Jewelry model, no lunch breaks, and lemon drops...
I'm working on adding a section to my website with the new fashion line. What a challenge to figure out how to organize it. I am thinking of 3 sections, one for each metal finish: antique silver, antique brass, and brushed gold. It is so beautiful out today that I set up a little photo session on my porch with my loyal model we affectionately call 'Jewel-lie.' Snapped this photo and have this ahhhhhh feeling of 'this is why I do this work.' 
Lemon drops, am I right? Or is it Italian Ice? Maybe I'm hungry....
This is Jewel-ie, who is never hungry. She works for cheap at all hours day or night and never takes breaks, not even to eat. She's non-union for now, but I feel kind of bad about it.
Vintage charm sweep me off of my feet...
Thanks to everyone for making my small business Saturday a success. (Internet orders are packed and ready to mail on Monday.) My friend Maria stopped by with these amazing vintage charms, so we worked together to create this fab necklace. I hated to let it out of my sight. If anyone has a source for these charms I'd trade a couple of eye teeth or a small West Highland terrier...
Ups-a-daisy!
Loving these earrings in sterling silver with my groovy glass daisies and key charms. $50
My gift to (fellow) geeks: The QR code for my latest newsletter !
I'm about to lose my mind to cyber-space. (I initially wrote loose and that could apply too, loosing my mind onto the world of cyber.) I think someone should write a novel in which two cyber cloud satellites collide and it rains random information across the globe.
I finally updated my home page. It only took me three days, but I got this bonus QR code in the process. Too bad I don't have an iphone to confirm that it works. Though I have mused about iphonery, I'm too much of a tightwad and I don't think I can handle the learning curve.
In my two days of home page updatement (updatery?) I made this little slideshow with music. Move over Mr. Spielberg.
November 24th, Small business Saturday pre-sale: Spend $300 get $100 off!
To clean my sterling and glass jewelry (just glass and silver, no pearls, crystals, or semi-precious stones), I make a dip by lining a glass casserole with aluminum foil, adding 2 tablespoons each of baking soda and salt, then filling it 2/3 full with hot water. Dip and rinse. 
A customer stopped by today to pick up a gift, good incentive to get cracking on setting up my holiday display. I'm still musing about natural history museum drawers and specimen boxes. I found these shadow boxes tucked away in a closet. I just need add a few pinned Japanese beetles and butterflies and I'll be good to go. (kidding)
Now that I'm on a roll with my display, I've decided to have a pre-sale November 24th, Small Business Saturday. From 11am-4pm, spend $300 and get $100 off. My new fashion line of pendants are just $35 and earrings priced at an affordable $22. For $200 you can check friends, family, co-workers, and teachers off of your shopping list, and still have a little extra to spoil yourself!
Lemon lime earrings, music to my ears...
I'm loving these lemony glass earrings with Herkimer diamond quartz chunks.They've got me singing 'Lola, L-O-L-A Lola" for some reason. 
And these I call 'candy discs.' My favorites are lime flavored... too pretty too eat. All earrings pictured are sterling silver and priced at $50, a good deal in light of silver prices!
Think of me on Small Business Saturday, November 24th! Holiday show coming up soon... I'm thinking the weekend of December 1st. (I'll keep you posted.) If you need gifts before then, feel free to email me for an appointment. Since my pieces are 'one of a kinds' (and since I am my own I.T. guy), it's impossible to keep current photos up and linked to the shopping cart. Just email me with price range, item type, and colors and I can email you photos and prices. Don't forget I ship!
If you feed them, they will come and speaking bird...
My front garden is becoming my tropical version of the birdie day spa I created in Maryland. The thistle seed feeder has attracted what I confirmed to be a purple finch, using my trusty Peterson's Field Guide (and a teensy peek at the internet.) Peterson's was a staple of my youth. Growing up,we kept a running list of all the birds we spotted from our deck in Massachusetts. Maybe I am easily amused, but I crack up at the field guide's descriptions of the bird calls. I already speak Cardinal, Nuthatch, Titmouse, and Chickadee. Here are some languages I hope to pick up:
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak features "metallic kick or eek." I'm already proficient in 'eek,' just ask my family. I'm pretty good at kick too. The Cardinal has a short chip, but I have not mastered the finer idioms of "what-cheer cheer cheer or whoit whoit, etc." (Yes, the guide specifies 'etc.' Cardinals have a working knowledge of Latin. Who knew?) The Indigo Bunting and I share the occasional "sharp thin spit."
