of time...same old, same old. Only so much two hands can do....which doesn't leave a lot of time for writing (hopefully) interesting blog content.

While I don't want to shut down the blog entirely, I think it's going to be much more photo-focused with less text. This may end up redundant for those of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook, and if so, I apologize. But there's just never enough time...and my main love is the making, not writing about, the jewelry. :)

So, without further ado, let me share the Sweet Somethings creations:

These came about because while I've been pushing myself to design bigger and bolder, I also wanted something on the other side of the spectrum. Something sweet, and wearable for everyday, if so desired. Something smaller than my usual designs, that would layer with other necklaces...like little dollops of sweetness around the neck. :)

They've actually turned out to be quite fun to design and make, because they come together much more quickly than the big statement pieces. I can make up a batch and feel like I've gotten a lot done, instead of taking days at a time for the larger  and more complex designs. And they still hold true to my design aesthetic of balanced asymmetry. 

From top to bottom: chrysocolla, druzy, larimar, peruvian opal, shattuckite, turquoise, druzy. 

They are available here: blue piranha web site and here: blue piranha on Etsy

Tucson Gem Show 2015, Part II

The trickiest things about using one of a kind gems in your jewelry designs, is that sometimes you can really find what you need...ahem, *want*, easily and at the right price, like yesterday's turquoise...and sometimes you can't. This year, a few of my "regular" buys were harder to come by.

Larimar,for example, can be tricky to find. Last year the price skyrocketed and I really had to do some hunting to find what I needed. I had similar problems this year; the prices were better BUT the gems were cut really, really thick, which I don't like. A thicker cut usually means a few things:

- a sloppier or less experienced cutter

- a more expensive purchase (and not in a good way) Thicker cabs mean that I pay more for the raw material weight, then I have to use more metal to bezel the gems, which means my customers also will pay more overall. Which I don't like, which is why I look for thinner cabochons. :)

- a lesser quality gem - sometimes it seems like poor quality is "made up for " by cutting thicker gems. But I don't want "more gem, less quality" I'd rather have better quality material.

These in the photo are nice and "svelte"and the corners are well done. I am finding the patterns in the new gems coming out of the Caribbean so much more interesting than some of the earlier material that was simply straight-up blue. These patterns are fabulous!

I also found it hard to find the "right" matched pairs of Larimar for earrings. Either there simply weren't any available, or they were way too spendy for my plans. Or too thick - which, in addition to the issues I mentioned above, often means that the gems will be far too heavy for comfortable earrings. I get a lot of comments about how my earrings are comfortable to wear, and I take pride in making that part of my design prioritites. So thick gems for earrings are really just not an option.

Actually, this year I ended up making some of my own matched pairs, out of some huge bins of random gems. I sorted through entire bins to find cuts and color patterns that matched up:

I spent three hours at one dealer's location. For an eight hour shopping day (minus travel time), that's a chunk. But between the Larimar and the Peruvian opals I'll show you later, all thatt time did not go unrewarded. :)

Tucson Goodies, Part II: Labradorite and Larimar

I went to the Tucson Gem Show with a fairly limited list this year, and I didn't stray from it very much. I have been looking at getting back into wholesale, so I decided to buy (hopefully) enough stones for a small wholesale line as well as what I need for my retail designs. Thus I bought a bit more of my favorite stones and best sellers, but not as much of an assortment overall. I also bought lots of small gems for earrings, which are not nearly as exciting to photograph or view, so I'll spare you those. :)

First up, just a few of the labradorites I found:

a lovely round lab. Beautiful coloring and striations. I don't buy round shapes very often, but occasionally I stray from my love of asymmetry and play with something more balanced. This is about the size of a 50-cent piece and looks even better in person. :)

This is the biggest labradorite I purchased, with an amazing blue flash. It's at least double the size of my usual lab pendant gems and I can't wait to design around it!

