Upcoming shows....

I just updated my website
so now all of my shows through October are showing. Wow! Boy I'm busy, almost every weekend is full!! I still have room for home or office parties though, so if you are in the Des Moines Area, let me know if you are interested in your very own art show in your living room! You invite a bunch of friends, serve wine and crackers, I bring the art jewelry. You get free jewelry as your hostess gift. The more you invite, the more I sell, and the more free jewelry you get.

My mercenary tendencies aside, home parties can really be fun, and a great way to spend an evening with your friends.

Ok, this post's pictures: all feature sterling silver wire. First one is a mystery jasper trapped in wire netting.

Blue Adventurine directly below is doing a fair impression of nautilus, which is what I was thinking of at the time.
Last is another in my series of wire and colored crystals, this time in a fun free form squiggly shape.

West Glen Tomorrow, and you can find my Jewelry at a new location!

Wow! it's been a busy few days! I've been gearing up for my very first West Glen farmer's Market tomorrow ( I should be more or less in front of the frame store) and I got a call from JoAnne at The Art Store.
you see they recently started to feature jewelry artists' work on a rotational basis, and they wanted me as one of the artist! (YEAH!) Originally my work wouldn't be in the store for another couple of weeks, but my case came available 2 weeks early. JoAnne wanted to know if I could bring my stuff in now, instead of 2 weeks. EEP!
I had to think about it... I've ordered new earrings cards specifically for my gallery representations, and I was going to order some new displays. I don't have the new cards yet, and I'd not placed the display order. They wanted me to come in Fri afternoon, which was less than 24 hours from the time of her call!!
After considering it, I decided I would try, warning Jo Anne that I might not be able to get a full display going yet, since it was such short notice.
I stayed up rather late picking out jewelry for the store, tagging it with the Art Store's codes, picking out the displays from what I had, without shorting my booth setup. I did a quick side trip to Hobby Lobby to get special back-drop fabric.
I'm very proud of myself, I got 58 pieces ready to go! So here is how my jewelry display looks: I am hoping to tweak it as I get the cards and possibly new displays in. Stop by and check it out... and of course, stop by tomorrow at West Glen 10-2pm and say Hi in person!

Getting ready for Farmer's Market at West Glen and the Big show downtown!

This pendant is made using a huge Chinese crystal and sterling wire. It's a lovely shade of pink, hard to tell in this photo!
This weekend I'll be at West Glen Farmer's Market
10-2pm. I'm really excited!! This will be the first time I've been at this farmer's market! I've heard really good things about it, so fingers are crossed for good weather and crowds and I can't wait! This is a busy week for me personally and for Des Moines in General. If you are in town, are you hitting the big downtown arts' festival? I hope to at some point, and I love the slogan this year! "get your art on"
I sooo want the t-shirt or the Bag!!

One of my favorite parts of the art festival is the Emerging Artist section, which features only Iowa artists. Lots of photography this year, which I find very interesting. It's good that the festival gives back to local artists this way! If you stop by there, you might as well hit what used to be called "the other art show" but now is called ArtFest Midwest. There is more Iowa talent at this show, it's in air-conditioning at the state fair grounds, and they have the best darn hot mini-chocolate chip cookies in the concession area. They also have shuttles running between this show and the Downtown one, and they are free! So Sat head out to the West Glen Farmer's Market, say hi to me, then hit the art shows and eat a cookie in my honor.


This lariat is made with fresh water pearls and sterling silver. it's 3 feet long, and can be worn in several different ways! Pearls go with everything!

Bowl in progress...

This is my Bowl in progress. I'll get a finished pic soon, I cooked it Thurs night, and it turned out great! this is the "inside part" where I did frit decoration. the flip side or "outside" is lovely blue streaky colors. the glass is in 96.

introducing the newest family members.......

aren't they cute? The top kitten is Kya, Jesscera's birthday present, and the bottom kitten is Kasanova, My birthday present. This picture was taken today, and they are 8 days old, and just opening their eyes! They won't join the family officially yet, as they still need mommie's tender loving care for at least 7 more weeks. We are looking at getting them in early August.. I can't wait!!! I'm sure that our other fur balls Jezzibel and Jupiter will love them, at least eventually. Originally we weren't going to get any more cats after Kisa passed away last year (Feb 2009) but it's been long enough, and when my friend Tammy posted pics of the kittens, Jesscera and I just had to have one.. or in the case two. Cats should always come in pairs. That way they don't get lonely! And it's kind of nice having another boy/girl pair. After they come home, we will get them fixed, as while I love kittens, 4 cats in the house is plenty. I'll post more pics as I get them.

busy replacing tags.. still...

