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Beads. Lots and lots of beads

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Click for better view

Copper just out of the carbon. Grimy looking right now, soon to be new clasps.

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Rochelle Goyle travels to Brazil

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Click for better view


We went to Dallas yesterday and stopped at The Rock Barrell. I had to buy this Turquoise. It was labeled to be from Alisa, Mexico.

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Click for better view

My daughter's test scores from school.

This girl had been giving me fits all year long in math. Her test results were really good, much better than I expected given some of her grades. It just proves she is capable, but not always willing.

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Patterned sterling Oz earrings.
I have a couple more pairs to make then I will be ready to list these babies!

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Picture of the day is:



(Click on photo for better view)

My oldest daughter announced when she was 5 that she wanted to be an artist. She's been in art classes since and just turned 11. She recently started a class with a new teacher and she has come alive again in her art. She has been on hiatus for a few months. It is good to see her working again. She came home happier than I have seen her in a long time and that makes me happy too.




Have I showed you guys these? I'm sorry I don't remember! Anywho these are copper Oz earrings with riveted sterling.

They came about in evolution from these :





I have another set in silver that I'm working on. And feel the need to make more in copper. I have this love affair with copper that sort of comes and goes. It is fully on right now. I've got copper everywhere. It is such a beautiful metal to work with. I love the patina dark and brushed back slightly. Mmmmmhmmmmm

We took the girls to see Oz the Great and Powerful. I was surprised to find that I liked it, and found great inspiration as well. The Oz earrings are an artistic representation of the tornado.

I've also been thinking a lot about the old time carnival side shows. I'm going to begin researching them. Dancing bears, bearded ladies, what other cliche things am I missing? I'm going to go find out!

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(Click on photo for better view)

New Copper clasps going into Ruby Mountain Metal tomorrow! These will be beautiful on necklaces and bracelets.

110/365 New Initial Pendants

Rustic Royalty Initial Pendants

I am in love with these!  Perfect alone or layered with other necklaces.  

Just in time for Mother's Day and Graduation gift giving!

Just listed in my Etsy shop

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Rustic Royalty Initial Pendant. This one is mine! :)

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I have several copper pieces that have been waiting to be turned into something and I've decided to make clasps out of them for Ruby Mountain Metal. I'll let you know when they're all finished!

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Hard to tell, but this is 200 pair of earwires.

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My baby is toothless!

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I had to share an old photo because I didn't have a new one! Working on orders and running errands today. Tomorrow is more of the same. Maybe by the end of the week I'll have something new to share. And also! The price of precious metals dropped today. I bought enough silver to last me for awhile :)

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Study for poppy seed pods.
I enjoy sketching and I do it often, but I don't draw as well as I'd like to. Lucky for me my metalwork is better than my drawing.
I am in full on Spring mode. I'm inspired by the bees who were the first fellows out this spring swarming our Carolina Jasmine. I've been thinking about them and how important they are. How amazing they are. What a tasty product they make.

Poppies are on my mind, and poppy pods turn me on with that perfectly segmented lines thing going on in the center.

Butterflies. I've been dreaming of them. It's crazy.

Birds. I always see the same cardinal on my runs. And the mallards. They call to be made as well.

Flowers. Always and forever flowers. This time of year is a gold mine of inspiration. It is a rich time.

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Road trip must haves

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Amidst the DI chaos

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Looks like in going on a bracelet kick again. 😘

100/365 and something new

Ok the photo of the day is:




My oldest is going to play the clarinet next school year in band. I'm so excited! I played for five years in school. I've been working with her a little. She seems excited too. She considered the flute as well, but when having the opportunity to try one she decided she preferred the clarinet. I would have been happy either way. I wanted to play the flute originally and wouldn't have minded getting a chance to play one. Anyway, beside all that. Band is expensive! And they're picky too about quality of instruments. Basically no cheap instruments. They must not have cared when I was a kid because the plastic Vito I have isn't really good enough for them. They want a wood clarinet. Anyway we are all totally nerding out over the clarinet.

In other news, I made these:




I've really been thinking a lot about butterflies since we went to go see the butterfly IMAX. That show was amazing. Just Monarchs everywhere. And in those theaters it's like they are about to fall down on you. So. Cool.

So I made these. Imprinted Butterflies on copper. Sterling chains to an orange agate heart. The orange is an homage to the Monarch.

I have another pair of these imprinted butterflies on my bench waiting to be another pair of earrings. Something a little different this time. Soon.

And finally, Bates Motel rocks my socks off.

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More yellow roses

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Birthday Balloons

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The yellow rose of Texas blooming in our front garden

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We made panda cupcakes for the little one's birthday party with her friends.

It was a rough one. 8 eight year old girls. I grossly underestimated my ability to manage them by myself. The last hour my husband had a piñata for them. There were some real sluggers out there, those girls beat down a 3ft rabbit piñata a lot faster than I thought they would. I'll share a photo tomorrow.

