Dinner with Picasso

new site and new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Sat, 10 May 2014 00:36:00 +0000

continuing blog posting at https://nearlylost.squarespace.com/blog

mid week artist mentoring

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 23:06:00 +0000

Self employed artist mentoring: your self worth

Some people have that little fairy in their life that constantly says "you're AWESOME!!" from the moment they wake up, to the moment they go to bed.

I do not have that.

When i'm rich, i consider hiring a personal assistant just for that task :D

I wish a bunch of us etsy people would meet monthly just for those purposes. But that isn't possible because it just so happens, we're all over the world.

First off...let me tell you a little secret: NOBODY will take you seriously if you don't take yourself seriously.
That doesn't mean that you have to be like everybody else. It doesn't mean you have to follow the crowd. You're artists and you're better than that.

We all feel the need to create as humans, but some of us are crafters, some of us are artists and some of us waste our talents.

NEVER EVER let ANYONE tell you you're anything LESS than what you are. Listen up: this also includes asking for a discount on your work, dealing with people who don't understand things take time, or dealing with people who say shit like "the shipping price doesn't justify the price of the item", or the most common disrespect: DOING STUFF FOR FREE!!

Or doing stuff for free and not being appreciated.
don't get me wrong, it's great to lend your skill and help someone else. Not everything has to have a price tag on it, but some of us are also trying to make a living with our work, and giving out freebies when you're trying to prove that you got the skill, isn't going to work to your advantage. And doing stuff for people who don't appreciate, is counteractive because it doesn't form the right energy you need to succeed. It pulls you down. The feeling one gets when properly appreciated for something they do that they LOVE is way greater than the feeling one gets when they do something they love as a favour, knowing their work is not 100% valued.

proven fact: people will more likely show more respect and treat you as a professional when you have a fee than if you were to do stuff freely.

Also, remove people from your life that treat you less of what your work is with their words. Guess what.....art isn't the same. Not everybody will see it the same. What one person likes, the other won't. If someone says to you "wow...that's the price?! and it SELLS?!?!"....then you don't need that person in your circle of encouragement. You need to surround yourself with people who respect what you do. And i'm not trying to be mean, but usually, most of the time, the people who will say things like that, aren't close friends anyways, so why even care what they think?

Bottom line, if there's anything you do and people want it, don't do it for free. Don't sell yourself short. Don't under value your finished product. Don't do favors if the appreciation isn't there. Be a professional. Or don't...not everyone wants to be a working artist. That's ok. Use this for whatever else you want to achieve.

Not only that, you'll end up putting yourself in that sort of mental frame that says "YES!! what i do is GREAT and it's worth it to pay for!". If someone asks you to do something, it means not everyone can do it. Therefore you are SPECIAL and you should treat yourself as such and value yourself accordingly!

bouquet of flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 03:21:00 +0000

not sure what those should be called...but they remind me of macaroons. Oh i LOVE macaroons... these are my FAVORITES!! sometimes it's hard to know what will come out..even though i set up my colours before working with them, the glass is bright orange when i work with it and it's a great surprise to see the final result of colours. These were a light translucent peach pink with a transparent pink with opaque olive green speckles. Getting better at pulling the teardrop headpin shapes.

flower meadows

Water Lilies

I have flowers on my brain. Only March and after being pulverized by a horrid winter, one can only dream of speckly colours of tiny summer flowers. Summertime is all dotted with light pink and purple wildflowers all over the side of the highways. Late spring is just nature smells and that lavender flower smell.

These headpins were inspired by the painting "Water lilies" by Monet. It's all blue and purple with impressionist dots of colour.

Tulips - translucent cherry red and blue with olive green dots. I LOVE the way that olive green works with those translucent colours. It reminds me of tulips

Sunflowers - they are one of my favorite summer flower. They are so great and i love to see them in the fields. These headpins are ywllow with white and transparent very light purple. The way the transparent purple was set, you can see inside the headpin and you can see the way the yellow looks INSIDE the pin. It's real neat!

Hope you enjoy the burst of colour :D

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 02:17:00 +0000

Sunshine through the clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 02:25:00 +0000

I NEED that window.

Onto this....

Been daydreaming of sun beams and flowers and colour. It's the beginning of March and it seems as though the sunshine is only a big tease of warmth....It's not really warm. At all. Not even trying to be.

