I cannot begin to tell you my absolute dumbfounded joy when I was gifted with boxes of beauty.
Where to even begin? This is just a portion of the bountiful gorgeousness that came my way.
I will let the photos speak for themselves.
Thank you, Liz!
I have been making more crowns. They don’t sell in droves, more of a steady trickle, but at least I move a few each Good Juju first Friday weekend. Enough that I get to make more.
The one this kid is wearing is kinda steam punkish.
And this guy is sporting a rose quartz stone on his noggin.
On my last post I was talking about trying get shoppers to notice that my furniture is also for sale at Good Juju. But not this piece!
It was a gift from my neighbor, Lily, who makes the aromatic candles. And it is ideal for my jewelry display!
Or so I hope. Last month I tried to market my sparklies from the new, smaller space and that TANKED. I’m always up for a shuffle or a redo to make the most of my displays, but honestly, it’s just a guessing game for me.
I will let you know how it goes.
Last week, I made some crowns.
And since I had been painting statues and figures, everyone was treated to a crown for their head.
Even if a head was all they had, no body. And even the wildlife was crowned.
A few were steam punk style, but most were simply on the regal side.
Maybe you remember a few posts back, where I said I should be slapped for even thinking I might need more space at the mall?
Welp, I went for it anyway.
I keep telling myself it is only 3×3’, not a big deal. And it is only for my jewelry, vintage, handmade, and new silver.
Was it a good idea? Who the heck knows. I might be, well I probably am crazy to take on more.
I was excited about the whole decorating aspect of it and happy to have a reason to steal the awning from our chicken coop. But did I really need a second spot at the mall?
As if that generous dollop of insanity wasn’t enough, lookee here. I’m also making bath products to sell there.
This is my first attempt with precious metal clay. I partnered up with a friend who has a clay studio and another who has a small kiln.
We experimented with adding stones, and that didn’t go too well, these are actually amethyst, peridot, and garnet. After firing, they turned dark. I still like them, they look like marcasites.
Melissa has a wonderful studio to work in, complete with a show. Her husband was making pottery while we worked.
This is one before firing. The clay powder is mixed with an emulsifier and water that make it clay- like. When put in a kiln, the moisture bakes off and you are left with solid silver.
Here is another crappy, not fired yet, one I did. Fingers crossed that the emerald chips stay green!
But oooh, look at these! Melissa’s look professional. Well, she is a professional ceramic artist, so might know a bit about clay and it shows.
And look! The citrines retained their yellow!
There was copper to try too. I look forward to seeing how that ring turns out.
I’ll show you when this batch gets fired.
Lately, I have been leaving jewelry making supplies out on one studio table. That way, when I feel the whim, I can quickly make a piece without dragging out boxes. The room is a wreck anyway from using a chunk of it as storage, so I have kind of given up on keeping my poor studio tidy.
My most recent creations have been Valentine themed. Either with hearts, or just an air of dress up and romance.
The last few months at Good Juju have been absolutely delightful for me. I simply adore decorating for Christmas, Valentine’s, and Halloween. I tend to be into flowery and over the top, romantic, even gaudy stuff that isn’t exactly what the crowd there loves on a regular basis. The venue leans toward rustic or primitive and my corner screams “fussy” to a lot of the shoppers.
I do throw in lots of neutrals and even natural woods and browns, but they end up buried under my foofiness. And holidays were a good reason to have the exception.
I guess I still have Easter to look forward to…. But after that, it will be a long stretch til fall when I have an excuse to make things my way. Till then, I’ll try to reign myself in a little and focus more on neutrals.
As much as I loved the jeweled trees at Xmas, I might be loving the hearts just even more!
My only worry is that I will delete my decades of flea market scrounged sparklies and I will have to stop!
So far, all is going okay. I typically mix in some newer pieces that I have aged too, using a selection of really old, very antique, merely vintage and slightly new all together.
Running out of frames has been an issue also, but those are more easily replaced. Goodwill and estate sales have come in handy for that, although sometimes I have to add a bit of paint or distressing.
Good jewels aren’t as easy to find. Luckily, I’ve spent many, many, many years looking out for special pieces!
Hmm, I could possibly be seeing jeweled flower baskets coming this spring.
Guncle Randy has been wanting to make a jewel tree but hasn’t had time to do it. So, I decided to surprise him and Kevin with a special, Pet Butler tree.
In my decades of collecting jewelry from flea markets and estate sales, I have always been drawn to animal pins and to initials.
So, I just happened to have the perfect ingredients to make this animal lovers’ tree, adding in KS for Kev and RN for Randy.
Besides pets, there is a snowflake for Xmas…
A starfish for Florida…
A fairy, and lots of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies to represent their garden.
And a goldendoodle for the trunk of the tree for my grand puppy, Olivia Ryan.
I'll be having lots of hearts and wings in my booth at Good JuJu. This canvas has plaster texture in a heart shape with the roses painted inside. I have a few more, not sure if I got pictures. All are unique.
And remember the jewelry trees I did for Xmas?
I loved doing that so much, I could not stop!
So, I turned my shape from a tree to a heart.
This one is a combo of the textured canvas with a button collage. And in front you can see some of my wings. They are made from a 1800s ledger and I swear, that book was one of my best ever purchases. I have sold rolled up pages from it, used it to line shelves, decopauged it onto table tops, backed collages with it, and now have made wings and hearts.
And there is still some left!
I almost didn't buy it because it was not cheap. But man, that handwriting! Wow, so pretty. I am glad I went against my cheapskate instincts and bought it anyway.
I also beat out my cheap side and decided to keep these wings that my son helped form instead of selling them.
Since my booth is chocked full of wings and hearts I doubt if one set will be missed. Heck, I’d be thrilled to have even half of the ones there sell out.
And I sure do love making them.
J