Having a busy summer ... you, too?

Just received a convo--Etsy lingo for email--from a previous customer at my West As the Crow Flies shop on Etsy. Back in July Brian purchased two listings I had of Birch Bay driftwood and some faux beach glass. Brian was kind enough to share what he created using some of those components. See photographs below.

Brian, who lives in Florida, started his Etsy shop in 2007. To see his Etsy shop The Glassman or Glassman, go to www.etsy.com/shop/Glassman.

Thanks for sharing, Brian!

This is the first piece Brian made with the listing
from West As the Crow Flies, and it
is currently listed for purchase
on his Etsy shop

Created by The Glassman

This is the driftwood listing Brian purchased,
and the faux beach glass listing shown below.

As featured in an Etsy Treasury ...

Curator Angela, of Angela Design, featured a mix and match set of earrings of mine in her Etsy Treasury. It's always a pleasure to receive a pat on the back in this manner.  Here's the link if you would like to check it out:  www.etsy.com/treasury/NzIzOTYxOHwyNzIyOTU4MzIw/mix-match

Because I make earrings that I would wear, and because I often wear one earring on my right and two or more on the left, I sometimes make a set of three mix and match earrings rather than a more traditional pair. I like giving the buyer the option to wear all three, a pair, or perhaps only one to go with some personal eclectic fashion aesthetic.

Angela has created a shop full of colorful, cheerful polymer clay jewelry.  www.angeladesign.etsy.com

Thanks, Angela!

Tricks with Backgrounds ...

I’ve often thought a solid color background was best to photograph my jewelry to advantage. Under more formal gallery or presentation circumstances a solid background is probably still a good rule to follow. However, I was bored with white today as I photographed some new earrings I had just finished and wanted to upload to Etsy.The white didn't allude well to the rich burnish of the copper. I needed color.

I’ve admired those jewelers who incorporate intriguing backgrounds in photographs of their jewelry. Some go a little overboard and it becomes distracting, but some get it just right. There’s often an ambience created of adventure, romance, or ethnic back story woven around the jewelry. Unfortunately I’m not gifted at creating poetry or a storyline to accompany my jewelry.

However, looking around my digs for something nifty to use, I spied a Cindy Rinne art quilt I purchased years ago. I’ve always loved the colors and textures, and thought it could work without overwhelming the earrings. That was my hope anyway. I liked the fiber and thread stitches contrasting with the metal.

I think the photos of the earrings turned out pretty well. I’ve uploaded them to Etsy. If you want to see more of Cindy Rinne’s art, that she terms, “nature’s edges in stitch and verse,” go to http://fiberverse.com She’s also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cindy.rinne.5

"Fire" by Cindy Rinne
1996

I apologize to Cindy about not having THE best photograph of her art quilt, but I wanted you to see the entire thing and not just a detail. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Sunday morning and I can hear the Indy 500 on the television upstairs. I think of all the noise and hoopla of the racetrack and fans out for the kick-off weekend of summer, all the families heading to parades, picnics and BBQs.

I want to take a moment to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our Country. If not for them, our present and future freedom and way of life might not exist. Thank you!

OK ... now on to beautiful baubles!

I received a photograph from Mimi Dunski of Milton Ontario Canada. She recently bought some gorgeous red jasper beads from my little Etsy store West As the Crow Flies. Much to my delight, the photograph is of a necklace she has designed using the beads she bought from me.

I absolutely love seeing what other creatives do with the materials I'm selling!

Here is Mimi's necklace, which you can see and read about at http://www.creationsbymimi.etsy.com/ You can also learn more about Mimi and her lovelies! Go take a peek!

Thank you, Mimi, for sharing!


For more stones, beads, other jewelry components and vintage pieces click on http://www.westasthecrowflies.etsy.com/  I've also uploaded some new earrings incorporating vintage African Trade beads at http://www.birchbaykay.etsy.com/

Just getting better the older they are ...

In addition to the gorgeous assortment of beads to which I feel privileged to have access, I love their history. Take for example, the African Trade beads I used in a pair of tribal earrings I finished making this morning. As I worked with them, I was deeply moved by the realization that these beads have been in existence for so much longer than I have been, and will be around long after I become dust to dust!

Vintage Bohemian and Czech glass trade beads,
Nigerian brass, old Yemen silver, Ghana metal beads

That's rather a humbling thought. I feel like a facilitator in the ongoing "story" of these beads that were made far away and long ago. I think it's incredible that I can hold these bits of history in my hands and know that other hands made them, sent them off to Africa for trade, other hands received them and sold them or traded them for other goods. They've traveled farther than have I. And they're not done yet!

A number of years ago, I attended a historical bead exhibit at the Bowers Museum. They had a timeline displayed along the walls showing where different beads originated and where they traveled on the various trade routes of the world. Amazing!

These earrings, heady with history, are now available for purchase at www.birchbaykay.etsy.com.

Spring and Creativity Run Rampant ...

There's something so primal and invigorating about seeing crocus bursting into bloom, leaf buds ready to burst with life on bare branches, spring green grass appearing as the snow melts away. And, of course, we, too, participate in this surge of energy, growth.

Jewelry projects I've had on a back shelf are being pulled out and finished ... finally. New ideas are crowding in so fast, I can't get one sketched before another 5 blossom. I love this flood of energy!

Here are a couple of new things I've added to my Etsy store at http://www.birchbaykay.etsy.com/:

I love the nubby handmade, hand-colored yarn made by Juaquetta Holcomb in Newman Lake, WA. I met her at an art fair here in Spokane, and she had short lengths of yarn for sale. I don't come anywhere close to using a whole skein of yarn in my brooches, so I was ecstatic at being able to get some of this yummy stuff without forking over a bundle for a whole skein.  Her website is GardenPartyFibers.com and she also has a shop on Etsy with her local mohair and sheep yarns. You'll love her yarns, too!

Computers oftentimes confuse me. The No.6 glass beads in the brooch are a pearlized PINK, but on my computer they look orange; perplexing because all of the other colors in the brooch seem to be true representation. So, why just those beads??? Hmmm, maybe the pearlized surface?

As for these lime and lavender faux beach glass earrings, I first made them a different way. They looked nice, but I could not force myself to put them up on Etsy. There was something "not right" about them. After about a week or so, I redid the lavender earring and took off a sterling silver swirl that I had on the lime green dangle. They are now more contemporary, simplified with no distracting gimmicks. I guess, that's what bothered me before, I wouldn't have worn them they way they were before I redesigned them. I would wear these!

February Flurry ...

I'm not referring to a snow flurry, but life flurries. Here it is the 4th of February--already!--and I should be selling jewelry for people to gift to others as tokens of their love and affection. I feel like I'm operating in slow motion, while bombarded by flurries of life challenges, family challenges, and my children's challenges!

Take a deep breath, right? Get a grip! Things are going to happen whether I'm cool-headed or I'm a hysterical crazy woman, so am trying to maintain a sense of calm. Life happens.

I also happened to finish the custom necklace a customer commissioned me to create to match a pair of earrings she had previously purchased from Birch Bay Kay and gifted to her sister at Christmas. I'm now waiting to learn if she likes the bauble, or if she would prefer I design and make another to better suit her aesthetic. Wish me luck!

Here are the earrings and the necklace:

Well, time to get back into the maelstrom. I have to laugh. When I step back from my perceived dilemmas, the in-my-face drama lessens and I recognize everyone else's problems are not MY problems. I need this detachment in order to more effectively and calmly assist or counsel family members.

AND make jewelry!