I'm just so very lucky that at least the sun is out and i can get a little bit of "happy" into my photographs.

The lightbox can only go so far in terms of ambiance.

I finished the set of necklaces that i was working on last week and i finally finished them. I'm moving more towards using more beads in my necklaces, as opposed to just pendants and chains. Unless the pendant is awesome on its own. Then all bets are off.

and this is my work in progress...waiting to finish the resin on that dragonfly wing

partnerships or aloneness

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 02:00:00 +0000

I keep going back and forth on this art career thing. Is it better to partner up or is it better to just follow my own stream of consciousness and just go where the wind takes me.

The guidance i get on my work is somewhat constant. I've been submitting work to a few shops and a few craft shows and the answer is pretty much "you create art pieces of work and we love it. I don't see anyone like you, we'd love to have your work in our shop". And then i have to reject the offer because the general artist boutique focuses on soaps, cards and handmade tshirts. I constantly feel like i don't belong in those shops. And then the shops that ARE more high class, proper made works, i feel like they're too main stream for my work to fit in.

It's a constant struggle....but let's not call it "struggle", let's call it "juggle" because i get to pick and choose what and where i want my work to go.

Few weeks ago, i was offered a GREAT little nook in a shop. That little nook, the dark green painted walls and the ambient light was everything my work represents. Mystery and whimsical and all that funky stuff. The rest of the shop however was everything below my expectations of where i want my work to be. Good stuff, but in comparison, not the right stuff to have sitting right beside my work.

Bottom line, you don't want to be the statement ring collection in a sea of cookies and friendship bracelets. I truly applaud and encourage everyone being artistic and following their need to create and be artistic, but yeah....i'm aiming for higher.

Actually i'm aiming for old Parisian women with beautiful collections of statement pieces that they treasure and pass on to their daughters...or gay sons....and pick a piece to wear every day while sitting in the afternoon spring sun eating macaroons on the edge of the Seine.

Bring those ladies to me :D

Lately i've also been told to narrow down my collection and just stick to one thing.

Why? WHY???

The true artistic mind wants to create, not limit itself to simplicity and duplication.

Funny fact: lately i've been focusing more on simple metals...brass, silver...simple pieces that can be duplicated and easily adjusted for the happy customer that wants more than one piece. And it just so happens that my shop has truly suffered in views and sales in this past month, with this new selection.

It pulls in way more views to my artistic pieces, than it does to my simple crystal pieces.

They're all beautiful and I appreciate the variety of viewers they each receive but truly, honestly, my heart goes more towards the individual one-of-a-kinds.

These pieces i'm showing you on the blog today are new pieces. New stiles and new supplies. The glass lampwork beads i made myself and you can also get your own in my Ophelia's Garden shop. I keep making lampwork headpins and then i end up using them because they're so beautiful.

The headpins haven't really started to sell but LoveRoot has purchased the sparkly gray/white/black ones i made and she made these beautiful earrings with them.

lookit!! they're so pretty!!!

Those earrings will be snached up real fast. All her other pieces are equally lovely.

I love being part of other artist's creations..so lesson learned: if i make headpins, make more than two, cos i'd sure love to share the ones i've used in my earrings. Will make some more soon. Soon as in, when weather decides to stop being -25*C so i can get proper ventilation going.

work in progress..

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 06:32:00 +0000

i'm not feeling talkative. I don't feel like blogging much. Or at all.

Essentially, i want to revamp the blog with DIY's and recipes and tid bits and inspirational randomness that hopefully will put a smile on someone's face when they read my posts...nature photos and all that...BUT.............

i'm tired of winter. Seriously. I don't know why it seems to damn long. It feels like we've had a windchill warning every other week.

That seems like a lot. Yes. I know...#WeAreWinter but can we please be #WeAreSpring?!?! or #WeArePlus0? haha

so i made new headpins. Lookit them all shiny in the sun!

and my current work in progress. I've been focusing on a line of jewelry that i can get out there to shops but then i thought fuck it! i need to make something "different". I don't do well with "let's do what everybody else does". Plus working on this piece made me feel SO GOOD! it's almost finished.

And i will surely blog about the big shield earrings soon Vera! ...erm..when i'm done being winter cranky and stop being crabby..

vintage tin amethyst chunk bracelet

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 21:55:00 +0000

well it's not like i get blog interaction anyways...

new year's resolution: Photograph more

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:01:00 +0000

I'd like my blog to feature more eyecandy. I keep going back and forth between white background and an actual photo setup. And a lot of my favorite blogs have their own substance and i'm not sure who to be inspired by. But why not stand alone?!

