It's all happening

Last Thursday was the SITE first anniversary party, featuring the jewelry of yours truly. They had wine in juice boxes!! That was an exciting little addition to what turned out to be a really fun party. Tons of local Astoria people, cupcakes, and alcohol.... a recipe for a rowdy night. (And a hangover the next morning).


I worked like mad on Sunday, and came up with some fab new designs that I will be premiering at the BUST Spring Fling on April 27th in Brooklyn. Lots of mixed metal pieces, rings and cuffs. One of the new pieces is my funky
"In Orbit" ring. It's delicate, but still very eye catching. It was SUCH a debacle to make, because I ran out of medium solder, which meant that i had to assemble the whole thing using easy solder. Everything was gravy till I started soldering the dotted rings to the base. The solder that I'd already applied began to flow again and the whole thing collapsed. That happened about three times. But I was feeling stubborn and kept fighting with it till I managed to get the whole thing to stay together. I think it was well worth it!


To get an In Orbit ring of your very own, go here.

Insanity!

It's been a hell of a week... I've been pounding out new designs as fast as my hands allow. Funky mixed metal rings, simple organic rings, another chunky cuff bracelet and a big, fabulous pendant. My fingers are really taking a beating -- I sawed a nice chunk out of my middle finger last night, and then burned my hand tonight.

In the midst of the frenzy, Angela of ElsieQ and I got word that we were accepted to the Bust Spring Craftacular. Hooray!! That gives me about three weeks to pull my inventory together. More on that next time...

Kicking off the insanity is the One Year Anniversary Party at SITE tomorrow, where Sprout Jewelry will be featured. More importantly, SITE will be keeping the party hopping with wine and cupcakes -- sounds delish :)

Wonder Woman and other goodies.

Initially, I had some mixed feelings about my new Wonder Woman bracelet. It was just an experiment, and my expectations for it were pretty limited. Then I finished it. Hmmmm, not bad. Then I patinated it and brushed it with a steel brush. Hey, looks good! Then i tried it on... wow, this thing is pretty damn comfy!

If you want to get nit-picky, the Wonder Woman cuff doesn't look anything like the one that Linda Gray wears. It's actually much closer to resembling her kick ass headband/tiara. But still. I think it's in the spirit of female -power!


I think it's pretty fitting that i made this cuff during women's history month. A Wonder Woman bracelet for all those fabulous superhero women out there!

Relax

It's just freaking ridiculous.
I'm either stressing about too many sales or stressing out about not enough sales. I swear, it's never ending.The past week has been pretty quiet on my Etsy site, and so I immediately start doubting myself. I need to stop worrying, and just enjoying the fact that I actually have a second to breeeeeathe.


Deep breaths. Deep breaths. (Oh, and here's a pic of me - well, half of me. Argyle socks and coffee.)


Ok, off to work on some new designs!

Today I will be productive

Today I WILL be productive.
Today I will be PRODUCTIVE.

The fam will descend upon my little apt tomorrow, for some Easter festing. My roommates have been warned.

That means my parents will be sleeping in my bed, and I'll be on the couch. It also means the bathroom needs to be cleaned, the bedsheets need to be washed and the dishes need to be done.

On the upside, it also means lemon pie, ham, and some time with my parents....

okay, back to the mantra...
Today i WILL be productive.

Obsessing

My first apartment was in upstate New York, in my hometown of Syracuse. For $300 a month, I got the top floor of a multi-family house. When I say top floor, what i mean is "attic." Nothing was insulated; it was an oven in the summer and freezing in the winter. The ceiling sloped so low, I had to sit down to take a shower. The next door neighbors dealt drugs from our shared back parking lot and my car windows were smashed more than once. Still, it was a cute little place that i filled plants and scavenged furniture. The wall were painted green, red, purple, and electric pink.

