My Mom!

I cannot believe my mother's good fortune. On her first day on Etsy with only one product in her shop, she is selected for a Treasury!

Her Christmas Crazy Quilt is in the lower left corner. Check out her shop -- MagpieTreasureTrove (I designed her banner) and her blog Sandy's Coloring Box and send her some bloggy love.

And the Winner is . . .

I have been so busy (and who isn't at this time of year) that didn't get to the nitty gritty of choosing a Randon Winner. So, without further ado . . .

I did the count of all your wonderful comments and the winner is Stephanie Teufel.

She lives in Germany and likes chunky jewelry. So I am going to make something special for her.

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Stefanie, send me a message {artymezia(!at)yahooDOTcom} with your address and your favorite color(s).

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Thanks again, everyone, for all your comments. That was a super fun challenge and blog hop. And Thank You Erin, for hosting all the fun.

Oh, and a reminder: 10% discount in my Etsy Shop until midnight Friday. I have added a few new things. And as always, Free Shipping!

Color Challenge Blog Hop

Erin Prais-Hintz over at Treasures Found is having a blog hop! We all signed up for a challenge to make a necklace with colors inspired by Paint Store Color Chips. I got these:

The names of the colors are Jaunty Red, Perfect Harmony, Worn Sail (cream), and Bauhaus Gold.

As a matter of fact, I told my mom about the challenge and she said she wanted to "play" too, so I cut my sample in two and gave her half. Check out her blog too.

So, you want to see wha t I did for my challenge? I Love the colors and was thoroughly taken by them -- even my opening photo (top) shows my inspiration: the Jaunty Red berries of our Yaupon holly bush. The coral and fancy jasper work in Perfect Harmony with the Bauhaus Gold of the faceted citrine. (Sorry, I just couldn't work in the Worn Sail, oh, wait -- I just did!)

Jaunty Red Berries

I was also inspired by two of my favorite Etsy designers: Liz Martin at Mostly Details who sent me a batch of beautiful orphan lampwork beads including these three in the perfect colors and Lynn Davis at LynnDavis who gave me the gorgeous pewter connector some time ago. It was waiting for just the right project.

What do you think?? Leave a comment for a random drawing (deadline Midnight Sunday December 5th). The winner will receive something special from me, just for you.

Here's the list of the rest of the incredibly talented Jewelry Artists who are participating in the challenge.

Now, HOP ALONG!

Alice Peterson
Amy Freeland
Beth McCord
Brandi Hussey
Cary Scholes
Catherine Pruitt
Cindy Wimmer
Claire Maunsell
Cory Tompkins
Courtney Breul
Cristi Clothier
Cynthia Riggs
Emanda Johnson (X You are Here)

Sandy Richardson (Emanda's Mom -- unofficial hopper)
Erin Prais-Hintz
Holly Westfall
Janea McDonald
Jeannie Dukic
Jennifer Cameron
Judy Campbell
Karyn White
Keirsten Giles
Kelly Morgan
Kristie Roeder
Kristin Stevens
Lisa Godfrey
Lisa Tracy
Lori Anderson
Mallory Hoffman
Marie Voyer-Cramp
Mary McGraw
Nicole Keller
Nicole Valentine
Paige Maxim
Patty Gasparino
Rebecca Anderson
Renate Stark-Krammer
Rita Parra
Shannon Chomanczuk
Sheila Summers
Stefanie Teufel
Yelisa Rojas

Shop Happy!

I am having a sale in my Etsy Shop --

10% off of everything.

Just use the coupon code SHOPHAPPY10

The sale lasts until December 10th

And, as always, FREE SHIPPING

A Day with my Mom

Mom and I spent the day together at a bead show and when we returned to her home and I helped her set up and Etsy account. Her new shop is: MagpieTreasureTrove
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While I was showing her the ropes, I posted a new component from my DreamCastings called Parrot Wings


I am offering this wing design in several different colors and color combinations. Just imagine what kinds of stories they could help tell in your narrative jewelry paired with gemstones or found objects.

Mom doesn't have anything in her shop YET, but just you wait.

Counting Treasures

This morning I was surprised to discover a pair of my earrings included in a great treasury compiled by one of the members of the local group. Just this week I joined the local Etsy team (Etsy Denton). I met most of these folks a couple of weeks back when they had a Barn Sale. I have been looking for a community like this!

