It Just Takes One

Filed under: Bracelets, Necklaces, Philosophy, selling, Wire Work | Back to: Homepage

Have you ever had a grand idea during a meeting and no one applauded? Perhaps you created something new and no one thought it was wonderful.This seems to happen occasionally with my jewelry designs. I create something new and the first few customers hardly look at it. I may have thought it would jump right up and grab them, but it didn’t. After a few showings wherein the new design hasn’t gotten attention, I begin to fear that I was wrong. I think that it really isn’t so cool after all and I move on. Later, there is that one person who likes the piece and buys it. My friend from Magpie Gemstones says there’s a person for every piece. I guess I should believe her.

The interesting thing about having one person really like your new design is that it can give you confidence. That’s what it does for me. I finally sold one of my chaos necklaces, shown in an earlier blog, to a boutique owner and she sold it the next day. Now she has ordered three more and another boutique customer also wants to see it. Go figure! I think it the old “if she can sell it so can I” attitude.

The same thing happened with my handmade chain necklaces. Nothing much happened with them until one store owner tried one and now she has ordered more. Although I’ve shown pictures of this design previous I’m included one of the newer models in this blog.

Another boutique customer purchased a cuff bracelet with a square face. I’d had this for a couple of months and no one had been interested in it. She sold it and ordered two more. Now I think I should be more positive about this design.

I’m beginning to think that the new designs are sometimes ahead of the season in which they will sell. Another possibility is that the colors I’ve used in the piece are just not those that the current customer needs. That shouldn’t mean that no one will want them. I guess its all about confidence and patience. I should be confident in a design that I think is good and patient enough to wait for the right customer. It just takes one!

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When Life Hands You Junk

Filed under: Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy, Ranching, Wire Work | Back to: Homepage

It was a  l o n g     dark      night.

Most of you know that I live on a cattle ranch here in Texas. A well traversed road runs by the front of our property and you can usually see a nice part of the herd from that road. Our cows are black. Our fences act like a fortress. Our cows don’t get out on the road. Yet, when any cow is on or near the road in front of Dreamcatcher, we receive calls. We receive many, many calls.

There is always a very slim possibility that the caller has spotted one of our animals where is should not be and we, therefore, always get up, get dressed and drive to the road to check it out. In the last eight years, none of the animals have belonged to us.

When the phone rings, we always ask callers the same litany of questions: what color are the animals? Do they have Dreamcatcher brands? Do they have ear tags? We use these questions so often that we could easily program our phone to respond with them with them when we receive late night calls.

It started a little after midnight this time. We could see the red lights flashing out on the road and the deputy on the phone said some of our cows were out. This time there was an auto vs. bull accident in front of our property. The bull was not ours (no brand, no ear tags . . . ) and it had been severely injured by its battle with a car. We asked the deputies to put it down. They would not. We asked if we could put it down. They would not let us. So they tied the poor animal up and left it there beside the road.

Since our phone number is on the ranch sign, each time a car went by and saw the poor beast,  they phoned us to get something done. One of the strangest calls came at 2:30 AM from a person who was riding his bike along the road. I answered no less that seven calls from drivers informing us about the animal. Obviously, this was not conducive to restful sleep. By morning the bull had passed and animal control is now trying to figure out how to move it. I didn’t volunteer to help them.

Lest this saga continue it’s downward spiral, something good did come from the lost night of sleep. First, I learned that people are compassionate. I didn’t know any of the roadside callers; yet they were concerned about both our loss and the poor animal. Secondly, rather than spending the night up and down answering the phone, I remained up and started stringing jewelry about 2:45 AM. There’s little else you can do but string since hammering while your spouse is asleep is not permitted in this establishment and I was afraid to light my torch while I was so tired. By this morning, I had completed a nice little pile of jewelry and even though I’m sleep deprived, I think most of the pieces look OK. See what you think.

The first two necklaces are made from mookite and kiwi rubies.

The next photo shows a piece made from faceted apricot moonstone and pearls.

The red necklace below is made of pretty, faceted, rectangular stones. I regret I can’t remember what they are. The final photo shows a piece of agate dangling from blue sponge coral. It will probably require a bit more attention. I also made earrings for all of these necklaces.

