ninety-nine

i am approaching my 100th sale in my etsy shop ... and am planning surprise the next person who makes a purchase (the 100th) with a extra piece of jewelry as special gift. i'm excited - hope i won't need to wait too long to be able to surprise them........

premature....

i should have waited a day on the previous post because the november/december issue of the WALKER magazine came today - and my JUMBO_Hollow earrings in basswood are part of their jewerly selection of gifts from around the globe .. wow! {this is part of the reason they are now available on their online shop} the email announcing the WALKER jewelry artist mart on november 1st also came today ... pretty exciting day!

WALKER online shop

...tickled

juggling...

the time for a head-down-production-phase has begun. it is already mid-october and i have a busy 2 months ahead of me with a handful of local shows {first up: jewelry artists mart at the WALKER on november 1} and a big 'non-local' show {ONE OF A KIND SHOW in Chicago on december 4-7} to prepare for. i have been working to build some stock on the pieces i debuted at the fall flair fashion show. these earrings will be available in the new fall acrylic colors (and red, of course) as well as a variety of woods. i've been wearing a black pair every day this week. they are so light-weight. love it.

last friday i was a guest-juror for the final review of a design workshop at the school of architecture at the university. i am warming-up and reacquainting myself with the school, as i am intended to teach one of these workshops myself soon. it felt good to be back in that environment, despite feeling self-conscious at first. my work process has become very internal and i realized i have vocalized my thoughts/process/reasoning less and less since leaving IKEA. it was all really quite fun! i warmed-up by the end, and ultimately the whole experience confirmed how important it is to really understand your own approach/process ... to acknowledge the variables in any situation and to have a means for making sense of them in order to come to a designed result. it also confirmed the enormity that can be architecture....and while i am so strongly based in it, i am also overwhelmed by it. perhaps it is simply that i haven't embraced the variables at such a scale? i still have much to learn.....
one thing that i do know is that i am a juggler - one who juggles many things - and my productivity level actually thrives when i have more than one compelling project to manage. in the past i have put a lot of pressure on myself to limit my interests - to focus - because i felt that i should, because that is what mature people do, they focus. but in the past few weeks small things have been added to my list, like going to the post office every day. don't get me wrong, i love having a reason to go to the post office every day, but that along with other small tasks like it make me realize that one can only juggle so much before things start falling. today alone i dropped the ball twice...forgetting to return simple messages to people. {well i didn't entirely forget, they just hadn't come to the top of my remember-list yet} now, it is not the end of the world, granted, but it makes me feel like i'm losing some of my "edge" - like i'm getting old ... or should i say mature?

weekend

last weekend we took the long route to duluth to see family - stopping in wisconsin for a meeting with new {architecture} clients along the way. we drove through some of the most brilliant fall colors i've seen in a long time: golden yellows and bright/burning reds - stunning. but i was most impressed by this little apple that i picked from one of the apple trees on their property. my son and i picked a couple to eat - YUM - they were crisp and sweet with a bit of sour ... certainly best tasting apple i've picked from a non-orchard tree! but this one {in the picture} i couldn't eat right away, because i was obsessed with its nearly perfect proportion, and look at that leaf sticking out from the little apple's stem! i grew-up making drawings of apples with leaves - but none of them looked this perfect .. even in my mind.

chain - connections

a smaller soldered ring now connects the larger rings that wrap the acrylic "hoops" and makes a huge difference in the way that the chain moves and twists and flexes. i'm happy with the way they've turned out - one brown and one grey long CHAIN are now in the shop.

gallery 360 jewelry trunk show

gallery 360's annual jewelry trunk show is tomorrow night {today -depending on when you are reading this} thursday october 9th from 6-9pm. this year jeremy kilkus, helen wang and emily johnson will be featured in the gallery, but i am excited to announce that a selection of my jewerly will be in the main case tomorrow as well! here you can read more on the trunk show and the current exhibit in the gallery (which is amazing work!) IF you go, be sure to also look for jewelry by karin jacobson and karen gilbert, clothes by uniform studio and artwork by my friend berry holz.

zebra wood

i've been playing around with zebrawood -{a material that i have loved in furniture}- the extra texture in the wood has forced me to look at some of my designs differently... i will share a few others in coming days - but am interested to hear thoughts.... is it too much?

ObamaBags.com

last week at the knitting circle that i've {finally} started attending, i {finally} met cyntha levine - a friend of martha's and a minneapolis-based potter that was in baltimore for the acc wholesale show (who i had hoped to meet while there, but time didn't allow for it.) anyway - cynthia was toting this lovely obamabag (the eco tote in grey.) i loved the print so much i ran home and ordered this one (the shopper in grey.) both bags come in a red version and can be found at obamabags.com (along with bandanas, throws and fabric by the yard.) i tried to wait until i got mine in the mail, but wanted to give those of you who are interested a chance to get one before election day rolls around. (thanks cynthia!)

accomplishments

this has been a week of accomplishments. the inclusion of my OBAMA pin on a well-read website/blog, on monday afternoon, proved to be very exciting and turned into a rapid influx of orders over the course of 24 hours with more trickling in day after day.

i purchased wood, ordered extra posts & backs, and cut wood on tuesday and started production (hand-production) of 50 pins on wednesday.

by friday i had half of the orders boxed, packaged and labeled and to the post office - with the second half of orders going out of saturday at noon. wow! all of that while getting my "day work" done! kind of exhilerating.

today i ran the twin cities marathon ... my first marathon since giving birth to my son: a huge accomplishment for me. it went well and i finished feeling really strong! pretty sore now, though {with stiff joints and blisters from the 1.5 hours of rain starting at mile 2!} but that's what comes with running marathons.

i must say that i am so in love with the graphics package this year {so obvious they hired a designer!} it is just beautiful - from the postcards and posters to the "awards" given away .... i like the color, texture/layering and consistency throughout - making the finishers t-shirt something i envision actually wearing! {it is a long-sleeve wicking-material making it perfect for training in usually finishers t-shirts are cotton, so this is a bonus!} BUT .. my absolute favorite is the finisher's medal because it carries through the 08 graphic that i've been seeing since last year. i love the shape, the layout of the imagery on the medal and the way that it hangs on the ribbon. (and you see the 08 graphic carried through on the orange ribbon and how it becomes a repeated pattern.) mmm nice!

no, thank you, heather!

on wednesday i received this card in the mail as a thank you from heather b. armstrong (aka dooce) for the OBAMA pieces i sent her and jon ..... so thoughtful of her and i really can't tell you how much this little card means to me. after spending the last 4 days making pin after pin and filling order after order -{thanks to the people who visited my shop because of heather's little feature}- the thanks really are all mine!

{and don't you just love her card?}