Other happenings in my life: I am now employeed on a regular basis by a little manufacturing company that makes Pewter Miniatures. I am doing quality control (QC) for them, which uses my keen attention to detail. I use to run a slide library -- when slides were still used for lectures -- in an Art Department and then at a Museum. Back then I could read the captions on the 35mm slides that were photographed from books and magazines without a loupe or magnifier. My vision is not what it use to be but I can still catch a metal boo-boo.

Also, I have one listing (and hope to add more soon) for pewter wings to be used as components. You have seen some of them in previous listings, but I am still perfecting them. The new catagory in my shop is "DreamCastings". Look out for Angel Wings to be added soon.

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Something Sublime's Deryn Mentock has drawn my name TWICE in two recent giveaways. Looks like my luck is turning around. Maybe I should buy a Lottery Ticket.

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Erin of Treasures Found is having a color challenge and I chose Fall Colors. The reveal will be December 3, 2010. I have been seeing the rich red hues that is the strongest color on the paint chip she sent me in the fall foliage. The other colors on my sample are much more timid creams and tans. I am definitely feeling the challenge, both in design and in time constraints. Where has the Fall gone?

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That's the news from me.

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What is squeezing your challenge muscle?

Still here . . .

Yep, I am still here. Getting over a nasty allergy/upper respiratory infection, cough, cough, a-a-achoo.

I lost all (ALL!) the photos of my jewelry on a faulty storage disk, so I don't have anything pretty to show. Hopefully I will get a chance to do some work this weekend.

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I will just leave you with a peek at our pups Windsor (12 years) and Lindi (for Lindisfarne 5 years). Both are very shaggy Miniature Schnauzers.

Thanks for checking in. What are you up to these days?

An Experiment

I have been experimenting with the lovely pewter pieces I have accumulated recently. Nan Emmett and I talked for a long time about what I could and should do with them.

Remember this set of necklace and earrings I made while on vacation?

The silver finish is beautiful, but I have access to a process that will allow me to add color to the finish. Also, I am thinking about offering these as components in my Etsy Shop, so you can add them to your creations.

This is a a spooky, scary Halloween bat pendant I started while on vacation too.

Would you like to finish it? How would you use it?

Should I 1) make it available as a component

or

should I 2) finish it and post it on Etsy?

I finished the bat-wing earrings with blood-red coral tear-drop beads.

And here's another design of bat-wings as earrings.

I just love these small wings. Either as blackbird wings . . .

Or humming bird wings. These two pairs of wings are from the same mold, but they have a completely different feel because of the colors used.

While I was working on the wings below, I was reminded me of Hummingbird Wings and the blog Deryn Mentock wrote ( Something Sublime ) last Wednesday about a poor little hummer that died flying into her closed window. These wings are about the right size for a Hummingbird too. The same colors on a larger wing remind me of a parrot's wing. This design has hole on the tips of the separate feathers for dangling tiny jewels or to create an asymmetrical design.

So here are some questions for you:

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How would you use these pieces?

Would you want to buy them as components?

or as finished pieces (necklaces, earrings, etc)?

Would you want to be able to specify coloration?

Would you want to have them available with stones/beads/crystals?

Or without?

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I feel as though I am on the very edge of a new direction and I value your opinions.

Please leave a comment.

My Friend Nan

So here I am on vacation in Galveston. Nan Emmett lives in Houston. We have never met until yesterday. She drove down to enjoy a day at the beach.

Okay, so this isn't the MOST flattering photo of us.

But it was a gorgeous breezy day, what do you expect?

Here we are exchanging goodies.
Yumm-O! (I will post better photos later, but click the "Yumm-o" to Nan's Etsy shop.) We spent a couple hours walking along the beach collecting shells and watching the sea life.
We had the beach to ourselves (along with my sweet hubby)!

. . . and this mighty fisherman, dancing with a Black Drumfish.

The fish was HUGE!

Nan and I had a great discussion about our jewelry businesses and how to improve and diversify our individual product. You will be seeing some results of this discussion in the future.

Have you ever had a heart-to-heart with someone you respect that changed your direction?

I'm on Vacation!

