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

too much fun .....

........... yep, that's the gist of it ... I'm just flat out having way too much fun - sewing.

It's not as easy as it used to be.  Because of our tiny kitchen/dining area, we replaced our dining table (aka the most perfect sewing table - ever) with a tiny kitchenette version.  So now I lay out patterns on the bed and the fancy cutting matt on the floor, set up the sewing machine on my worktable and ironing board in the laundry room.  I basically take over the whole 2nd floor of the house.  Ah well, it is what it is.

But just look what I've been making!  I've decided to cut and sew up a significant quantity of my treasured vintage homespun linen and I'm going to share!  So there's going to be a bunch of these - Itty Bitty Ditty Bags in a variety of shapes and sizes ...

The front one is about 5" x 3" and the back one is about 6" x 4".  These have dark brown Euro flax linen pulls, the front one with a stack of fine silver beads, the back one with a steel nugget.  I'd have a whole slew of these, but I only bought two zippers ... gots to get more zippers ASAP, 'cause the possibilities are endless not to mention I'm utterly obsessed with these enormously precious little bags.

For branding, I'm using a KVK stamp with my Chinese chop red ink ... really like the look of the red ink on the old linen.

Love the way the bottom is sewn ... Okay, so it's not an original design, but I am putting my spin on it.

So I've got more!  Here's a couple of bags in progress ... this one's got inside and outside pockets and will have a leather shoulder strap.  The front flap just laps over with the leather scrap and steel discs to weight it down - the Trad Messenger.

Then this one's kind of a tube that will have a fold-over top and linen shoulder strap, mostly machine stitched but with patchwork/sashiko deets - the Boro Bag.

And last, for now, but certainly not least ... this is the Super Jumbo Tote, 19" x 18" with a front pocket.  I used waxed Euro flax linen to whip stitch the selvedges for the side seams and left the raw edges at the top and around the front pocket.  I'm going to run it through the wash to get those raw edges more ragged.

So that's it for now.  I'm really enjoying all the pattern making and sewing, figuring out all the different elements and accents - my design palette if you will - and how to make the best use of this precious resource, 19" wide, 100 year old (or thereabouts) homespun linen from eastern Europe ... enjoying, that's the understatement of the week ... like I was saying ... obsessed. 

Stay tuned for the finished products ... I'll be listing them on Etsy for sure.

So you folks in the United States ... have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving / and the rest of the world - thanks for stopping by. 

with deep gratitude and Thanksgiving blessings .......
l i g a - kvk

later

Kind of a mixed bag of results this afternoon ...
Really liking the look of the dyed seersucker silk ripped into slender ribbons.  These were dyed in the water with soaking black beans.  And I love this 'donut' component ... only made these five ... will definitely make more.  Still not sure what I'm going to do for a closure.

This piece feels effortless ...

This one not so much ...

Again, I love the components.  But the silk I'm using for the wrap is too stiff, making the whole piece very stiff.  Since I'm so in love with the other silk, I made a blitz trip down to the fabric store ... our house is really conveniently located ... fine fabrics a mile and a half one way, AC Moore and Hancocks a mile the other way - very handy.  I came straight home, chucked the silk into the wash and then tore off some to dye.

I've got three dye pots going.  One with just walnuts.  That one has silk and a small test piece of the Ukrainian linen.  Another one has two small bundles - one rolled up with yellow onion skins, the other with red onion skins - both wrapped with bailing wire.  I dropped one walnut in for just a bit - didn't want any white showing.  The third pot is a mason jar where I'm soaking black beans with silk at the bottom.    

So all those pots are simmering and soaking while I'm working out the logistical details of this piece.  I like all the elements - the silver links, pearls and crystals, the color palette - just not the assembly.   

Back to it for this little peep.
stay tuned .......
l i g a - kvk

p.s. Dave doesn't much care for the smell of simmering walnuts ... a bit too earthy for him ... I rather like it

the path to effortless

working on new designs ...
When I get a concept in my head, my initial efforts pretty much always look tortured.  Materials will be wasted, designs will be assembled, taken apart, reworked ... at some point a shift will happen, the conundrum sorted out, the log jam broken and the components will flow into my hoped for vision ... work that maybe, initially looks haphazard yet on further inspection reveals a rhythm and flow ... effortless.

l i g a - kvk

just a quickie ....

......... because I don't have much time and really need to get dinner going and I'm dying to write a really juicy post 'cause I've got a whole bunch of things to share - thoughts and new work and inspiration and ... well - lots ... but it's going to be a few days.

