April Blog Carnival - Comfort Zones

It's blog carnival time at the Jewelry Artisans Community again!  This month we are writing about comfort zones.

When I think of comfort zones, what comes to my mind is trying something new to stretch my wings and grow as an artist and/or as a person.  It may make me uncomfortable to step outside of my comfort zone, but doing so benefits me in ways too numerous to count by building confidence, developing new skills and boosting self esteem.

I paint miniature paintings and turn them into pendants for my jewelry designs.  Part of this includes a long involved process to seal the paintings in order to protect them and to achieve a beautiful, smooth shiny finish that feels like running one's fingers over glass.  It's extremely time consuming and labor intensive.

For quite some time, I've been trying to come up with a more efficient way to finish my pendants and one day thought about using resin.  Resin is a liquid material that once poured over the surface of the object being sealed dries to a clear, glossy, hard finish that stands up well to hard use and is cured in a few days.  There are downsides to it as well.  It must be measured and mixed correctly in order to harden properly, bubbles can form in the finish and it must not be disturbed while drying. 

While researching resin, I thought things like "don't want to mix", "bubbles could ruin my paintings", "too much to learn", "too hard", "too much trouble" and so on.  All very self defeating thoughts.  But, then I thought why not give it a try.  If other people have learned how to use resin, I could too.  After finally deciding to go ahead, I purchased some resin and practiced with items I didn't care about ruining.

The first few attempts were pretty bad.  Really bad, actually.  But, I could see the potential.  Now instead of thinking up reasons why this was a bad idea, I was excited about the possibilities and learning how to make it work.  After a few sessions, I finally achieved results that I was really proud of.  I have so many ideas right now that I'm pretty sure they won't all be accomplished in this lifetime, but I am so enjoying the journey and I'm so glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone!

"Owl Eyes"

"Elephant Walk"

Another example of stepping outside my comfort zone came just a few weeks ago.  My husband was on a business trip in San Diego and invited me to join him.  Great!  Except he was busy during the day and I was on my own.  I'm not familiar with San Diego and realized I had two choices:  stay in the hotel room all day or get out and explore.  So, I got a map, did some internet research about local attractions, rented a car and off I went.  I'll admit I was nervous at first, but the more I did the more comfortable I became.

I started out driving around the area where we were staying and didn't stray more than a few blocks at first.  It wasn't long before I'd shopped at every thrift store within 20 miles, hit the malls, driven over the Coronado Bridge to Coronado Island, taken the ferry to Coronado Island, gone to the beach and toured the Maritime Museum. 

Coronado Bridge

Coronado Island Ferry

I also walked for miles along the shore taking photos of wildlife and pretty much anything that caught my interest.  Some of these photos will be used to paint future pendants.

 

As I successfully accomplished each adventure, another layer of confidence was achieved and it felt good.  Driving on the freeway and across the Coronado Bridge without mishap made my day.  Finding the dock where the ferry launches and learning how it all worked made me stand a bit taller.  Ordering a delicious lunch and an ice cold locally made artisan beer  while enjoying the view of the bay was a wonderful experience.  My solo exploration of San Diego left me feeling so glad that I stepped outside of my comfort zone!

Getting outside of our comfort zones is probably one of the most important things we can do for ourselves.  It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's something we've wanted to try, but have hesitated to do for some reason.  It's such a good feeling to take that first step and realize just how capable we really are which encourages us to try more new things.  It doesn't have to be huge - it could be something as simple as trying a new food or attending a ballet, as brave as public speaking or as exhilarating as skydiving.  Perhaps fear of dealing with the public could be overcome by selling jewelry at a craft fair or opening on online store.  The possibilities are endless.

Take one small step to move outside your comfort zone; you'll be glad you did!  Even if it's not a total success, just knowing that you tried will bring a great deal of satisfaction and the desire to try again.

To see what other members of the Jewelry Artisans Community have to say about comfort zones, please click on the links below.

Echoes of Ella

Ponder the Cat

Cat's Wire

JAC March Challenge - Top O the Morning!

Each month members of the Jewelry Artisans Community participate in a monthly challenge in order to, well, challenge ourselves and our skills.  Taking ourselves out of our comfort zones and working in unfamiliar areas makes us better craftspeople and artists.  It also opens our minds to new techniques and ideas that we can put to use in future jewelry designs.  Plus, it's fun!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, JAC members were challenged to make something associated with this holiday and/or the Irish. It could be something green, involve shamrocks, leprechauns, a pot of gold or a rainbow - anything that symbolized St. Patrick's Day or Ireland.