To quote Billy Crystal in City Slickers, "I'm on VACATION!!"
We have escaped for almost two weeks to Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island. We are a couple of minutes walk from the beach and have enjoyed many hours wading through the surf and beachcombing.
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When we are not on the beach, we relax with a good spy novel and quiet hours with our dogs. While my husband reads aloud to me (Daniel Silva's novels are very engaging!) I make jewelry. I brought a few beads and crystals along with my peweter pieces from Reaper Miniature. Here are a couple of things I put together:

And this:

And this -- I ran out of earring findings, so imagine these with lever-back finding. Spooky, huh? I am thinking about Halloween.

Tomorrow Nan Emmett from Spirited Earth and Spirit Rattles is coming down from Houston for lunch, a walk on the beach and some "serious" jewelry talk. I cannot wait!

Do you take your jewerly stuff with you on vacation?

My New Camera

After a couple of false starts, I received my new camera in the mail -- actually, "Brown" (What can Brown do for you?) attempted to deliver twice and my sweet husband went to the local depot to collect it on the second day. I was away at a four day quilt retreat and picked it up later.

I still have to learn the tips and trick to this new camera -- it is kind of like my old one (may it rest in peace), but I will just have to play with it. This is the first photo I took with my new camera -- a two-color quilt I started and finished in the last four days at retreat.

It is for a National Fabric and Craft chain's challenge and all will need to be completed by December 18th to be considered. I was a semi-finalist in a similar contest for the same chain several years ago. As I get closer to completing the work I will give more details. And here is a detail of a photographic nature:

The block pattern is an off-centered square in a square called "Happy Hour" but I drafted it myself to be an 8.5" block. The setting and borders are of my own design and I wanted two of the squares to have "runaway centers". I will need to applique these in place.

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Speaking of running away, my husband and I will be going away to the gulf coast for a few days. I will not have internet and so will probably get very far behind in my reading of blogs and certainly in my writing of them. I will post photos and details when we return, but I sure am looking forward to quiet walks on the beach and hours spent reading and beading.

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If you were to run away, where would you go and what would you do?

Arrrgh!

Dang it! My camera broke!

What will I do until its replacement arrives?

(Not my camera. Hey, I don't have a working camera. Remember??)

Cindy's Giveaway

The Lampwork Diva, Cindy Gimbrone, is having a fabulous bead giveaway to celebrate five year (5 YEARS!) blogging. Go on over to her blog {HERE} and sign up to win this bead stash.

"Who cooks for you? Who? Who?"

We had another interesting visitor to our wild backyard:
a barred owl.

(I did not have my camera with me, but I found this photo online.)

My husband called me into the kitchen to peek out the window overlooking our little fish pond and there is was -- beautiful! I happened to have been going through a gorgeous deck of Celtic divination cards I bought for the images. The card in my hand when he called me to see this beauty was the Moon card -- night and wisdom. I find inspiration anywhere I can, don't you?

Our visitor did not make its distinctive call for us ("who cooks for you?"), but check out this Youtube clip for a great close-up and its mating call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c

And the winner is . . .

Pam from Klassy Joolz.

Pam won this pair of wings:

I cannot wait to see what she does with them!

Thank you all for your comments. I guess I will have to do some more giveaways in the future.

Hmmm, I saw some really cool bat-wings the other day at work, I wonder,

would anyone be interested in them for

a Halloween-ish giveaway? (Do tell!)

(Pam, Send me your mailing info via my email: artymeziaATyahooDOTcom)

Reminder -- Wings Giveaway

Don't you just love these beauties from Reaper Miniatures? They could be yours. Leave a comment on the previous post to have your name put in the drawing. The deadline is midnight Friday September 10th.

If I had but Wings to Fly . . .

. . . and I do!

Click on the photo to take a look at the lovely details.

A four-pack set of angel wings is just $10 {HERE}

I have been enjoying working at Reaper Miniatures (as I mentioned in my last post). Along the way I have collected some gorgeous pewter pieces and the photo above is only a sampling. All these components are part of a larger piece or grouping, but I think each one would make a beautiful component for jewelry. My fingers are itching to get some time to play with these pieces and to come up with a stunning jewerly design.

It is not quite like visiting a hardware store and being inspired by the "cool stuff" you find there, but have you ever found jewelry components from way out in left field, so to speak?

I am having a giveaway of the large curved wings on the bottom left. Who is interested?

Here is what you do by September 10th at midnight:
* Leave a Comment on this post (yeah, the one you are reading!) for one chance to win
*Another chance is yours if you:
1) become a follower and post another comment to tell me
2) go to my Etsy Shop and "Heart" a piece (and post another comment with the link to the item)
3) Blog about the giveaway (and post another comment with the link)

There. That is four opportunities to win the angelic pewter wings.

