tradetastic!

My Rattlesnake Vertebrae and Moishe came in the mail today. I LOVE them!

roadkill has always been one of my favorite Etsy shops. Back when I first discovered Etsy I was searching for cast jewelry and this awesome antler necklace popped up and I though, "Wow! There is actually some great stuff on this site!"

So I just did a trade with roadkill!!!!! Its an awesome store, go check them out!

I finally asked Elaine Ho, the stores owner, if she would be interested in trading a

nd she was! I love my new necklaces. Moishe is soooo cute and a cha

racter from one of my favorite childhood books, "Where the Wild Things are" by Maurice Sendak. Haven't seen the new movie yet... on my list

of things to do. And the Rattlesnake Vertebrae is special for me too because where I grew up was ripe with rattlesnakes and I remember watching my dad skin a rattlesnake once. We used to find old bones too. I thought they were so cool looking how the vertebrae bones fit together like a puzzle.

Thanks Eliane!!!

New! custom 18 karat pendant

Oooo, Friday the 13th!

AND my photo importing froze up at the 13th photo!...something haunting my computer perhaps?

A lovely customer wanted the "Helicopter Maple Seed Necklace" as a charm. No chain, just the maple seed. And she wanted it in 18 karat gold.

Great! Sounded like fun to make. And it was! 18 kt gold= luxury to work with!

Etsy Labs

Last night I went to my second Etsy lab craft night! Etsy headquarters are in Dumbo, Brooklyn, under the Brooklyn Bridge.

I have to say that the first time I walked into the space that is Etsy I was nervous! After spending hours and hours in front of my computer in Etsyland It feels like some kind of a friend. So being there in person was actually really weird! Interweb Etsy is real. Dumbo Etsy is am impostor!

I did see some homemade looking soap at the sink...

For me craft night is reverting back to art class in kindergarten. Last night we made exquisite corpse cards with Esther K. Smith. Esther demonstrated how to make our own Halloween cards with magazine cut-outs, including some magazine paper used to clean her press so the paper had a pretty metallic ink wash over it. Made for great craft supplies. Esther was a very good teacher. I pretty much used the colored pencils. Like I said, I was back in kindergarten! I made some new friends, and will be back!

Esther's website for Purgatory Pie Press, a bookmaking and printmaking company.

Gold Gold Gold!

rosemary and half maple

I love the way it feels, looks, solders, hardens, bends, cuts, tastes smells!

Thanks to some recent sales, I recently made two gold necklaces. One rosemary and one half maple. I can't say that I was exposed to very much gold growing up. And I've always assumed that it was "gaudy" and "some gross yellow color". Perhaps a jealous reaction to my deprived jewelry box! Or, perhaps I was just naive.

Since making jewelry, I have slowly broken through the great gold barrier! With humble beginnings of a black onyx heart gold plated ring from my grandmother in grade school. Then onto a snake link necklace found in the middle of the road while bike riding in middle school.Too bad it was butt ugly and I would have only worn it If I had morphed into a wife beater wearing, gelled haired muscle man. I cannot remember much gold in high school... I was more into grunge with flannels and old thrift store strange-pants that would not see a washing machine for over a month (serious).

After college, I merely watched a jeweler friend work with gold. Gradually, my fingers felt a tingle for the precious metal. One day I made the plunge and whalla! The magic of gold came clear!

Wow, Im in the hottest treasury!

Hot!

At Etsy there are wish lists members put together called treasuries. One very active etsy seller- VikiDianeDesigns had the idea to run a series of 100 "Artist Exposed" treasuries! Each treasury lasts two days and showcases 12 stores.

The best part of this series is all in the name... everyone added a photo of themselves, exposing the faces behind Etsy.

I recently joined the fabulous Etsy group "Metalsmiths In Action". This bunch of talented Metalsmiths share tips of the trade and offer support in all things Jewelry Metalsmithing! Thanks to MSIA, I had the oppurtunity to be in the second to last "Artist's Exposed 99". Of course I jumped on the train asap!