Year of Jewelry Project: Week 14 THOR

For my #33 item on my 35 things to do when I am 35 I signed up for a weekly jewelry challenge.

Week 14: Thor inspired….

“Mean Norwegian Viking, hey!” was the drinking cheers of choice my senior year of high school when hanging out with my friend  Ane (who was an exchange student) and her hot friend Lars who was visiting her from Norway…and whom we called Thor when he wasn’t around – because he was just that good looking.  That’s what came to my mind first when I saw the jewelry theme for the week:  Gods and Goddesses: Thor.

So a lighthearted approach and a quick Google Image search resulted in the circles and rectangle arrangement in silver and copper.

#33 Project Runway Inspiration Jewelry

Etsy Metal is a curated team on Etsy of metalsmiths that are wonderfully talented group of folks and I spend a fair amount of time looking through their member profiles and drooling over jewelry. For their members they have a invitation to a challenge – to participate in creating an object that was inspired by the most recent Project Runway Show. I had this in mind when I wrote #33 Project Runway Inspiration Jewelry on my 35 Things I want to do When I’m 35. The essence of my claiming completion to #33 is the same but the method changed.

A couple things of why I didn’t do the Project Runway challenge…#1 I don’t watch TV – makes it hard to follow a TV show! In previous seasons I watched the episodes later via on demand, but I think what happened was that I had a co-worker who also loved the show and so we could talk about it and that was the motivation to watch. I honestly don’t even know if it’s still on or when the season cycle starts. I don’t really feel the need to ‘force’ myself to watch TV either. #2 I am not a member of Etsy Metal. I think part of the fun of doing something like this is that you can interact with your peers and see what everyone else is doing, get feedback and whatnot. When I conceived of this I would have participated from afar creating things for myself but without the interaction (or motivation)

I ran across the Year of Jewelry Project 2011 and it fits my rational for wanting to do something like this perfectly. Basically, the theme changes every week and you are invited to create and submit a picture and description of what you created. They open up participation on a quarterly basis – so serendipitously I saw it the day prior to accepting new participants. I believe it was started through the Creative Wire Jewelry Forum, so there is many folks that work in wire and wire wrapping – but looking through the posts a fair amount of metal workers as well.

I look forward to sharing the variety of new items that I’ll be working on. In looking ahead I am already scratching my head on the “Gods and Goddesses: Thor” theme…but I am sure a little research will trigger an idea.

Year of Jewelry Project : Week 11 Theme is Spring has Sprung!
I have a whole bunch of copper electroformed plant shapes that I created as part of my Take a New Class and Learn Something New goal and have been wanting to make something with them. I initially made a bracelet by forging and bending the sterling wire and soldered and wrapped the copper seed pods to the front. I am not entirely pleased with the result, so I put it aside for a bit.

Next I used more copper seed pods and soldered them together and hung them from the hollow copper branch that previously had some of the seed pods attached.  Happy spring!

 

# 34 Finish downstairs bathroom (or help as much as I can)

We moved to our current house a little less than 2 years ago. We tore up our basement bathroom about a 1 1/2 years ago. It was a dark little closet of a space and its going to be fabulous when its done. In the demolition of the space we unearthed a clawfoot bathtub – literally was encased in brown tile. Well we encountered a few plumbing headscratchers and the space is still torn apart awaiting time/energy/money.

But, beyond that I’ve had a big 6′ 300 pound bathtub in the middle of my studio space since that time. Accepting that i don’t have the ear of the plumbing gods to fix my bathroom I’ve taken matters into my own hands.

#1 move the bathtub to the corner wall (the missing wall is where the new bathroom wall will eventually be)

#2 Tear up the carpets – WHOO HOO Hardwoods.

#3 Accept that the bathtub will probably be there for a while and decorate around it

#4 Recruit the whole family to help paint the walls

Duck the Malls

Tomorrow is Duck the Malls a craft fair benefiting the Olympia Film Society and I’ll be there as a vendor and will get to then check off my #2 on my 35 Things to do when I’m 35.

I’ve been creating like mad and am really looking forward to it.  My camera is not cooperating lately, so I can’t yet download a whole bunch of designs that I’m really excited about.   I did manage to get a couple of photos of the display boxes that I’ll set up.

My wonderful husband made me two boxes with rods that hold all of my earrings.

I have my father’s old suitcase that he used when he left home to go to college.  It’s been just collecting dust and smelling increasingly bad.  So just fit a piece of plexi across the top (and have tap lights to illuminate from underneath to display my necklaces.  And also added a metal rod – so when it’s open can hang many more items.   Best part – i can store everything inside and just close it up.

Etsy Treasuries

Part of the Etsy community is creation of lovely treasuries which are created by members.  A compilation of 12 images around a theme, idea, color or just aesthetic.  Below are a few that some of my work has been included.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cb6949ac3a68eef4ae05ddb/daily-routine-breakfast-coffee-and-etsy

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca1dda132ff8eef483c4a7a/taste-the-rainbow

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c9fc651eb1e6d91bc9066ec/hip-to-be-square

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c9fbf9beefa8eef44f69102/boo

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c8a56b1c4436d912b60b1d5/thanks

#3 Set up an Etsy Site

One item listed!

http://www.eleven11wish.etsy.com

Studio Space

In all the places that we’ve ever lived I’ve always had a corner of a dank dark basement or garage that was my dedicated “studio” space.  Never appealing and never really wanted to spend time there.  That is until we moved about a year ago into our fabulously new much bigger house.  I now have a dedicated space that is inside, warm, has windows and a door, and I can set-up and spread out.  The result has been major productivity, inspiration, and really wanting to be in the space because it is pleasant. It’s not to where I’d like it to be.  It’s carpeted which needs to be torn out (I think there is even hardwood underneath the carpet), I need a more adequate bench and some serious organization, oh and I need to get the massive bathtub out of the middle.  But other than that it’s a dream come true.

You can’t see the bathtub in the shot, but it’s right in the middle of the floor – a 7′ clawfoot,  and the “minor” bathroom renovation (that started in November of 2009)

11:11 Wish

When I was on my 6 month maternity leave with my first daughter, feeling completely cooped and isolated up in the depths of Seattle rainy winter, I became acutely aware of the time at two points in the day 11:11am and 11:11pm. I thought I was going a little crazy, because every day – seriously – I saw the clock at this time in the late morning and night. I was more than a little weirded out by it, and when Nov 11th rolled around I was holding my breath waiting for *something* to happen.
Well nothing earthshaking occured, except sometime after 11/11 I saw a painting. I was standing waiting for the elevator at my work, looked over at the label and noticed it said “11:11 Wish”. I commented aloud something to the tune of, “well that’s weird”. My friend then commented, yeah like when you see a clock that says 11:11 you are supposed to make a wish, isn’t it weird how you always notice it? The sigh of relief was audible and all of a sudden all those months of weirded out anticipation could be turned into wishes! How great is that!
The 11:11 Wish painting was by Larry Bemm. I was familiar with Bemm’s artwork mainly through another piece that he had in the collection. (I should explain at this point that I worked in an art museum.) The artwork that I knew about was a large scale work – probably 5′ x 5′ with a creamy white textured background with a jumble of 3″ diameter circles that were in a variety of pastel colors. The circles or balls were lined up on a scratchy horizontal line on the left side, and on the right appearing to fall from the horizontal line falling and bouncing out of the painting frame. The title of the artwork, which I cannot remember, was an obscure word meaning the study of happiness. A painting of happiness!

Lovely.
So all those wishes, all the wishes turned into happiness.