Gifting Jordin Sparks: A Celebrity Design Challenge

Jordin Sparks Style

A few months ago I was accepted as a member of The Artisan Group otherwise known as TAG.  TAG is a group of artists that take part in the gifting of celebrities at events like the Oscars and The Primetime Emmys.

After finding out that my name had been drawn for the Jordin Sparks gifting, the fun began.  When I volunteered to throw my hat in the ring, I imagined I would be sending  Jordin one of the many gorgeous necklaces I have in stock.  After looking through hundreds of photos on line, it didn't look like Jordin was really a necklace sort of girl.  When she did have a necklace on, it definitely wasn't my big funky organic "hey look at me." style. 

The good news was Jordin seemed to wear big earrings, a plus for me, and lots of bracelets.  Since I have seven bracelets on at all times and a number of holes in my head (well actually my ears), I could handle the bracelet and earrings as a style.  Now that I had decided what I was going to give as a gift I needed to come up with a design.  

I tend to be most creative when there is a deadline, but I can't obsess or all is lost.  One day after reviewing the deadline and looking at more pictures of Jordin, I decided to go for a run.  Seems like the best ideas come to me when I am either running or taking a shower.  When I am totally in the moment and letting the creative energies of the universe flow, the idea will come or so it seems.  So, after the run and shower I went into the Shiva shop and decided to transform some metals into a bracelet for Jordin.

I wanted the bracelet to be big, organic, and contain a mixture of metals.  My work style is to just start cutting out metals and see what comes.  The first bracelet I made was way too big and the riveting wasn't the best. It fit my husband, but was going to fall off of a woman.   By that time I had decided I wanted the earrings similar to the ones in the picture but with the same metals as the bracelet.  I sent pictures of the prototypes off to TAG, got the go ahead and moved onto making Jordin's gift.

Since I usually use eyelets and not rivets,  I got on the internet to once again review riveting.  Seemed my issue was that my holes were too large.  The rivet needed to be a tight squeeze.  Okay, I could handle that.  Also I needed to cut the rivet a bit smaller before I started hammering the back of it.  What a difference the size of hole and length of rivet made.  I finished up the bracelet in no time compared to the first one I made. Oh yeah, I measured this time and made it smaller so it would actually fit.

Now I was onto the matching earrings.   Since I had this design before I thought it would be a snap, but I did manage to have some difficulty getting the wire wrap around the edge to match.  After a few tries, I decided I was being a fanatic and they were close enough.  I also remembered why I don't make these earrings as a production piece.

The final product was packaged and mailed.

Take the Pain out of Tax Day - Sign up to Win OM Rock Pendant

I love the beach.  Whenever I go I end up with a pocket full of rocks.  Now I can turn them into jewelry.  The Om Rock Cairn Pendant is fashioned after trail markers.  I like to think of them as connecting you to the planet and helping mark the correct direction in life.

Personally, I spend more time dreading filling out my tax forms than it actually takes to fill them out.  Because it is such a pain, I have once again decided to have a tax day giveaway.  You will be entering to win one of the rock cairn pendants.  You can check all the different variety of cairns by clicking on either my Etsy or Artfire shops you see over on the right. 


You can earn up to six entry points through Raffelcopter.  The more the merrier. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Painting with Fire- Torching a Patina on Copper

Microtorch

Fire can transform a piece of copper into a rainbow of color.  Loving to work with fire, I have numerous torches.  For my birthday I bought a Blazer butane microtorch to use in soldering.  It is a great little torch because you can add oxygen to the flame to get the right amount of heat.  Also nice that it starts with pushing a button rather than a lighter.  Any torch will work  however.

Variations in color

Some people make a piece of jewelry then heat it with the torch to get the look they want.  I chose to patina an entire sheet because I want to make earrings out of it and I want them to look similar.  Heat patina is tricky because you don't really know the results until you remove the heat.  The metal changes first from gold, to orange, then reddish, green, blues and finally black.  You can see all the different possibilities here in this photo.

I put the piece of metal on a tripod and heated it from underneath moving the torch around so as not to overheat the metal.  When a color I liked magically appeared on the surface I removed the heat.  If you hold the torch without moving it you get something that looks like this.  The back of the metal is black because  it got really hot, but I think this will make a nice earring.  I just let the sheet of copper cool naturally so I could watch the colors emerge and decide it I wanted to hit it again with heat.

Getting the patina to stay can be an issue because the lacquers will muddy the colors and dull the finish.  Here is a forum where people suggest different products but I am just going to let nature take its course and see what happens.  I'll post some jewelry I make out of this sheet and let you know about finishes as I experiment further.  I have read that you can also patina in an oven but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

If you got questions, leave me a comment and I'll do my best.

Jewelry Tutorials: I Never Could Follow Directions

This lovely turquoise pendant by Deborah Gray-Wurz was featured in Step by Step Wire Jewelry December-January issue this year. She was inspired by a Native American piece. I had some lovely lampwork beads a friend made I wanted to show case so I decided to give the tutorial a try.

Here's my problem or perhaps my gift, I am not really good at copying.  In fact, I got a poor grade in penmanship because I wanted to make the letters "my way" not like the ones on the board.   Give me a recipe for a great meal and I will alter it to fit the spices and food I have on hand. I made the best fudge ever this year at Christmas and it will never be repeated which is the downside of winging it.

