Kid in a Candy Shop

Remember when you were a kid and you got your first real bike? Mine was a hot pink and apricot low rider with a banana seat. When not riding my bike through our small rural town, I dreamed about my bike....all. the. time. I could not wait to get home to get back on it and ride the roads. Ah, I loved that bike.

Lately, I have the same feeling about working at the bench...strange analogy? Perhaps, but the excitement and giddiness to resume designing, tweaking, and creating is identical. Really, it is. Oh, the earrings above are sweet little studs with cognac diamonds. I might have to keep these. Maybe.

I ordered stones last week and got to play with the little sparklers today. This is pure joy or more 'first time on my new bike' happiness. Many sketches and plans for my Dot Collection to include these gemstones will be hatching later this spring.

Back to the bench! I think there are some stones that need new homes!

The Brew at the Bench

Somehow between all the motherly duties, dog fiascos, and tax forms, I produced at the bench this past week. An amazing feat, I know. I'm lovin' my Dot Collection. The addition of high karat bezels and precious gemstones provided a much needed kick in the butt to these lumps of recycled sterling. Yup, I'm happy, however my eyes could use some snazzy new 10x magnifiers! Sorry for the poor photo quality.....BAD lighting in my new digs.

Ah yes. Another button cluster creation. Gosh, I love making these pieces. The next direction will be cluster brooches. Wait for it....

New earrings (well, designs are not new, but it is new stock). Strangely enough, I am applying to summer craft shows already! I'm so not ready to think about swelting temps and my craft show checklist, but to avoid that last minute crunch, I am building my inventory.

Finished cluster piece. I listed this yesterday. It is absolutely smashing on the neck. I need to wrangle up my model from her nursing duties to supply you all with proof positive that this is perhaps the loveliest necklace ever made! :)

Shop for a Cause

From November 13th to November 19th, I will be donating 15% of my sales to Preble Street, an organization in Maine which provides accessible barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty; and advocates for solutions to these problems.

Over 40 Maine Team members are also participating in this fundraiser. A complete list of shops will be posted on our team blog in the coming days. Please consider purchasing during this time if you have had your eye on any Maine Team items.

In other news, I have new work, but have been slow to add to my shop. However, here's a couple items...the last I need to re-photograph before listing.

earrings

ring

earrings...yet to list

W.I.P

W.I.P = Works in Progress. And there are many, far too many, works in progress cluttering up the Quench's bench. Maybe 'cluttering' is the wrong word. Let's rephrase: there are many works in progress loitering....nah, still not correct. However, I experienced a creative explosion this past week...new ideas, mock ups, revisiting old designs, mapping out new ones. So, the bench looks a bit like a mad scientist's laboratory.

Several years ago, I made amulet/ talisman pendants that were outrageously over worked and priced. I handmade the chains and all the findings from 18k gold, set stones in 22k gold handmade pendant settings, hung glass, pearl, and stone beads from 18k gold jump rings and created little oval nickel silver pillows. Then I attached it all together. Very medicine man meets Paris Hilton. Not surprisingly, the pieces didn't sell. However, I am still flirting with this whole amulet idea, so I have downsized my original designs to a mini amulet. I am working on a series of 6 to debut in early November.

Then, I have earring designs scattered about. I get lost in the repetitive motion of sawing these earrings out of 18 gauge sterling sheet. Besides this design, I have 4 more in various states of finish. The earrings should be listed next week in my Etsy shop.

More New Work

I am enjoying a lull between orders and holiday shows. Time to relax, bake, play in the fall garden, carve pumpkins, and loll about. The ring above along with several other pieces are now home at the Center for Maine Craft in West Gardiner, Maine. Just off both Interstate 95 and 295, the gallery showcases stellar crafts from around our grand state. I am honored (and rather giddy, I must say) to be included in this shop!

Below are 2 more pairs of earrings in my Etsy shop. Maybe this down time will allow more blogging on my part! Stay tuned :)

earrings

earrings

New Work

A few new items that will make their way to my Etsy shop in the next week.

Reclaimed vintage boot buttons and sterling earrings

Upcycled vintage mother of pearl button pendant in sterling silver and 18k

My signature earrings in sterling silver

Upcycled carved antique mother of pearl button pendant in sterling and 18k

Trio of vintage mother of pearl buttons brooch in sterling silver and palladium

The Two Quenches

I am amused at the technical differences between my "collections". The earrings below are from the Vintage Collection and, if you have followed this blog, you know that I incorporate vintage buttons and explore hand-pierced filigree. For me, the collection is frustrating....lots of time involved designing and sawing out these intricate patterns, lots of broken buttons from the riveting process, and lots of broken saw blades. As much as I detest the work I devote to this collection, I am repeatedly rewarded with the end product. I see my grandmother and her mother in these pieces. This collection is my homage to embroidery and sewing and I believe that my gram would be proud that I honor this tradition with my collection.

Earrings with vintage buttons

Pendant with sterling and 18k gold dots

The other collection, Dot, is an all out fun fest. The pendant above is the latest addition to Dot. The work involved is remedial...meaning a bit of soldering, a bit of hammering, minimal filing, no fancy patterns, no repetitious sawing and piercing. I form the dots by melting scrap sterling or gold, add a little boric acid while the metal is molten, quench the dots, and hammer flat. The process is a bit crude, but that's the appeal. This collection gives my brain, eyes, and hands the break it needs from my other challenging collection.

