Previous Journals

January 22, 2007

Well, if you live around the Madison, WI area, you can now find my jewelry and beads at two new places:

The first place is Three Orange Doors, which is out on Fitchrona Road, down just off Hwy 18 between (oddly enough) Fitchburg and Verona. They have a nice selection of antiques, handmade art and sculpture-y things, a gorgeous selection of willow-ware, and now they have a nice selection of dichroic pendants and earrings, too. Yay!

The second place is out in Sun Prairie, right along Main Street. It's a bead store called Meant to Bead, and they have a very nice selection of semi-precious stones, czech, swarovski, and vintage German beads, and lampworked beads by several local artists, including yours truly. They're moving to a larger store sometime next month, but since it's right across the parking lot from where they are now, there should not be too much confusion. They have about 20 sets of my beads, plus several individual 'critter' beads, including cows, sheep, and three-eyed 'bead freaks', and a few of my dichroic pendants, as well. So, if you're in a shopping mood, whether it's for finished jewelry or the materials to make your own creations, please check them out.

December 28, 2006

So yes, I was out vending on Christmas Eve. There were a few other artists out, and we had a fun time just laughing together and fooling around, but didn't actually sell much (although I did manage to hit myself in the side of the head while playing with the neighbor's poi balls). It was much fun (the visiting part, not the whacking myself in the head part), since I probably won't see most of them again until Farmer's Market starts again in April. I've been spending quite a bit of time in my studio in the past few days, making dichroic cabochons, which will eventually be wire-wrapped in sterling silver to turn them into pendants. I made a whole LOT of cabochons and incidentally I managed to file off my thumbnail and get a half dozen or so slices on the pads of my thumbs. Ow. Think multiple, overlapping papercuts. Oh well. One is SUPPOSED to suffer for one's art, right?

(Larger pictures on the Fresh from the Kiln page)

December 17, 2006

Had fun vending today. The weather was wonderful. Sun, almost no wind, and warm enough that I only wore a long-sleeved shirt and my wool sweater. Bought myself a set of poi balls from the vendor next to me (after watching her play with them all weekend, I succumbed to the urge). I played with them for half of the afternoon, managed not to knock myself unconscious, although I did hit myself in the head more than once. Also, here's a couple of pictures of the icicles I made last night, when I suddenly felt inspired to play glass after 10 at night.

Not pictured are the icicles I made this morning before going out to vend, which the DH was nice enough to bring out to me at about 1:30 this afternoon, after they'd properly annealed. The pictures are just quickies, in real life, they're way prettier (IMNSHO). If you're interested, they're $7 each or 3 for $15, and I'll probably be out vending this week Tues. through Friday, but I won't be out until after 2:00 pm, due to ye olde day job. I'll either be on Library Mall or up by Potbelly's. Also, I've been having some sort of a sale each day, it varies. Saturday was half-price earrings, today was buy 2 get one free of pendants and earrings, not sure what it's going to be next time I vend. I also worked on my site for a while today, and the 'Costume Trim and Accessories' section is now active again, and I added a page of information on hosting your own home jewelry show.

November 22, 2006

Holy cow, has it been that long since I last updated my website?! I'm so good with making new stuff, and so bad with telling the world about it. I recently got a new toy, the Electric Mandrel Spinner, by these guys. Now, in the little videos they show on their website, it just balances the beads like magic, with absolutely no effort on the part of le artiste. Well, apparently all the magic gas escaped from my EMS before they shipped it, because there is no magical balancing happening with my beads. Apparently, it requires (gasp!) practice, and also skill. Well poo. However, a dozen beads later, I have to say I like my new toy, even without the magic gas. I'll probably make a few dozen more tonight, at least until I run out of non-bent mandrels (another thing that I've discovered one needs with the EMS), then tomorrow, head for the in-laws' for Thanksgiving dinner. Mostly, this year I'm giving thanks because I don't have to cook anything, or clean my house. Yay for mooching off the relatives! I haven't made very many beads in the last week. To be more specific, I've made two. A pair of fish beads, which I believe came out quite nicely.