So for now, a quick preview ... I finally finished the first piece using some of my new treasures.  Here's my Amber Goddess necklace.  It's going to be next week before I have time to list it on Etsy and I just couldn't wait to share.

There's steel and bronze metal clay, jumbo nuggets of rutilated quartz and amber (thank you Andrew!), some of the fire etched agate (amazed to discover they're translucent!) and of course the yummiest piece of the agatized bamboo - a long and graceful cylinder ... all on antique brown leather with a bronze pebble closure and leather and linen wrapped cushioning at the back of the neck.

I'm thrilled ... hope you agree.

One more day of work for me and then we're on our 'staycation' through the weekend ... short road trips and eating out and chilling for a few days.

ciao for now!
l i g a - kvk

many happy things

So much to be thankful for today ... so many things are making me smile ...

I'm closing in on 100 members to this site!  Can't wait to see 3 digits on that little widget!   

Wo ... update!  Hold your horses, it's official ... I've got 3 digits on the widget!  Suh-weet!  
Thank you thank you thank you!

I spent a lovely day yesterday at the gem show.  Road trip with Cara, chatting nonstop for the 70 minute drive ... Seeing so many jeweler friends, such an amazing community of creative women in our area ... Spending exactly my budget with a few dollars to spare.

I had a vague idea of what I was looking for.  Sometimes I have a detailed list, sometimes I just go and see what catches my eye.  Yesterday was a follow my intuition day.  Here's my modest haul ...

First, I was drawn to yellows.  From the right: citrine nuggets, some very yummy heliodor aquamarine (who knew that aquamarine came in yellow?), sunstone nuggets with loads of copper shiller, and sumptuous teeny chrome tourmaline nuggets.

Then there was the yellow/green/chartreuse strands ... a mixed strand of lemon quartz cubes, teeny watermelon tourmaline nuggets and another new-to-me gem, shah mak sud jade from Afghanistan.

Then on to the blues ... I felt in desperate need of lapis and love these little tubes (2-3mm).  These thin cubes were a new shape so I got a small assortment - in addition to the lemon quartz, amethyst, iolite, blue quartz and paraiba quartz (enhanced colors, but they were inexpensive and I couldn't resist).

And these are seriously yummy ... aquamarine and tanzanite sanded nuggets.  They're a bit bigger, 10-12mm wide by 3-5mm.

And sometimes I splurge on a decadent little something ... like raw diamonds.  I'm such an addict.  Cara spotted these and the price was really quite good and I didn't have any black or red diamonds and, golly, a girl really should have an assortment, dontcha think?  I got 2 strands of each.

Black raw diamonds ... 2-3mm.  Treated, but again, I couldn't resist.

And then there's the red ones ... oh my goodness they're amazing.  Two graduated strands of natural red diamonds, 3-5mm.

And being the obsessive compulsive type that I can be, before leaving for the show, I wanted something new to put on my wrists.  It seemed like a good time to measure out a nice long length from my new assortment of antique brown leather cord, pop on a button and loop clasp and call it done.

And I had this one mostly put together, I just needed to tie the loop onto the end.  Not sure if I could sell these or not ... there's a ton of silver in this one which would make it really expensive.  I do love the weight of it.

Other things on my happy radar ... I've been doing a lot of visualization work in combination with something else that's new to me ... meridian tapping or EFT.  Mostly I've been working on money/scarcity issues and business applications.  I really like the idea of it and feel pretty sure some old patterns are starting to shift.  Lots of work on being open to whatever comes my way.  And talk about sweet synchronicity ... on Thursday this showed up on my doorstep ...

Okay, so I'm always looking at different on-line business blogs and sites and you know I'm a big fan of a couple of them.  Well, on Wednesday I watched an interview with Chris Guillebeau about his new book launch and thought that looked pretty interesting and was going to add it to my wish list.  Thursday, the UPS truck pulls up and plops this on my front porch ... FREE from Amazon!  How crazy is that?  Alright, so I know the 'big brother' implications of this and I'm not real happy about that, but I am pretty psyched about getting the book, so I'm going to try and not think about the big brother part.  I just started it and it looks like it's going to have a lot of useful information.

