45/52 Bird a week challenge - Quality time with friends

This week, I've gone back to aluminum for my bird a week and created a color anodized aluminum bangle.  In fact, there are 133 birds in my challenge this week.  They all decided to gather and just spend some time together. They are not really doing anything particular.... just hanging out together, chatting and laughing...... 

Sweet little birdies perched on the wires. Everyone has their little space, no one crowds the other and they chat to their neighbors or sometimes just sit in silence.

It seems a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon...don't you think?  Quality time with friends.

I hope you've had some quality time with friends this week.

If you want to see what other birds have been created this week as part of our challenge, click on the links below:

Merry Go Round - Selling at Fairs

It's the last Friday of the month, so join us on our merry go round for a quick spin.  The merry go round is where a group of 11 artists/craftwomen link together around the world and tell you a little about their art and craft, through blogging on the same topic.

This month's question for us all to write about is "Do you do fairs/shows?  If so, share some hints and your experience. If not - why not."

When I first started making jewelry, I did a few fairs locally. Mostly, they were at wineries. People came along, drank a bit of wine, bought a bit of jewelry.....They were pretty successful.  However, as my jewelry progressed and my prices went up, I felt it really wasn't the right sort of market for my pieces.  The audience really wanted less expensive items.

Instead of looking for alternative fairs at that time, I chose to focus selling solely online.  I really enjoy the steadiness of it all.  With fairs, you seem to work frantically in the few weeks beforehand, churning out a lot of stock and then have an exhausting couple of days at the fair. Selling online, I make a few pieces each week and sell a few pieces each week and things just keep turning over nicely. It really suits how I like to work.

This summer however, I did set up a stall at the local farmers' market. The village I live in started a new farmers' market so I decided to join in. My color anodized aluminum work was pretty new and the whole process is not familiar in the US, so I wanted to use it as a means to get some feedback on those pieces. It was fun and I did enjoy it....and it was reasonably successful but I still prefer the online selling.

I always go back to how much I find I get to know my customers better online than face to face or selling in a gallery.  My customers email me and tell me their stories and send photos and keep in touch....and I find it so satisfying.

I think the choice is so personal in relation to how you work best....if you don't like the online scene, then fairs are great....but I happen to enjoy online, so have no plans to change that!  What do you think and do?

To find out what the other members of the merry go round think,  click on the links below:

Samantha at Vintage is for lovers - http://www.vintageisforlovers.com/
Jen at Painted Fish Studio - http://paintedfishstudio.com/
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles - http://www.dirksendabbles.com/
Laura at Blue Terracotta -  http://blueterracotta.com/
Monika at Red2White - http://red2white.wordpress.com/
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.com/blog/
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://florcita.eu/wordpress/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Ruth at Birdland Creations - http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com

Or else you can click on the blog hop below.  If you are a merry go round participant, please add your link if it's not already included. You can then copy the code and put it on your blog post too.

Daisy Chain

What little girl hasn't sat on the grass and tried to make a daisy chain?

Picking daisies and trying to thread the stems is such a vivid childhood memory. Yet I have to say that daisy chains were a challenge for me as I used to bite my finger nails and so making that hole in the stem was not easy! But I would persevere to make a pretty little daisy chain necklace or bracelet. What about you? Do you remember making flower jewelry? I hope little kids still make them nowadays....

The image brings back such great emotions - often just of a quiet time, the sunny shining, sat on my own on the lawn, or chatting with a close friend and enjoying the summer.

Yet I wonder if any boys ever made daisy chains? I'm guessing not.  I just asked my husband and he said he never made any as a little boy, but he taught his boys how to do it when they were little and they would make really long chains - not to be worn or anything uncool like that!!!!. Ask your hubby or partner, see if he ever tried....

But adorning oneself with a little garland of flowers was such a perfect thing for a little girl. Your moment to feel special.

And so, that feeling comes into my latest color anodised aluminum bangle "daisy chain".  It's for the escapist....the person who wants to recapture those precious moments from childhood.  But maybe we shouldn't need a bangle to do that.  I'm going to make sure that this summer I find a lawn with daises and sit and make a daisy chain! Maybe I'll do it with my nephews when they come and visit - although they may not be too keen at their age :=D  I hope you'll give it a go too -and then let me know!  But if not, you can always wear a daisy chain bangle as a reminder of those simple pleasures in life.......