Now that you probably wish you hadn’t read this post, let me leave you with sleepy words of wisdom. You know what you are supposed to do when life hands you lemons . . . I’m going to rephrase it to say that when life hands you junk, make jewelry!   (yes, I AM very tired!)

By the way, we’re removing our phone number from the ranch sign on the road!

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Things I’ve Learned Playing Ball . . .

Filed under: Dogs, Philosophy, Ranching | Back to: Homepage

. . . with the dogs. My four blue heelers, cattle dogs, and I try to play ball every afternoon. At first, I did it for them, but over the years, I’ve realized that it’s for me too. Ball playing mid afternoon has become a habit and even if the animals don’t start barking, I know when it’s time to play. For several years when there were only three dogs, the hierarchy of who usually got the ball remained the same. The big mama dog, Cheyenne, had her bluff in on the other two and if she and another dog arrived at the ball at the same time the other dog receded and Cheyenne came back with it. Yet, as she has gotten older and arthritis has set in she has gotten the ball less and less. This is not because the others are now less afraid of her, but because she doesn’t run hard after every throw like she used to. She carefully selects when it is prudent to run and two or three times each day, she runs flat out even though she comes back limping. When she tries this hard I secretly hope that she has retrieved the ball. Hurray for Cheyenne, pictured at the very bottom. She feels good if she actually beats the others but doesn’t seem to enjoy it when I throw it directly to her.

The fourth dog, a male named Bruno, is the puppy who entered our game about a year ago. He’s rough and tough and often acts like a bully. When the older dog, Dixie, the first dog shown below, gets the ball, he chases her and nips at her all the way back to me. I’d whack him if I could catch him, but I can’t. After about four months of this, little Dixie has had all she can take. Yet, instead of giving up, she is becoming the aggressor. The other day when Bruno got the ball, Dixie nipped at him all the way back to me. Hurray for Dixie! Now when Dixie catches the ball and Bruno tries to bully her, she just stops and walks slowly back to me. Smart Dog! 

The third dog, Frosty, is Cheyenne’s daughter and Bruno’s mother. She is the smallest and the fastest of all my dogs. She leaps high, has a good eye and runs like the wind. Of the four dogs, she is the one that doesn’t display any transgressions other than being wimpy when her mother growls at her. Good dog Frosty.

When Cheyenne gets the ball and is too tired or hurt to run for it anymore, she takes the ball in her mouth and goes into her dog house with it. She will not come out and bares her teeth if I come close or try to reach a stick into the house. The other dogs and I just look at each other. We’re not going in there!

I usually keep a second ball in my pocket for when Cheyenne steals the first one and goes to her house. The other dogs appear to appreciate this and rather enjoy playing for a bit without her. Eventually she comes out of the house and we end up with two balls in play. The dogs have now learned that you can’t get two balls in your mouth at the same time. It’s very disconcerting to them and they can’t figure out what to do when arriving at the ball just thrown and there’s already one in the mouth. The dog with this problem usually just stands with the ball in the mouth pressed against the ball on the ground until I arrive to retrieve them both. Heaven forbid that some other dog should get their catches!

Finally, Bruno figured out a plan about what to do when Cheyenne takes the ball toward her house. Yesterday, she took the ball and headed toward her house. I ran to try and head her off before she got there and Bruno rushed ahead and got in Cheyenne’s house. Smart Bruno! Boy was Cheyenne surprised! She considered getting in one of the other houses, but I had them covered. Cheyenne ended up bringing the ball back to the yard and playing with us. Hurray for Bruno!

While there are far too many dog/ball episodes to share with you at this time, I can point out a few specifics that I’ve learned from the afternoon exercise.

1. You can be hurt and still work flat out if you are selective about what you want to do.
2. Even when you are old and infirm, you still want to win fair and square without any pampering.
3. When there’s no one who can help you with a bully, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.
4. Good problem solving pays off even if you have to move into someone else’s space.
5. It’s not becoming to put too much in your mouth at one time.

If you have a dog, pay attention. You might learn something too!