And that's about all the news that's fit to print. I won't be out vending at all during the week for quite some time, because I've got a part time job from now through Christmas. I should be out on the weekends, though, with the exception of this weekend, because we're celebrating my dad's 70th birthday (at my sister's house, yay for no cleaning). I'll be making the pies.

September 20, 2005

Updated a few more pages, added new pictures of the stuff I've been doing lately. I will be at the Stronghold Olde English Faire in Oregon, IL on October 1 and 2, and at the Cotswold Renaissance Faire in Lake Geneva, WI on Sunday October 9 and Sunday October 16th. Look forward to seeing you there!

September 16, 2005

After a long hiatus, I've begun updating my website again. Expect most of the links to be broken for at least a little while. I started making jewelry as my full-time career about a year ago, which means that I've been so busy making jewelry, learning new things, and vending that I just haven't had the time to work on my website, which is rather sad. I sell my jewelry on State Street in Madison, as a street vendor. This means that I don't have a storefront, I just set up my display on the sidewalk and sell. I sell at Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings from 7:30 am until 1:30 pm or so, then, depending on the weather, move down to the 500 block of State Street, across from Potbelly's. Sundays I also vend across from Potbelly's, and many weekdays you can find me on Library Mall (the 700 block of State Street), right in front of the Memorial Library. I try to vend Wednesday through Sunday, but as an outdoor vendor, I'm quite dependant on the weather. Just look for the hat.

Note: Almost all of the links below here will probably be broken for quite some time to come. I'm redoing every page on the site one by one, but meanwhile I've taken the pages down so I can work on them.

     April 18, 2004  

I've been playing with glass fusing lately, and have a question about suggested design. I've also been working on custom work, and to show you the kinds of things I can do, look here and here. The basic scenario was: she contacted me asking if I could make aiglettes to match her dress, then mailed me fabric swatches and the d-rings that the aiglettes will need to fit through. I whipped up some samples, posted them online, she picked out the ones she liked best, and I mailed them to her for color-matching and destruction testing (yes, I will send you an aiglette to see if it will survive the use you want to put it to). I also just made matching earrings for her to look at. I can do the same for you. My aiglettes range in price from $.50 up to $1.50 on average.

February 1, 2004

Added in the Pictures section, which currently contains pictures of the Bristol Winter Faire get-together. We have more pictures to post yet, these are just the pictures from my camera, the hubby hasn't uploaded the pictures he took yet.

January 11, 2004

Another update, added a section on accessory chains in the 'Costume Trim and Accessories' section. I uploaded some pictures, like this one, of a three-strand pearl necklace I made tonight, and this one, of a Y-necklace I made from black glass beads, but haven't made a page for them yet.

January 4, 2004

Updated the website quite a bit, trying to get the pages to be more uniform. I've pretty much got the 'Pendants' parts of the website working (or at least, you don't go to blank pages if you click on the pendants links). I also got quite a bit of work done on the costume accessories parts (I've been a beadworking fiend lately). You can find custom beaded trim, aiglettes, accessory chains, and more. Or at least, you can find some of those, and the rest are coming soon, I promise.

October 6, 2003

I had a fantastic time at Stronghold! Thank you to everyone who stopped by. I will be posting pictures soon. Most of them are from behind the booth looking out, because I really didn't make it out of the booth much this weekend, but I did have a lot of fun. If you've ordered a custom item from me, I will get working on those just as soon as the hubby and I have time to unpack the truck and find my notes. We were so tired when we got home last night pretty much all we unpacked were the pillows. I will definitely be at Stronghold next year!

September 14, 2003

I've just started working in sterling silver and gold filled wire! Up until now I've just worked with brass and copper, but I took the jump. The 'good stuff' feels completely different from the base metals (and looks nicer), so I spent several hours just playing and practicing. I learned a new wrapping technique last week, and I played around with that quite a bit also. I also played around with my wire-twisty-ma-tron (It has some brand name, but I've forgotten) because I was cleaning my craft room and found it again.

September 10, 2003

I've been accepted into Stronghold as a crafter. Very exciting. This is my first juried show. See you all there. If anyone is looking for particular colors or styles of jewelry, please let me know and I'll see what I can make before now and then.

September 7, 2003 -- New Stuff!

On this page, you will find pictures of some of the new stuff I've been working on.