handmade homework

Sometimes you just have to push yourself to do something. You know, give yourself some sort of incentive, even if making things is your passion. Sometimes you just get bored, or tired of making the same thing. I know Etsy teams have challenges like the CCCOE team that I (kind of) belong to used to have a monthly challenge (do they anymore?), and Etsy metal has "Ring a Day" here is how they describe it "This is an exercise in creative exploration. The rules are simple: create ring every day for the entire year of 2010 out of anything, no matter where you are." I don't know how many people made it this far (it is november and all) and well that's a bit much for me.... but here are some I found that I like a lot on their flickr set:

What is your handmade homework? what do you do differently to push yourself? The holidays are swiftly approaching and I know that should be my impetus, but I'm still here in my studio, looking at my same old things wondering how to get motivated. The increasing price of my materials is not helping... maybe I will try to think of new materials to use and THAT will be my handmade homework.... I think I'll go eat.

goldbubblewrap

goldbubblewrap
Originally uploaded by myfriendroze

I guess I did know! because as I read through my blog I see that I tried it a long time ago. oh yawn I'm boring. anyway.... I got an order from an awesome store in silverlake Sumi's! and they asked me to vermeil my bubblewrap- and here it is! in GOLD vermeil!

ceramic bracelet

ceramic bracelet
Originally uploaded by myfriendroze

how interesting that you can blog immediately from flickr... I didn't know... I know I should have but I didn't! so this is my first attempt at a bracelet for this series and it took me forever but I love it! it's handmade ceramic pieces that I set in sterling and then I set a stone in the one piece of ceramic. enjoy!

hexagontinybubble

hexagontinybubble
Originally uploaded by myfriendroze

ok I figured it out... with my tiny bubble necklace. this reminds me of honeycomb cereal. it's one style I wear all the time and it can soon be found at RedBrickArt gallery in ventura! yay!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

which is great and all that they let me send a test post but I wonder if I can do it regularly... I'm gonna try right now....
see you in seconds- or not.

I knew I hated vegas

Vegas baby vegas.... why do people really think it's so awesome? I lost money and without even gambling!

I just did the ACRE show and all in all I heard it was slower than normal but mine was completely awful. I know I am supposed to be happy and peppy here at blogspot but f- that. I'm totally bummed.

on the positive side I met some amazing people and though I felt as though I was in a christopher guest movie- I loved all that I met. I want to thank everyone that felt bad for me and tried to help me!


here are a few faves and some great helpful new friends:

joanna craft www.joannacraft.com

amery carriere www.amerycarriere.com

alice roche jewelry www.aliceroche.com


as soon as I have the energy to go through my cards I will list all the other amazing artists I met...

thanks Kim Visionquest for the support and beer :)

finger polkadots

phew so patchwork is over- and it was a huge success! thank you everyone at patchwork for that!!! my feet are still recovering- I need more comfortable shoes. or I need to suddenly be 18 again. since option 2 isn't happening, ugly comfort here I come!

the other thing I learned while at patchwork was that while needle felting I should wear something on my finger... I looked at them and they were FULL of brown dots- I think I tattooed my fingertips with yarn. is that possible? well anyway I love the process and I just need to fine tune it so I am not injured for life.

here are some of the things I created for the show






I will post more tomorrow... that's a lot of pictures for today. They all have handmade sterling backs so that they are reversible- which I am pretty happy with. soon I will have some for sale in my etsy shop.

I saw some GREAT work at Patchwork and met some awesome people so I hope to find their sites today to share with you.


off to the grind now.