Announcement - A New Product Line!

I'm so excited.

I am finally getting to launch something I've been waiting almost a year to do.

People ask me a lot if I can personalize jewelry with a message charm, or someone's initials, name or special date.   I knew last year that I wanted to get into hand-stamped jewelry, but I just didn't have the where-with-all to do everything involved:  research the products, purchase the necessary tools, learn a new technique and then practice, practice, practice until I figured it out.

Until now.

I'm happy to announce the unveiling of a new product line:  hand-stamped jewelry!  

Personalized Sterling Silver Name Discs with Birthstone Crystals

Add a charm, pearl or bead of your choosing!  This is the Infinity Love Knot Charm..

I haven't listed anything in my Etsy shop, yet, but I will be adding several new pieces there over the coming weeks.  There are SO many possibilities with hand-stamping:  pendants, bracelets, rings, charms, earrings, key chains...  the list goes on and on.   

I love making recovery jewelry, or pieces that have a special meaning for the wearer, and hand-stamping takes this to a whole new level.   You can now customize the perfect piece of jewelry with any message you choose.    Recently someone ordered a bracelet from my shop, but she wanted a simple little circle charm on the clasp with someone's initials on it, just to add that personalized touch.   Now I can do that! 

People ask all the time if I can create pieces as gifts to help during a tough time, or to provide support, inspiration or motivation...  now you can create a piece with just the right message for a special someone (or yourself)!

And, of course, the ever-popular Mother's (or Grandmother's) pendants and bracelets - create a beautiful gift for a birthday, christening, birth or mother's day.   Dozens of shapes and sizes will be available, all fully customizable with names, initials, messages and/or special dates.

I'm also enjoying experimenting with hand-hammered pieces; I love the uniquely hand-made look this creates:

Scalloped Hand-Hammered Discs in Brass, Copper and Sterling Silver

Little Dish Necklace (can be personalized with birthstones, charms, crystals or pearls)

  

These are just a few examples; MANY more to come.  A less impulsive person would wait to unveil everything at once.   

I am not that person.

If you have ideas for a unique, personalized, custom design - let me know!   It may take a while to get everything listed in my Etsy shop, but I've got my tools and I'm raring to go, so send me an email at onecraftyellie@gmail.com if you want to learn more or talk about a custom design.

Thank you!

Lose Yourself

I was asked in an interview recently about creativity, about making jewelry.    They wanted to know about my creative 'spark' - why I started making jewelry, where I get my inspiration.   I have always stumbled over this question, but because I had a week to think about my answers I finally gave it some thought.


Like with so many of the blessings I have in my life, the jewelry came about because of recovery.

Before getting sober, I didn't have any creative outlet at all.    I didn't have any hobbies, unless reading counts as a hobby, and hadn't felt any real creative urges.    I never thought of myself as creative - I still don't, to a large degree.   

When I was about four months sober I was full of a nervous, jittery energy.    I imagined it felt like having my fingers stuck in an electrical socket - kind of pleasurable and painful at the same time.    I found myself with all this excess mental capacity and nowhere to channel it.   I was no longer preoccupied with the obsession to drink, or nursing a hangover, or actively drinking.  Prior to getting sober these activities took up all my time.   

All that excess energy made me edgy, though.    I longed to be able to lose myself in something, anything.   One night I saw a woman knitting at a recovery meeting, and I thought:  I need a hobby.

I began stalking the aisles of hobby stores.   I dismissed knitting quickly (too much counting).    The next stop was drawing - I purchased a beautiful set of colored pencils, an artist's sketch pad, and a book entitled something like Drawing for Idiots.    It turns out that I had neither the talent nor the patience for drawing.   I wanted my creations to come out perfectly, and if they couldn't be perfect I wasn't interested.   

I took guitar lessons.   I played the piano as a child, and still dabbled in it on the upright we had in our living room, so I knew how to read music and always felt I had a musical ear.     The lessons were fun - the first time three bars of Smoke on the Water came out intelligibly I was thrilled.   Practicing was another matter, and the damn perfectionism came back to bite me once again.    I wanted to be able to pick up the guitar and jam.    It was taking too long to get there.

Needlepoint was next.   Not as complicated as knitting, because I found the pre-printed screens (kind of paint-by-numbers with thread) and all I had to do was find the right color and stitch.     Somewhere around here there is still a lumpy, rushed, needle pointed picture of a lighthouse in a frame.