These days, I have far nicer apartment, though I pay more than double for one bedroom and have two (wonderful) roomies. And while i appreciate the hard wood floors, the balcony, and the ability to stand while i shower, sharing a small space with two other people has forced me to get rid of a lot of the furniture, housewares, and junk that crowded my previous residence.

Upon first glance, my bedroom looks relatively minimalist -- I think its forced upon you when you commit to life in NYC. You've got less space store your possessions, and only public transportation to cart your purchases from the store to your apt. Because of these realities, coupled with the fact that financially I'm usually hovering somewhere between "broke" and "destitute," I try to keep my non-essential purchases to a minimum.

However, lately I've been obsessing over finding a handmade coffee mug. This seemingly simple purchase has consumed many hours of online browsing. And it seems that the more time I invest in this search, the more particular I become.

So far, the list of requirements include:

• Size, weight. The mug cannot be too heavy or too big. Otherwise the coffee cools off faster than it can be drunk
• Handle. Must be in proportion to the mug itself and fit the hand comfortably
• Color, glaze. Must be bright, but with an earthy feel. Preferably multiple colors
• Adaptability. Must be microwave friendly
• Price. I understand the time, and money artists invest in their work. I will happily pay more for a handmade good, as opposed to plucking something off the shelf at Target, because I know it's unique. At the same time, however, I do need to set a limit as to how much I'm able to reasonably spend on something that could very well be accidentally smashed to bits with one miscalculated elbow.
  

A few I've got my eye on:

From RisingSky. Love how this one is organic without looking messy.
Perfect size and great colors

Love the purple inside. Has a sort of reptilian quality to it.
Totally in a class by itself. Lois Aronow Porcelain

Great color, perfect shape and size. Wonderful details.
Made by Phenix Pottery

So whimsical and interesting. This small pic doesn't do justice to the funky tentacles crawling up the sides of the mugs. Take a closer look at Wild Card Pottery's shop.

__________________

So, will I ever decide on a mug? Or will the obsession continue to spiral out of control?? Stay tuned!

Monday.... Aughhhhh

Do I actually work a "desk" job? Some days, it feels like my 9-5 life is nothing more than an extension of my "jewelry" life. Just a different desk to sit at while i print out Paypal labels, answer convos, and re-re-re-design my packaging and banners.

Today, however, it definitely feels like an Office Space sorta day. It all boils down to the misery I feel when roll out a bed in the morning to a screaming alarm clock, a freezing cold apt (hello, $300 ConEd bill!) and then a chaotic subway commute. It's just a formula for crankiness.

I guess I'm spoiled, cause I'm sitting here at "work" wearing jeans and a thermal, sipping a cup of coffee, listening to NPR and checking my email. Pretty much exactly what I'd be doing at home. Except for the presence of that complicated looking phone on my desk ------>

Anyways, I need to shake off the Monday morning malaise, cause in a couple months summer will be here, and my 9-5 life will be history! Hooray!


So, this weekend I just worked, worked, worked.... trying to keep my head above water with orders and maybe make a new item in the process. Not really any time this weekend to make anything complex, but I did have time to create these lovely little glass and silver earrings:


They're simple, but perfect for spring. They'll be going up on my Etsy page, if you're interested!

~Happy Monday everyone~

Current Status

Today: Friday
Stress Level: 6.6
Hair: Shaggy, somewhat greasy
Productivity/Motivation: Waivering
Food Consumption: yogurt with berries and kashi. chocolate chip cookie. half a turkey and brie sandwich


Number of Post Office visits this week: 2 (plus one tomorrow)
Listening to: Old Crow Medicine Show
Current project: Deconstructed cuff bracelets

Hi

Seriously. I can't stop wearing these earrings! I'm going to make a huuuge pair next, like doorknobs. I put a pair up on Etsy, but no bites yet. I wish they would get some love.... Not feeling patient today.