And then we got a bit of an income tax refund and decided to invest in a super nice juicer.  I was thrilled with the Acme when I got it, but it's turned out to not fit my juicing needs.  I do lots of greens and like to make a lot of juice at one time.  The centrifugal juicers don't get a lot of juice from greens (you have to run the pulp again) and are not so great if you want to refrigerate juice for a day or more.  Anybody in the Asheville area want a deal on a juicer, I've got the Acme listed on Craigslist.  So, here's the newest member of the family.  My Omega 8006 - a slooooow, masticating juicer ... 

I'm itching to get to work with my new gems ... have some ideas about what to do with those diamonds and I'm back to working on my Talismans.  I'm thinking they're going to be my main focus for a bit.  Well, I've got this coming week to work on them before working on a couple of June 1st wholesale orders.  I can see that the Talismans have enormous potential for growth and what I do is fairly different from what's out there right now.  So, I'm going to do something of a re-launch, hence the Startup book and all the business stuff I've been working on.  Moving forward, gettin' things done, havin' a good time ... what more could a girl ask? 

Yes, yes ... many many happy things!

feeling enormously blessed and ever so grateful.

Onward!

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  Thanks so much for those of you who took me up on the My Peeps discount.  

p.p.s.  I found a strange little exercise video that Maia Helles did and wanted to share ...

wildly diverse

So far this week I've been kind of all over the place.  There have been massive tweaks to my website and I'm sending out heartfelt thanks to everyone for all the comments (don't forget - the drawing's on Friday).  I'm thinking it's getting pretty close to done ... a relative thing, since I'm always adjusting things.  Of course there are things I'm really supposed to be doing, but my muse has been calling and it seemed rude to ignore her.

My muse has been sending me a variety of inspirations and I've been trying to go with it ... strike while the wildly diverse ideas are flowing.  Over the weekend, I had an Etsy customer ask about some earrings I'd made a couple of years ago.  I always loved those earrings and sold all the pieces in the series, so I thought what the heck - I'll revisit that collection and see where it takes me today.

Current interpretations of my Sea Spray earrings.  They're pretty luxe and very frilly.  I started with a color combination I'm calling Hyacinth - pretty much screams spring time, don't ya think ...

These are a little closer to the original, such soft colors - Pacific Sea Spray ...

These are closer still to the original colors, close, but different ...

I'm going to make more earrings and some necklaces, but my muse sent me off in another, very different direction.

I've had a few bronze discs from my last firing sitting on my table.  I loved the way they looked straight out of the charcoal, kind of mottled and very earthy.  I left them 'as is' - no patina, no tumbler - very raw.  So somewhere in the last few days, I can't remember now, I made a whole bunch more, fired them, added them to the first few, waiting for further inspiration.

Yesterday, it hit and now I've used up the pieces I made, ordered more bronze and I'm about to bust, these are so bloody cool.

I'm still working on this first one.  The quartz pebbles are what got me going.  Only thing, it took about 45 minutes and multiple drill bits to drill these 2 pebbles.  I'm thinking that's not the best use of my time and materials ... dern quartz.  Love the look, though.  I added a jumbo citrine nugget (a gift from Andrew!) and a mondo Basha bead.  I've got sort of an idea of how I want to finish it, but so far the details are eluding me.  I do love the raw bronze with this rugged mix ... it is seriously chunky!

And these little chunky discs ... did I mention I can't wait for my bronze to get here.  They're combined with 3 beach pebbles ... so much easier to drill than quartz.

I thought the first piece was going to be my favorite, but this next one might be winning out.  The wonderful flat slate pebbles are from a special place along the Oconaluftee River that Nina took me a while back ... they're really easy to drill.  It's not finished either.  I need to make some kvk tags and some heavier pebbles for closures.  Waitin' on that bronze .........

But it's not been all ice cream and cake.  Yesterday I fired some steel and most of the pieces didn't sinter - very frustrating.  I need to go back and read through the directions, do some troubleshooting and see what the problem might be - very frustrating, indeed.

Add to the frustrations, my addiction to this computer.  I've been trying to stay off it during the day, but it's not gone well.  Problem is, the only way I can listen to music is through the computer - there it sits and, especially if I'm listening to Pandora, I'm glancing over to see what's playing or to plug in a thumbs up or down.  I'm not giving up, it's just a work in progress - or rather, I'm just a work in progress.

And people may think I'm crazy, but I really have been enjoying working while the windows are open and the breeze is blowing in and the birds are singing like crazy.  I'm sure most everyone else would be outside, but inspiration was flowing and after reading Danielle's daily truth bomb, well like I was saying, it seemed kind of rude to ignore her.

happy spring!

