I'm a multi-media goddess!!!

... and a very busy girl! 

I'm making medallions as premiums for the Footprints of God Kickstarter campaign and just finished the first of the fine silver medallions.  Available at different levels will be bronze and fine silver on a sterling chain ... 9 days to go!

Today, I also finished making a special order necklace.  I revisited my Amber Goddess theme with what I think are pretty spectacular results!

This one's chock full of gorgeous components ... steel and bronze, agatized bamboo, rutilated quartz and amber nuggets, trade beads, Roman glass and one wooden branch bead that I made years ago ... all on my linen cord with an especially cool leather closure + I did a leather wrap at the back of the neck with waxed linen stitching for comfort ... really most excellent if I do say so my ownself!

Here's a couple of close-ups ...

Now I'm heading back to my worktable and switching over to sewing linen bags.  Sewing always makes me happy because it reminds me of the wonderful synchronistic way I got my beloved little sewing machine.  It's a budget Bernina - a Bernette - and I've had it for close to 20 years.  The day I went to buy my sweet little machine, I had first gone to a small gallery to sell some of my very first jewelry.  It was crazy stuff ... slate fragments that I decorated with wire and beads and made into necklaces and earrings ... very early, very rough, very primitive.  So I had my jewelry when I went into the fabric store ready to drop down the bucks. 

The owner of the fabric store was a friend and knew I made jewelry and asked if I had any with me.  Turns out she had a class going in the back and thought the ladies might like to do a bit of shopping.  Well, shop they did ... enough to pay for my machine!  So every time I set up my sewing machine, I think back to that magical day, smile and swim in the deep feelings of gratitude.

I'm itching to get back to making my "Itty Bitty Ditty Bags" and list them on Etsy! 

TTFN from this busy bee!
with deep gratitude and sparkly blessings ...
l i g a - 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

minor obsessions and pools of rainbow light

Well, I'm still pretty much obsessed with these colors.  I just can't help myself.  Here's the assortment of gorgeousness that will be going into my next necklace.  I know she's going to be an Epic Ocean Muse ...

She's going to be  l o n g g g g - I'm hoping for at least 42" - hence the big assortment of treasures - pretty sure I'll need more.  I've been drilling out pearls, beach glass and gemstones.  She'll be strung on unbleached linen cord and have a lot of fine silver beads that I've rescued from a couple of my wholesale samples.  But that's all I know for right now.  Can't wait to see what she's going to look like.

Of course, I've been borderline obsessed with these colors forever ... just lately it's gotten to be even more so.  I had a follow-up session with Marilyn last week.  During part of the session I had a really strong visual of swimming and playing in an ocean pool - joyous and free and exhilarating - something like this image I found of the Amalfi coast ...

After our session ended, that visualization had me going straight over to my worktable to re-do my talisman.  The updated version has a moss aquamarine faceted nugget, a vintage carnelian nugget, a nice chunk of teal green beach glass, my small P4R medallion, a bronze life spiral with "I Am" on the back, bronze "abundance" text nugget with a watermelon tourmaline cylinder, my chakra pendant with a ruby at the heart center, a gem stack of blue aquamarine and apatite, my cross with LGLG on the back (let go let god), more blue aquamarine and a heart shaped teal beach glass nugget.  The blessing is still that bit from the Michael Beckwith quote, "a way will be made."

The other thing I was moved to do was pull out my "RLB" ... really long bracelet!  I wore this on my right wrist for years and years - never took it off.  At one point it was 16' long.  I remember once when it broke while swimming with my chocolate lab, Satchel, at Lake Fontana.  He got a little too enthusiastic, hit my wrist and beads went flying.  I said, "darn, I wish he hadn't done that."