Larimar, a perennial customer favorite, was much harder to come by this year. I saw a lot of what I consider bad quality larimar, for very spendy prices. And I really would rather not offer the stone for sale at all, than buy what I consider poor quality material...so I came home with very little. I did see some excellent larimar, but at prices that were way out of budget. The stone is found in only one location in the world, in the Dominican Rebublic, and it's definitely changed over the years - I don't know if it's getting played out, or the quality is changing, but the "good stuff" (in my opinion) is harder to come by and prices continue to rise.

I bought this rough slab - it's unpolished, so has a matte surface finish - and I'm thinking about prong-setting it. Prong setting is one of my goals for 2014, and I think this will lend itself nicely to that. It's also THICK:

a little over 1/4 inch thick. It's pretty substantial compared to most of the gems I buy. And in the side view above, you can see a lot of the natural brown inclusions - which I find in most of what I consider "lesser grade" larimar. I try to buy stones without much of the inclusions as I prefer the overall blue coloring. I don't mind if the inclusions are on the side, as in this slab, but usually I like my larimar clearer. A lot of what I'm seeing is very pale white with just a hint of blue, or a pale green combination, which I don't find nearly as attractive.

I also found this wonderful, splurge-worthy stone:

and couldn't leave it behind. It's better in person than in the photo, because you see the gradations of color more clearly in person. Why was it a splurge? The beautiful, consistent coloring over most of the stone (compare the color on this stone to the more striated-white areas on the slab in the first larimar photo), the rectangular cut, and the way it looks like ocean waves crashing toward the bottom. I'll have to design something really special for this gem. :)

And while I struggled with finding larimar, I did manage to purchase quite a few Peruvian opals and some great turquoise...I'll show them to you very soon!

Work Hard...Work Hard

I think somewhere along the way I've forgotten the "Play hard" part of that phrase. I have been working hard this week...but my energy is low and my body is fighting me. No surprise, really, after the hell-bent-for-leather show prep and then the load car / drive seven hours / unload car / set up booth / stand on asphalt for two fourteen-hour days / break down booth / load car / drive seven hours / unload car that was my schedule from Friday through Monday. I can't imagine why my body would be a little worn out!

And I was looking forward to a little break, but after coming home and looking at the inventory I have left, there's not enough to give to either of my galleries right now. And there's not a good cohesiveness to give to either one of my galleries right now. So, I am working as fast as I can to make new inventory and have it all ready by the November 14th and THEN maybe I can work at something less than hurricane pace. Although I have several custom orders to do to...for which I'm very grateful, no doubt about it, but WHERE is the downtime??

Here are the stones I'm making settings for this week:

From top to bottom: turquoise, larimar, kingman turquoise, larimar, peruvian opal (2 pairs)

And these:

From top to bottom: Royston turquoise, laguna lace agate, labradorite, larimar, labradorite x2, kingman turquiose, eudyialite, dendritic opal.

Whew!

The bezels are all made and I have to do the embellishments...which I'm about to get started on. I'm not feeling like it at the moment, but usually once I've gotten two pieces done I'll be in the groove. I don't think they'll all get done today but I'm hoping to have half today and half Monday, then I can clean up and set the gems...and hopefully by the end of the week I will have a decent amount of items to give to both galleries for the holiday season. THEN I can work on my next looming deadline...

What happened to Friday, you ask? I'm actually taking  a much-needed day off with my husband. Even the "work hard, work hard" girl needs a break once in a while.  :)

Back in the Saddle (Old Horse, New Tricks)

One of the things they tell people who have never been on a horse before, is that you have to maintain control. If you don't, the horse will sense that and take every possible advantage of you. Sounds...sound, right? But if it's your first time (no matter what age) on the back of a horse, it's not quite that easy to put into practice...

It took me much longer than I expected to recover from the Ruidoso art festival in New Mexico. Last week my energy was nearly zero, and then I spent a busy weekend (my only "down" weekend this month) housecleaning and catching up on things. And I'm still trying to regain some equilibrium.