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Mamaw’s Hands

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Hands tell a story. We all know people who talk with their hands. There are those dramatic soles who use their hands to accentuate their words with grand gestures. There are others who snap their fingers or clap their hands while speaking to emphasize words or secure your attention. I think some preachers do this to keep us awake in church. Yet, hands also help tell a story when they are perfectly still.

I remember my Daddy’s hands. His fingers were short and stubby and his nails were broken and brittle. As a woodworker and gardener in his retirement years, those hands met with sand paper, dirt, varnish and all manner of stress. His left thumb was shorter than his right having met with the table saw several years before he died. I used to hold his hands and worry about the nicks and cuts, but they didn’t bother Papaw who would just say “oh well, it can’t be helped.“ This man’s hands showed that he was a worker.

My Mother’s hands tell another story. She, too, was a worker. I remember those hands that not only cooked and cleaned in our home, but also stayed busy with knitting, needlework and constant sewing. Hers depict the pain of arthritis that she has endured for so many years. Now they are gnarled and the enlarged knuckles keep Mamaw from her preferred activities. We have tried numerous things to solve the problem, but alas her days of creating are past. It is as though her body is saying that it’s time to rest. The picture below shows a snapshot of my Mother’s hands with my daughter’s hands taken on the latter’s wedding day.

Mamaw’s hands also depict the pride she takes in her looks. I cannot ever remember her wearing much nail polish, but she is still taking care of her own nails and stays well manicured.

For several years she has wanted to wear more rings. A wonderful group of bridge-playing ladies volunteer at the nursing home each week and Mother plays cards with them. Evidently several of them wear beautiful wings and Mother wants to do the same. I cannot, however, get her old rings over those substantial knuckles and have tried to make her something she would wear. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to create anything to suit her. She won’t wear bling and she won’t wear anything plain. I made her a sterling silver S ring that was adjustable, but it didn’t make a hit. This week, I may have finally found the answer. First I had to convince Mamaw that I could NOT work with diamonds and I could not work in gold! Thank goodness she likes lapis. You can see the one I created for her on her finger below. I finally made something both adjustable to go over her large knuckles and acceptable to her.

It’s a bit difficult to see in the second photo that the ring is open in the back. I was able to open it up and slide it past her knuckles and then squeeze it back shut when it reached the base of her finger. She was pleased since lapis is one of her favorite stones. You can see the configuration of the ring better in the photos that follow. The back was not yet cleaned in one of them.

Mother was pleased with her new ring and I hope it will help her hands tell her story. This ring says “I’m still beautiful at 90 years of age and I still take great pride in the way I look.” It also says that someone cares enough about her to try and make her happy.

Today, I’m looking at my own hands and realizing the story they tell. My hands show broken, liver of sulphur colored nails and short stubby fingers that are scraped and marred. My fingers do, however, wear multiple rings when I go out in public. My hands are a combination of both my Mother’s and my Father’s hands. They, too, are hands that work. These hands will create until nature says I must stop. I’m hoping that’s a long time from now.

What do your hands say?

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An Idle Mind

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Today was the day. I tried to get someone else to do it; but no one would. I’d put it off for weeks feigning back problems and all sorts of other problems; but today I simply had to wash the windows. I do NOT like to wash windows. It seems to me to be a truly mindless household chore, but the winter muck, particularly on my studio window, was marring the view of any harbinger of Spring. Therefore, with ladder, newspaper and bucket in hand I marched dutifully out the door to do the deed. (Just in case you don’t wash my way, the newspaper was for wiping, not reading.)

After finishing one small part of the job, I decided it might be more pleasant if I exercised my idle mind with something meaningful. Alas, I couldn’t think of anything . . . but then . . . the words started coming. Idioms and common sayings started creeping in waves across the hills and valleys of my brain until I almost wished I could go back to those idle thoughts. When I thought I couldn’t stand climbing up that ladder to the high windows one more time I realized that only the strong will survive and knew that where there’s a will there’s a way. Telling myself that I surely wasn’t too old to cut the mustard, I just drop(ped my rag) in the bucket and kept working. I climbed that ladder as high as a kite and got down to brass tacks. Unfortunately, I tried to rush the task and my bucket fell off the ladder, dousing my shoes and scaring the poor porch cat. That’s when I remembered that haste makes waste. I was more careful thereafter and glad I didn’t have to hire someone to wash my windows since a penny saved is a penny earned.