I have another version of this to show you on Thursday, so look out for Daisy Chain version II!

Periwinkle

Gosh - I missed blogging yesterday as Blogger was down all afternoon and evening.  I had something to write about, and it felt odd not being able to share it!  Shows how much I enjoy my blogging.

Anyhow, yesterday I made a new style of earrings that I wanted to show you -  Periwinkles.

I love periwinkle flowers and while these earrings aren’t the exact shape of periwinkle flowers, they are periwinkle in colour.

Yes, periwinkle is not only a flower, but also a color, and a snail.

Another interesting fact about periwinkle flowers – also called myrtles, is that the Madagascar periwinkle is used to make Vinblastine, a drug that treats Hodgkin’s disease and childhood leukemia.  See, my old pharmacologist life does come into my jewelry!!!

We have some periwinkles growing near the mail boxes on our lane.  It’s such  pretty color. That delicate combination of blue and purple.

These earrings are colored anodized aluminum. I printed the flowers first, then sawed them out, riveted a leaf onto each and then put them on the ear wires. Hope you like them.

Overdyeing

This bracelet shows the technique of overdyeing, where first the aluminum is dyed one color - lemon yellow, then resists are added as the flowers and leaves and the bangle is dyed again with a quick dip in red dye.

The resist is removed and the result is yellow flowers and leaves on a peach colored background.  I've done a few using this technique but love the peach color created with the quick red dip on the yellow.

What do you think?

Lily earrings

I've been trying some metal forming techniques on the aluminum and  a new design for earrings came about from it. Little hanging flowers that make me think of lilies.

Each has two petals and hanging between the petals are beads for stamens.

 The little bead makes the tiniest sweet sound against the aluminum.

I'm enjoying trying the metal techniques and look forward to seeing where it takes me.... Just playing around for now and being open to where it goes......

Glint Bangles - Ray of light

Here are some more aluminum bangles to add to this week's creations.  They are like the green glint earrings and necklace from last week however, the glint in these cases, is dark rather than light.  

I wonder if there is a different word from glint meaning a "ray of dark" instead of a "ray of light"!!!

As you may be able to tell, I'm enjoying finding a little time to make progress on the color anodized aluminum.

What do you think?  What is your favorite color? I have a few more bangles to show you on Thursday too.... yes, now I've started, I can't stop!!!

Alphabet bangles

Here are  my two latest color anodized aluminum bangles.

I really like them with letters all over them.

Each was done in a different way, but I think both methods worked well.  I actually like the black and silver one best. Seems silly that I got into color anodized aluminum for the bright colors and now the one I like best is black and silver !!!

What do you think? Do you like them?

Green Glint

Here is my latest pair of color anodized aluminum earrings entitled "green glint".  I think glint is an underutilized word!  It means "ray of light" - so I figured naming jewelry is an ideal opportunity to use words that I don't tend to use in everyday speech.

I love the dark smokiness of the grey/black with the brightness of lime green. And the little bit of silver color exposed on the edges seems to frame them nicely.

I made a simple pendant to go with them.

Hope your day had a glint in it somewhere.

New Studio!!!

Yippee-yi-ya!!  Today I started moving into my new studio!!!!

While we were in San Miguel and I was trying all these different media, we decided that we just had to get me some more space for my studio! It's well over time...and we've been trying to figure out how best to do it for ages now, as I've been expanding from my little attic room into other rooms and generally taking over lots of places. 

So we've jiggled some rooms around and now I have a much bigger space! And much more light.

Today was the tough day of moving things.  My "old" studio is accessed only by a little attic ladder. Just climbing up and down it is quite precarious but when you are trying to carry loads of things - it's is even more dodgy! Luckily, John, my hubby was around all day to help!!!  Let's hope he is tomorrow too :=D

I have more to move in tomorrow and need to buy another couple of work surfaces like you see in the above photo.  My goal is to have 4 work surfaces in total. One for metal clay and one for finishing jewelry (those are the ones shown above).  Then one for aluminum and one for wax sculpture and anything else I might try! Then there is a soldering space and a space for my photography. 

