chillin' in my happy place

Since I was on my ocean inspired design burst, I pulled out some beach glass to make a few of my Sea Goddess components.  Here's the before ...

And the really excellent after ...

Interesting that one of the green pieces changed color a bit.  That's what I love about doing these, it's always a surprise!  I think I'll do finished pieces with the two pendants and I'm planning to list the other componenets on Etsy.  This coming week is going to be crazy busy, but I should be able to squeeze a photo shoot and some 'puter time in there somewhere. 

I've been working with my mondo pile of shark fossils and enjoying myself immensely!  My soon to be replaced cheapo drill has actually been cooperating and I've been able to do a bunch of drilling.  The only challenging part with the fossils - some are not so fossilized and crumble or break when I'm drilling them.  The good ones make a lovely ringing sound when they click together.  Happy sounds are always a good thing in jewels.  I'm having so much fun with these ... I can't believe it took me 3 years to get these out and start experimenting.   Gotta say, on the whole, they're looking very cool and I'm quite pleased.

I took a couple of days and made a bunch of teeny spacers and accent beads.  I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love making these tiny beads.  And when I've got them all sorted out, well sort of sorted, and in my little bins ... that's a sight that makes me ever so happy.

What I've started with is these really simple necklaces with stacks of silver alternating with the fossils.  I'm debating about adding some sparklie bits, but keep going back to the simpler versions.  These are on the nylon cord I'm making.  I'm liking the thinner version for my own self, but can see that thicker cords will be good for the guys and the heavier pieces.

I'm planning on spending most of tomorrow working on these.  There'll be earrings and bracelets as well.  Oh yes, that will be me ... chillin' in my happy place!

Sending out prayers to those in the path of Irene - stay safe!
l i g a - kvk

ANNIVERSARY SALE!

I just realized our 31st wedding anniversary is coming up this week!  So to celebrate, I thought I'd share some love and put on a sale in my Etsy shop ...

So from today, July 15th through next Friday July 22nd, purchase my jewels on Etsy and get 31% off.  There's a coupon code there to plug in to receive your discount.  It's a rare opportunity, so enjoy!

l i g a - kvk

last week at Artisans on Taylor

Just a quick reminder ... If anyone happens to be in Port Townsend, WA before June 30th, sashay into Artisans on Taylor and snag some KVK jewels before they head back east and make good use of our "Au revoir PT" 20% discount.  Here's the original post and some lovelies that may or may not still be there.  Or if you don't happen to be in PT, here's my artist's page for some on-line shopping.

This is all part of my big shift, creating a new business model and creative paradigm.  Embracing chaos and disorder and discomfort with a deep knowing the answers are within.

l i g a - kvk

au revoir Port Townsend

Okay, so this has been a very difficult decision.  I've been this close so many times and, well .. it's finally time.  June will be my last month at Artisans on Taylor in Port Townsend.  It's been a great ride and it's still a good source of income, but the bottom line - I really suck at managing consignment inventory.  It's a disservice to everyone - me and the gallery and the customers - the way I struggle with keeping up or more accurately not keeping up with keeping the gallery well stocked.  That's a big clue that I've been ignoring for a long time.

So here's the deal.  I was going to pull everything the end of May and decided to give everyone a month's notice instead.  So Anna and I are going to offer and "au revoir" 20% discount on all my work through the month of June.  There's some pretty special work out there, so it's an opportunity to snag some of my one-of-a-kind pieces with a bit of a discount.  Here's a link to my gallery page.

Please check with the gallery first, but here's a couple of pieces that may still be there ...

It's a strange feeling, but it's time to move on.  I really do know that when one door closes another opens ... still.  Deep breaths.  It's not really an abyss, it's an opportunity.

l i g a - kvk

no cigar but lots of potential

I've got a bunch of new additions to the Talisman Elements series, but first I thought it'd be fun to share the evolution of a one-off design ...

It started here - a fragment of an angel wing shell from St Augustine.  I made an impression of it in polymer clay and then used a big piece of my sterling silver metal clay to make the pendant.  I tried to make it fairly thin to test the strength of the sterling - I'm happy to report, it's very strong.  I love that the pendant hangs kind of off kilter.  Plus it's very ... well all I can think of is that it's very wabi-sabi.

