Earning 500 Hearts has been an Interesting Journey

I just hit a pretty cool milestone. I woke up this morning to see that 500 people have hearted my Etsy shop. On Etsy if you truly love someones work you can bookmark or "heart" their shop as a favorite. It bring a smile to my face that I have earned the hearts of 500 people. I think any artist constantly questions their work. You may love what you create but that nagging feeling of wondering if anyone else will like it plagues everyone. This morning's surprise was a little boost in confidence. I always enjoyed making my jewelry, I am hoping to branch out this year and learn how to make a variety of new things. Well thank you for all who support me and here's too earning my next 500 hearts.

Thursday's Theme - A Touch of Luck

1. Four Leaf Clover 2. Luck of the Irish 3. Luck of the Irish

4. Lucky Key chain 5. St Patrick's Day Bolero 6. Celtic Moon Clock

7. Celtic Art 8. Shamrock Tea Towel 9. Lucky Shamrock Scarf

This Thursday's theme, if you have not already guessed, is Saint Patrick's Day. Saint Patrick's day is next week and I composed a variety of inspirational pieces to fit this Thursday's Theme. It is amazing how many symbols we have to conjure that elusive edge in life called luck. Horseshoes, four leaf clovers, rabbits feet, the number seven, stray eye lashes, wish bones and rainbows. Lord knows I am superstitious; I knock on wood, wish on stray eye lashes and I would never kill a lady bug. So do you have a good luck charm or maybe a superstitious routine to capture that lovely lady called luck?

The Button Nut's Favorite Search Words

I am a button nut. As you can see from the picture above, I have an addiction to Victorian black glass buttons. I probably take a half hour each day to search through the eBay and Etsy. My favorite search words is "black lacy glass buttons" Why black glass? In the late part of the 19th century the most detailed buttons were comprised of black glass. These black glass buttons are also called mourning buttons, this is due to the fact that Queen Victoria wore only black jet buttons after the death of Prince Albert. Another favorite search word of late is "carved celluloid". Bakelite or celluloid was the first plastic of the 20th century. It was not until the I came across this celluloid bird shown below, that I paid more attention to carved celluloid.

(Vintage carved celluloid bird bottom left, bronzclay bird from mold upper right)

I live close to a Hobby Lobby (aka Michael's or AC Moore) that sells my favorite two part silicone mold maker. I use a product called "The Amazing Molding Putty" I love this stuff it is very rare when I can not get a good mold from this product. Another product I use to create molds is polymer clay. I specifically use sculpty when making molds that have very fine detail that is not recessed enough for the silicone mold to pick up.

Below is an example of my Sunflowers Pendant, you can see the finished silver pendant, the unfired greenware, the original black glass button and the two part silicone mold.

Tulips, Hearts, and Bronze Stars oh my

Some new Bronzclay pendants. I have a lot of items floating around my bench right now. I just finished the above three pendants this week. They still have a lot of polishing and finishing work but I am pleased with how they came out. I call the pendant on the upper left my tulips, hearts and stars pendant; the second located on the left is another Victorian flower pendant and the last pendant is a version of my Victorian Flower Charm. I am not sure about the patina on the tulip, hearts and stars pendant. I am never happy with the patina on my bronze pieces. Not to mention they always look silver in the photos. Hopefully this weekend I get get some good light to take some better photos, it so hard to take pictures at night.

Sunday Sneak Peek

Its was a very quite weekend. I was home alone, my husband was away at a golf outing in Indiana. I spent most of that time catching up on house work and organizing my studio space. I figured that not being able to see the floor anymore was a sign that I might want to reorganize my work space. I was able to finish a few pendants, including one new pendant. I think I have decided to name it Wind. I should be adding this pendant to my shop this week.

Tuesday Treasuries

I was lucky to be in three treasuries this week. One of those treasuries made the front page. A big thank you to Lori of Modadimagno designs for placing my Tri-Tulip Pendant in the "Think Shiny" EMC Team Treasury.

I am also currently in the "For the Knight" Treasury that is currated by Oncetraveled. My Checkmate Pendant is in the "For the Knight" Treasury. Oncetraveled has a cool store, she reclaims vintage stamps and turns them into pendants on recycled scrabble tiles. I like the one that is listed below.

Oncetraveled India Pendant

Sunday Sneak Peek and Front Page!

It is always exciting when you make the front page. You know something is up when an item goes from 20 views to 115 views in one afternoon! This front page lead to the sale of my mirror flower charm. Sweet. A big thank you to Pianobenchdesigns for placing me in her treasury! Pianobench designs have several cute wire designs. I love her "Love Necklace"

Love Necklace

I am working on a lot of bronzclay pieces right now. I found an incredible snow owl mold the other day. I believe its an old soap mold, I made a bronzclay mold of him. Pictured below is the unfired green piece of my snow owl. The owl is huge though he is 3 inches long. I am hoping by firing him in bronze I can shrink him to a more manageable size. Is 3 inches long and an 1.5 inch wide just too big to be a pendant?

Tuesday Treasuries "Some Summertime"

Lori of Moda di Mango was kind enough to put me in her Some Summertime Treasury. I love all of the seaside critters in this treasury. I can't to visit my parents during the Fourth of July. Nothing like sitting out on the beach or chilling out on the boat to celebrate your holiday weekend. My Celtics are giving me heart burn at the moment. Hopefully we can close the series out in Boston.

Things I have been working on

So I finally fired my Koi Fish and King Arthur Bronzclay Pendants last night, hence my dirty fingers in the picture above. I carved all of the scales in the Koi Fish and I also carved out a lot of detail in the King Arthur Pendant. Both pendants still have a lot of finishing work but I think they came out pretty good.

I think I will be redoing the King Arthur Pendant for the Art Jewelry Magazine contest that was posted on Etsy the other day. Art Jewelry magazine (www.artjewelrymag.com) is challenging Etsy artisans to make a piece of jewelry, using 10 grams of metal clay or less (Arthur is exactly 10 grams). Art Jewelry will select five finished pieces and publishing them in their magazine, along with the winners names and contact information. I think Arthur would be a good submittal. The Koi Fish is 13 grams so I can't use that pendant for the contest unfortunately. I really want to redo both pendant in silver clay and experiment with aura 22 carat gold paint. I think Arthur would look cool with a gold shield and silver armor and the koi fish would look interesting with silver and gold scales. Anyway things to experiment on. Let me know what you think.