And my birdies began to move in too. They took a liking to a spot, just their size, by the window seat!

 

If you are in the neighbourhood tomorrow and feeling strong...do stop in! 

4/52 Bird a week - Sitting Pretty

For this week's bird, I used my aluminum.  I drew three little birdies "sitting pretty" on anodized aluminum and then dyed the aluminum and sealed it and shaped it into a bangle.

You can see one birdie from the front:

and two from the back:

The inside is colored a nice teal color.

Happy little birds, sitting pretty. I hope you are sitting pretty too. There's still time to join in our bird a week challenge too - check out the flickr group link below and get birding.

If you are part of the Bird a week challenge, please add your link here:

Spring Flowers or Ice cream flavors?

Spring in San Miguel begins next week - on February 2nd - my birthday! So today I finished a couple of "spring flower" aluminum bangles ready for spring.

Happy cheerful colors.  I also did a bird bracelet - ready for my "bird a week" challenge so I'll show that tomorrow.

Are you ready to think of spring yet?  It's lovely and sunny here - cool mornings and evenings but the afternoons are delightful - sunny, ice cream sort of weather.  It seems that San Miguel has become an ice cream place for me. I normally don't eat ice cream - only occasionally when I make it myself - but in the square there is this one ice cream maker whose ice cream is just divine.  Hmmm, maybe these are ice cream bangles, not spring flower bangles....tutti frutti and blueberry freeze!!!    What do you think? Spring flowers or ice cream?

Colors of San Miguel

I had some time to do some more dyeing of aluminum today and was attracted to teals and oranges - then realized that it could well be due to the fact that there are a lot of those shades around me in San Miguel right now.

You can see from the photo that I have done four bands - still to be sealed, filed and shaped into bangle cuffs. The band on the right is orange on one side and brown on the other - as shown below. Not quite sure yet whether to shape it with orange or brown on the outside.  Brown is normally a color I avoid but......

I haven't found a great place for photographing my creations here yet.....so excuse the photos that don't show things off to their best.....

The class I'm hoping to take here in San Miguel doesn't start until the New Year, so I'm hoping to try a few different things in the meantime...maybe some cooking ....some dancing....some.....????

Tartan bracelet!

My mother-in-law died on Saturday morning.  I had the privilege of sitting at her bedside for her last few days.

While there, I chatted to her, I sang to her, we listened to music and I also did some coloring of anodised aluminum. 

Here is one of the pieces I made that was inspired by her - a tartan (plaid) design bangle.  Lavinia was Scottish and, as a Baillie, the family has its own tartan -  Baillie Tartan - shown below:

Although my bangle doesn't depict the Baillie tartan -  I did use the same green, blue and orange in it!

Excuse the quality of the photos as I only have my phone and no lighting set up here in the UK!

Garden seat

Earlier in the year when I first started working with aluminum, I made some "garden seat" earrings as part of my "month of earrings challenge".  The "seat" is small branches, where little birds can alight and rest or eat a while....

I tried the same design again this week, as I got a lot of comments back then, but this time used different techniques and two new dyes. I particularly like the gold color - maybe because I never get to work in gold! 

What do you think?

Cathedral Rose Window jewelry

I made some more cathedral rose windows last week - this time making larger earrings than my original pair. These earrings are 3.5 cm diameter (approx 1.5 inches).

The design is the rose window at the East end of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco where I sing every week. I'm really pleased with how the color from the anodized aluminum shines through them, giving the illusion of stained glass.

 

I also made a pendant.  I've strung it here on 5 cables but also am waiting on a chain for it, as I think, with it's size, it will be nice on a longer chain too. 

And here's the set: 

If you are interested in rose window design.....the geometry of the design of this window at Grace is the same as the rose window in the Gothic cathedral of Chartres, France - but the final design is actually different. Here are the two so that you can compare -  and for more geometry, here is a link to a detailed comparison of the two windows. 

Chartres Cathedral Rose Window

Grace Cathedral Rose Window

Maybe I should try the Chartres window next......