I used to carry my camera with me everywhere. Correction...i used to collect vintage cameras, (i have a camera from WWII time that i LOVE!) and just carry 2-3 in my bag at all times and do photo experiments. My travel bag had mostly 70% camera stuff/film and then clothing. Then i ended up getting a job as a product photographer and while taking pictures 9-5, i really didn't want to take pictures in my spare time anymore. Plus, i used film and a lot of the photo labs are closing off. Sad.

Anyway, i was dating this guy who i'd constantly have to justify instagram and flickr and Pintrest and sharing photography. It's not even about taking pictures of MYSELF..for my job as an artist now and for my etsy shops, i HAVE to take pictures. As an artist i have to maintain a certain level of transparency because people want to know what's behind the work. There's this beautiful new movement now that people want to connect with what they buy. They want to know it comes from a living person...not a factory and not a robot.

Point being, i'm not always keen on taking pictures of myself. I don't see myself as the subject of my creative mind, but i think my new year's resolution is to get back to documenting things. Everything. But in a creative artistic way. Make interesting product set ups and make everything have a story behind it.

A lot of my customers describe my work as found archaeological treasures. A wonderful lady recently said that my jewelry is like "looking through display cases at the Louvre".

maybe so...

The Louvre is one of the coolest places to visit. And i hate museums.

So obviously....HUGE compliment! therefore, would like to continue to focus on giving my work a background story.

side note...i wish my studio space was like this

..well it's not...but i've always made the decision to move out of the city. To move closer to nature and the fields and the trees and the country houses.

can haz model?!?

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:52:00 +0000

well umm yeah...been bombarding everything, all my social media outlets with this shot and new photo product shots in this theme today because the sun was shining just right and the prop boxes were bought to be made into cuffs/earrings. They're vntage English cookie boxes with AMAAAAZING embossed details.

seriously, they photograph so well as props i will need to get as much photos out of them as i can before i take the shears to them.

People of UK...just go into your attics and send me all your rusty biscuit tins please. Yes?! OK!! :D

so naturally, the mean person that i am, i woke up my little furry friend that was enjoying her mid afternoon nap and put her on my skull prop(got it from some etsy folk who own some farm and sells wool for felting) and attempted to take as many shots as i could before she got too squirmy. Yup. that was a whole 10 seconds because well...animals. If you want them to be props and look pretty, you have to work with their patience limit. Which is close to zero so i did what i could as fast as i could. no time to fix bed fur..bed hair??!!...but i'm happy with the dreamy whimsical feel of it.

now i'm gonna have to go cut up those boxes while crying because they're just so beautiful. But that just means they'll look even better as jewelry ;)

lookit my bead!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:13:00 +0000

my brain is way too sleepy to write a proper blog post.

that and i', not really chatty

but ...........LOOK AT MY BEAD!! :D

also...made these...

they are vintage cookie tin with victorian floral on them. and those are tiny itty bitty turquoise beads. They are the LAST earrings from the tin. NO MORE!

a lot of ladies have been loving that print and i made something around 4 pairs of earrings with this delicious victorian floral print and a cuff with gold and copper leafing. I'm getting more floral tins from England. OMG!! vintage English cookie tins! ugh! it's like i imagine they come from some old lady's attic and they held cookies in the 1900's and they gathered for tea during the war.
hahaha oh my brain...where are you running off to??

but back to THESE shield earrings...i think these ones are my favorite from this collection. Perhaps because they;re the last ones. Or perhaps it's because of the tiny turquoise beads. they're so dainty it's just ridiculously cute!

.......and now i play with fire...

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:55:00 +0000

....well...........i used to play with fire before too....fire and metal. Now fire and glass.

this is all your fault Kimberly ..heheh :P
now i have another excuse to not be social and just sit at my table and play and make things. Teaching myself to make wonky headpins.

the glass...is just weird. It melts and it swirls and it's...madness. I'm so fascinated by this lampworking stuff it's incredible.

My inspiration to work with glass came from Kim's shop NuminosityBeads and then i thought...hey i want to make that too!!...because i'm actually a crazy person :D
so i've made my own wonky...(SO WONKY)...glass headpins for my handmade supplies shop.the glass comes out all swirly and polka dotty and sparkly and it's just soooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!