I think part of the issue was not just the physical tiredness and pain, but the mental side. I'm in an ego business - we artists have to be "approved" / "accepted" into art festivals, we have to pay for the privilege to just be looked over, with no guarantee of being granted permission to show up, then if we do get to show up (and pay for that privilege as well), we spend several days having our egos (and wallets, hopefully) either stroked or ignored by the public. And if you're not making the money you hope / need to make, you're going to (at least occasionally), feel a little bad about yourself...at least some of the time.

I know the rational reasons why I had a tough show. But the emotions are not so easily managed. At most festivals, I have what I would consider realistic expectations. But for whatever reason, I really let my expectations rise for this festival: I got called off the wait list! I won a blue ribbon! I have a great corner booth! I am doing some of the best work of my career so far! etc, etc...I felt like everything was sort of converging in my favor. So what do I know...apparently not. ~wry smile~

So. What does a sensitive artiste do when she's feeling low? She tackles something new, something she has no practice in, something that is a bit beyond her reach. Okay...no, most people would work on something simple and easy...stepping slowly into the harder stuff. Not moi. I went into the studio on Monday and decided that it was time to make rings. Big rings. With lots of soldered pieces on them. Soldering to CURVED surfaces...ha! Because when you're feeling down, you should set yourself what seems to be an insurmountable task! I can sort of laugh about it now, but on Monday night I was ready to toss my entire workbench in the trash. Head, meet wall. Banging ensues. Repeat ad nauseum.

But I DID learn. It's coming together. Two big ol' rings are to the clean up stage, and today I'm working on some easier things (finally). Making a bunch of bezels:

Mmm...yummy. Larimar, boulder turquoise(s), more turquoise, variscite, Kingman turquoise.

And more:

Peruvian opal(s), Eudyialite, sonoran cactus, boulder turquoise.

And MORE (I can't help it, I sort of get a rhythm going when I'm bezel-ing):

Larimars, Peruvian opals, Eudyalite.

What am I going to do with them? Not sure yet. But they need bezels no matter what. And when I am ready to design with these, I'm always happier when the bezels are done and I can get straight on to designing, rather than having to make the bezel. Design. Make the bezel. Design. What can I say? I'm a batcher.  :)

Which is why I did THESE, too:

Turquoise, petrified wood (I think), boulder turquoise, Peruvian opal, Eudyalite, boulder turquoise. And then I had to stop myself. Also, I ran out of 4mm bezel wire. Pfft. And I needed to work on finishing the big rings from earlier in the week...so I guess that was enough bezel making for one day. It gets out of hand quite easily.  :)


Now I'm planning my next big project, for next week...and maybe another big ring. With a stone, this time? I'm not sure yet...but the saddle leather is getting comfortable. The horse is a challenge but you can't let the horse be in control...the rider has to maintain control. Sometimes easier said than done...but I'm getting there.  :)

Ups And Downs

I've just returned home from a trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico, where I exhibited at the Ruidoso Arts Festival. I elected (perhaps somewhat crazily, in hindsight) to drive to and from the festival (that's a 22-hour drive, folks. Each way). You *may* be thinking I'm a little worn out today. You *may* be right.  :)

Unfortunately I did not come home with bags of money...far from. The show was a not all that I'd hoped for, but I certainly learned a lot...and of course, I'm going to share those learnings.  :)

First, the positives:

- The show is BEAUTIFUL. One of the prettiest art shows I've seen, with some really lovely art, ceramics, and sculpture. Caveat - you have to love the West / Southwest, or at least like a little touch of it, to want to shop at this festival. It's VERY South/Western. It's also indoors, in an excellent setting (the Ruidoso Convention Center). Very Southwestern / Lodge feel. There were several bronze artists there with amazing work (I love bronze sculpture).

