NEW NEW NEW! Message pendants and New Lucky Charms

Here's my latest!

Lucky Charms coupled with handwritten message pendants made one at a time in etched sterling silver. I think that wearing one of these necklaces is the perfect way to carry around a message that's important to you, or a reminder that you've got an extra little bit of good luck on your side.



I thought it might be fun to show you what it looks like at the very start. A picture of my sketch book. I write the word over and over until I get the perfect one.


I really love how these pendants turned out. The lines are crisp and deep, and the dark patina has a rich finish that really highlights the detail in the design.There are 8 lucky charms and 7 message pendants to chose from. Available in my Etsy shop now :)



My favorite one is the name pendant that I made for myself with my daughter's name on it. It sounds a little sentimental, but it's like I've got her close to my heart all day. I haven't take it off since I made it.


The name pendant can be custom made with any name or word of your choice.

Look what I learned how to make

This past weekend weekend was great. I spent 2 full days learning all about cloisonné and enameling in Ricky Frank's "Introduction to Cloisonné" workshop. People traveled all the way from New York City, Miami, Clearwater, Tennessee, and North Carolina to take this class.

It goes without saying that I love learning new metalworking skills, but the older the method, the better. Cloisonné is an ancient technique that dates back as far as 3,000 years ago and was popular during the Byzantine Empire, how cool is that? The process is intricate, kind of tedious, and requires a lot of patience, but it's so much fun. I learned how to bend and form super thin ribbon-like strips of fine silver (called cloisonné wire) with the finest of tweezers into shapes to form "pictures" or designs on a metal base (in my class we used fine silver sheet as the base for our designs). You paint within the lines of the cloisonné wire with powdered enamel (which is essentially ground up glass), and fire the piece in a kiln. The temperature was set at 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. A couple minutes at that temperature makes the powdered enamel melt back into glass and fuse into place. The process is like painting with damp, colorful sand, placing a few grains at a time in place with a very fine paint brush. Working one thin layer at a time, the piece is fired in the kiln about 10 times, until the enamel is built up to the height of the cloisonné wire.

For the main project we made a couple simple pieces with basic shapes and colors.


In the last few hours of the class we were given time to experiment with our own design.
Here's what I came up with.


I had so much fun in this class. Ricky is a great teacher and a brilliant artist.

Now I have to decide if I like enameling enough to invest the money it would take to equip my studio with a kiln, enamels, and all the other tools I would need...

Summerfest '09

What a great weekend. The festival was phenomenal...even better than last year. I couldn't have asked for a better location for my booth, and my customers were so wonderful. I saw a few familiar faces from past festivals, and got to meet a couple Etsy customers face to face, which I always love. My neighboring artists were great company. Check out William Colburn's garden sculptures. I couldn't leave the festival without one of his giant steel poppies. I'll take a picture of it this week.

Virginia Highland Summerfest 2009 - this weekend

Well, I was placed on the waiting list for this show, and I got the call on Wednesday that a spot had opened up for me. Yay! I've been making jewelry at a furious pace for the last 3 days :)

This is one of my favorite artist festivals in Atlanta. The weather is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous this weekend. If you're in the Atlanta area, stop by and see me at Virginia Highland's Summefest. I'll be in a corner booth (#519) up near N. Highland Ave.