SO COOL!!
i mean lookit these wobbles..

i'm not advanced or anything but would like to make actual beads. I like the recycled glass beads i see on etsy..the rough crustyness...it's delicious. And if i could make imitation Roman Glass like beads...that would be so great. Glass is fantastic. Goldstone is glass...and i smashed it up and made grit to use in my headpins..so now they're all fairy sneezes :D

i tried to make shapes. NO IDEA what i'm doing.Honestly i don't even know how to price these things. I don't want to drag anyone else's sales down, but i also don't want to overprice for wonky randomness. everytime i add something to my shop i do a roundabout to see other handmakers' prices and more or less do the same. Pisses me off when i see people underprice just to gather sales. We're all in it together, no?!?

oh and i had my first front page feature of the year. YAY! :D

So yeah.....2013 has been a shit year. It taught me a lot. It made me a stronger/smarter person and i wouldn't be halfway to living my dream if i didn't go through all that, and i should be thankful it all happened, but i'm also so glad it's over. Looking forward to a brighter 2014. And wishing all of you the same as well :D

HELLO BLOG!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 03:47:00 +0000

yes...you are still here....

well the past few weeks a lot of changes have been happening with etsy and therefore my shop had to get a facelift as well. Only to be able to stay on top of the trendy search engines and buys that are etsy.

You know what?? fine. I'll tackle your changes and sit at my desk and create thousands of simple earrings and sell them for $20....as long as i still get my tribal and metalsmith work done.

It's just my attempt to try to swim up with the stream of etsy and with that inundate my shop with randomness.

but...i finally made some assemblage jewelry brooches

Driftwood assemblage brooches with gemstone chunks and gold leafing. And Pyrite. I love pyrite. Just the right amount of sparkle.

The base is a piece of driftwood i found this summer and cut it up and paired it off with a mushroom coral piece that i also cut in half and sanded to perfectly fit with the driftwood. Then I made something like a gemstone chunk garden growth on top. Pinks and greens. And metallics with greens.

this ring was made in a seashell. I realized that i had a labradorite tumbled stone in my stash and i had to use it with this cute little seashell i had. They're sticking together with some plumber's putty and i also added some glass beads.

I used a primitive style bezel cup made from brass with sterling silver ring shank(size 7) and used some more plumber's putty cement to keep it in place and then gold leafed and oxidized.

I honestly think labradorite is the most magical stone in the world! So much awesomeness sparkles in this stone.

well that's all.

i'm getting a bunch of pretty gemstones for my supplies shop. I love gemstones. LOVE THEM!!!

very pretty agate geode slabs.

Snakeskin jasper freeform cabochon. I have another one of these and plan on getting more to make a permanent collection ring/necklace for my jewelry shop. The colours are just amazing.

that is all :D

maybe i'm grumpy...maybe it's PMS...maybe people need to stop fucking around with a good thing

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 16:09:00 +0000

well PipnMolly has already made a post on this and i went to comment on the forums and well there are a LOT of unhappy folk about the new feedback issue on etsy.

before y'all think i'm just bitter for some reason or another...or because i'm afraid of change *eye roll*...there is a good reason why people are pissed off at the new etsy feedback change. There is NO seller protection. NONE! the buyer can be a total jerk, make a thousand orders and not pay, leave you hanging for weeks and you would have NO idea!

we share buyer annoyances amongst us and we've all had our share of the flake buyer. You know the buyer that buys and never pays, or the buyer that goes back and forth on custom changes and is still never happy.

With the new feedback you now have no idea about this. There's no more 80% feedback. You just don't know.

There was a buyer that demanded that i allow her to pay me in money order because she didn't have paypal and she really REALLY wanted one of my necklaces. So I said ok. No problem. 3 months later, i STILL have no payment. No return of emails. Nothing. Checked her feedback, she had something like 60% with past sellers saying she never pays. Cancelled order and there was no issue of course but such a waste of time. Would've saved a lot of time to know of her bad feedback and say no sorry can't do that because you already have questionable feedback and would like a safe secure payment.