I used to sell them by the foot for some ridiculously small amount of money ... they take hours and hours ... that's a butt load of beads to string.  I'd sit there with 30 or 40 bins of beads and dive in like an improvisation ... very intuitive and meditative.  Anyway, I pulled it out and put it on my left wrist ... very strange at first, but now it feels like it's always been there.  My RLB has a substantial visual as well as physical weight.  My favorite part - there's a ton of really beautiful ancient Roman glass beads - the expensive ones.  Plus, it keeps me from wearing my watch - a real test for miss clockwatcher me.  The idea is my right brain/left side needs even more nudging - retraining my brain to allow the analytical side to be less dominant. 

The other really strong visual I got from our session was of being behind the steel gates of a large dam.  On one side of the dam, I can easily see a brilliant pool of white light with rainbow edges - kind of like being in the middle of a complex prism of light.  On the side I am right now it's feels kind of dark and stifling and there's a huge amount of fear anticipating what would happen if those flood gates blasted open.   I know I want to be on the side of that pool of light, but the idea of being swept away in sudden release scares the bajeezious out of me.

So, I've been working on not being stuck behind that dam.  Subsequent meditations and breathwork and yoga and swimming have created a shift ... the dam has sprung a few leaks.  And, as of yesterday, the leaks were getting bigger.  I'm thinking a slow breach is just fine.  Looking forward to swimming in that pool of rainbow light ...

l i g a - kvk  

p.s. this week's FreeWill Astrology horoscope made me chuckle

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of July 11, 2013
Breakthrough will probably not arrive wrapped in sweetness and a warm glow, nor is it likely to be catalyzed by a handsome prince or pretty princess. No, Sagittarius. When the breakthrough barges into your life, it may be a bit dingy and dank, and it may be triggered by questionable decisions or weird karma. So in other words, the breakthrough may have resemblances to a breakdown, at least in the beginning. This would actually be a good omen -- a sign that your deliverance is nothing like you imagined it would be, and probably much more interesting.

btw ...

... and so's you know I've not gone totally off the deep end and that I'm still in maker mode ... here's a few more new pieces that are in that pick-box headed to Gallery Morada in the Keys.

a few pairs of earrings ...

textured orb ... elegant simplicity

iolite stilettos

And I've revisited a couple of designs ...

disc and link trio

5 link

and one of my favorite themes - the chain collage.  This time in russet.

And right when I was getting ready to box everything up and ship it off, one of my collectors in Australia called dibs on the Ocean Muse.  The color combination was so perfect for the keys, I had to make another version.  Luckily I still had a nice selection of interesting components to make this chunkier variation.

Epic Ocean Muse

Okay, that's it for now ... back to (re)assembling.
l i g a - kvk

adjusting ...

... and sifting and sorting and still don't really have words to describe the past week.

But I've had to get back to work and put together a pick box for my gallery in the Keys.  So, while I'm still sorting my thoughts and adjusting to a different way of being, thought I'd share the newest work off the bench ...

Venetian Muse:  vintage Venetian glass beads, vintage carnelian, iolite, kyanite, Basha bead, fine silver on hand-plied linen cord

Ocean Muse:  flourite, lapis, artisan lampwork glass beads, apatite, chrysocolla, vintage trade beads, fine silver on hand-plied unbleached linen cord.

Amber Muse:  agatized bamboo, rutilated quartz, fire etched agate, freshwater pearls, fine silver on hand-plied linen cord

furthering the inner explorations - taking a pranayama workshop on Saturday ... brushing up on breathwork - a good thing.

light filled blessings ...
l i g a - kvk

sharing

So of course, being all inspired with Fabio totally rockin' my rings in his Lord & Taylor video ... I had to make a couple more to share.  I'm seriously loving these.  And what with sterling metal clay being so much stronger than the fine silver version, I'm pretty sure I'll be making more rings.  They've been on my to-do list since the s/s version first came out ... just took some nudging to get to it.

I'm starting off with these two.  A wide band - pretty close to the same width as Fabio's.  

This one's about 3/8" wide ...

And a narrow band - this one's about 1/4".  They're both size 7.5.