After the window episode, I was glad to get back to the workbench and hoped no more sayings would pop into my mind. I was able to complete a dragonfly necklace that I started last night. I appreciate the friend who kindly showed me how to make wire dragonflies. Take a look at her beautiful dichroic glass work at www.wendyhardingdesigns.com. I wanted to use the two dragonflies together, but felt they needed to be stabilized and soldered them onto a copper disc. Then there was that little issue of how to keep any solder from showing and the small copper flower soldered over the dragonfly tails provided the solution. I used mookite beads in this piece. Although I realize the dragonflies are not birds, I just kept thinking how birds of a feather flock together. If I don’t quit thinking this way, I may have to scream. Please don’t tell me if there is a saying about that!

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Green Time

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I usually try to stay home on St. Patrick’s Day. This was surely brought on by some childhood trauma involving pinching, but I’m not sure of the exact incident. I don’t remember wearing any green garments when I was a child and even today, you can look in my closet and find it basically void of this color. This creates a problem on St. Patrick’s Day. I seem to always encounter someone who believes it’s OK to pinch a person who doesn’t wear green in celebration.

This year, I’ve outsmarted any would-be pincher! I’ve got green jewelry to wear. Actually, I’ve got lots of green jewelry to wear!

While you probably can’t see the wire work on the second piece, it sports hand made copper spacers made from jump rings. They were interesting to make as you hook one ring into the others until they create a beady form.

This cabachon on the left is a very subtle, but beautiful green and white seraphinite that I wired and hung on a handmade chain. The gemstone comes from Magpie Gemstones. (www.magpiegemstones.com)

I layered the pendant on the right, using a simple textured oval with a copper star soldered to it as the base for the bezel. I’ve been cutting a few shapes from very thin copper with scrapbooking punches. I don’t know how long the punches will hold up, but this is certainly easier and neater than when I was trying to cut the more detailed shapes by hand. I have this star and a flower.

Finally, the last necklace wears both greens and blues including turquoise and lapis. I like this combination and think it will be nice with denim as well as other things.

Now there’s a brand new problem for St. Patrick’s Day. Which green necklace am I going to wear? Oh well, this is better than getting pinched! I think I like this problem.

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Flow

Filed under: Bezels, Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy, Techniques, Torch Work, Wire Work | Back to: Homepage

Yesterday was a day of flow. After several nonproductive days filled with the emotions of life, I was finally able to put things aside and get into what Csikszentmihalyi calls flow. A description follows.

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. . . .According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) 

I’ve long appreciated the work of this theorist, yet often find his material difficult reading. His contributions to the field of psychology include a plethora of books and articles. I used to draw one of his charts in my workshops showing how flow balances between anxiety and boredom. It seems to me that if we are too relaxed or bored we don’t achieve flow; yet we don’t get there when we are too pressured or anxious. I feel that the need for one or the other (boredom or anxiety) probably depends on the individual. For example, do you work better with or without some degree of pressure? Learning what helps us reach that state of flow can help us achieve productive energy and creativity. If you have interest in this idea, you might enjoy reading some of the work on this topic.

Over the weekend my state of mind had been too far toward the anxious side and I wasn’t able to create anything that I thought was pleasing. By yesterday, however, I managed to relax enough to find my flow and the designs began to move ahead faster than I could work. While some of the photos below show rather plain pieces, they do represent a work that contributed to a feeling of accomplishment. For me, accomplishment leads to increased productivity and flow.

The top row of pieces needs a bit of explanation. The lapis necklace on the left is different enough that it may need to grow on you. The sterling silver form is soldered and wears a small cabachon and tiny silver cup flowers on one side. Balancing produced quite a conundrum, but I eventually made the bead links on silver wire and added the sterling silver rounds and spacers on another piece of wire below them.

I do believe that I must have strung the jasper piece on the top right at least five times while attempting to get it lay just so. Now it sits very nicely on the neck. The photo doesn’t allow you to see the tiny bit of orange in these beads.