I'm afraid most of this week has been cleaning, retaging and repacking jewelry and displays from the rain last weekend. I'm done with displays ( I was able to save them all, and no stinky icky mildew smells, yeah!) and about half way through the jewelry. I've had to replace EVERY earring and pendant card.. hopefully I'll get this finished tomorrow night. the upshot is I've not made any jewelry this week.. I've only set up 1 glass load, I made my 2ND bowl! yeah! I'll get a pic up soon. Here is the glass load from last weekend. Some of these turned out so great, I can't wait to wrap them! This one is my favorite.. it's got gold, pink, teal, green, and orange tones glowing inside, and light purple stripes on top in a clear coat. I don't think the pic does justice! Maybe I'll have time to wrap this this weekend after my show Sat (Art Store parking lot, 10-5pm ) If you are in the Des Moines Area, stop by!

I made the paper!!!!!!!

I'm so jazzed, I'm one of the 3 featured artists in the life section of the Des Moines Register today! you can see it here, at least for the next 30 days!

Not the best farmer's market ever, or how to turn a negative into a positive

Well Drat. It rained so hard this morning at Downtown Farmer's Market they actually canceled it. In the 6 years I've participated in farmer's Market, they have canceled it exactly once before to my knowledge. That was in 2008, when the downtown area was flooded by the Des Moines river. I got up at 5am in the morning, got to the market at 6am, set up from 6-7ish while being rained on, and then about 720am it started to REALLY rain. And it got Windy. Jerry and I spent the next 1-1/2 hours holding the tent town, and catching jewelry and my inventory got flung around by the wind. it's amazing how aerodynamic jewelry displays are. Those suckers can really rack up the hang time! Then the police came by and said to pack it up.. they were closing the market early because of the lighting. Did I mention the lighting?

Packing up early is all well and good.. except despite our best efforts we were soaked, my jewelry was soaked, the displays where soaked. Jerry and I were standing in about 4 inches of water ( I wrung water out of my soaks when we got home.. ugh!) as the street drains couldn't keep up with the water level.

So we got home wet, and discouraged. We brought in all the displays and jewelry and such and started to clean up and dry everything. Right now all my jewelry displays are laid out on my dining room table drying. Most jewelry displays are thick cardboard with something over them. I think a couple are past redemption, but most of them are drying nicely. My jewelry is spread out all over my studio floor, drying out. It's all OK, my jewelry is durable, but the hang tags are not. I'll probably spend most of the following week re-tagging most everything.

Worst issue is my tools. I always carry a nice selection of my tools, and they got soaked also. Tools and moisture do not mix.

Since I needed to dry them out I decided to make the best of a damp situation, and do a full on out tool maintenance session.

Most pliers will rust over time, and you sand down the rust, and then oil them to protect the metal. it's a good idea-- at least if you are a jewelry artist -- to periodically sand/steel wool your tools and then oil them. Especially as a wire wrapper, most of my pliers I've lightly sanded the edges down anyway, to reduce tool marks.

So now all of my pliers and a few of my hammers have been sanded down ( I use 1000 grit for tool cleaning, unless one of them is really bad) and had the joints oiled. Then I rub oil over all the metal surfaces of the tools, and then wipe most of it back off.

The 2 pendants pictured are fused glass and sterling wire.

Farmer's Market this Saturday!

Gearing up for farmer's market this weekend (7-12, downtown Des Moines, the BIG one!). I need to make more rings, and more magnets.. cause I have a coupon on magnets this Sat. only! You can check out my coupon at the Farmer's Market site (along with directions and other vendors.. if you haven't been before or for awhile, come down this weekend!)

With coupon in hand, you can either pick out a TOTALLY free magnet made by me, with fused glass, or you can get $10.00 off a purchase of $25.00 or more. This is sort of an experiment. I have maybe 50 magnets made up right now.... so I bunches of people show up with a coupon and either buys a magnet or uses the discount to buy something .. maybe one of my fused glass pendants, and then I can make more fuse glass pieces!!! Now that would be totally kewl... an excuse to make more glass. Well, ok, I guess I'm gonna do that anyway, but it would be good to have an excuse!! LOL

I haven't had earrings on the blog for a while....

First up, sterling silver sheet cut in vague moon type shapes, then hammered and bent every which way with pliers. Then polished liked crazy... these babies gleam!!
Next up, vintage crystals paired with vintage chandelier parts makes for a very dangle-ly, sparkly treat!
Last it's pearl time. Stick pearls combined with MOP flower shapes with more pearls as accents on them.

All three earrings have major dangle factor... they swing and sway under your ears!!

This Saturday is Downtown Farmer's Market . Stop by and say hi, I'm usually on 2ND street by Uncle Wendell's BBQ ( but not always... I go where they tell me to go!) See ya there!

More Pins....

I've been on a real pin kick the last few months. Here are 3 new copper pins.. 2 of them with sterling wire as an accent. The bottom pin has a blue lace agate attached to it. If you would like to see these in person, I'll be in Omaha this weekend at the CountrySide Art Show.