Nomadic Creations

Wow…had a great class with my brother tonight. As some of you know, I have been meeting with my brother once a week and we are working on discovering what makes me….me. I am engaging in the ultimate adventure-learning how to use my will to my utmost advantage, and learning about my different levels of conscious/sub-conscious/higher conscious levels of existence.  Here is a reading assignment he gave me if you are at all interested in this…Heady stuff to be sure, but the most important work you can really do while you are still alive and kicking. It has helped me tremendously in my business, as I am tackling areas of focus that have in the past eluded me. I am grateful to have my brother in my life. I am learning much from his experience.

I have been absent for a few days here. I have been working hard, and playing hard too. I spent two nights at a friend’s house eating brisket and getting to know her better. I love this about Chattanooga! The people here so far have been fabulous (except that knitting woman who wouldn’t refund my class money for a class I never got) and very welcoming to Shayne and me. Shayne’s cousin is coming into town this weekend, and we have lots planned to do. We have been busy cleaning and setting up our new guest bedroom and preparing for her visit. I haven’t had the chance to really get to know her, and I am most excited since Shayne absolutely adores her. I think she would be the closest idea of a sister to him…so I am really looking forward to spending some time with her since he thinks so highly of her.

Now that I am working with sheet metal, it is hard to go back to wire working. I am going to incorporate both elements in my work, but I am trying to figure out just how to do it. Also, I am not able to really sell my higher priced work at the Chattanooga Market. Figuring out my target price points in different venues is proving to be an interesting challenge.

I read with horror about the infestation of ants in Houston….I despise ants. I can’t tell you how much I despise them. It sounds like a horror show down there in Texas. I hope they figure out how to control them soon, so they don’t march up here to Tennessee. That sort of thing would make me move. No kidding around. I also read a blog post about mango flies in Africa.

No Thanks!!! I had my fill of ants in Singapore and disease carrying mosquito’s in Singapore.

Another thing I am hoping to do tomorrow is list all my inventory that is waiting to go to the Market every two weeks on Etsy and see if I can move it during the week it is just sitting around. Goals…goals…goals….I just need more hours in the day…sure you all can relate to that!

I had a request from a customer to make these earrings with an eye popping accent bead..so here is the coral bead with the Sodalite disc wrap that I do ….

I wanted her to see it before I send it to her…what do you all think?

I like it! A great suggestion!!!

More later…I have been wicked busy this week…but I have to get ready for a class so I will write more later tonight…

I woke up this morning, had a cup of hot tea and hitched a ride with Shayne down to the studio to work. I had a productive day again, making some “Man Bracelets” for an artist here in town that requested some…I hope he likes the three I made. I decided to give him 3 choices since I have never made man bracelets before. MH came in to relieve my loneliness, and she gave me a much needed break from being in full production mode.

Thunderbird Supply had a hell of a sale on silver, and since today was the last day of it, I ended up making another large order after realizing how much of a sale it really was when I had to buy it here locally, at retail. I won’t be doing that again! Now that I am on my own business wise, (no capital help from the hubby), I am becoming a stickler about price of materials and making sure I account for my full cost, labor and markup. I had to go up on my prices this year since material cost went higher and of course, I would like to believe my skills are improving too, so I gave myself a raise. Nobody has complained about the price of my jewelry, and it is still selling so think I am in the ballpark. I have written about my use of Jewelry Manager, a top notch software program designed for jewelry designers. It takes the guesswork out of pricing your products, and I like that it makes it so black and white.

So, here are the promised pics of what I have been up to this week. For the sake of not having a gazillion pics on this post, I combined some of my earrings, so you will just see the individuals lined up, and just a few pairs…

Here is a “Man Bracelet”; it is made of copper and Jade…this is the one I like the best.

Here are some Bezel Earrings…I fused the wire to the back of the sheet metal…I should have taken a pic of it, but the ants were started to annoy me climbing all over these as I was trying to take this shot.

I used 24 gauge sterling sheet metal for these designs…I am loving the ones on the end here…

Pearls and silver and on the end, I used some old African coke bottle glass…recycled is good.

These earrings are copper and sterling silver, and they belong with the necklaces below…

Whoops..had to add these too…you can see a direction I am about to go in here…I will be riffing off of this idea next week…all kinds of shapes and layering silver on silver. These are made with 24 gauge silver sheet too..I like 24 gauge best when I solder them together…they are still very lightweight, but a little more herfy.

Two Greek leather and copper/sterling necklaces….see the earrings that these go with up top?

And two more shapes for an even number of necklaces…

So, that is what I have been busy with this week…I hope to sell well tomorrow at the Chattanooga Market…and what does not sell tomorrow will be going to the gallery on Monday.

