Balloons!

This is the most amazing balloon animal I have ever seen!
That is all.

Business Books

Crafting isn't all about making stuff. Of course thats the fun part!
However, there is the business side of things. And a successful craft business is my goal!

Since I did not major in business in school, and frankly my personal selling skills leave much to be desired, I do try to learn as much as I can.

I do this by reading books.

This week I had the opportunity to preview Finding Your Inner Etsy-preneur.

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your-Inner-Etsy-preneur-Encouragement-ebook/dp/B00GBQ4IWI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383784335&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+your+inner+etsy-preneur

Its interesting. Through a series of personality test, it helps you to determine how you can best approach mastering your sales for your Etsy shop. I know right now there are a lot of discussions going on out there regarding Etsy and the nature of handmade, thats not the issue here or discussed in this book. This book is all about how to leverage your personality type and tendencies to maximize your Etsy experience.

I had fun with the personality type testing, and I think it was pretty spot on for me. I do  plan on actively applying some techniques from this.

The other book I finally finished this week was (ok forced to finish it as I had to return it to the library) completely unmemorable. Seriously, it was one of those cool looking books, with lots of nice crafty-art pictures. At first glance it had lots of useful forms, but unfortunately it was pretty much a repeat of many other books out there. How to pick an art fair (man the books make this sound so easy--its not), how to set up teaching, how to make yourself presentable with business cards and logos. The book was from a few years ago, so I know its not on the shelves any longer, and I couldn't even find it on Amazon to provide you with a link.

The one thing that stood out the most in the book for me was the section on how to shoot quality images of your art. The examples, booth good and bad, were printed in such a way that what ever quality they were trying to show off didn't show up. For example, two photos discussing how the shadows in the back ground were distracting and how to fix that, when BOTH images printed with solid black backgrounds.

All in all it was a pretty but useless book, so I guess its ok I forgot the title.

Sale on my Facebook page

Are you a "fan" of mine on Facebook?

If not please come follow me over there too! You can click the QR code to the right and it will take you to my page, or this link will too:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Medeiros-Art-stuff/147377941945717?ref=hl

Until November 15, Im having a pre-Etsy sale. Im posting items on my Facebook page at a discount before I list them on Etsy. I would love it if you came and took a look!

 

Im listing all kinds of items from jewelry to decorations: pendants, hair accessories, fairy doors, and dragon eggs have been listed so far.

Halloween Jewelry Blog Hop!

This year I thought it would be fun to play in a Halloween Blog Hop.
Thanks to Diana Ptaszynski for putting this together (she is the first in the list of blog hoppers).

Our rules:

• Participants will create at least one piece of jewelry in a Halloween or Day of the Dead theme.  
• Each piece of jewelry must contain at least one art bead (visit Art Bead Scene if you need clarification on art beads).

Since I make most of my components anyway I thought this would be fun. Its always halloween around our house, skulls and the like are "normal" for us, so i thought I would challenge myself and push it a bit. Then the next thing I know time has gotten away from me and instead of making a groovy haunted mansion like my chicken shack, Im doing something quick and fast and easy.

Oh well. I m still going to make that haunted mansion, just its not my entry for this. My pieces are all polymer clay (ran out of time) candy corn earrings, a mini pumpkin pendant and a witch's hat, that still needs to be glued to its hair clip. They will all be presented to my halloween baby this year for prezzies (yup, born on Oct 31, and she LOVES it).

Your hoppers:

Diana Ptaszynski  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

Staci Smith  http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/

Kathleen Breeding  http://99bobotw.blogspot.com

Sue Kennedy  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Dianne Miller  http://www.artbydianne.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy  http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Toltec Jewels  http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Linda Landig  http://www.LindasBeadBlog.com

Laura Medeiros  http://Www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com

Veralynne Malone  http://www.veradesigns.blogspot.com

Lynn Jobber  http://thecreativeklutz.blogspot.co.uk

Michelle McCarthy  http://www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com

Karen Totten  http://www.starryroadstudio.blogspot.com

Jayne Capps  https://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies-Reazor  http://jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Joan Miller  http://metalmudandsand.blogspot.com/

