Farmer's Market Preview !!

 This Saturday is going to be a amazing day at Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market!  First of all, I"m there, in my normal wonderful spot on the south side of 4th street, across the street from Hy-Vee. 

Second, so far ( knock on wood) the weather promises to be very nice.. not so damn hot and low chances of rain. 

Third, I actually got my butt in gear the last couple of weeks and I've got some great new pieces to share!  You can see just *some* of the earrings I got done in the top pic.  I think my favorites this time around are the copper brass with watch face and pearls.  The drop pearls I used are actually vintage unused plastic ... I know I don't normally use plastic but they are so cute and vintage, so I"ll make an exception for them.   I only had 6 of them, which worked out perfect for these earrings!  I love the vintage watch faces with dragonflies and  purple drop crystals.. those are glass and they are vintage as well. 

 I finally got my Kitty-Fairy done! I've been working on this off and on for months.  I just kept hitting a road block on where I wanted to go with this.. I finally realized I was over-thinking it.  I kept wanting to make it bigger than it is, but it's Practically Perfect just this way ( Mary Poppins anyone??)

It's a lovely group shot showing *most* of the necklaces I made the last few weeks.  Look guys, I got the camera guy done!! I'll blog about it  soon... all pieces in this group have vintage bits -- I had so much fun pulling these pieces together!


So Come down to Farmer's Market   Saturday, Downtown Des Moines, 7-12pm and enjoy the weather, food, fun and art!

Happy Father's Day Dad

Dad, Uncle Tom, Aunt Neva, Mom

 I miss you, more than I ever imagine I could. 

Bracelets

 Not feeling words today, so here are pictures of recently made bracelets. 

Blue is my favorite color

Vintage clock gears with part of a blue broach added on 

If you are a fan of my jewelry, you have probably figured out my favorite color is blue. 

Not that I dislike any color -- even orange has it's place.

I love purples and reds and greens ... but blue is the top.  Sometimes I like light blues, or the aquas and the turquoises and capri's, but my favorite of favorites is Cobalt.

Cobalt is a color made for glass and crystal.  You don't find textiles with cobalt, because to really get that dept of blue you need the reflective qualities of glass.  In fabric and other items, it sort of gets muddied up or it's royal blue rather than a true cobalt.  (IMHO)

I'm not alone in my love affair with blue -- you can find beads that are over 4000 years old that are blue.  A survey of color favorites in the US has blue on top by a wide margin.  Even worldwide blue edges out the other colors. 

So what's your favorite color? 



 

What's on my desk this week

Here's my starting pile for this week.. a mix of big and small necklaces, a few bracelets and earrings, even a chainmaile piece.

So I don't have a show until June 23rd when I once again get to have fun at Farmer's Market   When I get breaks like this it's wonderful cause I might be able to actually look at some larger projects.


One of those is my camera piece, which I have worked on and off for weeks now.  I really really really want to get it done! 

Before I started on the camera 

 I'm getting close.. all the pieces have been decided on and I've started to add them on in the proper order .    Below is my rough mock up.  notice the eye in the lens , the key in the open hole  (and I believe I've worked it out so it will turn freely in place ) Inside of the little brown fairy I know have a fairy face.  Since it's a Kodak/brownie movie camera (8mm probably 50's ?) I thought it would be cute to have a fairy stand in for a "brownie" even though in folklore they are not the same thing.  

If you look in the top picture, you can see the "wings" are already screwed/riveted to the back piece.  I've got the fairy attached.. now it's just sandwiching both pieces together and I'll be done.  

Nothing is actually attached yet, it's all pinned into place while I figure out if this is the design I want 

I'm going to make another octopus bracelet as that went very well.  The light socket ( which is from a 1950's singer sewing machine ) I'm thinking lots of crystals to glam it up.

I have about 12 projects total represented in this pile.  So that's what's on my desk right now.

For 5 minutes I dreamed about retiring early.....

Vintage Coin Bracelets

Occasionally at the Day job they offer incentives for "early retirement"

I've never really seriously considered it because who can afford it? But today when it came up I actually did... maybe because I'll be 50 this year.  Not that I think 50 is old... I'm proud I'm still breathing!  I had close encounters with dying as a child so honestly I try to remember it's all gravy at this point. 

Funny thing is, I don't really mind what I do at work, and the people I work with can't be beat.  For where I live the money and bennies are excellent.

But as always it comes down to time for me.

How much happier could I be if I had time to do everything I wanted to do?  If I didn't have to spend time to make a living?  Right or wrong, that's what retiring from the day-job means to me. 

Maybe my house would stay clean without complaint or resentment on my part :)

I imagine a well kept, maybe smaller house for me and Jerry to putter around in.  It would still have enough room in it for his gaming and my jewelry making.  Maybe we would still do a few shows a year, but mostly I would try the gallery route or maybe even wholesale to boutiques.  I could work on jewelry everyday if I wanted ... or take a week off to read books if I wanted.   I could have time to really cook again.

 We could travel from time to time, long and short trips when the mood strikes us.  We would spend evenings together.. something I miss greatly right now since I'm dayshift and he's evening.  I imagine we would only have a few bills -- house, car, student loans etc would be paid off.  I hope our health is OK, but honestly since that's a struggle for me now, at 49 .....

I realize that retirement doesn't really mean that- at least not anymore for most folks.  But it sounds really nice doesn't it?