Cheers!!! And thanks for staying with me through all of these pics…

I have been so busy this week I couldn’t remember if this was Thursday or Friday when I woke up this morning…sheesh..it went by fast, didn’t it?
I have been working away at the studio all week anticipating my second Market day on Sunday.  Plus, I had a few commissions that kept me on my toes, along with some inquiries into doing a donut wrapped earring set and a pin for a friend’s mother in Seattle.  I made a terrific order of some silver from Thunderbird Supply, but it won’t be here until next week and I realized yesterday that I was about to run out of 20 gauge SS wire. I use 20 gauge to make my earwires, and with the earring making craze that I have been on recently, I had to submit to a locally owned business’ outrageous silver prices and get some wire before my next order came in. He charged me 32.50 per ounce…ouch!!! Buying retail hurts! But I had to have it. I won’t let me stock get that low again…lesson learned.

Last night I had my first oil painting class with Mia Bergeron, and she is a fantastic instructor. I learned a lot in the 3 hours we painted…we are painting the portrait of a live model…and painting from a live model is actually much easier then I would have suspected. We are to have 5 classes, and I am amazed that after last night’s lesson, my portrait is already resembling the model somewhat…next week I will take my camera and get a picture…it is really a lot of fun!

Tomorrow, I will take some pics of my new work in the studio. I have been working on some rather large copper and sterling silver pendants with matching earrings. After talking to MH, I have decided to make things in a bit more packaged way.   I am anxious to see how it goes over at the Market on Sunday.

After meeting with Jeanette last weekend at her gallery on Lookout Mountain, I was prompted to get the website of an interesting artist that paints here locally. She is a woman that I sang with in my Kirtan group and she is a great artist too…her name is Christie O’grady, and her work is vibrant and imaginative.  She has been working on a body of work in anticipation of gallery submissions…check out her website!

Let me see, what else is new….

We now have a queen-sized futon for the spare bedroom. I took everyone’s advice and we opted for a futon. It arrived yesterday via UPS, and since Shayne is at home during the day, when the UPS guy came and knocked on our door, Shayne asked him if he need any help, since we live 4 flights of stairs up with no elevator. The UPS guy said, “Are you a Psychiatrist?” to which Shayne replied “No,” and the UPS guy said, “Then no, I can handle it.” I  thought that was pretty funny. Those UPS guys really like doing all of that lifting and carrying I guess…

Other than that…I promise more pics tomorrow…hope all of you are well. I have been sneaking around your blogs this week, just not commenting too much…

Shayne and I spent last Saturday on an exploratory trip and we had a great time meeting new people, seeing new sights and spending some quality time together.

Shayne’s cousin is coming to town in a few weeks, and he is interested in taking her to Cloudland Canyon State Park, on top of Lookout Mountain. Chattanooga is nestled in between two huge mountains-Lookout and Signal. I have been here since July, but I have yet to take a car trip up Lookout Mountain any farther then Ruby Falls. For those of you that are regular readers, you will recall that last year, when Shayne and I came up here to check out Chattanooga from New Orleans, we went to Ruby Falls…I thought Ruby Falls was interesting, but I don’t like being in a cave. At all.

Before I digress, we drove to Trenton, GA, about 20 minutes outside of Chattanooga, and we went up the back of Lookout Mountain. It is really beautiful up there. I had no idea how beautiful it is up there, actually.

We drove and did a lot of sightseeing, and as we made the turn in front of the Canyon Grill, we saw a Gallery beckoning to us to stop and peruse…and so we did. Imagine my surprise to see Virginia Webb’s photography in there, along with some other artists’ work that I recognized. And then, as I started talking to the owners, I realized that I have briefly met Jeannette Turcotte at an In-Town Gallery function, and the pieces started to come together about where people that I meet fit in with the whole art scene here in Chattanooga. First of all, Artbox Gallery is a gem of a gallery. The outside of the building has a fabulous mosaic created by Steve Terlizzese, a local artist that does this work. We spent about an hour in there discussing outsider art, a subject I don’t know much about, but sounds fascinating, and looking at the various artists’ work that Artbox represents. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there, and this is a stop that is a must on the Lookout Mountain tour…I only wish I had my camera with me that day…but I will be back. Guaranteed. Jeannette has a very sophisticated sense of art…interaction is a must. She knows what she is talking about.

As we were preparing to leave, Moe, Jeanette’s husband, offered to show us the road to another local gallery owned by Jimmy Hedges. His website is www.risingfawnfolkart.com and it does a good job of describing his eclectic treasure of a place, but a site visit to truly appreciate his property is necessary. We turned to the left a few miles down the road from Artbox, and after a bit entered what looked to be a fantastical sculpture garden filled with folk art. A pathway takes you around the property with immensely interesting pieces to ponder and laugh and interact with…if Shayne and I would have had, oh, a half a day more in time, we would have taken our time looking at all there was to see. As it was, we had to be back in town for a going away party and I needed to clean up before that happened.