By the way, my torch broke last week. Basically, now it works every 20 or so attempts. So soldering has become quite the pain in the ass. I have to say, I'm quite pissed about this development. Especially because I bought what was supposed to be the "higher quality" torch and it lasted all of three freaking months. That means I've gone through three torches in two years. I'd like to upgrade to a "real" tank and torch set up, but it's highly illegal, considering my studio setup.

COLD!

Another winter day in NYC. Actually, today was particularly horrendous. In an attempt to be positive, I am compiling my list of...

TOP 7 THINGS THAT MAKE WINTER A LITTLE MORE TOLERABLE

7. Wearing hats. I love wearing hats. I have a bunch -- knitted, brimmed, ugly, whatever. I have one particularly soft knitty number that I usually sleep in, too. I'm digging this one on the right, by Mi Scusi.

6. Using the cold weather as an excuse to be antisocial. I am a Cancer, which, if you care about anything astrology has to say, means that I am a homebody. It's true. I try to force myself to go out and mingle with the masses, but quite honestly, sometimes I'd rather just be home in my pj's. Luckily, the roomies force me to be social.

5. Soup! Today, I had an excellent Mulligatawny on 17th street. Oh, man it was delish. I love the delis in NY that have like 15 different kinds of soup to choose from. And I like making soup too.

4. Not feeling like I need be outdoors right now. This might not make sense. In a way, I'm not even sure if I understand it myself, but basically, when the weather is nice, I'm racked with tremendous guilt if I'm indoors. It doesn't matter if I'm at work, or sitting in my apartment. If I don't feel sunshine on my back, I feel guilty. I thought I was the only one who felt this way, but apparently not.

3. Blaming weight gain on the holidays. No further elaboration needed. I'll just continue to live in denial.

2. Jewelry Classes! This winter I decided to test out a class at the School of Visual Arts. In the past, I've always taken classes at the 92nd St Y and the JCC and been pretty happy with them. But I gotta say, I'm now a total SVA convert.

1. Using the cold weather as an excuse to go on vacation. New Orleans, here i come!!!!

New Website!

So, a little over a year ago, my fabulous roomie/partner in craft built me this beautiful website. She did a wonderful job on it, and didn't charge me a nickel (what a sweetie!) And while having the website has been a huge asset to my business, a year has gone by, and it still looks exactly the same. And it will continue to look the same, until I scrape together the $900 to take a Dreamweaver class and actually have the know-how to update it!

I went on the site the other day and realized that it's just not representative of what Sprout Jewelry has become. I needed a new site to represent the more experimental direction that my jewelry is heading in. So I built a new website (ok I cheated, and used templates!) And I vow to keep it updated. Now go look at it, and then come back here and tell me what you think!!!

By the way, my roomie, Bonnie, is a freelance web designer for hire, and you should definitely check out her work. As for her crafty side, well, those totally fantastic dish towels above are her design...and she makes really kick ass tee shirts, too!!

Bracelet

I rarely make bracelets, and I don't really know why this is. For a long time, I didn't have a bracelet mandrel, so that had always been my excuse. However, I do wear a lot of bracelets, and since I've really been trying to wear more of my own work, it was high time to get started on wrist adornment.

I'm really happy with the bracelet I've been working on this week. It's a copper cuff that I basically destroyed -- in a good way. It's been reticulated (if it's even possible to reticulate copper) pierced, stitched up with silver "staples" and will probably get some patina on it before all is said and done. I'm trying to make it look completely deconstructed without being a mess. I'll share a pic of the work-in-progress, but the Great Reveal will have to wait till it's finished.

It Snowed!

I am from "Upstate" originally, which in NYC is a general term meaning "any part of new york state above Westchester." When I tell someone I am from "Upstate" their eyes generally glaze over, and I can almost see the visions of dairy cows dancing in their heads. Then, we inevitably have a conversation that goes something like this:


Them: "Upstate? Get a lot of snow up there!"
Me: "yup, we do."
Them: "Lottttt of snow."
Me: "yup..."