As usual, our members did not disappoint.

From Caroline of The Crafty Chimp we had this beaded bracelet that is not only green, but that also has a Celtic feel.  Simply lovely!

Caroline also shared this absolutely stunning beaded/ decoupage box -  is there no end to this girl's talents?

Carina of Violetmoon's Corner entered this fabulous necklace and earrings set.  Carina used a bezel paint called Pebeo Prisma Fantasy to achieve the color and texture in her focals and I have to say that I love the look.

From Cat of Cat's Wire, we were treated to these charming, whimsical beaded shamrock earrings.  Perfect for St. Patrick's Day!  I always look forward to Cat's entries.

Michele of MC Stoneworks created these green crystal and silver shamrock earrings.  They are so elegant and sophisticated - the crystals were a perfect touch.

My own entry from Jewelry Art by Dawn was this odd shaped dalmation stone that has been dyed green and wrapped in oxidized copper wire.  It was then suspended from a hand made copper chain.

Another successful monthly challenge has been completed and a great job was done by all!

March Blog Carnival - Spring Cleaning

The topic for the Jewelry Artisans Community March Blog Carnival is "Spring Cleaning".  This is a timely topic for me as I recently wrote about my new studio, a room I'm very proud of and have found that I love to spend time in creating jewelry.

My old work space was a corner of my husband's office and consisted of a 3' x 3' drafting table and a 3' x 1' shelving unit.  When I first started making jewelry, this space was more than adequate, but as I accumulated more tools, beads and supplies I began to outgrow my space and it was becoming difficult to keep it tidy and organized.  I'm not a fanatic about having things clean and neat, but I find that my mind functions better when it's not surrounded by chaos.

Moving into my new studio was the perfect opportunity to sort, toss and organize those tools, beads and supplies mentioned earlier.  I was amazed at the things I found while going through all of the accumulated stuff that I'd forgotten I had.  It was liking meeting old friends that had drifted away over the years.

It took me away from making jewelry, but I spent an entire day going through everything, filled a large trash can, sorted my collection of bead soup (that is the container that we jewelry makers throw beads that are leftover from projects in rather than putting them back where they belong) and put like things together.  All of my beads are now in plastic containers with lids, the tools are all together in a drawer, chain and cord has it's own area and the components have a new home. 

My former space had become so bad, that I found myself avoiding it because it was such a mess that it completely killed creativity.  This new, clean organized space is a joy to work in and I feel like I've been possessed by a level of creativity I haven't experienced in a very long time.  There is still more organization to be done, but it's close to how I would like it to be.  My goal now is to clean up after every project and put things away.  So far, so good!

To read what other participants of the Jewelry Artisans Community have to say about Spring Cleaning, please click on the links below.

Bead Sophisticate

The Crafty Chimp

Cat's Wire

JAC March Jewelry Artist of the Month

As an active member of the Jewelry Artisans Community, an online forum that encourages, supports and shares information with artisans who make hand crafted jewelry, I am surrounded by amazing jewelry artists.  The scope of their work includes metalsmithing, wire wrapping, chainmaille, sculpting with polymer clay, working with itty bitty seed beads and beyond.  They are an extremely talented group of people and it is an honor to be associated with them.  It is because of their talent that I have been inspired to share their work by featuring one of them each month on this blog.

The first jewelry artist to be featured in this new series is Carina of Violetmoon's Corner.

I asked Carina several questions and this is what she had to say:

What type of training/education have you had in making and designing jewelry?

I have never taken any classes. I was inspired and encouraged to try what I'm doing now by the work of other artists. In my country there have been little to no workshops or classes. Everything I wanted to learn I had to collect from the Internet. So far this has been fine; I design my jewelry trying to follow my friends' and other artists' advice, and mostly I succeed with the first tries. If not, I keep going until I am successful. Now I learn everything from the internet, mainly youtube tutorials or I learned from watching a design and trying to make it myself. 

What are your favorite jewelry making techniques?

JAC February Challenge - Finish It

The February challenge for the jewelry artists at the Jewelry Artisans Community  was to finish one of their works in progress (WIP).  Anyone who makes jewelry has a box, drawer, tub or bag full of unfinished pieces.  We mean to finish them, but they get set aside for various reasons.  We may not have all of the materials we need to finish, run into a design/execution problem that needs to be solved, get busy with something that becomes more of a priority or just decide to move on to another project.  They are then relegated to a drawer, corner of a closet or the back of a shelf until such time as we stumble upon them again and they make us feel guilty again.

