So, yea, I kinda took an unofficial week off...

But I had a blast. Between meeting Steve Prescott at the Origins Gaming Convention here in Columbus (yea, I'm kinda a geeky sci-fi gamer girl, one of my many complicated... deep... facets who am I kidding I just like geeky stuff sometimes!) and hanging out at Comfest round firedancers and drum-circles, I pretty much had my week set out for me to do no work and freakin relax. It was lovely.

So, in this post, I give you BOTH the geeky me, some other lovely dressed up types at the Convention, and some jewelry sketches and earrings. That's to make up for last week, fellow blog readers, and I hope you accept my humble apologies.

My husband, Caesar Travis


I mostly make excuses to wear that bustle


Ninjagirl Awesome!


The evening drum circle


The aforementioned firedancer

Adventures in Craft Fair Land

Here are some pictures I took at Hathaway Brown this past weekend. While I didn't make as much as I hoped (it was a little slow, and the weather wasn't fabulous) it was still a good show, and I think it was just a mixture of bad luck that made it not so great this time around. But... I did have lots of time to take these beautiful pictures, socialize with the locals, eat sausages and grass fed all natural ice cream, and meet some fabulous artists!

But, without further ado, here's my photos.

Hathaway Brown, here I come!

So, I do have some more images that I'd like to post, but it will have to be when I get back from...

I'm pretty much prepping tonight after work, then working tomorrow, and driving up to Cleveland after that to attend the show! Whew! Time flies! SO, any who want to come and attend this fabulous show (150 artists juried out of a selection of 600 from all over the country) and visit me, I'll be there Friday and Saturday pretty much all day. YAY!!

Something else I'd like to share... I've been reading lots of small business type blogs, and gaining more motivation and information every day from these girls (since they are pretty much unanimously women writing them). On Modish Biz Tips they have this monthly to-do list of goals that they all put out there publicly on their blog so it kinda keeps them on target, and also acts as kind of a support group by being able to see other people's goals. I'm going to join in! Although its in the middle of the month, and these are lofty goals for just one month... a girl's gotta start somewhere.

June/July

1. Make website look professional
2. Create new business cards
3. Create new logo/branding for Anima Metals
4. Work on new designs for jewelry
5. Work on jewelry designs for portfolio pieces based around a concept
6. Start putting together a postcard for galleries and boutiques
7. Keep up on craft show deadlines
8. Create work I can enter into competitions
9. Purchase 500 enamels book
10. Small Business taxes done and mailed


Voila! I will see all of you after the weekend... wish me luck!

Frames, kitties, and jewelry oh my!

Faithfully following my golden brick road of checklists today (I'm not sure that makes sense... but I have to stick with the post title somehow), I actually got a bunch of stuff done for my craft show next weekend! Chief among these were the frames I put together as parts of my new display in my booth. My cats were super helpful, as you can see below. Just so chipper and inspiring... not only with the composition of my photos, but as stand in models for some shoots I want to take in the future. They're so brilliant *sniff* I'm just so proud of them!

First, the frames:


Faustus helping me take pictures:


And finally Mika, too tired to argue. This is vengeance for when he jumps on my head in the morning to poke me with his wet nose:

Holy Shiny new Earring Cards Batman!

These are just a few of the images of my brand new earring cards! For those of you who don't know, earring cards are things that you hang earrings on. And they showcase my earrings kinda nicely... I don't have any images of these guys on the web yet. They're like cute little newborn internet stars! With any luck, my plan will work. That plan being that I'll sell all of these at the Hathaway Brown Craft Show, and get to remake some brand spankin new pretty fellas. In the meantime, enjoy this cascading array of shiny enamel babies.


ZAP!
KA-POW!!!

BAMBOOZLE!!! (i'm not sure how you bamboozle someone, but i'm puttin it there anyway, you try and stop me!)

The Tale of How

An amazing animation by some guys called The Blackheart Gang. Found this on one of my favorite blogs, Ectoplasmosis! It was circulating the web last week I think, but I still think its fabulous enough to share again.

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

That's not a beading board... THIS is a beading board

Yea, I'm still workin on it. YAY!

Blue spiral with green pebbles

Voila! C'est magnifique! And from a little bit ago, but I know you forgive me. I'm working dammit, no time for pictures. Soon... soon....

Hathaway Brown Craft Fair

Most of my days are being spent preparing for this! Check out the link if you're interested, or if you live near Cleveland and want something awesome to do two weeks from now. There's a coupon for admission on the site, as well as a list of participating artists, including my fabulous self.

I have been working on more than these...

... but I've been more focused on the makin' and less on the photos. I'll remedy that, one day, dear friends.

I made these frames for my booth display yesterday. They were a great buy at an antique store up in Clintonville. The plan is to dangle them on either side of my tent, inside the new walls I've purchased, so it'll look like I've got jewelry instead of paintings on the walls. I'm excited to see it in action! And slightly anxious to see that it works. But how could hanging an antique picture frame from a velcroed tent wall with lots of earrings on it go wrong?

After putting these babies together I went to see David Sedaris speak at the Book Loft. Well, more like listened, we were all packed in and back where my friend C and I were we couldn't really see him. But it was still hillarious. One of my favorite stories involved a woman who taught the special ed classes at high school, and Sedaris asked her "Aren't they mostly just assholes, like, isn't that why they're in special ed?" "Exactly," she agreed, then went on to describe how on the last day of school one of the kids had written that she was a "Cockmaster" on the board, and she was just happy he spelled it right.

Hehehe.

A million studio pictures

So, I took a bunch of pictures tonight for no particular reason. I was workin on various things, and got some pictures of those in progress, in addition to the magical wonderful place I call my studio.

In order of post: 1. All the pieces I'm working on right now 2. My new root branch series 3. Various test pieces I keep by the kiln to try out color combinations 4.The kiln, bakin at 1339F 5. Some pieces that have just had purple enamel dusted on them

Goin back in time with my playlist tonight: Rasputina (thanks for the ether) and VNV Nation (i'm not sure which album, actually)

Sketches

Ok, so I lied about posting in progress work. I'm feelin kinda crappy tonight, so I decided to chill, watch some Bones and do some sketches instead of get into hardcore jewelrymakin. So, here's the result. Brainstorming some new designs.
Also, the lightning outside today is freakin awesome! Really large and beautiful. Go outside and look!