- I had a GREAT booth. I didn't ask for (or pay for) a corner, but as it turned out, I ended up with one anyway. Which is always nice.  :)   Here's a booth shot:

The shot's taken from the direct corner angle, so that's my tent pole you see right in the center. I changed some things for this festival - mainly the new photos (hanging from the back walls) and the black fronts for the abstracta displays. The black panels look so clean and crisp and it just felt more polished overall. Plus my "inside" curtains (from when I used to do wholesale shows) almost exactly match my "outside" curtains (for retail festivals), which I used to wrap the top of my tent (unseen in this shot) and the side poles for a more polished look. I got lucky on the carpeting - it was provided by the convention center.

Here's a shot without the black panels for my display cases:

MUCH cleaner looking with the inserts.  :)


- I won first place in the jewelry category!! What a nice surprise. I'd submitted three pieces for judging, and this one won:

So a little "yay me". The blue ribbon was a nice attention-getter / conversation starter all weekend.

Now, the negatives:

- Foot traffic was exceptionally light, all three days. Most festivals are a numbers game; to make your necessary expenses and some profit, you have to have a LOT of potential customers coming to the event. Because what's the old phrase? "One yes for every seven no's"? I'd say it's more like every fifteen no's...so light foot traffic means it's that much harder to get to "yes" because you have a lot less customers to interact with in the first place.

- Apparently Ruidoso is where half of Texas goes to "summer" each year. Okay, I exaggerate a wee bit; Ruidoso, a town of (normally) 10,000, can't possibly accommodate half of TEXAS. But there were a LOT of Texans. And y'know what I found out about Texans? They have decided preferences. It *is* Texas, after all. This should surprise no one:

1. Bigger IS Better.

2. I Want My Bling

3. Bigger is Better, I Want My Bling, AND I don't want to "stand out" too much. I just want to "show off."

What that meant for me was:

1. The designs were too small. The newest pieces with the brightly colored stones got a lot of attention. But they were not bold enough for the Texas ladies.

2. The designs were not bling-y enough. I don't use faceted stones, I don't use crystals...see where I'm going with this? There was a jewelry booth at the end of my row, with very high end work - white gold, yellow gold, big fat blue topaz, tourmaline, etc. They had tons of customers all day long. It wasn't the most *creative* work...usually when working in gold the designs tend to be more conservative - but it WAS bling-y.

3. The designs were too weird. The mosaic metal pieces got a lot of attention, especially with the blue ribbon placed prominently next to my winning necklace, but I think they were a little too edgy for the crowd. Also, I'd run an ad in a local paper, and several people mentioned the ad. But what they said was, "Oh, I thought it would be BIGGER!".

*sigh*

Apparently - several exhibitors told  me - this show can totally tank in sales or it can be phenomenal. Unfortunately I can't afford to take the time / spend the money each year on that much of a gamble. I had a lot of expenses, coming all the way from Georgia, and the driving was hard on my body. So I won't be going back...but I now know that if I get into any Texas shows, I need a different product line.  :)

Additional positives (silver linings, kids!) were parts of the drive - I've said a million times how much I love the West, and driving through New Mexico was awesome. On my drive out, there were huge, huge stretches of land (for hours on end) that were just uninhabited. I love that wilderness; it makes me feel small (in a good way) and makes me so aware of the rest of the world. I drove through a lot of that space in silence, no phone, iPod off, working out things in my head. It was good for me.  :)

A lot of my NM driving looked like this. Except all flat; no mountains. This was closer to Ruidoso than, say...Clovis. :)

I also made a new friend. You know how you meet someone, and everything just clicks? That's exactly what happened with this girl. We had plenty of time to talk (unfortunately!) during the festival, and we went to dinner each night as well. It's amazing when you encounter someone who immediately "gets" you and you "get" them. Such an unexpected and wonderful bonus.

Also...being in New Mexico last weekend caused me to miss out on one of my staple gem shows, so I made a little side trip to Albuquerque, where one of my suppliers has a big warehouse. And I spend two hours picking out some new play toys.  :)  Here's just a little of what I purchased:

Turquoise pairs for earrings. I have quite a few turquoise pendants in my stock, but am low on earrings. The stones in the center are Peruvian opal, but the rest are turquoise.

