Lately

Oh hey! It's October isn't it?? The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I haven't even had a chance to take in the fact that it's fall or eat pumpkin pie or go to an apple orchard! It's sad to say but my day job has been taking the better of me. BUT I can't let that last for long. Holiday season is upon us and I'll be participating in Renegade's winter show again which I did last year. Thank goodness for these shows. They keep me motivated and working on my own jewelry in the midst of work chaos. For this holiday season, I'm trying to focus on simpler pieces that will make a nice addition to my current collection. So to help with that, I've been beading...a lot.

It's also been a great meditative thing to do with my hands while I calm down from the day's silly work chaos. I'll keep you posted on my progress. You can't see in the photos but I've racked up quite a collection of various beads and I want (NEED) to make something out of all of them! You ever find you're spending more money on storing these things than actually selling them?? I think I have a collecting problem.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Mr.T and I are spending all day Saturday at a local family farm dinner tour. CANNOT WAIT.

Week-end

It's been another long week full of busy-ness. I ended last week/started the week with a relaxing outdoor excursion to Ravinia Music Festival. I know nothing about Yo Yo Ma, but know he's pretty famous in the classical music world...so why not? Sure! I'll go see Yo Yo Ma! Turned out to be Yo Yo Ma and a few others who formed a quartet and created the Goat Rodeo Sessions. All in all, not what you would expect when you hear 'yo yo ma', but it turned out to exceed my expectations!

In other news, my day job responsibilities have changed drastically. I'm now helping out in our CAM department where we oversee all the rapid prototyping models. So I'll be spending a lot more time with things like this:

I've spent the last 2 years in a customer service/coordinator position so I'm extremely happy to be transitioning into the more technical side of jewelry manufacturing. I'll be learning all the ins & outs of prototyping machines and jewelry casting concepts. It's been a tough transition, not gonna lie. The amount of information is immense but incredible. Who knew there was so much to consider when making jewelry like 'microns', 'metal flow', or 'grow plates'! This is definitely a new challenge I'm taking on but challenges and change are what keep me going.

And while I'm doing all that, I'm still working hard to get ready for Renegade. It's slowly sneaking up...2 weeks now! I've got my display all planned out. If you can't tell, I'm going for more stark contrast and keeping everything very black & white, very minimal.

And like last year, Renegade and Moo.com so graciously offered us Renegade participants free business cards. Just got mine in the mail yesterday :)

I've got another busy weekend ahead of me with finalizing more Renegade details and finishing up a few more pieces. I hope your weekends are filled with busy fun! Have a great Friday and don't let the man get you down!

Hey! It's Friday!

It's been quite a lovely week this past week.

I hosted a 'friend-in-town / friend-got-engaged' party on my porch.

I went to a random Cubs game. I prefer the White Sox over the Cubs...well mostly I prefer Sox fans over Cubs fans...so I usually avoid Wrigley Field at all costs during Cubs games...but it's silly to say no to free tickets so to the Cubs game I went! And look at those seats! Unfortunately, they lost...as usual...

     I also started putting some final touches here and there on some necklaces.

And I relished in the fact that all these pieces are finished! Well minus the small box on the bottom left. I got some soldering to do with those earrings.

Thank goodness some pieces are finishing up because Renegade Craft Fair is in 3 weeks. They've posted all the 300 vendors that will be exhibiting. Nerd alert: it feels so cool to see my little logo there. If you're in the area, please come say hello!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Meager beginnings

It's always cool to go back and see where ideas came from.

Pictured above: Surveyor and Pioneer ring in bronze.

Progress

For those of you who don't follow me on the FB or instagram, I've posted a few action shots of my most recent jewelry making progress. Here they are corralled together for you on one easy convenient blog post.

This is a casting tree. This is how we jewelry people produce multiples.

This is my tumbler in action. This is how we jewelry people clean more than one thing at a time, aka life saver.

Here are my casted pieces all piled up neatly, sitting there, taunting me with the many hours of work ahead.

During one of my many zombie-like filing sessions, I looked down and noticed, "Daaaaang my tool is so badass." It's the little things that keep me going :)

ALSO, another little thing...

Isn't it amazing when the sky turns this deep blue color?? I know, random. But this is one of my favorite colors and I can't believe my camera phone actually caught it. 

Happy Wednesday everybody!

10...9...8...7...6...

My new Fall 2013 Collection: One Small Step, is ready!

Fall?! I know it's only June, but I was really excited to get this out to the world. And I figured since I only release about one collection a year, I'd get some buzz going before Fall actually hits. I do plan on releasing a few more items as the season approaches so don't worry, this isn't it for the year!

Here's a sampling of the new collection:

Happy Memorial Day!

Instead of sunshine and backyard bbqs, I'll be holed up in my apartment doing a little DIY photo shoot. I can't complain though. It's for the new collection and so far the photos are tickling me with excitement. Can't wait to show you the end results!