Here are the results of the Finish It challenge:

Cat of Cat's Wire chose to transform this stunning WIP into a brooch after coming across it in her WIP drawer.  It is a slice of dyed agate and Cat had already made its wire knit bezel, but wasn't sure where to go from there.  Finding herself in a dangly mood the last few weeks, she added crystals in tanzanite and pink and a faceted amethyst in a knitted bezel from darker golden wire for some contrast.

When I first saw it, I couldn't believe that such a beautiful creation ended up in Cat's WIP drawer.  My goodness!

Violetmoon's Carina finished a different kind of project but it is still jewelry related.  Carina uses an old printer's cabinet to store her beads and wanted to replace the existing drawer pulls.

 After years of looking, Carina finally found some pulls she liked and installed them.

 Of course, they didn't fit the existing holes, so she had to drill 20 new holes after removing the 40 existing wooden knobs.  Looks great, Carina!

My "Finish It" challenge involved this copper wire, red coral and turquoise pendant that I made a few months ago.  It started out as a pendant, but it never seemed quite right.  I came across it while trying to decide what to finish for the challenge and it told me that it wanted to be a bracelet.  Why didn't I think of that!?

I hope you enjoyed seeing the February challenge results.  The participants always rise to the challenge!

Painting the Studio - Final Installment

Time for the unveiling, the studio is pretty much finished and I can't wait to actually work in that room!

I'm especially pleased that except for buying paint and painting supplies, no money has been spent to create this room. Everything is either recycled, upcycled or refurbished and stuff we already had sitting around taking up space. Now that my jewelry making supplies have been moved into this room, hubby's office no longer looks like a tornado went through, so he's got his space back too.

These pictures go around the room to the right starting with the door:

 

 

Things left to do are to deal with that pile of stuff in the corner next to the trunk, put a coat of varnish on the two yardsticks leaning against the wall by the file cabinet and screw them to the front edge of the work bench, finish cleaning up the lamps, find some lamp shades, put them on each end of the table and to find a nice stool to sit in. A chair won't work because the table is mounted too high, so it's going to be a bar stool instead.

After that, it'll be little things like hang art/photos on the walls, baskets, glass containers and whatever else appeals to me.  I'm going to take my time with these finishing touches because I want to be surrounded by things I really love. 

Painting the Studio - Part 3

Reduce, reuse, recycle.  That simple phrase was my mantra while creating my new studio.

There were perfectly good things being stored in the shed and garage and rather than buy all new stuff, I decided to re-purpose what I already had.  Doing so is good for the environment, good for the landfills and good for my wallet. 

Before I do the new studio reveal (it looks so cool!), I thought I'd share a couple of the the items that have found new life in the studio.

Because there is a heater attached to one of the walls in this room, I can't put any furniture against it.  That wall was  a lot of space that could go to waste and I needed  a work bench for creating jewelry art.  There was a narrow door (24 inches wide) in the garage that had been replaced by a new door during a remodeling project.   With a little work, it had the potential to be a great work table.

Where the hinges and latch had been were filled with wood putty:

After the putty dried, it was sanded smooth:

When the sanding was finished, I painted both sides of the door in Smoky Mountain Spring blue and the edges of the door in Rue Bourbon brown.

Heavy duty brackets were screwed into the wall studs:

 And, the door was screwed to the brackets for stability. I plan to use the hole where the doorknob was to tame the electrical cords attached to two lamps that will be placed on the table after their facelift is complete. 

Note how the heater is under the table - my feet will be warm and toasty when I'm working.

The studio needed storage for my beads, components, tools, paint, wire and all the other things I've accumulated over the years.   There were two metal shelving units (one I'd been using and the other was in the shed) that would serve my purpose, but they desperately needed work.  To start with they were a horribly boring shade of beige.  They were also dirty and both had spots of rust.

 First I cleaned them up with soap and water:

The rust spots were removed with a Dremel tool and a lot of elbow grease and sandpaper in the spots the Dremel didn't reach.  Tedious work for sure!

Next they were spray painted in burgandy satin.   It took several coats of paint to cover the beige:

 

Lookin' good!

All done and like brand new:

Next up, the big reveal - so exciting!