I have the opposite situation with Larimar: lots of earring stones but few pendants. So these are a few of the pendant-sized stones I bought (The top two are for earrings; they had such a pretty pattern I couldn't resist).

More to come...I got some more fancy turquoise cuts and I'll show them to you soon, I promise. For now...more unpacking and a day of (mostly) resting after the long trip. Back into the studio tomorrow!  :)

Just a Quicke

I forgot that I was going to show you the pieces I finished before the Michigan festival!

Two Larimars and a turquoise:

This one was my favorite of the three. It sold the first day of the festival. One of the prettiest pieces of Larimar I've ever seen.

Lighthearted Necklace

Another gorgeous piece of Larimar...I pay a premium for these stones but they're so worth it. People who know about Larimar are so excited to find some, and people who don't know about it want to know. It's always a conversation starter.

This one is nice and thick, too - I did a minimal amount of embellishing because I really wanted the focus on this stone. Here's a side view:

It's got some heft to it.  :)

And last but not least, a lovely turquoise:

Reverie Necklace

In a color I like to call summer-sky blue.  :)

Who Loves Color??

It's a bold, beautiful, colorful spring for Blue Piranha:

Flowing Waters Pendant

I have been wanting to work with some of the beautiful larimar stones I've collected, and finally got a chance to last week. Larimar is a gorgeous sky blue stone found only in the Caribbean, which is where I was first introduced to it, on my honeymoon back in 2000. While considered reasonably priced on the islands (or at least it was when I was there; I think I paid $38 for a pair of Larimar earrings), it's a somewhat expensive export.

Eternal Sky Earrings

I never used it when I was working with beads, because it was quite pricey compared to other colored stone beads. And I have to have an open mind about buying it, because sometimes there's not much available and it's on the expensive side...and then sometimes I can catch a good price on it. But not often. So I usually have a small stock on hand, because I like to have at least one Larimar design available for art shows. It's always a conversation piece.

I've also been working with a little more turquoise:
 

Wilderness Pendant

All of these pieces are using the dot-and-line designs I'm playing around with. I'm liking the asymmetry of some of these pieces; it's fun to work out balanced designs for these pieces that aren't symmetrical. And I'm thinking of maybe wholesaling these in the future, assuming I can get access to stones that will work for a small wholesale line. It's tough to wholesale with colored stones, because they're almost all one of a a kind and so stores can't just reorder the same item if it sells...but if I can develop a "look" with the metal work and the colorful stones, I think it might work on a small scale. 

Here's the other pair of earrings I made last week:

No Time for Sorrow Earrings

I love the bigger size of these stones and the mixed elements on top. It took some time to get a balanced design with the jump ring not being exactly centered, but the final result was worth the effort.  :)

Natual Wonders: Larimar

I'm kind of surprised that I haven't written a post about Larimar before.It's not a well-known stone, but people who are familiar with it are mysteriously drawn to it. Every time I have a piece of it on display at a festival, it never fails to attract people who know and love the stone. Many of them have been to the Dominican Republic, which is the only place in the world it's found.

Named after the daughter of the man who discovered the stone (her name was Larissa) and the Spanish word for sea (mar), this stone has an interesting hue - it's a soft, sky blue unlike any other stone. The coloring comes from copper (like so many of the stones I love). I was first introduced to it in the Dominican Republic, on the island of St. Thomas during my honeymoon cruise. Brett bought an inexpensive pair of earrings for me as a souvenir. And had I known how UN-inexpensive it is anywhere else, I would have bought a lot more!

Larimar beads are pricey compared to any other semi-precious stone cut into bead form. Larimar cabochons tend on the higher side as well. I have to really search out "bargains" when I'm shopping. And like any stone, there are paler versions, more color-saturated versions, and some with a lot of inclusions. The deeper the blue color, the higher the price. And you know what I prefer...!

