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Monday, March 26, 2007

Focusing

I have started focusing more on getting ready for the Eugene Saturday Market to start up again. It starts the first weekend in April. We paid our membership fees and reserved our same old reserve booth space on the corner of 8th and Park West across from the Farmer's Market. It's always a great break to get away from there after the holidays and have my weekends free. Etsy has really improved our income during those off months but it's not enough to keep me away from the market for good.
So I have started listed some stuff on Etsy that I have in stock that I won't be selling at the market like this 12k Gold Filled Double Spiral Necklace. The gold filled stuff never really did that well at the market. It's more of a silver crowd I guess. But it works really well in this design, one of our oldest.






I also started listing some of our big glass simple pendants. They look great as chokers on the hip young girls. The regular ladies can pull it off too but usually on a longer cord. Someday I'll get it together to provide a cord with a clasp or a chain. But todays not that day.
Henry has been quite the little helper these days. He helped me drill abalone the other day. We held the drill press handle together and pulled it down to drill the holes. We'll have him drilling those things on his own in no time. Maybe when he's 5.
He also went under the house with me to help me jack up the parts where the posts were just swinging freely, unattached to the ground. He handed me the wood I needed to slip into the space and went back and forth getting me drill bits etc. He told me he was my butler. You see, having kids really does pay off.




Here are some pictures of my little butlers. Apparently rowing with brooms doesn't get you very far in cousin Peter's canoe.
This picture is before Max but the paint brush up his nose .

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

My Love Affair With Aluminum

I am somewhat obsessed with Aluminum. It is the poor relative of the precious metals . She has been overlooked by the rest of the jewelry world and I am here to show her some love and attention. You don't have to be valued at $14 an ounce or more like the ever popular silver in order to be worn on women's ears. Perhaps I am over anthropomorphizing this simple metal. I just hate pretentiousness which is what so much of the craft, art and jewelry world is about. Aluminum is the unpretentious metal. She is soft and squishy- which is perhaps why I relate to her so well. She is maleable, yet strong and oh so light and airy.
She is the metal that made flight possible. And she makes some lovely big hoop earrings.
So open yourself up to the possibility of aluminum. I'll stop now before this becomes too creepy. But you'll be seeing more aluminum stuff from me in the future as I hammer away in the dining room in between parenting, much to my family's dismay. Henry has told me "Too loud! I need peace and quiet!"
You may notice a fancy bit of 'puter graphics on the side bar. The Etsy site provided this handy piece of code so that you can see more of what's for sale on our Etsy shop. You can click on the photo to go directly to that item in our "store".


Here is my favorite airplane lover, Max, showing his favorite plane and here he is kissing Daddy.


Saturday, March 03, 2007

Living Large







Big Light Weight Snakey Squigly Aluminum Earrings

Loopy Bliss Cross Aluminum Earrings
I've been having a lot of fun lately smashing aluminum wire with my hammer. I had a vision of these big funky urban yet primitive earrings and I just sort of went with it. I really love them and think they look great but they don't really work with my semi rural Oregon Mom lifestyle. It just seemed like aluminum was the perfect medium for doing the big funky statement earring because it is so light weight. I made the earwires out of 20 gauge sterling silver which is a little thicker than the earwires I normally purchase from Abeada. Those little wires didn't fit around the 9 gauge aluminum and they needed something more substantial to fit their proportions.

They haven't sold yet but I keep listing them on Etsy in the hope that someone else will get my vision. Of course that's always the hope of the jeweler isn't it? We had very good sales in February which fed our fragile egos but March is having the opposite effect.
Here is the link for the Big Spiral Swirl Aluminum Light Weight Earrings.

I think I'll smash some more aluminum now...