So with the new system, it'll be a lot of selling in the dark, because you never know. A lot of people don't understand or respect the fact that a lot of us on etsy are full time or trying to be and we need to pay bills. Sitting in our studios all day is not for the weak! soldering and buying silver and burning our hands and cutting our fingers is not for the weak! if this was a hobby for some of us, we'd care less about the 5 stars feedback has become.

fuck! improve keywords! improve things that NEED improving!

like i said in the forums, etsy is now offering free listings for referrals. Free listings won't get you love, listening to people's complaints will get you more shops. I feel like the people who keep making these changes don't even know if from our point of view. They don't know what it's like to deal with shop as a full time seller.

blah whatever. just had to say what i needed to say. i seriously hope they either reconsider or it doesn't really affect things. which it will..........

crickets

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 04:06:00 +0000

where is everybody?!?!?
why is nobody blogging?!

FIRST question: how come my blog comments don't have the "reply" like everyone else? the "reply" option shows when i read the comments on my phone... CONFUSION!!!

hehhe...i made this of my cat

i tend to keep Peanut off the internet because she'll ruin Grumpy Cat, Maru and lil BUb's careers. TRUST! Princess Peanut is quite the character.

hmm so yeah...been working a lot on my supplies shop. Working on my handmade enamel charm plates.

i like the way the color came out in these

just trying on different shapes...

i went to take some headshots for my awesome friend who is amazing at modelling...he modeled the hoodies at minusthecircle.....and walking back on his street i got the pleasure of exploring one of the awesomest ...and fire/safety hazards antique shops. It was AMAZING!

The objects ranged from modern time, to war time, to the 1900s. I managed to find some cool books to use as background for my photographs but there was so much more to explore. SO MUCH! i wish i could've stayed longer. And by longer i mean all week. And move stuff around.

In this store you kind of needed 3 arms. One just for holding whatever would fall on your head from moving what you wanted to see at the bottom. I didn't take any pictures of the cool objects but i will definitely be back there. I just need to find use for all the awesomeness i saw.

there was this old...maybe 70's...suitcase that he was going to give me for $6. Had i not had my bike with me, i would've been dragging an awesome vintage suitcase after me. I want to go back there and find cool boxes for my craft show displays.

well yeah...there's not much to talk about....other than...the adventures of Miss Peanut, who will be staying with us for a week while my parents are traveling. Again.
she wouldn't have come but right before they left she had a sort of emergency trip to the vet. Emergency because she's been showing weird signs of discomfort relating to the litter box and it's been going on forever and finally i instilled the right amount of worry in my parents to take her for a check up. Soo....she's on pills.

Ever try giving a cat pills?!?! well ...it's an adventure.....

Summer's almost done and i'm trying to make the best of what's last. Up here, once September hits, that cold fall air comes in.

and this is one of my rat friends that enjoys breakfast time adventure in my plants. Or as my plants call it "terror hour". She climbs on everything and i worry she'll slip and fall ...or fall on one of the sticks that hold up the plants...

oh and you know it's funny spammers...whether it's on here being sneaky or you randomly email me with newsletters i NEVER EVER signed up for...i'm not going to want to buy your stuff....ever!

thanks :D

just a picture moment because their life is too short

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:03:00 +0000

pressure pressure ...and roman glass

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 01:26:00 +0000

Roman glass~!! ANCIENT ROMAN GLASS!! finally got my hands on a strand.

i can now safely add this to my collection of sparkly things obsession. Along with labradorite and fire opal stones. I love that it's so dainty and fragile but sooo SOOOO pretty. I had all the beads on the table and then had to pace myself. No. No. step back. Don't use them all at once.

Kinda like getting a new bag of candy after months of no candy.

then I decided to use a tiny little bit (the pale green in the middle there) and use the last bits of my druzy rocks and create a simple dangly thing. But so unsure of the chain it's strung on. I hate chains. They're so damn boring. But the local thrift store had a bunch of them and i thought i'd make good use one way or another.

Well...this is what i'm working on now. I made some more bezels with resin and smashed up rocks with some glitter...and another druzy...and labradorite...and some tiny bottles with sparkly things. The triangle on the right actually glows in the dark, because i was sneaky enough to pour some of that glow in the dark glitter i had. You can't see it because it looks clear in the resin, but it does indeed glow!