So I've got the pendant, next I started gathering potential elements.  I've got gemstone nuggets - rutilated quartz, then the amber and citrine from Andrew, a few ochre trade beads, my stash of Basha beads, unbleached linen to make into cord, hand cut and dyed silk ribbon, silk thread, oh and some big honkin bronze pearls.

I worked on the layout and how many strands of linen cord and tried different stones with different hole sizes - I wasn't in the mood to drill any stones or pearls - and pondered closures and lengths and ended up here ... 

close, but no cigar ...

It's just not quite there.  Don't get me wrong, there are elements I like, but overall, it's just not done.

For instance, I do like the closure, I like it off center and the loose ends with the linen wraps - it reminds me of Zoe Keating's hair!  BTW, been listening to her CD's non-stop - so so so very excellent.

And I like the trade bead and rutilated quartz nugget together on the linen cord ...

But the jumbo citrine nugget doesn't hang quite right and overpowers the pendant and the rest of the piece.  I do like the little stack of copper and silver spacers.

I'm also not sure about the linen cord.  I've been thinking about grouping linen cord into something for days ... just not sure this is the best application.  So, this piece is still very much a work in progress.  I'm going to take it all apart and start over.  I'll keep you posted with my progress.

But I also wanted to show you my latest additions to the Talisman Elements series.  The overall concept is finally starting to come together.  I got all inspired to do some carving in polymer clay, which lead to the idea for the Medallions.  I've got a chalice, a crown, a compass, a portal and a spiral.  I also made a couple of unicorn-looking horns.  Then there's the reproduction of the little eastern European vintage cross I bought from Cool Vintage on Etsy - really love everything in that shop! 

Also, I've really hesitated about the use of text, but decided to dig out the rubber stamp sheets I had made way back in my ArtFest days of early 2003.  So some of the medallions have ready made messages stamped into the back and some have individually stamped words.  

I am pretty excited about all my new Medallions.  

Oh, there was one more piece from my sterling silver firing - Eros ... another stamp from my long-ago rubber stamp making days. Pretty sure  he's destined for another one-off piece, but that remains to be seen.

So that's where I am right now.  I'm probably not going to get anything else done in my studio this holiday weekend.  Dave and I have this idea we're going to re-stain the deck, which means taking everything off the deck - like those bloody huge, fully soaked flower pots of mine and all the other not so heavy stuff, a bit of sanding and then painting.  WOO HOO - Boy howdy do we know how to party!

I guess that's it for now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun and ever so safe holiday weekend.

blessings - kvk

Jackie O's pearls + new jewels

I'm always on the lookout or listening for bits and pieces and clues for ideas and inspiration.  Include in that keeping my radar tuned for potential nice things I can do for someone else.  Nice things, little things, things that are easy and joyful for me, but could have great meaning for another.  Making jewelry is a small thing for me.  It's what I do, it's what I thrive on.  In the last couple of weeks, in between working on wholesale orders, I've had the opportunity to do some custom pieces.  A rare thing for me as I am usually quite hesitant to take on special requests.  All I can say is, I must be loosening up in my middle age.

The most recent one just went out in the mail.  It wasn't a special order, but one of my radar picks.  A recent conversation with my older sister gleaned the tidbit that she is obsessed with Jackie O's three strand pearl necklace.  Of course I remember seeing the necklace and there's been lots of 'first lady pearls' in the news thanks to Michelle O's stunning assortment of contemporary interpretations, bringing the pearl necklace to a whole new audience ... I especially love the Tom Binns pieces.  But my sister said the Jackie O version.  And I thought, "hey, I can do that!  The gem show's coming up and I'll do a bit of research and see what I pull off."

So yesterday I headed to Franklin for the gem show with my miniscule shopping list, perused and shopped for a couple of hours, found the exact pearls I was hoping for and headed home.  I had already made the 'bling' piece for the three strand closure.  Jackie's was emerald and gold, mine is pmc, white topaz and sapphires - close, sort of.  Since I got home early, I set to work right away and, well, see what you think.  Here's the clasp ...

And the full necklace.  The shortest strand is 17", graduating to 19" ...

There's something enormously satisfying about knotting perfectly graduated strands of pearls.  This is in the mail today ... I'm hoping a nice little surprise for my sister.  Unless she reads this, which I'm thinking is not likely, I don't know, we'll see.

Then there was the Talisman style necklace for a friend ...