Then one day, eight months sober, I was trudging the aisles of a hobby store once again, feeling dispirited, when a shiny little box caught my eye.   It had a clear top, and was full of little compartments.   Inside the compartments were little multi-colored stones, some wire and some basic tools.   A beading kit.    I grabbed it like a drowning man reaching for a life preserver, ran back home and spread everything out on my kitchen table.

I was in love.  

I loved the feel of the stones, the bright colors that came from nature- nature! - the endless possible combinations of patterns and textures.   And the best part?   If I didn't like the final product, I simply cut it apart and tried again.   Beading is a perfectionist's dream. 

The rest, as they say, is history.  I attacked making jewelry with a dogged determination I hadn't felt in years.   I didn't have the patience for classes.  I googled "wire wrapping", invested in some cheap wire in order to play around until I figured out how to make rings, pendants and earrings out of wire.   My brother mentioned Etsy, and I set up a little shop without much hope that anyone would ever buy anything, but it didn't matter.   I had found the thing I could lose myself in, happily.

As for what my creative process is - I don't have one.  I take stones or crystals and spread them out in front of me, and I let them speak to me.  That sounds like an artist-y kind of thing to say, and I don't think of myself as an artist, but I literally just start playing with colors and textures and I see where it takes me.   Some of my favorite pieces came about from mistakes.  

Not bad for a recovering perfectionist.

I draw inspiration from nature - I'm drawn to the deep blues, soft greens and sandy browns found on the seashore.   I can stare in awe at a bright red or deep purple stone, amazed at how nature produces such vibrant colors.   I studied the meta-physical meanings behind the stones:  rhodonite for self-love, amethyst for sobriety, agate for strength, and this inspired making recovery jewelry that didn't look like recovery jewelry.   I love creating pieces people could draw strength from without having to advertise to the world what it meant.

As I sat at my little jewelry booth at the craft fair on Saturday, I marveled at where jewelry making had taken me.   I looked out over the sea of people there and recognized most of the people I saw - I have made so many new friends through selling jewelry.   

Finding my creative spark helped take me from the dark, angry isolation of active alcoholism out into the bright, vibrant, connected world.

Hot Button

I promise this blog won't turn into post after post about jewelry.   But I blog about what I'm thinking about, and at the moment I'm obsessed with making rings out of buttons.   I never thought the day would come when I'm obsessing over buttons, but I guess this constitutes progress.   Of sorts.

Tomorrow I'll get back to regularly scheduled programming, but I can't stop making these, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites:

The Celtic Knot Ring:

Kokopelli, anyone?

Giant Sunflower Ring, for the girl who likes to get noticed:

On The Spot:

The New Day Ring - a reminder that each sunrise brings a new day, a chance to start fresh:

The Golden Orb Ring - it's amazing what some wire and a simple button can do:

Last, but not least - one of my favorites.  This might be what I give the kids' teachers this year.

  The Little Love Ring:

Thanks for looking!

Spring/Summer Collection!

I haven't listed any new items in my shop in a long time, so I'm excited to roll out some new pieces for my spring/summer collection! 

My new favorite - The Raindrop Earrings:

And The Raindrop Ring:

Rings made from rare buttons!   The Lotus Ring (only one available):

From the elegant to the whimsical - the Wildflower Ring:

For all you Strong Women out there - the Twisted Sister Necklace.    Onyx symbolizes strength, tenacity and determination. It is a grounding stone that can be used to deflect the negativity of others; it is a good protection stone, used to ward off toxic influences:

 

I'm so excited about this semi-precious stone:  rare Matrix Jasper.  The Tangled Up In Blue Bracelet:

Some beautiful new summer earrings:  Juicy Lime and Palest Lavender:

A new look for an old favorite - the Black Raspberry Pearl Necklace:

And, finally, a new Tree of Life Pendant:

Click on the links see these and other new listings in my Etsy shop.  And remember, for newsletter subscribers everything is 20% for the month of June!   To subscribe to my newsletter, please see the righthand sidebar, or send me an email at ellieandsteve@verizon.net.

Thanks for looking!

