and the winner is ...

... via Facebook - Stacie Florer! 

Thanks everyone for the excellent feedback ... I certainly have a lot to think about.  I spend so much time immersed in my own work and world.  Your comments have really helped give me a fresh perspective - seeing through the eyes of another is a beautiful thing.

No telling where all this will lead, but it feels like just starting the conversation is an important step.  I'll keep you posted.

with deep gratitude ...
l i g a - kvk

gone fishing ...

... for feedback + a givaway!
In addition to working on revitalizing my wholesale collection, in the last week or so I've been getting little nudges to get back into teaching.  Thing is - it's been a loooooooooong time since I taught anybody anything - a couple of private instruction gigs here and there, but that's it.  I used to have fun with the mixed media/Artfest approach, but I'm totally out of touch with that genre.  I've done the whole beginning PMC thing and don't really want to go back there + there's lots of peeps out there doing a fine job of teaching metal clay, not to mention they actually keep up with what's going on in that world. 

Bottom line, I'm seriously out of touch with this big wide world of teaching and I don't have a clue where to start.  I do what I do and live in a very insulated community.  What I do know is there's been serious changes to all the teaching models and venues that I knew way back when I stopped teaching in '06. 

So here's my question for you.  If I were to get back into teaching, what would you like to learn from me?  Techniques, methods, project or process oriented, online, teaching retreats, private parties ... this inquiring mind is really curious!

And hey, I should do a drawing to encourage feedback - one of the new pieces for my wholesale collection - a pebble wrap bracelet.  It's 21" on hand-plied cocoa nylon, so it can be worn 24/7 as a necklace or bracelet - a $98 piece of swag.

... I'll give this a few days and draw a name on Sunday, the 18th.  It would be lovely if anyone feels compelled to shop this idea around to your own circle of peeps.
Can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!
Thanks in advance.

liga - kvk

fresh start

I finally decided to do it.

Dive in, take it all apart and start over.  

What you see here is my entire wholesale sample collection.  Well almost all.  Since I've had my samples back I've used a few pieces here and there to fill orders ... but for the most part this mondo pile of jewels represents a major part of my life since 2005. 

Once I took everything off the sample boards and piled it up to take a snap, I proceeded to dismantle the whole shamoozie ...

And in case you hadn't noticed, that's a butt load of silver.  Next I ran everything through the tumbler to brighten it up and give it some fresh juju.

Then it was on to sorting tumbling media from silver.  Et voila ...

Like I said, a mega pile of silver.  

Then it was sorting it into my little plastic bins and getting ready to dive into putting together a new, updated, fresh interpretation of my wholesale collection.

I'm pretty excited about starting over and I'm still very much in the middle of the whole process, but progress is being made.  

It's been a long long time since I was at all motivated to work on this side of my business.

Along with the production side of things, I've made a bunch of new, one-off pieces.  I had thought I would get them listed on Etsy today, but got completely bogged down with another project. 

Ah well - here's a sneak peek at what's to come .............

Two pieces using the 'shard' components from the samples - 

this one with a lovely trio of peridot colored sea glass

and this one with shards of crystal quartz ...

Then here's a couple of pieces using the petal components.  

The first one with a major stack of tiny Chinese turquoise slices and wonderfully flat slate river pebbles ...

and this one with a stack of white sea glass and the slate river pebbles ...

And of course, I'm still obsessed with my ocean color palette ... hugely obsessed with those colors and these tiny gravelly pieces of silver.  I would love an unlimited supply of metal clay to just make these all day.  

Then I decided to bump things up a notch ... well, kind of a big notch.  This one has 27 tiny silver beads inspired by the shells and coral I used to find on the beach in Port Townsend.  

Worked in with the silver, a yummy stack of sea glass, Roman glass and my own, hand-formed lapis nuggets along with some cobalt trade beads ...

and the Pièce de résistance
this one is so over the top amazing, it makes me giddy ... she's 48" long and has virtually a whole gem show's worth of treasures ...

So I'm hoping I'll get pieces listed this weekend ... we'll see.  That and the continuing re-creation of my wholesale collection.  Looks like I'm gonna be a busy girl.

Have a lovely weekend!

l i g a - kvk