I don't normally do text in pieces - there's just so much out there, it's hard to do anything different.  But a friend had asked if I might be able to do something with her word choices plus a couple other elements and I figured I'd give it a shot.  The other unusual thing here - the text nuggets are sterling silver pmc.  Yep!  My first batch of mixed and fired pmc3 mixed with pmc Pro.  My letter stamps were kind of big so I wanted to use the sterling for the additional shrinkage.  There will be more sterling silver goodies to come - hopefully later this month.

And then I got to make a special order version of one of my favorite new pieces.  This one is for the woman who cuts my hair, I guess that would be hair stylist, but the stylie part only lasts until I wash it.  I'm not known for fancy hairstyles or fancy product usage.  Anyway, she's buying this for a birthday present to herself.  

And lastly, this wasn't a special order, but it's a piece you may recognize.  I made this component a while back - channel set tunduru sapphires in a bar of pmc.  I originally planned to attach it to leather, then changed my mind, then decided to list the component on Etsy, it got several 'hearts' but didn't sell.  Then one day my eye caught a zip-loc bag full of bits of chain - a tiny rolo link that I've had for years.  I've always loved this chain and seeing it in a pile I finally figured out what to do with that little sapphire bar.  I'll be re-listing the finished piece on Etsy first of the week. 

Silver prices have been all over the place in the last couple of weeks and took a nose-dive in the last few days.  Normally I price things based on replacement costs, but because I've had this chain for a while and there's a lot of it in this piece, I'm going to price it at the old chain price.  Yeah, I'm softening up. 

And new jewels! 

Like I was saying, I didn't really need much of anything, but I'm always on the lookout for new and intriguing jewels.  Lately I've been obsessed with hammered gemstone nuggets - really rough, chiseled looking facets.  They're pretty hard to find, but they are out there.  Some on Etsy, a few on some gemstone sites.  I saw very little of this sort of thing yesterday, but did find a few strands to play around with.

I love the warmth of this quartz.  So much of it looked plastic and glaring and garish.  This strand was perfect.

I had to get two strands of this green amethyst - looks like green ice don't you think?

A bit of a splurge, but this gemstone is so so so hard to resist ... this not quite so chiseled moss aquamarine.  A bit more refined, but still rough enough for my plans.

And this was my big splurge, golden rutilated quartz ... $50 for a really short strand, 5 bucks a nugget - oof!  Thing is, I saw it first thing in the morning and kept thinking about it the whole time I was there, so I knew I better succumb or regret it later.  It's just so raw and I know it's going to look amazing with some big chunky something to be designed sometime soon.

All in all, a good trip and a good couple of days and, come to think of it, a good couple of weeks.  

I can't wait to see where these new jewels inspire me to go next.  That's the whole point, discovery and exploration and innovation and the delicious unknown.

Onward.

Blessings - kvk

reliquaries of hopes, dreams and intentions

That's kind of a mouthful, but that's what they are ... the newest addition to my Talismans For Fellow Travellers collection.  I can't remember now when I started thinking about the concept, it's all kind of a blur - but here goes ..........

Hollow forms in pmc - be it an amphora, lentil, rectangle, cube, cylinder - enscribed with symbols or text or glyphs.  Ahhhh, but within the form lies the magic.  Written with graphite on onionskin paper ... a prayer, a name, a hope, a dream or an intention is rolled up and inserted in a cavity in the cork clay core.  The cork clay core is fully enclosed, sealing the prayer, the intention, the hopes and dreams.  When fired, the cores burn up, embedding the essence of the well intended fragment within the metal clay.

The idea for my reliquaries came from one of my favorite programs of all time - the National Geographic special, the Living Treasures of Japan.  One of the Living Treasures is a maker of enormous and exquisite bronze temple bells.  Surrounding the enormous cauldron, parishioners, priests and patrons drop prayers written on copper foil and thin pieces of paper into the molten bronze, forever a part of the finished work.

I've got four prototypes that I'm listing on Etsy ...

The Forgiveness Reliquary, has OM on one side and the Adinkra symbol for "by God's Grace' on the reverse.

The message that went inside, "I forgive myself and am released from all regrets."

 This amphora, representing the body and life force,  is a Reliquary of Hope - a stamp representing the spine and chakras on one side, the spiral of life on the reverse.  

The message inside, "That which you are seeking is within you."

... and this one is another Reliquary of Intention for Transformation.  Three words are stamped into the sides, "Portal, Gate, Transformation".  See and acknowledge the Portal, walk through the Gate, experience the Transformation.  The message inside, "Leap and the net will appear."