A quick snap of some recent larimar purchases:

Three medium-sized cabs. The one on the bottom came out a wee bit brighter than it actually is. The top two give you a good idea of what it usually looks like.

And a few that I've set:

Cloudgazer pendant

Uncharted Island pendant

Winding Path Pendant

 Bonus in the back!


And here's a bracelet I bought for myself, years before I knew how to fabricate jewelry - it wasn't inexpensive but it's one of my favorite pieces and really shows a range of the stone color.

And, like the Winding Path pendant, it's open-backed.

So now you 'know" another unusual (and beautiful) stone.  :)

Having a Day + Stone Preview

Woke up at 4:30 this morning, tried for thirty minutes to get back to sleep. No go - finally fell asleep again around 7 (which is when I was supposed to be getting up). So now I'm a little behind today's schedule...but I have goodies to share, hopefully by the day's end. I've set most of my stone pieces from last week and they just need a final polish (and chains / ear wires, and pricing...yada yada yada).

Here's the money shot:

Hoo boy! All that riotous color together makes me happilicious. :)  In generally un-random order, top to bottomish:

Pietersite, labradorite, amazonite, labradorite

Ocean jasper, turquoise, peru opal, turquoise

Chrysoprase, larimar, ocean jasper, labradorite, amazonite, peruvian opal.

I plan to make a few more pendants before the festival but I'm pretty much out of earring stone stock and won't have access to any more until after the festival, so if these sell in the meantime, so be it. But at least they're made.

It seems like it shouldn't have taken almost two weeks to get all these done, but as I've mentioned previously, not every day has been fully spent in the studio. But this week and next are pretty open so hopefully I can really crank up. And stone pieces take me waaaaay longer than almost anything else I make, so the rest of the work should go a little faster (at least, that's the plan).

I'll be individually listing these on etsy and on my web site throughout the week.

Now time for lunch and then more creative time.  :)

Roller Coaster..woo hoo hoo :)

I spent Wednesday working in my studio, beginning the game plan for the four day, Michigan show next month. I just found out that I will be exhibiting (I had been on the wait list), and I'm feeling simultaneously excited and maybe a little panicked. I need a lot of inventory. The first three days the show is open from 10-9 (uh, YEAH, you read that right) and the last day, 10-6. It's grueling and I need to have quite a bit of jewelry. So I hit the bench hard. My plan is to make the "tough" stuff - cab work and one of a kinds - early on, then switch to the less demanding items as the show date gets closer. Also, I am planning to use July and August to revamp my design aesthetic and push myself more to create more exciting jewelry...not that what I'm doing now isn't exciting. But I am really wanting to create some fabulous metalworked items.

So I spent seven hours in the studio Wednesday, ruined two pieces, redid one, and one was redone on Thursday. Right now I have a total of two earring designs and three pendant designs. Two of the pendants are not finished yet - no bails, no embellishments, and one earring had to be remade. It doesn't seem like quite enough...they all have to be cleaned up and polished and the stones set as well...!

Somewhere deep inside me the panic rumbles. 

I would have worked for at least another hour on Wednesday but my hands, neck, and shoulders hurt. By 6 pm they hurt enough that I knew to stop for the night. And then I couldn't sleep. Just laid in bed, simultaneously exhilarated and exhausted. Wanting to push, wanting to run, but knowing it would have to wait.

Quick snap of the pieces from Wednesday. Upper row are two pendants. Bottom row are two earrings (not a pair, just one of each) and another pendant. 

Thursday was an afternoon full of appointments and errands, so I knocked off two hours worth of work in the early morning. Redid the ruined earring, added embellishments and a bail to one pendant. Now to figure out what embellishments I want on the third pendant. I had a plan, but as often seems to happen, it shifts in the time between sketch and fabrication work. And a new plan takes time to develop.

