I'm dragging my feet on the pod earrings, really all that's left is cleaning them up and hooking on the earring findings. This is dumb, now that I read that I'm going to just finish those today. Yes.

One of the waxes for rings isn't exactly what I want it to be, so it's on hold until post-Crawl. Star earrings are on hold as well - because I need to get a bead reamer. Silly not well-drilled holes...

The second wax, which went together incredibly fast is now holding two bezels and is ready to get the solder cleaned up. It seems likely that I'd do more of this style ring - but carve and assemble each one individually so they're not identical. It's a nice simple but substantial design - I'll get photos of it when it's finished. I plan on making one for myself, too. This one is too large and falls of every finger that isn't an index finger.

I took this Wednesday off from work, so I could work on my own stuff. Tomorrow I head back to repairs and will do final polishes on these new pieces. I finished/cleaned up some stuff that I had half-finished. That was an awesome idea. I will have more than two new metal pieces to show this time around thanks to finding those.

For anyone in the area who reads this, the Crawl is this Friday through Sunday in Lowertown Saint Paul. I'm showing in Lowertown Commons right near my mom and her paintings/prints/cards. For more information on the event - like hours, parking, and all participating buildings - you can go to http://www.artcrawl.org It's a fun way to spend part of a weekend, checking out local artists and in some cases getting to see their studio spaces!

Productivity!

I did a mock set-up of my table for the Art Crawl. I don't know why I never thought to do this before; it's a great way to figure out what else I need. I now have a to do list for tomorrow/next weekend!

* Pod earrings (3 pair)
* Rutilated star earrings (at least one pair)
* Hollow out ring wax
* Cast above wax, and another to be carved
* Clean up existing inventory

Totally doable. Also going to find some earring displays tomorrow - or make my own. It'll look better than having them sit flat on a table.

I made up a little pouch for my mom's earrings she got for Christmas. It gave me the idea to sew up pouches like it (after this Crawl) to replace the blah cotton-filled boxes I presently have. Mom - granted she's biased - thought it was a very nice and fancy pouch. I'm excited about all these ideas I have that will soon happen.

So the Art Crawl is a mere two weeks away. Yikes. The poster competition didn't have any effect as I was informed my images were blurry. I'm going to reshoot over the Summer and try again for the Fall. I was mad about this for a while, but whatever.

I've been looking over my inventory and I am in serious need of some ring making action. That looks to be the goal for next week. I have a wax carved up for a sculptural ring - which may or may not get stones in it. As of now it's too heavy, so this weekend I will hollow out the wax. Silver is up around $40/ounce, so that's making things fun. I have some plans for earrings as well. I discovered the pod earring shells I had made WAY back, while trying to find something completely different. That was an exciting find. I also bought some really fun faceted star-shape briolette rutilated quartz - earrings will happen.

I need to put a moratorium on necklace making. I have a few bead/chain necklaces finished and I really like the look of them. Lighter-looking than the all-bead pieces I've done, granted with the addition of silver chain it puts them in a different (higher) price point. I'm finding it's a great way to use some of my larger and more expensive beads in order to showcase them. These large rectangular dyed sardonyx are a good example - they're WAY too big and heavy to use a bunch of them.
And a closer look:
Tomorrow afternoon is fun time, so perhaps in the morning I'll crack down and get some pieces going and/or finished. Sunday is already designated work-time. The weather doesn't look like it's going to be much of a distraction, it just started snowing. Awesome. At least I won't miss out on a nice sunny warm day!