Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Creative Process



I had in my head the perfect post to introduce a series of posts on my creative process.
Can I remember word one of what I wanted to write? Noooo The bread and butter business interrupted my writing with end of year paperwork and insurance and banking and life as we all know it! My perfect introductory post .... is toast!

Ah well, I do remember it had to do with these earrings. They've been on my to do list for the lifetime of my blog to date so I thought they would be really fitting to show off since you've been reading about my needing to make them for so long :)

Every now and again I'll start an awesome project and for various reasons it gets put aside - sometimes for much longer than intended - oops These earrings are the perfect example of that lol

A friend of mine really liked these Sterling silver filigree earrings but the drop is a Swiss Blue Topaz and her birthstone is Golden Topaz.


So I hunted down some Golden Topaz and started the frames, set them aside to wait for the Topaz to arrive and in the meantime........I'll just play with these little cuties over here....... Several pieces later I picked those frames up again to work on them when I realized I didn't have enough 2mm silver beads left to make the earrings and I had JUST placed an order, so put them aside again.

Two orders later I got those silver beads and gathered all the components to make the earrings and, well, I just wasn't in the mood. I had all these other ideas demanding attention and other things I HAD to do, so they sat, and sat, and sat. Until a few days ago when I picked them up again and felt really guilty that an entire year had passed......... So here they are One year and Three months in the making :)

Now thankfully not all of my pieces take so long to make, but it can seem that way when description writing faces that same time dilemma LoL or when it takes two days to write one description because the words just aren't coming even after playing the word association game which is really how I should write my tags!

The Update for the To Do List :) is a little shorter this week!

The talisman got a leather cord instead of chain, that chain ended up a tassel hanging from a Danish love knot at the bottom :) the whole thing took on a very oriental feel and I'm very happy with it. Not bad for I think I'm feeling better, lets try to bend some wire! Needs a description and price, maybe one more pic

Replica of my fav necklace is done - needs pics

Egyptian talisman finally has pics, and a description and finally got listed :) Took me two days to write this lol

Peacock is assembled and waiting for a couple more inches of chain :D yay!

Pulled together all the components to start the valentine earrings -- and a simple pendant not matching just got the idea a few minutes ago lol

Color of the week is yellow and grey - don't have much for yellow but I may try some Hessonite Garnet with some oxidized silver and design it for the simply adorned collection.

Still have a couple descriptions to write - everytime I write one I make another - so I think this is more like laundry - it's NEVER ending lol

oooh just realized the desk is getting cleared of UFO's again time to sketch out a design for the Aventurine Donut I won at Christmas from the Jewelry Connection oh and get to those earrings I sketched out for the Flourite I won on the forum! Oooh fun fun! Jewelry Lessons is also doing monthly challenges now maybe I can play at a charm bracelet for that along the way as well. Time to get busy!

Til next time!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Why Yes I am still kickin'!

Even if just barely :) I've had the flu - upper respiratory tract infection coupled with a nasty sinus infection - or if you listen to me a great case of bronchitis that is seriously draining all my energy. I'm slowly getting back into the routine, but large chunks of time are being used to simply stare at my tools and wire and thinking I should. It's not that I don't want to, it's just I'd rather be curled back up in bed, all snuggly warm, half asleep and listening to Rachael Ray cook things I know would make me instantaneously well if I had just one bite, maybe two.

I do have several posts worked out in my head, I just don't have them worked out in a file yet! So for now we'll play off the last update and let you know how much time I REALLY am staring at my tools!!

update:
Received my Christmas swap items! I love our forum swaps, they are so completely fun! I actually managed a more in detail post on FB, so if you're my friend there, you've already seen :)

My Art with Heart piece did not win round 3. That's ok, it really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I learned several things about my design style and I'm happy with where I took the design. That seems to want to be a blog post too.

My inspiration piece - the Peacock, is waiting for chain and a couple small tweaks to assembly. It still makes me very happy to just look at him!

Got that last chain revamped, STILL needing a couple descriptions to write and pricing. And now I need lots more pics taken too!

SnowFlake jewelry all made, I even managed to throw in a corsage and boutonniere. That corsage is a blog post all it's own....... and was actually intended for todays post - but - I figured at the rate I'm going, it might be another month before I get it written and once a month is slooooow enough for a blog to begin with!

New to the list: I have a pair of earrings a third way done that have been on the to do list for over a year!

A new pair of earrings sketched out - just in time for Valentines, and a woven key the earrings were born of.

A simple talisman of copper waiting for chain and a replica of my daily wear necklace just lacking a couple more inches of being finished.

Now if I could do more than just stare at my tools some of these could get finished and then I could have even more descriptions to write!

I think the family may be expecting dinner so I should get! Til next time!