Etsy Pick: Soku

Soku has been an Etsy favorite of mine for quite awhile. I think a lot of their designs are fresh and unique (and sometimes a little traditional). With this design Soku manages to embody the delicate aesthetic of wire with hardwood. Anyone who is familiar with my style knows earrings like these are right up my alley. In fact, this is the very design that made me check out Soku's shop in the first place.



I also really like the juxtaposition of materials in this acrylic and wood design. It is put together using acrylic rods as rivets. Being someone who uses rivets often, I can appreciate the precision needed for this type of construction. You can find both of these pieces and other Soku designs in Soku's Etsy shop.

Art vs Craft!

My friend and I got our Art vs Craft acceptance email last week! I am excited about being accepted but I am kind of freaked out. I know how much work goes into art fairs and it scares me a little. I think I put too much off until the last minute the last time around and it caused me a lot of stress. I hope I can learn from my past experience and get motivated to accomplish as much as possible early on so I don't have a hundred lose ends in December.

When: Dec 8th 10am-7pm
Where: Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center (click for a map)
790 N Van Buren St Milwaukee, WI

Moving beyond my color comfort zone

I'd like to get something out into the open: I'm a tanophobe. Yes, I said tan-o-phobe. I don't go near it. Ever. Or brown, for that matter. I only like very specific shades of chocolate, espresso, and sometimes taupe but that's where I draw the line. Tan gives me an uneasy feeling. It washes me out. It reminds me of a uniform. It screems DULL. I feel that, paired with the right accent colors, tan could be great. With help, I can work on my tan phobia, as long as I don't have to wear it.

Once, about a year ago, I was confronted with a huge dilemma. I was asked to make a custom handbag as a gift. When I met with my client I was floored. The neutral color pallet we discussed was like the sound of nails being dragged down a chalkboard. I could feel myself immediately shying away from the project. How on earth would I be able to plan a project around a pallet I knew so little about? I think this tutorial: Color Picking 101: It's easier than you think, by whoops-a-daisy would have made me feel much more confident in my planning. In the end, I got lucky. We scrapped the neutral pallet and went with a pallet of my choosing. (I have to say it was a success!) I'll definitely refer to this tutorial in the future whenever I'm forced to make neutral color based decisions.

My necklace: Flawed and I love it.

Here's the flawed necklace that I decided to keep for my own since I haven't found the time to make anything specifically for myself. I ended up making another unflawed version that now belongs to someone else.


I set two of the rivets and was drilling the rest of the holes for the remaining rivets when the drill bit snapped off inside one of the holes! I tried ripping it out but it was stuck. I ended up having to widen that hole which was really hard to do since the new drill bit was reluctant to drill into another bit. After finishing the riveting I sanded the face and rest of the bit down as far as possible. In my attempt to sand the flaws away I ended up exposing the rivets a bit too which is something I've been trying to get under control lately. The original flaw is barely a speck now...but the finish is still marred . All flaws aside, I'm happy I eventually decided to finish the pendent completely rather than destroying it (as I tend to do) because now I have one too!

Sterling and vinyl pendent.

Here's a revamp of an older design of mine. I have finally perfected making the rivets disappear and it has improved the design tenfold. The prototype of this design was originally intended for ME but I gave it to a friend as a gift and ended up taking a different design for myself. Yes, I took the one with the flaw. A drill bit broke off in the metal and I wasn't able to remove it. So, that's the one I wear (no pics of that one here with me, unfortunately). So, this one will have to find a new home. I listed it on Etsy last night:

New earrings!

Here's a new pair of earrings I made which are now up in the shop. This shows the 5th and (hopefully) final alteration to the pattern. The last pair I made (which I own) are a bit bigger than these (1.25" diameter) and tend to weigh down the ear. I made these a little smaller so they don't tug as much. They're my favorite earrings!

R.I.P.

AAH!

I have a very valid excuse for the lack of posts in the past week(s). My computer died! I don't know what's wrong with it but I have a suspicion it may be the motherboard which will cost at least a hundred bucks to fix. I anticipated something like this happening soon so I bought an external hard drive a few months ago. At least all of my important information is still accessible to me on other computers. I have plenty of friends who love working with computers and have offered to lend me a hand. Soon...very soon I will be back up and running from the NVM Headquarters, aka, HOME. Luckily I have finally managed to find a way to post on Blogger from a location that I was previously unable to log on from. So, more posts to come! HOORAY!