And they look great stacked together ...

And they're both now listed in my Etsy shop.  In case you're wondering ... I'd be keeping these for my ownself if I hadn't made them just a wee bit too big.  Gots to make more, some to keep, some to share - might work on that tomorrow.

Fell off the vegan wagon yesterday and got takeout pizza - pepperoni and pineapple.  Figured if we're going to fall off, might as well go for the gusto.  Off to heat up the other half!

l i g a - kvk

it's official ...

... spring is here!  And I've spent this gorgeous first day of spring inside, photographing jewelry and listing it on Etsy.  Ah well, needed to be done.  I'm happy to say - during my internet break, I made 4 pairs of hoops - from tiny to bold.  I'm quite pleased!  

This mid-size pair are my favorites ...

But I really do love all of them.  This is the smallest pair ...

Larger ...

and larger still ...

 

And then I've listed two of the pieces I made for the fashion photo shoot.  Here's a couple more shots of the finished pieces.

Urban Primitive Lavender Goddess Necklace

and Urban Primitive Early Spring Goddess Necklace

 

Not sure what's next for me in the coming days ... getting outside is definitely on the agenda.

Hope you're having a lovely first day of spring in your part of the world.  

l i g a - kvk

inching towards effortless

Still tweaking and moving forwards with the new work. 

There was a call for work from a local organization, Handmade In America.  Submissions were due by yesterday at 5 and there was much dashing about on my part to get my 3 pieces finished, photographed and my application written up.  I figured it was a good opportunity for some exposure.  It's for a fashion shoot called Rustic Urban, so how could I not submit work?

I submitted three pieces - two new ones and one you might recognize.  I wanted to combine the eco-dyed silk from the other day into the new pieces.  I started with this bit of silk, dyed with red onion skins and black walnut ...

The colors were perfect to re-do this necklace from the other day.  This one was stiff and looked almost tortured into existence ...

Here's the final product with the new silk and a slightly different configuration.  Amazing what a bit of tweaking will do ...

Then I'd gotten this amazing lavender from soaking about 24 hours with black beans.  It's really different from the light grey of the other batch which had just soaked overnight. 

I combined this beautiful lavender silk with some super yummy amethyst crystal chunks and peacock freshwater pearls.  Who knew that black beans could produce such a gorgeous color?

The last piece I submitted is one of my all time faves ... the Lapis Mood Goddess Necklace.  I still love the look of the metal clay elements in this piece - straight from the kiln then plunked into a really strong liver of sulfur solution.  Can't wait to see how its 'personal patina' will develop.

I still have this wonderfully vibrant orange and olive green silk to work with  - dyed with yellow onion skins and black walnuts.

Plus I've got a nice selection of new components made up to keep me inspired ...

I'm toying with the idea of going off-line for a bit ... being pretty much addicted to this computer, it promises to be something of an experiment. 
If I do, everything will go into 'vacation mode'.  We'll see ...............

l i g a - kvk

sneak peek part 2

Got a few more pics done and still more to go, so I haven't started listing things.  While I'm waiting for my camera battery to recharge, I'll tease you with a few more pieces ... gotta say, it's a rather diverse assortment.  Same deal applies, if you're interested in any of these before I get them listed you'll get the special Peeps Only 15% off and I'll even include shipping.  Just leave a comment here or on my FB page and I'll get back to you.  So without further delay .........

silver nugget with cube and lapis nugget on 16" sterling bead chain  - $120

bronze discs & beads, lapis nuggets and Basha Beads on linen, 30"  - $210

amethyst jangle earrings, 2 1/2" from ear wire  - $130

magpie necklace on 17" sterling bead chain  - $160  SOLD

urban primitive cairn, steel, bronze, fossilized bones, Basha Bead 

and pyrite on 36" silk cord  - $180

Going back to check on my battery, so that's it for now!
Have a lovely evening .........
l i g a - kvk