GLOWS!!...and pretty shiny thing i glued to the oxidized Kuchi coin there.

the rope on this i like...my issue is with the other ones.
I just haaaaate that plain chain. hate hate hate.
And the rope wouldn't look good.....but i like the pastel tone of it. And i don't want more beads....HMMM!!!!!!111

maybe it's the size of the links in the chain that bothers me. Too thin for such a chunky piece.

anyways......... pressure to list something new in the shop...

and this too..i think it's finished...

post craft show bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 17:31:00 +0000

i just want to sit here and enjoy my coffee and just enjoy the feeling of my head exploding from people appreciating my work at the craft show the other day. A lot of people stopping and looking very carefully at my pieces and saying "oooohh sparkly!" and "OMG it's a KEY!!" and "that is...woah....that is cool!!"

and i made a few sales. Compliments and appreciation is great but making sales is even better! I'm just really REALLY enjoying the buzz. I would've been happy with just one sale. Or my trade.

I TRADED something! I traded my upside down brass crosses and my green patina crop field cutout earrings for a beautiful purple long sleeve top.

ok well i'm pretty much obsessed with cropped hoodie tops. WHAT"S THAT YOU ASK?!?!

it's this awesome thing right here. Modeled by me. Cos i'm kinda awesome sometimes. Well my crazy hair definitely is! haha...RADIOACTIVE MADNESS!!!

these can be bought here:

plastik Wrap handmade
LOOOVE!!!!
that exact top is here

One of my new necklaces ...got sold. It was awesome! it made me so happy.

This was one of my favorites. I say that about a lot of my pieces but really...i loved it. It was so magical and cosmic surreal it was fantastic! And the little KEY!! the key came from AlchemySHop..DUHH where else. Can i please just have everything in that shop?? EVERYTHING??? yes. everything!

and i also want more unicorne tears. The little glass beads there stuck on the spikey lip rings. I mean...they're friggin unicorne tears. Why would you think twice about getting some?!?!

these earrings here also sold:

What i loved about a lot of people is that they were asking how things were made and what they were and everything like that. It was fantastic.

pricing for craft shows while drinking beer

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 13:33:00 +0000

the awesomely brilliance that is Sparrow Salvage is pretty much giving away free information on pricing and how to successfully run a shop and make more money, information that I think is probably worth MILLIONS...but shes giving it away for free. Go check out her blog. You won't regret

And we all underprice our beautiful pieces and at the same time we all want to pay our bills and we all are afraid to hike up our prices. I'm doing a craft show this saturday and i was pricing and the rule was, drink some beer, price and alcohol won't make me shy with my prices and the rule was to not go below $40(except for pieces that i made and i thought i'm just wasting supplies...) and the next day i can't adjust the pricing. At all. No second guessing. But even so, if SparrowSalvage were to see that my prices were a bit lower for the craft show than on my site, because i fear that live customer taking a look at my tag and making a face...she would KICK MY ASS FOR SURE!!! hahaha

she's brilliant and her work is so much inspiration and brilliance. for realz!

i don't even remember the last time i blogged about what i made. Some pieces fly off the interwebz shelf and it feels like summer is so long this year. Mainly because i've been unemployed since march and for me summer started since it got warm(around april) and i've been wondering the town and socializing and making things with random pieces of the city/beach that i found on my little adventures. On almost every adventure i find some awesome rusty thing on the ground and use it in my work.

I ended up finding this key and i'm trying to get it to rust but...not going quite as planned.

My ring made it to front page a few days ago. YAY!

(the ring on the bottom)

these new things happened...

yellow druzy sterling silver ring

purple druzy ring

for this one here i smashed a geode piece...i know, sacrilege for sure!!...then made these floral tin bezels and stuck the geode druzy in it with a bit of wire and kuchi jewelry rings

so much victorian bling!!!the blingy blings seem to be very popular and i try to keep to vintage things or destash but this is my own personal destash because i was cleaning out my bin and these came from some fascinators i had made but never sold. SOOOOOOoooo earrings they are :D

raw amethyst which i looooooooveeeeee and a bunch of crystals. And some handmade art headpins with giant sparkly glitter bits inside.

then i took a break for a little bit to focus on some supplies and these necklaces just took form. That green specimen took forever to get used. I never thought i'd get a chance to make it into anything because of the weird shape but YAY!! here it is! a cosmic galaxy necklace!

and now....the BRILLIANCE that is Miss Princess Peanut :D

this is how she lounges when she's outside. She's sitting under a bush near the tool shed and she leans against the curb like that. Just watching birds and butterflies and when she sees there's food being set up on the table outside, she gets up and walks over with a very determined look on her face. But look at those fat plump paws <3 br="">

new tribal earrings

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 03:10:00 +0000

These ones were made with some oyster(??) shells i found on the beach and one of them had these gray/dark cherry red tones and the other didn't so i ended up staining it a bit with alcohol inks. Can you tell which one is which? I'm actually pleased that it came out so similar because i was trying to tone down the whiteness of the plain shell.