And the last of the prototypes is another Reliquary of Intention - the spiral of life on one side, OM on the reverse.  The message inside, "honor your vision, follow your bliss."

When I nail down the shapes I want to use, I'll be doing custom made Reliquaries.  The most important aspect will be the personalized messages and intentions.  I'm still mulling over the logistics for this part ... the easiest approach would be to email me the message and I write it on the paper.  A slower version would be the client writes their intention on lightweight xerox paper and mails it to me.  An even slower version would be I mail onionskin and then it gets inscribed and mailed back.

I like the aesthetics of the graphite on onionskin paper, but am wondering if clients may want to have their messages be private and known only to them.  Any opinions or feedback are welcome.

Well, it's getting too late for me to be on the computer and expect to fall asleep any time soon.  So I bid you goodnight and sweet dreams.

celestial blessings - kvk   

inspiration download

Thursday, during my morning meditation, I got what felt like a big ol' inspiration download.  Images of two necklaces and a matching bracelet flashed into my, aspiring to be empty but definitely not, mind.  It was a tough one ... I wanted to jump right up and get to work, my breathing grew short and my pulse quickened.  I took some deep breaths, acknowledged and thanked the universe for the new ideas, managed to calm myself down and returned to something of a quiet mind.

Yeah, but when that half hour was up, boy howdy I headed straight over to my worktable and started hauling out components.  The resulting pieces are what I'm pretty sure will be the theme of my KVK Luxe series.  They feel luxurious and kind of over-the-top.  No scrimping on materials, no worrying about the cost, no hesitation ... and I am thrilled with the results.

I debated and debated about where, if anywhere (for right now), they should go.  My first thought was to hold onto them and build the collection.  Then, after our morning outing for breakfast and a blitz trip to the used bookstore, I came home and decided to put them on Etsy ... kind of a run the flag up and see who salutes marketing approach.  Here's the first three pieces of the collection:

the Vertebrae Pendant

 

the Standing Stones Pendant

The Vertebrae Bracelet will be listed tomorrow

And for the same reason, I also decided to list the Starry Night Cross ... ahhhh, it is just lovely.

I've also got the prototypes for another new series adding to the Talisman Elements collection, but you'll have to wait a day or so as I nail down a few more details.

Goodness, so much to share!  I've still got St Augustine photos and stories as well ... so look for more posts to follow.

with deep gratitude and many blessings - kvk

a brief history

Working on these last two jeweled crosses got me to thinking about my other jeweled crosses so, I thought I'd share some images of past work ... and of course share images of the newest treasures all bright and shiny and ready to find new and loving homes.

Well, these first two aren't crosses, but are my first bejeweled pieces.  The images are not so great - just scans, but I still love the pieces ... 

I call them Vestiges of Byzantium ...the earrings

and the pendant

Then there was this cross I made for a friend in PT.  I cut a cross out of thick mica, wrapped it in pmc, drilled a hole in the center, then more pmc with a wash of 22k pmc in the center.  A total experiment, but a pretty successful one ... at least I thought so.

Then the crosses started getting more fancy.  

I gave this one to my sister to accompany her breast cancer journey.

White topaz in the center, peridot trillions, sapphire and moonstone cabs with a 22k pmc wash in the recesses.

From last year ... peridot and raw diamonds, a sapphire at the crest, hanging from a braid of dark blue silk and tiny faceted gems.

Another one from the same time.  A yellow sapphire in the center surrounded by a lot of raw diamonds, with a tiny ruby at the top, hanging from a braid of plum silk and tiny gems.

And my most recent creations ... the raw ruby cross on multi-strand leather.  I love the ragged edges around the rubies and the color of the stones is just wonderful.

And then there's my pièce de résistance.  Dave says this may be one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever made ... and that's saying something!  He's seen it all - the very bad and 

the truly extraordinary.   I call it Starry Night ...  

 And I don't know what it is, but it really does feel like a very special piece.  Do you ever feel that way about your work?  Something will seem very normal during the creation process and then, upon completion, you realize something has transpired and the work has been transformed, transcended ... it's become more than the sum of it's parts.  

Here's a different angle. 

I'm not sure where this one is going.  I sent off a bunch of work to Artisans on Taylor.  ArtFest is next week and I always try to stock them up with my most interesting pieces.  For some reason, Starry Night, didn't want to go to PT.  Not sure where it wants to go...

