Piece a Week #3: Creating Peace

I can not work in chaos. I get frustrated and grumpy. Too bad I don't have a before picture of the workbench. Trust me -  it was piled with...stuff. The bench was a confused multitude of things. I needed to get rid of the excess.

After we expanded the entire studio, I began the process of making sense of the confused multitude of things on the workbench. Scrap copper goes in that bin. Little bits of silver saved. Tools have their space. Pieces of paper towels tossed and dust swept up.

Cleaning was its own creative act.

The Zen Workbench

Pristine! Clear of clutter! No stuff! A peaceful place to create!

I thought about pushing through and making something "just" to have a piece to post - but realized that creating a pleasing space is just as valid.

For next week: I have a rather wild idea for setting a chunky raw cut yellow opal...

Piece a Week #1

And you thought it would be jewelry, huh? 

First piece in 2011 is this soft and cuddly gray scarf with brown fuzzy accents!

It's nice and long and chunky and funky! I love it.

There was a sale at Michael's for this brand! Love it. Bought several different colors. I will be adding hand-made scarves to our Etsy page. Probably once I complete about four more scarves!

Pulling an all nighter

The nights preceeding a craft fair tends to be chaotic in our house...a'hem - studio. Ok...house. The kitchen is a mess...what used to be the dining room is ridiculous and the dining room table, which is in the living room is covered with product.

The reason why its so chaotic is because we have had back-to-back weekends of events. We will be selling our jewelry this Friday, Saturday and Sunday...and doing the same next weekend as well. And then...we both agree that we are going to take some serious time off and during that time off to slow down and create more complex pieces. We have pages and pages of ideas, just not enough time to bring them into this world.

Despite the chaos, there are moments of fun and frolic. It gets a little scary when the dining room table is covered in product and the frolicking begins...it looks like this...

That is Tarzan-the-monkey-cat above there demanding some quality time with his peeps. He is accustomed to "TV" time, and when that doesn't happen, he finds other ways in which to get attention.

In the shot you can see the backside of some of our new work...here's a front view:

Nice table, huh? We eat out a lot when we are prepping for a show!

Ok...how about a closer look and a sneak peak at some of my new designs:

I've been having all kinds of fun with alcohol ink on copper. Oh yeah.

The next piece was inspired by a recent full moon rising over the hills...I have a thing for anything Luna...and have been trying for some time now to capture it in jewelry. (And even a longer amount of time trying to capture a picture of a full moon!) I spent several HOURS tonight trying to put this piece on a beaded cord, but a beader I am not...that is, not yet. However, I am really liking the results I'm getting with the ink on copper series...

This one is called "Full Moon" -

And here is one more piece "The Rising Moon" -

These pieces and many others will be making their debut in about nine hours from right now (1:00am). I'm excited to see how they are received!

(authored by Lisa)