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!

The fruits of my labor and a softbox tutorial!

Guess what I did tonight? I stayed home and made this:

It's a softbox! And it literally cost me $10 thanks to a very easy to follow (and funny) tutorial on Strobist that I found today. I have a box of about 15 pieces of jewelry just collecting dust because I've lacked the ability to take high quality photos of them for my portfolio. I knew I needed a solution; I've been meaning to make one of these for a long time. It was ridiculously easy to create, even if it was a bit time consuming.

Here's a before and after photo of the earrings above. The after photo only has alterations to the brightness/contrast and I rotated the canvas since my camera was at an angle.

For my first go at it I'd say it was a success! The original photos are still turning out pretty dark so I'll need to tweak the lighting. Though, with a little help from PS everything looks beautiful. With some practice, I hope this light box will eliminate hours spent in front of the computer removing backgrounds from photos. How exhausting!

AVC time already?

I just got word that the applications for the holiday AVC are due in within the next month (AAAH!) and that they have considerably less space than last year. Why do they have less room, do you ask? Because they have a spiffy NEW VENUE!!!! And it's GORGEOUS!

It's basically a thousand times better than the last venue. Also, it's smaller. A lot smaller. I can tell already that I wouldn't need to wear my brimmed hat again to shade my sensitive eyes from the fluorescent lighting. Now, onto the hard part of getting accepted...

JUNKPRINTS SPECIAL!

Chanel, the fantastic mind behind Junkprints, has offered free shipping* for any of you lovely readers who are interested in purchasing something from her line! All you have to do is enter "Junkprints luvs Sewcial Suicide" in the seller notes. So, if you dig her line, (And how couldn't you?) now is the perfect time to pick up a little something to put a smile on your face. Thanks, Chanel!

P.S. I love the jacket pictured above. A lot.

*The promotion is valid until 8.30.07

Nature vs Machine: back in action? Not yet.

I tried forcing myself to be creative today. There's nothing quite like it in the world. OK, well, forcing yourself to eat brussels sprouts at 25 may come close (that is, if you hate brussels sprouts-but then why would you be forcing yourself to them in the first place?). I decided, instead, to work on a custom pendent that was put on hiatus during my move since I apparently have an aversion to forced creativity. I should have finished it today. Except that my only small drill bit broke in half in the middle of the first of six holes. And that bit would have created a hole that was too small for my 20g wire to pass through. Even if the bit hadn't broke, my reamer, and half of my other tools, are still packed away. Their exact location being in one or more of the dozen boxes still partially unpacked in different rooms of my house. Yes-I completely jumped the gun. I guess I should have finished unpacking first...which is exactly what I was trying to avoid by forcing my creativity in the first place. Back to square one. Tomorrow: unpacking. Ugh.

Etsy pick: Junkprints

Ok, so I found this little shop a few weeks back called Junkprints. I tucked it away in my special little place reserved for future Etsy picks, aka, a Gmail folder. I just pulled it up and had nearly forgotten how much I LOVE this girl's work! And, I believe there are new items up since the last time I visited. Oh, how I wish moving wasn't quite so expensive, because I really could go for this hoodie right about now:


Everything about Junkprints' work speaks to me. I love the artwork, the prints on the inside of the hoods, the positioning of the artwork, and the colors. It has the street vibe that I am consistantly drawn to. The artist also shows her sense of humor while remaining relevant to current issues which is something that I appreciate and adore.