omgwtf its a new post

So, yea, its been since September. I've been slacking. But work takes priority this time of year. I've been to Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Austin, Detroit, Philadelphia, Albany and Brooklyn all in the short time span of the past two months. It's been pretty fun, but as always, pretty exhausting as well.

But enough about all that. I've been doing some jewelry lately! Last week I soldered some bails onto some ancient coins, which of course I neglected to take pictures of. But they turned out nicely, its been awhile since I've soldered anything (not having a torch of my own) and it was comforting to know things like that are akin to riding bikes.

In my travels, I've seen some amazing artwork. Mostly from High School students. Granted they've got more time, but they've been puttin me to shame. I've had some ideas festering in the back of my brain lately, mostly about gender, myth, and sexuality. Still working them out, but I did do some sketches today of some silhouettes I like. And I'll be working on some more etched pieces for the CCAD art sale next weekend. Come out and see me if you're in the Columbus Ohio area!

Also, Here is the information for the CCAD art sale. Ciao!

The Temple of Hephaestus

I've been the anti-productive. Mostly cause... I'm trying to get things done before I start traveling the country once more for my lovely admissions job at CCAD. Fall is visit high schools and do portfolio day season.

And so I dedicate this post to Hephaestus. May he forgive me for not working harder with my evening time, and inspire me to start. And for the love of baby jesus get me into the jewelry lab this semester to use the dapping block and roll press.

Picture background experiments

I've been working on a few things tangential to actual jewelry creation the past week, thus the lack of posts. For example, I've been belaboring the monumental task of recreating my business cards. But Kira, you must be thinking, what's so difficult about uploading a few pictures too moo.com and putting your info on the back and voila! Magnifico! Amore! Encore! (and other random foreign language descriptors)

Well... there's branding to consider. There's showing off how I want my jewelry to look, while communicating that it still looks like said jewelry to the person who wants to buy it, as well as conveying whatever I want "Anima Metals" to mean visually. Which I still think needs streamlining. Eeeeeeeee. And the fact that I suck at photography.

After a long debate today, my husband and I decided that it needed some kind of rock to sit on, to communicate the idea of the ancient, relic, and spiritual flavors I'm going for. So here's some experimental pictures of that idea.

Originally, I had thought to abstract the pieces by cropping them to the extreme, thusly:



But, Travis once again expressed his disdain for that swirly background behind them. His reasoning is totally sound too, it being high contrast and distracting from my jewelry. He also had the good insight to mention you couldn't tell what the hell you were looking at when it was that abstracted. Sigh. So then, the rock idea. As follows:

Another artist inspiration post

Richard Salley's work calls out to the junk collector and steam punk in me. His work is really intricate, and involves so many different materials and techniques. I love looking at his new creations.

Image Dump

Some new pictures I took this weekend. Some old pieces with some better captures I think. And the new ones, and nicer images of the earrings. Enjoi!

Oh hai

So, I had meant to put up some more pictures last night, but then I got distracted by errands and getting new cell phones (Saumsung Eternity through AT&T, we'll see how that turns out). Also we're canceling our cable. I know. Crazy, right? Turns out, there's just not much I wanna watch on TV anymore. At least, nothing I can't watch on Hulu or somewhere else online.

In lieu of sharing some of my jewelry, I'll share some of my recent inspirations.




Modern myth illustrations by Joao Ruas. Beautiful light, characters, and monsters.

This enamel work is so amazing, and reminds me of some of the work I was doing back in college with nerve endings mimicking natural roots and trees. Tricia Harding's jewelry is like if Queen Victoria listened to Tool.

Spacey cupcakes

So... I may or may not have decided to make spacey blue vanilla cupcakes this evening. They're not only beautiful, but also delicious. Spongey blue awesomeness. Sometimes... you need to step away from the jewelry and make dessert.

Kinda productive night!

1. Eat buffalo burgers for dinner with husband
2. Watch Lars and the Real Girl, get kinda teary
3. Heat up the kiln and put in my Battlestar Galactica Soundtrack
4. Finally finish two of these guys with an antique patina!

A more perfect website sketch

I like this layout a lot! I put in some placeholder images to give an idea of what the first page will eventually look like. Still working out the kinks, but I think its getting better. Critique?

Website sketches I'm working on

They're a work in progress, just mapping out some very basic layout colors and patterns. I kinda like em. I feel like they're getting somewhere...

Show over

So, Yellow Springs was yesterday, and it was kinda a bummer. Between the ten-million degrees + humidity that we had all day, the hour drive, the incredible amount of jewelry competition, browsers, and economic woes people were claiming... well, suffice to say it was a low sales day. I've had the worst luck this summer with shows! Next on my list? Galleries and retail, I hope. (crossin fingers). Anyone else having bad luck at craft shows this summer?

Anyway, here's my brief photo documentary. In between entertaining the browsers, I took some booth photos and the show in both directions from me. I've got to watch True Blood in about 20 minutes, so no jewelry tonight!