I teach jewelry classes and students have asked me if I have specific directions for the projects.  The answer would be "No."  In fact, I could never write a jewelry tutorial for others because I don't measure wire except with body parts.  You know about as long as your thumb, length of your hand, that magical yard which is from your nose to the end of your arm.

So with the best of intentions, I decided to follow the tutorial precisely the first time.  I carefully measured each wire, flattened and filed and did my best.  But guess what?  I didn't like it when I got finished.The matching silver beads were too plain so I changed them out.   It also didn't have the kinda swirly flair I like in a piece.  So I started messing with it. I continued to wire weave and twist the ends of the piece so it looked less like a horse shoe and more like a sea creature.

Another jewelry artist once said to me that she didn't worry about people copying her designs because everyone's personality comes out in their work.  I think she may be right about that.  Even when I am following a tutorial, I still find the need to mess with it.  The upside is no two pieces are ever exactly alike.  The downside is I will never be able to make that award winning fudge again.

Vintage Hats Debut at the Alpine Holiday Festival

The Alpine Holiday Festival happens each November in rural Benton County, Oregon.The festival is a fund raiser for the Alpine Community Center. 

This year, we added a vintage hat display to the event. Jeanne, one of the coordinators,  took a millinery class and her interest in hats lead to this display.  You can't believe the number of people who were fascinated by the hats.  Many of them commented that they had an old hat of their mom's or dad's hidden away.     Being a wirewrap artist, I love that each of them is handmade and none of them were exactly alike.  I remember my mom having a pink hat  made to match here dress for my sister's wedding back in the 60's.  She also had her shoes died pink.  Oh those were the days when people dressed in style.

About half the hats were from my collection. Looking inside them at the festival, I noticed each of them had a label with the name of the designer.   Most of them were made in Portland, OR which makes sense since that was my home town.  My favorite is the maroonish one on the bottom shelf which was made in Portland by Myrtle.   There are ribbons that go around your ears and underneath your hair in the back.  I think this Fascinator could totally be worn by one of the witches in Harry Potter. You are lucky I cropped the closeup or you might have thought I had flown in from Hogwarts. 

The hat below was made by Jeanne in her millinery class.  It is completely hand stitched and the feathers are applied without any glue.  There is a real art to making hats and it isn't something that everyone can do.  I can't wait until she starts making them and we can sell them in our booth.

Looks like next year we will have even more vintage hats on display.  So if you are in the Willamette Valley and want to get a jump on the holidays take a trek to rural America.  You'll find great homemade food, quality arts and crafts, good music, a funky fashion show, and a great community of just plain folks.


Photography courtesy of Watchthebirdie

Celebrating the Harvest - Celtic Winter

Here in Oregon the seasons are very similar to those of the Celtic year.  We had our first frost last week and it was very cold last night.   The days are considerably shorter and the chickens have slowed down in egg production.  Parts of the country have had there first snow storm.  Despite what the Gregorian calendar tells us it feels like winter is upon us.  In fact, November 1 is the first day of Celtic winter.

I like to mark the changing of the seasons with little rituals.  For instance, I remove the screen door on Samhain and replace it on Beltane. Flannel sheets are put on the bed Winter Solstice and come off Spring Equinox.  Today, I will put the barbecue under shelter for the winter months and fill the porch with firewood.

Samhain is about celebrating the last of the harvest and we will spend the next few days here at  Borgo Pass picking the cabernet wine grapes.  The winter squash has been put into cold storage and the apples are soon  to be picked.  According to the weather forecast, we have two nice days before the rains set in.

The daylight will continue to shorten until the solstice when we gather to celebrate the rebirth of the sun.  In this time of darkness we are invited to explore the depths of the inner self.   I look forward to slowing down the pace, clearing away the cobwebs, and searching my soul.

I would love to hear how you mark the turning of the year.

Wine Grape Lovers Come One and All

Pinot Noir Wine Grapes

These look good enough to eat

For the past month here at Borgo Pass Vineyards, we have been watching the grapes slowly ripen.  Humans are not the only ones who are interested in the sugar content of grapes it seems.  My husband often says there is no reason to take the brix just watch the birds.  You can see that the Cedar wax wing is keeping a good eye on that sugar content for us.  Just waiting for us to leave so he can devour that bunch of pinot noir.
     This year the yellow jackets have also been problematic which is a new one on us.  I guess with the cool spring and late summer they are desperate to fill up before they hibernate for the winter.  We have killed a number of nests we have found in the ground, but the yellow jackets just seem to keep coming.  The cool nights have finally slowed them down some which is great because it can be both literally and figuratively a pain to try to pick the grapes which are covered with starving  yellow jackets. 

Thanksgiving Dinner?

My favorite is the wild turkeys.  Someone years ago decided it would be a good idea to release turkeys for the hunters.  The turkeys are thriving and reproducing like mad with the great food supplies here in South Benton County.  (ie: vineyards, wheat fields, berries and orchards).  This flock of about 11 likes to come in and eat all the grapes they can find close to the woods.  Last year a similar flock ate about 500 pounds of grapes before we finally got serious about chasing them off. 

So Come One, Come All.  Grape Harvest is Upon Us.