Hope everyone enjoys their day off! Eat a hamburger for me...and a hot dog...and potato salad...oh dear, I'm hungry.

P.S. If you're looking for an easy set up like I got going on here and you don't have a lot of space and/or money, I recommend getting this light tent set. It came with the two lights too. It's not the highest quality product, but it's getting the job done.

Lifecycle of a bead

As you know, I've been fiddling around with some CAD modeling and have been using it to create some pieces for the new collection. Like a proud parent, I wanted to share with you the birth of one of my bead designs:

Sketches & thoughts

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been developing a new collection for this Fall/Winter. It's been a slow process. A lot slower than I want. 

Sometimes I wish I had the time to crank out a collection for every season like the big fashion houses, but I have to remind myself that I'm only one person. 

Sometimes I freak out and worry time is passing me by and I need to make things happen NOW, but I have to remind myself, I'm only one, still very young person. 

Sometimes I want to quit my day job and concentrate fully on this 'jewelry company' thing, but I have to remember, I'm only one person, and it will be ok because one day, soon, I WILL get there. Since I'm only one person, I have to take small steps, but I'm focusing on making each of those small steps the fullest and greatest steps. Soon, those small steps will amount to big things. 

I've been using this 'small steps' philosophy as inspiration for my new collection which I'll be sharing with you oh so soon! Below are some sketches I've been working on for the new collection's 'logo' (for lack of a better word). Can't wait to show you more!

Attention! Attention!

Look familiar?! Last time you saw these suckers, they were in wax. Here they are in their metal forms, and soon they will join others to form a new collection! Stay tuned for sneak peeks at the others. Hope you have a Happy Monday!

Digital absence

I know it's been very quiet on the blogging front here. Sorry about that. I've been engrossed in a new toy lately and my brain's computing power keeps getting depleted by it daily. I want to blog...but...brain...is...going...brain...dead...can't...think...of...post...

So I figured why not post my toy?!

Taaaa daaaaa! Thanks to a lovely friend, I now own one of the coooolest computer programs out there, Matrix. It doesn't look like much, but this baby can make jewelry like nobody's business. I learned the the program back when I was studying at GIA, but it's been at least 2 years since then so I'm a bit rusty. I'm hoping to fine tune my skills and become a jewelry CAD-ing master! 

I really feel learning this program will open up so many opportunities in my work life and hopefully help me in my own jewelry designs. We'll see! I'll be sure to continue sharing my progression with this new toy and of course, my wax carvings. Even though building jewelry on a computer is pretty freakin' awesome, it will never replace the joy of feeling that file against that buttery wax. 

Building on a motif

Here's another ring I've got going on...I think I've got an obsession: graduating shapes that repeat themselves. I just can't stop making them!

New ring in the works

New things in the works

I've been busy behind the scenes and finally got a few of my waxes I've been working on cast into metal. What will they be?! Earrings? Rings? Beads?? Who knows! The possibilities are endless...well the designs in the first photo are for earring studs. The last two I anticipated to work as beads but I'm not entirely sure how that will play out...stay tuned!

The universe in your hands

I saw this DIY post by Oh Happy Day and immediately thought it would be the perfect touch to add to my jewelry box packaging.

I started off with 3 different colors but felt keeping it simple was the best idea. Plus, using only the white made it feel as if each box was its own little solar system. Seeing them all together was like one giant universe!

Lucky you, future customers, you'll get to wear my jewelry AND hold the universe in your hands.

Been obsessing lately over tiny shapes with a repetitive quality...but I guess that's normal for me.

I'm calling this month Funky February because I realized since my last post, that I'm not the only one feeling grumpy and out of sorts. It's because of this month! I forget that Chicago in February is...for lack of a better word...depressing. At this point, us Chicagoans are just dang tired of the winter and are so ready for Spring. Maybe that's why we go crazy and all out for St. Patty's Day...

ANYWAY...during this funk, I've actually been able to find comfort in my wax carving. Since it's the week of love, I wanted to focus on that love I feel when carving and share with you some of the shapes I've concocted recently. These will eventually morph into earring studs and pendants. Mmmmm...boy it feels good to slide that file on that wax!

A lot of questions I got during the Renegade Craft Fair was whether I had any earring studs available. Well I didn't at the time, but I'm working on changing that! My first stud design is going to be a mini version of my Phoebe earring studs. Yes, a mini stud of a stud. Look! There it is in wax! It's still a work in progress. I'm thinking it still needs to go smaller...

Lifecycle of a Callisto pendant

It starts with the raw casting. That nub you see on the bottom is where the sprue for casting is attached.

 

The first step is to file away the sprue... 

...until it is even and smooth with the rest of the surface.

Then I sand down the rest of the sections starting with a course grit, up to a fine grit. At this point, it is almost to a shiny polish.

Finally, to get that soft brushed texture, I use this polishing wheel and gently press the casting against it as it's spinning.

Last but not least, I create the chain and assemble it to the pendant.