The fact that I come from an area who's most notable quality is the fact that for half the year, we're up to our armpits in snow probably speaks to the reason why I now consider myself an ex-Upstater. (For another reason, see image above, which I took while home for the holidays.) I can remember trick-or-treating in the snow as a child. I also have a friend who went to college upstate and loves to recount to me how it snowed three inches on her graduation day.

The bottom line is, I am pretty damn familiar with winter, snow, driving through blizzards and all the non-traditional winter sports that fellow upstaters engage in (such as driving to an empty parking lot at night and doing "doughnuts" ie, spinning your car in circles on the ice). After twenty years of snow-filled winters, I don't generally feel anything other than a profound misery when I see flakes falling from the sky.

And yet, yesterday it snowed a few inches here in nyc. I woke up to a noise that, for me, sounds like home: the scraping of shovels against driveways and sidewalks. I laid in bed, thinking I was hallucinating, but when looked out the window, there it was -- a couple inches of snow! I love how when it snows in nyc, all the typical city sounds become somewhat muted - the subway rattling overhead, the high school kids screaming as they walk home, the car alarms screaming... It's almost peaceful...

Now that the snow has sat on the ground for 24 hours, things are less magical. The puddles are like mini sink holes, and once-pristine snow is now dirty slush. However, I woke up to another familiar sound this morning: tires squealing as neighbors tried to get their cars out of snow-packed parking spaces. I laughed to myself at the futility of these attempts. Getting a snowed-in car back on the road takes salt, a shovel, and a little bit of rocking back and forth -- any Upstater could tell ya.

Griping

Its a problem I've talked about before: I love making the jewelry, but hate the time that is consumed by all the other little details of putting the jewelry out into the world. I obsess over what to name it. I take dozens of pics of each piece.... and inevitably decide I like NONE of them. I re-shoot. Upload to the laptop (or, these days, "craptop"). I tweak the colors in Photoshop, and then decide that they look better in the original version. I write, edit, and rewrite the little description that will accompany each piece when it's posted to etsy. Post on etsy. Post on flickr. Update the blog. With each visit to etsy, flickr, whatever, I inevitably get sidetracked and spend 20 minutes browsing other pages and eventually forgetting why I went there in the first place. So, long story short, that is the reason why I have much, much more jewelry sitting in ziploc bags in my "studio" than I have for sale online.

In a related story, here is a pic of a new piece. When it will actually get listed for sale remains to be seen... :)

Friday Wrap-Up

Thanks for the blog shout-out Ilse! Check out Ilse's blog here.

So, today is Friday, my day off from my "desk job," which means it's the day of the week spent working feverishly at my jewelry bench, and then racing to the Astoria post office at 4:53pm, hoping I can make it inside before they lock the doors.

Today will probably be more of the same. I had a lot of international orders this week: Canada, Israel, England and Greece. Canada and England are pretty common, but Israel and Greece?? I love thinking about people in exotic places opening up packages with my jewelry inside.

Oh Finally!

Hooray! I finally, finally, finally got my blog banner looking a little better. For some reason, getting the dimensions to look right was just really tripping me up. I still have more I want to do with it, but this will do for now.

Another big accomplishment -- got some more photos done. I've got this great new line that I'm really happy with-- all very organic shapes.

It's Lame, I Know

I thought non-stop insanity would die down now that school is done. But instead, it's just become a different kind of insanity. Like instead of studying and writing papers frantically until all hours of the night, I'm now frantically making jewelry until 3 or 4 am.

Today, for example. I literally filled orders from the time i woke up (10am) until about an hour ago (it's now 2am). What I've got to show for it is this nice stack of envelopes ready for the post office. It's exciting that I've been so busy, but a bit frazzling as well.

This was a big week -- I got picked up by two new stores, landed on the front page on of Etsy on Thursday night, and am featured in two blogs today. When it rains it pours, I guess. Bring on the storm!

Stumbling off to bed now.....