But for now, I do know where I want to go!  Dave and I are heading down to St. Augustine, FL for a long weekend.  Warmth, sun and sand!  I am so in need of a salt water fix and they've got lots - hard to say which I love more, the salt marshes or the ocean.  

But I won't have to choose.

Hope you enjoyed the show!   Have a lovely weekend.

blessings - kvk

 

I couldn't help myself

So I really was working on an order and I finished the components and I had one more package of PMC sitting there and just over my shoulder was my cigar box full of new jewels calling out to me ..."use me, use me", so what's a girl to do?  I had an itch and I just had to scratch, what is it with me and this itching thing lately.
Anyway, this was my inspiration ...

side one of my brother's cross

 and side two of the same cross

He found this cross in an old junk store on Malta in the late 60's.  There's an amazing story about it, but that's not my tale to tell.  But, I have been absolutely fascinated by this object for all these years.  I showed it to a psychic once and she was kind of bowled over by the power she got just from scanned images.  We don't know anything specific of its origins, but guess it to have been made around 700a.d. ... maybe.  It's old, very old.

So yesterday afternoon, I decided to use the shape of this amazing object as inspiration for a couple of jeweled crosses.  I do love jeweled crosses.  It's that whole medieval obsession of mine ... jewel encrusted objects especially.  They still need to be fired, but here's what came of the inspiration ...

The one on the left has faceted white topaz and tanzanite and dark blue raw sapphires and, before firing is about 2 1/2" x 1 3/4".  The one on the right is all raw rubies and is about 1 3/4" x 1 1/2".  The kiln is currently cooling from firing the work I'm supposed to be doing.  I'm mere moments away from loading these lovelies and firing them up.  Can't wait to see the results!

Okay, bye for now - I really am going to get some work done - really.

Except for there is this one annoying thing today ... I use Thunderbird email and went into it this morning and all of my messages - inbox and trash (which I was actually sort of saving), well anything that hadn't been saved into a specific folder, which was most everything ... gone, disappeared, poof - vanished!  So if anyone was waiting for a reply from me, please write again.  As we speak, that is right now I'm trying to export my address book to Outlook and be done with T-Bird, which is taking forever and I'm a wee bit concerned.  So very very frustrating.  Pish posh - dern computers!

ah well, have a lovely rest of your weekend

blessings - kvk

oh, yes ... don't forget!  One more day in my Etsy sale.  After that, I'm pulling everything off and packing it up to send to WA.

tantalizing morsels

I've spent the better part of the day loading up my Etsy shop with my Cairn Bead components.  I think this is the most I've ever had listed for sale here and I've got even more work to list tomorrow!  I've got more components and two new pairs of earrings.  Check these scrumptious creations ...

The ruby dangles give me chills - they are so over the top - I do love love love them.  And the right hand pair with the citrine nuggets are simple and elegant and just great basic earrings.

But what I'm equally excited to share are some fresh discoveries.  Our exceptional Downtown Books and News  has started carrying more and more Australian publications.  There's a couple that have been tempting me like Dumbo Feather.  I've seen it on-line and it looks really interesting and I've wanted to get my hands on a copy.  But the issue on the shelf was just not grabbing me and then I saw this one - habitus - and I gladly plunked down the $18 to call it mine.

I much prefer looking for jewelry inspiration in non-jewelry places and pretty consistently find wonderful inspiration in home and design magazines.  This one's a peach!  Wouldn't you just love to have this porcelain chandelier hanging in your home?  It's from Bocci.ca - gorgeous.  Golly, you know it kind of looks like jewelry.

 
And as for actual jewelry, you may recall I'm a big fan of Donna Karan's Urban Zen shop in NY.  On a recent visit to their website I was struck by some extraordinary "savage jewels" ... the creations of By Wanga. 

And one more wonderful find ...
I can't remember how I came across Elephant Ceramics, but Michele Michael's wonderfully minimal, hand built dishes just warm my little heart.  Thirty years ago, handbuilt pots are what drew me to work in clay and remain a deep seated passion that I will one day return to.  Thing was, at that time, there was little if any appreciation for the forms I was drawn to create.  Thank goodness tastes have changed and here's a beautiful example of a now broadly accepted method.

Gots to run and get the evening meal on the table.

blessings - kvk