Here are the stones as well - upper level left to right, Pietersite and Larimar. Lower level Peruvian opal, ocean jasper, and a yummy boulder turquoise. 

Now it's Friday afternoon and I had jewelry class this morning (I signed up for another ten weeks at the Spruill Center, so I'm working through a few hours this afternoon. I really enjoy the jewelry classes but each week they cut one of my work days in half, so I have to manage my time well when I'm taking classes.

The week's schedule and studio time:

Monday - got home from Nashville at 1:30 a.m. Slept in until about nine, napped on the couch, dinked around the house a bit. NOT a work day. But after nearly three weeks straight of work and travel, I don't feel guilty about it.  :)

Tuesday - exercise. Unload car. Two loads of laundry. A couple of hours with the sketchbook and my stones, detailing out designs. Online research. Grocery store run.

Wednesday - exercise. Then all studio, all day.

Thursday - exercise. Two hours in studio. Ran errands and had meetings in afternoon. Dinner out with husband.

Friday - jewelry class. So far, almost two hours in studio and a few more to go before an evening appointment tonight.

Saturday...yeah, I'll probably be working a bit tomorrow. My husband has a BIG golf day planned, so I can steal a little of our "couple time" since he isn't here for it anyway. And I need the studio hours, as this week's hours so far are a measly 11.5 (probably 14 hours by the end of today). That's not much!

Life seems simultaneously exciting and a bit stressful. If I had time, I'd put some Yoga on the schedule (and yes, I know how kind of oxymoronic that last statement is).  :)

Gratification

Last weekend was a milestone for me. I exhibited at a festival in Nashville, TN....as a full-on metal girl. Though I've been fabricating / metalsmithing regularly since late 2009, I have been straddling the fence. I still brought my suede lariats, my less expensive bead-y creations, with me to festivals. But this was the first show I juried into with my new photos - all metalwork - and I felt obligated to show up with nothing less than...just my metal work.

(down and dirty cellphone shot of my booth in Nashville). I had a lot of room because the people to the right of me never showed and the people to left of me skedaddled on Saturday night.

And I learned a LOT from this:

- First, I barely had enough inventory. I have been selling through my previous cast work because I want to go in a new direction, but don't have new cast pieces yet. So I was pretty low on production stock. And because the stone-set items take longer, and I'd just been through the Virginia-Highlands show in Atlanta, and then off to Chicago to help a friend with her show..I was a bit light on my one of a kind pieces.

- Second, it was surprising and impressive to watch the customer behavior when I didn't have the lower-priced bead-y pieces...I ended up selling more of the higher priced work. At this festival I sold six cabochon items, where at previous shows this year I sold maybe one or two. It was like I'd bumped myself up in the customer's expectations and they weren't looking for lower priced items from me. And that felt very, very validating.

- Third, I'd better get my butt in gear because I want to do more of this going forward! But I think it will be impossible to do as many festivals as I do with only one of a kind pieces. The design time, the fabrication time, the finishing time all take longer. And there's only one me to get it all done (at least right now). So I need to work on new stone designs AND really get the new cast masters created and in the production process. My next show is a month away and that's not a lot of time!

Here are the pieces that sold this weekend:

The "To the Top" charoite pendant (to a gentleman who actually knew what charoite was just by looking at it) and this new piece:

of Russian lacquerwork. Both sold to the same customer and his wife. They loved the Russian connection.  :)

Also:

"Uncharted Island", a larimar pendant. To a sweet couple on Sunday.  ;)

And:

My second pair of earrings, also Peruvian opal. I think I should have bought more of these earring-sized stones!

And both of my contrast-y pieces:

Peruvian opal (top) and turquoise

What I loved is that each person really connected with the pieces...even when they didn't know the story behind the designs. I have been wanting to do this kind of work since I began jewelry design...and it was very rewarding to feel like I am (finally!) getting there. Mwah! Nashville, you made my weekend! I look forward to seeing you all again next year!