I'd like to make something right now but I'm too tired to work. I'm also working on organizing my workspace. I'm missing some stones and I'll only find them by getting some kind of system and sticking to it. I made a file folder system for my sheet and wire.





Now I'm working on moving my cabs into one case and beads into another. It's tedious but necessary.

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I've always loved these bubble head gold fish :)

New Work!

It has been a long time since I made some one of a kind pieces.  This week I had a desire to work with matching cabs.  The Laguna agate and the Chrysocolla I've been hoarding for ages.  It was time to work with them! 

Everything has just been listed in my Etsy shop if you'd like more information, or to view more pictures. 

Have a great weekend everyone!  :)

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New work! I'm hoping to get real pictures tomorrow. The sun didn't want to come out today.

93/365 and some thoughts on inspiration

I posted this yesterday on my InstaGram.  I discovered quite by accident someone who had copied a design of mine and are now selling it in their shop.  Of course there a subtle changes, it's a hand stamped design so it can't be completely duplicated because this person doesn't have the same stamps I do, but none the less the design is the same.

There is a "instajewelry" group on InstaGram.  From what I gather, they are all fairly new to metalsmithing and seem like a nice little group who supports eachother in their work.  A bunch of them started following me, and I followed back.  All these trails criss crossing all over the internet reaching all over the world.  This one gal in particular who copied my ring design also has another ring design in her shop that is exactly like a ring that another girl in the instajewelry group makes.  I recognized it right away. 

Again, a simple design that anyone could have come up with but this ring is exactly the same and I find it hard to believe that it isn't a copy. 

I do want to be very careful in calling anyone a copycat.  I've been accused once of "waltzing in and snapping up my expression" from someone.  It is virtually impossible to look into someone's heart and mind and know for a fact that they are copying you.  I've said before and I'll say again that the use of a technique, or tool, or commercial findings does not constitute copying.  It is in the way that you apply these things where the copying comes in. 

I am a lucky girl to be supported by colleagues.  These ladies all know what it's like.  They've all been down the road before.  Some more than others.  Jess of RosyRevolver has and continues to be an advocate for education on the subject.  I admire her for taking a stand.  I know it can't be easy knowing she's probably going to get some flack for it.  But the truth is I see people who I just feel are copying her work.  It's really quite obvious.  Take her new spinner rings.  They're really kick ass right?  She has taken the spinner ring to a new level.  And here come the copies..... Please don't fool yourself by thinking because the ring you made  doesn't spin that you're not copying her design.  If it's got a textured wide band flared, with an outer ring in a patterned wire with a stone it's the same design.  Maybe you couldn't figure out how to make it spin.  Maybe you thought if you didn't make it spin it wasn't a copy.  It's still a copy. 

Really Jess could continue on her merry way and not say another word about copying.  She is an amazing designer who will always continue to innovate and design way ahead of the pack.  She will always be successful because her work is authentic to herself.  And there will always be people who will copy her work.  It's sad.  I'm proud of her for taking a stand.  For letting makers know it's not okay to reach into her soul and take something from her. 

I will admit, and I'm pretty sure I've said here before that she is the only designer I had trouble not wanting to copy in my earliest days.  Her use of texture and design is amazing.  Do you know how I satisfied my urge to own a piece of it?  I started buying her work, and I wear it proudly.  Probably just as often if not more so than my own work.  And now whenever I feel that desire again from another maker's work.  I buy it.  Not to copy it.  But to wear the beauty that was created from the heart and soul of it's maker. 

Before this all came up, I've been thinking of tuning out for awhile.  Not following blogs, FB pages, Twitter, Flickr.....of other makers.  Not because I'm worried about copying, but because I have so  many ideas of things I want to make I can't get them out fast enough.  And more than once in the past month or so, someone has beat me to my idea.  Of course they wouldn't have been identical, but I'm talking in generalities.  I hate the feeling of thinking that I can't make that certain piece now because so and so already did and I'd look like a copycat.  I think it would be nice to say I had no idea that so and so had made a piece that was very similar to something I had just made. 

The world of jewelry makers on Etsy is really smaller than you think it is.  If you post a picture of your work on any social media site, you are of course hoping to draw in buyers.  It is far closer to the truth that your work is seen by one or two potential buyers and the other 20 or so views are from other makers.  It's a double edge sword that I'm afraid has to be accepted if I want to continue selling online. 

At any rate, go check out Jess's blog and read her words.  For me, they are words to live by.  
Excuse me if I'm quiet for awhile.  Right now I just want to get lost in my own work.

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Laguna Agate and Sterling~ Hermosa

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Peek a boo back

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I'm finally in the shop this week working on new pieces. This one has helped to satisfy 2 of inspirations. Butterflies and Green. That Turquoise has been on my bench for months waiting for the right design.