I also used some enamel beads i made and some found beach glass that i used some epoxy on to hang a loop. And some amethyst chips.

These ones here i used components from these other earrings that didn't sell and i worked it around a bit to create a better, nice pair. There's a lot of gold leafing, and gold pen and the gold reclaimed metal bracelets that i twisted and shaped. Then i used piercing jewelry that i got from the shop.

That place is madness! they have this huge discount wall of piercing jewelry and they're all scattered and you gotta look for a long time to pair stuff up. There was a greeter guy at the door near the piercing jewelry wall and ......yes a guy working in a girl's accessories shop lol.......and i guess he must've been bored cos he asked me how many piercings i have. Why else would i buy 5 packaged of pairs in one shot? haha

Cos i gotta do this....

giveaway winner and TONS of humidity

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:49:00 +0000

the giveaway winner is............

*drumroll*

cmmargaret

YAY!!

this is what she won:

i hope you enjoy wearing my earrings :)

on another note...humidity is kicking my hair's ass this month. it's like my hair has been replaced with a million neon pink dandelion fluffs. No conditioner will tame it. sadly :(
still....not complaining. I'd rather have this than a blizzard.

also...i have some new visitors..

I get to watch this little cutie and her sister until further notice and this ball of fluff is currently unnamed but i was thinking of naming her Corey Dandelion....until further notice... Cos she's so fluffy and cute.

assemblage jewelry gauge plugs with body jewelry

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 02:04:00 +0000

you know...things kinda have started to get to me.

....it's ridiculous....no matter what new idea you have, someone will already have come up with it before you.

I had this BRILLIANT idea to make earrings with gauge plugs instead of earwires, for people who have stretched ears, cos i think they're cool but i thought them to be a bit limiting...so i made these...

...I thought it was the most brilliant GENIUS idea i've ever come up with. NOPE!!!

....when i was listing them i was looking up keywords and what do you know?? a bunch of etsy jewelry people have already made these sort of things. BRILLIANT! well...they're te same idea, not the same style. But i guess it's good to know...great minds think alike and stuff....

I made the bezel cups and set some gemstone chips in them with some leftover labret barbels in them. I might actually have to restock on those because i really like the idea. Fanciful already used this idea previously and i STOLE it (MWAHHAHAHA)...but she used them in bracelets.

......ummm i might get published in a super fancy magazine.........well by "might" i mean "definitely" because i'm reserving an ad space so my work better get in there or else. blah. advertising's like selling your kidney. I'd probably get less money for a kidney mind you. I just hope to get some exposure.

and my hair is pink...the ring's in my shop..click pic for link

this is my new photo setup.

this is some really old vintage bible i bought off etsy cos of the texture and i kinda took the covers apart and ripped everything. The black covers are from an equally old German book of songs that i also took apart. My grandpa instilled this fear of mistreating books and i felt so much guilt tearing those books apart. When i was a kid, there was a specific way to hold a book, on how to turn the pages, etc etc. One would never ever write in a book. One would not fold the sheets. One would not leave a book where it might get damaged. I used to use his old book as a photo prop but the pages keep falling out and ...from fear mostly...i thought i'd get new(old) books to abuse in my photo shoots haha

ok bye!

PS. *mumble grumble* i dislike flakey people who pretend to send money and then they never do. grrrr!!!

GIVEAWAY and specimen double ring

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 04:10:00 +0000

YAY!! free stuffs!!!!!!!!!

I'm giving away these earrings from my shop. They are one of my favorite pairs :)

They were made from reclaimed vintage tin, agate beads and orange seed beads.

. brass
. green agate beads
. brass .

3" long
2.5" long without earwires
lightweight

If you want a chance to win them, just comment and will take your name into consideration for the draw. Then will post the winner on my blog. Giveaway ends June 22. Will post the winner in the next few days following that.

onto new stuff....