Handmade Rocks

I can spend hours cruising around Etsy, amazed at the talented and creative people there are in the world. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Etsy, it is an online marketplace that offers only handmade, handcrafted items. Vintage items and supplies are also available. It is one of the fastest growing online marketplaces, and for good reason. Etsy is more than an online store - it is a community of artists and entrepreneurs. I opened my shop a little over a year ago, and I am continually amazed at how supportive other Etsians are - right away I was contacted by other sellers, many of them other jewelers, welcoming me, offering tips, help and support.

Just for fun, I went to Etsy and searched for a variety of items... you can find just about anything your heart would desire there -and it is all handmade.

Need a bed? No problem. How about this one, made by Attiladesign and handcrafted in Helsinki**:Or perhaps you would like to custom design your own wedding cake, like this one here at llkaygifts:

There are goodies to eat:

And things that look good enough to eat, but aren't edible, like this soap:

How about a handpainted silk dress:

Or a beautiful scarf:

Or something a little more off the wall, for that hard-to-buy-for friend (yes, those are tiny little handpainted ants) :

Or get in touch with your punk side:

Maybe some adorable booties for the friend who is expecting:

Or perhaps you want to predict your future with some custom made fortune cookies:

Maybe you are feeling a little racy, and want a handmade item for the bedroom? How about a pastie:

You can even do a search for artists who live near you. Here are two of my local favorites - Kill 'Em Dirty:

And RomanMcCall:

Well, you get the idea. Go ahead - stop by http://www.etsy.com/ and do a search for something, anything - I bet they have it. Handmade rocks.

**click on any picture to go to the seller's shop.

Art

I feel reluctant to call myself an Artist. I was talking to a friend about this the other day, and she asked me why. The answer that popped into my head was that true Artists feel a creative spirit that wells up from inside, something that has to express itself - a compulsion to create. They aren't in it for money or fame, they are following a passion they possibly can't even explain themselves, right? She blinked and replied, "well isn't that you?"

And, it turns out, that is me, its just that I am the last to know. I feel creating jewelry is something that just sort of happened, something I stumbled upon, like finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk. You're happy its there, but you don't feel like it has anything to do with you.

As I thought about it, I remembered my childhood rock collection - dull round rocks that held treasures of glistening crystals within. I loved my rock polisher, and would spend hours on the beach collecting and cataloguing stones. Barbie dolls? Not so much. There is something visceral for me about stones, gems and crystals - I marvel at how nature can produce such an amazing array of colors and textures deep in the earth. My favorite bead store is a funky little place in Enfield, NH - an improbable little compound with buildings chock full of every imaginable kind of stone. There is a large pit there full of little polished rocks, and I have to stifle the urge to simply lie down in it and wallow (a desire my 3 year old did not feel the urge to suppress when he was there... ).

I approach creating jewelry the same way I approach lots of things in life ... with a vague notion that something is pleasing to me, but not sure really how its all going to turn out. I find stones, crystals and beads that move me somehow, and I sit in my studio (read: what used to be our dining room) and I start working with them. I have, quite literally, no idea how a piece will turn out when I begin working on it; the surprise of how it will turn out is half the fun. I love mistakes - they lead to some of the best creative ideas.

I know other creative people who feel this way about paint, fabric or glass. My good friend Kate (now she's REALLY an Artist) created this amazing window from reclaimed materials and beautiful glass. At her house one day I saw sketches, materials, and heard her talk about some ideas, but from what I saw the window is more born than it is made. Sure, she's doing the work, but its like the piece speaks to her and helps her along.

All of this is what makes it hard to put yourself out there and sell your art. Its intensely personal to create, so its like exposing pieces of your inner self to the world. Much of what I create is just for me, and if someone else can appreciate it, that's great too. But its difficult to keep those two notions separate sometimes. I can't worry about whether a piece will sell, or whether it will be well received by the world at large. But me being me, it has taken time to ignore that, too. Its freeing, somehow, to know that pieces essentially create themselves. Because then if nobody likes it - I'm off the hook, right?

A couple of days ago my kids and I were strolling on the same beach where thirty years ago I first found my own treasures, and my 6 year old daughter picked up a perfect round little stone with startling colors of bright greens and blues. She looked up and me and said "Its like magic, Mom ... how did nature make this?". Then she took it home and made a necklace out of it. Atta girl.