In the end, I am both collections (and I didn't even get to dissect my Armor collection!). I'm the consummate metalsmith who fusses over the tiniest blemish; I'm also the experimental artist eager to try create timeless designs. I hope you find a bit of both in my work as well!

Sneak Peek

I have a load of new pieces to add to my Etsy shop this week. Here's 2 pairs of earrings from the bunch.

Castings

Never in all many years of making jewelry have I mass produced...all my jewelry is made with my own two hands. Now that this little business of mine is picking up speed and customers, I decided to make some models and get some pieces cast! What a time saver this will be...hand piercing all that filigree stuff takes FOREVER and I can't even charge enough to make enough to cover my labor. By having these little babies cast, I can keep my price point down (good for the customer), spend less time at the bench (good for my family), and more time on new pieces (good for me)!

Here's a few that I'm bringing to Maine Precious Metal Casting tomorrow. They will make a rubber mold of these metal pieces. When I order, say, 25 of a particular design, they will inject wax into the mold, sprue the waxes onto a wax "tree", burn the wax out in an oven/kiln, and inject the molten sterling into the negative space cavity left from the wax....Lost Wax Casting!!!

Yay for delegating work to worthy hands!!!

MPBN Auction

I grew up watching public television...Sesame Street, Zoom, The Electric Company, and the kind, but quirky Mr. Rogers. As I matured into a teen, I still enjoyed the programing. My favorites then? Cooking with Julia, The Victory Garden, Nova. Skipping to today, it's more about what my daughter wants to watch (and, really, do I have the luxurious time to plunk down in front of the tube...nope). Curious George, Martha Speaks, Caillou, and Word Girl top Annabelle's must-see shows on public Television.

MPBN (Maine Public Broadcasting Network), the very channel that saw me through all those formative years, is holding their ever-popular fundraising auction. The Etsy Maine Team donated an excellent grouping of fine wares for this special event. A big thanks to Lizzy of Lizzyoos for her time and leadership in preparing this auction item.


The earrings I donated are sort of hidden behind the stoneware fish! I looked for a picture of them....no such luck in finding one, but I'll search again later!

New Listings

I'll be adding these pieces to my shop in the next few days. I have several vintage button pendants (besides the one above) that will join their kin as well!

It's December?

Wow, this year has accelerated! What happened to autumn? Where did the sun go? Yikes! Guess what we woke to this morning? S-N-O-W. This is our first snowfall this season that "stuck". A fitting way to start the first of December (however, waking to sunny skies and 65 degrees would have been fine with me, too).



I logged in many studio hours this weekend, preparing inventory for a upcoming show. One of life's great thrills, in my opinion, is crossing off items on a 'to do' list. My pen did overtime! I plan to list a few of these items on Etsy and save some for the craft show.

This was another great thrill for me: I was notified this morning that I am the Etsy Maine Team Artist of the Month! I'm grateful, excited, humbled, elated, dumbfounded...just tickled pink! Thank you Maine Team!!! You can check out the blog here. I wrote 2 articles for the blog in November...check them out!

Lastly, how can it NOT be December...look what we brought home! Family tradition indicates that we MUST get our tree the day after Thanksgiving, and so we did. No, it is not up yet...maybe on Wednesday. Wishing you all a happy, peaceful December.

my little family

Holiday Contest

I recently joined the Etsy Team Metalsmiths in Action, MSIA, just in time for a holiday contest for shoppers! I donated these earrings as a prize:

If you click here you can check out all the prizes available from our team members! At last count, there were 21 prizes! The link above may not have ALL the prizes posted yet (we metalsmiths would rather pound metal than a keyboard!). But, keep checking. As soon as I have the link for contest rules and directions, I'll post! Fun, fun, fun! AND, good luck!

A Fine Fall Day

Today was a non-bench day. I stayed away from my studio and focused on other projects that needed attention. These were not difficult tasks; some were messy, some were new territory, some were time consuming. Tasks that don't quite gel with the rhythm of my day.

Outside in the chilly morning air, I employed my sister's well-defined ear, long neck, lovely hand, and patience (thanks, Al!) to model all of my finished pieces so I could get some nice 'action' pics for Etsy. During the photo session, we laughed so hard that we forgot about our cold toes and numb fingers. One of those 'you had to be there', dorky sister moments.

With a few of those pictures and some previously shot, I listed my first items on Etsy!! Woo-hoo!!! What I had imagined to be a daunting process was actually fun and quite easy. I brooded over listing for weeks, read and reread the policies, went to the forums...finally I took the plunge. What the heck was I so worried about? With a toddler running around, a dog barking at phantom ducks (the barking starts at 6:30am....it's a mystery, really), and dinner on the stove, I managed to get 2 listings done. More tonight when the family is tucked in and the house is quiet.

I also made a perfect apple crisp (perfect according to hubby, what a guy!) with apples picked by husband and daughter this past weekend. We have a LOAD of apples and I can see that the baking will continue right through this week and into Saturday. Tomorrow? Rustic apple tart.... mmm.

While prepping the apples for their trip into the oven, the 5 pointed, star-shape seed chambers caught my eye. What a surprising and mystical shape to discover inside these fruits. Negative space always interests me...a jeweler sees a mold for wax or metal. If time had allowed, I would have melted some wax and poured the hot liquid into these little chambers. Of course I am thinking ultimately how these hollow, nature-made star shape would look in sterling silver, or, better yet, 18k gold, hanging from a delicate, hand-wrought chain.

Away from the bench today, yes. Away from creativity, never!