New jewelry in the shop

There's some new stuff in the shop this week, with more to come. I really like this batch, if I do say so myself. (in fact, there are a couple of necklaces I haven't been able to bring myself to list yet because I find the thought of sending them away a little hard to handle.) I wouldn't go so far as to call it a collection, but there's a cohesive spirit to the group. It's a little girlie, kind of quirky, casual but glam. I lucked into a stash of old chandelier pieces, which are rather fantastic. And I love the red chain that shows up in a few pieces.

Also, while I would love to sell out of these for my own selfish money-grubbing and ego-stroking reasons, I'm going to be donating 25% of the proceeds of sales from the shop until Sept. 12 to my friend and craft-industry superstar Kim Werker's fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research, which you can read about here, and would really, really love to send her as much money as possible.

The shop is here, and either does or soon will contain all of these things and more:

Quick announcement

I've listed some things in the shop, and will be continuing to update over the next week or so.

As a thank you for indulging my self-serving post, here are some flowers!

Jewelry preview

This weekend, I got out my jewelry-making supplies for the first time in far too long, and spent a few hours each morning playing around and making stuff. There are a couple of pieces in this batch that I really love and I'll be getting everything up on etsy in the next day or so.

Here's a sneak peek though:
I'm not using this photo for this reason, but I'm pretty amused by how much is reflected on the surface of the table.
This is from a cache of vintage chandelier pieces I lucked into a few months ago. They're a little heavy, but oh so sparkly!

An old back injury (from a car accident in 2000) has been giving me trouble for the last week or so, but luckily, one of the few things that really help with it is taking long walks. So I spent a fair bit of time perambulating all over the place, including a couple of hours at Green-Wood, where the light was beautiful and the wildflowers were rampant and even the mold was striking.

In which I declare that I have an etsy shop

I do. It's here.

I had been holding off announcing it until I polished every nook and cranny (still haven't written a bio or figured out how to make the banner thing have both words and a photo), but if I wait until the site is absolutely right before I tell anyone about it, it'll never happen. I wholeheartedly believe that the perfect is the enemy of the good (which, seriously, if I were ever going to embroider a saying onto a pillow, that would be the one), and letting people know about it is a good way of keeping my momentum going so that I make a point of finishing the remaining site stuff I want to do.

I've had a lot of fun with the whole endeavor so far, thinking about what I want the pieces to look like, sourcing the chains and all of the vintage bits and bobs that go into them, actually making the stuff, taking photos, writing the copy and coming up with names, thinking about packaging... My overarching theme is What I Like. So, there's nothing in there that I wouldn't wear myself (in case no one ever buys anything ;)), and everything is priced to be impulse-purchase friendly. I know that I don't like to spend more than $25 on jewelry I haven't seen in person, and I'm not interested in shlock. So, nothing is more than $25 at this point and it's good-quality stuff, both the components and the finished goods.

I feel like a colossal dork announcing a commercial enterprise like this, but realize that I have to get over that if I want to make a go of this as a wee business. So, please check it out if you're so inclined and thank you for your attention. [curtsy]

Ready for their close-up

I spent a lot of the afternoon today taking jewelry pictures. (And making somewhat unsuccessful quince caramels — I cooked them too long and made hard candy that tastes pretty good, though nothing at all like quince.) These are some of my favorite detail shots.

I love fall.

Ginkgo leaves are one of my tiny, secret happinesses. I love their graceful shape and the contrast of their glowing November yellow against grey skies, buildings, sidewalks. The last few days, they've been everywhere and I haven't been able to resist picking up a few and tucking them in the capacious pockets of my Great-Uncle Steve's army jacket every time I pass a drift. They're secured with sewing pins to the wall above my work table, like exotic beetle specimens laid out in a case, and for the few fleeting moments before they shrivel into dessication, they're glorious.
Speaking of my work table, it's covered in jewelry supplies these days because I AM READY to have that business up and running. The etsy site is set up, other than me posting that artist statement whozeewhatsis (which: HARD), I've scoped out some local shops to approach and I'm having a blast making stuff. I just need to photograph everything on a human, which is planned for this weekend, and I'll be ready to go.

One thing I've learned about myself over the years is that this time of year is a good for starting long-term projects. I lay dormant creatively when it's warm out and sort of think about what I would like to have going on in my life if only it weren't too hot to live. I mean, I guess I still do plenty of stuff, but it's only once the chill sets in that my head clears and my energy level surges and I'm motivated to actually make new stuff happen.

Also good about this time of year: wearing handknits. (I'm wearing this right now.) These are a couple of things I've worn recently that I knit a few years ago, probably in the 2003-2005 era, but it could have been earlier for each of them.
This is the Stone Walls Vest from Folk Knits, knit in my handspun Romney/something (alpaca maybe?)/glitz from Fantom Farm, which doesn't seem to have a web presence. I don't wear a lot of vests, but this book has some good ones.
And this is the Triangle Sweater from Interweave Knits, Fall 2000. This was a lot of fun to knit, as I recall, because you cast on at the lower edge of the back (I think) and work your way over the shoulders and down the front using short rows to make alternating triangles of stockinette and reverse stockinette. It sounds complicated, but isn't. I followed the directions blindly and ended up with a sweater. The yarn is some coned cashmere boucle I found in a dusty cardboard box under a table at School Products in 2002 or so. This sweater is incredibly comfortable, as huge cashmere sacks tend to be, but too warm to wear indoors very much. Since the heat hasn't been on at the office this week though, it came in really handy yesterday.