New Toe Ring Revealed

I finally got tired of my current line of toe rings and decided it was time to freshen things up with a new offering. Introducing the "Twisted" toe ring. I just finished up a batch of 15 toe rings and have them listed in my shop. They will make their first show appearance in Galesburg, IL Art in the Park. Now I need to start working on a new line of jewelry for 2009!

Award winning weekend and other art fair adventures!

My dear blog...my how I have ignored you! It was all in the name of art, I swear. I recently ended a busy summer art fair season and am taking a little break before the fall/holiday season kicks in. I had two shows in July and it all ended on a very good note. First there was my two art fair weekend with shows in Dixon, IL and Dekalb, IL. Sales-wise it was OK but award-wise it was fantastic! I have dubbed it my 2-award weekend.

Dixon "Nuts About Art" awarded me 2nd place in the 3-D division and I am not sure what I won at Dekalb but it came with a decent size check!

The next weekend I was off to exhibit at the Madison Art on the Square. I was a first-timer there and had been told by many what a great show it was. Everyone I spoke with told me to bring help and lots of jewelry. So I did! I convinced my BFF Kim to go up with me. I feel like I torchered her...with the long days, time away from her family, and by far the crappiest motel room we had ever stayed in. In the end we had a blast, she was a huge help, and sales were excellent. The day after the show we stuck around Madison and treated ourselves to pedicures, manicures, and shopping in the downtown/University area. Hope I get into that show next year!

Mutual Admiration

In the indie art world there is often a sense of mutual admiration....here is one case in point:

Neawear is the store of a Canadian jewelry designer Janick. I greatly admire her bold use of non-traditonal materials to create truly dramatic jewelry. The mutual part comes in because Janick is a valued customer of mine and has collected my entire line of Rox jewelry. Below is a pair of earrings I just have to have from her Deploy line!

Jewelry/Jewelers from around the world - Saudi Arabia

It has been way too long since my last post but I have a great excuse....I was off discovering distant lands! I am lucky to have a day job that allows me to go to places most only dream of. The most recent trip took me to Oman and Saudi Arabia. It was one of my most exciting trips to date and it was filled with many firsts - My first experience wearing the Abbaya and headscarf (they are really beautful by the way), my first meeting with a prince, my first camel ride, my first coral abrasion thanks to the Red Sea, and real life experience in a gender segregated society. I could go on and on but it is not the point of this post. On a trip out to the gold market with our local guide I had a chance to see some local jewelers and their work space. I know they thought I was crazy for asking for pictures but it seems like everyone was ready and willing to strike a pose. To seem a little less crazy I would tell them that my father and I were both jewelers and I wanted to show him what I was seeing. The pictures you are about to see are from Saudi Arabia but you should know that most of the people in jewelery workshops are not Saudi but immigrant workers. You will see in the one picture plenty of Saudi women shopping for gold. I hope you find these as interesting as I did from behind the camera!

New Designs for Spring and Summer

I have been busy in my shop creating new designs for spring and summer. From my head - to my bench -to you.

Another website that keeps me up too late!

I was hanging out in the Etsy forums and found out about ANIMOTO. This is just what I need, another website that is so fun that it keeps me up until the wee hours. Basically you can plug in your photos and add in a music track and you have your self a 30 second video clip. Here is one version I came up with but trust me I have about 6 other versions in saved. Just click on the arrow in the green box to start the video.

Nature vs. Nurture

My daughter has really embraced drawing these days. I am told at preschool it is hard to get her to go to any other learning center. As someone who has loved art all her life, I am one proud mama! I guess you never know exactly what your children will pick up from your genes verses the environment you create for them but with a child that is adopted (like mine) it is all a big mystery that unfolds before you. Score on for nurture in this case!

Over the last two weeks she has started drawing elaborate flowers and trees, added houses to her repertoire and even started putting clothes and jewelry on the people she draws. My favorite thing is that she has started designing rings. They often look like rings I make...so cute!

Precious Metal Costs Up - Jewelry Artisans Down

Jewelry artisans around the world have been wincing at the rapidly rising price of precious metals. With no end in site, designers are at the mercy of the markets. Many artists are wishing they would have bought a little more wire or sheet metal the last time they ordered their supplies. The rise in prices cuts into the independent artist’s ability to make a profit and poses a challenge to educating consumers. With precious metal being a commodity traded on markets around the world 24 hours a day, no other craft is as susceptible to price fluctuation. Take silver for example, the price of silver in 2000 was just $4.60 an ounce, in 2005 it was $8.83 per ounce, and at the time of writing this article it has risen to $17.69 an ounce. This is just the price of the raw materials. On top of this, there are fabrication charges that one pays in order to get material in useable forms like sheet, wire, and casting grain.

What does this mean for the jewelry adoring public? When you are buying jewelry in precious metal you are investing in something not only beautiful but with real market value. Metals like sterling silver and gold, can be sold back to refining companies or melted down and repurposed into entirely new pieces. This has been done for ages and will continue to be relevant in the future.

Some artisans will choose to respond to the increase in prices by using more affordable non-precious metals. We will likely see more and more costume jewelry on the market, however, most metalsmiths will continue to work in precious metal because as the name implies it is precious!

This is just the beginning folks!

It is 2008 and time for me to jump into the blogoshere! Form here on out I am making it my mission to bring you great indie finds from my own studio and others. So let's start with me...












I'm happy to announce a new line of fresh, fun, and affordable jewelry at Rural Abandon. It is called the Rox line because it Rocks! Yes...I know Rox is the wrong spelling but it is so much more fun to use an x. For the Rox line I have played with faceting the metal to create more surafce for light to bouce off of. The result - BLING!