Sunday, January 30, 2011

Good Influence


A few weeks ago, I read a blog post that started me thinking about my raincoat and how I’d like to give it a facelift. So I finally got the chance to stop by Joann’s yesterday and look at buttons. The original buttons were very conservative (black with a gold crest) on a black and tan trench coat. Forgive the pictures…


Kinda boring…



Here is the new look. Subtle but enough of a difference to please me.


I really love the Art Nouveau look of these!


Here’s the original blog post that gave me the idea:



http://blacklilypie.blogspot.com/2011/01/lil-project-new-coat-buttons.html



I love Tara Fortin’s art, especially her Batcats.

Do What You Love!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.bearchicksundries.etsy.com
www.bearchick.artfire.com

Friday, January 21, 2011

Upgrading Some Designs

One of my goals for this year was to start working with more sterling silver. Studying my displays of earrings, I noticed that I’ve used some beautiful artisan lampwork beads but the other components were plated metals and inexpensive beads and the craftsmanship was not sophisticated. So I decided to do some upgrading on some of my existing designs.

Here’s an example:

 

Before (left): Handmade lampwork beads paired with gold plated brass and iridescent glass beads, with a simple loop. Pretty but the design isn’t worthy of the beautiful artisan beads.



After (right): All sterling silver, plus Swarovski crystals and a wrapped loop at the top. The sterling and Swarovski add sparkle and elegance to the original design and using a wrapped loop is an attention to detail that I’ve come to appreciate over the years.



I have a necklace in a chainmaille design that I plan to upgrade as well. I know this will considerably increase the cost of the pieces but I want to make quality jewelry that will stand the test of time. Reworking pieces that I already made makes me feel like I’m respecting the beautiful beads I used and also growing as a designer. When I was younger, I was impatient to move onto the next “thing”~revisiting something I’d already done was going backwards. Now I understand that there’s satisfaction in improving something I’ve created, knowing that I’ve made it better and added value.

Do What You Love!


www.bearchick.etsy.com

www.bearchicksundries.etsy.com

www.bearchick.artfire.com

Monday, January 10, 2011

Let’s Hear It for Gift Cards!


Among the lovely Christmas presents from The Husband was a Michael’s gift card. I’ve heard that a great percentage of gift cards are never redeemed. Not a problem in this house!!

At The Day Job, I switched from a wall calendar to a desktop model for 2011 and suddenly realized I had a little piece of naked wall beside me.

Michael’s Card + Naked Wall =




This poster was a great size and, really, anything Paris would have been perfect!


Do What You Love!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Sunday is Going too Fast!

Today:

I woke up in an Etsy mood! I posted one handmade pair of Valentine inspired earrings and a few vintage finds:


Heart Beads bought at a bead society meeting, from the estate of one of our members. So pretty!







Two JJ pins, probably from the 70's. JJ's are some of the more comical jewelry you'll find.

I also spent quite a while at online traffic school. Yes, I made a right at a red light, not noticing the NO TURN ON RED signs… They were big red signs, no foliage blocking them, no big trucks in the way. If this has taught me anything, it’s that I have to pay more attention and that’s a good thing. Maybe we should all be required to take a traffic school course every 10 years or so as a refresher…

The Husband will be home from work soon. We’ll have a Hawaiian pizza, in anticipation of the healthy eating we’re starting tomorrow. I fell off the healthy eating wagon in December and got hit by every wheel! Now, I’m soooo ready to eat better and for the health of it, not only to lose some weight. For a while we’d been doing a Jack LaLanne DVD and we’re going back to that as well. I tell ya, getting’ old is not for sissies. Just like driving, you really have to be paying attention and taking care of yourself. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution, it’s just a desire to live as long and as well as I can.

Have a good week, everybody!

Do What You Love!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

What Have I Done Today?


Hmmmm… I’ve been lagging behind on my blogging… Things at The Day Job have gotten busier since we had to lay off one person from our department. The holidays were filled with too much sugar and I got Binge Brain (which means sugar zapped my energy and creativity). I just haven’t had the brain power to blog.


So, I think somedays I’ll just have to virtually mumble about the mundane things I’ve done that day in the hopes of getting some true inspiration.


Today, I dropped The Husband at work, since his ancient VW bus is in the shop. It didn’t pass the smog test. Do NOT get me started on the CA DMV… I had a bunch of errands to do:


My weekly visit to the library, dropped one book, picked up 4 :-)


Stopped at Walmart for a money order and saw this awesome pickup truck--the color drew my eye but I love the entire thing!


Dropped into my eye doctor to confirm how big frames would have to be for my trifocals (yeah, I’m old. So??). I’ve been browsing vintage cat’s eye frames on Etsy.


Braved Brea Bead Works to see if I could find a really small gauge sterling silver jump ring for a commissioned pair of earrings. I couldn’t. Looks like I’ll have to make some jump rings that fit. Wait--if I couldn’t find the jump rings I wanted, how did I spend $38??? Hence why I used the word “braved” BBW’s. Bead stores are rife with temptation. In my defense, though, one thing I bought was for The Mom’s birthday!


Got chicken apple sausages on sale at Sprouts.


Did the grocery shopping. Drove through Carls for a side salad. And a small vanilla shake. With whip cream. I didn’t ask for the whip cream. It just comes with it…


Later on, I picked up The Husband, cooked some of the sausage’s (nom!), watched last night’s CSI:NY with a cat sleeping on my lap and now The Husband is watching some scary movie on SyFy. Think I’ll go try to make some tiny jump rings!


Do What You Love!