Things for this necklace came from AlchemyShop. All vintage found items that i paired off with a Monroe piercing jewelry with a baby blue jewel and a tiny animal jaw with teeth. Can't remember where that one came from. Been waiting for the right piece to use it with.

    For the ring, I had a bunch of bit of druzy and specimens laying around that can't really be used with a bezel and i didn't want to use resin again.

   So i used a technique Fanci has used in her work(epoxy putty). And then i gold leafed the piece to give it more colour. This is an adjustable ring. The ring bands are sterling silver and the rest is brass with a variety of gemstone chunks and specimens.

This druzy was such a weird shape to set in a bezel. I could always make my own bezel cups to accommodate, but I needed thin enough metal sheet and the thinnest is 24ga i think. Doesn't work that well. Copper and brass don't solder well with the kind of torch i use because they conduct heat differently and the whole piece has to heat up for the solder to melt. Uhhh...yeah went a little bit into too much detail there...

i LOVE druzys!

The "Chrysocolla is a hydrated copper silicate mineral"..."It is of secondary origin and forms in the oxidation zones of copper ore bodies."......according to wikipedia. Umm yeah...in case you needed to know that lol

treasures and mysterious little creatures

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:40:00 +0000

new things i'm working on

but wait!!! what is this marvelous little creature we have here??

I bought this little cat...royal cat thing...a Medieval princess cat...from Alchemyshop..(which has become my new favorite "found rusty things" shop...)..with the idea that i was going to use it as some sort of pendant...but NO! once i held it in my hand, I decided that it would forever be my studio mascot. I mean...it's a CAT! ...that looks like she's in charge of a little kingdom and most likely comes alive at night and poops in my flower pots. So no...it will never ever be made into anything. EVER!! MINE MINE MINE

overlooking her kingdom

"ooohh these flowers smell lovely indeed!"

sitting in the new bird's nest i found by the lake. I love bird;s nests. They are amazing. I love to see what birds drag into them to make their home. This is a Robin's nest because it has remnants of robin eggs in it.

I actually found it on the ground near the bike path so i wonder if someone took it and left it there, or if it fell. It's sad that some birds are now homeless but once the nests fall, they can't really get them back up.

prayers for mermaids

noreply@blogger.com (Jiorji) — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:07:00 +0000

back in the day when sailors went out to sea and families left behind would pray for them that the mermaids wouldn't drag them to the bottom of the sea...evil zombie mermaids...or maybe they prayed that they saved them and took them safely back to shore....either story is good....

Pray for us

This was pretty much constructed with beach finds, a severely worn out seashell(i'd love to know how old the seashells i find are, and where they originated from), coins, crosses and religious iconography. Oh and i used Fanci's method of using body jewelry to hold my seashell onto the driftwood and the piece of tin at the back.

yeah i have a severe obsession with InstantKarma's Chrysocolla druzy bits they sell there. They get swiped so fast too it literally breaks my heart when i miss out on a great one. I want to live in a druzy is i can. Make myself super tiny and live there.

I mean check this one out...

MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!

across the seas

this one too is like a little prayer/shrine necklace that was made from driftwood, art beads and beach glass with a vintage portrait.

Not too sure about this. I got a bit overly excited with putting the picture behind the glass and then everything else around it wasn't really needed, but i needed to put other dangly things on it. hmm...not sure, not sure...

Roman Royalty in athens

Again, i finally got to use the epoxy putty that miss Fanci has used in her work before. And ummm it stinks. What the hell dude?! also, my amazing trips to the hardware store are never dull. I've been looking for this damn epoxy putty for a few months now. And no thanks to staff at the hardware stores. yes storeS. Because i'm convinced that i tell them what i need and in their mind they think "oh ummm...art supplies...why is she getting it HERE? ...also..she's a girl, she's probably meaning to ask about something else so i'll twist it and point her to the glue". Umm no. I don't need glue.

me: i need a molding paste that dries hard and sticks
them: you need super glue.
me: no i don't but thanks i'll just look around.

But alas i finally found it. It stinks. It dries super fast, but it's ok. Would like it to dry daker, but mehh.....it does the trick. I used it on the back of the druzy with gold foil. And also on the seashell because the piece had this ugly plastic cab and i took that out and just used the seashell. With tons of green patina. Green patina always reminds me of rusty chains by the sea. umm........i have no idea...