As we made our way down the mountain, we stopped at a premier hang gliding launch point and school…Lookout Hang Gliding, and I warily made me way to peer over the edge…no way, never not gonna ever attempt it scary it was…but, it was so beautiful up there, I could peripherally understand the attraction of flying over the edge toward the landing area below the launch site.

After that, we meandered on down the mountain, vowing to return soon so I can take more pics…but I hope you got a sense of what the day was like…beautiful in many respects.

Here is the red set that I made for my husband’s employer this week…I can’t wait for her to get it…

It is not often that I get to make red jewelry…it is my favorite color too!!!

Here it is…

Now, I am off to the Spring Opening!!!

I made the most gorgeous red necklace, bracelet and earring set today for a commission. I have to polish it up tomorrow, then I will take a picture and share it…I almost hate to give it up!

Where did this week go?

It has been a quick week, filled with a GPS (Girl’s Prep School) May Day Celebration, a discussion about the 4th Law of Thermodynamics and wine and fruit parties. I am so glad I decided only to do the market every other week– it allows me to have a life during the summer.

We are planning a trip to Oregon in September, as in the whole month of…I am anxious for the trip. I used to live in Oregon and I love it there, but the cost of living there is prohibitive. But the trip will be great and it will be wonderful to see old friends.

I had a house in Oregon…a lovely cottage like place…the only house this nomadic person has owned, and it was for two years. We hated the yard work and the feeling of being so permanent, so we sold it and went on the road, but I really did like the house (except for the yard).

I don’t have any huge plans for the weekend…going to the Gallery Spring opening tomorrow night and then we will most likely just hang around this weekend…hope all are having a grand week…pics tomorrow…I promise!

Well, I have two new Chattanooga artist blog links to add to my fold…

Mary Lynch is an accomplished and incredibly talented clay worker with whom I work with on my day to work in the Gallery. Her work has a very fine, yet primitive and natural feel to it that I find intriguing. I have a vase that she made and it is the center of attention on my slate coffee table.

Isn’t it beautiful? I have a love for the Ginkgo leaf…MH made me one that I wear as a necklace in fine silver….such talented Chattanooga artists!

The next person on my link list is glass artist Mary Beth McClure…her work is wonderful too, and she is a regular at the Chattanooga Market. She is also making some killer glass earrings and putting them in at the gallery, I took a picture using her earrings and Mary Lynch’s clay leaves a few days ago and posted it here.

Check out these talented new bloggers….and welcome Mary Beth and Mary!!!!

The Chattanooga Market was successful in that I averaged a little better on Sunday then I did on average last year, but the attendance was not as much as I anticipated because of really terrible weather.

But I got to see my friends and the new management team is doing a great job.

I made some new items that were quite different, but they sold right away before I got pictures of them!!!!!

Drats!!!

Today was a rest day…I was beat from standing up all day yesterday on concrete. I slept like a rock last night, going to bed around 9 pm.  I have been busy doing paperwork and figuring out what designs to concentrate on this week. The gallery is having our Spring Opening on May 2, from 5 pm to 8 pm, so this week will be super busy too…

The vendors received a helpful email from the new management team telling us what price points really sold well, and they are going to analyze traffic flow…so that is exceptionally encouraging to me to plan for the future markets.

Now, I just hope the Chattanooga public will come and enjoy the music and the vendors and BUY LOCAL!!

Shayne and I get our first CSA share on Saturday, so we are clearing out our fridge in anticipation of fresh vegetables next week. I went to the grocery store today and was amazed that a gallon of organic milk was almost 8 dollars!!!  1 dozen eggs…4 dollars!  Ouch…gas is 3.45/gallon and looks like it is going to go higher. I was talking to a couple yesterday, and they live 1 hour from town. Their gas bill is around $600/month. I predict that people will start to move in closer to their work area instead of long commutes. Working to pay for gas won’t last too long.

Other then that…thank you for the well wishes..it was a good start to the season, and I was a happy camper yesterday, selling my jewelry and talking to new customers…

yep…

I think I am ready….

Final count:

70 pairs of earrings

8 necklaces

3 Pearl Bracelets

3 Necklace charms

10 copper bracelets

2 brand new receipt books

And a dose of stomach acid reducer for my heartburn.

I am really looking forward to seeing some vendors that I haven’t seen in 4 months…great people doing fantastic work.

I can’t decide if I am going to take my tent or not….

A friend of mine said that the new market owners want vendors to use tents because it makes it look better…

Hmm…

I agree, but it is in the Tennessee Pavilion so that it is covered already…

But I think I will bring my tent just in case.

If you are in Chattanooga this weekend, come by and say Hello…