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  comments on the updated website are still very much appreciated, so have at it!

we'll see

For someone who's s'posed to be staying off the computer, I've sure been on this thing a lot.  Oh well, I just had to share what I've been working on.

If it works, it will be a river of rubies in steel .......

I'm hoping to fill in the series of holes with fine silver pmc.  I'm also planning to leave the steel just as it comes out of the kiln - kind of rusty, corroded looking, then spot polish the fine silver parts.  The pieces will be joined by sterling jump rings and then I'm not sure what else will be involved.  But right now, it's looking bloody cool! 

Like I was saying - we'll see ...........

l i g a - kvk

the further evolution of a new collection

Well, it's been a week of experimenting and learning with sore fingers, some near misses, some great successes and a disappointing failure.

I've figured out a fair amount in the steel metal clay world.  Interesting that the only pieces that didn't sinter properly were from my first traditional method firing ...

I was pretty excited about my raw ruby and sapphire focal pieces.  I thought they had fired just fine until I was really pressing down on them with my steel brush and then ... pop!  The ruby piece had already broken in half during the firing, but then it broke again while pressing down on it.  It's really interesting ... the outside is fired and polished, but you can easily see the core is not sintered at all.  Turns out the sapphire piece was the same.  Needless to say, after seeing this, I did some serious reefing on everything to make sure the pieces were fully sintered.

After that first firing, I found out about Hadar's updated faster firing schedule ... worked like a charm for all the other firings ... and there were at least 4 or 5.  I was also taking some liberties in how I loaded the fire box - no problems at all.  Big caveat here - I'm pretty sure this works because my kiln is larger and the fire box sits well within the kiln elements, back from the cooler front of the kiln.

My week's work - 150 grams of steel metal clay plus some regular BronzClay .......

Some of my favorite pieces are those cubes.  Unfortunately, there were problems with some of them.  I got the sides a bit thin and during the firing, they cracked and separated a bit.  I could have fixed them with more steel clay, but by then I'd used it all.  But necessity is a great source of creativity and  I remembered I had some first generation BronzClay in the refrigerator.  Okay, so I'm pretty sure I bought this clay before we left Port Townsend ... 3 years ago.  I brought it across the country, tightly wound in plastic wrap, in the cooler with Zoe's food, and it's been in the refrigerator ever since.  One little bit was kind of dried out, but the bigger chunk was in pretty good shape.  I took some small bits and filled in the cracks and reinforced the back sides and, lo and behold, if these aren't just some of my favorite pieces ...

I was really doubting the whole steel clay decision, but after seeing it with the bronze ... I don't know, there may be more steel clay in my future.  BTW, I fired this batch using the kitchen oven burnout phase - perfecto!  And that's the old bronze that is supposed to be nursed along through the firing.  You can see the other pieces I made at the same time in the terra cotta dish on the right.

Here's a couple of my favorite focal pieces of the steel ...

This is the biggest piece I made.  It's about 48 x 23mm.  The texture is from a fossilized turtle shell and a lot of smushing ... that's the technical term.

The pendant on the left is textured with that same turtle shell fossil and is about 34 x 20mm.

I've taken apart most of the fossil pieces I'd made a couple of weeks ago.  One thing I've found through my years of designing ... when I start working in a new direction, I'll make a bunch of pieces and then leave them be for a bit.  When I come back to them, more times than not, I end up taking them apart, starting over, re-working the concepts.

For me, that's the key to developing a cohesive collection ... edit, edit, edit ... re-think, re-work, re-configure.  Turn it sideways, what if I flipped it over, how would these components work this way rather than that way.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow ... a brand new day, a brand new  perspective, a brand new batch of exceptionally delicious components.  Oooh, boy howdy, fun fun fun!

And here's some musical icing on the cake ... today I was listening to a little bit of Fever Ray ... alternative, kind of punk, kind of like the direction of the new work ...



Back with more as the collection evolves ...

l i g a - kvk

holding pattern + radar sightings

I'm waiting for the kiln to fire ... again.  And I'll be waiting through today and tomorrow as well.  I love the idea of steel metal clay, I really do.  But the reality of it's limitations pretty much assures this will be a very rare component in my work.  Yesterday I tried Hadar's speedier firing technique which, I'm pleased to say, worked.  Considering I've got 100 grams of steel metal clay components to be fired ...

And this is all I can fire at one time ...