Peterson distinguishes between the Warbler's tory-tory-tory and churry-churry-churry. The Louisiana Water-Thrush is know for "clear slurred whistles," probably a New Orleans influence, a little too much rouler les bon temps at the birdbath. I will close with the Oven-Bird's 'chertea, CHERTEA, CHERTEA' because I need to get into my studio and quit this entertaining of self. Peterson notes that in some regions, Western Virginia for example, the "song becomes monosyllabic with little change of emphasis TEACH, TEACH, TEACH etc." Those Virginians are big into education even if they can't pronounce house. My poor mother still endures our mimics of her "get oh-oo-t of the hoh-oo-s." Virginian is like Canadian with serifs.
Please don't eat the daisies...
These new glass flowers are making me want to make candy versions. Yum!
Picked these sweets for you...
Yesterday I was reminiscing about Lifesaver candies. I need to make some lime flavored ones today. And I am adequately fueled. I baked some whole wheat sourdough this morning and ate it with farmer cheese and my favorite though hard to find jam, Bon Maman Plum (formerly Damson Plum... a lovelier name by far.)
Too bogged to blog... but semi-famous!
Sorry for the lack of posts cyber world. My lack of virtual activity is no reflection on my actual activity. (Well, maybe a little.) I've been putting in a fall flower garden. The day before yesterday, I went to inspect my plants' progress and noticed that where sunflower seeds were formerly patted down beneath soil, they were presently unearthed and split in two like Easter eggs. Some vermin or other had a hay day, but they left my cosmos seeds alone. They are coming along nicely, in spite of my planting them completely out of season. Take that seed packet instructions!
The article about me came out in Orlando Arts Magazine and the editor was kind enough to send me the pdf so here 'tis. I'm gearing up for a jewelry show before the holidays. I just need to keep my hands out of the dirt and get myself organized!
New antique silver...
I just got my shipment of antique silver brass chain. Nice look for a nice price. The necklaces are $35 and the earrings $22. Clasps facilitate pulling a switcheroo to a different pendant.
Going, going, gone!
This piece was such a hit it's already gone! I'm loving these long necklaces with a cross bar for added bling. This one has a copper clay coin and architectural pendant along with a chunk of Herkimer quartz, some retro rhinestones, and a vintage clasp. Don't you love this? No worries. I took these pictures so that I could make some more.
What's in your pockets?
These new pieces feel like jewelry collages. I love sitting at my bench and seeing what bits and pieces fall together. That is how I got the idea of tucking the vintage shell into brass filligree. I think of these as 'Natural history of your great aunt's necklace.' A little vintage, stones, minerals, glass, shells, animals, pre-industrial age steampunk. In the 1850's I would put on this necklace to set off my long black/purple tafetta dress with a bustle and my button top boots, then check on my husband in his chemistry lab with all those glass tubes and bubbling liquids.
Another storm...
Zuzu resorted to under the bed. Contrary to her own belief system, she does not fit. At least I know where to look should I need her in a crisis.
Dalmatian drama...
I'm recovering from knee surgery with our poor dogs who will never get acclimated to Florida thunderstorms. Charlotte shakes and drools, while Zuzu finds solace by wedging herself between the bed and the night stand. 
Is she praying? Holding her breath?
New necklaces and earrings available at OMA gift shop!
I just dropped off 15 necklaces and 7 pairs of earrings at the Orlando Museum of Art's gift shop. The gold electroplated brass makes these pieces super affordable as gifts or to wear layered. Earrings are just $22 and pendant on chains are $35. Go check 'em out and tell them the artist sent you!
Found out my timing is pretty perfect. I the featured arts in Orlando Arts November/ December Magazine, I am also listed in their holiday gift guide. Not only that, an exhibit of contemporay glass sculpture starts at the museum on December 22nd. Can't wait!
On a roll...
My roll of wonder is finally losing the Lorax look that was stressing me out.