A couple of weeks ago I dropped off some of my handmade jewelry and ornaments for an annual artist sale in my hometown. I recognized the staff person who took my items, but she didn't recognize me. I participated in the sale last year, too, but I'm not a regular shop customer. There's really no reason she should know me. It didn't bother or surprise me in the least.
What did surprise me was when she opened up my box of items and immediately recognized them. These are different items than I sold last year, but the style—the funny or inspirational phrases, the quirky lettering style—was still the same. "Oh! It's you! We love your stuff!" She immediately launched into a monologue about the best place to display my work.
It's hard to describe how happy those few minutes made me. I've been in a bit of a design funk lately. I'm developing a new line and struggling to define my style. This brief encounter reminded me that sometimes it's hard to see your own work. You don't need to fill out lengthy questionnaires or take an 8-week course on how to find your style. You are already present in everything you make, even if it takes an outsider to point it out to you.
Where Nobody Knows Your Name
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DIY Leather and Skull Necklace for Halloween
I confess I'm not a skull jewelry person; I'm more the happy flower-and-bird type. At the same time, I'm always up for a challenge. So when I received several strands of antiqued-looking skull beads from Halcraft USA, I challenged myself to use as many as I could.
How to Make This Midnight Ranch Necklace
I strung the skull beads on several different shades of brown cord and knotted in between each bead. I attached those beaded strands to three strands of soft leather lace using foldover cord ends and jump rings. (I love foldover cord ends—one of the easiest findings to use for flat cord or ribbon.) I added a lobster clasp to one side of the necklace. Full step-by-step instructions are on the Halcraft USA website.
The Story Behind The Name
Naming projects can be difficult. Occasionally, as with this necklace, a name pops into my head before I've even finished the project. With Midnight Ranch, I started telling myself a story as I knotted:
Where would you find so many old-looking skulls jumbled together like this? Maybe the leather is a clue: it would be somewhere out west, a desolate area far from civilization. It would be dark with the only light coming from the moon.
I pictured a woman on horseback galloping across the open plains. She stops at a bluff and looks down. Skulls are scattered on the rocks below . . .
What happens next? I suppose I'll need to write that story and find out!
Halloween Effects for Photos ...
I love playing around with my jewelry photos. (I didn't make this one shown at left, but I wish I did.)
If you go to Pic Monkey (a free graphics program), they have some cool spooky effects that you can use on your photos. You can add gashes or zombie eyes to your face or you can make your Halloween jewelry look like it perfectly matches the season. They even have fun fonts with names like "Face Your Fears" and "Nightbird."
... and a Pet Photo Contest
This has nothing to do with jewelry, except that many jewelry folks I know have an extended pet family.
PicMonkey is sponsoring a FrankenPet Halloween Contest. Create a Halloween-style photo of your pet and win one of several prizes, including a really cool video/photo camera. Entries are due on Halloween.
Have fun!
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Sneak Peek: My First Jewelry Making Video
A few weeks ago, the editorial director at Interweave asked me to make a video for my book, Unexpected Findings. I agreed, but honestly, I was a little nervous about it. I've never made any videos before, let alone one in a professional studio with three cameras watching my every move.
With less than a week to prepare, I chose three projects from the book to show and figured out the specific tips and stories to share about each one. (You won't learn how to make a complete jewelry project step-by-step in my video, but you will get some specific how-to ideas.) The finished video's not perfect, but I'm glad I decided to do it. I learned so much from the video staff who were very calm and experienced. But the biggest lesson for me was a reminder that it's good to be brave and say yes to new experiences; you never know how they will turn out!
This 5-minute video will be shared on Jewelry Making Daily next week (along with my guest blog post), but I wanted to give my blog readers an advance look. Thanks for watching!
If you enjoyed this blog post, sign up to get new ones by email. It's free and fun! As a bonus, email subscribers will get her What to Read Next guide, a list of 30+ books she's enjoyed over the last few years. Thanks for reading!
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Friday, October 10, 2014 | by Michelle Mach | beads, book reviews, inspiration, jewelry, tools & materials, tutorial