... it's going to take me a while.  If you've read Hadar's instructions for loading the fire box, you'll notice I'm taking some liberties.  I'm basing my quantity decision on two things - the dimensions of my kiln, which is fairly deep, and the shape of my fire box, which mirrors the shape of the kiln and can be situated well within the heating elements.  It worked yesterday ... really hoping it works again today.

So while I'm waiting, I'm doing a bit of multi-tasking.  Yesterday I washed all the windows and screens in my house - never done that before.  Pretty amazing this morning with the sun streaming through relatively streak free clean windows ... clean windows, what a concept.  I've also been collecting some new finds to share when I had some time ... got some time, so here's my recent radar sightings.

What I'm listening to right now ... Peter Gabriel's always a good choice for a creative boost.  That man just exudes creativity, plus I always love what he wears - this suit really reminds of of Studio Rundholz.

An image that's inspiring me, from Volga Linen.  I love the way these coverings are stitched ... raw edges, heavy thread, long stitches, plus the colors are gorgeous ...

We're big David Byrne fans.  Dave's in charge of keeping up with his new projects and this one looks pretty dern cool.  Ahhhh, David Byrne , always a good one for challenging one's perspective.
We have this DVD otw ...



I could totally rock this look by Sula Clothing ...

And if I could be in Woodstock, NY on October 15th, I'd be at Galerie BMG for sure to meet up with one of our favorite artists, Kamil Vojnar.  We met Kamil in Saint Remy de Provence last year and purchased one of his smaller pieces.  His work is photo collage - minimal, somewhat haunting yet exquisite.

Okay, I think that's it for now.  Back to ... I don't know ... back to waiting.  I'll keep you posted.

l i g a - kvk

gathering

It started here ...

I couldn't help myself.  It was just too perfect in its crazy really un-perfect way.  I found this amazing sweater at Niche here in Asheville.  I was in need of inspiration and was wondering around downtown, just seeing where my feet would take me.  I got a nice boost of juice from a visit to Origami Ink, perusing their selection of fine papers, gorgeous fountain pens, very cool art with everything exquisitely displayed ... I am such a sucker for good display.

Next, on the owner's recommendation I headed across the street to Cafe Ello for an iced coffee.  Side note - we went there Saturday for breakfast and it was really good.  Thinking this will be our new favorite breakfast spot, especially 'cause they open early before all the tourists are out.  So then I wondered over to the Grove Arcade and headed down to Niche.  Hanging across the front windows were these amazing sweaters and I knew I was in trouble or better yet, in for an enormous treat ... yes, that's much better.

The artist who makes these wonderful creations is named Cara May.  She works part time at the shop and was there as I was going bonkers over her treasures.  The owner of the shop, Cara and I chatted for a good long while - nice for me as I really don't get out much.  Here's the back of my fabulous new sweater ...

Turns out, one of the yarns that Cara uses in these sweaters is fiber coated steel from Habu Textiles.  I saw it last year on my silk quest and was very curious.  The steel yarn got me to thinking about Hadar Jacobson's steel metal clay.  Standing there chatting, my mind started going crazy with ideas for designing a whole group of work based on Cara's sweaters.

Then I got to thinking about those big chunks of fossilized bone from my in-laws in FL.  So when I got home, I ordered steel metal clay and emailed my sister-in-law to see if she had any more big chunky fossils she'd be willing to part with.  And look what I got in the mail today!   OMG - a jumbo treasure trove of fossilized booty!

This was six pounds of fossils and she's putting more in the mail today.  I think that big piece in my hand is turtle shell and then there's all kinds of bone chunks and shards.  She's also going to send a little flyer with descriptions for identifying the different fossils from that beach.  Here's a few more pieces ... they are seriously cool.

And I'm not sure if I'll do anything with this or not, but the recycled sari silk I just got for packaging looks pretty wonderful against a backdrop of ancient bones.

I'm working on how I'm going to connect these pieces into jewelry.  What's going to be a good complement to the steel and bone?  It needs to be very durable and abrasion resistant, so I'm thinking about nylon but also about leather.  Then I had this crazy idea about getting rawhide and dyeing it with walnuts.  I've got lots of walnuts in my yard, remains from that tree we had removed.  I don't know, may be kind of crazy ... may be kind of fun.

Only thing slowing me down is the steel metal clay is coming from California.  But I gotta say, I'm feeling a lot of potential here .... lots and lots.  I'll keep you posted!

l i g a - kvk