Good Luck!

I Haven't Disappeared!

I have been working as a temporary employee in QC (Quality Control) at a local manufacturing company, Reaper Miniatures.

Frumitty, Lemur Cleric from Reaper Miniatures

If you are slightly geeky, you might know about the company. They make pewter miniature figures associated with World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, and other fantasy games. The owners are friends of ours and they hired me on when they were swamped with two huge contracts for special edition pieces. I have been very happily busy for about two months and will continue for about another month. (Yeah!)

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As the individual pieces are cast they are put in a bin which is handed to me to inspect for casting errors (soft spots, missing limbs, cracks, rough patches etc.). Apparently, I am very good at this. I have collected some components to use in jewelry -- wings and things. Stay tuned.

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Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps my next career (#6 and counting) will be in Quality Control.

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Here is a couple of questions for you:

How many careers have you had?

Which one has been your favorite career?

My Little Landscape Quilt is Featured

My "Older Than Stonehenge" applique quilt has been included in the Etsy Team Blog: Quilts and Heirlooms . The image links to my Etsy Account. I am thrilled!

The post is the second in a series -- check it out.

Backyard Visitor

Almost every early evening lately, if we are still and quiet, we get a special visit from a young Cooper's Hawk to our bird bath. Sometimes he only stays a minute or two, recently he stayed 41 minutes.

We are truly touched by grace.



Isaiah 40:31
. . . but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Hannah

Hannah Nicole Harris 1994-2010

I am still too sad to write much, but thank you for your comments and prayers. Here is a nice article in the local Florida paper {HERE} .

Maybe next week I will get back to artful blogging.

Update

Thank you all for your prayers. Our family has felt them from across the country and around the world. You would not believe the outpouring for love, faith, and hope that has surrounded us in this time of crisis.

This morning at about 5:00, Hannah Nicole H. lost brain function. This amazing young women had signed her drivers liscense to be an organ donor, so after the family said their goodbyes, the organ transplant specialist determined that Hannah had the potentional to save nine more live and give sight to two more with her last gift.

We will all remember her for her wit and her lively personality. When she stepped into a room, even the air sparkled.

Please continue your prayers for Diane her mother, Bethany her sisiter, and Lou her grandmother. They were all extremely close and will miss her and her father Tim, very much especially in the days and weeks to come. There will be a double funeral on Friday.

Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Please Pray

I will be away from my blog for a few days because we have had a death in the family. My brother-in-law was killed in an auto accident and his 16 year old daughter is in critical condition. My sister-in-law and their older daughter are physically okay, but very distraught, as you can imagine. Please pray.

Thank you my blogging friends. I can feel your prayers already.

Emanda

Kate Has Done It Again!

Remember the challenge I had earlier? I posted some images of the works of Richard Shilling as a challenge and Kate Clawson of Organic Odessy was the winner. Read about it {HERE}

This is the image that inspired Kate. It is called Mayday.

And this is Kate's entry . . . don't you just love it?

Well, when I told Kate she was the winner, she said she wanted to do something special for me. I had no idea . . .

Earlier this week I got a package in the mail. I knew right away it was from Kate because I know she makes her own mailing packages from calendar pages and magazine covers.

Look what I found inside! Miniature Mayday Earrings.

They are just a bit large for my style, but I will hang them in my studio area as a reminder of my creative friends.

If you were to collaborate, what would you do and who would you want to work with? Do Tell!

Look What Our Postal Carrier Brought -- Part #2

Yesterday I posted about one of the great packages our postal carrier delivered. Today's post is about the second package.
A few days ago I won a batch of goodies from Amanda Davie. at Articulation. She sent everything in this fab little quilty bag. I love the "Blessings" and the tape measure.

Inside the bag were all these little wrapped bundles. The paper is from an old dictionary and each one is tied up with hand-dyed silk ribbons I can reuse!

Amanda wrote in her post that she was including a surprise which is this great necklace. The hand stamped copper says "We need not think alike to love alike." The dangles include pieces of coral and pearls with a chain linked with green glass beads. I love the resin image of two women and a large sleek dog.

Here is the whole collection of bootie -- lovely copper and resin components. I am so excited and pleased to receive these amazing pieces.

THANK YOU Amanda!