The last two photos may end up as one piece. I may replace the pendant on the bottom right necklace which seems pretty bright with the cab pendant on the left. I’m going to wait and see what the customer wants done with this one.

Since flow is not  always easy for me to achieve, I’m thankful when it comes. My problem is waiting for it to get here!

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Commissioned Pieces

Filed under: Bracelets, gifts, Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants | Back to: Homepage

I recently had the fortunate experience of making some special jewelry as a gift. Although the request came from someone I do not know well, the gift was for someone I do know well. This made it much easier. The unique thing about this commissioned work was that the only parameters were to create something the recipient would like within the price range given. Since I know which pieces of my jewelry the person receiving the gift already has, I was able to make something she would not have seen before. It was also fortunate that the giver trusted me and there was no need to email preliminary photos back and forth. Below is a picture of the recipient wearing her new sterling silver and rodochrosite jewelry.

I regret the photographer didn’t show her pretty face with the pieces, so you’ll just have to trust me that she’s a pretty lady. She doesn’t wear many bracelets, possibly because she is a musician and choral director. We wouldn’t want some bracelet to go flying into the choir as she makes a grand motion. That’s why this bracelet has a firm clasp. You can also see that she has a relatively small wrist and custom pieces for her size are a necessity. It was good that I knew all this information prior to making her pieces; otherwise I might have made a dangling bracelet that could have gone flying as she directed.

I guess that what I’m trying to say is that it’s a really good idea to find out all you can if you are asked to make a special piece. Along with inquiring about what colors, stones and metals the person likes, the person’s style, size and even occupation and hobbies might be important. I’m pleased that the recipient of these pieces is happy with them.

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The Messy Metal Smith

Filed under: Earrings, Pendants, Philosophy, Rings, Techniques, Torch Work, Wire Work | Back to: Homepage

I wonder who it could be. Do you remember reading the August 11 entry describing how the pickle ate my pants? Well, today, the flux helped turn them white. I was happily spending some uninterrupted time with the torch when my bottle of Aquiflux fell off the table and rolled to some far away place. Oh well, I thought, I can just use the new paste flux sitting right here beside me. I hadn’t used much of it previously, but today seemed like a good day to give it a workout. All was well and I completed a ring with a bezel and two butterfly pendants before I noticed my pants. No, there weren’t any new holes in them, but one leg was practically covered in something white and powdery. Flux! Then I noticed that my hands had a good deal of dry flakes on them. Flux! The paste flux actually worked fine for my projects, but I’m not sure that I like the extra mess. I tried to take a bit more care with it on the rest of my projects, but when I went upstairs to clean up, I noticed I also had white spots on my nose and cheeks. Now you tell me how in the world I managed to get flux on my face. I guess you can just call me the messy metal smith.

By the way, I’m dangerous too. Last week, I managed to reach across the extinguished torch before it cooled. My arm came in contact with the torch and I have quite a nasty burn on my inside arm. It was becoming infected until I started flooding it with hydrogen peroxide. It appears that I’ll live to torch another day. Scars are good . . . right?

In spite of all the mess and the bandaged arm, this was a fairly productive day. As you can see from the photos below, I ended up with two sterling silver rings, two butterflies and two star earrings.

I cut the shapes on the butterfly wings with my disc cutter and then sweat soldered them onto the copper shapes. The center piece on the right flutter by is made from a beaded wire.

The sterling silver ring sports a lapis stone that I put in a premade bezel cup. It has a little sterling silver flower sweat soldered on the side.

I used some very thin copper sheet for the star part of the earrings (or pendants) below. I’m trying out a paper cutter that cuts a star to see how long it will last with this type abuse. It does a fine job of cutting and I’ll just wait and see regarding its life. I appreciate the friend who shared this technique with me. I’ll let you know if it appears to be worth the relatively small investment in decorative paper punches.

The last ring shown is from the new Kim St. Jean book mentioned in another entry.

I hope you aren’t as messy as I am, but I DO hope you’re having as much fun as I am! Does that make it OK to be a messy metal smith?

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