Patience is a Virtue?

I have a hard time with patience. When I become inspired, motivated, or obsessed (as my husband calls it), I research, invest, rework, edit, and tweak until I achieve my goal. For the past year, I have dedicated countless hours to my "shop" on Etsy... much to the chagrin of Mr. Quench as the daily order of things suffers. However, the bulk of my business is online and as a business owner, I must tend shop to achieve success. Convenient, yes. I can run my whole business with never getting out of my pajamas if I so pleased.

However, Etsy is also home to thousands and thousands of other jewelry folks. With all of my listing and relisting, photo editing, treasury making, and general networking and cavorting through Etsy's vast online neighborhoods, one would expect that my goals of robust sales and front page appearances are common. Not true. Honestly, I get down right discouraged. If you were a tiny microphone inside my head, you would hearing me screaming like a 4 year old "Pay attention to me, Etsy!"

Then, something like this week happens. A front page appearance twice! My work featured in several treasuries. And good sales as well. I'm reinvigorated and my faith in the Etsy world is restored. I wish I knew how to bottle a great week such as this one. However, good weeks are fickle in the online e-commerce world of ours. Perhaps I should find some bottled patience to aid me through the slower weeks. Here's wishing all of your patience and pacing in reaching your aspirations!

Can You Read This?

I love this button in my latest ring. I bought a set of four from a vendor at a good old Maine flea market. Genuine plastic (like the pairing of those two words?), translucent, and finished with some lovely foreign text. I suppose I could google some of those words and find their origins. Nah, I think a good mystery deepens the interest of this ring. What do you think?

Are you Game?

I landed myself a treasury late last night purely by chance. In celebration of all things Valentine's and slightly naughty, I came up with this treasury titled Love Game. No, Lady GaGa is not a favorite of mine, but I do like the term. Please visit these shops for more fabulously sultry wares!

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!

I love a productive week. On a scale from 1 to 100, this was a 83. Not a super score, but work got done even though my dear girl was extra needing of TLC due to her persistent chest cold. I finished 8 pieces or so. How nice to finally start something from scratch. I tend to start too many pieces and work on all at the same time....delaying their completion in the process.

blossom pendant with a sweet little antique button

dot bangle with 18k gold and ceylon sapphire

sterling bubble earrings

18k heart ring with filigree

Now onto the weekend. It's a cold one here in Maine! I plan to stay close to home, read, and enjoy the family (and maybe sneak off to the studio for an hour or two)! Good bye, January 2010!

Amulet

Finished and listed! Check out my Etsy shop for more images of this piece. My head is bursting with designs for a series of these lovelies! More to come!

Gold Leaf

I'm working on a new take on a old collection of mine: amulets. Once constructed of nickel silver and 18k gold, these new pieces are sterling silver. Currently, the price of gold keeps the lovely metal far out of my reach....I type this with a longing sigh. I LOVE to work gold and add this precious element to my jewelry....especially my amulets. After working with cranky sterling (yes, it is cranky) and even more tough and unruly nickel silver, gold is like butt-ah. And that color, ahhh....

Enter 24k gold leaf. I certainly can't hammer, solder, or bend the leaf, but I can apply it where a piece needs a bit of that golden aura. Tricky to use, gold leaf is thin....amazingly thin. A slight air current from a hand movement or exhaling breath will cause a piece to buckle and tear.

I tore small pieces and used tweezers to transport the leaf to the base of this bezel (the oils on my hands caused it to adhere immediately to my fingertips....I quickly switched to the tweezers). I applied the gold leaf to a sticky, slight coating of epoxy. Ages ago, gilders used the fresh oils straight from the garlic clove as a size. I considered this as an option, but the pungent odor would not be a good selling point.

Finished piece!! I set a quartz cabochon into the bezel and got that splash of gold that this amulet needed. I'm experimenting with gold leaf again today!! Wish me luck!