Melissa Meman  http://melissameman.blogspot.com

Melissa Trudinger  http://www.beadrecipes.wordpress.com

Kari Asbury  http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com

Inge von Roos  http://www.ingetraud.wordpress.com

Andrea Glick  http://zenithjade.blogspot.com 

Stephanie LaRosa  http://Www.stringaholic.blogspot.com

Lola Surwillo  http://www.beadlolabead.com

Jennifer Cameron  http://glassaddictions.com/blog

Diane Hawkey  http://dianehawkey.blogspot.com

Kristi Harrison  http://kristibasket-itsanewday.blogspot.com

Nicole Valentine Rimmer  http://www.nvalentine.blogspot.com

Tanya Goodwin  http://www.Pixiloo.blogspot.com

Shai Williams  http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/

Sandra McGriff  http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com

Sarajo Wentling  http://www.sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

Marie Covert  http://thistledown-and-swaddlings.blogspot.com

Lisa Stukel  http://www.carefreejewelrybylisa.blogspot.com

Laurie Vyselaar  http://www.Lefthandjewelry.wordpress.com

Sherri Stokey  http://www.knotjustmacrame.com

Pam Traub  http://www.klassyjoolz.blogspot.com

Lori Dorrington  http://lorisglassworks.blogspot.com

Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Eleanor Burian-Mohr  http://cornerstoregoddessjewelry.blogspot.com

Sally Russick  http://thestudiosublime.com

Christine Damm   http://storiestheytell.blogspot.com

Dawn M. Gallop  http://www.flipflopsandpoptarts.com

What's on the bench?

I really haven't taken the time to clean off my work space and dive back into metal clay like I had hoped. But thats ok.
I started playing with these talisman/amulet "Juju" collection pieces.

These pieces are fun because I can play with my collection I mean stash of supplies, I can toss in some wire work, and include charms I make.

By the time I got to the last one of this bunch, I think I had the swirls on the large frame figured out.

These will make their debute at the Alabama Renaissance Festival this weekend October 26-27, and then they will make their way over to my Etsy store, with a few other I have assembled (well actually these will sell this weekend and I will have new and different ones in my Etsy store!--the power of positive thinking!)

This talisman collection features a carved jade fluke, an amethyst point, a ceramic sphere, a bronze tentacle, and a faceted amber bead.

This collection has a large fluorite bead, a buffalo tooth, a metal hand holding a ring, and a carved coral skull.

This was my first collection. it features a large hamsa and has raw amber beads, a raw garnet, a green glass bead and a silver drop with a wood bead from central Asia.

The Ball Burnisher, Love this tool

I have a small collection of ball burnishers. The original one is from my art school days, when I used the tool to rub down custom colored text elements for design comps (yes that tool is over 20 years old, and I still use it!). It was during school that I discovered it was a great tool for clay (my first polymer clay playing was back in 1988/89). I now use the ball burnisher for polymer and metal clays.

Ball burnishers are great for making texture, drawing, smoothing seams, punching holes, and of course, making dots. Lots and lots of dots-for me that means suckers on tentacles.




  


Back when Sculpy expanded with the Studio brand clay, they also expanded the tool offerings. Even though Studio has disappeared from craft store shelves, the tools have not. That is a good thing, because the tools are fabulous. One of the sets is a small, piece, collection of ball burnishers one one end with clay pushers on the other. the different sizes of ball burnishers are very useful -- I particularly like the large ball for smoothing seams, and as a dome forming base.

     

My tiniest ball burnishers are nail tech tools--I got mine at a beauty supply store.

Drawing with a small ball burnisher

Not only are these tools great with clay. you can paint with them! They make perfect dots, and with some practice (clearly I need some more) and a flick of your wrist, you can make stars, swirls, flowers and fireworks.

I clearly need practice, painting with a ball burnisher.

If you don't have any ball burnishers, I can't recommend getting one enough. In the mean time you can use a dried up ball point pen (you don't want ink transfer), or knitting needles of various sizes. Aluminum knitting needles are incredibly handy tools to have as well, they make dots, they smooth, and you can use them as big hole forms.

Medusa featured in Fire Mountain ad!

image
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn  

Im very excited, my metal clay and wire wrapped Medusa is featured in Fire Mountain Gems and Beads ad that is on the inside back cover of the current (september/October 2013) issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine!

This piece was a finalist  in the 2012 metal clay competition.
I used Bronzclay the make a face with snake hair, and snake heads. I the. Used bronze jewelry wire to wrap the snake heads and a rattle tail, and make a framework of swirls. I used iridescent purple beads as accents along the edges.

Using the same wire I made a viking knit chain. The clasp is made of Bronzclay and is two intertwined snakes.  The caps are brass tubes, that I forged and drilled holes in. The chain is epoxied into the end caps.